News: all updates for our software and apps (page 31)

Another big update for your Book Connect software.
This time we added a new feature, that will save you lots of time:

New Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding books

When adding a book to your database using the Add Books screen, it will now pop-up a new screen called “Pre-fill book details, letting you set various fields right then and there.

Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:

• Location
• Owner
• Purchase Date
• Purchase Store
• Purchase Price
• Quantity
• Tags

No more need to edit your added books afterwards!

Another nice update for your Comic Connect software.

Updated Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding comics

When adding a comic to your database using the Add Comics screen, it always shows the Quick-Fill popup, for quickly pre-filling some fields for the added comics.

This pop-up has been renamed to “Pre-fill comic details”, now has a new layout and contains 4 extra fields you can pre-fill!

Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:

• Grade
• Quantity
• Grading Company (New!)
• Raw / Slabbed (New!)
• Storage Box
• Owner (New!)
• Purchase Date
• Purchase Store
• Purchase Price
• Tags (New!)

Another big update for your Music Connect software.
This time we added a new feature, that will save you lots of time:

New Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding albums

When adding an album to your database using the Add Albums screen, it will now pop-up a new screen called “Pre-fill album details, letting you set various fields right then and there.

Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:

• Location
• Owner
• Purchase Date
• Purchase Store
• Purchase Price
• Quantity
• Tags

No more need to edit your added albums afterwards!

Another big update for your Game Connect software.
This time we added a new feature that will save you lots of time:

New Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding games

When adding a game to your database using the Add Games screen, it will now pop-up a new screen called “Pre-fill game details, letting you set various fields right then and there.

Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:

• Completeness (Loose / CIB / New)
• Box / Manual
• Location
• Owner
• Purchase Date
• Purchase Store
• Purchase Price
• Quantity
• Tags

No more need to edit your added games afterwards!

Another big update for your Movie Connect software.
This time we added a new feature that will save you lots of time:

New Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding movies

When adding a movie to your database using the Add Movies screen, it will now pop-up a new screen called “Pre-fill movie details, letting you set various fields right then and there.

Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:

• Location
• Owner
• Purchase Date
• Purchase Store
• Purchase Price
• Quantity
• Tags

No more need to edit your added movies afterwards!

Fixed:

• “Read it” and Reading Date would be set even if they were switched off in Field Defaults
• Pre-fill: “Not graded” option didn’t work for the Grade field
• Purchase Date would always be set to “today

Today we are responding to request that we have been hearing from many years:

Is there any way I can find which comics I am MISSING for my series

Definitely not an easy feature to implement, because the first question immediately is “what about variants?”. If you own issue 13A, do you regard issue 13B, 13C and 13D as missing or not?

So our UI/US designed AJ and I (Alwin) sat down to design a flexible “Missing Comics” screen that gives you full flexibility to conjure up the missing comics list you are looking for.

Based on our ideas, web-developer Sven created a super-fast search engine on our servers, that can instantly return issue number lists for any series. Still not sure how he made it this fast, but you’ll definitely love the speed of this too.

Then after that, Sven created the new Missing Comics tool that you can now find in the Tools menu of version 21. Alternatively, open it from the “Find missing comics” link next to you Have list at the top of your issue list.

Use the checkboxes and sort toggle at the top to:

• Show or Hide missing variants.
• Switch between a compact list and a verbose list. (the compact view lists missing comics in “ranges”.)
• Order the missing issue lists in Ascending or Descending order.

New “Find Missing Comics” link in the Collection / Wish List summary panel:

Use the button on the bottom right to download a nice PDF file that you can print off, for taking with you to the store or to a show:

After the v21.0 release, we received several reports from users that they were getting “List Index out of Bounds” error, mainly when editing comics.
Luckily, with the help of these users, we were able to close in on the problem and find that it only happened on comics that had 1 or more entries on the Contents tab, so mostly on TPBs. That helped us to quickly reproduce and fix the problem!

Other fixes:

• In Missing Comics and Update Values screens, the series Sort Names were not used for sorting.
• Several Access Violations

Another big update for your CLZ Comics app, version 6.1!
This time, we added a new Pre-fill screen, that will save you lots of time.

New Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding comics

When adding comics to your app from the Add Comics screen, the app will now pop-up a new screen called “Pre-fill comic details, letting you set various fields right then and there.

Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:

• Grade
• Quantity
• Grading Company
• Raw/Slabbed
• Storage Box
• Owner
• Purchase Date
• Purchase Store
• Purchase Price (or, auto-fill with Cover Price)
• Tags

No more need to edit your added comics afterwards!

New look and layout of Field Defaults screen

A small cosmetic change to the Field Defaults screen, to give it the same look and feel as the new Edit screens.

Another big update for your CLZ Comics app, version 6.1!
This time, we added a new Pre-fill screen, that will save you lots of time.

New Pre-fill screen that pops up when adding comics

When adding comics to your app from the Add Comics screen, the app will now pop-up a new screen called “Pre-fill comic details, letting you set various fields right then and there.

Fields available in the Pre-fill screen:

• Grade
• Quantity
• Grading Company
• Raw/Slabbed
• Storage Box
• Owner
• Purchase Date
• Purchase Store
• Purchase Price (or, auto-fill with Cover Price)
• Tags

No more need to edit your added comics afterwards!

New look and layout of Field Defaults screen

A small cosmetic change to the Field Defaults screen, to give it the same look and feel as the new Edit screens.

It is December 2, 2020, so about time for Comic Collector 21!
With this huge v21 update, we are responding to the most common feature requests we have been receiving from Comic Collector users in the past few years. This has resulted in what may be the biggest Comic Collector update in years, with 3 completely new comic specific features and 1 improvement to an existing tool.

Here’s what’s new:

New Add Issue tab in Add Comics screen

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.

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
• links to GoCollect to see further historic values
• total value changes for the updated comics and for your entire collection

Missing Comics screen

Another common request that we have been hearing from many years:

Is there any way I can find which comics I am MISSING for my series

Definitely not an easy feature to implement, because the first question immediately is “what about variants?”. If you own issue 13A, do you regard issue 13B, 13C and 13D as missing or not?

So our UI/US designed AJ and I (Alwin) sat down to design a flexible “Missing Comics” screen that gives you full flexibility to conjure up the missing comics list you are looking for.

Based on our ideas, web-developer Sven created a super-fast search engine on our servers, that can instantly return issue number lists for any series. Still not sure how he made it this fast, but you’ll definitely love the speed of this too.

Then finally, Windows developer Joe created the new Missing Comics tool that you can now find in the Tools menu of version 21. Alternatively, open it from the “Find missing comics” link next to you Have list in the details area.

Use the checkboxes and sort toggle at the top to:

• Show or Hide missing variants.
• Switch between a compact list and a verbose list. (the compact view lists missing comics in “ranges”.)
• Show or Hide series that are completed already.
• Order the missing issue lists in Ascending or Descending order.

IMPORTANT: the Missing Comics tool is a new online service that always requires an ACTIVE Comic Collector subscription.

Use the button on bottom left to generate a nice text file that you can print off, for taking with you to the store or to a show:

Improved Pre-fill screen (previously called Quick-Fill)

The Quick-Fill screen is a time-saving tool that lets you set some fields immediately when adding new comics.
In today’s update, we changed the screen to a 2-column layout and have added several fields to the screen (Grading Company, Slabbed vs Raw, Tags, plus the ability to “Auto-fill Purchase Price with Cover Price”.

Also, we have renamed the screen to “Pre-fill Comic Details” to make the purpose a bit clearer.

Completed Series folders are now hilited in blue

In the Edit Series screen, you can mark a series a “Completed”. Previously this only change the icon of the series in the folder panel, but with version 21, the program now also hi-lites the folder name in bold and blue:

We had tested our software on Big Sur betas before the actual Big Sur release and did not find any problems. However, as soon as Big Sur went live, users started reporting crashes in various areas of the program, mainly when syncing and after adding or editing entries.

With the help of these users, and after trying several test builds with them, we have finally resolved all known crashes, which has resulted in today’s v20.2 Big Sur compatible release.

If you are using Big Sur, we strongly recommend updating to this v20.2 version.

Finally, if you still see problems on Big Sur with this new version, please us know, so that we can fix any remaining bugs.

