Avoid website image-order meltdown: name your images chronologically!
This happens at least two to three times a year: a client sends me a series of images and wants them posted on their website “in the order sent.” This is fine if each image is sent in a different email — I can easily detect the order of the images by the time stamp.
But what happens if the client attaches several images to one email, expecting each image to arrive in my inbox in the same order sent. This can cause a big problem, in that the images don’t arrive in my email inbox in the same order. More likely, they will arrive in my inbox in numerical order, or alphabetical order, or perhaps even a random order.
The best way to assure that images will be posted in a particular order is to either:
1) Name each image chronologically (in numeric or alphabetical order) so that I may put them in that particular order on your website, or
2) Assemble a list of images (with their exact file names — not by a description of the image) in the particular order that you desire and send that list to me in a separate email.
For example, these image names:
1122
1128
1137
1149
1150
1182
will automatically display in numerical order in the images folder.
However, if the images have these names:
lion482
house871
cat9301
pets9601
animals4970
they will display in the images folder like this (alphabetically by name):
animals4970
cat9301
house871
lion482
pets9601
The only way I can know what order you want is if you send me the list in a separate email, with the images listed in the order you desire.
Plan ahead on what order you want images to appear. A good way to ensure that I have received the image in the order desired might be to copy yourself with the email that you send me, and then open that email after you receive the copy to verify the order of the images.
If fact, it’s a good idea to copy yourself with all emails that you send to your web designer, so that you can verify that you are communicating to the designer exactly what you want, rather than sending your designer on a wild-goose chase — one that you will eventually have to pay for if your designer is billing you hourly.
