EPIC BPAL Spreadsheet Thread

[Rheliwen]

Spreadsheet on Ebay!!!???

 

I hope everyone here knows how generous we are here and would kindly give out spreadsheets for free...like Andradell

 

...eww, and it's in Word.

Edited February 14, 2005 by Rheliwen

[Red_Hot_Mama]

*tee hee* I have the feeling this reminder comes on the heels of you seeing the spreadsheet on ebay?

 

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yeah, I saw that too. I don't know who it is though.

[The Ace of Spades]

I wanted to take care of all my peeps here.  I don't want anyone getting gouged for a word document when y'all can get a really nice excel one here for FREE!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Once I get my hands on a copy, I might try and hack together an Access database from it. I need a little practice with my database skills, they're getting rusty.

[Eoywin]

I was surfing around ebay, waiting for something to download when I came across this:

 

Auction

 

Honestly, who would pay for a spreadsheet, especially since I know there are several people here who will share theirs for free.

 

I mean no disrespect if the seller is on the forums, but it just seems silly and un-necessary to me.

 

Anyway, thought I'd share.

[ipb]

I wanted to take care of all my peeps here.  I don't want anyone getting gouged for a word document when y'all can get a really nice excel one here for FREE!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Once I get my hands on a copy, I might try and hack together an Access database from it. I need a little practice with my database skills, they're getting rusty.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

if you're just looking to populate, i can poop out some of the tables from the search engine (edited) for you.

 

and i am really tempted to report that as infringing on the information in the search engine - especially since there's NO WAY they could have gotten everything from the search engine, as i record all of the searches and i am the only one who does wildcard searches that involve SF restrictions.

 

in any case, i've taken down the search family results in there and may get rid of the wildcard.

[Serenity]

I was surfing around ebay, waiting for something to download when I came across this:

 

Auction

 

Honestly, who would pay for a spreadsheet, especially since I know there are several people here who will share theirs for free.

 

I mean no disrespect if the seller is on the forums, but it just seems silly and un-necessary to me.

 

Anyway, thought I'd share.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

People will sell anything on eBay. Luckily, we have the choice not to buy.

[SoapyRN]

I see that it is no longer available...I wonder why?

[Julilla Regina]

Oh damn, I didn't know you were going to be doing "user support", Andra! I just updated mine my own self. I've tweaked around with the original you made to make it my own, as it were. But if I'd have known you were going to be adding all the new stuff yourself....well....

 

[Brianne]

Can someone help me out with this? I do not have Excel and I've never used it before. I'd love to have some method of keeping track of this stuff on my PC, but I'm totally lost when it comes to this stuff. Where can I get Excel or another program that will allow me to use these spreadsheets?

 

Thanks in advance!

[olympia301]

Just a suggestion (for the Exel impared or without): I keep track of the oils I have tried by writing a review of them. I post it and when I want to remember if I did try one, I do a search for my name in reviews, and up comes a ready made list of all the oils I have tried.

 

You don't have to be Earnestine Hemingway when you write one. One line about how it really orginally struck you will do, as long as it adds something to someone else's understanding, it hits the spot.

Edited May 7, 2005 by olympia301

[Nemesister]

before i got andrabell's excel sheet (thanks for that btw lol) i copied and pasted the BPAL descriptions into word and printed out a 53 page booklet lol i would then write on it next to the names a couple of words on what i thought of them.......some of them are more useful than others....('makes me think of childhood'...yep that's really gonna help me decide whether i liked that one or not and what scent it had 8 months from now.....)

 

i still have it and am in the process of copying it onto the excel sheet with a colour key of liked (blue), loved (green), disliked (red)...

[mand]

Can someone help me out with this?  I do not have Excel and I've never used it before.  I'd love to have some method of keeping track of this stuff on my PC, but I'm totally lost when it comes to this stuff.  Where can I get Excel or another program that will allow me to use these spreadsheets?

