What's new?

Right after the release of v19, we started receiving reports from users that their image scanners would not be found when using the 64-bit version. Other users reported that the web-cam scanning would not work anymore.
A temporary work-around has been to use the 32-bit version of version 19.

In the meantime, our Windows developer Joe has been working hard to get both of these problems resolved and we are happy to report that both have been fixed in today’s version 19.0.5:

• 64-bit version now uses WIA to connect with image scanners. When acquiring, make sure to select the WIA driver for your scanner, not TWAIN.
• Scanning barcodes with your webcam scanner is working again.

If you have been using the 32-bit version as a workaround, please switch to the 64-bit version again (this is a choice during installation).

Then, please let us know your findings, is everything working again?

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

You can now manage multiple sub-collections within one account. The collections will appear as little tabs at the bottom (e.g. like in Excel), so that you can easily switch between them.

Create and manage collections

Open the menu top left and click “Manage Collections” to:

• Create new collections
• Rename existing collections
• Remove collections
• Change their order (drag and drop)

Note: the CLZ mobile app currently does not support multiple collections yet (coming soon!). For now, you CAN sync multiple collections to the mobile app, but they will appear mixed together, as ONE database.

New: Notes as a column

The Notes field can now be added as a column in List View:

(example screenshot from Movie Connect)

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!

New:

• The resizable panels in the add screen now have the same design as the ones in the main screen.

Fixed:

• iPad: Wrong initial panel layout in the main screen when the app is started in landscape mode.

Fixed:

• Add Screen: previews of results could sometimes not be loaded.

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).

A useful update of your app today, that is, if you are using the app on an iPad:

All panels in the main screen (folders, list and details) are now resizable using draggable separators between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.

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

• All panels in the main screen (folders, list and details) are now resizable using draggable separators between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.
• The resizable panels in the Add screen have been updated to use the nicer look of the draggable separators.

New: quick search box in the Folder Panel!

Another useful addition to your software today, as we added a Quick Search box in your folder panel.

Especially useful for those long folder lists, e.g. when using Series as the folder field. Just type a few letters of the series title and the folder list will instantly “filter down” to the matching series, while you type!

See it in action:

A nice time-saving feature was added to your Comic Connect software today:

Next / Previous buttons in the Edit Comic screen

These buttons let you go through your comic list to make changes, while staying in the Edit Comic screen. Just use the Next or Previous button on the bottom left.

While doing so, the screen will keep you on the same tab and same field, making it super-easy to make changes to same field(s) for multiple comics.

New: Redesigned app icon

We designed new icons that give new users a better indication of what the app actually does (as opposed to just a different color CLZ logo), but still obviously belong together, when shown together.

Fixed:

• List did not scroll to top when the status bar was tapped
• App could crash on startup in rare cases

A small UI tweak today, made necessary because of the growing number of field options for the folder panel: the folder field menu is now grouped into 4 categories.

This should make it easier to find the field you are looking for.

New: Redesigned app icon

We designed new icons that give new users a better indication of what the app actually does (as opposed to just a different color CLZ logo), but still obviously belong together, when shown together.

And if you have Android 8.0 or higher, we’re also including an “adaptive app icon” as of today which are in line with all your other app icons!

Some of you reported some issues in the Edit Screens in Comic Collector using macOS Mojave, which have now been addressed and fixed!

Fixes:

• Searching for a creator or character wasn’t working (dropdown wasn’t opening to show all options)
• The dropdown to choose a role for a creator wasn’t working
• Dragging and dropping of images on the template or edit screen didn’t do anything
• The price field in the Quick Fill pop-up (that pops up just after adding a comic) didn’t accept a value

Do you like to customize your software to suit your needs or just your personal taste? Then we have big news for you today, as we have just introduced four “Skin” choices in your Comic Connect software:

• Default (the standard look, as it was before, so dark toolbars, light content)
• Dark (dark toolbars, dark content)
• Light (light toolbars, light content)
• Blue (shades of blue, with yellow highlights)

On top of that, we have given you 3 template style choices for the Comic Details area: Dark, Light and Blue. Either to match your Skin choice, or to mix to up, it’s up to you.

Both the Skin and Template selectors can be found in the Settings screen, under Customization.

Screen shots:

Default Skin:

Dark Skin:

Light Skin:

Blue Skin:

New in your Add Comics screen: a Pull List tab, a useful tool for listing your favorite comic series, so that you can easily find them when you add your weekly purchases, or for quickly adding upcoming releases to your wish list.

To add a series to your Pull List, first find it using your Series or Barcode tab. Once you found your series, hover your mouse over the series cover to reveal a white star icon. Click the star to add this series to your Pull List.

Then, click the Pull List tab to reveal the series on your Pull List! Expand a series to see which issues have been released in the last 2 weeks, or still have to be released, and if you want, add them to your wish list!

We just added 6 new folder options to your Comic Connect software, for grouping your comics in 6 different creator folders!

You can group your comics in folders based on:

• Writer
• Artist
• Cover Artist
• Editor
• Inker
• Colorist

Example: Click the folder icon top left and select Cover Artist to see all your comics neatly grouped in cover artist folders. Click a cover artist to see all comics that have that person as a cover artist!

The Add Comics Automatically screen is now called “Add Comics from CLZ Core” and includes improvements to make it both easier-to-use and easier-on-the-eye:

• Renamed the “by Title” tab to “by Series”
• Big blue buttons for the main actions, Searching and Adding, can’t miss ’em 🙂
• Use the checkboxes in front of found issues to reveal a big blue “Add x as TPB” button!
• Automatic Preview, just select a result (no more need for double clicking)
• Right click on a Series title to Add Series to Pull List
• Right click the results list to enabled In Collection filtering

In the main screen under View > Folders > Select Folder Fields you can now folder group on “My Rating”.

A new grouping option is now available in your Connect!

Click the folder icon top left and select Release / Publication Year to see all your items neatly grouped in a year folder. Click on a year to see all items that were released/published in that year!

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.”)