Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual

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Searching with wildcards ............................................................................................................................... .... 49 10 Managing lookup lists ............................................................................................................................... .... 52 11 Loaning books ............................................................................................................................... .... 54 12 Viewing collection statistics ............................................................................................................................... .... 55 13 Customizing Book Collector ............................................................................................................................... .... 59 14 Updating file links ............................................................................................................................... .... 60 15 Repairing thumbnails 3 Contents 3 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV ............................................................................................................................... .... 61 16 Importing books ............................................................................................................................... .... 63 17 Exporting to text format ............................................................................................................................... .... 64 18 Exporting to HTML ............................................................................................................................... .... 66 19 Exporting to PDA, iPod and XML ............................................................................................................................... .... 69 20 Updating Book Collector ............................................................................................................................... .... 71 21 Transfering data to a new computer ............................................................................................................................... .... 72 22 Transfering data to a Mac ............................................................................................................................... .... 73 23 Making backups of your data Part VIII Reference 76 ............................................................................................................................... .... 77 1 Menus ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 78 File menu ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 79 Edit menu ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 80 Search menu ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 80 View menu ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 80 Loans menu ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 81 Tools menu ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 81 Buy menu ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 82 Help menu ............................................................................................................................... .... 82 2 Screens ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 84 Main screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 85 Add Books Automatically screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 88 Edit Book screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 91 Edit Story/Article/Chapter screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 92 Link Books screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 95 Print screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 98 Filter screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 102 Column field selection screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 104 Sort field selection screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 106 Folder field selection screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 108 Manage Loans screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 110 Field Defaults screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 111 Statistics screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 112 Text export screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 113 HTML export screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 118 Options screen ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 125 Search Settings screen ............................................................................................................................... .... 126 3 Multi-user support and read-only mode ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 127 Notifications ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 128 Forcing read-only mode ............................................................................................................................... ........................... 128 The lock file Part IX Miscellaneous 129 ............................................................................................................................... .... 130 1 Data field meanings ............................................................................................................................... .... 132 2 Lookup lists ............................................................................................................................... .... 135 3 Sorting properly ............................................................................................................................... .... 138 4 Folder view for grouping ............................................................................................................................... .... 141 5 Cataloguing and classification systems (e.g. ISBN) Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 4 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV ............................................................................................................................... .... 141 6 Hierarchical classification ............................................................................................................................... .... 142 7 Linking books ............................................................................................................................... .... 144 8 Barcode scanning reference ............................................................................................................................... .... 147 9 Hints for Adding Books Automatically ............................................................................................................................... .... 148 10 Book view and Contents view ............................................................................................................................... .... 149 11 Shortcut keys ............................................................................................................................... .... 