Collection Summary Window - Ad Hoc Reports

The Collection Summary Window gives you the opportunity to display your collection in almost any combination of sort and selection criteria.

It's also where you can define and save your data as views, and then reload them for viewing or printing whenever you wish.

There's alot available here, so I won't try to cover everything, but I'll touch on some of the highlights.

You can scroll down for more info, or click on the image above to bring info related to the specific button/field to the top of this frame.   You'll have to scroll down in the frame above as well, since the image is too big for the frame.

Sortby Options

You can sort your issues by any field(s), in either ascending or descending order.

Sort Ascending or Descending

Click either of these buttons to sort your data by the currently highlighted columns, in ascending or descending order.  In the above example, the data would be sorted by publisher, since that column is highlighted.

 

Selection criteria - the Find Issues Window

By clicking the Find Issues button you can bring up a window that allows you to display issues by almost any selection criteria you set. For example, you may want to see only the issues purchased since the beginning of the month, or all the issues with appearances by Lady Death, or issues with cover art by Bill Tucci, etc., etc., etc., (with apologies to Yul Brynner).

Refresh the list

The Refresh button fills the list with the data based on your most recent selection criteria and sort order. Most of the time, this happens for you automatically anytime you make any changes to either of those, but you can also trigger the refresh yourself anytime you wish.

Reset the list back to the default

The Reset button fills the list with the default data, which is normally all data in your collection.  It alos unhides any hidden columns. 

Save button

Click the Save button to save any changes that you have made to your data. Realms will turn on (enable) this button when it detects that you have made a change. Changes are also automatically saved on this window simply by moving from record to record. This is extremely useful when doing multiple record updates, like updating your book values each month, which only takes me about an hour if I do it here on the Summary window. Just by entering the new book value, all the associated values are calculated for you.

 

Delete button

Click the Delete button to delete the currently active record (the one that is highlighted in the list). Realms will always ask you to confirm any deletion requests.

Open an Issue for Editing

The Open button allows you to select a record here on the Summary list, and bring up the Issue Detail window for editing. You can also edit data right in the list, but, this way, you have the option of using the Detail window, if you prefer.

 

Using Views

Realms of Wonder comes with about 17 "Views" predefined. These are common ways of looking at the issues in your collection. These views include your wish list, issues for sale, issues you've traded, your most valuable issues, the issues that have increased in value the most (and unfortunately, there's also a view for those that have decreased the most - the "biggest losers view" - Valiant fans, and I'm one of them, may want to avoid this view). In addition, you can define and save you own views, which gives you an almost limitless ad hoc report capability.

 

Quick Search Window

If you want to jump to a particular title in the list without having to scroll down (I get tired of scrolling pretty quickly), click the Quick Search button.  This will pop up the Quick Search Window.   Click any letter to go to the first title beginning with that letter.  Or, enter the first few characters of the title, and click the Go To Title button. Realms will then jump to that title in the list.   You can also move to the First, Previous, Next and Last records from here as well.

 

Batch Edit

The Batch Edit feature is an extremely powerful tool for making changes to large groups of records at a time. For example, if you moved all of the issues that were in Box 10 to Box 12, you could either make that change on every single record (tedious, at best), or, you can use the Batch Edit feature to have Realms make the changes for you with just a couple of keystrokes. This works a lot like the Find and Replace feature you find in most word processing programs.

 

Exporting your data

You can export your data to a number of formats, the easiest being an htm file, and then open that with basically any software you want.

 

Printing your data

You can print whatever data you've selected to display on The Collection Summary Window to a printer or a file. You can reconfigure the field order, size, hide fields, etc. Bottom line - you can pretty much look at any information you want any way you want.

 

Help button

You can get additional help by clicking this button.

Close the window

Click this button to close the window

Your List of Issues

The Summary window displays all the issues that fit the current selection criteria. By default, it will display your entire collection. However, you can change it to display any sort and selection criteria that you wish. You can resize and/or move any of the columns. You can make changes to your data simply by clicking on a cell, and typing in your changes. Basically, this window gives you the ability to manipulate your data any way that you wish.

Summary Totals

At the bottom of the Summary window, you'll find the total number of books, total amount paid, and total current value, based on the current data that is displayed in the list. So, if your entire collection is being displayed, this gives you a very quick summary of how big your collection is, how much you've invested in it, and what it's currently worth. It takes into account things like multiple copies in coming up with these totals.