What's new in Book Collector? (page 4)

Fixed:

• Main screen:
  • “None” folder for user defined fields didn’t display.
  • Main screen could freeze in some cases when folder grouping on a user defined field.
• Auto sync could crash the program in some cases.

Version 18 is finally here! And it not only bring the promised Auto-Cloud-Syncing, but also many improvements to the main screen, making it both faster and more stable.

NEW: Fully Automatic CLZ Cloud Syncing!

The free CLZ Cloud service is at the center of all our cataloging solutions (desktop, mobile and web), the glue that binds them all together.
Tens of thousands of users are using the CLZ Cloud syncing every day, to transfer data between their desktop, Connect and mobile software, to update their online collection list, or simply for keeping an online backup of their precious database.

Now, it is time to take the CLZ Cloud to the next level, with automatic syncing:
Add or edit books in Book Collector and these changes will auto-upload to the CLZ Cloud instantly. Did you make changes using the CLZ Books mobile app or directly in Book Connect? Just start your software and changes will download automatically.
No more need to go to the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen, ever.

With “Sync Automatically” switched on…

1. Your online cloud backup is always up-to-date.
2. Your cloud viewer always shows the current state of your collection.
3. All your CLZ tools (desktop, mobile and Connect) will always be in-sync.

Automatic Cloud Syncing is an optional feature, switched OFF by default. If you don’t want to auto-sync, or don’t want to sync with the CLZ Cloud at all, just leave it switched OFF.

Main screen now faster and more stable

In the past few months, we have spent a lot of time rewriting important parts of the main screen. For instance, the code that refreshes the folder panel (which was slow, especially with the “counters” switched on) and also the part that restores your selection in the list after editing. At the same time, we reduced the program’s “memory footprint”, making it more stable overall.

The result is that the program is now a lot more enjoyable to use. It starts quicker, it refreshes much faster (after adding or editing) and switching between folder types is quicker.

The speed-up will be most noticeable on large collections, with thousands of books. Especially when having LOTS of folders in the folder panel (e.g. Author folders).

Fixes

• Cloud syncing:
  • After duplicating a book, the duplicate would not be marked for syncing to cloud.
  • In some situations, a down-sync could update empty fields with data from Core.
  • In some situations, cover images would not upload automatically.
• Main screen:
  • After editing, the edited items would not be selected after refresh.

Fixed:

• Edit Multiple Books:
  • it wasn’t possible to set “Read It” to Yes
  • boolean radiogroups (Yes/No) were placed too high in Light Skin
  • Link Books with CLZ Core: searches were not using the author
• Main Screen:
  • using CTRL to deselect items would not update the selected counter at the left bottom
  • showing/hiding the quick filter panel would expose the details view when it was closed
  • when the details view image popup was scrolled down, opening it again would scroll down again
  • quick search suggestions: selecting a suggestion would not clear the previous quick search
  • selecting the window’s “restore” option when running full screen could hang the program in some cases
  • refresh of the statistics view could fall back to the currently active folder instead of selected statistics field
• User Defined Fields: fields with an ampersand (‘&’) in their name weren’t always displayed correctly throughout the program
• Edit Book: clicking OK while uploading cover would cause a crash. Buttons are disabled now during upload.
• Clicking OK/Next/Previous in an edit pick list item screen without editing its details would trigger unnecessary cloud changes
• Using “search” in some file open dialogs for images wouldn’t find .png files
• Syncing with CLZ Cloud: locally inserted items would update empty fields with Core fields after syncing

Our web-team has been working on this for a long time: a new search engine for Author/Title searches in our Core online book database.

And it is now available in your “Add Books from Core” screen!

What’s new?

• Faster searches: Most Author/Title searches will give you results within a second. UNLESS our Core server decides to consult our “back-end” sources like Google Books, Library of Congress and other national libraries.
• Better search results: The results are now more focussed, less fuzzy, as it will only show books containing ALL your search term words (as opposed to the old search that gave you books that matched ANY or your search term words).
• Single Search Box: Just one box for search (e.g. like Google or Amazon). No more separate Author and Title boxes. Just enter (part of) the author’s name and (part of) the title and you will get the best matching results. (see the screen shot above with “crichton jurassic” results”).
• Search by Publisher and Year: Getting a lot of results? Filter down to the book edition you’re looking for by adding the publisher and/or publication year to your search! (see screen shot below)

Fixed: Various font size and layout problems

This has been a long-standing problem: on Windows systems with the DPI or Font Size set to 125% or 150%, many screens had strange font size and layout problems, particularly visible in the Edit Book screen, but also affecting other screens.

