Book Collector Manual
for Windows edition
Welcome to Book Collector Download and Install Navigating the Main Screen Adding Books How to search your Collection Adding Books Automatically Adding Books Manually Barcode Scanning Adding e-book Files Search Settings Importing from text Managing your Wish List Importing from Windows/XML Field Defaults Editing Books Editing Multiple Books List Items and more Adding Links and Files Update File Links Find Cover Image Managing Pseudonyms Editing List Icons Adding a Box Set Changing the layout Sorting your Collection Custom Field Names Using Folders Custom Views Edit, Merge List Items Customizing Book Collector Activating Connect Sync & Share Linking your books for Connect CLZ Books for iPhone/iPod CLZ Books for Android CLZ Books HD for iPad Loan Manager Printing a Simple List Lists for insurance purposes Using the Filter screen Updating Book Collector The Options Screen Print screen Keyboard Shortcuts Creating a Backup Data Submission Guidelines Lists for insurance purposes Collection Statistics Validating Book Collector Field Reference
List Items and more
- How do I add my own Genres?
- Why is "eBook" not listed under Formats?
- How do I remove unused Subjects from the list?
- And this one: when are you releasing a version that has "2011" in the Year list?
Book Collector offers you the flexibility of defining your own "pick lists" for all of the above.
Adding new values
Adding new values for these fields is super easy. It can be done right from the Edit Screen. E.g. for Formats and Years, you can just type the new value into the box.After you click OK to save your changes, the new Format or Year value will be added to the drop down list for future use.
For multi-value fields like Genres and Subject, the process is slightly different. You see, these show up in the Edit screen as a list of checkboxes.
To add a new value, type it in the box that is below the checklist, then click the little button with the plus sign.
You will immediately see it appear and to make your life easier, it's even checked automatically.
Full control of your lists: Add, Edit, Remove and Merge
For full control of your pick lists, you can use the Edit Lists screen.Choose: Tools > Edit Lists to get there and click the folder icon (Mac: horizontal lines icon) to choose the list you want to work on (e.g. the Genre List).
Now you can use the Add Item button to add your own genres. You can also remove genres here, edit their names or merge duplicate entries.
While you are in the Edit Lists screen, you may want to look at some of the other lists (use the list button again). You can manage all the program's "pick lists" here, e.g. the Formats, Subjects, Studios, Publishers, Platforms, Series, etc... and of course all people lists (Artists, Authors, Producers, Actors, etc...).
The joys of pick lists
Pick Lists (or "lookup lists") are a very useful element of your database, for several reasons:- They save you a lot of typing. Once a value has been entered in the list, you can just select it instead of re-typing it every time.
- The actual item name is stored in the database only once, so if you fix a typo, it automatically changes for all books that refer to that specific entry.
- They let you control the correct sorting of person names, by entering their first and last names.
- A correctly maintained pick list ensures that your collectibles are correctly grouped into folders on the main screen. This is where the Merge features comes in handy.