Entering Information into PastPerfect Fields
Entering as much information as you can in PastPerfect, into the correct fields, is very important. Not
only is it an organized way to store information about the artefacts, but it also makes searching for
specific items very easy. If you are looking for all of the objects in Poor condition, and you do not have
the proper condition noted in the right field, it will be much more difficult to access this info. This is a
guide to the more widely used fields in the PastPerfect program.
In PastPerfect, click on Objects. This will bring you to specific catalogue records. Go to
Browse, find the record you want, and right click on it. At the top of the record window
you will see an Edit button.
In the edit screen:
IMPORTANT MAIN FIELDS
Collection: The name of your museum, or the name of the collection of artifacts the
object came from (i.e. The George MacDonald Collection).
Object ID: Is created from the accession number with an addition section at the end to
note each and every individual artefact.
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Home location: Where the object is normally kept in your museum (temp locations and
moves can be documented in the Location Tab).
Object Name, Category, and Sub-Category: Name of the object as listed in
Nomenclature categories (either in the book or in PastPerfect).
Other Name: What you would normally call the object, if the Nomenclature name does
not reflect that. ie. A lobster trap, according to nomenclature, is supposed to be called a
Lobster Pot (the UK name for traps). You would put “Lobster Trap” in other name.
Source/Credit Line: See below (Adding a Donor Name to a Record).
ADDING A DONOR NAME TO A RECORD
1. In the object record to which you’d like to add a name, click on the Accession button
(make sure you are not in Edit mode).
2. The Accession screen will be brought up. Click on Edit.
3. You can now fill in the Source, which should be the donor’s name.
4. Make sure to fill in important information like phone number and address.
5. If you don’t plan on using PastPerfect to generate thank you letters and gift deeds, you
can check the box on the top beside “Don’t Update Deed of Gift and Thank you Letter.”
6. Click Save.
7. Click Exit.
You will now see the donor name under “Source” in the main object screen.
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OBJECT INFORMATION
Below the main accession information, there are a series of tabs. Each one, when clicked
on, shows categorized information about the object. Here, we will deal with the
important ones that you will regularly use.
Description Tab
In the Description Box, write a physical description of the artifact. Colour, size, shape,
details, materials, etc. Leave personal narratives or other interesting facts about the
objects to another PastPerfect field.
Early Date and Late Date: This is where you would write the years of production of the
object.
Dimensions: Enter the dimensions accordingly, in centimetres—the standard for
Canadian museums. If inches is selected, to change to cm you must Save (at the top of
the window), and then while NOT in edit mode you must select cm, and then go back to
edit.
Dimension Notes: details that are not encompassed by the fields Length, Width, Height,
etc. For a dress, for example, you could note the length of the sleeves, the hem, the size
of the waist, etc.
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General Tab
Material: The materials that the object is made from
Pl of Origin: Where the object came from (Country, town, etc).
Collector: If previously owned by a private collector, who? Or, who donated it?
Found: Where was it found? What country/city/town? By whom? In what?
Made: Where was it made? By whom? What company or person?
Used: What was it used for? Where was it used? By whom? Why?
Owned: Who owned it? Who was it passed down to? Etc.
Catalogue Date, Catalogued by: Date the object was catalogued and accessioned, and
by whom.
Status date: Date the status of the object changed
Status by: Who updated the status in PastPerfect.
Status: What the object is currently doing in the museum. Is it loaned? Is it in
restoration? Choose from a variety of options.
Dispvalue: The Display value of an object. Some objects may be poor candidates for
exhibit due to poor or fragile condition or because they are culturally sensitive items and
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may offend some museum patrons. In historic house and living history museums, objects
may be unsuitable for exhibit because they are inappropriate for the museum's mission
or time period.
The Updated and Updated By fields fill in automatically when you save the file.
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Condition Tab
Maintenance Notes: Here you can leave notes about the kind of restoration work that
was done on the object.
Detailed Condition Reports: When you click on Add new report, you will bring up a
window that shows you detailed fields you can fill in regarding the condition of the
object, such as condition of the structure, materials, surface, and parts. You can describe
the condition in detail, as well as leave notes about what kind of work needs to be done.
At the top, you can leave your name under “report created by.” When you save this
report, it will be listed in the yellow field you see above.
Appraisal: Under this tab, you can fill out value information, including appraisal value,
acquisition value, and current values (min and max). Under these fields is a blank space
you can write your own notes. It might be easier to just write any information you
discover in there, as the fields might not be simple enough.
Condition Notes: Under this tab is a blank space you can write notes about the
condition. Use this if you do not need to make a detailed condition report.
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Location Tab
The Location information is very important. You may have great, detailed records and
stories about your object, but you must be able to find it.
Temporary Location: If your object is moved from its home location, fill in where it
has been moved to, by whom, and until when it will be located there. If you click View
Current Location Details, it will bring up a window which will allow you to fill in
many more details about the temp location.
Return to Home Location: If you click return to home location, it will ask you to Clear
Temporary Location. Say Yes, and it will ask if you want to save the previous temporary
location. If you say yes, the previous location will appear in the yellow Location
History box, with a location name and date. You can double click this list to see the
details.
Exhibit Information: If you entered an exhibit into the exhibit section of PastPerfect, it
is currently running, and it included this object, these fields will tell you exactly where
this object is and what it is being used for. You can click View Exhibit History to see
what other displays it has been used for. Note: You cannot edit the Exhibit Info from the
catalogue record. You must start PastPerfect, and then go into Exhibits instead of
Objects.
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Notes Tab
Notes: This is where you would input any information regarding the object that does not
have to do with the physical appearance or condition. Notes is for stories, provenance,
anecdotes, and research information. There is no limit to how much information can be
stored here.
