Thank you all for your help.

It's just for when someone comes up and says something like, “Do you do any _______?” (Insert artist name here).

For gigging., I have a loose-leaf notebook with paper pages. It has song titles sorted by genre; like hard rock, medium rock, shuffle rock, reggae, calypso/soca, country, disco/dance, up-tempo standards, slow rock, ballroom dance, and a dozen more, so while playing a song, if it looks like they need another hard rock song, I can flip to that page to jog my memory.

I can do that without getting completely out of the zone.

A few weeks ago, someone came up and asked if we do anything by a certain artist. We apologized and said we didn't. But actually we did.

So my idea is to say, “Let me see”, open the spreadsheet, click A->Z on top of the relevant column, and scroll. There are probably more efficient ways to do it, but it doesn't happen that often, so this will suffice.

I've got it started, and I realize for a few songs, I'll have to double the entry, if it was made popular by two artists. But that's OK.

We have 686 songs in our repertoire now, so it'll take some time to get it done, but I'm in no hurry.

The main thing I'm investigating now is how to get the top line, where I put the headings, not to move when I alphabetize a column. I'm sure it's something simple, but the help screens in Excel 2002 leaves a lot to be desired, and most on-line help is geared towards much newer models.

My temporary solution is to start the headings with a ! Symbol. So it's "! Title" or "! Artist" I'm sure there is a better way, and when I found out, I can make the change.

And yes, Eddie, I am aware the thumb drive can be corrupted, but it's the backup of the backup. We can get by with 2 computers, and we have 3 up and running at all times. I use ThinkPad computers, which are extremely dependable. Since 2002 when I went to computer, I've had to go to two computers only twice. I carry a fourth computer, it's one of the old ThinkPad XPs. I turn it on once a month or so to update, charge the battery and make sure it's working, but between those events, we usually learn new songs, that's where the thumb drive which is constantly updated comes into play.

Furthermore, I also back up all our backing tracks and charts to the cloud, just in case. I can quickly replace instruments, but the data is not quickly replaceable. The show MUST go on.

I know, it's the Department of Redundancy Department tactics.


Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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