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CLZ Books (iOS)

v6.0.3: A couple of bug fixes

September 9th, 2020

Fixed:

  • Edit screen: multiple value fields (like author and genre) were always saved alphabetically.
  • Edit screen: crash when removing an author on devices running iOS 10.
  • Edit screen: image taken from the camera was saved rotated.
  • Edit screen: the new “pills” weren’t showing correctly if your accessibility settings were set to bold text.
  • Manage Pick Lists: sort names could not be changed and saved.

CLZ Books (Android)

v6.0.3: Fixed a sync issues with Edit Multiple

September 3rd, 2020

Fixed:

  • Edit multiple: books edited were not marked for syncing

CLZ Books (Android)

v6.0.2: Custom Image toggle didn’t save

September 2nd, 2020

Fixed:

  • Edit Screen: Custom Image toggle did not save


Fixed:

  • Crash when opening the edit screen on devices running iOS 9 or 10.
  • Edit multiple screen: contents of ‘Series’ and ‘Original Publisher’ were swapped.


Here it is, version 6.0 of the CLZ Books mobile app!
In this major update, we finally bring you THE most requested feature: being able to Edit Multiple Books in one go. But there’s more, as we took this opportunity to completely re-design the Edit Book screen and to implement super useful Crop and Rotate tools for book cover images.

Here’s the full list of what’s new in version 6.0:

NEW: Edit Multiple Books in one go!

Finally make changes to multiple (or all) book entries in one go.
Here’s how:

  • Tap and hold on a book in the list to enter Select Mode
  • Now tap more books to select them.
  • Tap the menu button on the bottom right and choose “Edit [x] Books”.
  • In the screen tap appears, select which fields you want to edit.

    (Tips: use the search box to find fields, tap the heart icons to set Favorite fields)

  • Tap Edit at the top right.
  • Now set values, or leave fields gray to clear them.
  • Tap Done at the top right to save the changes to the selected books.

Warning: the Edit Multiple feature is a very useful and powerful features, but… remember what Uncle Ben said: With great power comes great responsibility!

IMPROVED: Edit Book screen

A new look for all edit boxes and a more compact layout, making it much easier to edit your book entries, without scrolling through long lists of fields.

  • The cover image is now on its own tab, so the main tab starts with the most important edit fields at the top.
  • Fields are now laid out side-by-side, making it easier to edit all fields without endless scrolling.
  • More compact look and user interface for all text edit fields.
  • More compact display and editing of multi-value pick list fields like Authors, Genres, Subjects and Tags.
  • Date fields: enter year, month day manually or use calendar icon to use date setter popup.

NEW: Built-in Crop and Rotate tool for cover images

In the Edit Book screen the Cover is now on its own tab, with new Crop and Rotate tools for instant rotating and cropping of self-made cover photos or downloaded images.

IMPROVED: Folder Field selection screen

Yep, another update of this screen, to make it fully consistent with the Select Edit Fields screen.
It now includes a search box at the top for quickly finding the field you want, plus the ability to create your own Favorites (just tap the heart icons).



Here it is, version 6.0 of the CLZ Books mobile app!
In this major update, we finally bring you THE most requested feature: being able to Edit Multiple Books in one go. But there’s more, as we took this opportunity to completely re-design the Edit Book screen and to implement super useful Crop and Rotate tools for book cover images.

Here’s the full list of what’s new in version 6.0:

NEW: Edit Multiple Books in one go!

Finally make changes to multiple (or all) book entries in one go.
Here’s how:

  • Tap and hold on a book in the list to enter Select Mode
  • Now tap more books to select them.
  • Tap the menu button on the bottom right and choose “Edit [x] Books”.
  • In the screen tap appears, select which fields you want to edit.

    (Tips: use the search box to find fields, tap the star icons to set Favorite fields)

  • Tap Edit at the top right.
  • Now set values, or leave fields gray to clear them.
  • Tap Done at the top right to save the changes to the selected books.

Warning: the Edit Multiple feature is a very useful and powerful features, but… remember what Uncle Ben said: With great power comes great responsibility!

IMPROVED: Edit Book screen

A new look for all edit boxes and a more compact layout, making it much easier to edit your book entries, without scrolling through long lists of fields.

  • The cover image is now on its own tab, so the main tab starts with the most important edit fields at the top.
  • Fields are now laid out side-by-side, making it easier to edit all fields without endless scrolling.
  • More compact look and user interface for all text edit fields.
  • More compact display and editing of multi-value pick list fields like Authors, Genres, Subjects and Tags.
  • Date fields: enter year, month day manually or use calendar icon to use date setter popup.

