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ComicBase 11 User Guide

1. FOR MORE HELP Before you call technical support make sure you have the following information ready Which version of ComicBase you have i e version 11 0 1 The operating system you re running i e Windows 98 Windows NT Windows ME or Windows XP and how much memory RAM your computer has If you don t know right click on My Computer and choose Properties to find out When you call we will look for you in our registered users database If you haven t registered your copy of ComicBase have your serial number handy You can find your serial number on the inside front cover of this user guide on the case or sleeve the ComicBase disk was in and if you haven t sent it in on your registration card You can reach technical support by telephone 408 266 6883 or e mail support human computing com Include your name and if you haven t registered your serial number what kind of problem you re having with ComicBase a phone number where we can reach you and the best time to reach you in any messages GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING 49 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS CTRL A CTRL B CTRL C CTRL D CTRL E CTRL F CTRL G Ctr H CTRL CTRL SHIFT I CTRL J CTRL L CTRL M CTRL N CTRL P CTRL Q CTRL R CTRL T CTRL SHirt T CTRL U CTRL V CTRL X CTRL Z CTRL CTRL SHIFT CLICK ON NExT TITLE OR PREVIOUS TITLE BUTTON ALT SHirt Crick on Next Title b
2. You can use the File menu s Import Price List command to import information from another program such as a database or spreadsheet 1 Export your information from the database or spreadsheet to a tab delimited text file If you re not sure how to export information from the database or spreadsheet review your documentation for that program You will need to export information for at least four fields title issue number condition and quantity 2 From the File menu select Import In the dialog box that appears locate the exported file on your hard disk 3 When you click Open the Import Price List dialog box will appear 4 Move fields that match your exported files to the Import Fields box using Move For instance if you have fields for title issue number condition cost and value in your database or spreadsheet you would move the fields Comic Title Issue Number Condition Cost and Selling Price 5 Use the dropdown menus to select how items and records are separated by tab return or space in the exported file 6 The order of fields in the Import Fields dialog box should match the order of fields in your database or spreadsheet 7 Radio buttons at the bottom of the Import Price List dialog box let you choose how you want your information to integrate with the information already in ComicBase IMPORTING AND EXPORTING 38 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE Replace All Issues of Imported Titles is faster but it wi
3. Custom Genre 1 L Anthology L Licensed L Science Fiction L Custom Genre 2 Anthropomorphics _ Manga Anime Sports C Custom Genre 3 F Comedy L Mystery C Super Heroes C Custom Genre 4 Crime Non Fiction Underground C Custom Genre 5 C Drama C Fin Up amp Art C War C Custom Genre 6 Marked Title Check 1 Title Check 2 Title Check 3 Created 31 May 1996 Modified 10 Juk2003 Description Modified 16 Sep 1996 PUBLISHER Next select the title s publisher from the Publisher dropdown menu If the publisher s name doesn t appear on the list type in the name of the publisher and press Enter A dropdown will appear that will allow you MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION 24 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE to enter in the publisher s information If you have a lot of titles from a particular publisher not in the Publisher menu you may wish to add the publisher to your list of publishers so that it appears the next time you add a title Otherwise uncheck the Add to List of Publishers box at the bottom of the dropdown COPYRIGHT You can type in the copyright information in the Copyright field Usually you ll find this information in the indicia of a title YEARS PUBLISHED The following line asks for the years a title was published in the Years Published field This information will appear in the Title Description window When adding years separate year ranges with commas or hyphens to differentiate between d
4. Steve Ditko urc ISBN For Sale Min Qty 0 Custom Fields Custom Field 1 Custom Field 2 C Custom Check 1 Custom Date 1 Custom Field 3 L custom Check 2 Custom Date 2 Custom Field 4 L Custom Check 3 C Marked Modified 16 Jun 2005 Last Price Printed 327 000 00 COMIC TYPE In addition to the regular monthly issues of a comic title publishers sometimes release special comics such as annuals or holiday specials ComicBase lets you enter these by choosing the appropriate comic type from the Comic Types dropdown menu ComicBase lists numerous special types of comics from trade paperbacks to special editions to 3 D and ashcan releases and even swimsuit issues and giant size specials Moreover you can add your own comic types to the dropdown menu through the Setup menu under Comic Types ISSUE NUMBER This is the issue s number which generally appears on the cover or in the tiny fine print on the inside first page the comic s indicia ISSUE VARIATIONS It has become an especially popular trend amongst publishers to print many variant covers for comics in particular first issues check out the 14 MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION 20 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION variant covers of Gen 13 1 If such a case arises you will want to identify the specific variant that you own ComicBase lists most types of issue variations including variant covers gold platinum and silver editions autograp
5. Rayner 11850 oO M 0 00 4 1 1989 The Fear Machine Part 4 Fellow Travellers faq e gar Mike Hoffman 11450 oO M 0 00 5 1 1989 The Fear Machine Part 5 Hate Mail amp Love Lett Jf QI piano Alfredo Alcala Mark Buckingham 11050 al 0 00 6 1 1989 The Fear Machine Part 6 The Broken Man Aselano Alfredo Alcala Mark Buckingham 11450 oO M 0 00 7 1 1989 The Fear Machine Part 7 Betrayal Jamie Delano Alfredo Alcala Mark Buckingham 11100 Ej 0 50 8 1 1989 The Fear Machine Part 8 The God of All Gods Jamie Delano Alfredo Alcala Mark Buckingham 11150 oO M 0 50 9 1 1989 The Fear Machine Part 9 Balance Jamie Delano Alfredo Alcala Mark Buckingham 11150 oO 0 50 10 1 1989 Sherlock Holme Larger than Life Jamie Delano Dean Motter Ron Tiner 10950 o M 0 50 11 1 1989 The Family Man Jamie Delano Ron Tiner 11200 P 0 50 1 1 1990 Early Warning Grant Morrison David Lloyd 11150 oO Mv 0 50 2 1 1990 How Learned to Love The Bomb Grant Morrison David Lloyd 11650 oO 0 00 3 1 1990 Hold Me Neil Gaiman Dave McKean 11400 oO M 0 00 4 1 1990 Death of Thom Thicker than Water Jamie Delano Kev Walker Ron Tiner 10750 oO 0 00 5 1 1990 Sick at Heart Jamie Delano Kev Walker Ron Tiner 10850 oO 0 00 6 1 1990 Fatality Jamie Delano Mark Buckingham Ron Tiner 10950 Oo 0 00 711990 Mourning of the Magician Jamie Delano Sean Phillips 10950 F 0 iv ee Se n ao m a r me oe ro a mar 1 Cover Thumbnail Shows a thumbnail preview of the selected comic s c
6. To widen searches choose Append to Results in the Find dialog box Note that some searches such as searching for a Publisher will bring back a list of titles others such as searching for Quantity in Stock bring back lists of issues ComicBase will automatically do the right thing in this re gard without requiring you to explicitly choose the table Occasionally however you may want to do a complex search which in volves both title fields and issue fields The type of data in the list will al ways correspond to the last type of search chosen For instance if you want to see a list of issues from Dark Horse comics which you have more than one of copy of first search by Publisher is Dark Horse followed by a nar rowing search for Quantity in Stock is greater than 1 If you wanted to see a list of titles from Dark Horse for which you have more than one copy do the Quantity in stock search first followed by the Publisher search INTERNET LINKS Various features in ComicBase also connect you to comic information on the web To make use of these features you have to be properly configured for internet access See the instructions that came with your computer for help in doing this Right click the name to link to the publisher s web page If there is no link for a publisher but you know the publisher s URL you can create an internet link for it using the Setup menu s Publishers command The Internet menu also has
7. Wonder Woman 1st Series Wonder Woman 2nd Series Wonder Woman 3rd Series Wonder Woman Abbeville Wonder Woman Holt DC 1998 1999 2002 To include every title in ComicBase check the All radio button To create a report that only includes a title or certain titles click the Selected Titles radio button You can also create a selection that s the result of a search by clicking the Find button while selecting titles Narrow the list to just the titles you own by clicking Titles in Stock Hold down the Ctrl key to select more than one title Moving between parts of the list will not deselect your selections Click OK when you ve selected all the titles you want to include Title reports by default will list each issue individually so you can mark them off If you prefer a shorter report you can list a contiguous range of issues as a group e g Action Comics 488 490 493 497 501 by checking the Group Issue Numbers Together box Click the Print button to print your Title report PRINTING AND REPORTS 35 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING DIVIDER LABELS If you have an extensive collection you may be using dividers to separate your titles These dividers are available from most comic book dealers With ComicBase you can print labels for the tabs on your dividers To print divider labels 1 Choose Divider Labels from the Report menu or go to the File menu and choose Print You can also shortcut th
8. available is the Title Name search You can choose to search for a title by the exact name or by any word within its name If you still can t find the comic you re looking for then try searching by other criteria like Special Fields These include FIRST APPEARANCE finds the first time a character appeared in any title SECOND APPEARANCE finds the second time a character appeared in any title DEATH finds stories in which a character dies Whether he she it remained dead is another matter e ORIGIN finds stories which tell how super heroes or villains came by their powers or found their calling Origin stories are often repeated for popular characters and sometimes revised for long running characters SPECIAL APPEARANCE Will look for notable guest appearances by a particular character You can also search for information under the Title fields These are e COMMENTS let you find by title comments from the Title Detail dialog CUSTOM CHECK BOXES finds titles which have the Custom check box checked DATE CREATED finds titles by the date they were added to your ComicBase This search is particularly useful if you re adding titles and want a list of the titles you ve recently added 14 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE DATE MODIFIED finds titles by the date they were modified DESCRIPTION finds a title by words in its description such as vampire or spoof DESCRIPTION DATE MODIFIED fi
9. corresponding title should have a movie icon in its Picture view which lets you play the movie Your ComicBase Pictures amp Movies Folder See Manage Pictures and Movies I Movies Oh My Goddess mov Check to make sure that you have Qucktime installed on your computer before attempting to play your movie files A free version of the program is available for download at http www apple com quicktime products qt 28 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING AND REPORTS PRINTING AND REPORTS ComicBase can generate a variety of reports and labels including price lists price labels and inventory reports for managing your collection This chapter describes the various statistics and labels you will be able to print You can see a preview of any report before you print it by clicking the Preview button in ComicBase s Print dialog COMICBASE STATISTICS You can ask ComicBase to report different kinds of information about your collection such as e The cost and value of your collection e The number of titles and comics you own e The date of your last ComicBase update e The date that your online pricing subscription will expire To view statistics about your collection go to the File menu select ComicBase Statistics and click the Calculate button ComicBase will automatically tally the number of comics you own along with the total value of your collection when you do this The report will list how many titles and comics
10. for the issue variation This will appear next to the issue number in the Issues dialog 5 Click Save to save the new issue variation It will be available in the Variation dropdown menu in the Issue Detail dialog To change the name or abbreviation for an issue variation select it in the list and change the name or abbreviation in the Issue Variation and Abbreviation text boxes Click Save The new name and or abbreviation will appear in the Variations dropdown menu but will not change the previous abbreviation used for comics already indexed in ComicBase MODIFYING COMIC TYPES ADVANCED COMICBASE 42 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE The Comic Types dropdown menu lets you specify if you have a special comic such as a 3 D special annual ashcan preview or yearbook You can add remove or change these comic types ADD A NEW COMIC TYPE 1 Go to the Setup menu and select Comic Types 3D Comic Type AIM Toothpaste Giveaway Annual Ashcan Book Christmas Special Collectors Preview Collector s Set 2A Deluxe Set rem In the Comic Types Setup box click New Type the name of the new comic type in the Comic Type field In the Abbreviation field enter a 2 or 3 letter abbreviation for the comic type This abbreviation will appear next to the issue number in the title s Issues Field Click Save to save the new comic type You will now be able to select it in the Comic Types dropdown menu in the Issue Deta
