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A good friend of mine is an SU Demo too and wants some way to keep up with all her stamps. I think a database would be a good way to handle this. A spread sheet is just a flat representation of organized lists, but information in a database can be sorted by, stamp subject, hostess sets, retired sets, or by any other info that is in the database. That's what I think would be most helpful. If you're looking for floral stamps or sentiments, then you could direct the database to list all sets containing flowers or sentiments.
I've been watching video tutorials on Microsoft Access since it's been a while since I've used a database.
I am THINKING :confused: that I can create a database for all the SU stamps. If I can get it to work on the computer the way it does in my head then it would have the general info like stamp set name, price catalog number etc. and whether it was a hostess, sale-a-bration as well as the year (IB&C 2012-2013). Most importantly:
(1) there would be some general categories to indicate what's in the stamp set. For example; animals, sentiments and flowers could all be found in one stamp set. In a database, you could then sort by sentiments and pull up all the sets that contain sents. (must be able to select more than one)
(2) An illustration of the stamps (Microsoft Access appears to support bitmap files instead of jpegs which are much smaller.)
I thought I could sell this to a few demos I know and earn some money to buy supplies with. Right now I'm struggling with how to include the categories of stamp subjects for sorting and including all those images wtihout over-loading the file size of the database.
Is this idea crazy? Can anyone offer advise on how to include more than one category of subjects in a stamp set so that you sort by that subject?
It's a great idea, just way more work than I'd want to go thru
However, the company I used to work for used accounting/inventory software that was based on Access, and the way they allowed multiple entries for a field was that we could assign a letter to each category and enter multiple letters in the category field. So, you could have up to 26 categories (letters A-Z) and make it so that field can hold up to 26 letters. You might need commas between the letters, I don't remember.) Then, when you're doing your query on that field, you just enter the letter(s) of the category that you're looking for. So it would give you the ability to search for sentiment stamps that were also birthday stamps. Which would be cool.
What I would for images to keep the database from being overloaded is scan the images into a separate file, and in your database, include just the link to the file. That way when you are sorting and querying, you are working with only the links and not the whole image.
The newer versions of Excel include some pretty decent database functions using filters. You could just pick which categories you want to use - Animal, Floral, Sentiment, Kids, Birthday, etc. and have a column for each that you would just put an "X" in if the category applied to that set. Then you could use the filters to pull up only sentiments and once the sentiments are on the screen, further filter those by birthday and you'd have only birthday sentiments.
This just reflects my preference for Excel, though - we use it at work A LOT and even those who aren't particularly computer geeky are able to navigate it pretty handily once the spreadsheets are set up.
It's a great idea, just way more work than I'd want to go thru
However, the company I used to work for used accounting/inventory software that was based on Access, and the way they allowed multiple entries for a field was that we could assign a letter to each category and enter multiple letters in the category field. So, you could have up to 26 categories (letters A-Z) and make it so that field can hold up to 26 letters. You might need commas between the letters, I don't remember.) Then, when you're doing your query on that field, you just enter the letter(s) of the category that you're looking for. So it would give you the ability to search for sentiment stamps that were also birthday stamps. Which would be cool.
What I would for images to keep the database from being overloaded is scan the images into a separate file, and in your database, include just the link to the file. That way when you are sorting and querying, you are working with only the links and not the whole image.
It may end up being just that, but I'm retired so I thought I'd give it a shot. Thanks so much for the suggestions! I think linking the images would be the answer!
The newer versions of Excel include some pretty decent database functions using filters. You could just pick which categories you want to use - Animal, Floral, Sentiment, Kids, Birthday, etc. and have a column for each that you would just put an "X" in if the category applied to that set. Then you could use the filters to pull up only sentiments and once the sentiments are on the screen, further filter those by birthday and you'd have only birthday sentiments.
This just reflects my preference for Excel, though - we use it at work A LOT and even those who aren't particularly computer geeky are able to navigate it pretty handily once the spreadsheets are set up.
I'm so GLAD you mentioned this!! I vaguely remember that being mentioned in an after school inservice when we were all so tired and stressed from teaching all day we were not capable of absorbing a whole lot! Using Excel would be much more user friendly I think. I certainly know how to use it much better. When I was teaching I used it all the time and even taught my 5th graders how to develop them too.
I'm a HUGE fan of Cat's Inventory file.
She emails free updates and it's 100% worth the cost and is Excel based...just in case you don't want to start one from scratch!
