What's new?

We received reports that the Find Cover screen was giving quite a few “image could not be loaded” errors lately, and we’ve found an issue in the program that caused this. We’ve fixed this and you should be able to load almost any image you find now.

We also changed some background code in the Add, Edit and Main screens to make the program more stable.

Improved:

• Find Cover screen: now allows more images to be shown and downloaded

Fixed:

• Stability: We fixed a couple of Access Violation errors that could pop up
• Add screen: Fixed a false “Barcode already in queue” error
• Add screen: “Change Cover” could break the preview panel
• Edit Screen: Year dropdown for dates would scroll all the way to the top, now uses current year
• Edit Screen: Date Pickers would sometimes not be able to pick today’s date if next/previous was used
• Edit Screen: User Defined Fields: Date Picker button was in the wrong place
• Sync with CLZ Cloud: Fixed syncing issues if the currency of Windows was set to something with a period (such as “kr.”)

This week, we added several new settings and improvements, all based on your feedback:

New setting for the List View: Wrap column content

This new “Wrap column content” setting can be found in the Settings screen. It lets you choose if text in the List View columns should wrap to multiple lines or not.
The default is YES / Checked. Uncheck this setting to keep your List View row as single rows, resulting in a cleaner list and more rows in view.

New Date Format setting

Also found in the Settings screen, this new selector lets you choose how dates are displayed, anywhere in the program where date are shown.
Choose from:

• 7 January 2018
• 07 Jan 2018
• 7 Jan 2018
• January 07, 2018
• January 7, 2018
• Jan 07, 2018
• Jan 7, 2018
• 07/01/2018
• 7/1/2018
• 07/01/18
• 7/1/18
• 01/07/2018
• 1/7/2018
• 01/07/18
• 1/7/18
• 2018-01-07

Core IDs can now be added as columns in the List View

Now available in the Column Selection screen for the List View: The Core ID fields.
E.g. for movies, add the Core Movie ID and Core Media ID fields to your lists, to quickly find movies that are not linked to our Core entry yet.

Fixed:

• When syncing some comics were not added locally in rare occasions.
• On phone devices: series thumbnails did not take the collection status in account.

Some changes in CLZ Comics for you:

• The buttons to switch folders, sorting and view options have been moved to more logical places to make them more accessible.
• The skins and templates options are now only available from the settings screen.
• The selection mode button has been removed, just tap and hold on an item to start selecting items.

Fixed:

• Update from Core could (in some cases) overwrite manually entered information for the Edition, Crossover, Imprint and Age fields.

Previously, setting up for the usage of the CLZ Barry as a barcode scanner required going to your Connect Profile page and back. Not anymore.

You can now get started with CLZ Barry straight from the By Barcode/ISBN tab of your Add screen. Just click the blue text “Set your Barry ID” on the far right of the barcode box and all the setting up can be done right then and there:

Some changes in 4.11.3 for you:

• The buttons to switch folders, sorting and view options have been moved to more logical places to make them more accessible.
• The skins and templates options have been moved to the settings screen.
• The selection mode button has been removed, just tap and hold on an item to start selecting items.

Sharper images in Cover View and Card View

This week, we have implemented several changes to the cover images that are shown in Cover View and Card View, making them much sharper/crisper, less blurry.

Also, on computers with a 4k / Ultra HD screen, both the Cover View and the Card will automatically switch to even higher quality images, with twice the resolution!

The difference is huge, check out the screen shots below. But the best way to experience the sharper images is to log in to your own account and look at your own collection!

Other improvements to Cover and Card View

At the same time, we made other improvements to the Cover and Card views, to make them look nicer and to make the scrolling experience smoother and faster:

• While scrolling, the images now load faster.
• Scrolling the view while images are loading is now smoother, less “choppy”.
• The Images view now has black background for a more classy look.
• In both Images and Card View, while scrolling, it does not first load a placeholder image anymore, it just show the background color until the actual image is loaded, also resulting in a less choppy scrolling experience.

A BIG update for your Comic Collector software today, with an important change:

Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in our GDPR email from a couple of weeks ago, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 18.4, Comic Collector now uses secure HTTPS connections for all communications with our servers:

• for logging in with your username and password
• for syncing your data with CLZ Cloud
• for sending your searches to Core.

To make this possible, we have created new secure “entry points” on our servers, that are only allowing secure HTTPS connections. The new Comic Collector software only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating to version 18.4.

