How Do I Create a Useful Catalog?

Well-considered item metadata is the key to Compfire success.

An Example

Are you new to Compfire? Start by downloading the Starter Library. Then, open its catalog, and explore how it is structured. This should give you some good ideas of how you could structure your own catalog.

General Guidelines

Here are some general guidelines and advice for creating and maintaining larger catalogs.

The structure of the catalog adds up to a category tree. In the tree, each category represents a branch, and each item represents a leaf.

Useful category trees have a branch stucture that is compact and balanced.

Items should have a value in up to three of its cells in columns "Branch-A", "Branch-B", and "Branch-C". If well-balanced, three branches should suffice also to contain catalogs of several thousand items.

A good branch structure is hierarchical. It starts with more general terms, and ends with more specific terms.

Good branch names are descriptive and short. They also reflect ideal item usage patterns. In the same branch, never use the same name twice.

Per each branching level, use mutually exclusive criteria to name its branches. For instance, items may be classified into parallel branches depending on their dominant colour, or on their maximum height. But not on both, since in most cases color and height values are not mutually exclusive.

An end branch should carry up to one or two dozen items. When there are more leaves, consider cleaving their branch into two, distributing items on both.

All items connected to a certain branch ought to have the same number of branches.

Branch column order matters. List branches in order of desired appearance in Compfire.

Item row order matters. Within a branch, list items in order of desired appearance in Compfire.

😎 Pro Tip - For increased human-readability in the catalog spreadsheet, group items visually by keeping one blank row between items' most specific shared category. Blank rows do not affect Compfire's functionality.

🧐 Looking for details? Read the catalog column breakdown.

Keep it simple. Do not multiply entities beyond necessity.

— Happy Compfiring!