bookTome

Version 1.72
Friday, May 28th, 2010

Author: Shane McAliece

Homepage: http://booktome.shanemca.com/
Email: shanemca@iinet.net.au

Table of Contents
This readme file contains the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. Installation
3. Backups
4. Importing Data
5. Exporting Data
6. Web Services
7. Keyboard Shortcuts
8. Change Log
9. Support

Introduction
bookTome is a book management system which allows users to enter information about their book
collection and then sort and search this information in a variety of different manners. The main use for
bookTome is to catalog and manage your library or personal book collection and it is suitable for
collections of all sizes and types. It can also be used to keep track of books that you wish to purchase in
the future. You can read more about the features of bookTome on the official website.

Installation
Standard Edition
To install bookTome, run the installation file that has been downloaded and follow the instructions on the
screen. The default installation options will install the program, web export templates and create Start
Menu, Quick Launch and Desktop shortcuts.

To uninstall the program, run the uninstaller from Add/Remove Programs or the Start Menu shortcut. The
uninstaller will also offer to optionally remove all data files and settings in addition to the program itself.

After you have installed bookTome, you can check for future updates through the Tools section. You do not
need to uninstall bookTome before updating to a newer version.

Portable Edition
bookTome is also available in a portable version that is useful for running from USB Flash Drives or
Network Drives. Please note that multiple users cannot use the program at the same time. The portable
version stores all of its data in the same location that the program is run from - so it does not store files on
the computer that it is used on. In order to install the portable version, download the zip file from the
website and unzip it to where you want the program to be run from. You can start the program by running
bookTome.exe. The only differences in the portable version are the data file locations and application
name.

Backups
You can configure bookTome to automatically create a backup file of your data once each day. All of the
information within bookTome is included in the backup files. You can use the Backup Manager, which is
located in the Tools area, to manually view and delete older backup files. Due to the nature of backup files,
you cannot use bookTome to restore backups, but you can follow the instructions below to accomplish this:
1. Quit bookTome.
2. Locate the backups directory. By default these are located in the following directories. If you have
customized the backup location they may be stored in your custom location.

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application

Data\saSoftware\bookTome\backups
Windows Vista & 7: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\saSoftware\bookTome\backups

3. Copy all of the backup files to elsewhere on your hard disk, such as to the desktop. You should copy all
of the backups in case the latest file is corrupt.
4. Go to the main bookTome data directory, which is located in the following directories:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\saSoftware\bookTome

Windows Vista & 7: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\saSoftware\bookTome

5. Delete all of the directories and files located here, so that you erase all of your existing data.
6. Open the latest backup file you have copied elsewhere and extract its contents to the now blank data
directory. This restores the files from the backup.
7. Start bookTome and verify that the restoration was successful. If it was not successful, you can repeat
instructions using an older backup file until you find one that works.

These instructions can also be used to move your data from one computer to another, except in this case
you will need to start bookTome at least once on the new computer to create the required directories.

If you need additional help in restoring backups please contact the author for help.

Importing Data
bookTome supports importing data from other programs, but expects the data to be in a very specific
format. The file format supported is CSV, and the following columns must be present for the import to be
successful:

•AUTHOR - Author Name

•PUBLISHER - Publisher Name
•STORENAME - Store Name
•BOOKFORMAT - Binding
•LOCATION - Location
•CATEGORY - Category
•SERIES - Series

•TITLE - Book Title

•BOOKNUM - Book Number
Optional Required Format: Book x
•ISBN - ISBN
•PUBDATE - Publication Date
Required Format: yyyy/mm/dd
•PAGES - Number of Pages
•LISTPRICE - List Price
Required Format: $x.xx
•PURCHPRICE - Purchase Price
Required Format: $x.xx
•PURCHDATE - Purchase Date
Required Format: yyyy/mm/dd
•READ - Book Read
Required Format: Y/N
•COMMENTS - Book Description
Required Format: xx&newline;&newline;xx&doublequote;
•RATING - Rating (1 to 5)
Required Format: x

The first row of the CSV file should be the headings as listed above in bold. You are able to change the
headings to match the required values in the Data Management Wizard, including automatically creating
any missing columns. Each subsequent row of the CSV file is a single data record, which contains the
details of a single book record that you wish to import.

All of the fields must be present in the file, however they can be blank except for Author and Title, which
are required fields. The Data Management Wizard will verify that these two columns do not contain any
blank data.

Data validation, beyond checking all columns are present and required data is not missing, is not
performed, so please ensure that the data is in the expected format before importing. Where a specific
format is required, it is shown beneath the column in the list above.

Duplicate checks of imported lookup lists is performed, but book records themselves are not checked for
duplicates, as your collection of books may contain different copies of the same book.

The import procedure has been designed around the export file that Readerware creates. If you are using
this program, then it should be easy to export all columns from the program, open the resulting file in
Microsoft Excel, change the data format to match the requirements and then export the file to a CSV.

Some additional options are included at the bottom of the wizard when reviewing the data. This includes a
setting to treat the book number as plain text instead of the required format as listed above.

Exporting Data
bookTome supports exporting data for use in other programs. You can export the data into two different
formats, HTML and CSV. The HTML format is used for websites, while most other programs are able to read
the CSV format. If the program you are using to read the data requires a specific format, then you will
manually need to change the exported data to meet this requirement. Additional configuration of the
exported data is possible and is explained by the options presented in the wizard.

