Depending on how ytou access the nets (broadband is best), you can actually
set up a schedual to back up the files to your home machine each night. We
used to back up the website that way, so I had a clean daily and weekly copy
of the sites we host. Not so possible with DIAL UP (arrrgghhh) but if it
were's too many files, you could set up a ftp transfer...

"Jon Doyle" wrote in message
...
I too built my own access database for my art collection. . . it seems to
work ok, but is cumbersome.

Right now I am using excel for my card stuff, but it feels a bit limited
to me as well, and for some reason it seems as though occassionally the
sorting screws up some of the data in the rows.

I have MySQL now on my webserver, and am thinking about writing a PHP
based front end to a MySQL database table I'd build for my cards. . . the
only thing that bothers me is having that data out on a webserver
somewhere. . . I'd have to write something to dump the data to a file so I
could back it up somewhere.

Jen Badham wrote:

In the interests of starting discussions, I thought I'd post about
software.
What software do people use to manage their collection and how good is
it?

I originally built an Access database and that worked well enough and,
building it myself meant I could include what I wanted. I enter the
common
card set as a single item, but individually itemise the various chase
cards,
promos etc. However, I recently switched to a commercial software package
(Collectorz) for my comics because my comics Access database had been
through several Access upgrades and no longer worked cleanly, and didn't
have all the features that a commercial package gives and I couldn't be
bothered writing.

Collectorz is actually really flexible with field names and list contents
etc. I ended up starting a new database for my cards, statues and other
miscellanous items. With some minor reworking, it actually does really
well.
The biggest problem is that there are lots of extra data items that are
really irrelevant for cards and are not removable, but it's still half
the
size of my old Access database and includes much more info. The othe
problem
arises from the fact that I have the two collections (ie comics,
everything
else) and have quite different setups for each. The software recognises
the
correct field names for each, but defaults to the most recently used
display, so I often have to redo the display columns and sort order when
I
open the other collection.

Jen