The Options Screen

Comic Collector has many, many options. That's a good thing, because it allows you to keep complete control over your collection. When you just start off archiving your collection, you will most likely agree with the default settings of Comic Collector. But, as every collector has his/her specific wishes, a lot of these settings can customized.

The Options Screen

Open the Options Screen by clicking:
Windows: Tools > Options
Mac: Comic Collector > Preferences

General Tab

Note for Mac users: the 4 "Show" options are not available right now.

Ask for confirmation / Confirm on
[ ] Checking (one of) these boxes will either show/not show a confirmation dialog box when performing the mentioned actions.

When double-clicking a comic in the list..
Comic Collector will open the comic for editing or show its stories / content.

[ ] Show Sort names for Lookup Items
Show the Sort Name for Lookup Items instead of the Display Name

[ ] Show 'In Collection' indicator in tree
Show the Collection Status icon next to the title in your tree and list

[ ] Show Counter in Tree Folders
When checked, Comic Collector will show the number of comics per folder next to the Folder name

[ ] Show Characters in Alphabetical order
When checked, Comic Collector will show the names of the Characters in the details view in alphabetical order.

[ ] Auto Increment Index
By default, this option is checked. Giving each album a unique Index. The Index value is assigned when you add an item to the database. Removing an item from your database will not make the software use that index value, but you can re-assign them through the menu Tools > Maintenance > Re-Assign Index Fields. There you will need to define a field which sets the order for the re-indexing (commonly series title and issue are taken). Re-assigning the index value is a permanent change to the index field, and can not be undone.

Auto Generate Character Display Names As:
Choose your preferred display format. Please note, this is just how the Character name is displayed, it will not alter the Character's name and/or Alias.

Font
Choose your preferred font. When you want to reset Comic Collector to use the original font (which is Tahoma), click the Reset button.
Note for Mac users: For you this option can be found under View > Change Font.

User Template Folder
This is the folder wherein Comic Collector stores your personally created or downloaded templates.

User Files Folders
The folder where your settings and database file(s) are stored. (My) Documents\Comic Collector by default. Unless you're sure what you're doing, don't change this.
Note for Mac users: Your settings etc. are saved in your Database file, so you don't have (nor need) this option.

Check For Update

Automatically Check for Update
On this tab you can tell Comic Collectorr how often to check for Updates. You can also Check for Update Manually under Help > Check for Update

Proxy Info
When you access the internet through a Proxy server, check the settings here. You probably want to not touch these settings, though.
Note for Mac users: Proxy settings are not available on the Mac version.

Backup

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

On this tab, you can set the folder on your computer where Comic Collector stores the Backup of your collection. Check the [ ] Automatically backup collection option to create backups automatically. By default, you backup is saved in (My) Documents\Comic Collector\Backup

Images (Windows version)

When Comic Covers are retrieved, they are by default stored in the Images Folder of (My) Documents\Comic Collector. Thumbnails are automatically generated by Comic Collector and stored in the Thumbnails folder.

When you change these paths (for example to an external hard disk), you will need to update these links in Comic Collector under: Tools > Maintenance > Update File Links

[ ] Resolve Image File Names at Start up
Unchecked by default, this option should only be checked when sharing the database on a network.

[ ] Multi-threaded Thumbnail Viewer
Checking this option, will preload thumbnails images for faster viewing. This option is turned off by default and can be checked with very large collections, to speed up loading thumbnails.

Image editing program
When on the Covers tab in the Edit Comic Screen, you can edit the cover image of an album. When clicking the Edit button, Comic Collector will automatically open the image editing program of your choice. By default, this program is MS Paint.

When droppping a cover image:
[ ] Copy Image to Image Folder, then Link
[ ] Just link to Dropped Image
[ ] Prompt me each time

On the Covers Tab in the Edit Comic Screen, you can add a cover image by dragging an image to the cover area. You can drag an image from the internet, or from a folder from your computer. When doing so, you will be prompted to make a choice:

Link to dropped file

Copy dropped file to default image folder, then link

Don't choose Link to dropped file when dropping an image from the internet. When the image is removed from the online source, you will lose the image. Choosing: Copy dropped file to default image folder, then link will do just that: copy it to your Images Folder and link it.

Image Scanner (TWAIN compatible)
If you have an external image scanner (TWAIN compatible), you can select it here. It will enable you to scan and add images to your comics. In the Edit Album Screen on the Images Tab, click Acquire and scan your cover (or other) images.

Scale down scanned images if height exceeds ...
To save disc space and speed up performance, Comic Collector can automatically resize your custom images to not exceed a certain height. By default, this value is set to 500 pixels.

Images (Mac version)

Save image files in:
[ ] Database container
[ ] Folder (choose folder where you want to save the images)

We recommend choosing "Database container" here as it keeps your images neatly inside one database file so you don't have to worry about losing your images if you backup your collection file.

When droppping a cover image:
[ ] Copy Image to Image Folder, then Link
[ ] Just link to Dropped Image
[ ] Prompt me each time

This option is not important when you're saving all images to your Database container anyway.

Capitalization

In this tab, you can set Auto Capitalization options for your (future) entries. The options on the Capitalization tab are pretty much self-explanatory, but here's some of the most used options.

Comic Collector allows you to choose how you want to capitalize your entries (ALL CAPS, non caps, First letter only, etc.) - check the options in the screen.

You can also check, add and edit exceptions in the right-hand screen.

Left to right: Add Phrase, Edit Phrase, Delete Phrase, Move Up, Move Down

Please note: The settings for capitalization will be applied to new entries only. Previously entered comics can be capitalized according to the settings, while in Edit Comic mode. Just click the Capitalize Comic Automatically button:

Title Sort / Sort Title

When sorting Titles, Comic Collector omits articles like 'a', 'the', 'an' ... and many others. This list can be customized. You can add, edit and/or delete articles. How? Just click the list and add or edit, as in a text file (one article per line).