AirTable Update

After my post on Thursday someone asked me about a step by step instruction for AirTable so I want to try and give you a little start-up tutorial. First, I'm not a techie by any stretch of the imagination. This app can do a whole lot of things and you can sort, view and manage your data in many ways. I have done probably, the most basic. I've also left out one way to find my stamps and dies that many of you may rely on. I do not list the product number or style number of a stamp/die. I just don't find that useful for me. The one thing you need to get a basic idea of before you set up your fields is what is important for you for searching and identifying what you have and how you are most comfortable in finding what you need.

Let me start with some basic housekeeping:

1.  Before I attempted to write this I went on to YouTube and searched 'Craft organization using Airtable'. YouTube came up with several videos and I chose this one as an understandable beginning tutorial, especially for stampers.

The video is from Stacy K Stamps and its called "How to Inventory Your Stamp, Dies & Inks in Airtable Part I"   Please check this out if my instructions seem to be too muddled for you. I found her easy to understand.

2. I am an apple person. My phone and iPad and desktop computer are all apple. I also did all my entries on either my phone or my iPad. My next task is to load the app on my desktop and see if I can enter new data there.  If you have an android phone and computer, I believe the App is available to you and I hope it is very similar in set-up and entry.


Let's begin!
NOTE: When you download the app DON'T BUY ANYTHING! The free version is perfectly capable of handling this task.

1. You will get a screen that says '+ New workspace' This is where you can name your data base. I named mine - Craft Supplies

2. Next you will click on 'New base' . Assign a name, I chose 'Stamp and Die Sets' for my first database. You will then get a drop down, click on 'Start from Scratch' - NOTE: There are templates you can choose from. I thought it was easier for me to create my own because my stuff is my stuff! It doesn't necessarily fit into a pre-designed template. If figured I could customize as I went. You can also pick a color for you data base if you'd like.

3. When you create your new base and name it, a blank slate, sorta speak, will pop up. It will have three Fields to start with - 'Name', Notes', 'Attachments' - you will also see a '+' at the end of the last field name (This will let add more field names easily).

4. You can change the name of the Fields by clicking on the down arrow at the end of the field. When you do this you will get a drop down menu of options of how you want the items in your field to display.  You can choose single line text, long line text (multiple lines), #(Number), etc. Select what you want and save. Do this for all your fields. NOTE: For Attachments, I changed my name to 'Photo'.

For my 'Stamp and Die Sets' data base these are the fields I chose:
'Company' 'Photo' 'Stamp Name' 'Matching Die' 'Category' 'Description' - Name your fields whatever works for you! Also, you can move your fields by clicking on the name, holding it down and dragging it left or right if you don't like the order they are in.

5. To add a field, at the end of the field names there is a '+' click on this and you will get a new field. You will then have to click on it's name to customize to your needs. Example: I added a field, it came up as 'Field 4'. I clicked on it and renamed it 'Category' - I then selected "multiple select" and "colored options" as how I wanted the field formatted because I knew I had many different categories of stamps (more a little later). I also customized my "Matching Die" field by selecting 'single select'   so that I could just specify if I had a die to match the stamp set.

6. I also added a 'Description' field and specified 'long text line' so that I could make notes, add a description of the stamp set, anything that would help me identify or remember a set.

Once you get your base set up with your fields customized to how you like them you are ready to begin entering your supplies!

LET'S START!

1. Click on your data base. You will see your basic spreadsheet style data base with all your custom fields at the top. You will also see a big plus sign in a solid circle. Click on it.

2. '<Unamed record' will pop up with all your fields listed with a blank line underneath. Start at your first field and begin entering! Here's my empty record before I enter my stamp's information.

3. I enter the name of the COMPANY that makes the stamp (I use this because this is how I store my stamps. I'll talk about this in another post.)

4. I then click on the camera icon under PHOTO and take a picture of the stamp set with my phone or iPad(which ever I'm using to enter data). MAGIC! The photo is automatically dropped right into the record! You will see a little thumbnail of the photo which you can click to enlarge. You can also click on the landscape picture icon and choose a photo from your photo library to insert! (I haven't done this as I take a photo each time I enter a new item).

5. I enter the NAME of the stamp (whatever the company calls it).

6. If the stamp has a MATCHING DIE I click on the button below the field name. It will show as a check mark when you look at the full data base

7. CATEGORY- if you have specified 'multi select' for your category field, you can enter categories in two different ways. First, when you specified 'multi select' when you were initially customizing your fields it gave you the option of creating a list of categories or themes such as Christmas, Birthday, Get Well, Animals... you choose what you want. OR - If you are like me, I went stamp by stamp. My first set was a birthday stamp with little bears and presents and words. So when I clicked on the word 'Category' it let me enter each category description - Birthday, Christmas, etc. I also specified color so each category got a color assigned to it. (Makes it pretty and gives you a quick idea of how many of a specific category you have when you look at the full database).

Example of my Categories - there are more you can't see!

NOTE: You do not need to know all your categories before you start! You can add new categories as you go by just typing them in!

8. DESCRIPTION - Here is where I add any keywords or extra information I want to know about the stamp or a basic description of the stamp if I feel the need.

This is how I add my stamps. When I finish with a record I just hit the < at the top of my screen and it goes back to the full table and I can see my entry. I click on the big + plus sign and enter my next stamp!

WHAT ABOUT MY OTHER SUPPLIES LIKE DIES, INKS AND MORE!

I have several tables. I also have changed the title of 'Workspace 2' to Crafting Supplies. None of my other tables are set up exactly the same. Again, I look at the supply and decide what I need to know about that supply and create my table from there.

Lastly for today, my stamps were in a hot mess of organization. I have them very loosely in bins by category, like birthday, children, flowers, Christmas, etc. I decided to organize them by company because it wasn't as overwhelming as the number of categories I have plus there is a lot of crossover in stamp sets, they can be used for a variety of occasions. So, after I got everything in the data base I sorted using the first field, in alpha order - COMPANY.

Here is a screen shot of my Stamp and Die Sets data base. See if you can spot the mistake!*

This is also how I will physically sort my stamps, so I once I find a stamp in the database I want to use, I can go to that company in my bins and pull my stamp. Many people use a more structured method. I'm too lazy to do so...

Let me know if this has helped you to understand and see if you want to use Airtable as your electronic organizing system. I will talk about the physical storage of stamps at a later date (mine are a mess!) So stay tuned!

*Somehow I have an MFT stamp out of sequence. To correct I go into that specific record and see if I added an extra space, or just retype the company name to kick back to where it belongs!