149 12 XSL templates Part X License agreement 150 Index153 Introduction5 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 1 Introduction Book Collector catalogs your personal book collection with a minimum of typing. After adding your books to the database you can browse your book collection on screen (as a list or as a gallery of cover images), search the database for book information, print sorted lists, track your loans, export to an iPod, and more. You can add books to the database by typing the book titles or by scanning your barcodes with the Collectorz.com laser barcode scanner . All bookdata (Publication year, author, cover image, cover price etc...) will be automatically downloaded the online Collectorz.com Book Database. Book Collector is part of the Collectorz.com â series of collection managers. This series includes software for cataloging your CDs , DVDs , books , comics , video games , audio files (MP3, WMA, OGG etc..) and digital photos . Get started with Book Collector now ! · Find answers in the manual is an important start. It will help you finding answers in the manual. · Getting Started topics will get up and running as quickly as possible with Book Collector. Background Information For more detailed information about common and advanced tasks, the screens and reference information please use the corresponding items in the Table of Contents. Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 6 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 2 Find answers in the manual This manual will cover all areas of Book Collector. If you open the manual using the help buttons found on most Book Collector screens, the manual will automatically open with help about that screen. If you need to find other topics in the manual, it is recommended to check this section, to quickly find information in the manual, searching for keywords. Tip : Note that while letting your mouse hover over a button in Book Collector, a short text will come up to explain what the button does. Note : Some images in this manual are shown in a miniature size to save space on your monitor for text. Clicking such an image will toggle the image between full size and back to miniature. How to use this Book Collector manual. This manual can help you in many ways on everyday tasks as well as more complex things you are wondering about. It is important though to know how to use the manual, and in what ways you can get the topic and information you are looking for. 1. The Getting Started guide The contents tab will show a tree like overview of the manual's topics. · First it will have a Getting Started section, which in just a few steps will help you to use Book Collector and after that reveal some powerful features.The Getting started section counts 3 topics as you can see in the left tree of this manual. You can use the back / forward buttons as you would do when browsing the internet. Some topics are only intended for the Pro version of Book Collector only. Such sections are shown by the icon in the (left) tree. 2. The right section of the manual · Secondly, the manual can be accessed from almost anywhere in Book Collector, any screen you may have questions about by clicking the Help button or the manual (book)button. · You will find this Help button on most screens, if not you can always hit the (F1) key on your keyboard to open the manual. It will open at the appropriate help topic (so about the screen you are looking at). OR 3. Searching in the manual Find answers in the manual7 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV If you open the manual but are not sure what section you can find the information you are looking for, you can use the Index and Search tabs on the left. These two tabs are very efficient tools in finding the section that you are looking for. · Type a keyword and double click the result highlighted in blue to view the related topic. If by keyword you can not find the topic you are looking for, try using the search tab . · The search tab will search through the complete manual for any word you type, and rank the resulting pages to their likely importance. Click a topic and hit the Display button to view the topic. A warning symbol in the manual notifies you to be cautious about the action it refers to and urges to read carefully what this action does. Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 8 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV What can be found where in the manual ? The manual counts 4 main sections, each one has its own purpose. At the bottom of most subsections, you will find links of other sections that are closely related to that section or task. 1. Introduction to Book Collector Get to know Book Collector, and learn where to find answers in the manual. · How to use the manual (this section) · Getting Started · Getting Started - Quick Guide · Getting Started - useful and powerful tips; flyer like overview of the basics of Book Collector. · Buying Book Collector · Support 2. Common tasks Add books, edit book details and learn how to find your books back; task based. All tasks end with linking to related topics. · Adding books · Editing books · Browsing your books (not task based) · Finding a book · Printing 3. Advanced tasks A wide range of task based help on somewhat more advanced (but recommended) tasks. All tasks end with linking to related topics. · Updating books · Editing multiple books in one go (batch editing) · Filtering books to find specific books (e.g. all books released after 2000) · Importing and exporting books (to your iPod, PDA or HTML for your website) · Missing images ? Re-link the book covers and repair thumbnails. · Help on how to back up data and moving to a new Windows computer. 4. Reference Detailed explanations of all the menus, screens, data fields used in Book Collector; not task based. · All Menus as they are available in the menu bar of Book Collector · Screens that you can come across when using Book Collector. At the start of each screen is a reference to the related task(s) . · Using a database by sharing it amongst multiple computers over a network · Several background topics on the data fields, sorting, Find answers in the manual9 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV searching, shortcut keys and templates. · Background topics on barcode scanning and library cataloging systems Related Topics Getting Started : Tutorial to quickly get familiar with Book Collector Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 10 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 3 Getting started There are four Getting Started sections. They are aimed at quickly guiding you from getting to know Book Collector to becoming familiar with even the most powerful features. These Getting started sections are : 1. Getting Started - Your first 10 clicks · Get a first impression after installing Book Collector. Intended to familiarize you with the main screen, and show you how easy and fun working with Book Collector is. 2. Getting started - Adding your first book · After trying out some features in the main screen, it is time to start entering your first book into your own collection file. 3. Getting started - Quick Guide · Flyer-like overview on Book Collector's most essential features : how to search, sort, group and filter your books. · Tip : Print this section. 4. Getting started - Useful and powerful tips Some powertips for using Book Collector Related Topics How to use this manual : : Find answers about how Book Collector works Getting started11 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 3.1 Getting Started - Your first 10 clicks The Main Screen Let's start with the main screen of Book Collector. This is the heart of the program, and understanding its layout is necessary to use Book Collector. The booksin the database are displayed in a flexible, Explorer-like screen: Click to view small size image Book Collector comes with an example database so you can get a quick overview of the features of Book Collector. 