What's new in CLZ Books for Android?
New:
- Added in-app getting started tips for new users (tap “dismiss” to dismiss)
In this update, we try to tackle a problem that we often see in our support system:
Users changing phones without updating their CLZ Cloud first. Or even worse, without even having a CLZ Account yet.
Which of course cause data loss (and a lot of sadness).
So in this version, we are trying to create more awareness of:
- The importance of creating a CLZ Account, so that you can Sync with CLZ Cloud.
- The importance of keeping your CLZ Cloud up-to-date by actually Syncing with CLZ Cloud.
New Sync button in main screen
When not in sync with CLZ Cloud, a new Sync button will appear on the main screen, above the Add button. This way you will always know if there are still items to sync up to CLZ Cloud or down from CLZ Cloud (even when you use auto-sync).
(Don’t like this button? In the Settings screen, switch OFF the setting that says “Show on-screen sync button”)
New “Sync with Cloud!” bar when not logged in
When using the app while not logged in to a CLZ Account, a new bar will appear at the bottom of the main screen that says “Sync to CLZ Cloud for an online backup”.
Hopefully that will help prevent future data loss.
(Don’t like this bar? In the Settings screen, switch OFF the setting that says “Show backup suggestion bar”)
New 5-book “Demo Mode” for new users
For new users who just downloaded the app, we introduced a new “Demo Mode” that lets you add 5 books before committing to the actual 7-day free trial subscription.
Fixed on Android:
- Edit Comic: When you’ve edited something, and you tapped “Next”, it would skip an item.
Fixed:
- Adding: the app could crash while adding a book
Improved:
- Add Screen: Loading details panel of a result feels a bit faster now
Fixed:
- Shake to Shuffle could cause a crash in some cases
- Opening an item, swiping to the next, then edit “in-details-panel” would reset the details to the first item
- Backdrops could still show behind the list when switched off in Settings
- Add Screen: Scanning a barcode: When the device was rotated, the barcode scanner could stop working
- Multi-level folders: When using the “Show sort names” feature, the breadcrumb at the top could show strange sort names for certain folders
Fixed
- The “All” button did not work when selecting books
A huge update for your CLZ Books mobile app today, which introduces a powerful feature for browsing and filtering your book collection: using multiple levels of folders.
Previously, it was only possible to use one level, so either Author folders OR Publisher folders OR Subject folders OR Location folders, etc… But starting with this version, you can combine folder options, so for instance, use Publisher folders, then within each publisher folder have Author folders.
Here it is, the big 8.0 release of your CLZ Books app, in which we add SEVEN new data fields.
All fields were added based on feedback from you all, the users of the app.
Four of these fields were already available in the Book Collector desktop software and can now finally be synced through the CLZ Cloud to the CLZ Books mobile app (Cover Artist, Foreword Author, Ghostwriter and Box Set).
The other three fields are completely new to all 3 of our book cataloging solutions (Signed By, Dust Jacket and Number Line).
BTW: similar updates have also been released for the Book Collector desktop software and the Book Connect web-based software, so all 7 fields now nicely sync between all of them.
New:
- Folders: You can now group on Original Publication Year
- Menu now shows last “Sync with CLZ Cloud” date
- Improved messaging for subscription status
Fixed:
- Sorting on issue number wasn’t always working
- Details page of book wasn’t always updating correctly when editing “in template”
- After searching in your own collection by scanning an ISBN, the result will now show instantly
Another big update for your CLZ Books app, in which we introduce a new view for your book collection. But there’s more:
- New “Card View”
- Selecting books now also possible in Card View and Images View
- Floating “Add Books” button (the big blue “+”) now auto-hides
Fixed:
- Picking a suggestion from the Quick Search would sometimes show the previous shown album
Fixed:
- Templates: Tapping the cover to zoom in on it often caused the cover to flip to the back cover
- Adding an item to a different collection status caused Pre-fill fields to clear in the existing entry
Initially, when we created the mobile apps, we deliberately decided to leave out the back cover images, for performance, storage and bandwidth reasons. But with today’s fast internet speeds and fast devices with large storage.. it is time to change our minds!
Read more
In this update, no new features, just a nice improvement that makes existing functionality a bit better.
All actions in the app that can take a bit longer are now showing a nice progress bar!
This gives you some idea how long the action will take.
Also, the new Cancel button lets you stop actions, e.g. if you see it will take too long to do at this time.
The new progress bars are now shown when:
- Adding multiple books
- Editing multiple books
- Removing multiple books
- Updating from Core
Improvements:
- New: Sort by Date Modified
- New: Sort by Date Added (previously called “Order of Entry”)
- New: use Added Year as your folder field
- Improved display of sort values in bottom right corner of list cells
Fixed:
- Add Books: The Add button sometimes didn’t work
Fixed:
- Values in pre-fill screen weren’t set the first time
One of the most popular features we added to the CLZ Books app in the past few years is the Pre-fill screen. You know, the screen that pops up when adding new books from Core and lets you “pre-fill” some fields for the new additions, right there and then. Without having to go back and edit the entries afterwards. A big time-saver for most users.
