Organise collections with Data Crow

YOU’LL NEED THIS DATA CROW

Download it from www.datacrow.net.

JAVA

Download it from www.java.com

Perhaps your DVD collection needs organising before you start lending it out to friends or family, or you want to keep tabs on your books. Maybe you’d like to make a definitive list of your music to avoid going out and accidentally buying another copy of an album you already own. Or perhaps you’re looking to record a more personal treasure, from cigarette cards to stamps.

Whatever your cataloguing needs are, Data Crow is the tool for you. This underrated freebie makes it easy to start building and managing collections of all sizes, and thanks to some nifty time-saving tools, you don’t necessary have to meticulously record everything yourself. Instead, Data Crow has linked in with several online providers to make it possible to automatically populate the information you need from various web-based services (sadly, not all currently work, due to changed API settings on the part of Amazon and IMDB).

Read on to learn how to collate your collection, access it from any computer on your network, and set up a loan-administration system so you know who’s borrowed what.

Client-only installation

Data Crow comes in both standalone and server-client configurations – whichever and click Java Download. If you’re happy running the 32bit version of Data Crow (most people are), just click Agree and Start Free Download, otherwise click See all Java Downloads to choose the Windows Offline (64-bit) installer instead. Save the installer to your Downloads folder, then double-click it, and click Install when the Java setup appears. Click Close when complete.