Key features
• Quickly design collections and view them.
• Save collections in files that can be shared with other collectors.
• Give collections their own look and feel.
• Pick from lots of data types : Including some unusual ones and the ability to create your own option lists.
• Use calculated fields : You can add calculated fields with a comprehensive and friendly calculation design tool.
• Powerful import and export : Don't worry about your data being locked into this app forever.
• Powerful ability to build websites : You can create website pages directly from your collections (this whole CollectAny website is built using ...CollectAny!).
Why choose CollectAny?
• Simple : The one-click designer will quickly get you started.
• Flexible : It can be used for all sorts of collecting.
• Reduced effort : It automates as much as it can.
• Value for money : Now Freeware !!
• Friendly and responsive support : We genuinely want to help people collect and want to understand the issues faced.
br />• Potential : It can do more than simple collections if you wish, including complex relational collections.
• Unique concept : Where a 'record' by default combines photos, text, values and links. i.e all the useful stuff !
Background
Database software in the market today tends to fall into three broad categories:
• Full-blown generic database software with very clever and complex functionality. Very powerful if you are prepared to climb the steep learning-curve. Designing and implementing a solution for a particular task can take a lot of time.
• Apps with built in databases that have already been tailored to a specific task (for example a Stamp Collecting app). Can be very good but are sometimes frustratingly inflexible.
• Very basic software that lets you produce simple tables of data. No relationships between data (for example simple spreadsheets).
The idea behind CollectAny is to strike a middle-ground. It is a 'relational database' at its core, giving some quite complex possibilities, but it can also be used at a very simple level.
The app relies heavily on automation so a user can collect and see structured, attractively presented information quickly. It deliberately limits the data options available to the user and narrows the user data down to Text, Values, Photos and Links with a very simple design interface for specifying data elements. The reporting tool is also automated where the layout of the report is automatic.
Instead of presenting users with a bewildering and complex array of options in each stage of design and use, CollectAny strips away this complexity and focuses on providing a system that hopefully the average person can use.
CollectAny also lets the user give each collection it's own look and feel through the use of styles. Also through adjusting the menu commands based on the items being collected.
Although the focus is on ease of use and simplicity the application is still powerful and capable of doing some unusual things, particularly related to sub-collections, reporting and the 'website-builder' functionality. The data sharing capability is quite novel too and lets users collaborate in building collections via shared 'cloud' (or file system) storage.
The overall hope is that this app will genuinely help people in their lives and allow them to benefit from a simple tool that lets them collect things. We welcome feedback or comments via the 'Contact' tab and would be very interested in example collections that people create.
We hope you enjoy the app !
Jeremy Leach, inventor of CollectAny.
jeremy.c.leach@hotmail.com
I currently work in the design of SQL Databases and .NET applications daily. I also have a Masters degree in Electronic Systems Engineering. My passions are data, collecting, electronics and music - in no particular order !