Large number of products to enter

[Sean Williams]

I have to add about 1000 products to the database - it's basically a catalogue listing so the structure is the same for all of them.
I know one way is to enter them into Excel and import, but I have dabbled in this without success and so I'm nervous about wasting a whole load of data entry time into Excel, only then having to do it all again directly into Actinic.
Does anyone (Norman, Jan et al) produce a utility that automates this process and takes the pain away?

Alternatively, can anyone point to a good tutorial or something on importing products. I have followed the AUG on this, but I just became a bit bewildered by the database

[leehack]

A flat file import needs only 5 columns to setup and import and is a very easy process. If you struggle with that, then i'd suggest farming it out to someone to do for you instead. I've never heard of a utility for adding products as a flat file is where you should start. You need more excel knowledge than actinic knowledge. All you need for a basic import are:

Short Description
Full Description
Image Filename
Prince in pence and nett of vat
Section Text

Setup a spreadsheet with those 5 values, backup your store and then try an import, you'll be surprised how easy it is, be brave and jump in the fire.

[Jan]

I would recommend switching off autogenerate product references and then adding a meaningful unique product reference to the list that lee has given.

You don't really need a plugin to do this, as Lee has said it's quite easy to do with the standard Actinic features.

Regards,

[marke]

Do you have the data in any electronic format or is it just a print catalog?

[Sean Williams]

Thanks very much Lee and Jan - you have renewed my confidence - I'll try the flat file import route with the 5 + 1 columns as recommended.
I've been worrying about this for a while so I'm quite excited now as you make it sound a breeze

Marke - it's a print catalogue.
There is a database, in excel, held by the manufacturer of the parts, but they won't let anyone outside the company have it.
How mean is that?

Cheers

[gabrielcrowe]

Thats maximum meanness on their part.

[marke]

Try asking them for the minimum of data. Maybe just an excel spreadsheet with all the products on it rather than the whole database. I have found this to be more effective in the past as generally the rep can help you out with this without the boss finding out. If they won't give you anything then there really is no other way than just typing everything in. It might be faster to enter into a spreadsheet and import into Actinic. As already mentioned this is quite straightforward.

[Sean Williams]

We find this attitude quite a lot in the (rather hide-bound) motorcycle industry Gabriel - because it has traditionally been a dealer-based marketplace, most of the manufacturers tend to look on the internet retailers as scallywags and like to pretend they're not there, despite the fact we account for a very large proportion of the aftermarket sales market. <sigh>

[marke]

Sounds like a lot of typing then!

[Sean Williams]

We already have asked Marke.
Unfortunately, the UK branch manager of the foreign manufacturer was very amenable, but he left and now it's controlled from abroad

[Duncan Rounding]

If you have agreement to use the text from the catalog and the text has good background contrast then you could try a cpen to grab the info. We use one of these sometimes and it works very well.
http://www.cpen.com/Products/Desktop/d2

[Sean Williams]

Thank you Duncan - what a good idea, that I hadn't considered at all; really does look like it would work.
Can it be configured so that it will enter five consecutive field scans into the correct cell in the (say) spreadsheet and then for the sixth go back to to the first cell in the next row? That would be so fast!

[Duncan Rounding]

I don't think so, each line is usually entered in it's own cell.
Otherwise you enter in Word and then C&P to Excel afterwards.

The contrast has got to be good though. Black text on white is best. We found that text on other coloured backgrounds can give some problems.

[Cheapprices4u]

is any of the data on a website?
if so screen scrape
it grabs data direct from each page of the needed website
try it

gabe showed this to me the other week

some people frown upon it, but yo ucould always contract it out to india and let them do it

[Mike Hughes]

If you were to highlight an area within a spreadsheet that was 5 columns wide by whatever deep then the data should be entered sequentially as desired.

Mike