11. handheld computer using your handheld s file transfer tools 7 Youcan view the book from your handheld using the iSilo reader application which you should install on your handheld A freeware version is available for the Palm and a more powerful and quite cheap shareware version exists for both Palm and Pocket PC computers Al COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE ADVANCED COMICBASE MODIFYING ISSUE VARIATIONS The variations dropdown menu in the Issue Detail is set up for most types of issue variations including gold platinum and silver editions special covers special sets and editions such as a collector s set or a deluxe edition In general ComicBase will only assign alphabetical names to variant issues of a comic such as 1 A 1 B 1 C etc but you can use any of the variant names available to specify your own comics The following will show you how to add change or remove items from the list of issue variations ADDING AN ISSUE VARIATION 1 Under the Setup menu select Issue Variations x Setup Issue Variations Issue Variation 3 D Edition ACE Edition American Entertainment Edition Ashcan Edition Autographed Blue Variation Bronze Collector s Set Collector s Set Green 2 In the Issue Variations Setup box click New 3 Type the name of the new issue variation into the Issue Variation field 4 Move to the Abbreviation field and type in an abbreviation up to four characters long
12. have a description for the title When a Done Editing button appears above the text field you can begin editing the title description or add in a new one If your description is too large for the description box ComicBase will automatically add a scroll bar that lets you scroll through the description Click Done Editing to stop editing BOLD ITALICS AND UNDERLINING The Style and Font menus on the main menu bar are only activated when you use the Edit Title Descriptions command You can make words in your title description appear bold italicized underlined or as hypertext by making use of the Style commands from the main menu bar Simply highlight the text you wish changed and select the command you want from the menu You can also change the font size of the description by using the Style menu bar You can alter the type of font displayed by going to the Font menu and selecting the font you want to use CREATING HYPERTEXT LINKS ComicBase lets you link words in your description to other titles through a Hypertext command To do so highlight the name of the other title in your description and choose Hypertext from the Style menu The selected text will be changed to blue Now whenever you click the highlighted words ComicBase will jump to the next sequential title beginning with those words MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION 26 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE REMOVING TITLES Removing a title from ComicBase removes all of its inform
13. links to the ComicBase home page the online registration form and the ComicBase updates page Remember you must register your copy in order to receive technical support advanced notice of upgrades and special prices on upgrades You can also use commands in the Internet menu to shop for comics on Atomic Avenue or to research a comic s recent selling prices JUMP TO ISSUE To jump to an issue directly from a long list of issues choose the Edit Menu s Jump to Issue command or press and hold the Ctrl key while pressing j This will bring up a small dialog box where you can type in the exact issue number you want to see The jump command is great for finding issues under long running titles such as Action Comics or 2000 A D Better yet use the Jump command to navigate quickly to any specific issue with our advanced barcode support Type in or scan the barcode of a comic into the Jump dialogue and ComicBase will try to take you straight to that particular issue even if it s under a different title than the one you re looking at You can also use this function with barcodes generated by ComicBase on the comic identification labels see Printing and Reports for how to print this barcode 17 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION Because ComicBase comes with built in information on over 275 000 issues it makes tracking your own collection very simple and efficient instead of having to fill in all the de
14. previous title click the arrow pointing left Right click with your mouse on over either button to bring up a list of navigational options Title List and Navigation Buttons The Title List allows you to go quickly to any title in the database Click on the file folder icon to bring up the Title List Titles are listed alphabetically You can start navigating by typing in the name of a title or by using the scroll bar to go up and down the list To view the next title in alphabetical order click the arrow pointing right To view the previous title click the arrow pointing left Right click over either button to bring up additional navigational options Title Description A brief write up telling you what this title is about If you click on any highlighted word in a ComicBase description the program will take you to the related title Move between related titles and learn more about the world of comic books with ComicBase s hypertext links COMICBASE BASICS 10 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE BASICS 11 Minimum Quantity Retained For comics that you want to sell this field tracks the number of copies For sate Min Oty that you want to keep for your own use l ies 0 For example set this field to 1 if you only want to sell duplicates 0 12 For Sale 0 J fi Indicates that this is a comic you want to sell on Atomic Avenue 13 Issue Number Issue Condition amp Other Fields The Issue Fields wil
15. remind yourself to purchase them Note marking an issue does not indicate that you own it to do that change the number of the Quantity in Stock to the quantity that you own 15 Cover Picture Icon Shows whether or not a cover picture is available for this issue Small b4 Fy image icons are red and blue while high definition large image icons have a green plus sign over the icon Holding the mouse briefly over Small Large the picture icon will automatically display the image If a larger picture is available pausing longer will zoom it to full size 11 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE BASICS 16 Issue Selection Column Click in this column to highlight and select issues Information on the first issue selected will replace the review and publisher information in the main window Select discontiguous issues by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on all the issues you wish to select You can also hold down the Shift key while clicking to highlight all comics within a range Fie Edt von jae ae eel Oe F Di Hellblazer 1 I I I T I I I I I feifissuer fea Jor ae Price cost Cover Date Hotes Storylines LAN FNM y t 1 25 10 00 S000 1 rars ini i De a x 55 00 0 00 21 1988 _A Feast For Friends 4 00 50 00 31 1988 Going For tt 4 00 0 00 4 1 1983 Waiting For The Man 0 00 W119 When Johnny Comes Marcel 54 00 50 00 6 1 1988 Extreme Prejudice 0 00 7 17988 Ghosts in the Machine 0 00 8 1 1983 Intens
16. values or dates you want changed click the Make Changes button 45 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE FILE TOOLS Under the File menu is a command for File Tools which gives you access to a variety of tools for streamlining ComicBase making it run faster converting Comic Base s values to your local currency and fixing minor program problems COMPACT AND VERIFY COMICBASE Compacting ComicBase will prompt the program to verify the integrity of the database and free up any unused space You can set the conditions for how frequently ComicBase will compact its information by selecting the option you want in Preferences To start this operation yourself go to the File menu and under File Tools choose Compact and Verify ComicBase REBUILD LISTS Like most databases ComicBase does not physically reconstruct itself each time a record is changed Instead it marks the old information as unused This unused space can build up over time and take up unnecessary space on your hard disk Compacting ComicBase frees unused space in ComicBase and verifies the integrity of your data When you click the Compact amp Verify ComicBase button you will get a dialog box that tells you how much space you ll save if you compact ComicBase Click the OK button to start compacting The process may take several minutes The Rebuild Lists button rebuilds lists and indices in ComicBase ComicBase checks to make sure its list of titles is correctly matched
17. with the pictures and data from each If you find that ComicBase is not matching pictures or data correctly to titles this command will rebuild the list of titles in stock the Find comics lists issue information and title names and descriptions When you click the Rebuild Lists button the following dialog will appear Rebuild which lists Title information Checks the title sort order and werifies all title information List of titles in stock Issue information Verifies issue fields recalculates sue total and removes any duplicate information from the notes storyline artist and writer fields Find Comics lists Rebuilds the 1st appearance artist writer and other lists that aooear under Find Comics Checking Title Information rebuilds Comic Base s internal title and descriptions index It s useful if ComicBase isn t taking you to the title you ve selected i e you entered Abe Sapien in the Title List and ComicBase took you to 2000 A D instead ADVANCED COMICBASE AG COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE ADVANCED COMICBASE Checking List of Titles in Stock will rebuild the list of titles you own This is particularly useful if you ve added titles but they re not appearing when you Click the Titles in Stock Checking Issue Information will rebuild values within ComicBase and is particularly helpful if you believe ComicBase may be totalling values incorrectly Rebuilding issue information will also check t
18. C 3 0 1 25 4 00 0 00 3 1 1988 Going For tt Jamie Delano John Ridgway 16900 oO E 2 Oo 4 0 1 25 4 00 0 00 4 1 1988 Waiting For The Man Jamie Delano John Ridgway 16400 aj E i iC s i 1 25 0 00 5 1 1988 When Johnny Comes Marching Home Jamie Delano John Ridgway 14950 oO wie 0 25 Q 0 00 6 1 1988 Extreme Prejudice Jamie Delano John Ridgway 13300 7 0 7 0 1 i 0 00 7 1 1988 Ghosts in the Machine Jamie Delano Brett Ewins James McCarthy John Ri 12950 F p 0 foes 0 1 25 S28 0 00 8 1 1988 Intensive Care Jamie Delano Alfredo Alcala John Ridgway 12350 oO a E 0 Ey Fj 9 0 1 25 00 Q20 9 1 1988 Continues in S Shot to Hell Jamie Delano Alfredo Alcala John Ridgway 12498 Fj A EJ 0 wO 10 00 40 1 1988 Continues from Sex and Death Jamie Delano Mark Buckingham Richard Piers Rayner 2200 oO _ 0 SO 11 50 11 1719 Newcastle A Taste of Things to Come Jamie Delano Mark Buckingham Richard Piers Raya 11550 gog M 0 tO 12 50 12 1 1988 The Devil You Know Jamie Delano Mark Buckingham Richard Bief Rayner 11800 O M 0 d 50 12 1 1988 References to mihe Beach Jamie Delano Mark Buckingham p Hoffman Richa 11750 oO 0 00 1 1 1989 The Fear M ekigg Part 1 Touching the Earth Jamie Delano Mark Buckipetfam Richard Piers Rayner 11800 Ej 0 00 1 1 1989 The Fear Machine Parts epherd s Warning Jamie Delano aseSuckingham Richard Piers Rayner 11800 F M 0 00 2 1 1989 The Fear Machine Part 3 Rough Swatice asig Delano Mark Buckingham Richard Piers
19. For instance you can use it to create a list of issues published in March 1999 by entering 3 1 1999 However not every issue in ComicBase has cover date filled you may need to add this information yourself COVER PRICE finds comics by their original cover price For instance you can use it to find all the comics you own which had a 75 cover price Note ComicBase does not include cover price for every issue you may need to add this information yourself CURRENT VALUE finds comics in your collection by their current value for instance all comics worth more than 100 each CUSTOM CHECK BOXES searches under Issue Fields finds issues which have the Custom check boxes checked CUSTOM DATES will search for any comics with the Custom Date boxes checked CUSTOM FIELDS finds for issues under the Custom Field name that you ve given them COMICBASE BASICS OTHER USES FOR FIND You can use Find to Mark Unmark and Quick Change the issues you ve found Simply highlight the issues in the Found Comics list that you want to work with and choose the appropriate commands from the Edit menu This lets you do unique operations such as finding all Sabretooth appearances and marking them as Wanted See the chapter on Managing Your Collection for more information on how to use the Mark Unmark and Quick Change commands 15 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE BASICS DATE MODIFIED lets you search for comic issues by
20. ICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING AND REPORTS 4 If you want a price list for all the comics in ComicBase make sure the All radio button is filled in Check the List only issues in stock checkbox to limit the list to comics you own Otherwise you will end up with a report that runs for thousands of pages Divider Blurbs Divider Labels Issue Price Labels Price List Title Report Checklists Titles to Print All O Selected Titles Report Style Summary Basic Detailed include storylines artists and writers List onty marked issues List only issues in stock C include cost Custom Items to Include Custom Field 1 L Custom Check 1 C Custom Date 1 C Custom Field 2 Custom Check 2 Custom Date 2 Custom Field 3 Custom Check 3 C Custom Field 4 5 If you want a price list for only one title or only for selected titles click the radio button next to Selected Titles A list of all the titles in ComicBase will appear You can narrow the list to just the titles you own by clicking Titles in Stock Select the titles you want included in the report Use the arrows at the lower left hand corner to view the first second and third part of this list Hold down the Ctrl key to select more than one title Moving between parts of the list will not deselect your selections Click OK when you ve selected all the titles you want to include You can also create a selection that s the result of a search by clic
21. List only marked issues _ List only issues in stock Preview Cancel To have include a ComicBase barcode with your identification label check the Include barcode box You can use this barcode to quickly Jump to a specific issue from any other title in the database 1 The Amazing Spider Man 1 Ss atape amie of Chane bor ist Appearaice of Jost j Jameson Tat Appa araa ce ofloli Jameson origi of a Spik Mar Farts tie Fotr appe arai ce GEJ AMSA Ud MUN OM PRINTING PRICE LISTS ComicBase can print price lists showing the issues in your collection These reports are particularly useful for creating a list of comics for sale To create a price list 1 Go to the Report menu and choose Price List Or you can go to the File menu and select Print to bring up the same printing and reports dialog 2 If you want the report to include only comics you own check off the box marked List Only Issues in Stock If you want the report to include information on the issues storylines check off the box marked Include Storylines If you want your reports to show your cost as well as the issues values check the box marked Include Cost 3 You can also include information from any of your custom fields Just check the fields you want included in the Custom Fields to Include box Note this will add another line for the information for each issue effectively doubling the length of your report PRINTING AND REPORTS 32 COM
22. Spider Man Fireside Book Amazing Spider Man The Lancer Amazing Spider Man The Pocket Books Amazing Spider Man The Public Service Series Amazing Spider Man The Vol 2 Amazing Spider Man 30th Anniversary Poster Magazine Marvel 1963 1998 2003 Present a If you are having trouble finding a series you want try typing in just the main part of the title name Titles that start with A or The are indexed with the article at the end of the title Thus The Amazing Spider Man is actually listed as Amazing Spider Man The If you still can t find the title you want try a Find search Just click on the ellipses button above the scroll bar to start searching for the title FINDING COMICS The Find command can be used to search for titles or issues of comics matching various criteria This can range from all the titles with spider in the name or issues in your collection worth more than 50 It also has several special searches that let you locate a character s first appearance death origin stories and more USING FIND To find issues click the Find Comics icon in your ComicBase main window You can restrict any search to just the titles you own by checking the List Only Issues in Stock checkbox at the bottom Tite Name Ctrl T rows Resa SLonend to Results j ist Appearance Ctrl4 1 Title Fields 2nd Appearance Ctrl4 2 Issue Fields Death Ctrl D Origin ctrl 0 C List on
23. TRE dni a FT SUES FOR Jalade id CLA COLLECHONS Human Computing COMICBASE 11 0 USER GUIDE 1993 2006 HUMAN COMPUTING COMICBASE PROFESSIONAL COMICBASE ARCHIVE AND THE COMICBASE LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF HUMAN COMPUTING Written by Peter Bickford Carolyn Bickford and Shiaw Ling Lai Cover by Glen Orbik No part of the program or user guide may be reproduced or distributed without the permission of Human Computing Comic information and pricing data also 1993 2006 to Human Computing and their use is limited to the fair use by the program s purchaser General electronic distribution is expressly forbidden QuickTime and the QuickTime Logo are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc used under license Windows 2000 and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc Retrospect is a trademark of Dantz Corporation Comic Collector is a trademark of Microleague Multimedia Inc Unless noted otherwise all logos and artwork included in ComicBase and the distinctive likeness of the characters shown are and of the publisher listed Artwork and movies may not be distributed without the express permission of the copyright holder This manual was created on Intel Pentium based computers Headline fonts are ITC Stone Sans Body text is set in ITC Optima Formatted in Adobe InD
24. ation If you only want to restrict a list to only the titles you own it s safer just to click the Titles in Stock button in the Titles list You can also set ComicBase to navigate only through the titles that you have by right clicking on the navigation buttons and choosing Show Only Titles in Stock To remove titles from your collection first open the Title List and in the dialog box that appears select the title you want to remove Then click Remove NOTE If you are downloading updates from the ComicBase server deleted titles will re appear in your next ComicBase update MANAGING MORE THAN ONE COLLECTION You and your son friend roommate boyfriend girlfriend can now keep your collections separate in ComicBase To do this choose the File menu s New Database command and create a new file You can then switch between the different databases by using the File menu s Open Database command It s a good idea to choose different colored backgrounds to keep track of your separate collections You can change the color of a databases main window by using the File menu s Window Color command BACKING UP YOUR COPY OF COMICBASE Since your ComicBase contains important information about your collection we recommend keeping at least one backup copy of your data This will preserve the work you ve done should anything such as a crash while writing to disk corrupt your active copy of ComicBase By default ComicBase will kee
25. clude in the Report Items box If you check Issues of each title the report will list all the issues you own If you check Missing Issues for each title the report will list issues you don t own Divider Blurbs Divider Labels identification Price Labels Price List Title Report Labels i Titles To Print al Pasi ol Report Items Issues of each title Missing issues of each title Include storylines artists and writers List only marked issues Include information from your custom fields by checking the field names in the Custom Fields to Include box Adding these fields will add an extra line to the report for each issue even for issues which don t have custom field information To include every title in ComicBase check the All radio button To create a report that only includes a title or certain titles click the Selected Titles radio button You can also create a selection that s the result of a search by clicking Find while selecting titles Narrow the list to just the titles you own by clicking Titles in Stock Hold down the Ctrl key to select more than one title Moving between parts of the list will not deselect your selections Click OK when you ve selected all the titles you want to include Check Include Storylines to include storylines along with the report information 5 Click the Print button to print your Issue Checklists report To print an issue checklist only for t
26. e ComicBase to create price labels detailed price lists collection statistics and checklists or to research and buy comics online We ve combined our research with that of Comics Buyer s Guide to cover more titles both mainstream and independent than any other guide We ve also expanded our pricing research to include sales at retail stores conventions and online auction sites The result is the most realistic hard pressing price guide available ComicBase 11 is available in two versions a two CD Professional Edition with over 20 000 cover scans and the amazing Archive Edition on two DVD ROMs containing expanded database content of over 60 000 full sized high definition cover images more than 150 000 comic covers and dozens of additional interviews and movie previews WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE USING THIS GUIDE This user guide assumes you already know the basics of how to use your computer For example you should know how to e Operate the mouse and keyboard e Know how to click and drag with your mouse e Choose items from a menu e Copy files and disks If you are unsure how to perform these tasks please consult the User Guide which came with your computer GETTING STARTED A PRIMER ON COMICBASE TERMINOLOGY The following is a list of key words used in this manual Title is the name of a comic book se ries Action Comics is a title Within this title there have been over 800 Issues Issue is a single
27. earance Asterix 1st appearance Obelix Origin Obelix STORYLINES The Storylines field lists the names of the stories that ran in this issue This is particularly helpful for letting you locate reprinted stories or for finding the different issues that comprise a multipart storyline such as Knightfall If an issue has multiple storylines put each story on a separate line UPC AND ISBN These fields can be used to track your collection using the publisher s barcodes WRITER AND ARTIST Use the Writer and Artist fields to enter in the writer and penciller for a particular issue ComicBase does not track inkers or colorists but you can add them to the Artist field or use a Custom Field to track them The information here will appear on price labels in price lists and in writer and artist searches If you want to list more than one writer or artist for a given issue separate each person s name with a comma e g Neil Gaiman Alan Moore MARKING ISSUES Sometimes it s useful to designate issues that are important to you in some way and you can quickly flag such comics using the Mark and Unmark commands Marking a comic does not change the number of copies that you own in the quantity field but you can use the Find comics command to quickly get a list of any marked comics Comics that have been marked will appear with a check mark next to them in the Issues View To mark one or more issues select the issues you d li
28. ect your selections Click OK when you ve selected all the titles you want to export If you want the exported information to include field titles i e Comic Title Issue Number check the Include Field Titles box Having field titles included in your report is handy if the spreadsheet or database you re exporting the information to has a preview feature or if you re creating a custom report Click OK to create a ComicBase export file Give the export file a name and specify where you want it saved Be sure to remember the name you ve given the file and the location you saved it so you ll be able to find it when you re ready to import or open the exported information 40 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE USING COMICBASE WITH HANDHELD COMPUTERS USING COMICBASE WITH HANDHELD COMPUTERS Price lists issue checklists and title reports can be exported as text or HTML files by clicking Export in the Print dialog You can also transfer exported reports to your Palm or Pocket PC computer allowing you to check your collection status easily especially if you are adding to your collection while on the road or shopping at a convention Although you can certainly use your Palm Pocket PC synchronization tools to load in the raw exported text its far more legible and compact if you first convert the file into book form There are many converters readers available but we are particularly fond of the ones made by iSilo http www isil
29. een 7 If you ve got sufficient free hard disk space 400 MB or more you can also use the File Menu s Manage Pictures and Movies command to install pictures and movies from the ComicBase Program Disk and any bonus disks to your hard drive Otherwise you ll need to have the ComicBase disk in your drive when you want to see pictures and movies LAUNCHING COMICBASE The first time you launch ComicBase you will be asked to enter your name your company s name if applicable and the unique serial number for your copy of ComicBase You will find your serial number inside the ComicBase case as well as on your registration card REGISTERING You must register your copy of ComicBase in order to receive e Technical support e Notification of upgrades e Special prices on upgrades e Weekly Content Updates online only Register by using the Internet menu s Register ComicBase Online command or sending in the registration card which came with ComicBase GETTING STARTED COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE GETTING STARTED TECHNICAL SUPPORT Many questions about how to use the ComicBase program are covered in this manual Additional program updates and bug fixes are available for free online at http www comicbase com support asp Your purchase of ComicBase 11 also includes 12 free months of online pricing updates starting from the day you first install your copy of ComicBase on your computer You can download both the program and price upda
