What's new?
Earlier this year, we updated our Connect software to make it fully localizable / translatable. Shortly after, we went live with Dutch and German version of Connect.
Today, after the hard work of three loyal CLZ users, three more language options went live on the site:
- French
- Spanish
- Hungarian
Thank you, Philippe, Rafael and Pető!!
v23.2.3: Fixed a problem with editing/displaying characters
Fixed:
- Characters for books could not be correctly edited (and displayed without name sometimes)
New:
- Added in-app getting started tips for new users (tap “dismiss” to dismiss)
New:
- Added in-app getting started tips for new users (tap “dismiss” to dismiss)
Fixed:
- Fixed: adding items did not work for users that were not logged in
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.
v23.2.2: Fixed sync problem with authors and a corruption issue
Fixed:
- Authors were not downsyncing from CLZ Cloud
- Adding Credits to books and then restarting could result in a corrupted database file.
v23.2: Simplified Sort Name editing for all pick list entries
Today, a nice update for the Book Collector software, that will make your cataloging life a bit easier again.
In this version, we simplified the editing of Author Sort Names (and other person entries).
In the past an Author entry had editable sub-fields First Name, Last Name and “The”, which worked together to automatically generate a SortName.
Now it is much simpler and easier. The First, Last and The fields are gone and have been replaced with a simple directly editable Sort Name.
Continuing with our quest to revamp and re-design features and screen of the Connect web-based software. Today we took on the Import from CSV/TXT screen.
Connect and CLZ Cloud users often ask us about printing or exporting only a part of their collection, e.g. “how do I print just my wish list?” or “how do I export a list for just one author?”.
Now, this was possible, but it took a few steps that were not intuitive for many users. You had to:
- Make the selection in the main screen first, e.g. by using folders, the collection status filter or the search box
- Checkbox all books in the selection, using the checkboxes in the list
- Then use the Print or Export button on the special blue action toolbar above the list
With today’s update, we are making this a lot easier. And while we were at it, we also freshened up the user interface of the Print to PDF and Export to CSV screens.
Great news for all our German-speaking customers: starting today the Connect web software is also available in German!
Our programmers have been working for months to make the Connect software available in other languages (other than English). This meant:
- Make the Connect software translatable, to ensure that all interface texts come from a translation database.
- Making a nice and easy translation tool for our translators, so that they can translate all texts efficiently and also maintain the translation when new functionality is added.
- And of course, to do the actual translation.
And today we can take the next step: Connect is now available in German!
Improved:
- Adding by ISBN: the last ISBN barcode you scanned is now automatically selected in the queue
- Further improvements for sorting text with numbers in it (especially with – symbols)
- Faster sorting, resulting in overall performance improvements especially for large databases
Fixed:
- Adding: the app could crash while adding a book
Fixed:
- When using multi-level folders, the folder panel search text would sometimes copy over to the next folder (and not be remembered when going back)
- After syncing, the main screen did not always refresh
- A crash could occur when entering Selection Mode in Card View if no cards were available
- A crash could occur when selecting folders
- When switching between collection statuses while in multi-level folders, the app could show a wrong selection of items
- The app crashed on devices with iOS13
- iPad: The folder panel search did not have an “X” to clear the search
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:
- Card View: titles were sometimes displayed wrong.
- Folders: The search filter in “Create new favorite” wasn’t working correctly.
- Fixed a couple of folder labels that were displayed wrongly at the top.
- iPad: The folder panel could jump to the top if a folder was selected from the bottom.
- iPad: made the switching between folders appear more smooth.
- iPad: breadcrumb wasn’t always displayed correctly when backing out of a folder.
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.
A nice update for all Connect users who use multiple collections, especially for those who have a LOT of collections.
New in this re-design:
- Single row tab-bar. No more lost screen estate caused by multiple rows of tabs.
- Got more tabs than fit on screen? Scroll the bar horizontally.
- Or use the next/prev buttons on the right to jump page by page.
- Alternatively, click the menu icon on the bottom left to pick a collection from a menu.
- The menu also provides quick access to the Manage Collections screen.
- Drag tabs to change their order.
- Double click a tab to rename a collection.
A big project our web-dev team has been focused on the past few months is making our Connect web-based software available into other languages. A huge project that consists of:
- Making the software translatable, basically ensuring that ALL UI text is retrieved from a translation database.
- Creating a nice and easy web-based CMS tool that translators can log in to and translate text, preview in Connect, etc…
- Doing the actual translations of all UI texts.
And today we can finally show the first results: Connect is now available in Dutch!
Fixed:
- Sorting problems for certain fields
- Several small Add Screen stability issues
Fixed:
- Add Books screen could give an “Access Violation” error in 32-bits mode.
- When searching for a pseudonym of an author using the search (top right) in your main screen, hitting Enter would not produce the right results.
- Edit Screen: The “Signed By” field now grows in height when resizing it.
- Edit Screen: when adding “local other files” on Links tab, and selecting multiple files in one go, it would just add multiple copies of the same file.
- Dark Skin: In the Folder panel, we’ve made the barchart color a bit brighter.
- In the Pre-fill popup you could not select an “empty” item for pick lists.
- Sorting your list by date wasn’t always working properly.
- When using “Export to XML” or “Save Database As” the program will check if the file already exists.
v23.1: Now supports our new CLZ Scanner barcode scanner app
As announced last weekend, here it is, Book Collector version 23.1 for Windows, with full support for our new CLZ Scanner barcode scanner app!
And as indicated earlier, support for the old CLZ Barry scanner app has now been removed.
What is CLZ Scanner?
The aptly-named “CLZ Scanner” is a barcode scanner app, nothing more, nothing less. It is an app that you use on your phone to scan barcodes and then instantly send those scanned barcodes to the Add Books screen of the Book Collector software running on your computer. From there, you can then easily and comfortably add the scanned books to your computer software.
CLZ Scanner replaces the old CLZ Barry app.
v23.0: 3 completely new data fields and 4 new sync fields
Here it is, the promised big v23.0 release of your Book Collector desktop software, in which we added 3 completely new data fields and 4 new cloud-sync fields.
All fields were added based on feedback from you all, the users of the app.
Three completely new fields (Signed By, Dust Jacket and Number Line) were added to all of our book database solutions (mobile, web and desktop).
Also, you can now finally sync these existing Book Collector fields through the CLZ Cloud to the CLZ Books mobile app (Cover Artist, Foreword Author, Ghostwriter and Box Set).
BTW: similar updates have also been released for the CLZ Books mobile apps and Book Connect web-based software so all 7 fields now nicely sync between all of them.
Here it is, a big release of your Book Connect web-based software, 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 CLZ Books mobile apps and the Book Collector desktop software, so all 7 fields now nicely sync between all of them.