What's new in Comic Collector for Windows? (page 4)

Fixed:

• Custom Image checkbox wasn’t always checked in certain situations (e.g. drag/drop image on the details panel)
• Images for items that don’t have a cover in Core didn’t upload automatically
• Images for items that don’t have a cover in your CLZ Cloud didn’t upload automatically
• Got rid of a couple of access violations in the main, filter and find cover screens
• Edit Screen: Covers tab: tabs weren’t high enough
• Import from Other Database:
  • Added 2 progress bars to keep track of the import
  • In rare cases you could get an empty extra collection tab after an import
• Fixed a rare “Range Check Error” happening for big databases
• Filtering of content/story items didn’t work correctly for databases with multiple collections

Stability

We have fixed various stability issues in the program to get rid of some more access violation errors that were happening for a couple of users. We also fixed a problem where “File > Open Database” didn’t refresh the main screen to show the opened file.

• Got rid of some Access Violation errors
• “File / Open database” could show an empty screen

32-bit and 64-bit option

We’ve found that when running our program in 64-bit mode, some 3rd party external devices will not work or talk to the program such as:

• TWAIN image scanners
• Some barcode scanners
• Webcams (for barcode scanning)

If you run into issues where you your TWAIN image scanner, or your barcode scanner won’t connect or work, this is usually caused by the drivers of these devices which are not 64-bit compatible, and thus can’t talk to your Collectorz program.

We’re trying to look for a way to make them talk to the 64-bit version, but for now, to work around this, redownload the software from your CLZ Account page and during installation choose to install the 32-bit version!

We received a couple of reports of access violation errors happening on finishing an edit of a comic, adding some comics, and other actions. We’ve fixed these now. Should you still get them, please contact us.

We also fixed a problem with adding multiple comics manually (the screen wouldn’t open at all).

New:

• Image Viewer popup: The option “Resize picture to window” now resizes the window when browsing through the images of that item.
• Added new tool to automatically check the checkbox of front covers when they are “custom covers” (found in Tools > Maintenance menu)

Fixed:

• “Search as you type” suggestions on your own collection did not always work.

We removed the auto marking of custom front covers during the conversion from older versions to V19 as it could take very long for large databases and/or images stored on networked drive.

Coming up in build 3: a separate tool to automatically mark custom images.

Comic Collector version 19 has arrived! Here’s what’s new:

• Manage multiple “collections” within one database file
• Automatic Cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images
• A new super-adaptive “Flex” template for the Details Panel
• 64-bit version for 64-bit Windows versions

Read on for the full details:

Read more

We still had a couple of persistent Access Violation and List Index Out of Bounds errors happening in the Add Comics screen. We managed to capture them and the Add Screen should be more stable now.

If you do still get such errors, please contact us and let us know!

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.”)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fixed:

• Add Comics from Core:
  • after adding checked results they were not unchecked
  • a barcode search with more than one result would show “0 results, expand to select”
• 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 Comic: 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

In this maintenance build, we fixed 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 Comic screen, but also affecting other screens.

This has been a particularly tricky problem to fix, but Ronald and AJ jumped into the magical world of Windows display settings and, after a week of cursing and yelling, they have finally been able to fix it. Phew… peace and quiet again.

Various tweaks and fixes, based on your v18 feedback:

Tweaks to the Edit screen:

• Creators/Characters lists: right click to directly access that specific Manage List screen.
• Creators/Characters 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.
• Edit Comic: adding TPB issues would crash the program after deleting some stories first.
• Various stability improvements.
• Various fixes to the “Clean” template.

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 Comic: navigating Content or Links using ALT+N or ALT+P would navigate the comics instead

New:

• 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: Several layout improvements

New:

• Edit Comic: Add Credits/Characters: When searching for a credit/character and clicking “New Credit” (for example), the screen will now use the search words for the name of the new person you’re adding.

Fixed:

• Edit Comic: Add button for User Defined Field comboboxes were not positioned correctly when resizing the Edit Comic screen
• 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
• Edit Series: “Generate” buttons were overlapping front of “Display Name” and “Name” fields
  

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 comics in Comic Collector and these changes will auto-upload to the CLZ Cloud instantly. Did you make changes using CLZ Comics or directly in Comic 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 Comic screen

A huge refresh of the Edit Comic screen, bringing the look and feel more in line with the recent Add Comics from Core screen.

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

• Clearer blue + buttons for checkbox list fields (like Genres)
• Same blue + buttons for dropdown fields (like Series, Publisher, Imprint)
• Revamped Edit screen for pick list items
  Button bar at the bottom with blue OK button, smaller generate buttons, etc..

But it’s not all just cosmetic changes:

Improved interface for adding Creators and Characters

The new interface helps you make better use of your existing creator and character pick lists:

• Cleaner lists, showing just Display Name and Role/Alias.
• Right-click to Modify the name and sort name of a person in the list.
• Drag the icon in the first column to change the order.
• Click the “x” in the last column to remove entries.

New:

Add Comics from CLZ Core: “check/uncheck all issues in this series” now also available when right clicking an issue.

Fixed:

• Add Comics from CLZ Core:
  • When checking/unchecking all issues, the add all button didn’t update accordingly.
  • After adding an issue all barcode searches containing that issue would be removed from the queue.
  • Expanding a result would sometimes scroll to a different part of the list.

Fixed

• Add Comics from CLZ Core: Access Violation when adding several issues by barcode

Fixed:

• Add Comics from CLZ Core:
  • (un)checking an item in a selection would not (un)check all those items
  • Preview art was downloaded into the front cover field if no front cover art was available
  • Adding/updating comics from CLZ Core could crash the program when a credit had no role assigned
  • Scanning multiple issues from the same series could cause a problem with the search results cells

Fixed:

• Add Multiple Comics Manually: the first two comics of the added list would get the same index number.
• Linking Comics with CLZ Core didn’t mark them “dirty” for syncing with CLZ Cloud.
• Main Screen: Quick filter panel option “keep active” wasn’t applied directly after restarting software.
• Edit Comic: Links tab: When editing a local link, the “previous” button didn’t work.