Stock list database

[ISW]

2 minutes ago, Damo666 said:

Whoever thought of having a picture accessed under a colour fill menu must have been looking at the clock on a Friday afternoon.

And whoever thought to look in the colour fill menu of the comments mechanism to insert a photo in Excel was either desperate, clairvoyant, or a genius! Either way, I'm glad you did.

 

Ian

[ikcdab]

Another vote for excel. But whatever you use, make sure it's well backed up. I store most of my stuff on Dropbox which means I can access it on laptop and desktop and it's protected.

[Shed Driver]

10 hours ago, Damo666 said:

 

I've done 2 things with images in my excel spreadsheet inventory (another vote for Excel).

 

I have a small thumbnail of a side view of each loco placed in a cell. Easy enough as said before.

 

I also have a pop-up image which appears when I hover my cursor over a cell, and a larger image appears. In this example, when I hover over the class type, the large image appears.

 

This avoids having large images taking over the whole spreadsheet, only appearing when necessary.

 

Here's the steps to make this work.

1. Right-click in a cell and select 'Insert Comment'

 

2. A box appears with the excel user-name within, ready to add text comments. But adding an image takes a few different steps.

 

3. When the comment box appears, right-click in the fuzzy border (not within the cell) and a pop-up menu appears. Choose 'Format Comment'

 

3(a). You can also right click in the cell (not the comment box), and in the pop--up menu select 'Edit Comment....'. appears. then right-click the fuzzy border. -> Another way of reaching this step.

 

4. In the box that appears, choose the 'Colors and Lines' tab, In the Fill section, click the drop-down arrow beside 'Color' and at the bottom of the list choose 'Fill Effects'.

 

5. On the Fill Effects window, choose the 'Picture' tab and then select your picture.

 

6. OK out of all selections and then resize your 'comment' to suit.

 

Thank you Damo 666

That is exactly what I am looking for.  I know what I will be doing in the next lock down; I have about 700 items of EM gauge stock to sort out.

 

Norman

 

[Andymsa]

13 hours ago, Damo666 said:

 

I've done 2 things with images in my excel spreadsheet inventory (another vote for Excel).

 

I have a small thumbnail of a side view of each loco placed in a cell. Easy enough as said before.

 

I also have a pop-up image which appears when I hover my cursor over a cell, and a larger image appears. In this example, when I hover over the class type, the large image appears.

 

This avoids having large images taking over the whole spreadsheet, only appearing when necessary.

 

Here's the steps to make this work.

1. Right-click in a cell and select 'Insert Comment'

 

2. A box appears with the excel user-name within, ready to add text comments. But adding an image takes a few different steps.

 

3. When the comment box appears, right-click in the fuzzy border (not within the cell) and a pop-up menu appears. Choose 'Format Comment'

 

3(a). You can also right click in the cell (not the comment box), and in the pop--up menu select 'Edit Comment....'. appears. then right-click the fuzzy border. -> Another way of reaching this step.

 

4. In the box that appears, choose the 'Colors and Lines' tab, In the Fill section, click the drop-down arrow beside 'Color' and at the bottom of the list choose 'Fill Effects'.

 

5. On the Fill Effects window, choose the 'Picture' tab and then select your picture.

 

6. OK out of all selections and then resize your 'comment' to suit.

 

hi,

 

can this be done to existing images that have been imported into the cell

 

andy

[Crewlisle]

21/10/20          Stock List Database
 

You cannot beat excel spreadsheets for simplicity & being easy to amend.  I use Excel for a 'Record of my Locos' & another for the 'Layout Operating Instructions' for my DCC exhibition layout 'Crewlisle'.

 

On the 'Record of my Locos' I have 9 columns 
1.            Loco number.
2.            Loco class.
3.            Loco addresses.
4.            Type of decoder fitted.             

5.             CV1 Setting. 
6.             CV2 Setting. 
7.             CV3 Setting. 
8.             CVs for 3 & 4 digit addresses, things to do, amount of weight added (if any) & any problems on fitting decoder or additional weight. 
9.                 Any operating restrictions like 'Can only haul 4 Mk 1 coaches up bank'.