30. es box if you want to print two labels for each title one label for each side of the divider 7 Click on the position of the first available label on the first label sheet and click the Print button to start printing PRINTING AND REPORTS 36 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING DIVIDER DESCRIPTIONS You can print the descriptions for each title onto labels that you can affix to your title dividers This is very helpful for prospective buyers who want to learn more about the titles in your collection before a purchase To print divider blurbs 1 Go to Divider Blurbs in the Report menu Or choose Print from the File menu Click the Divider Blurbs icon to select it 3 If the All radio button is filled ComicBase will print divider blurbs for all the titles in ComicBase h S n 7 m p Price Labels Price List Title Report Labels Checklists Titles To Print OAI Starting label 1 Selected Titles Label Type Dymo Address 30252 30254 30255 30572 _ Print labels for both sides _ List only titles in stock 4 To print divider blurbs for only titles you own or only for certain titles click the Selected Titles radio button A list of all the titles you own in ComicBase will appear You can also create a selection that s the result of a search by clicking the Find button while selecting titles See page 12 You can also narrow the list to just the titles you own by clicking
31. esign CS 2 Proofs printed on a Dell 3100 CN printer COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE CONTENTS WELCOME TO COMICBASE 6 What You Should Know Before Using This Guide 6 Launching ComicBase 7 Registering 7 COMICBASE BASICS 9 Titles 13 Finding Comics 13 Using Find 13 Using Multiple Searches 16 internet Links 17 MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION 18 Add to Inventory Sell Comics 18 Quick Change 19 Entering Data Directly Into the Issues list 19 Modifying an Issue s Detail 20 Comic Type 20 Issue Number 20 Issue Variations 20 Printings 21 Cover Prices and Values 21 Grading Condition 21 Grading Wizard 21 Quantity 21 Cost 21 Notes 22 Storylines 22 UPC and ISBN 22 Writer and Artist 22 Marking Issues 22 Custom Fields 22 Duplicating an Issue 23 Adding new issues 23 Removing issues 23 Adding New Titles 24 Naming Titles 24 Publisher 24 Years Published 25 Title URL and Comments 25 Mature Titles 25 Marking Titles 25 Genre 25 Removing Titles 27 Managing More Than One Collection 27 Backing Up Your Copy of ComicBase 27 Checking for Program and Price Updates 27 IMAGES AND MOVIES 28 Adding New Artwork 28 PRINTING AND REPORTS 29 ComicBase Statistics 29 Printing Price labels 30 Printing Comic Identification Labels 32 Printing Price Lists 32 Printing Issue Checklists 34 Printing Title Reports 35 Printing Divider Labels 36 Printing Divider Descriptions 37 IMPORTING AND EXPORTING 38 Importing Information from Other Pro
32. ets Betty and Veronica B P R D The Universal Machine Cyberforce 3rd Series MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION nS Tk Hot Key Shortcuts Use these buttons on your key board to navigate your way quickly in ComicBase Ctrl T Title List Ctrl Next Title Ctrl Previous Title Ctrl F Find 18 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE Scan the barcodes of comics you want to add into the Add to Inventory dialog and ComicBase will keep a list of all the comics you ve scanned You can also scan in barcodes from any ComicBase comic ID label you may have printed To remove an item from the list highlight the line and click the Remove button in the lower left hand corner When you are done entering your comics click the Save button to add them all to your Inventory To sell your comics use the Batch menu s Sell Comics command F9 and enter the barcodes of the comics you want to sell Click on the Sell button in the lower right hand corner when you are done In the Sell Comics dialog you can also ask ComicBase to sell your comics at a standard discount or give your buyer a set amount of credit When selling comics from your inventory ComicBase can also print a receipt for your sales QUICK CHANGE Use the Edit menu s Quick Change command to quickly modify a single field for many selected issues for instance if you d like to quickly change the selling price of Spawn issues 1 50 to 3 00 Just select the issues you want and choose
33. grade for the comic according to accepted industry standards QUANTITY The Quantity field lists the number of issues you have of this comic COST Type the amount you paid for each comic in the Cost field ComicBase will automatically calculate the value for a single copy based on its condition in the Selling Price field If you would like to sell your copies for a higher or lower price you can override the value and type in 21 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE the price you think is appropriate in the Selling Price field This is the price that will appear on price labels and price lists If you normally buy your comics at a discount you can also set a Standard Discount for new issues Click on the dropdown arrow next to cost in the Issue Detail dialog to select a discount ComicBase will remember and save this information as the default discount for all new comics entered NOTES Enter any special information not handled by the other fields into the Notes field This may include a special character appearance or reasons for the issue s grade This information can appear on the issue s price label and in some reports Use semicolons to separate multiple annotations for the same issue or put each on a separate line in the Notes field For example if you were adding Asterix Bk 1 and wanted to note that it included the first appearances of Asterix and Obelix and gives an explanation of Obelix s strength you would write 1st app
34. grams 38 USING COMICBASE WITH HANDHELD COMPUTERS 41 ADVANCED COMICBASE 42 Modifying Issue variations 42 Adding an issue variation 42 Add anew comic type 43 Remove a comic type 43 Modifying Publishers 43 Using Find and Replace 45 Mass Change 45 File Tools 46 Compact and Verify ComicBase 46 Rebuild Lists 46 Reset ComicBase Settings 47 Currency Conversion 47 Remove Mature Reader Titles 47 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE TROUBLESHOOTING 48 Frequently Asked Questions 48 For More Help 49 Keyboard Shortcuts 50 One Key Issue Entry 50 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE WELCOME TO COMICBASE Thank you for purchasing ComicBase the world s 1 software for managing comic collections ComicBase is both a professional tool for organizing and managing your collection as well as a comprehensive comic book reference It includes a built in comic book price guide of comic values for the past four years as well as comics reviews an encyclopedia of comics with detailed notes on over 275 000 issues and thousands of full color images of your favorite comic covers ComicBase can give you information on what each title is about tell you how it relates to other titles and help you find special issues by first appearances origin stories writer or artist It will keep track of which comics you have chart your collection s value over time and print a wide variety of reports that let you manage your collection like a pro Us
35. he title you are currently viewing right click over the title s name in the main window and select the Print Issue Checklist command PRINTING AND REPORTS 34 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING TITLE REPORTS You can use ComicBase s title reports to create a hard copy record of the comics you own and their totaled worth To print title reports 1 2A r Titles To Print OAI Selected Titles 0 titles chosen J 4 5 Divider Blurbs Divider Labels Identification Report Items Choose Title Report from the Report menu Or go to the File menu to select the Print command and click on the Title Report icon in the dialog box to select it Check off what you d like the report to include in the Report Items box If you check Issues of each title the report will list all the issues of all the titles you re including If you check Missing Issues the report will list issues you don t own Include information from your custom fields by checking the field names in the Custom Fields to include box Adding these fields will add an extra line to the report for each issue even for issues which don t have custom field information Price Labels Price List Title Report i J Labels Checklists _ ssues of each title _ Missing issues of each title Wonder Wart Hog Hog of Steel C Group issue numbers together Wonder Weekly _ List only marked issues
36. hed copies and more You can add a variation to the variations dropdown menu by going to the Setup menu and choosing Issue Variations PRINTINGS Some popular comics are re released in a second printing or third fourth etc These later printings are usually worth less than the first printing If you have a comic that was part of a later printing the Printing dropdown menu on the far right lets you select which printing it was COVER PRICES AND VALUES ComicBase will also fill in the values and cover price based on the previous issue so using the same example above Excalibur 2nd Series 2 will have the same default cover price writer and artist as 1 GRADING CONDITION Select the comic s condition from the Condition dropdown menu Most undamaged new comics are in what is known as near mint NM condition When the condition is changed ComicBase will automatically update the selling price field to match the guide value for this issue GRADING WIZARD If you re unsure of the comic s grade you can use ComicBase s Grading Wizard to help you evaluate the comic You can access the ComicBase Grading Wizard in a couple of ways 1 Simply click the question mark icon to the right of the Condition dropdown and the Grading Wizard will appear 2 Or you can use F12 on your keyboard to bring up the Grading Wizard Select the appropriate choices that describe your comic s appearance and the Wizard will give you an estimated
37. hed with the Find Comics command and printed on reports To name a custom field checkbox or date field use the Setup menu s Custom Fields command DUPLICATING AN ISSUE If you d like to add a new issue which is a duplicate of an existing one e g a second copy of a comic in a different condition select that issue and choose the Edit menu s Duplicate command Ctrl D The Issue Detail for the duplicated issue will appear You can change the issue number condition and any other field just as if you were modifying the original issue ADDING NEW ISSUES As new comics are released you ll want to add them to your copy of ComicBase Getting your new comics entered in ComicBase is now easier than ever With your purchase of ComicBase you also get free online downloads of all the newest issues and titles every week Simply go to your Internet menu and use the Check for Updates command or you can tell your ComicBase program to automatically check for updates by going to the Setup menu and choosing your Preferences Of course you can still add in new issues of your comics by hand To do this go to the comic title in question and choose the Comic menu s New Issue command Ctrl N By default the issue number shown when adding new issues will be the next regular issue in the sequence for the selected title Thus if you choose to add a new issue after Excalibur 2nd Series 1 published in July 2004 ComicBase will add 2 a
38. hrough your notes storylines writer and artist lists and will remove any duplicate or near duplicate information e g a note reading 1st appearance of Punisher 1st appearance of The Punisher In discarding duplicates in this manner the longest item will be preserved In the example above the note would be changed to 1st appearance of The Punisher This option also standardizes the spellings of thousands of known creator names Checking Find Comics Lists will rebuild the Find Comics lists which appear after you ve used the Find command to find character appearances work by a writer or other comic book related information If the lists that are appearing are inaccurate check off this box RESET COMICBASE SETTINGS If at any time you wantto reset the your preferences in ComicBase simply go to File Tools and click on Reset ComicBase Preferences This command is useful for returning ComicBase to its factory settings If you ve added grades publishers issue variations or made other special modifications to ComicBase it will remove them and replace them with the original settings However it will not remove any collection data such as issues owned from your copy of ComicBase CURRENCY CONVERSION The Convert Currencies button converts the values in ComicBase which are in U S dollars to your local currency values You ll need to know the current exchange rate from U S dollars to your local currency When
