[CLZ News] Big updates for Windows and Connect, sneak preview of v6 for mobile

It’s the last day of July already, so here it is: your monthly dose of CLZ News!

Still making great progress, with half of the team still working from home, the other half present at the CLZ HQ in Amsterdam.
In July, we released 5 big updates for Windows and lots of small improvements to the Connect web-based software. Next to that, team mobile is preparing huge v6 updates for the CLZ mobile apps (sneak preview below!).

Here we go:

• Collector desktop software for Windows:
  • Changing your folder field is now much easier
  • Edit screen: Add multiple authors, actors, artists in one go
  • Some examples of user feedback
  • Renew your subscription and always keep it active!
• Connect web-based software:
  • Improved “Edit Multiple” screen
  • Configurable Date Format for Edit screens
  • New “Year” options for folders, colums and sorting
  • Improved Auto-Capitalization feature
  • More Totals in Statistics screens
  • Comic Connect: Auto-Fill Purchase Price with Cover Price
  • Music Connect: Use Alphabet Bar for Composers
  • Book Connect: AutoCap for Subtitles
• CLZ mobile apps, for iOS and Android:
  • Sneak Preview: version 6.0 is coming up!

Collector desktop software for Windows

Big updates for Windows this week, with two cool improvements, both based on the daily feedback we are getting from our users.

Screenshots and full details of the new features can be found here:
Movie Collector / Book Collector / Music Collector / Comic Collector / Game Collector

Changing your folder field is now much easier

The folder panel is one of the most powerful tools of your software, as it instantly lets you group and filter your database on various fields, e.g. by Year, by Genre, by Location, etc.. Super useful and fun!
However, changing your folder panel to a different field was not very easy or obvious. One 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.
• Also, no more need to manually name your Favorites. Sensible names are created automatically (the selected fields separated by slashes).
• Your Favorite folder settings are listed at the top of the menu, under the Favorites heading.

Edit screen: Add multiple authors, artists, genres in one go

Many picklist fields in the program allow multiple values, like Authors, Artist, Genres, Subjects, Studios, Actors, etc… Previously, one had to add values for those one by one, taking multiple trips to the Select screen, back and forth.

But in this week’s update, we added checkboxes to the Select screens, so that you can checkbox and add multiple in one go.

Some examples of user feedback:

Mike about the easily accessible folder options in Music Collector:

“Just wanted to say that I love the way the new folder enhancements work in v20.5! This makes it so easy to view my collection from just about any angle. It has also helped to find data that I have omitted or made mistakes entering.
Thanks and as always, you guys rock!”

Gordon about adding multiple characters and creators for Comic Collector:

“Now this is something I’ve wanted for years! The checkbox method of adding characters and creators will make manual updating so much faster (especially for the Green Lantern books!)”

Brad, about both new features in Music Collector:

“Only touched the surface of the new Folder rewrite but it is looking very useful and easy to use. And this adding multiple artists in one go is a great addition.”

Stephen about the folders in Movie Collector:

“This new feature is brilliant – love it.”

Renew your subscription and always keep it active!

If you are still actively using your Collector desktop software and its online services (Core, Cloud etc..), please renew your subscription (if expired) and always keep it active.
That is the only way we can keep bringing these updates and keep our online services up-and-running and our online databases up-to-date!

Here’s how to renew today:

• Go to the CLZ Shop here
• Now LOGIN with your CLZ Account
• Then at the top, under “Collector desktop software”, checkbox the subscriptions you need, then click the big blue Add button.
• Finally, click “Proceed to checkout” and complete the payment.

Thanks for your support!

Connect web-based software:

Lots of small improvements to the Connect web-based software this month:

Improved “Edit Multiple” screen

At customer support, we were regularly receiving questions about the Edit Multiple screen, so in this month’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 albums that are being edited.
• Extra warning when saving: “You are about to change data for 4 albums. This can not be undone. Would you like to continue?”

Screenshots of the new Edit Multiple screen:
Movie Connect / Book Connect / Music Connect / Comic Connect / Game Connect

Configurable Date Format for Edit screens

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

Other Connect tweaks:

• Improved Auto-Capitalization feature: it now correctly auto-caps letters that follow a parenthesis, bracket, square bracket, single quote or double quote.
• More Totals in Statistics screens: more Totals at the top, to completely match the Stats screens of the desktop software: e.g. for Purchase Price, Current Value.
• Comic Connect: Auto-Fill Purchase Price with Cover Price: a new settings in the Field Defaults screen, that lets you auto-fill the Purchase Price field with the Cover Price for all new comics you add.
• Music Connect: Use Alphabet Bar for Composers: It is now possible to quickly filter your list based on the Composer’s first letter.
• Book Connect: AutoCap Subtitles: The AutoCap button is now also available for the Subtitle field!

Sneak Preview: version 6.0 of the CLZ mobile apps is coming up!

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:

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.

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!

More information about app-specific v6 features and improvements will follow later!

Enjoy and stay safe!