Readerware Newsletter

Welcome to the Readerware Newsletter

Readerware 2.90 is now shipping. Included are sort improvements, support for duplicate primary keys, list field enhancements and many other new features and fixes. Recent enhancements also include new graphics: new icons, splash screens and panels.
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Plus, FAQ "How can I inventory my library?".

Visit the Readerware Newsletter archive, all back issues of the newsletter are online.

Readerware 2.90 Now Shipping

Release 2.90 is now available for all products (Readerware, ReaderwareAW and ReaderwareVW), and all platforms, (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux). A full list of the changes included in 2.90 is available online:

Readerware 2.90 changes

Some of the highlights in this release.

Added support for duplicate ISBNs and UPCs. A new database option lets you enter multiple items with the same ISBN/UPC. By default Readerware still rejects duplicates and increments the copies count if you enter the same ISBN/UPC multiple times during auto-catalog. With the new option set, Readerware will add separate entries for each copy entered.

List fields now automatically add new entries. Just type in a new value, Readerware will automatically add it to the list when you update the record. You can still use the popup menu to add, change and delete list items.

Sort Improvements: New option to ignore initial articles. i.e. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" now sorts under "M". New option to use a strict alphabetical sort, ignoring articles of speech, punctuation and spaces when sorting. Accented characters are now sorted correctly.

Improved track support in ReaderwareAW, auto-catalog will now import tracks from any selected site. Auto-Update will add tracks to existing CDs

New loan tracker default loan period setting. When you loan out a book, Readerware sets the default return date based on this new preference. It used to be fixed at 7 days.

Download Readerware 2.90

Upgrade Policy

Most of you know this by now but Readerware 2.90 is a free upgrade. All 2.x upgrades are free.

You can always download the latest 2.x release for free. If you ever want the latest version on CD, you can order it from the web site for $12. By the way, Windows users will notice that the CD now has a new menu system to make it easier to install the products and view the documentation.

Readerware CD

Duplicate ISBNs/UPCs

By default Readerware products do not accept a duplicate primary key, the ISBN of a book, the UPC of a CD or Video. Instead Readerware uses the copies field to handle multiple copies of the same item. Readerware auto-catalog can handle this for you automatically. You enter the same ISBN or UPC as many times as you want. Readerware will use this information to update the copies field as the item is cataloged. So if you enter the same ISBN five times, Readerware will add the book once and set the copies count to five.

This is still the default behavior but in Readerware 2.90, there is a new database option to allow duplicates. When this option is checked, Readerware auto-catalog will add a new record to the database for each entry. So if you enter the same ISBN five times, Readerware will add five identical records to the database. With this new option on, Readerware products always accept duplicates. Drag and drop will no longer display an error that an item already exists, it will be added again. If you import a file of books, duplicates will be added.

Because the ISBN/UPC is key to the way Readerware operates, this change has a lot of ramifications. If you search the Readerware database by ISBN, you can now get multiple books returned. You have to determine the correct one. The author and title will obviously be the same, the difference between the records may be just the condition or value.

Readerware auto-update is ISBN based. This means that if you use auto-update to fetch new images for a given ISBN, all books with that ISBN will receive the new image.

Readerware auto-catalog lets you rerun an auto-catalog session. Maybe you want to search additional sites for the books that were not found initially. If you do not allow duplicates in the database, you can always rerun auto-catalog. Books that are already in the database are skipped. If you allow duplicates, Readerware will add these books again, so you need to remove the found books before rerunning auto-catalog.

This is a powerful new feature which a lot people have requested. But because the ISBN/UPC is so key, it does change the behavior of a number of Readerware functions.

Readerware Database Preferences
Readerware Auto-Catalog
Readerware Auto-Update

Sort Improvements

Readerware 2.90 adds two new sort options.

Ignore Initial Articles

If this option is checked Readerware will ignore articles of speech at the start of a field, (A, An and The). For example:

A Murder in Mayfair
The Murder Room
Murder Scholastic
A Murder Too Many

The Readerware replace wizard can also switch the titles for you. If you prefer to format the title as "Murder Room, The" use the Readerware replace wizard to reformat the title. With this new option, you can sort the titles without reformatting them.

Strict alphabetical title sort

If the Strict alphabetical title sort box is checked, articles of speech found anywhere in the title field are ignored, (A, An and The). Spacing and punctuation are ignored, the title is sorted in strict letter by letter spelling sequence. For example:

The Harder They Come
Hard Feelings

All spacing is eliminated and e comes before f so the titles will be listed in the above order. This option is only used when sorting by title.

In addition to these new sort options, Readerware now correctly sorts accented characters.