10 clicks to discover Book Collector ! To get a quick impression, and see how cool this program is, just 10 clicks are required : · Click any Book title in the list view (top right) and see how the book is shown in the details view , lower right panel. · Click the Images tab just above the list view, to switch from the tabular list view to a nice cover view of the books. Click the list tab to switch back. · Click on the menu View | Folders | Genre to see how easy books can be grouped. Click any of the genre folders to see which books are listed for that series. · Click the menu View | Folders | none to switch back to the full (un-grouped) list. · Click a column header in the list and Book Collector will sort on that field. For example, clicking on the header 'Title' will sort all books in the collection based on their (book)titles. · Right-click in the details view to select any of the other cool skins Book Collector is installed with. · Right-click a book in the list, and choose 'edit book' . The edit screen allows you to change or enter information for that book. Just try it out, change something and click the OK button to confirm the change. Remember you are only working in the demo database so no harm can be done. Check Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 12 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV the details view for the change you made. And that adds up to 10 mouse clicks. Now that you know something about the main screen, let's start adding your own books ! Related Topics Find answers in the manual : Find answers about how Book Collector works Getting started13 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 3.2 Getting Started - Adding your first book The first thing you probably want to do after having clicked in the main screen a few times, is start adding books to your own collection! For this, first start a new (database) file , using the menu File - New Database . The main screen will display a new and empty database, ready for entering your own books. Step 1: Start by selecting the menu Edit | Add books Automatically... .or by clicking on the toolbar icon . Step 2: Enter a book Title, such as 'Da Vinci Code'. Click the Region link and select the region you are in, and where you purchase your books. Setting region only needs to be done once, but you can at any time add regions or change the settings. Click to view small size image Note : the button marked in red will fold in and out the search queue. If folded in, you can only search one book at a time. Step 3: Click Search Now . Book Collector will search the Collectorz.com online Book Database and show how many results were found. From the list of search results, choose the book you own. The results can be viewed in the Preview Pane by double clicking on a result. . Step 4: Click the add button below the results to add the selected book to your own collection. Book Collector will ask you to save the collection. Enter a name for your collection (for example " Peter's books ") and hit the Save button. As of now, every time you start up Book Collector, it will automatically open your personal database which you just named and saved. For more information on the add screen, see Adding books . Recommended reading Getting started - Quick Guide Browsing your database Finding a book in your database Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 14 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 3.3 Getting Started - Quick Guide Once you have read the Getting started section on adding a book, it would be good to also read this section as well. It is meant to give you an idea of the functionality of Book Collector in a "quick guide" style by explaining basic Book Collector principles. Understanding these 4 principles will give you a great advantage when using the software. So it is worth the time, and strongly recommended to read this section as well. Tip : Print this section using the print button . Searching Once books are entered into your own collection, perhaps adding personal notes and information to them, how do you easily find them back ? · The quickest way is by using the quick search box in the toolbar. Simply type text you know will be mentioned for the book you are trying to find, and hit the enter key. The list in the main screen will change, and filter out only those books for which the text you entered is found. This can be inside the title, but also in any of the other text fields such as the Plot or Notes field. · For returning to the complete list of your books (so not only 'Batman' books), press the right of the two funnel icons (which toggles between a filtered and unfiltered list). Note that the status bar will show what (if any) filter is active. The left shows you, the collection counts 34 books, of which only 1 meets the search criteria. For more advanced ways to search your database like the search you see here check the filtering topic. Related topic suggestions : Finding a book in your database Sorting and the incremental search When browsing your collection, often it is more convenient to define a form of sorting. Sorting makes looking at the list easier on the eyes, and makes finding a book quicker if you are scrolling down your list of books. The easiest way to sort is to click on a header of a column you see in the list, as is marked in red here. Getting started15 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · Clicking on the header will make the whole list get sorted on that field (here the title). Clicking again will make the list get sorted descending, note the little triangle next to the title which indicates that the field 'Title' is used for sorting, ascending. Tip : If a column is not in the main screen's list, you can make it appear there using the menu View | Columns | Choose Columns · When your books are sorted, you can locate a book conveniently using your keyboard. Simply start typing, and a selection bar will move down the list as you type matching your typing with the next closest book down the list. This is called incremental searching . As long as you type in an uninterrupted manner, what you type is considered one string-search. If you pause for around one second, the incremental search will reset itself, and any next text you type after that will be considered a new search, starting from the top of the list again. · It can happen that sorting on one field is not enough. Consider a sort on Genre, so that 'Adventure' books are higher up in the list than 'Science Fiction' books. But within one genre, you would probably prefer the books to be sorted on title. For this type of sorting you will need to use the menu view | Sort order | Choose sort fields . It will allow you to define sorting on more than one field (so sorting within sorting). For sorting a title such as "The Gunslinger" under "G" rather than under "T" make sure to set the correct articles, see the title sort tab . Note that on the edit book screen you will see the "Title Sort" field, which in this example will hold "Gunslinger", and it is this field by which sorting on title is done. For sorting names (of authors etc), check that their names are split properly, using the edit author screen . Related topic suggestions : Sort field selection