Setting up a Collection

The MRP Collection Manager User’s Guide

Setting up a Collection - Overview

The first time you run the MRP Collection Manager, your initial step will be to create your first collection database. This is done from the Collection Manager contol window, which will be shown when you start the program for the first time:

Note: If you are running the evaluation version (Demo Mode) of the product, an additional button will be shown on the dialog, which will allow you to register the product, converting it from Demo Mode to a fully registered, unrestricted version.

In order to perform the setup for your first collection database, click the Create New Collection button.

Creating a collection is actually a fairly quick and simple process. You need to tell the Collection Manager the following things:

· The type of collection you are creating (coin, print, map, shell, generic, etc.)

· A name for your collection (for example, “My Coin Collection”).

· The name and location of the file on the computer where your collection will be stored. (Your collection will be saved as a single file on the hard disk of your computer.)

· The “fields” (types of information) that you want to include.

· Optionally, the location of the directory where you have digital images of your collection items stored.

· The currency units and dimension units that you will be using.

Once a collection has been defined, you can enter data into the collection in one of two ways:

Type in the data through data-entry screens that the Collection Manager provides.
Import data that is stored either in an Excel spreadsheet or in a tab-delimited text file.

Note: The Collection Manager allows you to catalog multiple collections. On the control window (shown above), the Manage Collections / Select Current Collection button lets you manage the list of collection databases that you have created, and lets you select which is the “current” collection database. The current collection is the one that will be shown if you click the Show Collection button, and it is the collection that will be automatically displayed when you subsequently run the MRP Collection Manager.

Read the next section, Defining a new collection, for a full description of the process of creating a new collection database.

Next: Defining a new collection

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