Two updates for the Comic Connect software and the CLZ Cloud viewer today. One a big step forward in usability, the other a nice cosmetic improvement:

Comic Details now integrated in main screen

Up till now, when you clicked a comic entry to see its’ full details, you were taken to the comic details page, that is, a new page in your browser. One had to click “Back” to get back to the comic list again. Often resulting in an annoying back and forth clicking, each time causing you to lose your position in the list.

But not anymore! Starting with today’s update, the comic details are now integrated in a panel within the main collection view:

No more back and forth clicking. Just click a comic entry to see its’ details, click another one to see that comic’s details. Nice and easy, never lose your spot again.

Choose from two Layouts:

• Horizontal Split: folders on the left, list on the top right, details on bottom right
• Vertical Split: 3 panels side by side, folder, list and details

In either layout, the 3 panels are fully resizable by dragging the black “splitter bars” between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.

The comic details panel comes with its’ own “action bar”, with the main actions you may want to take on the selected comic (Edit, Share, Delete, Duplicate, Loan and Link with Core).

Improved Cover View and Card View

At the same time, we made some small tweaks to both the Card View and Cover View, so that they’re making better use of your specific screen width. Both now use a “fully justified” layout, with the Cards auto-resizing to fit your screen width and the Covers distributing over the width, both resulting in a cleaner, less “jagged” view.

Up until today, the quick search box in Comic Connect (and the CLZ Cloud viewer for comic) only searched in the Series title, Issue title, Barcode and Tags fields. Pretty limited, but necessary for performance reasons.

However, with the new search engine we created last year, it became possible to search more fields while keeping the search super-fast. So lets use that capability!

From now on, if you use the search box, it will also search in many more fields. The complete lists of fields that are now searched:

• Series Title
• Issue Title
• Barcode
• Crossover
• Story Arc
• Series Group
• Plot
• Tags
• Notes

Example: searching for the crossover “Crisis On Infinite Earths” will return all issues that are part of that crossover:

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly. We also addressed a problem with cover prices not syncing up correctly.

Fixed:

• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago, our CLZ Cloud (and Comic Connect) has been updated with 7 more fields and loan information. Today’s version 18.3 now supports the syncing of all these new fields and your loan information to the CLZ Cloud and your CLZ Comics mobile app!

Added for syncing:

• Edition
• Crossover
• Story Arc
• Imprint
• Age
• Cover Price
• Release Date
• Loans

Heads up: after updating to version 18.3, the software will automatically mark most of your comics as “changed”, to force the upload of your data for the new fields to the CLZ Cloud.

These fields also all sync to the latest iOS and Android mobile apps (version 4.11 needed)!

Fixes:

• Several Access Violation errors in the main screen.
• List View: Double clicking on checks would make list unresponsive.
• Edit Screen: Using Next/Prev would cause strange effects with checkboxes in main screen.

Fixed:

• Main comic list wouldn’t load completely in certain situations.

By popular demand, we have added 7 more editable fields to CLZ Comics. These fields were already available as automatic Core fields but are now fully editable:

Fields that are now fully editable:

• Edition
• Crossover
• Story Arc
• Imprint
• Age
• Cover Price
• Release Date

But wait, that’s not all: All the above fields now also sync to and from the CLZ Cloud!

Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in our recent GDPR email, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 4.11 CLZ Comics now uses secure HTTPS connections for all communications with our servers:

• for logging in with your username and password
• for syncing your data with CLZ Cloud
• for sending your searches to Core.

To make this possible, we have created new secure “entry points” on our servers, that are only allowing secure HTTPS connections. The new CLZ Movies app only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating your app to v4.11.

By popular demand, we have added 7 more editable fields to CLZ Comics. These fields were already available as automatic Core fields but are now fully editable:

Fields that are now fully editable:

• Edition
• Crossover
• Story Arc
• Imprint
• Age
• Cover Price
• Release Date

But wait, that’s not all: All the above fields now also sync to and from the CLZ Cloud!

Note: Because of the new fields the app needs to perform a database optimization. If you have a very big database (over 10.000 items) and/or a slower device, this optimization can take a while to complete. If you’re having troubles with this, please contact us for a solution.

Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in our recent GDPR email, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 4.11 CLZ Comics now uses secure HTTPS connections for all communications with our servers:

• for logging in with your username and password
• for syncing your data with CLZ Cloud
• for sending your searches to Core.

To make this possible, we have created new secure “entry points” on our servers, that are only allowing secure HTTPS connections. The new CLZ Movies app only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating your app to v4.11.