screen Incremental search Grouping · An other way to create a better overview once the list of books is getting bigger is to group them. Using grouping, books which have for instance the same genre will be shown in one explorer like folder. You can group books using the menu View | Folders | .. . The main screen will rearrange, using the left side to display the groups. Click on such a group and the list on the right will show the books which are in that series (see the edit screen). The bottom right is used for the details view, as you already know it from the getting started section. Grouping is only a process of showing the books in the database differently, nothing is moved or anything alike: the database is still the same Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 16 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · As with sorting (see above), grouping can also be done in levels. For example, if for each series, you would like the books grouped by release year use the menu View | Folders | Choose Folder fields. · To ungroup , and show the books as one list again use the menu View | Folders | No Folders. All fields on which you can group, can be managed using the manage lookup list screen, available under the menu Tools | Edit Lists. The manage lookup lists screen can also be used to remove names and values that are no longer used, or to merge values (in case you for example mistyped a release year making a folder '20006' appear as well as '2006') Note : when your books are grouped, the list view still allows you to sort, filter and (incrementally) search the way that is described in the two topics above. Related topic suggestions : Folder view for grouping Lookup lists Filtering As you have seen, the quick search box can be used to locate books quickly and conveniently. For more elaborate searches you may need a filter though. One special filter button is the collection status indicator in the toolbar, allowing you to quickly view only those books that have been marked with a specific collection status value on the edit screen . However, you may want to look for a combination of filter conditions a book should fulfill, such as "Novels older than / published before 1970". For such filters, you can use the menu Search | Set filter | Create/Modify filter(s). By default Book Collector is equipped with some "demo" filters from which you can read their intention and the way the are built up. Related topic suggestions : The filter screen Getting started17 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 3.4 Getting Started - Useful and powerful tips Now that you can add books to your collection, as well as find them back quickly, and create custom overviews of the collection, it is time for some tips and tricks. Changing the look and feel of Book Collector Book Collector installs in a default setting, but you can adjust Book Collector in many ways if you like. · Firstly, the main screen (sub)panels can be re- arranged. In the toolbar, you will find the drop down button as shown on the right. The icons are self explanatory in how the screen will be divided. You can also access this function in the menu View | Screen Layout . · Secondly, after choosing the preferred panel layout, you can resize the individual panels chosen for the main screen. The (narrow) bars that separate the panels can be dragged left/right or up/down so that for example the tree , or the details view get more space on your screen. · Thirdly, in every view, the book details will be shown in the details view.This panel / view is controlled by templates. Changing a template is easy, use the menu View | Details View Template and you will see a list to choose a template from. Alternatively, you can right click inside the details view to get access to the choices more directly. Quite a few templates are included, and more can be downloaded from our site where you will also find a basic explanation on how to create your own template. Also see the section on customizing Book Collector . Related topic suggestions : XSL templates Customizing Book Collector Editing more than one book at once - making batch changes Quite often, you will find yourself in a situation where you would like to change a field value for many books to one new value. If for example you moved, and the "location" field no longer is accurate ("shelf 3" may have become "box 12" for as long as your books have not been unpacked yet), you would like to batch change the location value for a number of books at once. This can be done in a few clicks. In the main screen list view , use the Windows trick "shift+click" or "control+click" to select any number of book entries (blue lines indicate a selected book). Once they are selected, use the menu Edit | Edit Multiple Books . An Edit screen will come up, but is an edit screen that enables you to change most field values of many books at once. Be careful on this screen : any text you type into any field means all selected books will (after the OK button has been pressed) have that value in the specific field. Of course you can make a filter on the collection before selecting, to make sure you only select the books that you want to batch-change (for example set a filter where "location - equals - shelf 3"). Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 18 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV A useful related option is setting field defaults . If you for example are about to enter a number of books into your collection that were all bought in the "shop around the corner" you may want to use the menu Tools | Field defaults prior to adding that batch, and set the default location to "Shop around the corner". After these books are entered, just clear the default value again. Related topic suggestions : Editing multiple books at once Lookup lists Field defaults Adding links - images, websites, ebook- and audiobook-links Harddrives are getting more affordable, even sizes that allow large audio- and ebook collections to be stored onto. This is why Book Collector allows you to link the book entries to digital files on your computer easily and quickly. Just open the edit book screen using the menu Edit | Edit Books . The tab called "links" will allow you to define both URL type links (so websites) as well as local files (so images, eBooks, Audiobooks, etc) for that book. Either drag and drop such files onto the top- or bottom half of the links tab, or use the add buttons shown on that tab to browse to the files and locations you wish the book to be linked to. Once done, in the main screen details view a link will appear which, if clicked, will play the Audiofile, open an eBook viewer, or open the web browser to visit the website you defined. Related topic suggestions : Edit book screen Getting started19 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 4 Buying Book Collector The Collectorz.com products can be ordered online through our website. To go to the purchase page, click here . Before purchasing you are advised to read the License Agreement . If you are using a multi-user setup where multiple people need access to the same database, please visit the volume license order page . Or you can use our support forms on the web site. Standard and Pro versions Book Collector is available as a Standard and a Pro edition. The following table lists the differences between these versions. For more information on these differences, check our website or this manual. Sections in