caving log

[estelle]

I have always kept a paper logbook, although in recent years have started filling in my outlook calendar with details as well as i was getting rubbish at remembering to fill in my logbook otherwise, but i am thinking of transferring to using totally some form of online logbook (or installed app on my computer), which would ideally include copying and pasting in any old trips i have on my outlook, plus maybe, if i have time, copying from my old written logbooks as well.

I've been looking for something suitable that is free and preferably online that will do this - i like google blogger, but it lacks one thing (unless anyone else knows different on this??) in that you can't get your blogs effectively in chronological date order. The reality of my logging is i would start with current and gradually add older ones as i have time which would end up intermingled with more current ones, which would then put them all in the wrong order in standard blogs...

Anyone know of anything out there that would effectively give me a timeline and keep them in date order if i could fill in that field? 

 

[Alex]

timeline - hmm maybe sound daft, but can you not do that on Facebook? Its all about timelines now.

 

[global_s]

Excel?

 

[martinm]

timeline - hmm maybe sound daft, but can you not do that on Facebook? Its all about timelines now.

Alex is quite right, you can do that with Facebook's timeline now. I retropectively added my work experience to mine. It's based on dates, so doesn't matter what order you add entries...

 

[Roger W]

You just need to be careful to make sure that your top-secret digging record isn't available to be seen by everybody on the system....

 

[martinm]

You just need to be careful to make sure that your top-secret digging record isn't available to be seen by everybody on the system....

Too true. Lock down your privacy settings so only those people you want see the info (if any) can see them.

 

[estelle]

whatever i use, i need to maintain a backup of it, so FB is not an option for me. One of my work colleagues has suggested writing me a PHP program to do it off the back of my own webhosting, but i was hoping there might be something like google blogs with the ability to put it in chronological order.

 

[Pete K]

I maintain a paper log along side a spreadsheet using MS Excel. I appreciate the OP may not want to pay for MS Office but I'm sure that there must be OpenSource spreadsheet programmes out there.
As for backups, if using MS programmes you can use Skydrive to keep them online and accessable from any PC. If using other softwear then I guess you have to remember to actually manually back it up periodically onto data stick.
You will always have the paper log as a backup you can't delete.

 

[martinm]

I maintain a paper log along side a spreadsheet using MS Excel. I appreciate the OP may not want to pay for MS Office but I'm sure that there must be OpenSource spreadsheet programmes out there.

See:- http://www.libreoffice.org/download

LibreOffice, formerly OpenOffice. Free and does most things MS Office does.  8)

 

[TheBitterEnd]

What about emailing your log entries to yourself with Year-Month-Day as the start of the title? When you recieve them you can put them in a Caving Log folder sorted by title. They would also searchable, etc.

 

[martinm]

whatever i use, i need to maintain a backup of it, so FB is not an option for me.

Actually, you can download an archive of all your FB postings and stuff. (Home, Account Settings) Not sure what format it comes down as though as I've not tried it yet...

 

[estelle]

i hadn't really thought of using excel, but it might be the way forward... I've got MS 2010 Pro Plus so have all the Office programs. Currently i tend to put them in Outlook on the date they happen, but i'd rather have it in more of a log format than having to find the date i did it to find my entry.

 

[Antwan]

Wordpress (blogging/content management type program) lets you put in your own post date. You can get a free wordpress account or download the software for free and put in on your own web hosting

 

[estelle]

Thank you Antwan - Wordpress looks like it might well have more of the features i was looking for.

 

[paul]

Be careful if you want to use email or blogs for something you wish to have around in the future, especially if you host the blog on a third party server.

At least with a local spreadsheet, you have control of the information and backups.

 

[global_s]

Indeed...I'd be very wary of trusting information that was just stored on the net. As a means of backup its great, but if you don't pay for the service, they are under no obligation not to delete the whole lot tomorrow.

 

[And]

This could be a silly question, but can't you just put them in a Word document, and just paste it into the relevant section? You can have a separate document for each year, or even month. You can use Google documents for this if you want it online.

 

[Antwan]

Be careful if you want to use email or blogs for something you wish to have around in the future, especially if you host the blog on a third party server.

At least with a local spreadsheet, you have control of the information and backups.

You can make a 'nice' trip report in wordpress AND backup the database to use in a spreadsheet, or as a database.
same as using the internet as a backup but the other way around. (and it will most likely be nicer to read than a spreadsheet)

my site uses wordpress, I put trip reports in it and anything else that I might want to look back at or indeed joe public might want to see. Anything I dont want anyone to read I save as a draft or password protect them if only a few people need access

www.3peaksuk.org/climb if anyone is really bored and fancies a read

 

[paul]

Be careful if you want to use email or blogs for something you wish to have around in the future, especially if you host the blog on a third party server.

At least with a local spreadsheet, you have control of the information and backups.

You can make a 'nice' trip report in wordpress AND backup the database to use in a spreadsheet, or as a database.
same as using the internet as a backup but the other way around. (and it will most likely be nicer to read than a spreadsheet)

my site uses wordpress, I put trip reports in it and anything else that I might want to look back at or indeed joe public might want to see. Anything I dont want anyone to read I save as a draft or password protect them if only a few people need access

www.3peaksuk.org/climb if anyone is really bored and fancies a read

But even if you have all your WordPress info available locally, will you definitely be able to access it in the next few years, ten years, twnty years? I doubt it.

I have stuff entered inot Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets in 1982 which I was able to export as CSV (comma separated value) files and import subsequently to Excel (DOS version), right up to current Excel versions.

 

[graham]

But even if you have all your WordPress info available locally, will you definitely be able to access it in the next few years, ten years, twenty years? I doubt it.

I have stuff entered inot Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets in 1982 which I was able to export as CSV (comma separated value) files and import subsequently to Excel (DOS version), right up to current Excel versions.

So, text files or nuffink then.