Fixed:

• Last update made some settings disappear in the settings screen. They are back now.
• Added bottom margin to the add auto screen on iPhone X to make the add button more reachable
• The sync screen wasn’t logging local deletes.

Over the last week Joël from team Connect worked on splitting the settings into more logical places, and added new tooltips to explain what all the buttons do. The full what’s new:

Added tooltips

Hovering your mouse over the various buttons will now show tooltips to explain what the buttons do! Hover your mouse over the buttons to see what they do.

Split the settings

All settings used to be together in one screen, but they weren’t easy to find so we decided to split the settings up into their own logical pages. You can now find them by opening the menu (top left), and look for:

• Field Defaults: to set up default field values for new items
• CLZ Cloud Sharing: to set up all your CLZ Cloud sharing options
• Settings: with just the behaviour and display settings

A cool user interface update for your Comic Connect software today, in which we makes it easier to select comics and easier to perform batch actions on the selected comics.

Select using checkboxes

To select comics, just click the checkboxes on the left of each comic entry in the list. Checkboxes are also available in Card View and Images View, just hover your mouse over an item.

No more need to go into “Select Mode” first. The Select Mode is automatically activated as soon as you checkbox the first comic, clearly indicated by the blue Batch Action Bar that replace the regular toolbar.

Batch Action Bar

While in Select Mode, the blue Batch Action Bar is visible, always showing you the number of selected comics. Also:

• Use the “Select all” checkbox to select all comics in the current list in one go
• Use the “x Cancel” button on the right to leave Select Mode
• And of course, use any of the action buttons (Edit, Delete, Print, Export, Duplicate and Loan) to perform an action on the selection comics

Comic Collector offers powerful batch commands, for performing actions on multiple comics in one go, e.g. editing, removing or updating from Core.
However, we are finding that many users have never use these these batch actions, either because they are not aware of their existence or because they don’t know how to actually select multiple comics (by Shift or Ctrl-clicking).

In today’s update we addressed these issues:

New Selection Checkboxes in the List View, for easy selection of multiple comics

The List View now features checkboxes on the left. Use the checkboxes to easily select multiple comics, no Shift or Ctrl-clicking needed. Of course the classic Shift/Ctrl-clicking still works too, this is just an extra method.

Don’t need the checkboxes? You can hide them using Tools / Options / Customization.

A new Action Bar with batch actions

As soon as multiple comics are selected (that is, more than 1), a new Action Bar appears above the list. It shows how many are selected, plus offers buttons for the most popular batch actions.

Also new: Action Bar above Details Panel

At the same time, we also added a new Action Bar above the details panel, for quick access to commands operating on the selected comic.

TIP: The commands in this new Action Bar have been removed from the main toolbar, to make that one a bit cleaner. However, if you are upgrading from an older version, it will remember your toolbar. To get the new clean main toolbar, choose View / Toolbars / Reset.

Don’t need or want this new bar? You can hide it using Tools / Options / Customization.

A BIG update for your Comic Collector software today, with two important changes:

1. Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in last week’s GDPR email, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 18.2, Comic Collector now uses secure HTTPS connections for all communications with our servers:

• for logging in with your username and password
• for syncing your data with CLZ Cloud
• for sending your searches to Core.

To make this possible, we have created new secure “entry points” on our servers, that are only allowing secure HTTPS connections. The new Comic Collector software only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating to version 18.2.

2. More sync fields

Last week, our CLZ Cloud (and Comic Connect) has been updated with 9 more fields and loan information. Today’s version 18.2 now supports the syncing of all these new fields and your loan information to and from the CLZ Cloud!

Added for syncing:

• Crossover
• Imprint
• Story Arc
• Age
• Edition
• Cover Price
• Cover Date
• Release Date
• Loans

Heads up: after updating to version 18.2, the software will automatically mark most of your comics as “changed”, to force the upload of your data for the new fields to the CLZ Cloud.

BTW: Updates for the CLZ Comics mobile apps are coming up soon, so that you can fully sync the above new fields from desktop to mobile and vice versa.

Fixed:

• A crash could occur in the “Frequency” manage pick list field.
• Grouping on “Series First Letter” would sometimes not show all series.

You can now loan comics in Comic Connect: just find and select a comic (or select multiple with the Select tool), and click the “Loan” button at the top!

