Looking for Home Inventory Template

I looked for a template at iWork Community & didn't find one. I'm sure you could try a Google search for "home inventory spreadsheet" & find some made for Excel that would open in Numbers.

But, I did a little searching of my hard drives & found one someone had made for AppleWorks (probably AppleWorks 5, but it could have been an earlier ClarisWorks file 😉 ). I converted it to AppleWorks 6 & then opened it in Numbers. I have saved it as a template & placed it on my iDisk for anyone to download. It is a .zip file named inventory.nmbtemplate.zip. Click the little arrow to the right of the file to download it.

John,

You might try thinking outside your original box. While Numbers might give you a decent fix, you also might try a different program designed for just your project. I searched in the Apple Downloads for 'Inventory' and found a program called 'Home Inventory' (too easy, right?). Check it out here: http://binaryformations.com/

Some features:
--Nice user interface
--Categorization by type, location, etc.
--Nearly unlimited photos can be associated with your items
--Ability to create detailed reports for your records
--Shareware: only $22 (try before you buy and record 25 items with trial)

I realize Numbers is a great program for many tasks, but I think that from the looks of it, this program will do a better job at your specific task.

If you really wanted to pursue the Numbers solution, you could go about your inventory using a Numbers table and then list the location of each photo (/Photos/Home Inventory/12345.jpg) in a separate column. That way, you have all the functionality of a sortable, searchable table with the convenience of the photos somewhere else (non-bogged-down file as you desire). Perhaps you could print your photos in a thumbnail view where the names are listed; combine the smaller pictures with your table and you now have an all-in-one record of your possessions. Backup both for security and you should be good to go. If you ever need an item photo, just find the corresponding photo name for the item on your chart and then easily find it in your Home Inventory photo folder.

Just my thoughts. Hope they help!



-John

have you looked at Bento yet? Very simple Database for about $49 I think. ($99 for the family pack of 5 licenses)

[http://www.filemaker.com/products/bento]

I know its good for basic inventory, and can store photos as well.

I just moved a friends recipe database over to it and was fairly impressed for a DB for beginners.

Jason

Hello

I just moved a friends recipe database over to it and was fairly impressed for a DB for beginners.

For beginners or for Dummies ?

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 15 mai 2008 19:18:32)

for both. It does support queries in its own way, basic form creation, data entry, very simplified joins between 'tables', etc...

For a home inventory where you really don't need complicated sql to work with the data, just basic search capabilities, its not too bad at all.

For people like me who work sql and ms Access all day long, of course it seems very simple, but for $50US its pretty good (oh and they used CoreAnimation when switching views, really looked cool).

Jason

Hello

I tested it when it was introduced.

I feel that even compared to the old AW6's database modulus, it's a toy.

Maybe I'm biased because I uses AW6-DB for years and know it quite well but don't understand how someone may store everything in the same box.

About the cost, AppleWorks was available for less than 100$ and made much more.

When I was informed that FileMaker was preparing a wide public DB tool, I was hoping for a single user FileMaker, not for this really stripped product.

I'm really surprised when I read quite daily that Numbers is missing this or that and that Bento is a satisfying product. Of course, I'm old fashioned.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 15 mai 2008 22:15:38)

Maybe I'm biased because I uses AW6-DB for years and know it quite well but don't understand how someone may store everything in the same box.

yeah, me too (long DB history), but we are not the basic user that has never used a database before, relational to them has something to do with how they treat their wife, not how their inventory talks to their replacement cost table. 🙂

Its for those people. Like my friend that has the recipe "database". Its really just two big tables, one that has the books listed and one that has her favorites listed. thats it.

Jason

Bento is not a viable replacement for AppleWorks' database. The moderator of the Bento forums has admitted the programmers never even looked at AppleWorks when developing Bento. It was developed for those who gave feedback to FileMaker that FileMaker was "over kill." Bento puts a "pretty face" on iCal & Address Book.

Thanks Peggy.

Glad to read that they recognize what I wrote from the beginning.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 16 mai 2008 19:38:36)

Thankyou for all the posts on Bento. It looks far short of even Filemaker Pro v 6 which does a very good job with my daughter's business. I had hoped that Bento could have been a sort of Photoshop Elements situation when she moves up to OS 10, as to go to Filemaker 9 is certainly "overkill" and expensive. You will know that Filemaker 6 is OS 9 only.

Looking at Filemaker's tutorial on transfering data up from v 6 is no bed of roses.

Should she hang on with OS 9.2.2 until her Mac dies a natural death, or Apple put some guts in Bento ?

Eric