the manual that apply to the Pro edition only will have a comment Pro version only. Standard Edition Pro Edition · No export features · Print simple lists only · No loan management · No complex filters · No field set saving possible · No collection statistics · No option to make field name changes · No user definable lookup list fields and text fields · Export to HTML, iPod, Text and XML formats · Print lists and other layouts (includes user created templates) · Integrated Loan Manager · Complex filtering possibilities · Saving of field sets possible · A specific screen where summary statistics on your collection are shown. · Renaming of data fields allowed · User definable lookup list fields and text fields Trial Edition A free trial edition is available here on our website. The trial version has all the features of the Pro edition. It is limited by the number of books you can store (100). After buying Book Collector this limit is removed. Any data you enter in the trial edition will remain available. Buying Book Collector and entering the license When you place an order through our website , we automatically process it and send out a license email minutes after having processed the order. The webpages containing personal data and credit card information are protected by 128-bit encryption - ensuring that nobody else can see what you enter. Once you installed Book Collector, enter your license to unlock the full edition. Do this with the 'Enter License Key' button in the opening trial screen: Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 20 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV Click to view small size image It can also be entered through the menu Buy Now | Enter License . Entering the license will convert the program into the Standard or Pro editions depending on what you purchased. The Enter License screen will come up: Click to view small size image A Book Collector license has two parts: License Name and License Key . Enter these values into the appropriate data fields and then click on the Check button. Please note that you have to enter the license name exactly as given in your license message, with the same spacing and case, e.g. if your license name is "J. Doe", then typing "J.Doe" will not work, neither will "j. doe" or "John Doe". Make sure you enter the key exactly, including all 12 digits. Also check if there aren't any spaces before or after the name or key (this happens sometimes when copying and pasting). Buying Book Collector21 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV Book Collector will contact our website to validate the license. You must be connected to the Internet for this to work properly. If you are using a computer that does not have internet access, please contact Support and we can assist you. Use the Check connection to verify that Book Collector is allowed to pass any firewall or security software you may be running on your computer. Check Connection If you get error messages in a red color during a search, the most likely cause is an issue with your internet connection. To test this, press the Check Connection button on this license screen. This should result in a message : Connection OK . If not, please see the online FAQ for more information. Related Topics Support Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 22 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 5 Support Besides this Help manual there are several other sources for getting help or learning more about Book Collector: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) There is a comprehensive listing of answers to commonly asked questions, click here . Forums There is an online community of Book Collector users, click here . Many people, including experienced users of our software, have discussions with each other and the developers about Book Collector and books in general. Customer Support If you're having a problem or would like to share your thoughts about Book Collector you can contact Collectorz.com through our website, here . There is an online form for submitting questions/comments. Premium Support We always try to reply to all support requests as fast as possible. We do however give priority to requests from people who purchased the Premium Support; for them can we guarantee a response within 24 hours. 6 Common Tasks The topics in the Common Tasks-section describe how to perform some of the most common tasks you want to do with Book Collector. They are described in a step-by-step format to make it as easy as possible to follow. At the bottom of each task, you will find links to related topics. An overview of the tasks covered here : Adding books Automatically - using the queue Menu : Edit | Add Book(s) Automatically · Adding books to your collection by queuing Editing books Menu : Edit | Edit Book · Make changes to book information: add an author, or illustrator, your own cover images and more. Browsing your collection Menu : Miscellaneous · The ways you can view your collection in the main screen. Not task based. Finding a book in your database Menu : Miscellaneous · Find a book quickly using the quick search. Common Tasks23 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · Find a book using sorting, or the incremental search. · Use a filter to show only certain books. Printing Menu : File | Print · How to make a printed list of all your books. For less common tasks please see the Advanced Tasks section. Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 24 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 6.1 Adding Books Automatically - Using the queue FOR SCREEN EXPLANATION: Add Automatically Screen Book Collector can also batch searches, meaning you do not have to search each book separately. Step 1: Start by selecting the menu Edit | Add books Automatically... .or by clicking on the toolbar icon . Click to view small size image Note : the button marked in red will fold in and out the search queue. If folded in, you can only search one book at a time. Step 2: Type a title and author, or a barcode, and click the Add to Queue button. This will not immediately search for the book but will place it in a queue first. Step 3: Repeat step 2 for as many books as you like to queue up. Step 4: Click the Search button. This will let Book Collector start searching all the entered items in the online database. Note: The Search Now button will search what you have entered into the search fields (title, author and ISBN). the Search button will search the items you placed in the queue. Common Tasks25 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV Step 5: After the searching finishes, there will be a set of results for each entry in the search queue. Click on a book in the search queue to view its results in the search results panel. Select the correct result from the search results panel. The results can be viewed in the Preview Pane by double clicking on them. If none of the results are the correct one, choose the [None] item. Step 6: Repeat step 5 for each book in the queue. Click the Add All button to add all the selected results. Tip: When a book is added to your database, for some data fields there are default values set and an Index value is assigned. The default values are controlled through the Field Defaults screen . Note: There is a button to check your internet connection. In case information is not downloaded for books, use this button to check if your firewall is preventing Book Collector from accessing