 

Thanks in advance!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You can download "OpenOffice" or get a CD at http://www.openoffice.org/about_us/new.html

the download is free and Calc (the OpenOffice spreadsheet) can read Excel files.

I think Excel is a bit better for advanced users, but MS Office costs a lot.. sometimes there are students discounts.

Edited May 7, 2005 by mand

[mand]

Computer free idea to keep track of your oils:

- write the name or print the oil livejournal avatar/label on a blank address card

- add a drop of chosen oil

- store in a little box/address card holder/sheet with address card pouches

Edited May 8, 2005 by mand

[OriginalWacky]

Another way to keep track of scents... most craft stores have the little tiny plastic bags you can store little things in. (Also, you can get them in many pharmacies- little bags to seal your pills into.) Many of them even have holes punched out of the sealed part so you could put them on a key ring.

 

Take a small piece of cotton (like a little tiny bit, not a whole cotton ball) and put a drop of scent on it. Seal it into the bag, and use a marker to write the name of the scent, and the date of storage on the outside. If you're really into it, write a few words about why you like or don't like it as well.

 

Then you can not only look back and see what you thought by seeing your words, but you can take a sniff as well. Do remember to keep it protected from the light, even pretty smelling cotton can start to get a bit off if mistreated. This will keep scents from mingling, as long as they are kept sealed up when not being sniffed.

 

Or, if you simply don't want or need to keep an actual sample of the scent around for whatever reason... get a recipe box and index cards, and write notes on each. You can keep them in alphabetical order, seperate them by categories, whatever trips your trigger.

 

I have the Excel sheet, and if anybody wants it put into text form so that wordpad or the like can read it, just let me know, and I'll transfer it over. It might take me just a day or two, because I'd remove all my own little categories, but not a problem. I have Office and I'm not afraid to use it! <eg> I could even leave some space after each entry so that you could write your own notes in there.

 

I wonder what it would cost to print one of these babies out and mail it? Hmm, now I must know what it might cost, so I'm going to figure it out. Paper, runs around $5 a ream [500 sheets]. So, $1 for paper. Ink, runs about $30 a cartridge, and I'm going to guess I can get at least 600 pages out of it... possibly more if I use colors and am careful not to have extras in there. So, say $4 for ink (trying to be generous here). Wow, up to $5. Postage, well, that many sheets of standard paper is going to run around a pound, which has to be sent Priority Mail, and that's $3.85 if I remember correctly. Envelopes are cheap, so call them $.15 just to make it a nice even figure of $6 per report printed and mailed out. Okay, so it's actually kind of expensive. So maybe if the person was willing to send a printed copy AND a disk with the spread sheet, it might be worth a couple bucks, but there are just too many other ways to keep track of scents and such, especially with our great forumites willing to send out spread sheets.

 

(And by the way, I loves my spread sheet, and spend time playing with it every day, resorting it, changing the order of the ones I want, and so on. I use it to keep track of scents I've gotten, liked, disliked, traded away, whatever. Between that and making new labels for my impies, I'm a happy camper.)

Edited May 9, 2005 by OriginalWacky

[gdogs]

i started a blog where i keep a copy of the catalogue, with my own comments/reviews, as well as notations on which scents i currently have and which ones i've swapped. that way i can update it anywhere/anytime i have access to a computer. i got tired of continually re-printing my spreadsheet, since i have both home and work computer access. . .

[Galen]

poor Andrabell's bulging PM box. I feel it's pain

 

And poor andrabell having to PM people back incessantly to say: But I need your EMAIL ADDRESS!

 

Thank you so much for the spreadsheet btw - I've been using it for months, and it has provided me with hours of fun, as well as helping me identify notes I like and notes I don't that I would otherwise never know about.

[rellyjean]

Oooh, I didn't know this was here.

 

I created my own spreadsheet just to track what I wanted, what was on its way, shipments, what I liked and didn't, etc. It had way too many tabs, and started getting confusing.

 

At which point N, my awesome spouse, offered to make me a database. (He's a technogeek.)

