What's new?

Tweaks to Updated Values report

We were not entirely happy with the new Update Values report yet, so here’s a small tweak to the screen to make the actual value *changes* stand out more:

Fixed:

• Currency fields could contain 0.00 when they shouldn’t
• Edit Screen: You can now directly edit existing series title / sort title again
• Field Defaults would override information coming from Core

Tweaks to Updated Values report

We were not entirely happy with the new Update Values report yet, so here’s a small tweak to the screen to make the actual value *changes* stand out more:

Fixed:

• Toolbar above the Series folder could disappear on smaller screens
• Edit Screen: You can now directly edit existing series title / sort title again
• Field Defaults would override information coming from Core

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: Covers: Remove/Crop button could be missing in the edit screen
• Update value report screen: sorting was off
• Edit Multiple: Publisher and Story Arc fields weren’t working

Fixed:

• Update Values report only showed a maximum of 100 updated values

Here it is, version 6.0 of the CLZ Comics mobile app!

With this major update, we are responding to two of the most common questions:

• “How can I edit multiple comics in one go?”
• “After updating values, how can I see which comics have been updated?”

But there’s much more!
Here’s the full list of what’s new in version 6.0:

New “Update Values” report

Since we introduced the Update Values from GoCollect feature, one of the most common questions we received at customer support has been:

After I update the values for my comics, is there any way I can see which comics have been updated?

So, after one year of having to say “sorry, no that is not possible”, we figured, let’s make it possible.

And of course, we went way beyond just showing which comics have been updated. As of today, after you run Update Values, you will get a nice “Updated Values” report, showing you:

• which comics have been updated
• their previous values and the new values
• the value change, in green when increased, in red when decreased
• total value changes for the updated comics and for your entire collection

New: Add Comics by Series AND Issue Number

In the Add Comics screen, when searching for a comic “By Series Title”, you are sometimes getting so many series results, that it can be hard to find the exact comic you have in your hands. You may find yourself expanding series after series, to find the issue you need.

But not anymore, as today’s update will make this a lot easier: Just use the new “Add Issue” tab in the Add Comics screen to search by Series title AND Issue number in one go.
E.g. search for “iron man 17” and it will instantly show you a simple flat list of all issues 17 of matching Iron Man series.

Note that the list of matches will automatically be a lot shorter, because the results will only include the series that actually have the issue number you are looking. For example, search for “action comics 214” and it will instantly give you the exact comic you are looking for:

NEW: Edit Multiple Comics in one go!

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

• Tap and hold on a comic in the list to enter Select Mode
• Now tap more comics to select them.
• Tap the menu button on the bottom right and choose “Edit [x] Comics”.
• In the screen that 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 comic.

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

IMPROVED: Edit Comic screen

A new look for all edit boxes and a more compact layout, making it much easier to edit your comic 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 Genres 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 Comic 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.

Folder Field selection screen

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).

Here it is, version 6.0 of the CLZ Comics mobile app!

With this major update, we are responding to two of the most common questions:

• “How can I edit multiple comics in one go?”
• “After updating values, how can I see which comics have been updated?”

But there’s much more!
Here’s the full list of what’s new in version 6.0:

New “Update Values” report

Since we introduced the Update Values from GoCollect feature, one of the most common questions we received at customer support has been:

After I update the values for my comics, is there any way I can see which comics have been updated?

So, after one year of having to say “sorry, no that is not possible”, we figured, let’s make it possible.

And of course, we went way beyond just showing which comics have been updated. As of today, after you run Update Values, you will get a nice “Updated Values” report, showing you:

• which comics have been updated
• their previous values and the new values
• the value change, in green when increased, in red when decreased
• total value changes for the updated comics and for your entire collection

New: Add Comics by Series AND Issue Number

In the Add Comics screen, when searching for a comic “By Series Title”, you are sometimes getting so many series results, that it can be hard to find the exact comic you have in your hands. You may find yourself expanding series after series, to find the issue you need.

But not anymore, as today’s update will make this a lot easier: Just use the new “Add Issue” tab in the Add Comics screen to search by Series title AND Issue number in one go.
E.g. search for “iron man 17” and it will instantly show you a simple flat list of all issues 17 of matching Iron Man series.

Note that the list of matches will automatically be a lot shorter, because the results will only include the series that actually have the issue number you are looking. For example, search for “action comics 214” and it will instantly give you the exact comic you are looking for:

NEW: Edit Multiple Comics in one go!

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

• Tap and hold on a comic in the list to enter Select Mode
• Now tap more comics to select them.
• Tap the menu button on the bottom right and choose “Edit [x] Comics”.
• In the screen that 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 comic.

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

IMPROVED: Edit Comic screen

A new look for all edit boxes and a more compact layout, making it much easier to edit your comic 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 Genres 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 Comic 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.

Folder Field selection screen

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).

In the Add Comics screen, when searching for a comic “By Series Title”, you are sometimes getting so many series results, that it can be hard to find the exact comic you have in your hands. You may find yourself expanding series after series, to find the issue you need.

But not anymore, as today’s update will make this a lot easier: Just use the new “Add Issue” tab in the Add Comics screen to search by Series title AND Issue number in one go.
E.g. search for “iron man 17” and it will instantly show you a simple flat list of all issues 17 of matching Iron Man series.

Note that the list of matches will automatically be a lot shorter, because the results will only include the series that actually have the issue number you are looking. For example, search for “action comics 214” and it will instantly give you the exact comic you are looking for:

Since we introduced the Update Values from GoCollect feature, one of the most common questions we received at customer support has been:

After I update the values for my comics, is there any way I can see which comics have been updated?

