ok so i have a bunch of cds and i want to catalog them and my buddy thought of scanning the barcodes on all of them and putting them in excel (which i dont know how to do) or does anybody out there know of a free program that supports i plan on using a scanner app and i found two apps that i can email the question so i email it to my self but im lost after that any help would be appreciated im a newbie at this stuff

 

welcome to the forum and please try to be direct - what is your question?

i have tons of CDs too but they are quietly collecting dust because i don't remember when was the last time I used CD. Once uppon time I ripped them all to MP3s and use computer or USB drive. no scratches, no problems...

if you want to keep data in a excel spreadsheet, well go ahead. most people would probably just use something like windows media player. barcode is just a string. when you scan barcode, your barcode scanner simply spits out string. nothing more, nothing less.

you can enter that string into spreadsheet cell just like any other word (or you may use program that does that for you). if you like to display it as a barcode (perhaps to print it out or use scanner to read it from the computer screen) you need barcode font. one i use is free:
http://www.barcodesinc.com/free-barcode-font/

btw not all scanners can read barcode of the LCD display, only scanners based on imaging sensor work, laser ones will require the barcode to be printed.

 

I have already ripped all my cds on my computer and i also download cds online. I want to catoagize all the cds i have bought so i can look at that list before i go out to buy cds. I dont believe in buying anything digitally i want an actual cd that i will always have. If my computer crashes there goes all my music a cd you always have. Thats what im trying to do

 

Sorry, I have read and reread both posts and you still don't make any sense.

Let me see if I get this right.

Your computer crashes so you have not access to your database in excel.

Why not print out the listing of your catalog on to paper?

 

copy the text from the email and paste into excel or word or notepad or open office or any of the other thousands of programs you could use..

Or just sit your arse down at the computer and start typing in all the names/titles,etc..

There is no easy button.

 

a cd you always have.

until it gets scratched or cracked..

 

I have already ripped all my cds on my computer and i also download cds online. I want to catoagize all the cds i have bought so i can look at that list before i go out to buy cds. I dont believe in buying anything digitally i want an actual cd that i will always have. If my computer crashes there goes all my music a cd you always have. Thats what im trying to do

What I don't get is how scanning a barcode will give you all the pertinent information about the CD.... if you scan all the barcodes, you will still have to sit and type all the cd information (at least the album title and artist) into the spreadsheet, so why not skip the whole scanning a barcode thing and just type all the info in?

Unless of course you are using an app similar to RedLaser, which pulls all that info from the web when you scan the barcode.... in which case, it would have been good to know this from the start....

 

if you are using windows, i think WMP does all you ask.

for other file types (not media), you may check out programs like whereisit
http://www.whereisit-soft.com/

this way you would keep database on your computer and inserted discs are automatically scanned and enterred into catalog

i just have data partition on my drive, one folder contains all music I ripped long ago using WMP. each CD is in own folder, each mps has name of the group or performer as well as title of the track. when i look for something, i just use Everything. it is a small search engine for your PC and while not perfect, it is incredibly fast. i can't think of using any PC without it. any PC I have to use (even for few minutes) gets this installed
http://www.voidtools.com/