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courtdot's avatar
courtdot
Copper Contributor
Dec 07, 2020

Rock n roll Memorabilia inventory/database/spreadsheet/catalogue/organization HELP!

Hi, trying to create the above mention (thing/s) in an excel spreadsheet being as quick/easy/convenient/user friendly as possible but keep running into issues and not sure best way to do some things and want to stop wasting so much time on little formatting errors so i can get to selling/downsizing some of this collection! i see so many functions in templates that would be ideal but there is not one that i am able to work off of without getting confused or the formulas etc gegtting all messed up and blah blah... for ex.: being able to click a "button" to jump to a certain section, like alphabetically, to quickly jump to "R" in the list of artists in the tee shirts listing, or the ones that available, or ones that are sweatshirts, etc. etc. also: confused if grouping/outlining is the method i should be using? i would love to collapse certain categories (there are so many sub categories and complexities like artist/t shirt type color size condition tour shirt or promo year tag not tag backstage passes: laminate/cloth..etc etc etc,,,) i would love to be able to easily expand and collapse some like: i have several shirts from several different dates because theyre different totally different tours and different types, some are general merch shop tees and some are the Crew, VIP, etc etc ones for Aersosmith, i also want to kee most of these but might want to sell one or two! so not sure the best way to org'ze this info without twenty separate line entries all beginning with 'Aerosmith' is using grouping the smart thing to do because i can collapse it... and is it a good idea to insert a separate line above with just the artist so that will be the visible line? other wise the first one would be the visible one,, and it just seems weird to me... all these little things are driving me nuts and i know there must be a better way! also the whole automatically generating ID and such... ugh help needed!!! see photo of attached spreadsheet i was trying to use to build off froma template.. but its just not working out because now im getting a message about a calculation error... and i have no idea what means.. i tried to put the artist name where the item number i gues s once was or something.. also but if there is ANYTHING I NEED HELP WITH once and for all for cripes sake... could someone PLEASE tell me how to insert something: object picture graphic symbol.. into a cell so that it stays in it and moves with it consistently like one size THE SAME WAY that the text you enter into a cell does for the love of god anyone!!?? what am i doing wrong... no matter what i do yeah yeah i get it you reshape the edges to the edges of the cell.. thats the only answer i get when i google this answer.. IT DOESNT work no matter what somehow randomly for random reasons all of a sudden theyre moviing around... i unhide a row and a tshirt symbol is like stretchhhhed iut over five rows like what the heck? thank you in advance for any assistance with this matter... 🙂

 

ps: also not helping i can NOT get used to a MAC for the life of me.... it is additionally making my life way more difficult...

Excel
Excel for web
Formulas and Functions
Macros and VBA
  • mathetes's avatar
    mathetes
    Silver Contributor
    Dec 07, 2020

    courtdot 

     

    Your posting has had, as of this writing, 50 views but no replies. There's a reason for that, of course. The topic sentence invites a view, is attractive, intriguing. But then the reader gets to that run-on and convoluted description and despairs. The tag at the end regarding the Mac is the proverbial straw (the one that breaks....you know the rest).

     

    Anyway,  Database normalization is what you need. https://www.guru99.com/database-normalization.html

    Database normalization is not easily achieved. It requires slowing down and getting a grip on different categories of information in all of this, making decisions on which ones are core, how different categories can be linked to others.

    • Should t-shirts be contained in the same table as, say, instruments, or maybe posters?
    • And if you have t-shirts from Aerosmith and from Michael Jackson, but posters only from the latter, how do you connect all those artists with their stuff?
    • How about differentiating between items you want to sell and those you want to keep?
    • Etc.

    But it does take sitting down and starting to differentiate like that. Even creating distinct lists instead of run-on sentences.

     

    You're not likely to find an Excel template that fits your need. In fact, you might do well to look into Microsoft Access, which is a relational database manager. But you'd do well to find somebody to help, somebody who is comfortable with analytical thinking and who likes rock and roll memorabilia. What you've written, and how you've written it, suggests pretty strongly that your talents lie in different directions.