NEW: Built-in Crop and Rotate tool for cover images

In the Edit Book screen the Cover is now on its own tab, with new Crop and Rotate tools for instant rotating and cropping of self-made cover photos or downloaded images.

IMPROVED: Folder Field selection screen

Yep, another update of this screen, to make it fully consistent with the Select Edit Fields screen.
It now includes a search box at the top for quickly finding the field you want, plus the ability to create your own Favorites (just tap the star icons).


Book Collector (Windows)

v20.5.2: Fixed an error popup

August 25th, 2020

Fixed:

  • Editing a local file link popped up an error

Book Collector (Windows)

v20.5 Easier access to the Manage Pick Lists screen

August 25th, 2020

The Manage Pick Lists screen is one of the most important screens of your Book Collector software. This is the screen you need for:

  • Merging duplicate author entries
  • Correct an Author sort name
  • Fixing typos in Genres, Tags, Locations, etc…
  • Removing unused pick list entries
  • etc… etc…

But… judging from daily questions in our support channels, many users don’t even know of its existence. (Hint: it can be opened from the Edit menu). So with today’s update we are aiming to increase the awareness the Manage Pick Lists screen and to make it easier to access from anywhere.

From the main screen folder panel

In the main screen, you can now easily access the Manage Pick Lists screen for the selected folder field. Just click the new button right above the folder panel:

From the Edit Book screen

The Edit Book screen now has a big Manage [..] List button at the bottom, that automatically changes to match the field you are currently at:

From the Add/Edit item screen

Fixed:

  • User Defined Yes/No fields are now available as options for the folder panel.
  • Edit Multiple: Updating date fields wasn’t always working correctly if you only filled in a year.
  • Edit in List: Editing the Collection Status field did not work.
  • Folder panel: “Collection Status” folder option has been moved to “Personal” heading.

Book Collector (Windows)

v20.4: Changing your folder field is now much easier

July 30th, 2020

A big update for the Book Collector software today, with several improvements and fixes, all based on the daily feedback we are getting from our users.

Changing your folder field is now much easier

The folder panel is one of the most powerful tools of your Book Collector software. However, in our support conversations with users, we are finding that most users are always leaving their software on the out-of-the-box Author folders and never use anything else.

Which is sad, as they are missing out on a great tool. The folder panel instantly lets you group and filter your database on other fields too, e.g. by Publishing Year, by Genre, by Subject, by Location, etc.. Super useful and fun!

Now… I must admit that changing your folder panel to a different field was not very easy or obvious. As you had to create a “preset”, add your desired field(s), give the preset a name, save it, then finally activate the new preset in the folder panel.

So… we decided to make this all *much* easier, especially for single field folder settings.

  • You can now directly select any folder field for the folder panel, without having to create a preset first. Just instantly pick your desired folder field under the “Folders” heading in the menu of the Folder button.
  • Presets are now called Favorites.
  • You can still create your own Favorite folder options, e.g. for multi-level folder settings (e.g. Year, then Author), or just to make a specific 1-field setting easily accessible.
  • Your Favorite folder settings are listed at the top of the menu, under the Favorites heading.
  • New: no more need to manually name your Favorites. Sensible names are created automatically (the selected fields separated by slashes).

Columns and Sorting

  • For Columns and Sorting, “Presets” have been renamed to “Favorites” too.
  • For Sort Favorites: no more need to manually name your Favorites. Sensible names are created automatically (the selected fields separated by slashes).

Edit Book: add multiple authors, credits, etc.. in one go

The Select screen for adding authors, credits, characters, etc… now includes checkboxes, so that you can multiple in one go. No more need to go back and fort between the Select and Edit screen to add multiple.

The new checkboxes for selecting multiple values in one go are now available in the Select screen for the following fields:

  • Authors
  • Credits
  • Characters
  • Genres
  • Subjects
  • Tags

Fixed:

  • Using “Select All” in your list was very slow. Super fast again now πŸ™‚
  • Print screen: “Field ID 221 has no XML tagname” error, when printing the Collection Status field as a column.
  • Removed the annoying “beep” when searching in the Add Books screen.

Book Connect

Various improvements

July 27th, 2020

Last week we implemented several small improvements to the Connect software, based on suggestions (and complaints) from you all, our loyal users:

Configurable Date Format for Edit screen

Two months ago, we introduced a Date Format setting to control how dates are displayed throughout the Connect software. But the date editors in the Edit screen still always used “yyyy-mm-dd” as the format. Which could be confusing to some users.

