Tom: Fantastic idea, but, as a major user of spreadsheets I have some suggestions - I hope you can see the logic, and - believe me - no offense is intended:

1. Timestamp - no more than the date is needed

2. If you put “serial” over “number” (or just put “S/N”) you will save MUCH needed space.

3. At “Model”, omit “best” - same reason

4. Put “Date” over “observed” - ditto

5. Make “Full military” (stacked) a Y/N  choice - it either is or it is not - variables can be covered elsewhere.

6. Make separate columns for “sight” and “cartouche”

7. Handle EVERYTHING else under “notes”

8. I question owner info, but if it doesn’t take space away from something else, I guess it’s OK

9. The best SS’s are the ones which give the MOST opportunities to sort, meaning that the data in each column is very specific. I assume you will be vetting the input and will pick a UNIFORM format for each column, in other words NOT putting the following in the same column: “1896”, “M1896” or “M ’96” or “Model 1896”, no matter what the respondent sends you.

I’m sure others will have some good ideas as well. If we are going to go to the work of doing this, we should strive to get it as right as possible BEFORE populating it. Looking at 4 or 5 lines, it’s easy to see what was meant - when you get to hundreds, and ultimately thousands (as I have in my 1873 carbine list) you want a usable list, and do NOT want to have to go back and fix something that would have been easy to do right in the beginning.

My apologies for perhaps seeming to present a "lecture" but have been down the road before!