39. ifferent publishing years and consecutive publication years E g 1979 1985 or 1983 1988 1999 Present TITLE URL AND COMMENTS ComicBase also provides spaces for adding title URL title comments and checkboxes for genre identifiers which you can customize to add your own If you enter a title URL here then you can go directly to that title s web page by right clicking on the title name You can also enter title comments in the Title Comments field ComicBase occasionally uses this field to note a publisher name change during a series run but you can use it to keep any notes you wish MATURE TITLES The Mature Readers Only box is for titles which deal with themes you believe are not appropriate for younger readers Any title with this box checked will be removed if you go into the File menu s File Tools and choose Remove Mature Readers Titles MARKING TITLES ComicBase lets you mark a title so that you can find it easily by your own criteria There s a Marked checkbox and three custom title checkboxes that you can use for your own special purposes e g Black and White Hot Title etc using the Setup menu s Custom Fields menu item GENRE Below the Title Comments field is a number of checkboxes to denote the genres a title belongs to For instance if you were adding a title about some zany astronaut rabbits you might check Anthropomorphic Comedy and Science Fiction Icons fo
40. ifts still make us dizzy We generally try to smooth such transitions by noting where series are continued in the notes of the last issue of the original run as well as where they are continued from in the first issue of the renamed series Comic Base s pictures aren t showing and or the movies won t play Make sure you installed QuickTime from the ComicBase disk to make sure you have the most compatible version Also if you re storing pictures on your hard disk make sure the pictures are in the correct place Lastly if you re having trouble reading pictures or movies off the disk check your CD DVD ROM drive Unlike most CD DVD ROM programs ComicBase takes up all the space on the disk and sometimes a failing drive may have trouble reading all the way out to the edges of the CD DVD Windows keeps telling me there isn t enough space to install ComicBase Windows requires two to three times the amount of your RAM as swap space on your hard drive generally the C drive Also the C drive is used to decompress files Even if you re installing onto a drive other than the C drive your C drive will need about 200MB of free disk space You cannot install ComicBase to your A or B drives can t save a backup copy of ComicBase You need to make sure you have enough space for a backup You can specify where you want ComicBase to save its backup by clicking the Change Location button in the Preferences dialog box
41. il REMOVE A COMIC TYPE T A Go to the Setup menu and select Comic Types Select the comic type you want to remove and click the Remove Click Save to save the changes The comic type you removed will no longer be available in the Comic Types dropdown menu in the Issue Detail To change the name or abbreviation for a comic type select it in the list and change the name or abbreviation in the Comic Type and Abbreviation fields Click Save The new name and or abbreviation will appear in the Comic Types dropdown menu and the Issues Views but will not change the previous abbreviation used for comics already indexed in ComicBase MODIFYING PUBLISHERS ADVANCED COMICBASE 43 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE ADVANCED COMICBASE The Publishers dropdown menu in the Issue Detail dialog lets you choose from the most common publishers If your publisher is not in the list type in the name of that publisher anyway and when you move to edit another field in the Issue Detail dialog a dropdown menu will appear asking you for the publisher s information If you have a lot of comics from a publisher not in the Publishers dropdown list you may wish to add that publisher to the Publisher dropdown menu Just check the Add to List of Publishers box at the bottom of the dialog Another way to add a publisher is to select the Setup menu s Publishers command Setup Publishers Publisher Dark Horse Publisher Name Usual Copyright N
42. installment of a title usually with its own number Examples are Action Comics 23 or The Amazing Spider Man 42 Comic is a generic term for a comic book For instance if you have two copies of The Amazing Spider Man 42 and one copy of Bone 1 you have three comics Cost is the price you paid for comic Value is what our research says is the current market value for an issue ina certain condition Price is the amount you wish to sell an issue for COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE INSTALLING COMICBASE 1 Exit any Windows programs you are running This is important running programs can prevent ComicBase from installing properly 2 Insert the ComicBase Program Disk The ComicBase launcher program will start automatically double click the Launcher exe file if autostart is disabled on your computer 3 The installer will guide you through the installation process 4 Install QuickTime used for viewing movies Note The QuickTime installer will ask for a serial number unless you ve previously bought QuickTime Pro from Apple leave this blank 5 Install Adobe Reader used for viewing documentation 6 After your programs have installed launch ComicBase by double clicking the icon on your desktop or choosing the program from your Start Menu P ComicBase 11 The first time you run ComicBase it will ask if you are upgrading from a previous version If you are click Yes and follow the instructions on the scr
43. is process by right clicking over the title name and choosing Print Divider Labels for this Title This third option will let you print divider labels only for the title you are looking at Skip to Step 5 if you choose this option 2 Click the Divider Labels icon to select it Divider Blurbs Divider Vabels identification Issue Price Labels Price List Title Report Labels Checklists Titles To Print O All Starting label 41 Selected Titles Label Type Dymo Address 30252 30254 30255 30572 Print labels for both sides _ List only titles in stock 3 If the All radio button is filled ComicBase will print divider labels for all the titles in ComicBase 4 To print divider labels for only certain titles click the Selected Titles radio button A list of all the titles in ComicBase will appear You can also create a selection that s the result of a search by clicking the Find button while selecting titles You can also narrow the list to just the titles you own by clicking Titles in Stock Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking to select more than one title Moving between parts of the list will not deselect your selections Click OK when you ve selected all the titles you want to include 5 Use the Label Type dropdown menu to select the label size on which you ll be printing your labels ComicBase will also automatically size the text to fit your label 6 Click the Print Labels for Both Sid
44. it to set the price of every issue in ComicBase to the previous year s values or check the Marked box for every issue of several titles at once To use the Mass Change command select it from the Comics menu In the dialog box that appears select the field you want to change in the Change dropdown menu This will offer you a choice of the value and date fields The Mass Change command can apply to all the titles in ComicBase or only to selected titles To apply changes to a select list of titles click the Selected Titles radio button and in the dialog that appears select the titles to which you want to apply changes Click the Field radio button to replace the values in one field with the values of another field For instance you can change the selling price of all issues to be the same as the cover price or some mathematical variation thereof You might also for example want to offer certain titles at half price To do this choose to Mass Change the Price to the Year 4 2002 Value 0 5 i e 50 of the current guide value If you choose you can also round any mathematical values automatically so that for instance you don t wind up selling a 1 75 book for 87 5 cents at your 1 2 off sale Click the Value radio button to set the chosen field to a special value For instance you might select titles you want to sell quickly and change the selling price for all the issues of those titles to 0 25 When you ve entered the
45. ive Care 0 00 9 1 1988 Continues in S Shot to Hell 0 00 10 1 1988 Continues from Sex and Death 50 00 14 1 1988 Newcastle A Taste of Thin 0 00 12 1 1988 The Devil You Know 0 00 1241988 Onthe Beach enon 44 fa reo The DCear Waehine Mard 4 TL 2 NM Ni Ni OOO Bs OOOO Nid NM NMI NM ETEA B Tap T E eg DB og keg SR Aaa e EH sis siglolSi colo mi aia alal cle ComicBase will show the value graph of the issue s value changes for the past four years Click on any of the hyperlinked blue writer or artist credits to start an automatic Find search for all other comics by that writer or artist You can also click on a multiple part storyline to prompt a Find search of all other comics featuring that storyline 12 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE BASICS TITLES DID YOU KNOW Titles in ComicBase are listed by alphabetical order and can be accessed using the navigation buttons on the top right of the main window or much more quickly through the Title List The fastest way to find titles in the Title List is to type in the first few letters of the name of the title you wish to see The Title List in ComicBase is not case sensitive It will find the correct title you whether you use in the cor rect capitalization and punctuation or not Titles Pex Show All Titles Titles in Stock Jump to Title Amazing Spider Man The Amazing Spider Man The Amazing
46. ke to modify from the Issues View Modify Issues or Found Comics list You can select a discontiguous range of issues by pressing the Ctrl key while selecting issues Then choose the Edit menu s Mark command to mark all the issues To unmark issues follow the same procedure to select the issues then use the Edit menu s Unmark command CUSTOM FIELDS ComicBase s Custom fields can be used for any special purposes you may have Some ComicBase users have been known to have a field to keep track of a comic s location e g Box 11 Others like having a field to MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION KEY WORDS FOR USE IN THE NOTES FIELD ComicBase looks for certain key words when it searches for special is sues When you add notes with these phrases the entries are automatically added to the appropriate list in the Find Comics dialog ORIGIN or ORIGIN oF for origin stories Example Origin Spider Man DEATH or DEATH OF for death stories Example Death of Superman 1ST APPEARANCE Or 1ST APPEARANCE OF Example 1st appearance Dazzler 2ND APPEARANCE Or 2ND APPEARANCE OF Example 2nd appearance Cable APPEARANCE for special appearances Example Lobo appearance 22 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE indicate where or from whose collection a comic was purchased Still others want to have separate checkboxes to mark issues they want to buy as well as comics they want to sell Data entered in these custom fields can be automatically searc
47. king the Find button 6 Choose between Basic Summary or Detailed radio boxes in the Report Type box Basic price list shows you the number of copies you own of an issue and each comic s condition value and or cost This list totals the value of your collection by title Summary price list shows the value and number of copies of each title in your collection and if you re including it cost DETAILED price list shows the number of copies you own of an issue and each comic s condition and value and if you re including it cost It also shows the value of each comic over the previous three years This report is generally printed in landscape wide orientation 7 Click the Print button to print your price list 33 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING ISSUE CHECKLISTS ComicBase lets you print issue checklists that show you the issues you own and or the issues you want their near mint value and notes about them For issues you own it will also tell you how many copies you have what condition the copies are in their value and how much you paid for each copy These reports are particularly useful for taking to a convention or store to effectively build the collection you want To create an issue checklist Ie From the Report menu select the Issue Checklists You can also go to the File menu go to Print and click on the Issue Checklists icon to open the same dialog Check off what you d like the report to in
48. l show the issue number of the comic as well as information about writers artists storylines pricing etc There are also four custom fields where you can assign and track your own items See Managing Your Collection for more information on how to do this a i New Issue 51 25 Price changes for an issue of a comic are denoted in the Issue Fields lm Modify Issue zz with prices in red indicating an increase in value and prices in blue g Mark 1 25 indicating a decrease in an issue s worth L ee 1 25 n m IB Delete ate You can edit any of the fields by double clicking on the specific cell go tis you want to change Te BFAR EO sa Erint Comic I entificaton Labels 135 Right clicking on any field will also bring up a list of options for IB Show Cover Picture 1 25 managing your individual comics such adding a new issue deleting ee a 1 50 an issue you don t want or using the internet to search for copies of yea 150 that issue These options are also available through the Comics menu You can change the order of the columns by dragging the column headers left or right Resize a column or even shrink it to nothing to hide it by dragging the column dividers left or right Right click and choose Show Hidden Columns to unhide 14 Mark Issue Column You can use this column to note comics that are special to you in some FIE way e g they have sentimental value or you want to
