legallyinked
Crayons
Posts: 26
Looking for Penpals?: Yes. Global penpals welcome
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Post by legallyinked on Jul 5, 2016 18:23:42 GMT
I am in a very simple list of in/out/notes for all incoming mail. I am considering a change to my format so these are all good to consider. I recently spent about 5 total days scanning over 3 years of incoming mail from over 60 people and creating this great database on my Google Drive. Everyone has their own folder, file names are the dates of the letters. My scanner feeder even took TR and onion skin with hardly any trouble so it went faster than expected. Now I can access my entire history of letters with any particular pen pal, all in full color, any time I want, on the home computer, my tablet, or my phone. Very pleased with it. It was definitely worth all the effort.
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Post by chojo on Jul 5, 2016 18:29:37 GMT
Now that's commitment! Kudos to you,
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Post by DJW1066 on Jul 5, 2016 20:00:32 GMT
I am in a very simple list of in/out/notes for all incoming mail. I am considering a change to my format so these are all good to consider. I recently spent about 5 total days scanning over 3 years of incoming mail from over 60 people and creating this great database on my Google Drive. Everyone has their own folder, file names are the dates of the letters. My scanner feeder even took TR and onion skin with hardly any trouble so it went faster than expected. Now I can access my entire history of letters with any particular pen pal, all in full color, any time I want, on the home computer, my tablet, or my phone. Very pleased with it. It was definitely worth all the effort. That's impressive. Do you still keep the original letters, or do they get shredded once they're digitized?
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Post by radellaf on Jul 7, 2016 0:07:05 GMT
Everyone has their own folder, file names are the dates of the letters.Now I can access my entire history of letters ... The problem with filesystems as a database is what counts as a key field. I have an Incowrimo folder and a 5Q5L folder (not gonna change the name even if 5L ain't required, it sounds better this way and _my_ goal is still five). In each I have names like "1606_5Q5L_Dave_Williams.pdf". So they're sorted by date if I sort by filename. If I want to do it by person, that's down to a filename search, or at this point, easy to do visually. So far I don't scan _received_ mail, and do keep the letter or card if not the envelope. That's getting about 3" thick in the drawer, though, so some of the old ones might have to go. I think I've only referred back to those twice in two years, and it was near the top. I have a 30 page ADF, for the moment, anyway, so I could scan most of it. Probably not cards and the odd really big sheet. Can't see putting in the time to scan each one to its own file. On the off chance I might want to refer to it (look at all these cool letters...) 20 years from now, I'd be better off with the paper for nostalgia. For seeing what I wrote in the last two letters or so, scans are great. I've missed doing it twice now, darnit. When that happens I just make a text file with the same name as the jpg or pdf would have that's either empty or has what I remember. I can get to these "in the cloud" thanks to using Cubby to periodically sync my Documents folder. The client doesn't show all of a long filename, so that can be difficult to use, but it's there, and I have used it a couple of times while writing a reply at the coffee house, to make sure I didn't repeat myself.
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Post by distractedmom on Jul 7, 2016 3:04:02 GMT
You guys are all so dedicated!
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Post by radellaf on Jul 7, 2016 4:36:45 GMT
For me at least, it's as much for fun as anything else.
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Post by distractedmom on Jul 7, 2016 14:14:52 GMT
For me at least, it's as much for fun as anything else. I like data...
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meowshirl
Crayons
trying to write who's next person *winks*
Posts: 17
Country I live in is: Singapore
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Post by meowshirl on Jul 19, 2016 3:08:32 GMT
Use a simple and cheap A5 (anything small than A4 size) ringhole notebook to keep track of ' outgoing' mails for donkey years. Only this year (2016) I decided to revamp the system. Keep 2 notebooks : IN and OUT. Nothing too fancy. Purpose: walk down the memory lane Happily, I know I write More than receiving letters. I write : eg. Write the year [ 2016 ] on a new page Name | Description | Amount | Date of posting|Jane | A letter | S$1.10 | 19/6 | (UK) Lan Shui | DIY birthday card | S$2.40 | 25/6 | (USA) However, I write the date on every personal letter/postcard I received so that I can remember when this letter arrives.
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Post by blessed on Mar 13, 2017 18:32:30 GMT
I've been thinking about how best to log correspondence. Thanks for sharing what you do. There's definitely some inspiration here for me.
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Post by Mia on Sept 19, 2017 22:24:36 GMT
Any more thoughts on this? I think this will make a good topic for a short youtube video.
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Post by alcyone on Sept 22, 2017 4:17:13 GMT
I just keep a simple small notebook near where my letter writing stuff is, and it just says something like:
Date: Oct 31 2017 (date page was flipped to) Oct 31 Herman in <- Lily out -> Nov 2 Herman out -> Nov 3 Marilyn in (postcard) <-
I don't know why I redundantly do in/out and arrows but I guess it works. If I get lost I will go back and manually find the ins with no outs and write a little catchup list in a box. I make a note if it's special, like a postcard or a 5Q5L (which don't always become continuing correspondences).
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Post by christyotwisty on Sept 22, 2017 15:55:21 GMT
I just keep a simple small notebook near where my letter writing stuff is, and it just says something like: Date: Oct 31 2017 (date page was flipped to) Oct 31 Herman in <- Lily out -> Nov 2 Herman out -> Nov 3 Marilyn in (postcard) <-
I do this on a journal page with a month's dates on the left margin. I am paying attention to this topic for more thorough logging ideas however, as I don't keep track of what topics and questions I've asked people. My journal page size and format doesn't allow more than twelve words per line though. I could transcribe 5Qs from here and ask them. I also log questions for my penpals in my journal.
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Post by sgtstretch on Sept 25, 2017 12:49:07 GMT
I just keep a simple small notebook near where my letter writing stuff is, and it just says something like: Date: Oct 31 2017 (date page was flipped to) Oct 31 Herman in <- Lily out -> Nov 2 Herman out -> Nov 3 Marilyn in (postcard) <-
I don't know why I redundantly do in/out and arrows but I guess it works. If I get lost I will go back and manually find the ins with no outs and write a little catchup list in a box. I make a note if it's special, like a postcard or a 5Q5L (which don't always become continuing correspondences). I like this idea, I might have to move to something more like this.
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Post by rosesnbrambles on Jan 29, 2018 1:24:38 GMT
I use a 3 ring binder and notebook paper for my log. The first page is an outgoing log so a typical entry will include date, recipient and item (16 January 2018 Maria package). Behind the outgoing log is the individual log section. In this section, each person has their own page(s) where I jot down notes to myself. On Maria's page, I wrote 16 January 2018 in the left margin and then details (Birthday package: mug, cake in cup, beef jerky, flashlight, Hershey kisses with almonds, Hiking Trails in NC book...) For letters I jot down what I write about. Personal pages are in alphabetical order. I don't have a log for incoming; I haven't needed one yet. If I find I need that in the future it will most likely be a color-coded addition to the existing structure.
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eunice
Crayons
Posts: 47
Looking for Penpals?: Yes. Global penpals welcome
Country I live in is: Wales
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Post by eunice on Jan 29, 2018 11:18:39 GMT
I use a personal size Filofax. This year I've switched to the very pretty ballerina pink Domino that my daughter gave me for Crimbo. In it I keep a record of letters in and letters out. But I don't log topics, just names. This year I'm having a reset. That means that I put new address pages in the filofax. I add the names and addresses as I get letters after january 1. My filofax from last year has the old addresses. That way I can see who has not written back to me after the new year.
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