Movie Collector Manual
for Windows edition
Welcome to Movie Collector Download and Install Navigating the Main Screen Adding your First Movie How to search your Collection Adding Movies Automatically Adding Movies Manually Barcode Scanning Adding Movie Files Field Defaults Search Settings Importing from text Managing your Wish List Adding a Box Set Importing from Windows/XML Editing Movies List Items and more Editing Multiple Movies Find Cover Image Adding Trailers, Links and Files Editing List Icons Loan Manager Update File Links Customizing Movie Collector Changing the layout Custom Field Names Sorting your Collection Using Folders Custom Views Edit, Merge List Items Activating Connect Sync & Share Synchronize with Connect Linking your movies for Connect CLZ Movies for iPhone/iPod CLZ Movies for Android CLZ Movies HD for iPad Using the Filter screen Collection Statistics Printing a Simple List Browsing your movies on Vista Media Center Print Screen Updating Movie Collector The Collectorz.com movie database Field Reference Data Submission Guidelines The Options Screen Keyboard Shortcuts Creating a Backup Validating Movie Collector Add/Edit Movie Screen
List Items and more
- How do I add my own Genres?
- Why is "VCC Video" not listed under Formats?
- How do I remove unused Editions from the Edition List?
- And this one: when are you releasing a version that has "2011" in the Year list?
Movie Collector offers you the flexibility of defining your own "pick lists" for all of the above.
Adding new values
Adding new values for these fields is super easy. It can be done right from the Edit Screen. E.g. for Formats and Years, you can just type the new value into the box.After you click OK to save your changes, the new Format or Year value will be added to the drop down list for future use.
Figure 1: Adding the VCC Video format
For multi-value fields like Genres and Subject, the process is slightly different. You see, these show up in the Edit screen as a list of checkboxes.
To add a new value, type it in the box that is below the checklist, then click the little button with the green plus sign.
You will immediately see it appear and to make your life easier, it's even checked automatically.
Figure 2: Adding Genre
Full control of your lists: Add, Edit, Remove and Merge (!) values
For full control of your pick lists, you can use the Edit Lists screen.
Choose:Tools > Edit Lists to get there and click the yellow folder icon to choose the list you want to work on (e.g. the Genre List).
Now you can use the Add Item button to add your own genres. You can also remove genres here, edit their names or merge duplicate entries.
While you are in the Edit Lists screen, you may want to look at some of the other lists (use the yellow folder button again). You can manage all the program's "pick lists" here, e.g. the Formats, Subjects, Studios, Publishers, Platforms, Series, etc... and of course all people lists (Artists, Authors, Producers, Actors, etc...).
Figure 3: Edit Lookup List
The joys of pick lists
Pick Lists (or "lookup lists") are a very useful element of your database, for several reasons:
- They save you a lot of typing. Once a value has been entered in the list, you can just select it instead of re-typing it every time.
- The actual item name is stored in the database only once, so if you fix a typo, it automatically changes for all movies, books or albums that refer to that specific entry.
- They let you control the correct sorting of person names, by entering their first and last names.
- A correctly maintained pick list ensures that your collectibles are correctly grouped into folders on the main screen. This is where the Merge features comes in handy.