StuffKeeper - a Collection Manager for All Kinds of Stuff (For Linux)

StuffKeeper is a new Linux application designed to catalog your stuff. Not just your CDs, or just your books, or just your DVDs, but all your stuff. StuffKeeper handles it all. So do similar programs, like Tellico, but StuffKeeper aims to keep all your stuff in the same place, all the time. Whereas Tellico opens a new database for each category of stuff, StuffKeeper keeps it all together. But don't worry about finding things, because StuffKeeper has you covered there as well.

First of all, it should be mentioned that StuffKeeper is very new. So while some of the gripes I have about it (and there are a few) are valid as I'm writing it, that may no longer be true in the future, so keep that in mind.

In spite of its relative "youth," StuffKeeper is easy to use. Simply hit the Plus Sign in the toolbar to create a new item. You'll see a new line appear in your list, so double click that and a new window will appear, showing you the particulars of your new item, completely blank, of course. The first thing you'll want to do is give the item a title, and then after that, click on where the word Book appear. Unless you want to put a book into your database.

In fact, if you just want to do nothing but use StuffKeeper to keep track of your book collection, you're pretty much set. And that's because out of the box, StuffKeeper only includes a template for books. StuffKeeper can store all kinds of information, from serial numbers to stamps to passwords, but by default it only comes with a template for books, so if you're going to use it for other stuff, you'll need to create your own templates.

And that's not all that hard, actually. There are different "Types" supported by StuffKeeper, from Strings (a single line of text) to Integers (numbers, such as years), Boolean (a checkbox), Sliders... and more. You'll need to figure out what types of information you want to keep track of, add those to your template, put them in the order you wish to use, then save the template.

It is a bit of work, and that's one thing I hope changes in the future. It would be nice and convient (although not really necessary, of course), if more templates would be included. I think the obvious choices would be for DVDs, CDs and Books, but as mentioned, StuffKeeper would also be nice for keeping track of website login information, software licenses, and could even be used to store addresses and phone numbers!

However, at the moment you'll need to create any tempate, aside from books. In spite of that, creating a new template isn't all that hard. You don't necessarily need to use eight or nine types, like the built-in books template. In fact, for DVDs, you might only want to keep track of the Title, Director, Year and Length. For CDs, you might only want the Artist, Title and Tracklist. You can use more, of course, but you might only really care about certain fields, so use just the ones you like.

That's part of why StuffKeeper is so nice: it's incredibly flexible and customizable. Even the built-in books template can be tweaked to suit your needs. Don't want the ISBN field? Get rid of it. Want to change the title of one of the fields? No problem. StuffKeeper aims at being exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less.

As I mentioned earlier, at the moment StuffKeeper is pretty new. There's a Tools menu that doesn't do anything at the moment (possibly my fault, but I doubt it, as the package I'm using came straight from the developer, created specifically for Ubuntu), and while it would be fantastic if StuffKeeper was able (like other database applications), to search Amazon.com for Books, CDs and DVDs, at the moment it can't. Maybe someday it will be able to, and that would be great, but for now... no luck.

In spite of this, StuffKeeper, while I might not start using it immediately, is a program I'll be keeping an eye on. It's attractive, has a nice, easy to use interface, already offers a myriad of customization options, and can only get better in my mind. You can check out a copy for yourself at the StuffKeeper website.