Sundry Works Help · Getting started

Getting started with Sundry Works

What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.

Welcome

Sundry Works is the workshop behind your art business. It takes all the fiddly jobs that used to eat your day - pricing a piece, writing its story, laying out a printed card, making a certificate, building a social reel, sizing photos for the web - and keeps them in one place, each one a click or two away.

You bring one thing to the app: a good photo of the painting. From that single photo, Sundry Works helps you produce everything else. You spend more time at the easel and less time wrangling files.

How it's laid out

Down the left-hand side is the rail, and every place in the app is on it, so you can see what there is without pressing anything to find out. At the top are + New and a search box. Then the places you go most: Home, Paintings, Calendar, Comments, Sales and Contacts. Under those, More tools folds open to Pricing, Batch Print, Lists, Business and Business card - it remembers whether you left it open. At the foot are Settings and Help.

Each page carries the colour of the part of the app it belongs to - gold for the catalogue, teal for making, copper for running the business, violet for settings - as a small dot beside its name. Help stays plain brass. The page you are on is lit in its colour, with a bar down its left edge.

Settings is one page with its sections along the top: the first is about the app itself, for your catalogue folder, your backup and the Sundry Works service, then one for each place the app plugs into - Instagram & Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Pinterest, your website and the AI writer. Help is the same, with two: Help, which is this, and Show me, which is everything the app can make, each shown working with your own paintings.

Settings and Help remember where you were. Step out to a painting and come back, and you are on the section you left rather than back at the beginning. Point at any page's name in the rail and a line comes up saying what it is for.

+ New lists everything the app makes - a painting, a post about one painting or several, a slides reel or a walk-through, a story card, a certificate, a story label, a whole show's labels - and takes you straight to the page that makes it, already set up for it. Anything made from one painting opens the painting you have open, or the one you were last on.

If the writing is too small to read comfortably, the A− 100% A+ buttons at the foot of the rail make everything on the screen bigger or smaller, a step at a time from 90% up to 200%. Press the number in the middle to go back to 100%. On the computer, Ctrl and + and Ctrl and − do the same, and Ctrl and 0 goes back to 100%. The size is kept on each device separately, so making the computer bigger leaves the phone as it was. On a narrow window the buttons move to the right-hand end of the line along the top. In a web browser they are there on a wide window; on a phone, use the phone's own text size setting or pinch to zoom instead.

Every page also has a short grey line in italics near the top, with a small round ? at its end in the colour of the part of the app you are in. Press the line or the ? and a box opens underneath saying what the page is for, where to start, and where the work goes next. More in Help at the foot of that box opens this guide at that page's own topic. Press the ? again, now an ×, to fold it away; it is closed again whenever you change page. On a phone the grey line is hidden to save room, but the ? is still there on the right.

The trick that ties it all together: you open one painting, and its name appears in the rail under Paintings. From then on every page that makes something is about that painting - its photo, title, and details flow across on their own, so you never retype anything. Those pages are the painting's steps, and they run along a strip at the top of it: Details, Pricing, Story, Card, Papers, Images, Post, Reel, Approve and, last, Show me. The line above the strip has the painting's picture and name, ‹ Back and Next ›, and Close, which puts the painting away and takes you to a clean catalogue. Paintings in the rail does the same thing, as if the painting were a file in a folder and you had pressed the folder; on a phone or a narrow window it only brings the list forward and leaves the painting open. Pressing the painting's name in the rail brings you back to the step you were on.

Each step carries one mark for how far that part of the painting has got - a tick when it is done, a dash while it is not - and the first step not yet done says next, so you can see where to go without thinking about it. Until you have made your first post, next is Post, and then until your first reel it is Reel, because getting a painting posted comes before the rest. On a phone the steps sit in two even rows of five. Under the strip, every progress tick that belongs to the step you are on is listed: Image and Details on Details; Caption, Story and Social on Story; and Card, Papers, Post and Reel on their own. Point at a step and it names the choices waiting on its page, such as Certificate · Story Label · Simple Label on Papers.

Each tick is a link, and it takes you to the exact spot, not just the page. Three of them are on the Story page, which is a long page - the two written panels one under another, and the social captions below them - so clicking Story puts you at the Story panel, with a brass outline round it for a second so you can see where you have been put.

The emblem at the top of the rail is a working clock - its hands are a paintbrush, a longer paintbrush and a pencil. It stays in sight however far down a page you scroll. Scroll down a little and a small round portrait appears in the right-hand corner of the line along the top: the fellow from that same emblem, keeping you company. The cream cloud beside him is where the app says "Saving…" and "Saved", and between times he has the odd passing thought of his own. He is decoration and nothing more - he never covers a control, and nothing is lost if your window is too narrow to fit him in.

The ticks keep up as you work - finish a step and it turns green there and then, before you've even saved.