So in the Settings screen, under Editing, we have now introduced a new setting, specifically for controlling the order of the year, month and day boxes in the Edit screen:

New “Year” options for folders, colums and sorting

Some dates were already available as Year-only options for folders, columns and sorting (like Release Year, Publication Year, etc…), but we have now updated the available options to include ALL date fields as Year-only options, for example:

  • Added Year
  • Purchase Year
  • Seen it Year
  • Read it Year

Improved Auto-Capitalization feature

Small tweak for the Auto-Capitalization tools: it now correctly auto-caps letters that follow a parenthesis, bracket, square bracket, single quote or double quote.

More Totals in Statistics screens

The Statistics screen has been updated with more Totals at the top, e.g. for Purchase Price, Current Value.


CLZ Books (Android)

Sneak Preview: version 6.0 of all 5 CLZ mobile apps!

July 21st, 2020

Version 6.0 is coming up for all five CLZ mobile apps:
CLZ Books, CLZ Music, CLZ Movies, CLZ Comics and CLZ Games (probably in that order).

For “Vee Six” we decided to finally implement THE most commonly requested feature:

Editing Multiple entries in one go! (aka: Batch Editing)

At the same time, v6 will come with completely re-designed Edit screens. Check out some sneak preview screenshot below. More information about app-specific v6 features and improvements will follow later!

Finally: Edit Multiple entries in one go!

This has been the most common feature request for many years: How can I edit (or clear) the Grade/Location/Owner/etc… for many of my database entries in one go?

And in v6, it will finally be possible:

  • Just select the entries you want to edit (using tap and hold), and choose Edit from the menu.
  • Then select which fields you want to edit (or clear).
  • Finally, set the values you want to set and click Done.

Some screenshots:

(These screenshots have been taken from the iOS edition of CLZ Comics, but the other 9 apps will look very similar):

Edit screen re-design

Also new in v6: completely re-designed Edit screens, to make them clearer, more compact and nicer looking.
No more long lists of fields, one per row. In the new screen, fields are placed side by side where possible, with the Cover on a separate tab. Resulting in a more compact screen, requiring less scrolling. Especially on tablet devices!

Some sneak preview screenshots:

(These screenshots have been taken from the iOS editions of CLZ Books and CLZ Music, but the other 8 apps will look very similar):


Book Connect

Improved “Edit Multiple” screen

July 15th, 2020

At customer support, we were regularly receiving questions about the Edit Multiple screen, so in today’s update we made several changes to make it clearer.

  • The checkboxes (for unlocking fields) have been replaced by clearer “lock” icons. Click the lock icon to unlock a field for editing.
  • Or, just click on a lock field and you will receive a popup asking you to unlock it.
  • An extra notification at the top explaining the unlocking and clearing of fields.
  • Save button now indicates the number of books that are being edited.
  • Extra warning when saving “You are about to change data for 4 books. This can not be undone. Would you like to continue?”

Using “Edit Multiple”

Quick reminder on how to use Edit Multiple:
In the main list, use the checkboxes to select some books, and click “Edit” in the blue action bar that appears above the list.


Book Connect

AutoCap Subtitles

July 15th, 2020

Quick addition for the Edit Book screen today:
The AutoCap button is now also available for the Subtitle field!


Book Collector (Windows)

v20.3.3: Couple of fixes

June 30th, 2020

Fixed:

  • If cover downloads were disabled, the program would still download a cover URL
  • If no rating was set, it would show with rating β€œ0” in the rating column. It now shows β€œnothing” in the column again.
  • If no rating has been set for a book, it would show in a β€œ0” folder, and now shows in a β€œ[None]” folder in your folder panel.

Book Collector (Windows)

v20.3.2 Several fixes

June 26th, 2020

Fixed:

  • In some case, new entries added through Add from Core would get images with .tmp extensions, instead of .jpg.
  • Editing pick list items directly from the folder panel did not work anymore.
  • Dragging items between folders did not work anymore.

Book Collector (Windows)

v20.3: Faster image downloads, faster Update from Core

June 25th, 2020

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger!

Here’s another big update for your Book Collector software, with two further performance improvements:

Faster image downloads

We were able to make several improvements to the way images are downloaded (covers), making it much faster than before.

This change affects all places where images are downloaded from our servers, that is, when Adding Books from Core, when Updating from Core and when down-syncing from CLZ Cloud.

Faster Update from Core

On large collections the old Update from Core feature was quite slow, as it updated your books one by one, that is, doing separate requests to our server for each and every book.

So for this update, we also complete rewrote the Update from Core feature to do the updates in batches of 100 books at a time, making it much much faster! (roughly 4 times as fast).

