Book Collector Manual

for Windows edition

Getting Started

Welcome to Book Collector Download and Install Navigating the Main Screen Adding Books How to search your Collection

Adding

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

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

Customizing

Changing the layout Sorting your Collection Custom Field Names Using Folders Custom Views Edit, Merge List Items Customizing Book Collector

Enjoying & Sharing

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

Reference

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

Editing Multiple Books

Adding personal details to your collection makes it all that much more fun. But sometimes, you need to add information in a field, for many books. That could be tiresome, if it weren't for this great feature: Editing Multiple Books.

Editing Multiple Books... simultaneously!

Please note: This feature is only available in the PRO version of Book Collector.

For example, setting the Year field to "2010" for all your new books. Or setting the Owner field to "Me" for all your books... Ouch! The prospect of having to edit those fields one-by-one isn't very appealing. So I created a better way. Here's how:

First of all, you need to make sure that the books you want to edit are listed in the "list panel" on the right side of the screen.

Tip: Choose View > Folders > No Folders to have all your books show up there.
Now select the ones you want to edit. You can use the standard Ctrl+click and Shift+click to select multiple books.
From the menu, choose Edit > Edit Multiple Books. This opens the Edit Multiple Books screen, which is the same as the normal Edit Book screen, but with all fields shown empty.
All values you enter here will be applied to all selected books. If you leave a box empty, that field will be left untouched for all selected books.
When you're done making changes, click OK.

Tip: you can clear a value for all books in your selection by putting your cursor in the field and then hitting F8.

That's it, you have changed multiple books in your database in one go. It's a very powerful feature. But a word of caution here... be careful, it's possible to overwrite or wipe out a lot of data with a few button clicks. So, please remember, when in Edit Multiple Books mode, that all selected books are affected by your changes.

Like Uncle Ben said: "With great power comes great responsibility ..."

Editing books one by one without leaving the Edit screen

I can almost hear you thinking now: "What if I need to change one field for multiple books, but to *different* values? Like when I want to set the Notes or Rating fields?"

Those are good questions. And that's where the Next and Previous buttons come in handy:

Again, make sure the target books are visible in the list panel
Select the first one and click the Edit Book button.
Go to the field you want to modify and make your changes.
Now, instead of clicking OK like you're used to, click the Next button.
Book Collector will automatically show the next book in the Edit screen. And, this is the smart part, it will keep your cursor in the box that you just edited. Which makes editing the same field for multiple books a breeze.