We had tested our software on Big Sur betas before the actual Big Sur release and did not find any problems. However, as soon as Big Sure went live, users started reporting crashes in various areas of the program, mainly when syncing and after adding or editing entries.

With the help of these users, and after trying several test builds with them, we have finally resolved all known crashes, which has resulted in today’s v20.2 Big Sur compatible release.

If you are using Big Sur, we strongly recommend updating to this v20.2 version.

Finally, if you still see problems on Big Sur with this new version, please us know, so that we can fix any remaining bugs.

We had tested our software on Big Sur betas before the actual Big Sur release and did not find any problems. However, as soon as Big Sure went live, users started reporting crashes in various areas of the program, mainly when syncing and after adding or editing entries.

With the help of these users, and after trying several test builds with them, we have finally resolved all known crashes, which has resulted in today’s v20.2 Big Sur compatible release.

If you are using Big Sur, we strongly recommend updating to this v20.2 version.

Finally, if you still see problems on Big Sur with this new version, please us know, so that we can fix any remaining bugs.

We had tested our software on Big Sur betas before the actual Big Sur release and did not find any problems. However, as soon as Big Sure went live, users started reporting crashes in various areas of the program, mainly when syncing and after adding or editing entries.

With the help of these users, and after trying several test builds with them, we have finally resolved all known crashes, which has resulted in today’s v20.2 Big Sur compatible release.

If you are using Big Sur, we strongly recommend updating to this v20.2 version.

Finally, if you still see problems on Big Sur with this new version, please us know, so that we can fix any remaining bugs.

CLZ Alwin here, with the CLZ Newsletter for November 2020.
We’re in the middle of the Black Friday craziness here, which means that my wife Sytske and I are answering over 250 support tickets on a daily basis. Providing renewal advice, correcting wrong purchases, helping with problems, etc…
AJ is assisting us with the more complex 2nd line issues, even logging in to user’s computers with TeamViewer to fix problems for them.

Today’s newsletter topics:

Just like last month, this newsletter is all about our tools for video games and comic books. Good news for the comic and game collectors among us, but if you’re here for the music, movie or book news, you may be thinking… “hey, what gives?”.
Don’t worry, we’ll be swinging back to the other programs soon. Let me explain what’s going on:

In the past few years, we have been doing a lot of improvement to what we call our “framework”. Improvements that benefited all collection types, like faster cloud syncing, easier folder options, faster image downloads, better shelves view, etc… Super efficient work and resulting in updates for all our tools, so for movies, books, music, comics and video games.

However, since about 6 months ago, we have changed our focus to implementing dedicated collection specific features, finally responding to common requests and complaints from our 5 different audiences. Since most of these were about games and comics, we started with those.

Also, because of we’re all still working from home, it makes project management and communication a lot easier if the entire CLZ team is working on the same project. So that is why we all spent 3 months working on many video game specific features, then after that the entire team switched over to work on the most common comic book related requests.

Next up are our movie collecting solutions. Our web-developer Stijn is already preparing our back-end for the things to come. First up: audience ratings from IMDb. We are also looking at delivering movie ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, as a nice 2nd opinion next to the IMDb Ratings. Cool movie stuff coming up!

Now, let’s look at all November updates, plus a sneak preview at what’s coming up in December:

• Game Connect / CLZ Games 6.1: New “Updated Values” report
• CLZ Comics 6.0: Batch editing, Updated Values report, Add Issue, etc..
• Comic Connect: Add Issues / Updated Values report
• Coming up: Comic Collector 21 for Windows
• Coming up: CLZ Comics 6.1 with new Pre-Fill screen when adding comics.
• Coming up: Comic Connect Missing Comics tool

Read more

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

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

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

So, after several years 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 games have been updated. As of today, after you run Update Values, you will get a nice “Updated Values” report, showing you:

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

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

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

So, after several years 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 games have been updated. As of today, after you run Update Values, you will get a nice “Updated Values” report, showing you:

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

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 Multiple could give an access violation
• Edit Game could give an access violation
• Edit Multiple would set the Completeness field to N/A
• Edit Hardware: Collection Status field is now a dropdown field

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 comic values, 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).