EPIC BPAL Spreadsheet Thread

[rayvn1]

 

Ravyn,

 

I use Gmail exclusively, but I only have a few google docs for personal use so I'm not that familiar with them. Is this something I can sync so that it updates automatically, or will it have to be physically updated by someone periodically?

 

I'm trying to decide which spreadsheet to download. All the different choices are a tad bit overwhelming and the reading I'm doing isn't really helping that much. (believe me, it's me, not you guys! You guys are great!)

 

Sorry I didn't see this for a while! Y'know, I'm not sure how it would work I did just add a whole pile of things to the google docs spreadsheet. I'm also more than happy to email you a copy. Hope you found just the right one for you

[rayvn1]

Updated with Lupers, etc. In a timely fashion unlike last time!

[midnight_aeval]

Damn, I had a whole reply typed out and the forum ate it.

 

Anyways, my collection has been packed up since September and I just started unpacking it all this weekend (had to wait for the husband to get the display cabinets and such hung on the wall). Prior to moving, I created an inventory in Excel in case anything went missing in transit. As I was unpacking I thought it would be really convenient to have an app on my iPhone to go through what i've unpacked. I found an app that integrated with a desktop/laptop; it's called Home Inventory and it's $14.99 in the Apple App Store. I was able to import a CSV file with scent notes, quantity, collection, release date, location (helpful when moving items to swap box) and any other field I wished to incorporate. I know that this is just a fancy database program, but it is user friendly and pleasant looking.

 

The iPhone app is merely a photo taking tool with the added ability to view the item data. Although it's not exactly what I was looking for, it will be pretty awesome to have photos of bottle fill level and label art for future swap/selling/eBay transactions.

[bpalscentsual]

As I was unpacking I thought it would be really convenient to have an app on my iPhone to go through what i've unpacked. I found an app that integrated with a desktop/laptop; it's called Home Inventory and it's $14.99 in the Apple App Store. I was able to import a CSV file with scent notes, quantity, collection, release date, location (helpful when moving items to swap box) and any other field I wished to incorporate.

Thanks to your suggestion, I just downloaded an iPad app called Itemizer. It set me back $2.99, but it also has the ability to attach photos taken directly on my iPad. I think I can also upload a CSV to it... but we'll have to see if my spreadsheet cooperates. Right now it's unwieldy and slightly intimidating. The iPad app will be nice when I'm on the go (ie at work) and can't get to my spreadsheet right away, though, and the ability to add photos (label art! fill levels!) is especially nice.

[stellans]

I use Bento, which also has an iPhone app, and I can synch the laptop database with the iPhone app, so anything I buy while out somewhere (as in the Will-Calls) I can add to my database right away, or check to see if I already have it or whatever. Plus, I can add label art and my icons to each entry.

[bpalscentsual]

Thanks to your suggestion, I just downloaded an iPad app called Itemizer. It set me back $2.99, but it also has the ability to attach photos taken directly on my iPad. I think I can also upload a CSV to it... but we'll have to see if my spreadsheet cooperates. Right now it's unwieldy and slightly intimidating. The iPad app will be nice when I'm on the go (ie at work) and can't get to my spreadsheet right away, though, and the ability to add photos (label art! fill levels!) is especially nice.

So Itemizer turned out not to sync between my iPad and my new iPhone, but I found another app, MyStuff2, with much better support and syncing. Two apps for the price of one, too, one purchase covered both devices. It doesn't have a desktop companion, but it's great as an inventory device. (Also works well for my other collections, like video games, DVDs, books, and jewelry. Reads barcodes!) I really wish I had a Mac to justify Bento, but so far I haven't found a good equivalent for PCs.

 

The other app that I use to take notes is AwesomeNote, which has my SotD, diary setups for post office visits/received packages/sales/swaps/purchases, reviews, and contacts. I also keep track of my expenses using Numbers/Excel. Plus I have a set of binders, half-size. One of them holds a one-page-per-day calendar with monthly dividers, and the other has room for all of my notes. I pretty much keep quadruple-redundant systems to keep me from spending too much... and it still doesn't work, because I just want to smell all the smells.