With all the hours and hours and hours and hours that it would take to build and populate either a database or excel spreadsheet, I would pay Cat the 9.95 for having it all done...AND never having to enter additions for as long as she does them. My time is worth more than 10 cents an hour. ;)
Cat does a GREAT job! And she'll even transfer your data for you, if you've entered any! I keep mine just for reference, but I should check off the stamp sets that I own - HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of them! :-)
__________________ ~ Susan - Celebrating 19 years as an SU demo! Grammy to Anna 15, Elizabeth 14, Nora 12, Abigail 12, Kendall 10 , Isaac 10, Evan 7, and Hudson 3 with me in my avatar Proud to be SCS Fan Club Member since the beginning!
A good friend of mine is an SU Demo too and wants some way to keep up with all her stamps. I think a database would be a good way to handle this. A spread sheet is just a flat representation of organized lists, but information in a database can be sorted by, stamp subject, hostess sets, retired sets, or by any other info that is in the database. That's what I think would be most helpful. If you're looking for floral stamps or sentiments, then you could direct the database to list all sets containing flowers or sentiments.
I've been watching video tutorials on Microsoft Access since it's been a while since I've used a database.
I am THINKING :confused: that I can create a database for all the SU stamps. If I can get it to work on the computer the way it does in my head then it would have the general info like stamp set name, price catalog number etc. and whether it was a hostess, sale-a-bration as well as the year (IB&C 2012-2013). Most importantly:
(1) there would be some general categories to indicate what's in the stamp set. For example; animals, sentiments and flowers could all be found in one stamp set. In a database, you could then sort by sentiments and pull up all the sets that contain sents. (must be able to select more than one)
(2) An illustration of the stamps (Microsoft Access appears to support bitmap files instead of jpegs which are much smaller.)
I thought I could sell this to a few demos I know and earn some money to buy supplies with. Right now I'm struggling with how to include the categories of stamp subjects for sorting and including all those images wtihout over-loading the file size of the database.
Is this idea crazy? Can anyone offer advise on how to include more than one category of subjects in a stamp set so that you sort by that subject?
I used to design databases. How you would do this would be to create a series of fields that were T/F or Y/N fields. So if a set were floral, you would put a T for true or Y for Yes in the field. If it were also a set that contained sentiments you would put a T in the field for sentiments. If these values were not true, you would put a F for false or N for No. So if you wanted to sort out a subset of data for sets that had both sentiments and flowers, you would simply sort on those fields for values that were T for true (or Y for Yes).
That said, you would not be able to sell this database with the image files in it without running into copyright issues with SU! You could do the data and not the images.
A bit late to this topic, but there's a program which tracks stamping supplies and projects. Would probably work just as well for scrapbooking too. Not too expensive, plus you get to try it all out for free first. Recommended.
I have Cats database, but haven't heard from her in several years. The Lifetime updates stopped. It was a good deal as far as it went....
__________________ ~ Susan - Celebrating 19 years as an SU demo! Grammy to Anna 15, Elizabeth 14, Nora 12, Abigail 12, Kendall 10 , Isaac 10, Evan 7, and Hudson 3 with me in my avatar Proud to be SCS Fan Club Member since the beginning!
The program Evernote does all these things you are asking for, and in either The Tool & Product section, or it may be the Organization section, you will find many people sharing their Evernote lists they have already compiled.
I'm a HUGE fan of Cat's Inventory File (I had to remove the hyperlink in order to post this reply).
She emails free updates and it's 100% worth the cost and is Excel based...just in case you don't want to start one from scratch!
Your link opens a very "nasty" page. Not sure what happened but you might want to delete that.
Your link opens a very "nasty" page. Not sure what happened but you might want to delete that.
It's a seven-year old link and there are references in the thread to Cat no longer maintaining it, so it's quite possible that the site address would now be owned by someone else. If the link needs to be deleted, use the * button in the sidebar with the poster's name to report it to one of the forum moderators, and state why.
Your link opens a very "nasty" page. Not sure what happened but you might want to delete that.
I've disabled the link. When a domain is abandoned or left unpaid, the domain name is later available to whoever wants to pay for it. I suspect a new 'Cat' decided to take over. :shock:
I've disabled the link. When a domain is abandoned or left unpaid, the domain name is later available to whoever wants to pay for it. I suspect a new 'Cat' decided to take over. :shock:
You are so right! :p Thank you for saving any future unsuspecting visitors to the link!
Stampin' Up Database
