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 Field Defaults Adding e-book Files Importing from text Managing your Wish List Scanning ISBN Search Settings

Editing

Editing Books Editing Multiple Books Adding Links and Files List Items and more Update File Links Find Cover Image Managing Pseudonyms Editing List Icons Adding a Box Set

Customizing

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

Enjoying & Sharing

CLZ Books for iPhone/iPod CLZ Books for Android CLZ Books HD for iPad Synchronize with Connect Printing a Simple List Using Folders Loan Manager Using the Filter screen Lists for insurance purposes Exporting your collection Database Totals

Reference

The Options Screen Updating Book Collector Linking your books Print screen Keyboard Shortcuts Creating a Backup Data Submission Guidelines Collection Statistics Validating Book Collector Field Reference

Linking your books

Linking is important to get the latest data on each book entry in your online Connect database. Linking is good, you should link!

How to link your books to the Collectorz.com Book Database

Linking can be started by clicking: Connect > Link Books*.

A screen will open. This is the Link screen.

With the Link screen open, you will see all your unlinked books. This screen looks a lot like the Add Automatically screen, and almost works the same. Here's a step by step:

Your first book is already being searched.
Check the results and if you're happy, click Update (it's the button beneath the results)
The next unlinked book will be searched.
Repeat from step 2.

Alternatively you can click on Search All. Especially if you have barcodes for all your books, this can be very helpfull. Just wait until all unlinked books have been searched and hit Update All.

Please note: The Search All option will not be able to find the exact match to the edition you own if you don't have a barcode filled out. It will find the title for your book, though, just not the exact edition.

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* You can also get to the Link Screen by clicking Yes after you selected to synchronize your books with Connect.

Submitting

You might want to ask us: "Hey guys, I keep getting the same books back as unlinked. Now what?" Well, when that's the case, those books may not yet be in our database. If you'd like (we like) you can submit those books to us by selecting them in your database, and then click: Edit > Submit Books to Collectorz.com Book Database

Now within a few days (or even sooner) our Book content managers will process your submissions, and you can link that movie with our database! And the great thing is that now all other users can also link that version. Because of your most valued input!

Why should I link my books with your database?

Basically you should link your books to get the latest data on your entries in your collection. The big story:

When you add books to your collection, it links your database entries to the entries in our online database, always getting the "shared" information (like Title, Author, Publisher, Year, Cast, Crew, Plot, Details, Cover Images, etc...) from our database. Most entries will already be linked or can be auto-linked by barcode, Series Names, or CDID for CDs, ).
Collectorz.com software lets you add personal information to your entries, like Purchase info, Personal rating, notes, In Collection Status, etc..

For Book Collector, all personal fields are supported. It also lets you enter your own Title, to optionally "override" the title in the central database (e.g. for localized titles). The other 3 "override" fields for movies are Barcode, Year and Image (using a web-linked image).
If you own books that are not in our central database, you can still add them to your list (or upload it from Book Collector), using the Title, Barcode, Year, User Image and all Personal Fields.

So you will still have a basic entry in your collection lists. The tip here is to include the barcode, so that our Content Team can spot popular "un-linked" barcodes and add them to the central database.
As soon as they do, your entry will automagically be transformed into a full entry with artist, producers, cast, crew, etc...

This setup has many advantages, both for you and for us:

Auto-Updates: When our Content guys update the movie information (e.g. add a plot, fix a typo in a character's name, etc...), you will immediately see those changes in your collection. No "Update Automatically" necessary, everyone always sees the latest and greatest version of the data.
It's FAST: The central shared movie data is the same for everyone, so its retrieval can be optimized.
It's efficient: Shared data is only stored once. For example: thousands of Movie Collector users own Batman Begins, it's no use storing that movie's Cast and Crew thousands of times.
It helps to make our Collectorz.com online databases more complete. The "missing barcodes" system will help us improve and complete our online databases faster than ever.

As you can now probably see Linking is Important. It's very good for you.