The tabs that make something

Six pages draw a picture: Card for the story card, Papers for the certificate and the back label, Post, Reel, Images, and Business card. The first five are drawn out of the painting you have open; the business card is drawn out of your own details instead, which is why it is the one that works with nothing open. They are all laid out the same way, and the layout follows the size of your window.

On a computer the settings run down the left and the picture stands beside them on the right. It stays put as you scroll the settings, so whatever you are nudging - a colour, a size, where a line sits - you can see what it does without going anywhere to look.

The picture takes every bit of room there is. A tall reel frame fills the height of the window; a wide card or certificate fills the width of its side. Make the window bigger and the picture grows with it.

On a phone or a tablet there is not room for two columns. The picture moves to the top instead and pins itself under the tabs, with the settings scrolling underneath, so it is still in front of you at the last slider as much as at the first.

It takes about a third of the screen there, because the rest of it is the settings you came to move. That is right for a card or a certificate, which is already as wide as a phone at that height, and too small for a reel frame or a tall post - those work their width back from the height, so on a phone they arrive about 150px across, with empty space either side and nothing you can take hold of. So there is a Bigger button in the top right corner of the pinned picture. Press it and the picture fills the whole screen - settings, tabs and all - at better than twice the width, which is the size to drag a painting about at, read the story on a post, or just see what you have made. Press Done in the same corner, or Escape, and you are back where you were with nothing changed. On the Reel, the small row of slides comes with it, so you can step through them at that size without coming out.

Make and Print come at the end, after the settings, with the picture still in view - which is the moment you actually want to press them.

On a narrow window or a tablet

The window can now be made as narrow as you like - useful beside a reference photo on half a screen, or on a Windows tablet held upright.

When there is no longer room for two columns side by side, a tab that has them turns into two views with a switch above: Catalogue or Painting on the Paintings tab, and the same on Contacts, Story, Calendar and this guide. Nothing is hidden - it is the same two panels, one at a time - and opening a painting moves you to it by itself. The six tabs that draw something fold a different way: the picture leaves the right-hand side and pins itself above the settings, so nothing is put behind a switch there either.

The rail folds away, and a menu bar across the top of the screen takes its place: Home, Paintings, + New in the middle, where the bar dips down round it, Comments, and More. More opens every page at once, under the same headings as the rail, with a line each saying what it is for. Search is the magnifying glass on the line along the top.

A painting's steps wrap onto a second line on a phone rather than sliding sideways, so every one of them stays on the screen. They work the same way - each one is a press to that step.

On a touch screen, checklists get up, down and indent buttons in place of the drag handle, because dragging does not work by finger. And on the tabs that draw a card or a reel, tapping into a setting lights up the part of the picture it controls, the same way hovering does with a mouse.

What it costs, and the token that opens it

Sundry Works is $8 a month, or $79 a year. The first 30 days are free and no card is asked for to begin them - at the end it stops and asks whether you want to carry on, and nothing is charged unless you say yes.

When you subscribe you are shown a token: a short piece, a dot, and sixty-four characters after it. That is what opens your catalogue, and it is worth copying somewhere safe at the moment you are shown it, because you are only shown it that way once.

It is not lost if you do not. Any device already signed in can put it back on screen - Settings, the Sundry Works service card, then "Show my token". Each device is asked for it once and remembers it afterwards, which is why setting up a phone means pasting it there too.

It is deliberately not kept in your catalogue. The catalogue is one folder that is copied into every export and shared between your devices, and a token sitting inside it would travel with every copy you ever made. One paste per device is the cost of that.

If every device has lost it, nothing of yours is gone - the catalogue is untouched and so is the queue. Open app.sundry.works in a browser and press "I have lost my token": a link goes to the email address you subscribed with, and opening it issues a new token and puts it on screen. The old one stops working then, so every device needs the new one, and an AI key saved on the service has to be entered again. Subscribing again is not the way back - it would start a separate account with none of your paintings in it - and the app refuses that and cancels the second subscription rather than letting you pay for two.

First, set yourself up once

Before your first painting, visit the Business tab and fill it in: your name, your logo, your brand colours, your website. You do it once, and every card, reel, and certificate you make afterwards uses it automatically. If your logo or address changes later, come back and update it here.

Then Settings, once, for the things that plug into somewhere else - the key that lets the app write stories, and your Instagram, Facebook, Threads or Bluesky account if you want to post from here. None of it is needed to catalogue a painting, so it can wait until you want it.

