[CaliaMoko]

I tried to catalog all the songs in my music books by using a spreadsheet, but it got much too big, so I need to use a database. Does anyone know where I can find a template for a relational database that would work in Libre Office and would have tables I could use for:
Songbook Titles
Song Titles
Composers
Lyricists
Voicing
Instrumentation

I have tried and failed to design one myself. I can set up tables but I can't get them properly related to each other, or manage to set up the part for entering the data.

I don't have much to trade, but I can provide vocals, if you have a use for such.
Vicki

[Boydie]

The first question to ask is why?

What is the purpose of the database?

I would have thought a spreadsheet that you can filter / search would be the best approach

[CaliaMoko]

The purpose is to be able to look to see if I have at least one copy of a song. Like, if my dad wants me to do something with a song he likes, I can look to see if I have it in one or more of my books.

I did try to use a spreadsheet, but by the time the file got up to 6 MB, it was operating so slowly, it was frustrating and irritating. It has more than 3600 entries right now, and I've given up adding any more. But I have several songbooks left.

I suppose I could consider this an opportunity to practice patience. I'm not sure I'm ready to practice that much patience, but it is an option, as patience is not one of my solid virtues and I could use the practice. I don't really want to, though....

[ScottLevi]

Hey Vicki,

You may have already tried but there's some cool stuff around lookups you can do on excel to normalize data which should reudice file size and improve performance.

If you send your spreadsheet (or a cut down version) I could have a look for you? Might be an easier solution.

Else with some sample data I wouldn't mind putting a db design together.

[CaliaMoko]

Woh, Scott! I guess I'm too many years from my office working days. I had forgotten all about lookups. I used Excel in those days, not Libre Office, but it's probably quite similar. I'll have to see if I can remember how to do it.

Thanks for the reminder. I'm going to give it a try. If I can't figure out how to do it, I'll be back to take you up on your offer.

 
Vicki

[CaliaMoko]

Reporting back: So I loaded up the spreadsheet workbook (I hadn't touched it in months) and added a page. Put a lookup on the page--a list of songbooks. Went back to the first page and replaced the column with the songbook names with a column of cells formatted to allow only titles in the lookup range on page 2. This created a dropdown box on each cell in the column. And I filled in each cell with the name of the proper songbook.

Then I saved it. Took forever to save, just like always. Then I realized I have been saving this workbook in XL format. So I saved it again, this time in ODS format. I went and looked at the files. The XL workbook was bigger than ever--the lookup added size to it. The ODS workbook, however, was quite small! So I went back to the original workbook (without the lookup) and saved it in ODS format. Slightly smaller than the first one! 

The solution the whole time was simply to use ODS format, which is what LibreOffice is for. Sheesh! So, unless I run into some other problem with this project, my quandary is resolved!

Thanks for nudging me in the right direction, Scott and Boydie, even though the result is different than expected.