Inventory Control: Part II

Inventory Control

Part II

Written 17 December, 2012

What was I saying?

Oh, yes. So, by using the inventory search filters you can seek and destroy unwanted scripts, landmarks, sounds, gestures, animations, and notecards. Terms like about, unpack, open, rez, and thank will root them out. If you're a big shopper, you'll be surprised how many  will turn up.

Oh! And search bald. You might find hundreds of bald caps. You need only one.

Although there WAS that one time my one and only bald cap went rogue.

Type float, too, as it will show all those floating text scripts in the boxes you bought. And new script, and delete, free, invitation, join, t-shirt


6. Remove duplicates of copyable items.

Unless you've modified it in some way or have removed the original from your inventory, there's absolutely no reason to take a copyable item into inventory. Zap the duplicates. If you find twelve copyable R2D2s in your Robots> Star Wars> Utility Droids folder, you'll need keep only one.

You'll find some copy/mod items come back into your inventory as no copy, no mod, or no copy/no mod. That's due to settings on scripts, sounds, or other objects in their inventories. Be sure to delete those and not your original item.

7. Zap all those calling cards.

If you've not already zapped them, you'll find calling cards for hundreds of people in the Calling Cards folder. You can safely delete them. Keep them only if you need to remind yourself about a person. My calling card folder now consists of two items-- a notecard on which I made notes about people before I zapped their cards, and my own calling cards, which I keep for sentimental purposes.

I tried to store calling cards in a box once, but it didn't work for me.

8. Kill duplicate landmarks.

You're already deleted unwanted landmarks that arrived in the folders of items you've purchased-- now zap duplicate. Open your map and they'll be easy to spot.

I keep no more than a dozen landmarks in inventory. I have notecards for categories like Clothes, Shoes, Hair, Skins, Furniture, Animations, and Texture Stores and pull the landmarks into the cards and then remove them from inventory. I rarely use the notecards; instead I'll use the Picks of an item's creator to find his or her store (most likely that landmark I picked up in 2006 isn't good, anyway). It's easy to see who made an item-- just rez and edit it and click on the creator's name to open his or her profile. Usually the store will be in the picks-- or perhaps under the Classifieds tab.

9. When sorting, open a second inventory window.

When working on your inventory, open a second window (you'll find the command in the menus up top). It's so much easier to drag items from one window to the other than it is to move up and down inside a single window. If this is new to you, you'll kick yourself for the time you've wasted.

10. Empty your Lost and Found and Trash folders.

Be sure to carefully check items before you zap them. Here's why:

Since late 2006 returned objects show up as as a single item in Lost and Found. Objects in inventory look like a cube; grouped objects look like a stack of tiny cubes.

The name of grouped objects will be that of one of its components. It might be named Object, or Beach Grass, or Dalmation, but may include your house, all your poseballs, and a hundred non-copyable plants.

If you find a grouped object in your Lost and Found, find a sandbox and rez it there. You can take objects one by one and they'll show in inventory with their actual names. If you miss items, they'll be returned when the sandbox is cleared. If there's more than one item, it will be grouped. Head back to the sandbox if necessary.

Search your Trash folder carefully before you empty it. You might find a non-copyable item or two there-- but what you really don't want to do is to zap Trash that contains the folder that holds all your jewlelry. Before you push the kill button, look over the folders carefully.

By following these ten steps, I've managed to keep my inventory count below 23,000 without actually getting rid of anything. The inconvenience has been minor. When I need something, I might have to rez a texture organizer, open a notecard, unpack a box, or, on occasion, go to prim storage-- but tens of thousands of textures, hundreds of photos, and the thousands of things I've built aren't bloating my inventory.