[Callers] Re: mechanical sorting systems

Agreed. I’ve really enjoyed it. I use a custom-made FileMaker Pro database (with slightly separate versions for contras and for english country dance). I also print the dances out on 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 pages and carry them in a mini 3-ring binder, sorted by name (and categorization is done in the database and printed table of contents). It has trade-offs vs cards. Here are some that come to mind: * It’s harder to lose and I have a copy on my phone and tablet. * I don’t have to worry as much about dropping my cards and getting them all out of order (though that can still happen to the printed notebook). * It’s easier to make changes, at least in some ways, including global changes (I hesitate to use the L and R words and derail this conversation, but you get the idea). * It is easy to search and sort dances. * In theory I could have multiple tables of contents with different groupings. In practice I don’t do that; I just have one table sorted by formation. * Any annotations need to be copied back from the cards to the database. * It’s harder to riffle through the dances while coming up with a dance program (in advance or modifying one on the fly), though removing the potential dances from the 3-ring binder certainly works. * There's a practical limit to the # of pages I can carry in one binder. * Mini three-ring binders are harder to find than they used to be (the one I most recently bought has a different spacing of rings than my old ones, ick). * FileMaker Pro has gotten expensive. * The way I get dances onto my phone and tablet is a bit ugly (dance db in the cloud, but requires a manual step on the phone or tablet to copy the database to FileMaker Go, a free app from the FileMaker folks). Regards, Russell