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HOW TO ADD IMAGES TO A CATALOGUE RECORD
1. Upload the images on the camera to your computer.
2. If you didn’t already put them there, move the images you would like to use to the
main Image folder in the Pp3 folder on your C:\ drive. To start, put any images you
would like to use in the 001 folder
(C:\pp3\Images\001). If you already have many images, put them in the least full folder.
In Windows Explorer:
3. Make sure that you rename every photo that you will be using. It is probably easiest to
name your files according to accession number.
4. After this, open PastPerfect. Go to Objects, find the record that you want, and click on
Image Management on the right (see screenshot).
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A window will be brought up that looks like this:
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This is your image management window.
5. To assign this object an image, press the From File button on the top right.
6. A dialogue box will pop up, asking you to select the image file you want. Go to your
PP3 folder, go to Images, and then 001 (or whichever number you placed your files in).
When you press OK, the image you selected will show up in the large blank area you see
above, and a window with fields to enter info about the image will come up.
Here you can enter a caption, date, and created by, etc.
7. Press OK, and the image will now be entered in your catalogue record. When you
view the record, you will see the image in the previously blank space on the right, above
“Image Management.”
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NOTES ABOUT IMAGE MANAGEMENT:
- Images should be renamed and placed in their permanent location before
tagging. If they are moved or renamed after tagging, the tag will be broken and
an image will no longer be displayed.
- If an image was tagged twice by accident, or you would like to untag an image
for any reason, press the “Un attach Image” button, not the “Delete Image”
button. Pressing “Delete Image” will permanently erase the image from your
computer.
- If you would like to change the order that pictures for an object are displayed,
click on the “About Image” button and change the Display Order number, in the
top right of the dialogue box. Changing this number to “1” means that it will be
the primary image displayed when looking at a record.
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DOCUMENTING LOANS
It is possible to keep track of artefacts on loan with PastPerfect, without entering them
into the catalogue record (which they should not be).
1. Click on the Utilities tab, and click on the Loans button. This screen will be
displayed:
2. To enter a new loan, click “Add” at the top of the screen. You will see this dialogue
box:
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3. Enter a loan number in “New Loan #”. This can be any number of your choosing, but
it may be best to start in order: 001, 002, 003, etc, or the date the loan was received:
091807, for example.
4. If you are filling out the record on the day you receive the loan, you can check the box
“Fill Received date with today’s date.” If not, you can manually enter the Received date
later.
5. Click “Add.”
6. This will create a new loan in the database.
7. Now you can fill in all of the relevant information, like phone numbers, description,
who received it, etc.
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OUTGOING LOANS
When you loan an item to another institution, it is possible to document it with Past
Perfect.
1. Go to the Utilities tab, and click on Loans Out.
2. Click on “Add” at the top of the screen.
3. Designate a loan number.
4. Once this is done, you can now fill in other relevant information, including the name
of the institution to which the artefact was lent, and their contact information.
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DEACCESSIONING VS. DELETING
Deleting:
If you need to delete a duplicate record, or need to delete a record and start over with
cataloguing, you can use the “Delete” button. This can be found at the top of your screen
in any of the four different catalogues (Objects, Archives, Photos, or Library), beside
the “Browse” and “Edit” buttons (*make sure you are not in Edit mode).
When you press the delete button, that record will be “Marked for deletion”, which
means that it will be tagged with a red box stating this fact. In order to completely
remove this record from Past Perfect, you need to “Reindex.”
1. Go to Objects.
2. In the record you want to delete, click Delete
3. Go to Utilities and click Reindex.
Deaccessioning:
Some of your objects, over time, may need to be deaccessioned. This could be due to
damage, space, financial considerations, or risk to other artefacts in the museum. A
deaccesioned artifact is not “deleted.” It is removed from the main catalogue, but a
record of it persists within your files.
To deaccession:
1. In Edit mode, press the Deaccession button.
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This will bring up this screen:
The description, notes, etc, that were filled in previously will be moved to this screen.
2. You must fill in the “Authorized by” and “Reason for Deaccession” lines in order to
complete the deaccession.
3.To finish, press “Deaccession Now” in the top right corner.
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BACKING UP AND RESTORING YOUR INFORMATION
To create a backup CD:
1. Open PastPerfect.
2. Click on the Utilities tab.
3. Click on Backup.
4. Click on Backup to Hardrive.
5. Click Start.
6. Go to your pp3 folder. If you need to find this:
Go to the deskstop and click on My Computer.
Click on the C:\ drive.
Look for the folder named “pp3.”
7. Go to the folder called Backup.
8. Look for a file called ppbackup_a.zip.
9. Right click on the file and select “Copy.”
10. Insert a blank CD.
11. Open My Computer and find your CD drive. Open it.
12. Right click on the empty folder space and click on “Paste.” Ppbackup_a.zip should
now be in that folder.
13. Right click and press write or find the link that says Write this CD somewhere on the
page.
14. Follow instructions for burning CD.
To restore data to PastPerfect from a backup CD:
1. Insert CD.
2. Go to the ppbackup_a.zip file on the CD. If you need to find this:
Go to My Computer.
Click on the CD drive.
Look for the file ppbackup_a.zip.
3. Right click on the file and copy it.
4. Go to your pp3 folder. If you need to find this:
Go to the deskstop and click on My Computer.
Click on the C:\ drive.
Look for the folder named “pp3.”
5. Go to the folder called Backup.
6. Open this folder, right click in the folder space, and “Paste.” Ppbackup_a.zip should
now be in that folder.
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7. Open PastPerfect.
8. Go to the Utilities tab.
9. Click on the Restore button.
10. Make sure HD-Backup-A is selected.
11. Click on Restore Data.
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