So, after one year of having to say “sorry, no that is not possible”, we figured, let’s make it possible.

And of course, we went way beyond just showing which comics have been updated. As of today, after you run Update Values, you will get a nice “Updated Values” report, showing you:

• which comics have been updated
• their previous values and the new values
• the value change, in green when increased, in red when decreased
• links to GoCollect to see further historic values
• total value changes for the updated comics and for your entire collection

Fixed:

• Using Add Multiple Comics Manually popped up an error

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

• Merging duplicate series entries
• Correct a Series sort name
• Fixing typos in Series, 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 Comic screen

The Edit Comic 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:

• Add Comic: If you add a comic that’s already on wish list, and you move it to wish list, the program now updates that entry with the information from the Quick Fill pop up.
• Quick Fill popup: now remembers which date you used last for “purchase date” (unless you’re using “set today as purchase date” in Field Defaults).
• 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.
• Folder panel: contained “creators” folder option twice.

A big update for the Comic 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 Comic 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 Series 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 Publisher, by Grade, by Storage Box, 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. Series Group, then Series), 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 Comic: add multiple Creators, Characters, etc.. in one go

The Select screen for adding creators, 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:

• Credits
• Characters
• Signed by
• Tags

Fixed:

• Using “Select All” in your list was very slow. Super fast again now 🙂
• 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 Comics screen.

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.

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):

For most new comics you purchase every week, you are probably paying cover price. So we figured, why not make it a bit easier for you and let you auto-fill the Purchase Price field with the Cover Price?

You can now do so by enabling the “Auto-Fill with Cover Price” setting in the Field Defaults screen:

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 comics that are being edited.
• Extra warning when saving “You are about to change data for 4 comics. This can not be undone. Would you like to continue?”

Using “Edit Multiple”

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

Fixed:

• An access violation error could occur when canceling the “unrecognized barcode” pop-up.
• Backdrop image could be cleared from the Series pick list item when adding a comic.

Fixed:

• If no rating was set, it would show with rating “0” in the rating column. It now shows “nothing” in the column again.
• If no rating has been set for a comic, it would show in a “0” folder, and now shows in a “[None]” folder in your folder panel.

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.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger!

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

Faster image downloads

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

This change affects all places where images are downloaded from our servers, that is, when Adding Comics 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 comics one by one, that is, doing separate requests to our server for each and every comic.

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

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

Fixed:

• 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.

Fixed:

• Add by barcode: for some scanned barcodes, the Add button did not appear.

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

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 🙂 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 comic 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:

As you all know, we have seen no new comic releases in the past 2 months. Luckily, things are slowly starting up again. At Collectorz.com, we took this opportunity to focus on the older comics in our database, especially the 1970 to 2000 era, where barcode recognition by our Core was still “below par”.

And with today’s CLZ Comics update, you can start enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Better barcode search results for older comics (1970 to 2000 era)

• Over 35 thousand extra barcodes are now being recognized.
• Add By Barcode feature now correctly handles multiple comics with the same barcode (quite common in this era) and nicely just presents to you all comics that match your searched barcode, even when spread over multiple series.
• Improved barcode search engine.

In the screenshot below you can see a barcode that is used in 9 issues spread over 3 series. The Add Screen will now show you all possible results we have for that barcode:

Re-designed search results in Add Comics screen

While we were at it, we also re-designed the search result entries for both title and barcode searches:

• Clearer layout of all search result entries.
• Issue numbers are now listed in “badges” on the left, separate from series titles and now change color depending on Collection Status.

As you all know, we have seen no new comic releases in the past 2 months. Luckily, things are slowly starting up again. At Collectorz.com, we took this opportunity to focus on the older comics in our database, especially the 1970 to 2000 era, where barcode recognition by our Core was still “below par”.

And with today’s CLZ Comics update, you can start enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Better barcode search results for older comics (1970 to 2000 era)

• Over 35 thousand extra barcodes are now being recognized.
• Add By Barcode feature now correctly handles multiple comics with the same barcode (quite common in this era) and nicely just presents to you all comics that match your searched barcode, even when spread over multiple series.
• Improved barcode search engine.

In the screenshot below you can see a barcode that is used in 9 issues spread over 3 series. The Add Screen will now show you all possible results we have for that barcode:

Re-designed search results in Add Comics screen

While we were at it, we also re-designed the search result entries for both title and barcode searches:

• Clearer layout of all search result entries.
• Issue numbers are now listed in “badges” on the left, separate from series titles and now change color depending on Collection Status.

As you all know, we have seen no new comic releases in the past 2 months. Luckily, things are slowly starting up again. At Collectorz.com, we took this opportunity to focus on the older comics in our database, especially the 1970 to 2000 era, where barcode recognition by our Core was still “below par”. And as of today, you can start enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Better barcode search results for older comics (1970 to 2000 era)

• Over 35 thousand extra barcodes are now being recognized.
• Add By Barcode feature now correctly handles multiple comics with the same barcode (quite common in this era) and nicely just presents to you all comics that match your searched barcode, even when spread over multiple series.
• Improved barcode search engine.

In the screenshot below you can see a barcode that is used in 9 issues spread over 3 series. The Add Screen will now show you all possible results we have for that barcode:

Re-designed search results in Add Comics screen

While we were at it, we also re-designed the search result entries for both title and barcode searches:

• Clearer layout of all search result entries.
• Issue numbers are now listed in “badges” on the left, separate from series titles and now change color depending on Collection Status.