This was a tricky one, but we have finally been able to fix these problems 🙂

Various tweaks and fixes, based on your v18 feedback:

Tweaks to the Edit screen:

• Add Genre/Subject screen now has checkboxes to allow the addition of multiple Genres/Subjects in one go.
• Author/Credit/Character/Genre/Subject lists: right click to directly access that specific Manage List screen.
• Author/Credit/Character lists now show a “Sort Name” column again.

Fixes:

• Edit Multiple: boolean fields would be reset to “No”.
• Add from Core: Stopping a running search could cause an Access Violation.
• Main Screen: Selected filter wasn’t restored on starting the program.
• Select Column/Sort/Folder fields: adding/removing a field after changing the order of the fields, would reset that order again.
• Various stability improvements.

Fixed

• Pick Item Screens: when using the quick search the list wasn’t always sorted correctly
• Manage Pick List:
  • When using the quick search the list wasn’t always sorted correctly
  • “auto resort” check box didn’t work
• Reassign Index fields sort fields were stored as “reassignindex” as sort fields preset
• Manage Presets: removing all presets would cause an Access Violation after closing the screen
• Edit Book: navigating Contents or Links using ALT+N or ALT+P would navigate the books instead

New:

• Edit Book: Genres and Subjects can now be added and edited in a pick item grid
• Pick Item Screens: adding a new item will now use the quick search string to pre-fill the name field

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: ALT+N/ALT+P for Next/Previous played a Windows sound
• Edit Screen: Adding a new item to a list sometimes displayed a popup that was too small
• Reassign Index Fields: Saving your selected fields wasn’t possible sometimes
• Export/Print field selection menus were missing “Manage Presets…” caption
• Clean Templates:
  • “Genre” and “Subject” fields didn’t follow the field labels
  • The “Volume” field wasn’t always displayed correctly
  • Some improvements to the layout

New:

• Edit Book: Add Author/Credits/Character: When searching for (example) an author and clicking “New Author”, the screen will now use the search words for the name of the new author you’re adding.

Fixed:

• Edit Book:
  • Editing a book from the “Edit Book” screen would set the “Read Times” field to 1
  • Cancel in Edit Content/Story screen would cause an Access Violation
  • Add button for User Defined Fields comboboxes were not positioned correctly when resizing the Edit Book screen
• Edit Series: “Generate” buttons were overlapping the front of “Display Name” and “Name” fields
• Main Screen: the bread crumb at the top didn’t reflect the “Collection Status” filter from the quick filter panel
• Add from Core: the program could freeze when experiencing connection problems
  

Fixed:

• Edit Book: plot field was too small.
• Edit/Add Story:
  • You couldn’t directly start typing in the Title field when adding a new content entry.
  • Pressing “Enter” clicked “OK” which was wrong. It now presses the “Next” button like it should.

NEW: Fully Automatic CLZ Cloud Syncing!

The free CLZ Cloud service is at the center of all our cataloging solutions (desktop, mobile and web), the glue that binds them all together.
Tens of thousands of users are using the CLZ Cloud syncing every day, to transfer data between their desktop, Connect and mobile software, to update their online collection list, or simply for keeping an online backup of their precious database.

Now, it is time to take the CLZ Cloud to the next level, with automatic syncing:
Add or edit books in Book Collector and these changes will auto-upload to the CLZ Cloud instantly. Did you make changes using CLZ Books or directly in Book Connect? Just start your software and changes will download automatically.
No more need to go to the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen, ever.

With “Sync Automatically” switched on…

1. Your online cloud backup is always up-to-date.
2. Your cloud viewer always shows the current state of your collection.
3. All your CLZ tools (desktop, mobile and Connect) will always be in-sync.

Automatic Cloud Syncing is an optional feature, switched OFF by default. If you don’t want to auto-sync, or don’t want to sync with the CLZ Cloud at all, just leave it switched OFF.

Revamped Edit Book screen

A huge refresh of the Edit Book screen, bringing the look and feel more in line with the recent Add Books from Core screen. But it’s not all just cosmetic changes, here’s what’s new:

• Button bar is now at the bottom of the screen
  With OK button high-lighted in blue, nice Next/Prev arrow buttons, etc…

• Re-designed user interface for adding and editing Authors
  • The Author list in the Edit Book screen is now a cleaner list, showing just Display Name and Pseudonym.
  • To add an Author, click the Add button top right. The new Select Author screen appears, showing your current Author pick list. Use the search box to find the author you’d like to add, typing just a few letters will make it appear. Select it, then click the big blue Add Author button at the bottom right. If your author is not in the pick list yet, use the New Author button to create it.
  • Right-click to Modify the name and sort name of an author in the list.
  • Drag the icon in the first column to change the order.
  • Click the “x” in the last column to remove entries.
• Clearer blue + buttons for checkbox list fields (like Genres and Subjects)
• Same blue + buttons for dropdown fields (like Publisher, Country and Language)
• Revamped Edit screen for pick list items
  Button bar at the bottom with blue OK button, smaller generate buttons, etc..

