Comprehensive index

[millwab]

Shannon / Bob,
Has FCP considered a comprehensive index for SSWC? It would be a great help to subscribers if there was something in one place, either on-line or in print, that would categorize all the articles/projects etc. Many times we may not be interested in a certain article or project at the time, and later we have to wade through too many issues to find it again. Another publication I get offers this and it has been invaluable. Any thoughts?

Bruce

[BobD]

Bruce,
We do have an online index searchable by Author, keyword, and issue. The link is in the left column, but I've also pasted it here.

http://www.scrollsawer.com/articleindex.php

Is that what you had in mind?

Bob

[will8989]

Bruce, here's what I do. I always copy the index of the magazines and file them in a binder by magazine & month. That way I can find anything I want just by glancing through the binder. I have found this to be very helpful.

Betty

[Marsha]

I also photo copy the index, only I take it one step further. I put the copied index in a clear binder sleeve, and I remove the pull out pattern section and I place that in the sleeve along with the index, that way I have the pattern with the index when I'm ready for it. No more lost pattern sheets this way.
Marsha

[Dusty Buffalo]

Love the idea Marsha.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with the pattern sheets. I've been keeping them in brown expandable files but then have to sort through the whole thing to find what I'm looking for.

I believe I'll be borrowing that hint from you, if you don't mind.

[will8989]

Well Marsha I do the same thing, almost. I put the magazine & patterns in a clear sleeve. That way I have them together as some of the patterns are on the magazine pages instead of the pullout section. I have a 4 drawer filing cabinet and I file everything by magazine name, year & in month order. I look in the binder, find the pattern I want and go to the filing cabinet. Now, if I could just organize my work area that good!!!

Betty

[millwab]

Is that what you had in mind?

Not exactly, Bob. You almost have to know what you're looking for to use this I was thinking more along the lines of a page that has things indexed by (eg) topic so I could look for something without knowing specifically what it's called or who the author is. Sometimes I vaguely remember a project or idea and seeing it in a printed index will jog the memory enough.

Bruce

[Shannon]

Bruce,

You can search by keyword - if you are looking for a project that has a horse in it - just search under keyword - horse. If you are looking for a clock - keyword - clock... It's really very user friendly - give it a try! (I work hard to update that index every issue and I'm afraid it doesn't get much use! In fact - I think I may be an issue behind... UGH more work!)

[MetalEd]

It WOULD BE SO USEFUL to have pictures of all the projects on the contents page or available to download and store with archived copies of this magazine!!!!!!
I keep all my Scroll Saw W&C as well as another well known magazine in binders. The other day a friend asked me for a project for another friend's gift and I knew it was in one of the magazines. It was easy to check the other magazines, because almost all of their projects have a photograph on the contents page. But I had to go through all 11 binders at least twice to find the article I wanted since it was in a SSW&C magazine. I checked the contents page looking for a name that sounded familiar to the project I was looking for, but that did not turn up anything. Then I had to go through each and every page of each article to find the project. I did find it in SSW&C, but it took me almost 4 hours and by then it was too late to get started that day. The projects can be published under a different title than what I am looking for or even published on a different occasion than I think it should be under.
It is so much easier just to open the contents page, see all the projects for that issues and go onto the next one... I have just over 100 scrollsaw magazines from different publishers, dozens of binders full!... most of the time I find the higher quality projects and the specific ones I am searching for turn out to be inside my copies of SSW&C. But it is an incredible pain to look through each page of every copy in my collection to find one specific project.
I also find a lot of patterns I never new I had before while skimming pages of stored SSW&C, some that I have actually gone out and purchased from pattern suppliers because I have not seen that copy of SSW&C for such a long time (even though I refer to my magazines weekly if not daily!). It would be so helpful and even more useful if there were a photograph of each project on the contents page (or one available for download, to be stored with my archived copies in order to save publishing space.) it would definetly speed up searching for specific projects and probably get me to use them more often if I find projects I like the looks of while just browsing the content pages. It would have saved me hours of searching this last weekend if SSW&C and a few others had this feature!
Just my 2 cents worth....
Ed

[millwab]

Shannon,
The on-line index is a very valuable tool, and I thank you for you efforts, but most times when I'm searching for an article or pattern I'm not on-line. I've found with other print indexes I have that I can find what I'm looking for faster than it would take to dial-up. I just thought if this was something you were considering I wouldn't have to do it myself. I'm new enough to SSWC that building my own index isn't out of the question (one of my other subscriptions I've had from issue #1 - some 27+ years and I wouldn't want to try to index that one). It'll be a good winter project (although I'd rather be scrolling). Thanx anyway.

Bruce