Organizing and Managing Your DVD Collection

1. Organizing the DVD CollectionThe first thing to consider when you decide to organize your collection is the system you use. This may include one of the following: Release Date Alphabetical Genre Director General StarThe important thing thing to consider when deciding on the way you organize your collection is how it is stored. Put them in boxes it is probably better to organize by Genre rather than alphabetical order, if you then slotted shelves alphabetically can be a pain as you or any DVD in a notch move if you buy a new start " A ". Once you have decided on the storage, it's time to go to the highest level categorization, then once you have selected the grading method, then you're going to be ordered by a sub-category (could be one of the examples above)? What if DVDs are stored in multiple locations? Then it might be better to have no organization as such on the DVD itself, but rather a list of locations and approximately on the DVDs are in.Once you then hold your chosen category. Differences subcategories within the main category contexts as you benefit from all the top-level organisation.So will in principle independent of the workflow: Storage Solution> Main Category> Sub Category *> * If required2 Track. Tracking your DVD collection Once your DVD collection reaches a certain size can, and will be hard to remember what you have, who you borrowed and whether you bought the limited edition or standard DVD. This is where tracking tools are in.You can start with a simple list or a spreadsheet, a database or the use of various software / web tools available (see below). Example information that you could use (and this will depend on what tools you use for the job) could be: Film title (obviously!) Director Script Writer Year Length Format (this is also widescreen, 4:3 or DVD region code etc.) Cast (probably best to limit this to about 5 or so) Purchase date Purchase Rating Comments (Useful for keeping a running total for insurance purposes - you would be amazed how much it would cost to replace your collection) Purchased From Lent to Date LentOf can not of course all this information sheet or can be further categories to add, just use what is relevant to you.3. Saving the Information Once you've decided what you want to store information about your DVDs then you can decide on the appropriate tool to use.For example, a simple spreadsheet to do if you want the movie title, director and keep who you loaned it to, but you would probably be better off with a database if you wanted nothing more complicated.If you do not currently have a spreadsheet package on your computer (like Microsoft Excel, MS Works or Lotus), then I would recommend that record OpenOffice is a fantastic and free package easily rivals Microsoft office.If you want an MS Access database and then use would work well (or the database that comes with Open Office 2), but if you want more complicated you can always use MySQL as an alternative (using a web-based front-end). But again why build your own (like the Muppet that I am) when so many things already available that you download Covert art, running times etc when the item in your collection? Here are a few examples: Websites Affictionado DVD (I started using this before fiddling with my own system) DVD-Tracker Software Organizer Of Town DVD Movie Collectorz (Windows) (Mac version coming soon) DVD Collector (Windows) DVD Shelf (Mac) Delicious Monster (Mac only?) DVD Listing (Pocket PC) So, organizing your collection and never wondering who you lent it back to DVD! Katy Whitton has over 10 years experience in web development and web design. Find more articles about blogging, productivity, marketing, software and more on her blog http://www.flippingheck.com or download her latest program, code and tutorials on http://www.katywhitton.com