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
Find Cover Image
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How It Works
Book Collector 7 has a built-in Cover Finder which helps to fill missing gaps in your collection. This Google-powered image search makes it easy to find missing cover images, as well as fixing incorrect ones.
The Cover Finder takes the author, title and ISBN of the book from your database and uses it to find you the best possible match.
The new Find Cover Image tool can be opened up from multiple places in the program:
Find Cover Image Screen
The Find Cover Image screen is split into 2 sections. The search results on the left and a preview of the selected image on the right. Each section also has various options at the bottom.
On the left you have the search box, below that you have 3 check boxes which allow you to quickly add or remove data from the search field. The search will automatically include the Title, Barcode and Format of the book.
Tip: If you are looking for an alternative cover it can help to remove the barcode from the search results.
Figure 1: Find Cover Image Screen - Book Collector 7
Edit Search Criteria
When finding a cover for your book, Book Collector might add the ISBN to the book title to provide better results. When no (or poor) results are found, you can edit the Search Criteria manually in the text field on the left.
Figure 2: Edit Search Criteria - Book Collector 7
Find Cover Image from Main Screen
When browsing your books in the Main Screen and you want to add a missing cover image for one of your books simply click on 'No Cover Image' in the detail view to open up the Find Cover Image Screen (see Figure 3 below), you can also right click anywhere on the template and click 'Find Cover Image'
Figure 3: Find Cover Image From Main Screen - Book Collector 7
Find Cover Image from the Cover Tab in the Edit Book Screen
When you're in the Edit Book Screen, you can add or change the Cover Image on the Covers tab. Click the Find Online button to open up the Find Cover Image Screen (see Figure 4: Find Cover Image Screen).
Figure 4: Find Cover Image Screen - Book Collector 7
Find Cover Image from the Add Books Automatically Screen
If you search and find a book in our database but the cover doesn't match your own, or one isn't provided by our database, you can access the Cover Finder from the Add Automatically screen.
- Right click on a book from the main search results
- Click the No Cover Image template in the preview
Figure 5: Add Books Automatically Screen - Book Collector 7
Cropping
When you find an image with both front and back cover, you can crop the image right here! Just point, click, then drag your cursor over the part of the image you want to keep and click Crop. When okay, click Use This Image.
Cropped off too much? Just select the image from the Search Results on the left and give it another go!
Find Cover Image
Alternative ways to add your own Images
When adding a new book to your collection, Book Collector will automatically retrieve a whole lot of information from our databases right to your computer. But sometimes you might want to add your own cover image to one of your books. Or perhaps you've found a different image, that's more to your liking.
Updating a Cover Image from the Collectorz.com database
Our databases are constantly acquiring new images and up-to-date information. If an image isn't found when you first add a book we may add one at a later date, or perhaps you added your books manually and don't want to spend time adding covers for each book individually. Updating will also download additional information such as cast and crew information.
You can update your books and images in a variety of ways.
- Right click on a book and click 'Update Book'
- From the Edit Book > Cover screen, click Clear followed by Update
- By selecting the book, and clicking Edit > Update Book(s)
Adding an Image from your Hard Disk
When you want to replace a cover of one of your books, you need to go to the Edit Book screen (select book and click Edit > Edit book) and go to the Covers tab. Click the Browse button and search for the image on your computer.
Figure 6: Browse for Image on your Computer
Note: Images you add manually are NOT transferred or copied to the Images folder of Book Collector. So, to keep things tidy and organized, save your images in the default Book Collector folder. This way you make sure, that when creating a Backup, all images are being copied.
Drag-and-Drop
Another very easy way to add/change images for your books is to Drag-and-Drop them. You can Drag-and-Drop an image file from your computer or from a website.
Figure 7: Drag and Drop from your Desktop
Figure 8: Drag and Drop from the Internet
You'll notice that Book Collector will prompt you to make a choice. Choosing "Copy dropped file to default image folder, then link" will copy the image to the Book Collector Images folder. This is highly recommended. The video below shows how to drag/drop images in Movie Collector. The process in Book Collector is identical. Check out the video to see it in action.
Simply linking to the dropped file just creates a link to the location of the image. If you drag and drop an image from the Internet, you will loose your images, once the online image is removed so it's advisable to copy to your computer first. Also, renaming or moving a linked image on your computer will result in a broken image.
Please note: Different browsers may behave differently. If one browser does not allow you to drag and drop the image, please try a different browser, or drag the image to your desktop first, and drag it from there.
More Image Settings
You can tweak the default settings to fit your needs by clicking the Settings Button in the Edit book Screen. When not in Editing Mode, click: Tools > Options > Images.
Figure 9: Image Options Screen