49. lisher dropdown menus 44 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE ADVANCED COMICBASE USING FIND AND REPLACE ComicBase includes the ability to Find and Replace text information across the entire database This works like the Find and Replace function in a word processor and is particularly useful when you want to standardize the spelling of artist names change the names of publishers or even change the spelling of condition names e g changing NrMt to NM To find an replace text go to the Edit menu and choose Find and Replace Enter the text you d like to search for and choose which field to look in Keep in mind that since Find and Replace works only on text information it cannot search date or check box fields If you change the contents of the notes storylines artist or writer fields you may cause the lists of artists writers etc that ComicBase displays to become outdated Your information will not be reflected in a ComicBase Find search until you have rebuilt your ComicBase title and issues lists To do this choose the File menu s File Tools option select Rebuild List of Titles then check the Find Comics Lists when asked which items to rebuild This process will take several minutes to complete which is why it s not done for you automatically whenever you Find and Replace MASS CHANGE Although it s used only rarely the Mass Change command is useful for making changes throughout ComicBase For instance you can use
50. ll overwrite all issue information in ComicBase Only use this option if you want to replace all the information in ComicBase The more common option Replace Only Matching or New Issues is slower but it will only overwrite the issues being imported 4 8 Some spreadsheet or database programs create an initial mail merge header that lists the names of the fields This can be useful if you want to match up ComicBase fields with the fields you re using but if you try to import the header you will get an error message in ComicBase telling you something like there is no title named Comic Title You can skip past the header by typing in how many Lines to Skip at Beginning 9 Click Show Preview to see how your fields will match up with ComicBase fields Always use Show Preview to make sure your data will be imported into the correct field Most of the problems with importing are the result of importing data into the wrong fields 10 After importing your information into ComicBase look at the Issue View and the Issue Detail for the titles for which you ve imported information and check that your information has been imported into the right fields Note You can also drag and drop any text file into the current version of ComicBase to prompt the program to bring up the Import dialog Select the fields you would like to import and continue from step 4 EXPORTING DATA Sometimes you may find it useful to move information from Co
51. ly titles in stock Begin by selecting the category you want from the Find dropdown list at the top The selections are divided into Title Name Special notes Title Fields and information available from the Issue Fields 13 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE BASICS Many searches will show an indexed list that you can move through by quickly typing the first few letters of your search For instance if you re DID YOU KNOW looking for the first appearance of Psylocke you only have to type psyl in the 1st Appearance find box ComicBase 11 now gives you the power to Find all of your favorite Find Comics Jeg writer artist and storylines with just a single click Find ist Appearance G New Search Just click on any of the hyperlinked blue writer artist or storyline credits in the main ComicBase window to start a new search Name payl Peychoman Psycho Man Psyklop Peylocke Puck Marina F List only issues in stock Click on the Find button to start the search When ComicBase finds the items that match what you re looking for it will bring up a list of those items The list will remain onscreen until you close it so you can view all other issues or titles that matched your search criteria SEARCH CATEGORIES To find issues or titles click the Find icon in the top right corner of your ComicBase program and select the category you want to search for The first category
52. micBase to another program such as a page layout program to create a private catalog or to a web authoring program for posting your list online To export information from ComicBase 1 From the File menu select the Export command as pa Export Fields Move gt Quantity in Stock Add Blank Condition Cost Cover Price Price Year 1 2001 Price ear 2 2002 Price Year 3 2003 Price Year 4 2004 Selling Price Notes Storylines Writer Artist Cover Date Custom Field 1 Custom Field 2 Custom Field 3 Custom Field 4 Record separator Export only issues in stock Export Titles All L Export onty marked issues O Selected Titles C_ include field titles IMPORTING AND EXPORTING 39 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE IMPORTING AND EXPORTING In the Export Price List dialog box move all the fields you want to export from the Available Fields list to the Export Fields list Add blank fields for special fields for which there are no ComicBase equivalents For example if you were importing your data into an Excel spreadsheet with columns for Title Issue Number Penciller and Inker you would use Comic Title Issue Number and Artist from the Available Fields list and click Add Blank to have information flow in correctly ComicBase can export text using a variety of item and record separators Use the Item Separator and Record Separator dropdown fields to select the correct format The most comm
53. nd click Copies Change the number in the box that appears to the number of price labels you would like ComicBase to print then click OK 4 You can check the Only Print If New or Price Changed box print labels only for comics that have been added recently or have had their price change recently This feature is especially useful if you regularly print price labels for your comics 5 If you d like the labels to include storylines check the Include Storylines checkbox 6 In the Print dialog box select the first available label on your first sheet of labels 7 Click the Print button to start printing labels The Viking Dead Image 1 aa 7 b amp w series Robert Kirkman 35 00 script Tony Moore art WA D tf NM 31 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING COMIC IDENTIFICATION LABELS You may also want to print labels without the pricing to help you identify a particular issue of a series You can print identification labels with a picture of the comic for your by going into the Report menu and selecting Comic Identification Labels You can also right click on the issue in the issue field print a label for that comic Print 3 E p amp Price Labels Price List Title Report Titles Without O All Starting label 4 O Selected Titles Selected Issues 1 chosen Label Type Dymo Address 30252 30254 30255 30572 _ include bar codes Include storylines artists and writers _
54. nds titles by the date you changed or created the titles descriptions GENRE finds titles by which genre have been checked in the Title Detail dialog If you check more than one genre checkbox this search will only find titles that also have all those checkboxes checked You can also search on custom genres you ve created MARKED finds titles which have the Mark box checked This refers to the default Mark box in the Title Information dialog and should not be confused with the Custom check boxes also in the Title Information dialog MATURE READERS ONLY finds any titles that have the Mature Readers Only checkbox checked PUBLISHER helps you find all the titles from a certain publisher YEARS PUBLISHED looks for titles based on their publication year You can select a specific year or a range of years to search for The next group of searches finds items based on Issue information ARTIST finds the issues which were drawn by a particular artist CIRCULATION will search for comics based on the number of copies of an issue that were estimated to have been published Archive Edition only CONDITION finds comics by the condition they re in such as all your comics in very fine VF condition COST finds comics in your collection by your cost such as all comics you bought for less than 1 each COVER DATE finds comics by their cover date Since some titles like 2000 A D are published weekly we use a month day year format
55. o com and have bundled the shareware versions of their converters with ComicBase To convert a file to book form using iSilo do the following 1 Export the desired report by clicking the Print dialog s Export button Exporting it to your Desktop makes it easy to find later Note The Title Report with grouped issues is generally the most useful of all the reports due to its compact format and diminutive size It lets you quickly see what issues you have and which are missing for a given title usually the most important information Issue Checklists and Price lists can also be useful but you should be careful to not overwhelm the generally tiny processor of your handheld with too much data 2 Launch iSiloX for your preferred platform Palm or Pocket PC 3 From the Document menu choose Add You ll be prompted for a name for the book e g Title Report Roger Durham 4 Choose Add URL File to add the file you ve just exported to the list of files to be converted into book form Select the exported report file you created in step 1 5 On Palm computers you will also have the option of choosing the user name which you can automatically HotSync this file to Choose your user name then click Done 6 Click Convert All to create your book If you ve chosen a HotSync destination in step 5 your book will be automatically loaded onto your Palm Pocket PC when you do your next HotSync Otherwise load it onto your
56. on format is tab delimited text for which you can select Tab for the item separator and Return for the record separator Use the Style dropdown menu to select how you want the information exported If you ll be importing the exported data into a spreadsheet or database select Spreadsheet Database records Spreadsheet Database export lists the title name on each line like this 2000 A D 129 1 NM 3 75 Judge Dredd 2000 A D 133 1 NM 3 75 Judge Dredd 2000 A D 134 1 NM 3 75 Judge Dredd If you ll be exporting the data and opening it with your word processor say for a custom report select Formatted Report Report Format It shows the title name once per title 2000 A D 129 1 NM 3 75 Judge Dredd 133 1 NM 3 75 Judge Dredd 134 1 NM 3 75 Judge Dredd If you want the report to include only issues in your collection check the Export Only Issues in Stock Box If you want the exported information to include all the titles in ComicBase click the All radio button If you want the exported information to only include specific titles click the Selected Titles radio button Click Titles in Stock to see a list of the titles for which you own comics You can also click the Find button to find titles you want to export say all titles which are marked Select the titles for which you want information exported Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking to select more than one title Moving between parts of the list will not desel
57. otice and Dark Horse Comics Inc Publisher Web Site httpvwww darkhorse conmvindex php a Type the name of the publisher into the Publisher Name box ComicBase automatically enters the publisher s name into the Copyright field If a person or company other than the title s publisher typically owns the copyright to the title you re adding type in the name of the proper copyright holder This is the information that will appear in the copyright title whenever you add a title from this publisher If you know it enter the publisher s web site address URL into the Publisher s Home Page box Click Save to add the publisher to ComicBase and exit the dialog The publisher you ve added will now appear in all Publisher dropdown menus in ComicBase To change a publisher s information select the Setup menu s Publishers command and select the publisher whose information you want to change You can overwrite or add information such as web site address to the publisher s fields Click Save to save your changes To remove a publisher select the Setup menu s Publisher command In the dropdown menu select the publisher you want to remove Click Remove The publisher you removed will no longer be available from Publisher dropdown menus in ComicBase Note removing a publisher from the Publishers dropdown menu will not remove that publisher s titles from ComicBase It will only remove the publisher name from the Pub
58. ou uncheck those listings in the Issue Listings box in Preferences found under the Setup menu ComicBase can print to a variety of label types and sizes including popular Avery labels and standard sized labels from Dymo The labels include a code that tells you when the label was printed The first number in the code indicates the month the issue was entered into inventory i e 5 for May followed by an X the day of the month the label was printed i e 31 for the 31st day and the last digit of the year the label was printed i e 7 for 1997 To print price labels for your comics follow these steps 1 Go to the Report menu and select the Price Labels command You can also reach this dialog through the File menu by choosing Print and selecting the Price Labels icon from the top bar of the dialog box I i 3 oe Se 3 SSI i ws Divider Blurbs Divider Labels Identification Issue Pri i Price List Title Report Labels Checklists Titles To Print all Starting label 4 Selected Titles Selected Issues Label Type Avery 5160 5260 Include bar codes _ Only print if new or price changed Include storylines artists and writers _ List only marked issues C List only issues in stock 30 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING AND REPORTS 2 Select the type of price label you are going to use from the Label dropdown menu ComicBase will automatically resize the price label tex