 

My DCC system is a Lenz LH90 installed in 2008 with no problems whatsoever.  The Excel based 'Layout Operating Instructions' are handy for a club layout or if you have additional operators at exhibitions who are unfamiliar with the layout.  First of all I produced an A4 size Excel spread sheet of all my locos with their numbers, address, class & hi-lited locos in blue which had a common shunting function (eg F3 on many of the decoders fitted in my locos).  See first attachment.  Currently I am adding to/amending the list of locos on the first attachment. When I remake & print this sheet, I will once more be hi-lighting the common shunting function but adding a letter 'S' against locos which are fitted with sound.  I then either copied or abbreviated the main loco operating instructions from the manual into Word & stuck them to the spare area of the Excel loco spreadsheet. 

With reference to the second attachment, I copied all the locos with sound & their sound functions onto an A4 Excel spreadsheet.  Once more I either copied or abbreviated how to access the sound functions in Word & stuck them to the unused areas of the sound function sheet.  I then reduced each sheet to about 65% (depends how many locos you have) to produce a finished size of about 180mm x 100mm.  Stick them back to back & have them laminated.  This gives a handy size card of instructions for operators who are unfamiliar with your layout.

 

Peter

 

 

[Damo666]

On 21/09/2020 at 10:40, Damo666 said:

 

I've done 2 things with images in my excel spreadsheet inventory (another vote for Excel).

 

I have a small thumbnail of a side view of each loco placed in a cell. Easy enough as said before.

 

I also have a pop-up image which appears when I hover my cursor over a cell, and a larger image appears. In this example, when I hover over the class type, the large image appears.

 

This avoids having large images taking over the whole spreadsheet, only appearing when necessary.

 

Here's the steps to make this work.

1. Right-click in a cell and select 'Insert Comment'

 

2. A box appears with the excel user-name within, ready to add text comments. But adding an image takes a few different steps.

 

3. When the comment box appears, right-click in the fuzzy border (not within the cell) and a pop-up menu appears. Choose 'Format Comment'

 

3(a). You can also right click in the cell (not the comment box), and in the pop--up menu select 'Edit Comment....'. appears. then right-click the fuzzy border. -> Another way of reaching this step.

 

4. In the box that appears, choose the 'Colors and Lines' tab, In the Fill section, click the drop-down arrow beside 'Color' and at the bottom of the list choose 'Fill Effects'.

 

5. On the Fill Effects window, choose the 'Picture' tab and then select your picture.

 

6. OK out of all selections and then resize your 'comment' to suit.

 

 

Since I first wrote these notes, I went to do it again yesterday and found that Microsoft have changed the procedure a little in Office 365.

 

As I couldn’t add the pop-up image I thought I was doing something wrong, so headed here to refresh my memory, but then discovered the technique changed.

 

So here it is for Office 365 Excel.

 

1.       Right-click in a cell and select ‘New Note’

 

         

 

2.       Then right-click and select ‘Edit Note’. This makes the pop-up window stay in place. Otherwise the pop-up note will disappear once you move your cursor away from the cell.

 

     

 

3.       Right-Click on the edge of the yellow box (your cursor changes to an 4-way arrow) and select ‘Format Comment…’ (In the previous version of Excel Microsoft started us off by ‘adding a comment’. In Office 365 we now start off by adding a ‘Note’, but later it's changed to a ‘comment’).

 

        

          

4.       In the next window, on the ‘Colors and Lines’ tab, select the drop-down arrow beside ‘Color’ and then choose ‘Fill Effects…’

 

        

5.       Find the image you want to use, make sure you select Lock picture aspect ratio. Then OK out of this dialogue box. OK again and the image is now in your comment box.

 

         

6.       You can scale enlarge or reduce the image and position it where you like. Click outside and the pop-up will disappear

 

        

 

7.       Whenever you hover over the cell again, the picture will reappear to the size you scaled and in the position.