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A very simple way to catalogue your bottles

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Peter Bentley 彭达理
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« on: February 12, 2012, 04:01:36 am »

Hi  All

When I  first   started   collecting  I could  remember  the   details  of  every bottle  I  ever  bought :  time/ place/   price  etc

But  suddenly  I   began  to    forget   the   exact  detail , and  I also needed a   way to  file the  original   receipts (  if there  were  any)    so  I  devised  a   very  simple   way  to  catalogue  my collection  :

1.  Write  down   everything  in long-hand  on a  piece  of   A4 ( foolscap)   paper

2.  Photo the   A4  paper    sheet   snap-shot   style with the  bottle  lying  on it ,  each  side  :  A- and B- sides ,   with  a  little  "Post-it"   sticker  showing  A- and B-   sides  =  2   x  jpg  pics per bottle

3.  Crop and   store  the   jpg  pics   with  suitable   title   in my  catalogue   master   soft  file  (e.g  for  insurance  company - who amazingly  accept my  own   valuations  for  insurance  purposes   as long  as  I give  them   a   soft   file   with  my own detailed  up-dated  valuations  soft  file, bottle-by-bottle,   every  year )    

4.  Print  out   the  jpgs  and   staple  together   with  any  receipts   and/or  any  other  info  I  have   about the  bottle    and  put  in  my  filing  cabinet,  so  even  if  I  die  tomorrow    ANYONE   could  match  up the  info  in my  filing  cabinet  with  every  bottle  on my  shelves   without  even   access  to my  computer

That's the    way  it  was

The   way  it  will now  be  is  basically the   same , because  I cannot  think  of a   simpler   way

The  ONLY   difference   will be  that, instead  of   writing the   bottle's  history  in long  hand  on  a piece  of  A4  paper  I  will   type  it   and  also  include a    size  scale   to    size the  bottle

This   required a  lot  of   work  to  make a   template,  but  finally  I     did  it

Print  out  the   attached   template  on A4  paper  and   the  scale   should  be   exactly   5  cm to   within  1%  

So no need  ever to  measure a  bottle  :  just   photo  it   against the  printed  out  scale  and the rest  is  simple  logic

The   attached    word.doc   template   allows  you  to    play  around  with    format,  Chinese  ( if  you  can   use  Pin Yin  entry)   , colours  -  as  I have  shown  on the  B- side   example -  or    whatever.

But there  are  a  few   quirks  -  e.g.  if  you  go too   far   down the  page   the  big   blue  'A'   or  ' B'   disappear  and  cannot  be  retrieved.     So  back -up  at each  stage  of  editing   until   you are 100%   comfortable  with the   word.doc   format .

I myself  have   fallen  foul  of this  ...   MANY  TIMES  !  ( even today !)   ....  so   you  are  not  alone.

Thus  I keep multiple  master   copies   of  the  original  master   'P256'  so  you  can   always  get  back  to the  original  and   start  again  

Hope  this  is  helpful

But   even more   so  -  I am  am    up   no   28  of    280  bottles   with this  new    typed  catalogue   system.  

If  ANYONE   has  any  ideas  of   better  ways /  additional  info   to  include,  please  publish  in  the  Members'  Lounge   so we  all can  share,  and  maybe  -  just  maybe - evolve  some  common  catalogue  style  ( or  at least  some    common  catalogue  jpg   format )  

Cheers   Peter




* P256 - Ding Xingbiao ??? = Bai Sh ? ? (A) HAND-WRITTEN.JPG (371.83 KB, 711x1024 - viewed 66 times.)

* P256 Numbering (1).JPG (162.18 KB, 768x833 - viewed 44 times.)

* P256 Numbering (2).JPG (178.28 KB, 866x768 - viewed 39 times.)

* P256 Numbering (3) .jpg (131.91 KB, 768x774 - viewed 40 times.)

* P256 ( final page TYPED) ( compressed).jpg (201.16 KB, 697x1024 - viewed 67 times.)
* Ruler Master (P256) ( A) .doc (32 KB - downloaded 28 times.)
* Ruler Master (P256) ( B) .doc (32 KB - downloaded 21 times.)
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