59. over If no image is available a publisher or default logo will be displayed instead You can also drag and drop pictures from Windows to this thumbnail and ComicBase will automatically place your picture into the title s picture folder 2 Title Genres Displays icons designating the genres e g Horror Comedy that this ERY title features 3 Title Abbreviation Abbreviation of the title name assigned by ComicBase COMICBASE BASICS COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE 10 Publisher Name amp Years Published Name of the publisher and the years during which this title was published You can also click on the publisher s name to open up a new browser window showing the publisher s website Current Title Displays the full name of the series you are viewing Right click over the title to display options to print divider labels for this title or search for this title online Play Movie If a movie is available for this title you can click on this icon to play it Note movies will require Quicktime to play Find Comics Allows you to search for comics by various criteria You can use this function to quickly find comics by the cover date artists writers storyline or a publisher name that you ve entered in the Issue Fields See Finding Comics for a detailed description of each search category Move To Previous Next Title To view the next title in alphabetical order click the arrow pointing right To view the
60. ow and typing in the new information There are a few tip to make this even easier You can resize the field widths by clicking and dragging their boundary line to the desired width If you don t want to see a given field you can MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION 19 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE even drag its width up to nothing hiding it Right clicking in the column in the Issue List header will display these fields again You can also change the order in which the Issues List fields are displayed by clicking on a field and dragging to the left or right MODIFYING AN ISSUE S DETAIL If you d like to see all the information about an issue at once or perhaps want to change several pieces of information about an issue such as its grade price notes etc you can simply double click on the issue and you will be presented with the comic s Issue Detail dialog Issue Comic Type l Variation Regular issue x Condition Quantity 0 Value History Near Mint Cover Price 0 12 Cost 0 00 ss conta sii Selling Price 27000 00 Cover Date 3 1 1963 2005 25 000 00 2006 27 000 00 Circulation 0 TopGrade 98 Graded 628 Top Price 110 100 00 jst Appearance of Chameleon Spider Man ist Appearance of J Jonah Jameson Spider Man vs the Chameleon 12t Appearance of John Jameson A Personal Message from Spider Man Origin of Spider Man Fantastic Four appearance Writer Stan Lee Steve Ditko Artist Jack Kirby
61. p your backup copy of ComicBase in your ComicBase folder on your hard drive If you want to keep your backup in another location go to your Setup menu and under Preferences choose Save all backups to folder and specify where you want your back up copy stored To protect your data in case of hard drive failure we also recommend periodically transferring a copy of your database onto a CD or DVD or creating a backup copy on a remote hard drive or removable media To do so select the File menu s Save a Copy command You can save your ComicBase onto any hard drive or onto removable media The file will be called Copy of ComicBase cba CHECKING FOR PROGRAM AND PRICE UPDATES ComicBase comes with twelve months of free price and title updates We also occasionally release minor bug fixes and enhancements to the program To get these use the Internet menu s Check for Updates command You can also set the program to check for updates every time the program launches once a day once a week once a month or never Go under the Setup menu and select Preferences then identify the frequency you d like the program to check for updates If you don t have internet access or prefer to check for updates manually select Never MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION 27 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE IMAGES AND MOVIES IMAGES AND MOVIES ADDING NEW ARTWORK By default ComicBase will reference pictures from your pictures CD or DVD unless you ha
62. r the checked genres will appear in the Title Description window You can also go to the Setup menu and use the Custom Fields command to add your own genres You can search for titles by their genres including custom genres MODIFYING TITLES To modify titles in ComicBase open the Title List highlight the title you wish to change and click the Modify button at the bottom of the list This will bring up the Title Detail box where you can modify the information for that entry MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION 25 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE Show AllTitles Titles in Stock Title Hellblazer Hellblazer Hellblazer All His Engines Hellblazer Rake At the Gates of Hell Hellblazer Special Bad Blood Hellblazer Special Lady Constantine Heliblazer The Books of Magic Hellboy Almost Colossus Hellboy Box Full of Evil DC 196 Present my EDITING TITLE DESCRIPTIONS The space below the picture box will generally contain a review for the series you are viewing We ve worked hard with the guys over at Comic Buyers Guide to bring you the most comprehensive encyclopedia of comics reviews available But if you find any entry with no review or if you wish to add to the review you can easily change the text by going to the Comics menu and choosing Edit Title Description Or you can submit your own credited description to Comicbase by clicking on the submission link This will ensure that all future editions of ComicBase will
63. r us to obtain for coverage or 3 the title is still in the process of being reviewed indexed historically priced and scanned or 4 the title may be indexed under another name such as Four Color Comics If you find ComicBase doesn t have a title you collect use the New Title command to add titles from your collection into ComicBase If the title appears in the next ComicBase update you can easily integrate any information you ve added into the update process GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING INFORMATION ONLINE Minor updates and bug fixes to the current version of ComicBase are free online at http www comicbase com Sup port Updaters ComicBase_Updates asp A complete list of all the titles in the current version of ComicBase re ports of incompatibilities and other troubleshooting tips are available at http www comicbase com Sup port Technotes technotes asp News and information on ComicBase can be found at http www comicbase com 48 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE Q A a gt Q Where are the rest of the X Men or Justice Leagues or Marvel s X Men are listed as X Men Ist series until issue 142 after which they went through a little noticed name change to become officially The Uncanny X Men where subsequent issues are listed Justice League America International Europe went through numerous such mid title name changes and issues are listed under the appropriate titles although the sh
64. s for comics based on the top numeric grade ever given to an issue by CGC assuming one is available For example you can search for all 10 0 comic issues recorded in ComicBase Archive Edition only TOP SELLING PRICE The highest recorded selling price of this issue in any grade Archive Edition only WRITER finds issues which were written by a certain writer e YEARLY VALUE finds comics in your collection by their value in a particular year For instance you can find all the comics that were worth 2 95 in 2001 ComicBase also includes several custom fields that you can use for anything you wish The custom fields will appear in the Find menu with the names you ve given them You can use them to search for information in the custom fields just as with similar fields USING MULTIPLE SEARCHES If you re looking for a comic that falls into more than one category say because you re trying to hunt down a particular issue from a certain time period and publisher you may need to do multiple searches to find what you want Click the Find button again while the Found Comics list is still onscreen The second Find dialog box will now contain extra options to narrow or 16 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE BASICS expand your previous search results This allows you to do complex search es such as finding All the Marvel Comics published after 1953 and before 1960 To narrow searches just select the Narrow Results option
65. s from the ComicBase server deleted issues will re appear in your next ComicBase update ADDING NEW TITLES Whenever you buy a newly released title or find an old title that we ve somehow overlooked you ll want to add it to your ComicBase database To add a new title go to the Title List and click on New NAMING TITLES Be aware that the proper title is not always the same as the name on the cover in fact it can be fiendishly difficult to determine the proper name for a title If a title begins with The or A or An put any one of that word at the end of the title separated by a comma For instance if you were adding The Vigilante you would enter it as Vigilante The in the Name field This way ComicBase will list the title in alphabetical order under V Vigilante rather than T The If the title contains both an article and a colon such as The Trouble With Girls The Night of the Lizard then move the article right before the colon and write the rest as it appears Thus the correct name is Trouble With Girls The The Night of the Lizard Sin City Dark Horse Title Name Sin City Dark Horse Publisher Dark Horse we Tite Abbreviation SCDH Copyright and 1997 Frank Miller Inc Years Published 1993 1997 L Mature readers only Title URL Title Comments Genres Action Adventure _ Fantasy _ Religious Western C Adult C Horror C Romance C
66. s the next issue and automatically record it as published in August 2004 You can set a different issue number by typing in the Number field if you re adding a range of issues enter the first issue in the Number field and the last issue in the Through field Any information you enter such as condition cost and notes will be entered for all issues in the range REMOVING ISSUES ComicBase has information on thousands of issues but as you ll notice the default quantity of each is set to O indicating you don t own any issues of that comic in your collection Most of the time you ll want to MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION TIP MAKING USE OF THE GRADING WIZARD Can t tell the condition of your comic ComicBase makes it easy to grade your comics with a built in Grading Wizard Use F8 to bring up the Grading Wizard and choose what descriptions apply to your comic ComicBase will then automatically evaluate the condition and even change the selling value of your comic to match the grade 23 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE leave the issue information in ComicBase because it s useful for finding a special appearance artist writer s work or any other issue specifics You can remove issue listings in ComicBase by selecting the issues you want to remove then right clicking and choosing Delete You can also remove an issue through Issue Detail by clicking on the Remove button at the bottom NOTE If you are downloading update
67. t to fit the label size you select 3 Select the titles and issues you want to print labels for a To print price labels for all the comics in your collection click the All radio button b To print price labels for all the comics you own but only for certain titles click the Selected Titles radio button A dialog box will appear which lists the titles in ComicBase Select the titles for which you want price labels printed Hold down Ctrl to select more than one title Moving between parts of the list will not deselect your selections c To print price labels for specific issues click the Selected Issues radio button The Issue Selection dialog box will appear Click Add to select a title then select issues from that title for which you want labels printed If you want to add issues from another title to the list click Add in the Issue Selection dialog box Continue adding issues title by title until you have a complete list of the specific issues for which you want price labels If you accidentally select an issue or issues for which you don t want labels select the issues and choose Remove By default ComicBase will assume you want to print a price label for each comic of an issue you own For instance if you own two copies of Soawn 11 ComicBase will print a label for each copy If you want to change the number of labels per issue that ComicBase prints select the issue or issues in the Issue Selection dialog box a
