How to catalog printed books using All My Books

All My Books is an all-in-one book cataloger. You can use it to catalog printed books, e-books, or audiobooks. Read this article to learn how to create a digital catalog of printed books, which nowadays is a must-have for any home library. First, download and install All My Books. It's easy to do, just click the button below:

Add printed books to your catalog

You have probably installed and launched the application. What's next? Start creating your own book catalog! Most likely, the application opened a demo catalog with some dummy books. To get rid of them, press CTRL-A to select all books, and then press Delete to delete them.

It's easy to add a book to the catalog, just click "Book -> Add..." in the menu. Or, as a quicker alternative, press the Insert key. The application will open the Book Card dialog box that consists of several tabs with many text fields. Fortunately, you don't have to fill most of them, because the application can do that for you!

Let's try and add the first book to the catalog. For example, let it be my favorite childhood book, The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. Type in The Mysterious Island in the "Original title" field, and press Enter. The application will search for the book in the specified online database. The English version of the application uses Goodreads by default. The currently selected database is displayed in the title of the Book Card dialog box.

As a result of the search in the online database, you will get a list of found books, from which you need to select the book. To select a book, double-click it, or use the arrow keys and the Enter key. The cover images can help you select the correct edition for your book.

Now you have selected the book from the online search results, and All My Books have automatically filled most fields in the book card. Isn't that great? To save the book information in the catalog, click the "OK" button in the Book Card dialog box. If you want to add more books, click the "Next book" button; the application will save the current book in the catalog and open an empty card for adding a new book, which will save you a couple of clicks.

As you can see, the application also automatically loads cover images. The book added to the catalog looks as follows:

The information about the book looks like that if you use the standard view template, but you can select a different option by clicking "View -> HTML template" in the menu.

All My Books can download information about a book from many online sources. You can switch the source by clicking the small triangle button (to the right of the "Original title" field in the Book Card dialog box).

How else you can add books?

You have already added a book by its title. All My Books can also add a book by its author or ISBN code! Just enter the author in the "Author" field in the Book Card dialog box, and press Enter. You can add a book by its ISBN code in a similar manner.

If you have a barcode scanner, you can simply scan the ISBN code. All My Books supports almost all USB scanners; most of them emulate digit-key presses, so they can work with any applications. You can add books by their ISBN codes in batch mode. Just give All My Books a list of ISBN codes, and the application will add all the books automatically. To do it, click "Book -> Add by ISBN..." in the menu and turn on the "Batch mode" option.

It should be noted that you can import an existing collection. For example, if you already have a book list in MS Excel, you can import it to All My Books by clicking "Tools -> Import from -> Import from MS Excel..." in the menu.

Now you know how to create a catalog of printed books using All My Books.

What's next?

When the book catalog is ready, you can fully enjoy its advantages!

• To view statistics for your collection, click "Tools -> Statistics" in the menu or press F5. You can learn a lot of interesting things: The most popular genre in your collection, the most popular authors, the total number of books, and many more.
• You can easily find a book by using a number of search criteria. To search for a book, press F3. The application allows you to search by all catalog fields or by specified ones only. If you have filled the "Location" field, you can easily find the book on its shelf!
• If you lend your books to friends, press the F12 key and mark them as "lent". The application will remind you about the borrowers. It will also show you who and when read your specific books, just click "Tools -> Loan history" in the menu.
• If you do not like the "grid" look of your collection, no problem! You can switch between the available catalog-displaying options by using the "View" menu. Hopefully, you will be impressed by the "Virtual shelf" and "Cover flow" modes.
• Would you like to share your catalog with some friends who do not use All My Books? Of course, you could make them to install the application, but there is an alternative approach: You can export your catalog to the PDF format by clicking "Tools -> Export to -> Export to PDF..." in the menu. You can also print your catalog.
• All My Books is a very flexible application. It allows you to view your catalog in different ways. For example, you can group books by genre, publisher, or many other criteria. Just click "View -> Group books by" in the menu and specify the criteria.

Thanks a lot for reading this article! Love books and read them!

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