Adding Comics Automatically

In the Add Comics Automatically screen, you can add comics to your personal database by downloading all issue data from our Collectorz.com online comic database, including creator lists, character lists and cover images.

There are five ways to find your comics in the online comic database, as reprented by the five tabs of the Add Comics Automatically screen:

• Searching by Series Title
• Searching by Barcode
• Select from the New/Upcoming Releases list
• Select from the Daily Updates list
• Using Favorites (bookmarked Series)

Searching by Series Title

If you have just started cataloging your comics and/or need to add many issues from the same series, then adding comics by series title is the recommend method.

Here's how it works:

1. Enter the title of your series in the Series box at the top and click the Search button.
   After a few seconds, the Search Results panel will show the matching series from the online comic database.
2. Now select the series you were looking and click the little "plus" or "triangle" button on its' left to expand it and show all issues from that series.
3. Finally, click the checkboxes to the left of the issues you want to add and click "Add Checked".

That's it. The program will now download all issue details and cover images automatically.

A few tips for selecting and adding issues from this tab:

• Double click an issue to preview its' details in the Preview panel on the right.
• Click the checkbox to the left of a series item to select all issues from that series, so that you can add em all in one go.
• Watch the Issue, Title and Date columns, as they will help you find the correct issues and variants.
• Right click a series entry and choose Sort Issues to change the order of issues in the issue list (Ascending or Descending). Choosing Descending here can be useful if you are adding your weekly new purchases, as this gives you the latest releases at the top.
• Right click a series entry and choose Filter Issues to select which issues you want shown in the issue list. Tip: choose Not in Database to only see the issue you don't have yet.
• And finally, use the Add To Collection / Wish List selector to indicate your preferred "collection status" of the new additions. Choose Collection for issues that you own, choose Wish List for issues that you want but do not own yet.

Searching by Barcode

The big advantage of searching by barcode is that it immediately gives you the exact issue (and often even the variant) that you own. No need to search by series title or to find your issue from a long issue list. This is especially useful when adding your weekly new purchases, as these often are all from different series.

You can either type the barcode into the barcode box or use one of our barcode scanners.

The Search by Barcode tab can be operated in two modes, Direct Search mode and Queue mode. You can switch between the two modes using the Show/Hide Queue button at the top right.

Direct Search mode

The Direct Search mode is ideal for adding comics by barcode, one by one. In this mode, scanning a barcode will automatically start the search and the matching issue from the online database will immediately appear in the Search Results and Preview panels. The only thing left to do for you is click the Add Checked button.

Queue mode

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

If you have multiple new comics to add, e.g. after your weekly shopping spree, the Queue Mode is the way to go, as it lets you scan, search and add your comics in batch. In Queue Mode, every barcode you scan or type is just added to the Queue panel. This way you can scan multiple barcodes in quick succession with pausing (we recommend to do batches of 15 or 20).

After scanning a batch of comics, click the Search button on the right to start the online search for all entries in the queue. This may take a while, especially for large batches. When the search has completed, you can take a look at the search results for each barcode, one by one (just select a queue entry to see the results for that entry in the Search Result panel at the bottom).

You can now either add the comics one by one, right after selecting the correct match, or, use the Add All button on the right to add em all in one go.

Tips for adding comics by barcode

• For best results, always make sure to scan/enter the complete barcode.
  Barcodes for regular comics are 17 digits long (these are called UPC+5 barcode), where the first 12 often indicate the series, the next 3 indicate the issue number and the last 2 indicate the variant. If you only scan the first 12, you will get results but you may often just get all issues of that particular series, whereas the full barcode would give you the exact issue and variant that you scanned.
  Most Trade Paperbacks (TPBs) and Hard Covers (HCs) have ISBN barcodes (because they are more like regular books). ISBN barcodes are 13-digits long and start with 978. Some also have a UPC barcode on the cover, but our online database has them cataloged under their ISBN. So if you are adding a TPB or HC, make sure to enter/scan the ISBN barcode, not the UPC.
• If you're using an Opticon C37 scanner, make sure to configure it for scanning UPC+5 barcode (by default it only scans the UPC part). Here's how to.
• If you search by barcode and the results do not include your comic, right click the Series entry and choose "Show All Issues in This Series". This will immediately give you the full issue list to select from.

Adding from the New/Upcoming Releases list

Another quick way to add your new purchases, or the ones that you are planning to buy, is the New/Upcoming Releases tab. This tab always shows the releases from the past 30 days, plus the one that are going to be released in the next 60 days.

This tab works exactly the same as the Search by Title tab: just select the Series you want, expand it, check the issue(s) you want to add, then click Add Checked. Simply, quick and no typing or scanning needed.

Tips for adding from the New/Upcoming Releases list

• Use the All / My Series / My Publisher selector at the top to filter the (often long) releases list down to only the Series or Publishers that you are interested in.
• Use the Add to Wish List option at the bottom when adding Upcoming Releases, so that they are automatically added with status "Wish List".
• Click the grey column header of the Publisher column to sort the list by Publisher, so that you can find your favorite series more easily.

Adding from the Daily Updates list

^{not yet available in Mac edition, coming soon!}

Our content managers are constantly updating the online comic database, either using our feed from Diamond, the weekly releases list from ComicList.com and of course, by processing your submissions.

On the Daily Updates tab-page you can check what comics were updated recently. You'll only see your own series popping up in the updated comic lists. So, no annoying comic series you don't care about.

The Favorites tab: Bookmarking your favorite series

^{not yet available in Mac edition, coming soon!}

To make things really easy for you, you can also bookmark your favorite series to the Favorites tab-page, so that you never have to search for them anymore. Just expand a series there, select your issue(s), click Add.

• You can add a Series to your Favorites by right clicking a series entry on any of the 4 other tabs, then choosing Add To Favorites.