Loan Manager

Click the menu top left, and then Loan Manager to access the new Loan Manager where you can see all your loaned out items, and directly return them. Alternatively you can also use CLZ Barry to scan a barcode of a comic, find it in your outstanding loans, and return it.

In the Loan Manager, you can click on a loaned item to modify the loan date, due date, return date, loaner and notes about the loan.

Print current loans to PDF

You can print out all your current loans to a PDF file by clicking the Print to PDF button in the Loan Manager screen.

Alternatively, you can select a loaner from the dropdown menu there, and only print out his/her current loans to a PDF file!

New:

• Loan comics by selecting a couple in your list, or by viewing the details of a comic, and then click “Loan” at the top.
• Return comics straight from the loan manager or by scanning their barcodes with CLZ Barry.
• Check outstanding loans and loan history in the Loan Manager.
• Edit outstanding or returned loans by clicking on them.
• Print out current loans to a PDF file

Coming up:

We will be adding the syncing of loan information to Comic Collector for Windows and macOS, and CLZ Comics for iOS and Android.

With super hi-res 4K (or even 5K) screens becoming quite common, more and more people are running Windows with the Font Size (DPI scaling) set to 125% or 150%, to keep text readable. So earlier this year, we released maintenance builds for all Windows editions to fix various layout problems when running Windows with “large fonts”.

Today, with version 18.1 we’re taking the next step: Comic Collector is now fully “DPI Aware”. Starting with this version, if you have increased your font size in Windows, all screen texts will look sharper, less fuzzy, making full use of your hi-res screen.

To give you an idea, here are 2 close-up screenshots of what it looked like in the old version versus the new version:

Old version:

New version:

New collection status icons

We added new collection status icons to the main screen’s list view and card view to make the screen less clogged up and easier on the eye.

Fixed:

• Edit Comic:
  • Index field didn’t have localized or custom caption
  • Clicking next or previous could create a second + button in the User Defined Fields tab
• Templates:
  • Fixed an issue where the template could become “white” if arrow keys were used on the keyboard.
  • Clicking an image would show a drag/drop menu. The image now opens properly.
• Quick Search: Fixed normalization for quick searches so words with umlauts/accents etc. are now easier to be found.
• Fixed a problem with folder paths for users that have their Documents folder rooted to an external drive (program wouldn’t install properly).
• Link Screen could show “Link Selected” button even if there were no matches.
• Manage Column presets:
  • Clicking in certain parts of the screen could cause Access Violations.
  • Clicking the Edit menu could break the focus in the screen.
• Light Skin: Better visibility for selected items in your lists.
• User Defined Fields: It was possible to create invisible User Defined Fields which would then never show up in the edit screen.
• Add Screen: Scrollbar position wouldn’t update sometimes.

By popular demand, we have added 7 more fields to Comic Connect that used to be automatic Core fields but are now fully editable:

• Edition. Previously set automatically, now fully editable.
• Crossover. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Also available as a folder option.
• Story Arc. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Also available as a folder option.
• Imprint. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Also available as a folder option.
• Age. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Also available as a folder option.
• Cover Price. Previously set automatically, now fully editable.
• Cover Date. Previously set automatically, now fully editable.

New for the Add Comics screen:

• Add button is now bigger and easier to spot (some new users missed the little round “+”).
• Add button now “remembers” your collection vs. wish list selection. No need to pick from the Collection/Wish List popup menu every time you add anymore.
• Remove from queue button is now bigger and easier to spot. Tap and hold on a barcode in the queue to select barcodes you want to remove.

Fixed:

• The main comic list scrolled to top after editing a comic while the ‘series’-folder mode was active.
• Accented characters in sortnames/titles were sorted incorrectly.
• Main screen: the over-sensitive quickscroll bar in the thumbnail view has been fixed.
• Edit: ‘Done’- button doest not scroll from screen on manual scroll.
• Edit: New ‘Unsaved changes’ dialog.
• Cloud sync: Sync reporting ‘invalid xml’ in rare cases.

New for the Add Comics screen:

• Add button is now bigger and easier to spot (some new users missed the little round “+”).
• Add button now “remembers” your collection vs. wish list selection. No need to pick from the Collection/Wish List popup menu every time you add anymore.

Fixed:

• Adding a comic would clear the collection status filter in the main screen.
• The sorting option screen would sometimes not fully show the chosen sort option when opened.
• iPad: Main screen: the details view did not refresh after changing the details template.
• iPad: Main screen: the ‘edit my rating’ pop up was rotated when in landscape mode.