Keycaps Workbook Best

Setting Up a Keycap Tracking System That Actually Works

I spent three months trying to keep track of my keycap sets across four different keyboards. I bought spreadsheets, then moved to Notion, then tried dedicated apps. None of them fit the way I actually use my gear. I ended up building something simpler that just works, and it's become the Keycaps Workbook Best approach I keep coming back to. It's not fancy. It doesn't have a mobile app with push notifications. But it tracks everything I need without getting in the way. The core idea is straightforward. You maintain a single workbook—Google Sheets, Excel, whatever you're comfortable with—that records every keycap set you own, where you got it, what switch profile it uses, and which keyboard it's currently mounted on. You also log individual keycaps you've acquired separately, whether from group buys, custom pulls, or thrift finds. The fields you need are pretty standard: set name, manufacturer, material (PBT, ABS, ABS/PBT blend), dye-sublimated or doubleshot, key count, price paid, date acquired, source, current assignment, notes about key feel or legends fading over time. I started with about forty columns because I thought more data meant better tracking. That was a mistake. You end up with empty cells everywhere and you stop maintaining it after two weeks. Eight to ten fields is the sweet spot for most people. Anything more and you'll drop it. I still have one sheet with sixty columns from my early attempts. I haven't opened it in eight months.

Keycaps Workbook Best Approach

Here's how I structure mine. Column A is the keycap set name or individual key identifier. Column B is material type. Column C is the manufacturing method—dye sub, doubleshot, laser etched, pad printed. Column D is the switch compatibility, usually Cherry MX or clones but sometimes ALPS or Kailh depending on what I'm running. Column E is the key count per set. Column F is purchase price and currency. Column G is the date. Column H is the source, whether that's a group buy URL, a reseller, or an informal purchase. Column I is the current keyboard assignment. Column J is notes. The notes field is where most people skip important details. Put the legend wear status in there. Note which keys have hollow stems versus solid ones. Record whether the keycap bottom has any special shaping that affects typing feel. I once replaced a whole set of PBT keycaps because I forgot to note they had concave stems instead of flat, and they rattled differently than I expected. That cost me about forty dollars and two hours of reworking my setup. For the workbook formula side, I use a simple lookup structure. If you're tracking sets across multiple keyboards, you'll want conditional formatting that highlights a keycap set currently in use so you don't accidentally install it on the wrong board. A basic COUNTIF formula on the assignment column works fine. Set it to turn the row yellow when a keyboard name appears, red when two keyboards are listed for the same set—that means you forgot to update the assignment after moving it.

I also keep a separate tab for group buy tracker. This is where you log upcoming releases, deposit due dates, and expected ship windows. Group buys are where most people lose money or miss out. I've seen people forget deposit deadlines because they tracked the buy in their head instead of on paper. One deposit reminder in a spreadsheet cell saves you from a hundred dollars of frustration.

Common Pitfalls

The biggest mistake I see is tracking keycap sets as if they're permanent. They're not. People rotate keyboards seasonally or based on work projects. When your workbook treats every set as stationary, the data becomes useless within a month. Update the assignment column religiously. It takes fifteen seconds per move and keeps the whole system honest. Another issue is material ambiguity. Listings often say "PBT" when the stem is actually ABS with a PBT face. Or they claim doubleshot when it's just dye-sub with a thicker legend layer. Don't trust product photos. Check the actual product description for stem material and construction method. If you can't verify it, mark the field as unknown and come back to it later. I learned this after assuming a set was full PBT and finding out the stems warped after three months of heat from my mechanical keyboard's LED array. Pricing data gets stale fast. Keycap resale values swing wildly depending on availability and community hype. If you're tracking investment value, update every three months at minimum. Otherwise your cost basis is just a number that hasn't been reviewed since you bought it. That's not tracking. That's hoarding data.

There's also the question of whether to track individual keycaps or sets only. If you do heavy modding—lubing stems, swapping legends, mixing profiles—track at the individual key level. It adds about twenty minutes of work per acquisition but prevents you from losing a single key and not knowing where it went. I switched to individual tracking after losing a single 'E' key from a set I'd had for two years. I looked through three drawers before I realized it had rolled under my desk and I'd swept it into the trash the next day. The workbook itself doesn't need to be complex. Simple fields, consistent updates, and honest notes about what you actually know versus what you're assuming. That's what makes it useful long-term. I've kept mine running for over a year with maybe two days of total maintenance time. It's not a dashboard. It's a reference. And that's exactly what it should be. If you want a starting template, I keep mine in Google Sheets with three tabs: main inventory, group buy log, and quick reference. The quick reference tab pulls unique keyboard names and set names with a simple DISTINCT formula so you can filter by either without scanning the whole list. I'll link it below if anyone needs a skeleton to build from.