The set of fields that is available on the Pre-fill screen has always been fixed, limited to Location, Owner, Purchase Date/Store/Price, Quantity and Tags.
However, after the release of this feature, we instantly started getting requests for more fields to be added to the Pre-fill screen. Which makes sense, I mean, if you always fill in a field that is not on the Pre-fill screen, you would have to “edit after adding” anyway, rendering the entire Pre-fill screen useless…
So today we are taking the Pre-fill feature to the next level by making the screen completely user-configurable. That is, to allow you to choose your own Pre-fill fields!
And while we were at it, we made some other related improvements. Here’s what’s new in version 7.1:
- User-configurable Pre-fill screen: choose your own fields
- Pre-fill: new for Purchase Date and Reading Date: Use “Today”
- The Pre-fill screen is now also used to set field defaults
A huge 7.0 update for your CLZ Books app is now available, with new features and lots of improvements to existing functionality. All in one go and all based on your feedback!
New in version 7 today:
- Use barcode scanner to search your own database
- New Collection Status: Sold
- New Collection Status icons and colors
- Improved Add Books screen: enlarge thumbs, new beeps, num pad for ISBN entry
- New setting to enable/disable downloading of genres/subjects
- New Favorites section in Manage Pick List screen
- Other small tweaks
v6.6.2: Main screen lists now fully support system font sizes
New:
Main screen lists now fully support system font sizes, that is, the list rows now automatically become bigger/higher if you have set your device to a larger font size. (previously, some information would be cropped)
Read more
Now available in the Play Store, version 6.6 for CLZ Books. In this update, we finally bring the Submit to Core feature to the mobile app, so that you can help improve the Core online book database, by submitting your corrections.
Also new in this update: Select Mode is now easier to activate and the Action menu has a new look.
Enjoy!
It’s been a while since the last CLZ Books update, as our entire mobile team has been working on a big update of our CLZ Music app (the one for CDs and vinyl records).
But we’re back at it for the other CLZ mobile apps, with 3 new features in one go!
- a new “Duplicate Book” tool, for making a full copy an existing book in your database.
- a new “Clear Cloud” button in the Sync screen, for resetting your CLZ Cloud
- a new “Shake to Shuffle” feature, for selecting a random book
New:
- Image View: Sadly not everyone likes the new flexible “full cover wall” layout. So we have now made it optional. Tap the button to the left of the size slider to switch between the new “Flex Layout” and old “Grid layout”.
Fixed:
- Image View: Position of the size slider wasn’t always remembered correctly
- Template: Some weblinks could not be opened
- Template: Now only shows the publication year at the top (instead of the full publication date which has been moved to the Details section)
Instead of adding more new features, we decided to take a few weeks to work on the look and feel of the app.
In this 6.4 update, we improved the look and layout of the book list and of the book details pages, in both the main screen and the Add screen preview.
On top of that, we finally acted upon a common request from our users: you can now change the size of the thumbnails in the Images View.
Fixed:
- Printed by / Printing / First Edition / Paper Type / Photographer / Editor / Translator fields were not available for editing on multiple books.
- Tapping on a book cover in the details screen did not show a full screen cover.
A huge update for your CLZ Books app today, which gives you many fields, the ability to add website links to your book entries and finally: a setting for choosing a currency other than USD!
New fields
The following new fields are now available on the Details tab of the Edit screen:
- Printed by
- Printing
- First Edition (yes/no)
- Paper type
- Photographers
- Editors
- Translators
Add web-site links on the Links tab
A new Links tab is now available in the Edit screen, for adding web-site links to your book entries.
Tip: paste a website link in the URL box and the description will be filled in automatically.
Choose your own currency
Use the Settings screen (from the menu top left) to select your preferred currency for the Cover Price, Purchase Price and Current Value fields. Choose from USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, NZD, CHF, NOK, SEK or DKK.
A big update for your CLZ app today. Instead of bringing one big new feature, we decided to work on multiple areas that could be improved, all of them based on the feedback we received from you all. Thanks for that!
Collection Status filter
The 2nd button from the top right (next to the search button) is the Collection Status filter. Previously, it allowed you to filter by All, Collection or Wish List, but with this update, we added all collection status option there as filters, including On order and For Sale.
Also, the button will now be highlighted in yellow when a filter is active, that is, when it is set to anything other than “All”.
Re-designed toolbars at the top
The toolbars at the top have been re-designed, mainly to make the interactive elements stand out more as actual “buttons”.
(Especially the folder icon on the left was something that was often overlooked as something you could tap on. Hopefully this re-design will help to let more users find the most powerful feature of the app 🙂 )
New sort and display options in Settings
For Authors:
- Ignore Sort Names when sorting by Authors
- Show Sort Names instead of display names for Authors
For Titles:
- Ignore Sort Titles when sorting by Title
- Show Sort Titles instead of Titles
Improved Statistics screen
The Statistics screen has been updated with:
- More database totals at the top (nr of pages, purchase price, current value)
- An extra chart that shows Books by Year
- A new: “tap to show all” option to enlarge charts and see ALL entries