Remember: Update From Core can be used to update your local book entries with possible extra data from our Core online book database. To use this feature, select some books, right click, then choose Update from Core.

Fixed:

  • Add Books from Core: when adding by ISBN and the ISBN is not found, it now automatically pops up the Unrecognized ISBN screen, so that you can 1. add the book anyway and 2. report the missing ISBN to our Core.
  • When using My Rating as the folder field, the “0” folder was missing.
  • When using multiple levels of folders in the folder panel, sometimes the displayed counters were wrong.
  • Images View: it is now possible to change thumb size using Ctrl + mouse wheel.
  • Templates: Audio book length was missing in certain situations.
  • Templates: Better visibility of authors that have a wiki-link if a book has multiple authors


New:

  • When using the X button top left, the program will now “quit” instead of “suspend” so that when you restart the program your database will immediately open again.

Fixed:

  • It wasn’t possible to add pseudonyms to authors through the Manage Pick Lists screen.
  • Manage Pick Lists screen could hide behind the Edit Content screen when opened


Today’s version 5.5 brings two improvements to your CLZ Books app:

  • A redesigned Select Folder Field screen
  • A much faster Update from Core feature

Redesigned Select Folder Field screen

Through the years, the number of available folder fields has grown enormously, making the Select Folder Field screen a bit “unwieldy”. We decided to come up with a better solution.

This update includes a redesigned Select Folder Field screen, with all folder options nicely grouped under sensible headers, and the most popular options (Author, Publisher, Location) instantly accessible at the top.

Faster Update from Core

On large collections the old Update from Core feature was quite slow, as it updated your books one by one, that is doing separate requests to our server for each and every game.

So for this update, we also complete rewrote the Update from Core feature to do the updates in batches of 100 books at a time, making it much much faster!

Remember: Update From Core can be used to update your local book entries with possible extra data from our Core online book database. To use this feature, tap and hold on a book in your list to select it, tap more to select more, then tap the menu icon on the bottom right and choose Update from Core.



Today’s version 5.5 brings two improvements to your CLZ Books app:

  • A redesigned Select Folder Field screen
  • A much faster Update from Core feature

Redesigned Select Folder Field screen

Through the years, the number of available folder fields has grown enormously, making the Select Folder Field screen a bit “unwieldy”. We decided to come up with a better solution.

This update includes a redesigned Select Folder Field screen, with all folder options nicely grouped under sensible headers, and the most popular options (Author, Publisher, Location) instantly accessible at the top.

Faster Update from Core

On large collections the old Update from Core feature was quite slow, as it updated your books one by one, that is doing separate requests to our server for each and every game.

So for this update, we also complete rewrote the Update from Core feature to do the updates in batches of 100 books at a time, making it much much faster!

Remember: Update From Core can be used to update your local book entries with possible extra data from our Core online book database. To use this feature, tap and hold on a book in your list to select it, tap more to select more, then tap the menu icon on the bottom right and choose Update from Core.

Fixed:

  • Field Defaults screen could crash
  • Edit Screen: some fields would sort bad while editing them
  • Add from Core: when adding a book that is already in on your wish list, it will now offer to change its status to ‘In Collection’
  • When scanning barcodes the “beep” sound would only sound on the first scan
  • Search on own collection could be forgotten during scrolling/browsing your collection

Book Collector (Windows)

v20.2.2: Maintenance build

June 10th, 2020

Fixed

  • Images View: Improved spacing between thumbnails
  • Images View: Mouse over on images didn’t show the title of the item
  • Cover Flow: Now uses big sharp images instead of the small thumbnails
  • Find Cover: Could give an Access Violation when finding GIF images
  • Templates: Improved visibility of authors if a book has multiple authors

Book Collector (Windows)

v20.2: Faster Shelves View + 2 new Shelf Styles

June 8th, 2020

When users send us screenshots during support conversations, we are seeing that many of you are using the Shelves View when browsing your collections. And we can’t blame you, that IS a cool looking view πŸ™‚ However, it *could* be a bit slow and jerky, especially when displaying many cover images in one list.

So our Windows guy Joe has spent several weeks to make this Shelves View faster and smoother. At the same time, our in-house graphics man AJ has created two new Shelf styles. Here’s what’s new:

  • Images are now loading a lot faster.
  • Scrolling is faster and smoother.
  • Shelves background is smoother, no more visible tile edges.
  • Shelves now always continue over the full width, even when a row is not full.
  • Two new Shelf Styles are now available: White and Concrete.

