A practical problem. How do I keep track of images?

[wwwursa]

This is a practical question on running Zen Cart in actual practice.

Let's assume I take 50 pictures of products. My digital camera gives each image a different file name usually the date and a sequential number. I download the images into my computer.

I am now ready to enter the products into the Zen Cart program. When I get to the part about entering the image it asks for a file number and I can browse the file names but at this point have no idea what image is in each file. The best I can do is have an image viewer running at the same time, look for the image I want, remember the file name and go back to Zen cart to find the file name.

In Ebay I can cut and past the actual image instead of using a file number. It is so much more efficient. Don't get the wrong Idea. I love Zen Cart; just need to find a more efficient way to handle this.

How do you guys handle this problem?

Ideas:
1. I could rename each of the files to describe the items but that would require quite a bit of detail because many of the items are almost the same.

2. I could have an image viewer such as paint pro up at the same time and see the file name as well as the actual image of the product. This however, seems stilted and very time consuming.

QUESTIONS:
1. Is there a better way of handling this part of the operation?
2. I know many of you have many more products then I Is this a problem for you and how do you get around it.
3. Is there an add on that solves this problem?
By the way, I have the same problem with Image Handler.

Any suggestions would e greatfully appreciated..

[afo]

I would try to get some system in place to be able to tell what image or images to with what product or it's going to be difficult to keep track of what's what. For example, if the product is called ABC and the image that goes to it is 123, how can you match them up?

I suggest renaming the images to match up with the product somehow. Remember to keep the names sufficiently different or you'll inadvertantly end up with multiple images for the same product.

[yellow1912]

I always do something like this:
Say I have a category monitor, then I give all the product a model starting from MI001, and I use MI001.jpg for the image.

[wwwursa]

Yellow:

How do you know the difference between M1001 and M1025. They are just numbers. How do you know that M1001 is, for example, a Sylvania monitor and the M10025 is a Dell monitor?. Don't you have to look at the actual images?

[yellow1912]

I have something like a style sheet that I can just enter the model and retrieve more info about a product (name, bin number, etc...) does it make sense?

[wwwursa]

Yellow:
Thanks for your input regarding my question about images. It sounds like you are selling brand products that have preprinted information about product you sell.

I am selling jewelry, clothes, handbags, etc. which don't have preprinted pictures or descriptions.

I think I have to rename each file with an accurate description such as "14k silver ring with 1 carat diamond" so that I don't have to look at the images to see which one I am looking for.

Don't think I have the info from the manufactures that you have.

[yellow1912]

Say you have an excel sheet like this:

Model Name ......
RI001 4k silver ring with 1 carat diamond

Then you can just use Excel search, pretty useful if you have just several thousands products.

[wwwursa]

That is a good point. But, it does mean that I still have to take that intermediate step of placing an accurate description into the Excel spreadsheet.

However, it looks like it is the bast solution so far.

[yellow1912]

The way I do it, wwwursa, is that I use that precise yet short description as my product name. So I can just search in ZC admin.