Keycaps Logbook Modern

What Keycaps Logbook Modern Actually Is

If you own more than three keyboard builds, you need a way to keep track of what you own, what profiles they use, what materials they're made from, and whether that one keycap is actually PBT or just pretending. Keycaps Logbook Modern is a spreadsheet-based (and sometimes app-based) tracking system for mechanical keyboard enthusiasts who collect keycap sets. It was built as a more organized alternative to the original Keycaps Logbook that circulated around 2020, adding better categorization, batch tracking, and compatibility notes. The modern version typically runs as a Google Sheets template or an Excel workbook with multiple tabs. One tab is for your collection, another for a catalog of manufacturers and profiles, and a third for tracking availability and pricing across different retailers. Some versions also include a wishlist tab that pulls current prices from KBDFans, YesKeyboard, and other major shops.

Keycaps Logbook Modern

I found the original Keycaps Logbook in 2021 when I had about twelve sets spread across two boards and kept losing track of which profile each set used. The modern fork is better because it separates profile data from keycap data. That matters more than people realize. Here is the basic setup. You download or open a copy of the template. The collection tab has columns for set name, manufacturer, release date, material, profile, layout compatibility, acquisition source, purchase price, and current value estimate. The profiles tab lists Cherry, SA, MT3, DSA, KDA, XDA, and so on with their stem shapes and height characteristics. The compatibility tab notes which keycap profiles work with standard Cherry-stem keyboards and which ones do not, like certain OEM or custom profiles that need a modified stem. Fill in your existing sets first. I started with three, then added more over the next month. The spreadsheet has data validation drop-downs for most fields, which speeds things up but also locks you into the options the creator chose. If your set uses a niche profile like Filco or a custom stem, you will need to add it manually to the profiles tab before it shows up in the collection dropdown.

One practical thing about Keycaps Logbook Modern that most people miss: the current value column is not automatic. The template does not pull live market prices. You enter what you think a set is worth now, based on your own research. I learned this the hard way when I tried to filter by "highest value" and got completely wrong results because my initial estimates were based on retail price, not used market price. Used GMK sets from 2018 often sell for more than their original MSRP, while some newer custom sets depreciate fast because the community moved on. I had to go back and adjust roughly forty entries after reading through GB and r/MechanicalKeyboards transactions from the past six months. Another thing worth knowing. The compatibility tab is surprisingly useful if you ever want to mix and match sets. I once bought a set thinking it would work on my board, put it on, and discovered the spacebar stabilizer cuts were wrong because the set was designed for a different layout variant. With the compatibility tab properly filled out, you can filter by your board's exact model before buying anything. It saved me from at least two bad purchases this year. The download situation is a bit scattered. The most common version circulates on GitHub under various repository names, and there are mirrors on the Mechanical Keyboards subreddit and the r/MechanicalKeykiwords wiki. Search for "Keycaps Logbook Modern Google Sheets" or check the Mechanical Keyboards Community Discord's resource channels. The template gets updated periodically when new profiles or manufacturers get added, so check the commit history or the revision date inside the sheet itself before you start filling it out. An outdated template might not have a column for a newer material like PBT triple-shot or the newer SA-compatible profiles that popped up in 2024.

If spreadsheets are not your thing, there are a few app-based alternatives like KeyboardCollect or the Keycap Tracker module in the MyMechanical keyboard apps, but they tend to be less flexible and more expensive. The spreadsheet stays free and customizable, which is why it has stayed around this long despite being over five years old at this point. The main limitation of Keycaps Logbook Modern is that it requires you to keep it updated. I stopped using mine for about eight months when life got busy, and when I came back, I had forgotten which sets I had listed and which ones I was still considering buying. The spreadsheet does not send reminders or sync with purchase receipts. You have to remember to add new entries yourself. I solved this by creating a separate temporary tab where I dump sets I am thinking about buying, and once a month I move the confirmed purchases into the main collection tab. Another edge case: if you have sets that use non-standard stems, like the TrueType or ALB stem variants, the default compatibility tab will not flag them correctly. I had to add a custom note column for those. The template is set up so you can add columns without breaking the formulas, so that works fine. Just make sure any new columns you add stay outside the data range that the pivot tables reference, or your summary views will break.

The biggest counter-intuitive detail about this whole setup: most people over-index on tracking the physical properties of the keycaps and under-index on tracking the purchase metadata. The columns for retailer, invoice number, and expected shipping time end up being more valuable than the material or profile columns when you are trying to figure out warranty coverage or return windows. I once spent three hours looking for a receipt for a set I had bought on AliExpress two years ago because I thought I might return it for a defect. If I had tracked the order number in the spreadsheet from the start, that would have taken ten seconds. Whether you use Keycaps Logbook Modern or build your own tracking system from scratch, the principle is the same. Mechanical keyboard collecting grows faster than your memory can handle, and the sooner you write things down, the less time you spend later trying to remember what you already own.