Web Export - Book Page

Individual Book Pages Module
The following variables are available for use:

•%TITLE% - Book Title

•%SERIES% - Series Name
•%BOOKNUMBER% - Book Number
•%AUTHOR% - Book Author
•%PUBLISHER% - Book Publisher
•%ISBN% - Book ISBN
•%YEAR% - Year of Publication
•%NUMBEROFPAGES% - Number of Pages
•%STORE% - Purchase Store
•%LISTPRICE% - List Price
•%PURCHASEPRICE% - Purchase Price
•%PURCHASEDATE% - Purchase Date
•%BINDING% - Binding Type
•%LOCATION% - Location
•%CATEGORY% - Category
•%READ% - Read Book
•%DESCRIPTION% - Description
•%TAGS% - List of Tags
•%RATING% - Book Rating

•%LARGEIMAGE% - Filename of The Large Image

•%SMALLIMAGE% - Filename of The Small Image

•%INDEX% - Filename of The Books Index Page

•%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
•%INDEXWISH% - Filename of The Wish List Page
•%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
•%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database
•%NUMWISHDB% - Number of Wish List Books in the Database

•%SERIESSTART% - %SERIESEND% - All Text Between These Is Removed If The Book Has No Series
•%BOOKNUMSTART% - %BOOKNUMEND% - All Text Between These Is Removed If The Book Has No
Book Number

Web Export - Book Index Page

Index of Books Module
The following variables are available for use:

•%LINKS% - The location where you wish the links to be outputted.

•%READINGLINKS% - The location where you wish the link to the currently reading page to be outputted.

•%INDEX% - Filename of The Books Index Page

•%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
•%INDEXWISH% - Filename of The Wish List Page
•%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
•%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database
•%NUMWISHDB% - Number of Wish List Books in the Database
Web Export - Currently Reading Page
Currently Reading Module
The variables available for use are the same as on the individual book pages.

Web Export - Author Page

Individual Author Pages Module
The following variables are available for use:

•%AUTHOR% - Author Name

•%WEBSITE% - Author Website URL
•%COUNTRY% - Author Country
•%WISHLIST% - Author Wish List Status

•%AUTHORIMAGE% - Filename of The Author Image

•%NUMBOOKS% - Number of Books by Author

•%NUMWISHLIST% - Number of Wish List Books by Author
•%LINKS% - Links to Books by Author

•%INDEX% - Filename of The Books Index Page

•%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
•%INDEXWISH% - Filename of The Wish List Page
•%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
•%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database
•%NUMWISHDB% - Number of Wish List Books in the Database
Web Export - Author Index Page
Index of Authors Module
The following variables are available for use:

•%LINKS% - The location where you wish the links to be outputted.

•%INDEX% - Filename of The Books Index Page

•%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
•%INDEXWISH% - Filename of The Wish List Page
•%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
•%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database
•%NUMWISHDB% - Number of Wish List Books in the Database
Web Export - Wish List Page
Wish List Module
The following variables are available for use:

•%WISHLIST% - The location where you wish the links to be outputted.

•%INDEX% - Filename of The Books Index Page

•%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
•%INDEXWISH% - Filename of The Wish List Page
•%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
•%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database
•%NUMWISHDB% - Number of Wish List Books in the Database

Web Services
This program makes optional use of a number of different websites and services to make adding new
books easier. The sources currently used are:

•Amazon - Book Cover Images, Data & Descriptions

•ISBNdb - Book Descriptions
•Library Thing - Book Descriptions
You can enable or disable these services in the Tools section. The bookTome server is contacted during the
process to format the request - no personal information is transmitted or stored.

Keyboard Shortcuts
While bookTome is designed to be used with a combination of both the mouse and keyboard, the following
keyboard shortcuts can be used in the program to streamline common tasks:

•Delete - Deletes the selected book or wish list entry.

•Insert - Adds a new book or wish list entry.
•Enter - Edits the currently selected book, wish list entry or author.
Additional keyboard shortcuts will be added to future versions of bookTome.

Change Log
This version of bookTome is a minor release.
It is a recommended update for all users as it increases the stability and reliability of the program.

New Features
The major new features that were implemented in this version of bookTome are:

•No new major features at this time.

You can review changes in older versions on the official website.

Bug Fixes and Changes

The major bug fixes and changes that were implemented in this version of bookTome are:

•Data Management Wizard - Various improvements to CSV importing, including:

•Column headers are no longer case sensitive,
•Invalid rows are now shown in red background rather than red font,
•Added a button to automatically remove entirely blank rows,
•Added a button to jump to the next invalid row,
•Leading and trailing blank spaces in all cells are now automatically removed,
•Fixed the editor not clearing when a new file is loaded,
•Minor other improvements to the Data Management Wizard.
•Common Crashes - Fixed various commonly user reported crashes, including:
•Amazon Importing crashed when Amazon reported a blank Total Items value - now reports no results
found correctly,
•Image loading throughout the program when the image being loaded was locked by Windows or
another program - now skips the image and assigns a blank image where appropriate,
•Startup panel being defined incorrectly caused the program to not load correctly - now defaults to
Browse Books when the setting is incorrect or missing.
•Various - Minor other bug fixes, interface and maintenance changes, including:
•Google search links that include the & character are now passed to Google correctly,
•Amazon searches now provide better results when using the & character in the search.

You can review changes in older versions on the official website.

Support
Language Support
Unfortunately due to technical and time limitations the program does not support foreign languages. This
includes both the translation of the user interface into other languages, as well as typing and displaying
foreign languages that use the Unicode or UTF-8 format.

bookTome 2 is currently under development and will include Unicode support. A preview version of
bookTome 2 will be available later in the year.

Reporting Bugs and Suggestions

While I may not be able to fix every bug and implement every suggestion, I welcome all bug reports and
suggestions. You can send them to me either by email or through the official website.