Benefits in Using a Database to Track Design Collections
                                                 10/17/98
There have been a lot of questions about the FileMaker Pro Design Catalog template
 on the Pfaffies FAQ page http://www.cyberport.net/users/milnerwm/FAQ.html at
 the bottom of the *Accessories* section.  I put it in the accessories section
 because this is one of the BEST accessories I have invested in for my 1475 and
 7570!  

I have been using FM since the early Prodigy days to index PCD/PCQ designs. One
 day I discovered a better mousetrap!  Lindee Goodall had a lot more information in
 her template and included a place for a picture of the design.  Lindee's template
can be found at http://www.cactus-punch.com/ on her goodies page called
PCDPCQDB. Lindee has a zip and sit. 

The one nice thing about a database is you can customize it to suit the way you
 work. So I imported all my designs into Lindee's database... and then found these
 old eyes needed a larger picture, thumbnails of the designs to print out when
 working on a project, etc.  No problem to customize FM.

You can get my zipped database that has all the Prodigy designs indexed with a 
graphic of each design on  http://www.cyberport.net/users/milnerwm/FAQ.html . 
 If you are not ready to d/l anything, there is a jpg available just so you can peek 
and see one of the layouts (views) in this DB.

In case you don't own FileMaker Pro 4.0, right now Claris has a free Windows & Mac trial version (you can only load 50 records in) at http://www.claris.com/index.html.  FileMaker can seamlessly open either a WIN or a Mac DB without any kind of conversion.

The beauty of indexing your designs on FM is to put key words in the description 
field. When I put key words in I also describe the parts of a design: Christmas tree
ornaments gift boxes star ribbons.  This let's me do a search for all designs that
have *ribbons* in them for example. You can also search by designer, how you acquired
designs: free, e-mail purchase, etc. My collection is on a Zip and also on a
CD. With FM I can easily know the location of any design I have.

Another very useful feature is a field to store color changes, stitch count, special 
stitching notes. 

If you are wondering whether you should buy FileMaker... don't! 

You NEED FM so you will know what designs you have and where they are located, 
what they look like, etc.

I don't own any stock in Claris, but I should! Just a satisfied customer.

Paula Milner
paula@cyberport.net