Movie Collector Manual

for Windows edition

Getting Started

Welcome to Movie Collector Download and Install Navigating the Main Screen Adding your First Movie How to search your Collection

Adding

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

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

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

Enjoying & Sharing

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

Reference

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

Editing Multiple Movies

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 movies. That could be tiresome, if it weren't for this great feature: Editing Multiple Movies.

Editing Multiple Movies... simultaneously!

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

For example, setting the Year field to "2010" for all your new movies. Or setting the Owner field to "Me" for all your movies... 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 movies you want to edit are listed in the "list panel" on the right side of the screen.

Figure 1: Multiple Movies Selected - Movie Collector 7
Tip: Choose View > Folders > No Folders to have all your movies show up there.
Now select the ones you want to edit. You can use the standard Ctrl+click and Shift+click to select multiple movies.
From the menu, choose Edit > Edit Multiple Movies. This opens the Edit Multiple Movies screen, which is the same as the normal Edit Movie screen, but with all fields shown empty.
All values you enter here will be applied to all selected movies. If you leave a box empty, that field will be left untouched for all selected movies.
When you're done making changes, click OK.

Figure 2: Edit Multiple Movies - Movie Collector 7 Tip: you can clear a value for all movies in your selection by putting your cursor in the field and then hitting F8.

That's it, you have changed multiple movies 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 Movies mode, that all selected movies are affected by your changes.

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

Editing movies 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 movies, 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 movies are visible in the list panel
Select the first one and click the Edit Movie 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.

Figure 3: Next Button / Previous Button - Movie Collector 7
Movie Collector will automatically show the next movie 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 movies a breeze.