 

I also took the time to make a full catalog available to me offline through an app called Outliner. That way, when I see a wishlist scent available and I don't remember why I wanted it, it's easy to look it up, and also easy to copy-paste the information back and forth between apps. Also nice to indicate my wishlists. So, if any of you would like outlines of those, I can export in .txt and .opml formats, but it looks like the spreadsheet's nicely kept-up-with.

[sunlitgarden]

Thank you Ravyn for keeping the spreadsheet updated! This thing is a lifesaver for me.

[sunlitgarden]

I was bored this evening so I added everything up through this latest update to my copy of the Hackess/Rayvn spreadsheet. I PM'ed Rayvn about getting it added.

[sunlitgarden]

I uploaded the updated spreadsheet here for now. It's in OpenOffice (.ods) format; I told it to save as an Excel document but the extension would not change. Let me know if it doesn't work in Excel and I can try to change it...

[coltostallion]

I uploaded the updated spreadsheet here for now. It's in OpenOffice (.ods) format; I told it to save as an Excel document but the extension would not change. Let me know if it doesn't work in Excel and I can try to change it...

 

Doesn't seem to work in excel. I used an online converter though and it worked fine. Thanks~

[sunlitgarden]

Okay, I think I figured out what the problem was with not being able to save in excel format, I had to convert it to the older type of OpenOffice files...anyway, this one should work in Excel, hopefully: Here

[bellumed]

Okay, I think I figured out what the problem was with not being able to save in excel format, I had to convert it to the older type of OpenOffice files...anyway, this one should work in Excel, hopefully: Here

 

 

I'm getting a "you are not authorized" message on that one.

[sunlitgarden]

Boooo! I don't have Excel, so I can't test it there. I had been holding off on uploading it to Google Docs, since Ravyn's was already there, but I just went ahead and did it. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ash3e75IebiZdE9JTWJYUmllU3p1X1VJT25ZTWEwRWc This one allows editing. I didn't remember the exact dates for some of the moons and such. If anyone trolls it I have a backup on my computer, haha.

[sunlitgarden]

I realized the Will Call exclusives from last December weren't on there, so I added them.

 

Edit: After the latest Etsy update, I realized the March '11 Trunk Show protos weren't on there... so I added those too. There are a lot of them. o_O

Edited May 25, 2012 by sunlitgarden

[sunlitgarden]

Updated with Smoky Moon and Fraggles! I've also been putting in some review impressions of the note-less protos, starting with the 2011 ones.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ash3e75IebiZdE9JTWJYUmllU3p1X1VJT25ZTWEwRWc#gid=0

[sunlitgarden]

Anime Exclusives, Singing Moon and new Single Notes added!

[Babypopje]

Girls, maybe a retorical question...

But that spreadsheet of Rayvn1, has that everything in it?

Like old SN's, unreleased scents, the first BPAL scents..

 

I want to go through everything (yes I am obsessive) and see what I want and put that in Scentbase...

[sunlitgarden]

I'm pretty sure it does have just about everything. Not all the protos have review impressions, but I've been adding those from time to time. I will update it soon with the new 13, India Ink and Coralines.

[AnyseLawsBray]

GUYS!!!! I made a spreadsheet so I can have an inventory of my 5ml stash... and I discovered a great gadget on google docs! My main list has blend names, descriptions, collection and so on. I wanted to add a second sheet, ideally having most if not all of the notes contained in my collection listed and tallied up so I could easily see how many blends I own contain patchouli, for instance. WELL.

