This post is the first in a series on using Home Inventory. Every week or so we will take a feature in Home Inventory 2 and explore some of the different ways it can be used.
This week we’re going to take a look at one of my favorite features in Home Inventory: dated notes. This is of those simple features that has turned out to be far more useful than I would have imaged when I first implemented it when Home Inventory 2 still in development.
As you might have guessed from the name, a dated note is a freeform text note with an optional date. You can add as many dated notes as you want to an item, location, collection, or policy by clicking the Add Note button along the bottom of the inventory window:
If you’ve read the old Binary Formations blog or followed us on twitter (@BFormations, in case you’re interested), then you probably know I’m an avid guitar player. One of my favorite guitars is the Fender Stratocaster. I have three of them and like a lot of ‘Strat’ owners, I love everything about those guitars but the electronics. My geek gene has left me no other choice but to modify them.
By now you’re probably wondering what guitar modification has to do with Home Inventory. That’s an easy one: I’ve been using the dated notes feature to keep track of these modifications. Each time I make a change to a guitar I add a new note in Home Inventory so I have a record of what was done. Like a lot of guitar players, I like to know what changes an instrument has undergone over time. I like to know its history.
Here’s what some of those notes look like for a 2002 American Stratocaster I have:
Notes on my guitar 'mods'
Dated notes aren’t just for guitar players. I’ve had several customers tell me they use them to keep a record of the repair histories for their items. In our house we use dated notes for locations to keep track of renovation work and the colors we used to paint the walls (which is always helpful to know when you have do the inevitable touchup). For policies, notes provide a nice way to keep a record of your claim history and policy changes.
We’d like to know how you are using Home Inventory. If you have a tip on using Home Inventory you want to share with others, send us an email at tips@binaryformations.com.