I have to write a brief note in defense of Excel as a roll-inventory
program.  Recent postings have listed some of the drawbacks.  The main
one is "it is easy to do a sort that results in an unrecoverable error."

First, save your work.  This is an excellent rule in anything you do.
There is an AutoSave option which you can set to any number of minutes,
but I prefer to do it myself, say, anytime I complete one page of data.
I glance back over my work, and save it if it's correct.  A simple
"ctrl-S" for "Save" is all it takes.

If you do make an error in sorting, try a simple "Edit - Undo" (The
shortcut is "Ctrl-Z".)  You can undo up to the last 16 things you did.
You can increase that number if you'd like, although I find it
sufficient for everything I do.

If you discover you misspelled Aeolian in 50 of the 1,500 entries you
typed, do "Edit - Replace".  Enter the incorrect spelling in the first
box, the correct one in the second box, and click "Replace" to do one
at a time, or "Replace All" to do them all.

Why Excel and not Access?  MS Office with Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
runs about $92 online, whereas the version with Access is around $376.
That's a $284 roll-inventory program.  Add the learning curve for
a database program/language, and most people would just give up.

Searching is simple.  Press "Ctrl-F" (for Find), and type what you're
looking for.

Once you get your data entered, go into "Tools - Protection - Protect
Sheet".  You can password-protect the file, and pick if you want people
to be able to modify individual cells, delete things, sort, etc.

Remember to make a backup when you're done on a CD, or get one of those
USB flash drives (they're as cheap as $8 online), and put a copy there.

Bill Mackin
Hiawatha, Iowa