the internet. Please see the online FAQ for more information. A pop up message will notify you whether the connection could be established or not. Related Topics Barcode scanning Hints for Adding books Automatically Search Settings screen Field Defaults screen 6.2 Editing books FOR SCREEN EXPLANATION: Edit Screen Step 1 : To edit a book, double-click on the entry in the List view , use the toolbar icon ,or select from the menu Edit | Edit Book . This opens the Edit Book screen: Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 26 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV Click to view small size image Step 2 : Go to the correct tab for editing the field and start editing. Types of fields on the Edit book screen and how to edit them · To edit text fields . The Edit Book screen is broken up into tabbed sections. Click on the tabs along the top of the screen to access different sections which all have a set of fields you can edit. Just click in a text field and start typing. For example , type in some text as 'subtitle' of a book. · Edit lookup fields : some of the data fields are called lookup fields . They have values that are used many times over, such as language field. These values are kept together in a list, called a lookup list . Such fields have an auto-complete function. Start typing and a drop down list will appear to match the entry you are typing. You can also scroll manually through the list (using the arrow keys on your keyboard). Note that the drop down lists in the Edit screens always show the sort names of the lookup items. To change a value, select it first in the dropdown list and then select the '_[Add fieldname ]_' item. This will open the Edit Lookup Lists screen. Common Tasks27 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · For fields that can have multiple values, like the Genre field, click the checkboxes to indicate which genres apply. Such fields will have two icons to add and edit the values. Add a value to the list. Start typing in the box to the left and if you are done, click this button to add the new value. Edit values of the list. · Edit Credits and Characters . To edit the Creators and characters use the buttons at the top of the field. Use the add, change and remove buttons to make changes to entries. The edit button opens a separate screen where you can edit the first- and last name of the person. Add a new Credit or Character to the list Change a selected Credit or Character; you can also use F2, or double click an Credit or Character in the list directly Remove an Credit or Character from the list; this will of course not remove the Credit or Character from other books he / she may be in. Edit the name of an Credit or Character. This will change the name of the Credit or Character for all books he / she may be appearing in. Some books are a compilation of stories or articles . Information about the separate parts can be tracked under the Contents tab. Each entry represents a story or article. Double click on an entry to open the Contents Edit screen to enter information. These contents can be shown on the main screen using the contents view . · On the covers tab you can manage the cover images for a book. The cover images are stored outside of the database and linked through the Picture File path shown. You can change the cover by using the Browse button to select another image. Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 28 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV Click to view small size image Related Topics Edit book screen Automatically updating books List management Adding Images manually Data field meanings Common Tasks29 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 6.3 Browsing your database Once you have added your books to your database, it is time to see what you've got. There are several ways to display your data: · List view On the right side of the main screen , is a spreadsheet-like listing of the books in the database. · Go to menu View | List to see this. Use the scroll bar, on the right of the panel, to move through your list. · To sort the collection, click on the column heading you want to sort by. · You can set what columns (fields) should be shown by using the menu View | Columns . To learn more, click here . · Image view A nice feature of Book Collector is the ability to look through your books as a gallery of cover images . · Go to menu View | Images to see this. · The slider control above the thumbnails adjusts the display size of the covers. Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 30 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · Details view When a book is selected through the List or Image view, the full details appear on the right side in the Details view of the main screen. · Use the menu View | Details View Template to change the colors and layout of the details view. Select one of the templates from the list to see how it changes the details view. To learn more about templates click here . · Folder view Instead of a single list showing all your books, Book Collector can also group your collection. · For example: to group your collection by Genre, go to menu View | Folders | Genre . Your collection will be grouped into genre folders. · Click on a folder to see the contents. The List view is now moved to the top-right area of the main screen. · The Folder view can be turned off through menu View | Folders | No Folders or the toolbar icon . To learn more about the Folder view, click here . Note : Folder view only displays your data differently, the data itself is not changed! Common Tasks31 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · Collection status icons. In the main screen, you may notice not all books have the same icon in front of the names in the list. · When a green tick is shown, the collection status of the book is 'in collection'. This collection status indicator can be turned off using the options screen and reflects one of the values of the "in collection" field as found on the edit screen . Related Topics Finding a book in your database List management Lookup Lists Proper sorting Folder View Editing books Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 32 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 6.4 Finding a book in your database There are a number of ways to search for books within the database. They are listed here from simple to more complex. Sorting Step 1: The List view is the top right-hand panel of the main screen. Click on the column header and the book listing will be sorted on that field in ascending order (i.e. from 'a' to 'z'). Here the header 'title' is clicked. You can control which columns are visible in the main screen using the column field selection screen . Step 2: Click on the column header again and the listing will be sorted in descending order (i.e. from 'z' to 'a'). You can sort on multiple fields, for example: first on Year, within the Year on Title. This is done through menu View | Sort Order | Choose sort fields which brings up the Sort field selection screen . When books seem out of place after sorting, please check the section on sorting properly . Note : Characters such as the [space], or the "{" precede the alphabet when sorting ascending. Searching : using the quick search Step 1: You can open the Quick Search screen through menu Search | Quick Search . This performs a search through all the database fields. It may also be accessible through the toolbar icon on the