 

So now I have this cross-referenced indexed searchable Access database with notes and descriptions and shipments and I can pull up various scents at a moment's notice.

 

So much love for N.

 

Hmm, I wonder if he'd mind me sharing. Would anyone else be interested in it?

[Penance]

Hmm, I wonder if he'd mind me sharing. Would anyone else be interested in it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'd be interested.

 

My hubby could do it (computer whiz that he is), but he's lazy and overworked as it is.

 

So, yeah, if he doesn't mind your sharing, I'd be interested.

[mobilejessie]

YES. I'm a total computer nerd, but my mad phat skillz are all in Photoshop and the like. Excel frightens me.

[~AmusedMuse~]

Oooh, I didn't know this was here.

 

I created my own spreadsheet just to track what I wanted, what was on its way, shipments, what I liked and didn't, etc. It had way too many tabs, and started getting confusing.

 

At which point N, my awesome spouse, offered to make me a database. (He's a technogeek.)

 

So now I have this cross-referenced indexed searchable Access database with notes and descriptions and shipments and I can pull up various scents at a moment's notice.

 

So much love for N.

 

Hmm, I wonder if he'd mind me sharing. Would anyone else be interested in it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I would be interested but I have Microsoft works and I have to wonder what file format you are speaking of ...ie.. I cant read the excel spreadsheet with works and I cant afford Office because the money it would cost has been going to BPAL

[Undine]

Oh, I totally would be interested. I sometimes get frustrated by too many tabs and cutting and pasting and so I thought about trying to make something similar myself, but I am not exceedlingly skilled in making Access all spiffy.

 

If there is any way I could help make such things happen, like data entry, just let me know!

 

~AmusedMuse~, I am not sure about what's in MS works, but I think Access is in Office? Do you have Powerpoint, or Word, or Excel, or any of that stuff?

 

If you can't get your hands on MS Access, I think it would probably be difficult to find any other way to use it (exporting etc.).

Edited July 29, 2005 by Undine

[Shanti]

i too would be highly interested in a database....I've thought about learning programming just to make one, lol. My spreadsheet has grown out of control....

[mand]

I cant read the excel spreadsheet with works and I cant afford Office because the money it would cost has been going to BPAL

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You don't need Office to read Excel spreadsheets:

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=10049&st=42#

Edited August 7, 2005 by mand

[rellyjean]

Oops, I forgot to tiptoe back in here, sorry.

 

The database isn't finished yet - there are a couple of bugs to work out. It's still giving me runtime errors when it can't find what I'm looking for (in an endless loop, how I LOVE that) and the outgoing shipments aren't connecting properly to the incoming shipments, things like that.

 

For anyone who asked: it's in Access, and it's got a searchable listing of all the scents. Each scent pulls up a form where you can input notes - I've been pulling them from the site itself, since I know sometimes forumites can guess notes in scents that don't have any listed, but those aren't official and might be off or whatever. There's also a form for outgoing/incoming shipments - who you're swapping with, a link to the swap page or eBay listing or what have you, date of contact, date of payment, date you received it, all the scents - and you _should_ be able to cross-reference the two for situations such as "I'm swapping my Swank for your Grandmother of Ghosts" but right now that's working oddly.

 

You can specify how much you want a scent (on a scale of 3 -s to 3 +s - everything defaults to = ) and then set a cutoff for the wishlist query (show everything above 1+, or 2+?) - there's a query for Scents I Have, Scents Pending, and Scents Shipped Out as well.

 

Er, at any rate - when it's finished I'll pop back in here and let everyone know, should be within a week or so I'm thinking, and then whoever wants copies can e-mail me and I'll send them.

 

(Or is there somewhere online I can post it, or anything like that? I'm not sure how that works.)

[OriginalWacky]

Er, at any rate - when it's finished I'll pop back in here and let everyone know, should be within a week or so I'm thinking, and then whoever wants copies can e-mail me and I'll send them.

 

 

Oh, I am *SO* gonna want one of these!