 

I started out by listing all the notes, removing duplicates and using an online tool to quickly alphabetize them. Then I inserted them all into the doc, one per line. In the neighboring column, I used the function:

 

=COUNTA(IFERROR( FILTER('Sheet1'! B2:B45; SEARCH( "acorn" ;'Sheet1'! B2:B45 ))))

 

It needs to have the column of scent descriptions selected, so in this case even though this text is on Sheet2, it needs to say Sheet1, since that's where it gathers the info from.

 

This seemed to work pretty well, though tedious to input next to each different note, being sure to change the note in between the double quotes. I couldn't figure out how to get it to search for separate but related things under the same function though? Like I would prefer it to add white musk, crystal musk and pale musk together, if that makes sense? Anyway so what I did was just add the function to the two adjoining columns, specifying crystal musk and pale musk. I ended up with three numbers, but it isn't hard to add them up at a glance.

 

So, I thought this was pretty spiffy. Then, just goofing around, I discovered the Tree Map Gadget. You just click 'Insert > Gadgets...' and find the Tree Map. When you add it, you need to tell it what rows and columns to utilize... and presto! YOU GET AN AWESOME VISUAL MAP OF YOUR NOTES! When I added it and it reloaded with my info, I squealed quite loudly!! I wish the colors were customizable, but other than that it is perfect. It basically shows a bunch of colored rectangles with your notes listed, and they vary by size according to how many blends contain that note. So in my case, the largest squares are patchouli, rose, vanilla, incense and so on. You can even click on each square to see the number of blends that have it!

 

You can take a look at my doc here (the chart is on Sheet2, be sure to fullscreen it for the best effect! )

[ClareN]

Sunlitgarden, thanks for keeping the spreadsheet updated and good work! Quick question - I seem to be able to edit the spreadsheet. Should that be happening, or am I just editing my own version of it? As a test, I added "abc" to the note description of Yuletide 2005 in the last line of the spreadsheet (line #2976). Can you see that?

 

If anyone can edit the spreadsheet, that's a problem, right? I don't want to be able to accidentally mess things up!

 

Also, I'm confused by the sorting method; eg. there are LE Yules both at the very bottom and very top of the spreadsheet, and Hellfire is on line 5 among unreleased scents and Lunacies instead of with the rest of the GC Sin & Salvation category...could it be organised in a more intuitive way?

[Fuhrankie]

I keep track of mine in an Access database that I designed myself. I can search fragrance descriptions as well as personal notes on a scent. Very handy, especially as I've added filters for owned/unowned. Looking for a scent with patchouli? Easy. If anyone is interested in seeing it, they're welcome to ask, but I haven't added many scents yet. Just ones so far that I'm interested in.

One of the best things I've ever done in Access.

[stellans]

I keep track of mine in an Access database that I designed myself. I can search fragrance descriptions as well as personal notes on a scent. Very handy, especially as I've added filters for owned/unowned. Looking for a scent with patchouli? Easy. If anyone is interested in seeing it, they're welcome to ask, but I haven't added many scents yet. Just ones so far that I'm interested in.

One of the best things I've ever done in Access.

I do the same with Bento, and there's a Bento iPhone app (of course), so I can check my personal stash on the fly!

Edited November 4, 2012 by stellans

[BarefootSparkle]

I keep track of mine in an Access database that I designed myself. I can search fragrance descriptions as well as personal notes on a scent. Very handy, especially as I've added filters for owned/unowned. Looking for a scent with patchouli? Easy. If anyone is interested in seeing it, they're welcome to ask, but I haven't added many scents yet. Just ones so far that I'm interested in.

One of the best things I've ever done in Access.

 

 

I'd be very interested in seeing this - it sounds really handy

[Jazzi]

Does anyone have suggestions or a good resource for making your own database? I'd like to have one that only lists the scents I've tried, since anything else is overwhelming for me (I have intense anxiety and tend to get overwhelmed very easily). I'm most interested in having a database which is capable of showing me which notes are most common in perfumes I tend to like. However, I don't know the first thing about database software. If you make your own, how did you learn?

[catalyst]

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Edited July 30, 2014 by catalyst