main screen (the toolbars can be customized). To use it, type a term like 'Stephen King' and press Enter . This will show all books that contain the phrase 'Stephen King' anywhere in a field. Step 2: The highlighted funnel icon means that a search filter has been applied to the database and only search results are displayed now. Click on it to turn off the filter and get back to the complete listing of books. A barcode scanner can also be used in the Quick Search. To do so, select the Quick Search text box and scan a barcode. Quick Search also supports the use of simple wildcard searching . Searching : using the incremental search Step 1: In the List View on the main screen , click on the data column header you want to search by. The column header will indicate with an arrow that it is selected: Step 2: Type the first few letters of the search term you're after and Book Collector will highlight the book with this value. In the screenshot above, entering 'f' will select the book Fast Food Nation . Then typing 'h' will select 'Harry Potter'. Note that this way of searching is only useful if you are looking Common Tasks33 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV for text at the beginning of the field. Filtering : Collection Status Book Collector has a field called Collection Status, which has values of 'Not in Collection', 'Wanted', 'In Collection' and 'For Sale'. In the List View on the main screen, icons appear on the left side representing the status. There are preset filters for quickly switching between different parts of your Collection depending on the Collection Status. These filters can be accessed through the toolbar on the main screen , using the icon or through the menu Search | In Collection Status . Note: The Collection Status filter is remembered after re-starting Book Collector. If you think part of your collection has suddenly disappeared, make sure the Collection Status filter is set to 'All'. You can always check the status bar to see if some filter is active. Advanced filtering (Pro version only) To search in specific fields, or search in multiple fields at the same time, you need to create a filter in the Filter screen . (as seen in the above picture of the status bar). Related Topics Main screen Filter screen Customizing Book Collector Proper sorting Searching with wildcards 6.5 Printing FOR SCREEN EXPLANATION: Print Screen The print functions of Book Collector are quite flexible. To quickly start with creating a simple list of your collection, follow these steps: Step 1: Open the print screen through the icon or through menu File | Print : Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 34 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV Click to view small size image Step 2: Choose books to print: Select the option 'All Books' to print out your entire book collection. Step 3: Choose a (text) list or thumbnail layout. Step 4: Choose the columns using the columns button, or when you are printing thumbnails the number of rows and columns. Step 5: Click on the Print button to print the list. For a more in depth explanation of the Print Screen options, click here . Related Topics Print screen Data field meanings XSL Templates Column field selection screen Common Tasks35 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 7 Advanced Tasks The topics in the Advanced Tasks-section describe how to perform tasks that you will use once you have become familiar with Book Collector. They are described in a step-by-step format to make it as easy as possible to follow. At the bottom of each task, you will find links to related topics. An overview of the tasks covered here : Adding books using barcodes Menu : Edit | Update books Automatically · Use the barcode scanner to (un)load barcodes into Book Collector Adding books Manually Menu : Edit | Add book Manually · To add books to your collection manually, in case a book can not be found online Adding eBooks and Audio Books Menu : Edit | Edit book, Links tab · To add eBook links and Audio Book links. This will allow you to view and play such files directly from the Book Collector main screen. Adding contents of a book : available from the Edit Book screen , the contents tab) · Some books are compilations of stories. Such stories can be entered into your Book Collector collection. Editing Multiple books Menu : Edit | Edit Multiple books · Make batch changes to a number of books in one go. Change for example the genre of 10 books at once in one action. This screen looks a lot like the regular edit screen, but will make changes to all selected books (!) Automatically updating books Menu : Edit | Update Book(s) Automatically · You can check with the online database if newer details on a book are available, and add such details to your own database Adding (book cover) images manually Menu : Edit | Edit Book, Covers tab Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 36 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · Add your own book cover images manually. If no cover was retrieved, this allows you to add your own. Searching with a filter (pro version only) Menu : Search | Set Filter · Create filters to see only books that match your criteria (such as e.g. "published before 1999"). Searching with wildcards Menu : Miscellaneous · Use wildcards to better use search terms Manage lookup lists Menu : Tools | Edit Lists · Manage all lists of field values that are shared values, such as the genre, publishers, creators etc. Create, edit and remove such shared field values. Loaning books (pro version only) Menu : Loans | Loan Book · Book Collector has a built in loan manager, to keep track of what you loaned out, to whom and when they should bring it back. ( Pro version only ) Viewing collection statistics Menu : Tools | | Statistics · Create overviews about your collection, with stats as well as charts . Customizing Book Collector Menu : View | [Details View Template] / [Toolbars] / [Screen Layout] Menu : Tools | Language · Change the way Book Collector looks and handles. · Use Book Collector in your own language · Change field names to match your requirements even better. (pro version only) Missing images · Update file links ; if your cover images were moved from one folder to an other (or one computer to an other) · Repairing thumbnails : if your image view does not show the mini-covers (called thumbnails) any more Importing books Menu : File | Import from · Import books from an other Book Collector database. Exporting books (pro version only) Menu : File | Export to Advanced Tasks37 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · Export book details to publish them online, using the export to html function. · Export book details to your iPod or PDA or XML Updating Book Collector and changing computers Menu : Help | Check for update (and others) · Update Book Collector so you are running the latest version · Transfer your data to a new Windows computer · Make backups of your collection and setting files For more common tasks please see the Common Tasks section. You can find background information about menus, screens and fields in the Reference section. Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 38 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 7.1 Adding books using barcodes FOR SCREEN EXPLANATION: Add Automatically Screen Book Collector can also use the ISBN barcode to find a book online This usually delivers a more accurate match than searching by title because the barcode identifies exactly which edition of a book you have. You can search for barcodes by typing them in by hand, or by using the a barcode scanner . Adding books using barcodes Entering the barcode manually Step 1: Click on the Add books icon or select menu Edit | Add Books Automatically . Step 2 : Enter the barcode in the Barcode field and click the 'Add to Queue' button to add the barcode to the search queue. Both 10- and 13-digit ISBN codes may be entered and will give results. Make sure not to use UPC codes, as these will not be found. Entering the barcode with a barcode scanner Step 1: Make sure your scanner is configured correctly. If you have the Flic / Collectorz.com scanner, please see the Setup Instructions . For the Cuecat scanner and other scanners, please check the Barcode reference topic . Step 2: Scan the barcodes of a number of books. Scan only a few to begin with until you are comfortable with the process. If you are not using the Collectorz.com barcode scanner, you will have to have the scanner connected during the previous steps. If not, continue to the next steps. Step 3: Connect the scanner to your computer through the cable. Step 4: Click on the Add books icon or select menu Edit | Add Books Automatically . Step 5: When you open the screen the Search Queue section should be populated with the barcode values you have scanned or typed in. Click the search now button. Step 6: Add the books following the instructions on the adding books section . Related Topics Barcode scanning reference Add Books Automatically - Using the queue Hints for Adding Books Automatically 7.2 Adding books manually FOR SCREEN EXPLANATION: Edit Screen It can happen that books are not found in the online database. In such cases, you may want to add the book to your collection manually. Step 1: Use the menu Edit | Add book Manually , which opens up a regular but completely empty edit Advanced Tasks39 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV screen . Step 2: Enter all the details you would like to enter for the book. For more information on how to enter information see the section on editing books Step 3: Click the OK button to add the book to your database. See the section on data field meanings for more information on the meaning of the fields you will find on the tabs of the edit book screen. Related Topics Adding books automatically Edit books Field Defaults screen Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 40 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 7.3 Adding eBooks and audio books With the progress of technology books have become available in formats that don't involve any paper. Two examples of this are eBooks and audio books. eBooks This is a format of book that is stored as a file on electronic memory such as a harddrive. The content of the book is in written form. There are a variety of file formats for books such as PDF. More info: eBooks . Audio Books Books can also be experienced by listening to someone reading the book to you. Audio books are sound files (like MP3s) which can be stored on your harddrive. More info: Audio books . In Book Collector, you can create an entry for these books just like you would for a physical book. It uses the Links field to store references to the actual files on your system. This will allow you to open / view or listen to them by clicking a link in the main screen of Book Collector. See the details view for this. Step 1: Double-click on the book in the List view , use the toolbar icon ,or select from the menu Edit | Edit Book . This opens the Edit Book screen. Step 2: Click the Links tab. On the bottom half you can add links to files on your computer. Step 3: Click the button to add a link to an eBook , or the icon to add a link to an Audio Book . Step 4: Click OK to close the Edit Screen. Back in the main screen, have a look at the book details, where you will see links appear for the eBook or Audio Book you added. Click on the link, and Windows will open the related file. This can be through the Acrobat reader (for Pdf eBooks) or for example through the Windows Media Player (for MP3 Audio Books). Related Topics Edit books 7.4 Adding contents of a book FOR SCREEN EXPLANATION: Edit Story / Article / Chapter Screen Some books are compilations of stories or articles. In Book Collector it is possible to capture information about these individual parts of a book. These parts are referred to as the Contents. There is a separate Contents tab page on the edit book screen, and a Contents View . Edit Story/Article/Chapter screen Step 1: This screen can be accessed by opening the Edit book screen for a book and selecting the Contents tab: Advanced Tasks41 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV Click to view small size image Step 2: Each entry in the above screen is a section of the book. To add an entry click on the button. The Add Story/Article/Chapter screen will appear: Click to view small size image Step 3: Through these screens you can enter details of the story or article within a book. Press OK to return to the Edit book screen. · Once you have made a few Content entries, you can view your collection from the Contents perspective. This is called the Contents view . · For further description, read through the section Edit Story/Article/Chapter screen . Related Topics Edit books Book and Contents view Collectorz.com Book Collector Help Manual 42 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV 7.5 Editing multiple books FOR SCREEN EXPLANATION: Edit Screen If you need to apply the same change to more than one book (e.g. set the format from paperback to hardcover for five books), you can do this with Book Collector in the following way: Step 1: In the List view , click on multiple books while holding down the Ctrl or Shift key on your keyboard. Ctrl is for selecting non-adjacent books, the Shift key for an adjacent set. Step 2: Next, through menu Edit | Edit Multiple books an edit screen will appear which is very similar to the normal Edit screen. The big difference is that all the fields are empty. Use this screen to change the value of a field for all the books that have been selected. For example, if you set 'Stephen King' as the author, all books will be set to have that value as its author field. The previous value will be overwritten. Click to view small size image Step 3: · Enter values in the data fields you want to change and it will be changed for all the books selected. Advanced Tasks43 © 2008 Bitz & Pixelz BV · To clear a data field, click on the field and press F8 . · Click on the OK button to store the changes. The edit multiple function is quite powerful, and irreversible (or at least not reversible in one step). You are no longer editing just one book, but a whole range of books. So make sure you have selected the books you wish to batch change fields from, and do not enter anything into fields you do not want to change. Notes · If a field can have multiple values (like the genre field), all previous values will be overwritten with the new ones. You cannot add values to the existing ones. You can, however, select more than one new value to use for all books. Also, you can use drag&drop in Folder View to add or replace specific values. · When clearing the Credits field, all values will be cleared. It is not possible to clear only one specific person. · The Credits & Characters , and Links tabs are hidden in this mode, and cannot be edi

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