I am a basketweaver. I have in the past kept track of my baskets by number. I am now also making ceramic wall hangings and bowls and not weaving on them. I would like to separate how I handle these numerically but I am not sure how best to do it with this program. When I was reading about using an alphanumeric system it didn't quite make sense and unfortunately I don't need it for the baskets. Any ideas?

Hi,

There are a couple of ways that you might address this. The first would be to use different number ranges for your work numbers, with each range representing a different type of your art. For example, you might use 1-2000 for baskets, 2001-4000 for ceramics, etc.

A second approach would be to use alphanumeric work numbers and use an alpha prefix to identify the different types of art. For example, you could use a "B" for baskets, and your work numbers could be B0001, B0002, and so on. Then, you could use a "C" for ceramic work, with the work numbers being C0001, C0002, and so on.

It's important to remember that when sorting your artwork, a numeric sort will be different than an alphanumeric sort. Numeric sorts treat your work numbers as, well, numbers, so the sort sequence would be, for example,
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,30,40
In an alphanumeric sort, these work numbers are treated as characters rather than numbers, so the sort sequence would be, for example,
1,10,11,2,3,30,4,40,5,6,7,8,9
The importance of this is that you want to make sure that you insert leading zeroes into your numbers when using alphanumerics so that things sort the way you want. B1 in an alpha sort is different than B0001.

Thanks and have a good day.

Ron Gafron
WorkingArtist