A typical workflow, start to finish

Here's how one painting travels through the app, from the moment you scan or photograph it to the moment it's earning its keep:

1. Photograph the finished painting, and have the photo on the phone or laptop you are working on.
2. Paintings - press the brass Add paintings, choose the photo, and fill in the title, medium, size, and the date you signed it. This becomes the painting's record, and everything else builds on it. Set its price here too, or work one out on the next tab.
3. Pricing - let the app suggest a fair, consistent price from the painting's size, then apply it with one click so your whole catalogue stays in line.
4. Story - have the app write a short fictional story about the piece, plus a caption cut down from it for social posts. The story is what the card, the back label and the reel narration are built from. Keep the versions you like.
5. Card - lay out a print-ready card with the title, story, and your branding, then export it as a PNG to send to the printer for shows and sales.
6. Papers - make the painting's two printed documents: the certificate to hand over when it sells, and the label to glue on its back.
7. Post and Reel - build branded images and a vertical video for Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, using the caption and story you already wrote.
8. Images - export web-sized, watermarked copies of the photo to put on your website or a shop page.

Where it all ends up

By the end you have, from one photo: a priced catalogue record, a written story, a printed card, a certificate, social posts and a reel, and web-ready images. The printed pieces go to your printer, the social pieces go to Instagram and Facebook (the app can even post them for you), and the web images go to your site.

Your catalogue stays where you chose to keep it - your account on sundry.works, or your own Dropbox. Nothing else is sent anywhere unless you ask: writing a story sends a request to the AI writer you chose in Settings, and posting sends the post to the place it is going.

You don't have to do every step for every painting - use whichever tabs you need. But always open a painting on the Paintings tab first. Nothing else works until one is open, because every other tab is about the painting you have open.

A few other tabs to know about

• Sales - what has sold, who bought it, and what it brought in. It reads your catalogue, so there is nothing to keep up to date separately.
• Contacts - galleries, collectors, suppliers and organizers, with when you last spoke to each and what about.
• Lists - reusable checklists for the things you repeat, like show prep or framing day.
• Calendar - shows, submission deadlines and events, each with a countdown telling you how many days are left.
• Home - where the app opens. It starts with the painting you were on and the step it has got to, what is going out this week, and the way to the replies, and under that it gathers the calendar, your lists and your unfinished paintings onto one screen. If you'd rather not have it, you can switch it off in Settings, and the app opens on Paintings instead.
• Help - this page. Each job has its own topic in the Topics list, so when you're on a page and unsure what a control does, the answer is here.

Keeping up to date

Sundry Works is a website, at app.sundry.works, so there is nothing to download, nothing to install and nothing to update by hand. A new version is there the moment it is published.

If one comes out while the app is open, a small "new version" marker appears beside the version number and a line offers to reload. One press and you have it.

It checks when you open it, whenever you come back to it after it has been in the background, and every half hour it is left on screen. If it cannot check - no internet, or the site is having a moment - it says nothing at all and tries again later.

Search everything

One box finds anything in the app, from any page. Press Ctrl+K, or the search box near the top of the rail - on a phone it is the magnifying glass on the line along the top - and start typing.

It looks through painting titles and details, notes and awards, every version of every story and caption, the About this art box, all eight social captions, your contacts, your calendar, your lists and this Help. Type two words and only things holding both come back. Accents don't matter: "cafe" finds "Café".

Pick a result, or move to it with the arrow keys and press Enter, and you land on it: a painting opens, a story or caption opens on the Story tab at that card, and a contact, event or list opens on its own tab.

The stories and captions are read in the background the first time you search, so a large catalogue may take a moment to join in - the line at the foot of the box counts them. After that it is instant.

Keyboard shortcuts

A few keys save a trip to the mouse. They work anywhere in the app, and pressing ? at any time brings up the full list.

• Ctrl+S - save the open painting on the spot, without waiting for the usual autosave.
• Ctrl+N - start a new painting.
• Alt+Left and Alt+Right - step to the previous or next painting, whichever tab you're on. They follow whatever the Paintings list is showing, so a search or a filter set over there is what they walk; with nothing narrowing it, that's the whole catalogue in A-Z order. It's the quick way through a shelf of pieces, since the Story, Card and Reel all follow the painting you land on. The same two steps are a pair of buttons on the line above the painting's steps.
• Ctrl+K - search everything. So does / when you are not typing in a box.
• Alt+1 to Alt+5 - Catalogue, Making, Running it, Settings and Help, the five parts of the app. Each one puts you back on the page you last had open in that part.
• Alt+[ and Alt+] - the previous or next page in the same part of the app.
• ? shows the list, Escape closes it.

On a Mac, use the Command key in place of Ctrl and the Option key in place of Alt.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Putting Sundry Works on your phone, beside the laptop or instead of it.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - Where the app opens: what to carry on with, what needs you, what's coming up.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Story cards, show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's story cards or labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.
• Making an artist bio sheet for a show - One page about you, to stand beside your work at a show.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, and colours.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - Galleries, collectors and suppliers - what they bought, and when you last spoke.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Pinning your paintings to Pinterest - Pins with a link back to your page, sent by the Sundry Works service.
• What social media may do with your paintings - What each place you post to may do with your pictures, and what you can do about it.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the app closed.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.