TIP: here’s how to get to Shelves View:
in your program’s book list panel, click the vertical Images tab on the right, then from the toolbar above the list panel, choose a Shelf Style. Use the slider to control the size of the images.

The new “White” style:

The new “Concrete” style:


Book Connect

Add Books: select your preferred Regions

June 4th, 2020

New in the Add Books screen of your Book Connect software: the ability to select your Primary and Secondary “search regions”. The selected regions affect which 3rd party book sources our Core search engine uses when a book is NOT found in Core.

For example, if you set the primary region to Italy, and then search for an ISBN that is not in our Core yet, it will go out and search several Italian online book sources (e.g. national libraries).

If you are in the US or UK, this setting will not make much of a different to you (as those have always been the preconfigured default regions), but if you are located elsewhere in the world, setting your regions accordingly may greatly improve your success rate on book searches.


Book Connect

New Crop and Rotate tool for cover images

May 20th, 2020

New in the Cover tab of your Edit screen: built-in Crop and Rotate tools for your cover images!

Super useful for fine-tuning images that you uploaded or found through the Find Online tool. You can even Crop/Rotate images that you received from Core, in which case they will be automatically turned into a custom image.

To use the new Crop/Rotate tools, open your Edit screen go to the Cover tab and click the “Crop/Rotate” icon on the top right above the Front or Back cover image:

Then:

  • Click the Rotate icon to rotate the image 90 degrees to the right.
  • Drag the blue crop rectangle to indicate your desired crop area.
  • Click Apply to apply the changes.


Book Connect

New: keyboard shortcuts!

April 28th, 2020

New in Connect today: We have added several keyboard shortcuts to the most commonly used features:

For the Main screen:

  • Navigate through your items with your arrow keys (works in List, Images, Shelves and Card View!)
  • Use c + a or c then a for Add from Core
  • Use c + m or c then m for Add Manually
  • Use c + h or c then h for Add Hardware from Core (Game Connect)
  • Use c + j or c then j for Add Hardware Manually (Game Connect)
  • Use c + e or c then e for Edit Selected Item

For the Edit screen:

  • Use cmd/ctrl + s to Save and close
  • Use cmd/ctrl + j to Save and go to Previous item
  • Use cmd/ctrl + k to Save and go to Next item


CLZ Core is our central online book database, that is the database that you search by ISBN or by Author/Title in the Add Books screen. In general, the book information delivered by Core quite complete and correct, but you may sometimes run into entries that are quite sparse (e.g. just author, title, publisher and date) or even entries with incorrect data.

As of today, *you* can help us improve that, using the new Submit to Core feature!
Just fill in the correct data in your own entry, then select the book and choose Submit to Core from the toolbar above the book details:

Which takes you to a form the core.collectorz.net site, where you can see our Core data on the left and your own data on the right. Now use the green arrow icons to use your data to correct and complete our data. Then finally, click the big green Submit Changes button on the bottom:

Thanks for your help!


Recent changes

Connect is now available in Swedish! February 21st, 2024 Connect is now available in Danish! January 30th, 2024 Connect is now available in Portuguese, Serbian and Slovak January 18th, 2024 v8.5.5: New “Delete CLZ Account” option December 6th, 2023 v8.5.4: Added a new “Remove all unused pick list entries” option November 22nd, 2023 Improvements to the Collections and Edit Multiple features November 20th, 2023 v8.5.3: Couple of fixes and changes November 7th, 2023 v8.5.2: Various bug fixes November 1st, 2023 v8.5.2: Various bug fixes November 1st, 2023 Complete re-design of Edit Multiple feature October 30th, 2023 Pre-fill screen: Orange highlights and a Clear button October 30th, 2023 v8.5: Easier access to Manage Pick Lists tool October 25th, 2023 v8.4: Pre-fill screen: Orange highlights and a Clear button October 16th, 2023 Improved search results in the Link with Core screen October 12th, 2023 Connect is now available in French, Spanish and Hungarian! September 29th, 2023 v23.2.3: Fixed a problem with editing/displaying characters September 20th, 2023 v8.3.1: New in-app getting started tips September 14th, 2023 v8.3.1: New in-app getting started tips September 13th, 2023 v8.2.2: Bug fix for users who were not logged in September 12th, 2023 v8.2: New Sync button on main screen September 6th, 2023 v23.2.2: Fixed sync problem with authors and a corruption issue September 4th, 2023 v23.2: Simplified Sort Name editing for all pick list entries August 31st, 2023 Improved Import from CSV/TXT screen August 16th, 2023 Printing / Exporting a selection is now much easier August 10th, 2023 Connect is now available in German! July 4th, 2023