How Can I Catalog a Book Without an ISBN?

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Last Updated: October 05, 2019
Keywords: drag, drop

You can use Drag and Drop.

Search for the book by title, author, whatever. Search at any supported site, The Library of Congress, Amazon etc. Then drag and drop from your browser to Readerware and it is cataloged.

Drop the URL on the Readerware drop target icon    in the top right corner of the Readerware window.

I find it works best if you have books organized by author. Do an author search to return a list of books, select the first one, drag and drop. Hit back in your browser to return to the list, pick the next one, drag and drop and so on.

Some browsers like FireFox will let you drag and drop a link without visiting the page so it is even easier to catalog. Simply drag the link from the author search results page.

You can begin your search by selecting one of the Search items from the Readerware Web menu, bookmark the Readerware Search Page or just visit your favorite site.

It is that easy!


If you are unfamiliar with drag and drop, read on.


Readerware drag and drop support works just like other applications, when you use drag and drop between applications you have to position the windows carefully.

You need to have both applications running, Readerware and your browser. You cannot be running them full screen because you need at least pieces of both visible at the same time. But you don't need both windows fully visible. Exactly how you do it is a personal preference but this is what I do. I move the Readerware window to the top of the desktop so that the Readerware title bar is right at the top of the desktop. Then I move the browser window so that it is over the Readerware window but down from the top, the key is that the Readerware bulls eye icon is visible behind the browser window. So now looking at my desktop I have my browser in front and behind it I can see enough of the Readerware window so that at least part of the yellow bulls eye icon is visible.

To drag and drop, I click on the URL icon in the browser window, hold the mouse down and move it until the cursor is over the bulls eye. Readerware is still in the background behind the browser but that is no problem, the cursor will change as the mouse goes over the bulls eye. At this point release the mouse and Readerware will get the URL and add the item. Again the Readerware window is behind your browser, but it is working. You can click on Readerware to bring it to the front to see it.

There is an alternate way of doing this if you are not comfortable with drag and drop. Select the text in the URL field of your browser and copy it to the clipboard. Then bring Readerware to the front. Right click on the bulls eye icon and select Paste from the popup menu.