Simplified: Edit Multiple Books screen

• Now use checkboxes to explicitly indicate which field(s) you want set.
  Safer and clearer, no more unexpected changes.

• To clear a field, just click the checkbox and leave the box empty.
  The box will highlight in red to indicate the CLEAR action. No more hidden F8 keys.

Simplified screens for selecting Column, Sort and Folder fields.

The ability to select your own Columns for the List View is an important customization feature of our Book Collector software. The same holds for selecting the sort order and the folder fields for the folder panel.

However, the “field selection” screens for doing these customizations have always been an area of confusion. So for v18 we decided to re-imagine both the field selection screens and the system for creating/managing your own presets.

• Simplified Field Selection screen:
  • Available fields are now grouped, like the tabs in the Edit Book screen.
  • Easily find the field you want with the search box top left.
  • Use checkboxes on the left to select fields.
  • Use the “x” button on the right to remove fields.
  • Drag and drop fields on the right side to change the order.
  • Rename the field set at the top right.
• Simplified system for managing your field presets:
  • Just click the Columns or Sort Order button to EDIT the current preset.
  • Click the little arrow to the right of the Columns or Sort Order button to open the preset menu and switch to a different preset.
  • Choose Manage Presets from the preset menu to edit your presets and create new ones.

NEW: “Clean” template for the details panel, in Light and Dark styles

A complete refresh, based on the recent Connect/Cloud details page updates. Clean, clear and modern, with some fresh layout ideas:

• Cleaner look, in both Light and Dark styles.
• Re-designed and more compact Author panel at the top.
• Clearer display of Genres and Subjects.
• Now uses the book cover image as a subtle background image. Or opt for the “Plain” style for a “quieter” background.

No more Standard edition: Pro-only features now available for everyone!

Since last week, we stopped selling the Standard edition of Book Collector. From now on, the Pro edition is the only edition we sell, and will just be called “Book Collector” now.

Our gift to all users on the Standard edition who have a valid Update Plan:
Starting with v18, you now get access to all Pro-only features:

• Batch editing with the Edit Multiple feature:
  
  Save time by editing multiple items in batch, e.g. to fill in a field value for many items in one go.

• Customizable pre-sets for sorting, columns and folders:
  
  Create your own pre-set field combination for sorting and columns. Define your own folder options, even multi-level folder combinations.

• User Defined Fields:
  
  Create your own fields (text, number, pick list, checkbox or date) and rename pre-defined fields.

• Export features:
  
  Export your database to a CSV or XML file.

Fixed:

• Add Books from CLZ Core: failed barcodes search or submitted barcode would remain in barcode queue but would not be visible in the list

Fixed

• Quick Search suggestion box could crash the app.
• Alphabet bar wasn’t working anymore.

Next week, Apple will release the new macOS 10.13 “High Sierra”.
If you are planning to update your Mac to this new OS, then we strongly recommend to update your Book Collector software to today’s version 17.0.5!

Book Collector problems on High Sierra:
We have been testing our software on beta versions of High Sierra for quite a while, to make sure we were ready for it’s release. We found that most of the software seems to be working as normal.

Unfortunately, we found a big problem in the Preferences screen, it does not open at all anymore, making it impossible to make any changes to program settings.

Luckily, our Mac developer Ronald was able to fix the Preferences screen to make it work on the new macOS. A fix was released today, in version 17.1.2.

Fixed

• Preferences screen didn’t load properly on macOS 10.13 “High Sierra”.
• Upload Cover to CLZ Core: Images were not always uploaded properly even if they were within the 500KB file size limit.
• Main Screen: Quick Search: Occasional crashes in the quick search when using the “Search-as-you-type” suggestions.
• Sync with CLZ Cloud: Sometimes crashed during the upload of covers.

Fixed

• Add Books from CLZ Core: Access Violation when adding several books by isbn

Fixed:

• Add Books from CLZ Core: (un)checking an item in a selection would not (un)check all those items

New:

• Add Books from CLZ Core: the 4 “Add by” tabs now have icons.