68. tails of an issue yourself most of what you ll be doing is just changing one or two fields in the data that is already there For instance changing the quantity in stock from zero to one to indicate that you own a copy ComicBase offers a variety of ways to modify issues depending on your particular needs For collectors of current comics the Add to Inventory feature is the fastest way to add issues of comics from many different titles all at the same time Go to the Batch menu and choose the Add to Inventory command Then simply bleep in the barcodes for all of your new purchases and ComicBase will add them all at once If you re entering a range of comics To mark that you have one or more issues in stock just highlight them in the Issues List and press the 1 key on your keyboard to indicate that you have one copy in stock pressing 2 indicates that you have two copies in stock etc Quick Change use this to set the value of a given field for one or more issues For instance you can change the quantity of the selected comics from 0 to 1 Entering Data Directly Into the Issues List This is useful for mak ing quick edits to any field such as to change a cost or price for an issue ADD TO INVENTORY SELL COMICS Use the Batch menu s Add to Inventory command to quickly add comics with barcodes from your inventory amx Add Issues to Inventory Comic ID Blood of the Demon 17 Blood of the Demon Batman Secr
69. tes by using the Internet menu s Check for Updates command or set ComicBase to periodically check for you under Preferences If you have any questions that are not answered in this manual or a problem that cannot be solved by the latest update or if you have suggestions for improvements changes that you d like to see in ComicBase you can reach us during our regular business hours M F from 10 a m to 5 p m PST at 408 266 6883 You can also contact us at any time via e mail to support human computing com When calling for technical support please have your registration number handy for the quickest possible assistance COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE COMICBASE BASICS The following few pages will cover everything you need to know to get started with ComicBase including how to move between titles look up prices and issue details find special comics and more In the next section we ll get into detail about how to navigate around and track your own collection in ComicBase But for now let s take a moment and get familiar with the main ComicBase window W ComicBase 11 Archive Edition C ComicBase Documents ComicBase 11 ComicBase Database cba File Edit Font Style Comics Batch Report Setup Intermet Help f y o ihe 0 1 25 10 00 0 00 1 1 1988 40 pages Hunger Jamie Delano John Ridgway oO M 0 tO2 0 1 25 5 00 0 00 2 1 1988 A Feast For Friends Jamie Delano John Ridgway 17100 Oo M N e
70. the Edit menu s Quick Change command You can select a discontiguous range of issues by pressing the Ctrl key while selecting You can also use Quick Change to modify comics you ve found using the Find Comics command This is particularly useful if for instance you want to search the entire database for comics by Neal Adams then mark them as wanted After doing a Find Comics just select the issues you want to change from the Found Comics list then choose Quick Change from the Edit menu The Quick Change dialog will appear Quick Change For the selected issue change which field Field Cover Price ml 1 ne Price History to Match Current Price Save Cancel Choose the field you d like to modify enter a value and click Save to change that value for all the issues you ve selected If you use Quick Change to add information in the Notes field for a range of issues ComicBase will append your notes to any information that may be in the Notes field already You can also add a new issue with all the information of the existing by duplicating that issue Ctrl D This is most useful when you have two copies of the same issue in different conditions or when you re adding an issue that has mostly or exactly the same information as a previous issue ENTERING DATA DIRECTLY INTO THE ISSUES LIST Most information about an issue can be changed by double clicking on the field in the main wind
71. the Titles in Stock button Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking to select more than one title Moving between parts of the list will not deselect your selections Click OK when you ve selected all the titles you want to include 5 Use the Label dropdown menu to select the label size on which you ll be printing your labels ComicBase will shrink the font size down to fit the description on any size label 6 Check the Print Labels for Both Sides box if you want to print two blurbs for each title one description for each side of the divider 7 Click on the position of the first available label on the first label sheet and click the Print button to start printing PRINTING AND REPORTS 37 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE IMPORTING AND EXPORTING ComicBase includes a variety of functions for importing and exporting data to help you organize and manage your collections The import and export functions lets you exchange data with most major spreadsheets and databases such as FileMaker or Microsoft Excel Likewise you can export information from ComicBase for use in Excel and Filemaker etc to graph the value of your collection or place your data into a page layout program ComicBase also allows you to transfer your collection data into your Palm or Pocket PC computer so that you can reference your collection status quickly when away from home such as when browsing at conventions IMPORTING INFORMATION FROM OTHER PROGRAMS
72. the date they were modified in your ComicBase For instance you could use this to find a list of all the comics you logged into your collection yesterday FOR SALE looks for issues with the For Sale box checked in the Issue Fields e MARKED lets you find any issues with the Mark box checked MINIMUM QUANTITY TO KEEP IN YOUR INVENTORY looks for Comics that have minimum quantities you ve designated to keep e NOTES searches the notes field for anything else that might be special about an issue such as a costume change a wedding or information you ve added such as place where you bought it When entering what you re looking for be as general as possible For instance if you re looking for the issue in which Spider Man donned a new costume type in costume or new costume e NUMBER GRADED is a numeric search for issues that have had a certain quantity graded by CGC e PRICE finds comics in your collection by your selling price such as all comics priced more than 50 each e QUANTITY IN STOCK finds issues in your collection by how many copies you have For instance if you want to find all the issues for which you own more than 2 copies so you can sell off your overstock you can use this search e STORYLINE finds issues based on the name of the story arc It s particularly useful for finding crossover stories that run through several issues and sometimes through several titles e TOP CGC GRADE searche
73. uch fun you probably installed it and got going right away But if you are having trouble figuring out how to use a certain feature or how to use it more efficiently browse through the user s guide Read the Read Me file on the ComicBase disk This details known incompatibilities and other known problems which may have come to our attention after this manual was written If you have access to the internet select the Internet menu s Check for Program Updates command or go to our website http www comicbase com for more recent updates or incompatibilities If necessary download the latest update Use File Tools to compact ComicBase rebuild the title list or reset program settings Information on these features is covered in the Advanced ComicBase section Try to recreate the problem This way when you call you can tell technical support exactly how the problem occurred Write down any error messages that appear FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS This list covers our most frequently asked support and technical questions You can find more frequently asked questions online at http www comicbase com Support FAQ asp Q Why don t you have my favorite title in ComicBase A Hey We re trying But seriously there are a few major reasons why a particular title may not be covered 1 the title came out too recently to make it into the latest edition 2 the title is old and or rare and therefore difficult fo
74. utton ALT SHirt Cuick ON Previous Title button Click on the publisher name on the Pictures View Att Cuick on a cover picture in the Pictures View Att Cuick on the publisher name in Pictures View F12 F8 ONE KEY ISSUE ENTRY Available from the Issue Field and Modify Issues dialog 0 9 ENTER f SELECT ALL Buy A COMIC Copy DUPLICATE THE SELECTED ISSUE EDIT TITLE DESCRIPTION FIND COMICS QUICK CHANGE THE SELECTED ISSUES HYPERTEXT USED WHEN EDITING DESCRIPTIONS ADD ISSUES TO INVENTORY MODIFY ISSUES FOR THE CURRENT TITLE JUMP TO ISSUE NEW TITLE Mass CHANGE NEW ISSUE PRINT REPORTS AND LABELS QUIT COMICBASE MARK THE SELECTED ISSUES OPEN TITLE MENU MODIFY THE CURRENT TITLE UNMARK TITLES PASTE CUT UNDO PREVIOUS TITLE NEXT TITLE GO TO THE NEXT OR PREVIOUS TITLE WITH NO PICTURE GO TO THE NEXT TITLE WITH NO ISSUES GO TO THE NEXT TITLE WITH NO TITLE DESCRIPTION GO TO THAT PUBLISHER S WEB SITE PUBLISHER NAME WILL SHOW AS COLORED TEXT IF A WEB SITE IS DEFINED FOR THAT PUBLISHER OPEN THE SELECTED PICTURE IN WINDOWS EXPLORER OPEN THE PUBLISHER PICTURE FOLDER ON YOUR HARD DISK OR CD ComIcBASE STATISTICS GRADING WIZARD SETS THE QUANTITY FOR THE HIGHLIGHTED ISSUES TO THAT NUMBER GO TO THE ISSUE DETAIL FOR THE SELECTED ISSUES ADD 1 TO THE SELECTED ISSUES QUANTITY SUBTRACT 1 FROM THE SELECTED ISSUES QUANTITY
75. ve installed these pictures to your hard drive Installing the pictures will take up a significant amount of space on your hard drive ComicBase can install the pictures into the correct folder for you if you go to the File menu and select the Manage Pictures and Movies command Make sure you have the correct disk in your drive before clicking Install You can also add your own pictures to ComicBase In order be assigned the proper issue number however the file name of your image must be the issue number itself e g 13 jpg is the picture name for issue 13 Then drag your image to the ComicBase window thumbnail under the title the comic is from ComicBase will automatically save your image to the correct folder for you ADDING NEW MOVIES If you have enough hard drive space you can also add Quick Time format movie clips to ComicBase To add your clips to ComicBase 1 If there isn t a Movies folder in the ComicBase folder on your hard drive create one 2 Give the movie a name that exactly matches the name of the title as it appears in ComicBase and append the file extension mov to the name Replace any colons or commas with dashes If you re using Windows also replace any periods or slashes in the name with dashes For instance if you create a movie for Bubblegum Crisis Grand Mal name the image Bubblegum Crisis Grand Mal mov 3 Save the movie into the Movies folder in the ComicBase folder on your hard drive The
76. you click the button a dialog like the following appears Currency Conversion This will convert all price and cost amounts in ComicBase to your local currency How much i US 1 00 worth in your local currency 0 86 Type in how much 1 U S dollar would be worth in your currency i e 1 5 Canadian dollars 68 UK pounds and click OK to convert the values REMOVE MATURE READER TITLES ComicBase covers the entire world of comics including a number of titles designated for mature readers only These may have been classified as such due to sexual content graphic violence and or depictions of drug use If you don t want to view such titles or don t want the person who will be using ComicBase to view such titles you can remove them from ComicBase To do this select the File menu and go to File Tools In the box that appears click Remove Mature Titles Once removed a title can only be restored by reinstalling ComicBase or by manually adding the title back into the database 47 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE TROUBLESHOOTING Although we hope your experience with ComicBase is blemish free we have added this section to answer frequently asked questions let you know how to resolve problems yourself and give you tips on getting the best technical support from us If you re experiencing trouble with ComicBase a few simple steps can clear up many common problems Here are a few things to go over 1 ComicBase is so m
77. you own as well as present the cost value and asking price of your collection all sub totaled by publisher List Tiles 29 COMICBASE 11 USER GUIDE PRINTING AND REPORTS To see the specific titles that you own highlight a publisher and click on the List Titles button ComicBase will then generate a second report of all the titles you own under that publisher If you d like to see more details about titles with missing descriptions or pictures choose the More button at the bottom of the Statistics dialog Checking the Titles With Missing Descriptions or Titles With Missing Pictures box will let you know if and how many titles you have missing descriptions and pictures respectively These checks considerably lengthen the time for the Statistics Report to process as they require the program to check every title in ComicBase Once the statistics have been calculated you can preview the printout by pressing the Preview button or print the statistics by directly by clicking Print You can also download program and pricing updates or renew your ComicBase subscription by clicking on the corresponding buttons in the ComicBase Statistics dialog PRINTING PRICE LABELS You can use ComicBase to create price labels for each of your comics or just for comics you own from specific titles Each price label will show the comic s title and issue number condition price and notes The label will also show writer and artist credits unless y

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