Yes, thatās exactly what I intended to do using Numbers, but stopped in my tracks after reading @MMTalker 's comment above. Now I am confused ! thanks very much for your post.
You are very polite to thank me for confusing you 
Databases are marvellous. Choose database over spreadsheet if you want more capability. Searching a spreadsheet is quite limited, just a word or two that needs to not appear too often. For example, I searched for āremoteā and there were two hits. One was āEyeTV Remoteā and the other was āGarage door remote.ā The first search found one and I hit cmd-G to get the next. If I had 20 kinds of remotes and didnāt know the type Iād entered, spreadsheet search would be tedious.
So it depends on what kind of searching you expect to do and how much work to configure vs time youād save. Would you enjoy customizing a database? Want reports? It can be a creative art if youāre into it. A database also opens quickly regardless of size.
I havenāt found spreadsheets to be crash-prone, at least not in Numbers. Mine are rarely large though.
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Now I understand. thank you.
Sorry, I forgot to respond to this. It depends a lot on what you need. An advantage of a database like Tap Forms is that you can easily customise the input fields. Some can be free text, some drop-down menus, some selection boxes, etc. So it can be quicker to enter things in depending on what youāre doing and how youāve set up your form.
Itās also possible to link multiple āformsā together. So you could have one where you list different locations, and another form has a field where you select a location from that list (though for such a simple example, you can use the āpick listā input field type instead of a whole separate form).
If your needs are simple, a spreadsheet might be quicker and easier. But if you need more flexible field types and presentation, an easy to use database like Tap Forms quickly makes a big difference. It really depends on what you want.
For reference, when I last moved and had some things in storage, there ended up being three places where any given item could be. Every box was numbered with a prefix for the location (e.g. W01) and then I had a note in the Notes app that listed all the box numbers followed by the contents of that box. Syncs instantly between devices and is easy to edit. I used this for many months, and a simple search in the note located where something was when I wanted to find it.
So I would say even a spreadsheet can be overkill for what youāre doing. 
Iām definitely not advocating for a database if itās more than you need. But if you are going to use one, Tap Forms is great and reasonably priced. Ultimately use what makes most sense for you both in terms of complexity and what youāre comfortable with. And keep it as simple as possible!
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You make excellent points. Thank you very much.
I bought TapForms Mac OS and ios based on your initial recommendation. At first I was disappointed because I donāt like working with templates for input. I prefer to have a birdās eye view of the database and edit it directly, which I now see that I can do in columns view.
Yes, definitely, 90% of the work is the design/organization of the inventory system, not the actual tool used.
If I may go on a tangent: Tap Forms aside, because it is priced reasonably, I am astounded at the price of Mac OS database apps. FileMaker Pro is prohibitively expensive, and even Provue mentioned above ends up costing $100 a year which does not sound like much, but if I bought all my apps by subscription, if would end up with a hefty bill at the end of the each month.
thanks again for your post
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Some of us have to use databases for work 
. I have been using Filemaker for over a decade but refused to āupgradeā to their subscription system.
On a bright note, Microsoft Office 2021 will be available as a standalone, non-subscription purchase so I hope database vendors take note.
Hello, your post had me all excited, because I have MS 365 family which includes access. Unfortunately Access is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of products and is available for the PC only.
thanks anyways for an excellent suggestion
MS Access has to be the most disappointing software I have ever used. See my experiences at
http://www.vdrsyd.com/aoaug/ms_dig.html#vibes
I cut my teeth on SPI Open Access for DOS - a brilliant product that was years ahead of its time. I still use it for some of my legacy work.
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Iāve had to use Access and PCs at three former jobs, and it was a nightmare compared to FileMaker Pro. Though itās been years since Iāve had to use it, Iām not sure if much has changed. Accessā interface is awful and thereās a big learning curve that I donāt think I fully mastered.
Itās extremely difficult, and often impossible, change views of Access databases and to customize reports. You have to slog through Accessā not very magical Wizards that make it difficult, if not impossible, to restructure and to create different views. You can pretty much only do what the evil and annoying Wizards will allow. In Filemaker, you just do what you need to do, quickly and easilyā¦no biggie. Searching in Access wasnāt always very intuitive or easy, again, thereās a comparatively big learning curve.
Though I never used the feature, you can easily publish to the web with Filemaker.
Iām hoping for a new MacBook Pro to be announced on Mondayās Unleashed event. From what Iāve read here on TidBITS Talk, TapForms sounds like a good, and very much less expensive alternative, to FileMaker Pro. Iāve never needed to upgrade from FileMaker Pro 11 on my ancient MacBook Pro, so I will give TapForms a try.
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Oh, I misunderstood. Thanks
I will go with Tap Forms, but I am curious: does FileMaker Pro have a steep learning curve ?
thank you
Though there is a learning curve, itās a relatively very, very small one. You can be up and running very quickly, even if youāre a database newbie with a lot of complex relational stuff to set up and manage. For me, Access was a nightmare, especially with the Wizards hanging over my head and constantly nagging. At two other jobs I was stuck using Telemagic and Act, which were impossibly limited and unintuitive, and Telemagic was DOS based. What nightmares.
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Your comments are very helpful. At least you can rest assured that your past experiences have profited others. Thanks very much for taking the time to post.
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A little bit of FileMaker historyā¦Steve Jobs spun it off from the rest of the Claris apps because Microsoft refused to include Access in Office for Mac. He had recently returned to Apple, and convincing developers to update and build applications for a tiny base of users of a platform just about everyone was convinced was on the path to total failure was a big hurdle to overcome.
The only reason Gates kept the limited edition of Office for Mac is that Steve Jobs kept incessantly suing Microsoft over all sorts of issues during the time when MS was being sued by Netscape in the Supreme Court, and MS was inundated with bad press on both sides. And Steve made sure that FileMaker was a million times more intuitive than Access, and he developed Appleās free productivity suite.
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I know that this could be too nerdy for the specific goal of this thread, but probably the Mac community should be more aware of LibreOffice Base <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice_Base>, a free and open-source relational database management system part of the LibreOffice suite. You can build interconnected forms from templates of all sorts, and it can read barcodes as requested by this thread. Being a relational DBMS, it has the full power of SQL beneath, and it can even connect to external relational database engines such as MySQL or PostgreSQL.
āe.
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Very interesting. Why is it not widely discussed as an alternative to FileMaker ? Especially considering the subscription base and the price of FileMaker and Provue.
There is some relevant info about Filemaker here, including a free trial version:
https://content.claris.com/claris-inventory-management-resources.html
There are some barcode tips here:
http://filemakerinventoryresources.com/Barcodes.html
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You can still buy non-subscription copies. From their pricing page, scroll down and click on the link in the āSIngle Licensesā section. You will be taken to the individual license store page. The price there is a one-time charge of $540 (plus an additional $20 if you want them to send you a DVD with the installer).
The page says āSingle licenses are for individual users that do not need to share data with others.ā I assume this means there are no server capabilities, which may or may not be acceptable for your situation.
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Some of us have to use databases for work
. I have been using Filemaker for over a decade but refused to āupgradeā to their subscription system.
For work, I use postgresapp.com for Mac (free complete preinstalled PostgrsSQL server app running on a Mac) as a backbone SQL RDBMS, and dbeaver.io as Mac GUI app (free database tool for developers, database administrators, analysts and all people who need to work with databases). You can try, as an alternative to DBeaver, the much simpler to use and more friendly Mac GUI app tableplus.com (69$).
āe.
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thank you !