Readerware View Preferences

New Graphics

Some of you may have already seen the new art work included in Readerware 2.88, but they haven't been mentioned in the newsletter yet.

Gone are the old gray splash screens, there are new professional application icons, splash screens and panels included in all products.

ReaderwareAW Track Handling Improvements

ReaderwareAW auto-update can now add discs and tracks to existing records. Use ReaderwareAW auto-update in the normal way and select the TRACKS column. As ReaderwareAW searches sites it will extract disc and track information, replacing the existing discs and tracks with the new listings.

This can be useful if you are importing CDs from another product, import the basic album information and then use ReaderwareAW auto-update to fetch additional information like images, discs and tracks.

Readerware auto-catalog will now get track information from any site you select when you specify the merge option. Previously ReaderwareAW only got disc and track information from the first match.

Barnes and Noble recently improved their CD listings by partnering with All Music Guide. One common question from users is why doesn't Readerware get the track times? It was simply because most web sites do not provide this information. Barnes and Noble now provides track times for a lot of CD releases. With the new ReaderwareAW track auto-update, you can use Barnes and Noble to refresh your track listings and pick up track times.

FAQ: How can I inventory my library?

Suppose you have just moved and you want to make sure all your DVDs made it to your new home. How can you scan your DVDs and find any missing titles?

Start by defining a new column in your database. Select the Preferences menu item, User Columns tab. Define a new column, call it Found.

Now use the ReaderwareVW replace wizard to set the default value for this new column. Select Edit->Replace and run the replace wizard. You want to update all the items in the database and you want to set the new Found column to a value of N. So all the records in your database have N in the Found column.

Now the actual inventory, again you use the replace wizard. This time you want to input a list of UPCs. You scan in your DVDs and tell ReaderwareVW to set the Found column to Y. The replace wizard will go through your database and change the found column to Y for each DVD you scan.

To see if you are missing any DVDs, search the database using the Found column. Look for records that still have a value of N. These are your missing DVDs.

You can use this technique with all Readerware products. You can easily perform a regular inventory of your books, music and videos. Just run the replace wizard to reset the Found column to N, then scan your items setting the Found column to Y.

Readerware User Column Preferences
Readerware Replace Wizard

Sites News

ReaderwareAW auto-catalog now puts Barnes and Noble at the top of the list. With their new partnership with All Music Guide, Barnes and Noble provide some of the best CD listings available and have knocked Tower Records from the top spot. Barnes and Noble now provides track times for a lot of their CD releases. You can use ReaderwareAW auto-update to refresh your listings from Barnes and Noble.

ReaderwareAW now has drag and drop support for CD Baby. CD Baby claim to be the largest seller of CDs by independent artists on the web. So visit CD Baby, listen to and buy new music from thousands of independent artists. Then drag and drop to catalog.

ReaderwareVW now has drag and drop support for the DVD Empire family of sites.

Readerware now has drag and drop support for Books on Tape.

Be sure to check out the following sites. If you like their listings, support the sites.

Music at Barnes and Noble
CD Baby
DVD Empire
Books on Tape

Readerware Support

There is nothing more important than answering your questions. You can always e-mail support@readerware.com and expect a reply in a couple of hours. 24 hours maximum. Unfortunately e-mail communications are not as reliable as they once were. Spam and the various schemes people have dreamed up to combat spam are interfering with normal e-mail communications.

If you have not received a response to your support request within 24 hours, something has gone wrong.

Check any Spam filters, the response may be there.
Check with your ISP or system administrator. Sites are implementing various defense mechanisms which often block legitimate e-mail. For example AOL and Earthlink are still squabbling and this has resulted in AOL blocking all e-mail from Earthlink as Spam.
If you are using a challenge system, please check to see if your response is being held. I do try and respond to challenge e-mail, but it can mean your response is delayed.
If you are using AOL, check your Mail Controls.

If you have not received a response within 24 hours, don't wait any longer, send a follow up e-mail. If possible try and include an alternate e-mail address. I will re-send your answer from another e-mail server to all addresses you specify.

Obviously Spam is a real problem. But it is important to realize that none of the defense mechanisms are anywhere near 100% accurate. There is nothing more frustrating for you than feeling ignored, you aren't being ignored. Every e-mail you send is answered promptly. From this end there is nothing more frustrating than taking the time to create a reply that is never seen then getting a "why aren't you responding" e-mail a couple of days later.

All support e-mail is answered within 24 hours, if you don't get that response, check your anti-spam measures and try again.

Thanks.

Your Feedback

Your feedback is always welcome and does make a difference. Please send in your comments. E-Mail support@readerware.com.

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