The Pages app included with any recent iPad/iPhone/Mac purchase has proven useful compared to other offerings. Any of the devices I use can access & edit the document with minimal fuss. I wanted to see if the Numbers app could be equally useful. After months of setting this up & putting to use, I’ve reached a happy decluttered space.
Each tab along the top is created to only those materials I stock and use. I’ve chosen to order them according to material similarity. Swiping through the materials tabs works great. Within that material, multiple tables are treated as cards focused on varying thicknesses available. This erases the possibility the eye drifts to an adjacent setting in the Google spreadsheet.
Same cloud document pulled up on the phone has the pertinent data front and center:
The top-right EDIT button indicates the default read-only way the document is opened up to prevent accidental changes to the settings. Closing out the Numbers app all the way and relaunching it will bring up the last-opened document (Glowforge Materials) behaving like a customized app in that regard. For me, this setup offers the quickest, perfect balance of settings retrieval/editability based on any of the devices I have within reach.
The very last tab is a “blank” template for duplicating and adding additional materials.
All that’s left to add are tabs to remind myself of metric/SAE kerf numbers as well as a dedicated tab for crumb tray calculation.
Thought fellow Apple ecosystem users might find this useful.
Here’s the Google doc accessed from my phone. Lots of vertical scrolling followed by lots of horizontal swiping hoping I’m still on the pertinent line. Landscape mode is no improvement for me. Top half is persistently occupied by sheet links.
I like the layout of your Numbers doc way better than mine. I’ve used it since 2017 but it’s been sadly neglected ever since they started allowing saved settings in the GFUI. At some point I ought to redo all that, just in case my saved settings get lost .
But would you mind sharing this file for others to be as organized. I’m an avid crafter in my non-existent spare time and it all the other hours of the day, I am an Elementary Assistant Principal. Crafting is my stress reliever and this is amazing!!!
After 5 months polishing & tweaking this Materials Journal, it’s now become the very first thing I reach for before firing up the Glowforge. The separated cards have been improved with refitted tables where the headers stay fixed (sooo slick). The app memorizes the zoom settings for each page making it super-easy to adjust for whatever magnification is comfortable.
Column widths have been tweaked, font sizes adjusted for legibility, Material Height is emphasized to remove any conflation mistakes. Wherever it makes sense, cells inherit data from parent cells – saving redundant typing in key places.
I now release these templates for you to customize your own personalized Materials Journal. Six pre-configured tabs with a template to duplicate and add more. It’s way nicer than v1.0 above. Time to get organized!
Thank you for this! I swear I spend more time organizing than I do actually making stuff! Ah, and then I realize it’s Apple only. But loved your video!
Thanks @djfb for the idea. I’d forgotten Number could do that. I used to have a MAC years ago, and actually still have an old iPad, but it’s so old it won’t accept new files. I use it just for my recipes I have in OneNote now. @CarterTG - please please please???!!! Would you please export your materials journal format into Excel? I’d really appreciate it (and think others would too!).
and it all the other hours of the day, I am an Elementary Assistant Principal. Crafting is my stress reliever and this is amazing!!!
But loved your video!