Robert Corfman's Card Table Generator Application

Totally Automated Card Table System (TACTS)


Last Update of this page: November 2nd, 1998

If you like the way my card tables are formatted, or you are looking for a better more efficient way to display your trading card availability / needs, you'll want to read on!

The TACTS User Guide is Available for Viewing

The Shareware TACTS Application is Available for Download

The generation and display of my card tables is FULLY AUTOMATED. I am a programmer for the Boeing Company, and have lots of experience writing computer systems. I coupled this knowledge with a need to complete some projects in my college studies and produced a database that creates card table web pages.

Actually, the basic card quantities are stored and updated in an Excel spreadsheet. That seems to be the easiest tool for doing that sort of thing. As needed, I import the page into an Access database. This process is fully automated through a macro. Then I use a customized access report to generate the HTML for the web page. It's really that simple. Well almost.

I did have to spend a little bit of time defining what I wanted each page to look like.

This method of TABLE DRIVING things makes for a very flexible and efficient way of defining your card quantities. All you need to utilize what I have created, is Microsoft Excel 97 and Access 97.

The database is ready to go and you can download a shareware version for free. This isn't a stripped down version either. I used this same features avaialble to you in a free version for over a year and a half. I just recently added some conveniences for myself which are avaialable to you if you register. This thing is really easy to use.After Defining the information for a particular card set, you don't need to ever touch the definition again. You just maintain your quantities in the spreadsheet (you could do it directly in the database if you preferred), and let the database do the rest.

The whole system is set up so it should work for virtually any type of collector's cards (and quite possibly other things). I just collect Star Trek cards, so that's all I use it for. If you have tables for multiple different types of sets, the same idea should work. You could define Batman Sets - each linked together, Star Wars, Babylon V, Lion King, Etc. Maintain the quantities in the spreadsheet, and generate the Web Page quantity tables with the touch of a button.

Right now, this doesn't maintain your index or table of contents pages. You would still need to manage the page that calls the individual card table pages by hand. If I get enough interest in this thing, I will add "table of contents" management to the system!

If you are interested in learning more, see the TACTS User's Guide or Email Me at robert@corfman.com

mail your questions, comments, or requests to:
robert@corfman.com

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