Fixed:

• Link/Update Books with CLZ Core: if an ISBN can’t be found, the author, publisher and title are now filled in automatically in the “Unrecognized ISBN” screen, if they are known from the book you’re linking.
• Main screen: Details Panel: characters with a link filled in were not clickable.
• Edit Book: Links tab: When editing a local link, the “previous” button didn’t work.
• After adding a book where a pick list item (such as an author) was updated with new information, not all books using that same author were marked as “dirty” for syncing with CLZ Cloud.

Now sync your loan information to the CLZ Cloud

• Sync information about outstanding loans to the CLZ Cloud, directly visible in your CLZ Cloud viewer (just add the Loan columns to the list).
• Sync your loan history to the CLZ Cloud (only visible in Book Connect’s new Loan Manager)

New in Book Connect: a really nice Loan Manager feature!

• Loan books and return books, by scanning their barcodes with CLZ Barry.
• Check outstanding loans and loan history in the Loan Manager

( Coming soon: sync loan information to the CLZ Books mobile app )

Now sync your loan information to the CLZ Cloud

• Sync information about outstanding loans to the CLZ Cloud, directly visible in your CLZ Cloud viewer (just add the Loan columns to the list).
• Sync your loan history to the CLZ Cloud (only visible in Book Connect’s new Loan Manager)

New in Book Connect: a really nice Loan Manager feature!

• Loan books and return books, by scanning their barcodes with CLZ Barry.
• Check outstanding loans and loan history in the Loan Manager

( Coming soon: sync loan information to the CLZ Books mobile app )

Other tweaks

• Add Books from Core: Search Results list is now loading/refreshing faster, especially for long lists.
• New option for CLZ Barry: Auto-Connect. When enabled, the built-in Buddy for Barry automatically connects to the server when you start the program or open the Add screen.
• The Expire Date of your Update Plan is now always visible in the lower right bottom of the main screen.

New:

• Add from CLZ Core:
• Right click the Author/Title results to sort on several fields.

Fixed:

• Add from CLZ Core:
• Copy/paste text in search box wouldn’t enable the search button.
• Link with CLZ Core:
  • When linking a book with unrecognized ISBN it wasn’t possible to submit it to CLZ Core.
• Image open dialogs could crash the program when used a lot and browsing through thousands of images.

Big changes today! The Add Books Automatically screen has been completely re-designed, to make it both easier-to-use and easier-on-the-eye (and it’s now called “Add Books from CLZ Core”):

• A simple two-panel design: Search Results on the left, Preview on the right.
• The Search Results now show cover images.
• Automatic Preview of selected result (no more double clicking).

See it in action:

Here’s the full list of improvements:

Read more

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: clicking “Update” would cause an Access Violation

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: switching tabs could throw a “Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window” error when the screen was still loading

New:

• Links to renew your update plan will now automatically log you into your account on the website.
• Check for Updates: now has a link to the “What’s New” blog on our website.
• My CLZ Account popup: now has a link to the “What’s New” blog on our website.

Fixed:

• Edit Book: using ALT+N or ALT+P to navigate to Next or Previous Book could throw a “Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window” error

Fixed:

• Quick Search Suggestions:
  • selecting an item from the suggestion list would sometimes do nothing with a grouping on more than one field active
  • clicking the “show all results for…” label after pasting a search string with the mouse didn’t always perform the search
• Quick Search: “matches:” followed by nothing would result in a “regular expression required” error
• Scaled images for thumbnails, CLZ Movie export, etc. are now saved without metadata for smaller file sizes and better performance
• Main Screen:
  • Images Popup didn’t show box set covers
  • Nothing would show when switching to Cards view after applying the quick filters
  • Select random didn’t always work properly in a filtered list
• Manage Pick Lists: deleting text from the search box would initiate “remove item”
• Import from XML: price and value fields weren’t always imported correctly
• Import from Text: fields were not properly imported when delimiter appeared in field value
• Sync with Cloud: HTML in plot and notes fields didn’t always sync down properly
• Editing/Adding Pick List items: it was possible to create duplicate items with identical Display Names
• User Defined Fields: adding a user defined field will now add it to the same group as the one currently selected

We’ve expanded the quick search box to now also allow “search-as-you-type” with suggestions for pick list fields.

How does it work?

In the quick search box top right of your screen you should see a “dropdown” button. Use this to select which field you wish to perform a search on. If “search-as-you-type” is available for that field, it will instantly work once you start typing in the box.

Example

You can now select the field “Author” in the quick search box, start typing an author name, and instantly see suggestions (based on what you typed) of authors you have in your database. Click on an author to see all his/her books.

Try it with the “Publisher” field too! Instantly see which books you own from a specific publisher you type in the quick search box.