Entering Titles

Before you can enter any information for each of the issues you own (or are looking for, or whatever), Realms of Wonder needs to know the title of each issue (makes sense, right?).

You can enter that information here on the Title Maintenance Window (pretty clever naming convention for these windows, huh?). To get more info on a particular field, either scroll down, or click on that field in the image above.

BTW - on the actual window, a list of all your titles displays under the section shown above. Due to space limitations, you have to scroll down to see that here. Use the scroll bar above to view the rest of the window.

Series Type

Use this field to define the type of series this is - ongoing series, one shot, mini-series, trade paperback, etc. You can enter any values you wish, and once entered the first time, you can then select them from the list. All drop down list boxes work that way, so you can customize all values any way you wish.

Volume Number

Enter the volume number for this series, which allows you to distinguish multiple releases of the same series (Strangers of Paradise V2, for example). I personally leave Volume 1s blank, but, that's your call.

Year(s) Published

You can enter the year(s) that this title was published.  This is another way to distinguish different releases of the same title. For example, the Heroes reborn Iron Man will have a published year of 1996.

Genre

This refers to the "class" or "content type" of this title.  I use values like "SuperHero", "Dark Hero", "Fantasy", "Horror", "SuperBabe", etc.

 

Retail Cover Price / Cost

Here's where you record the default cover price of an issue of this title. This is just a default value to make data entry a little easier. You record the actual cover price on the Issue Detail window, where it will prefill with this value.

Anthology Series Indicator

This field is used as a default value to indicate if this title is an anthology series (like BWS' Storyteller). Just like the default cover price above, you can change this on the Issue Detail window if you wish.

Active Title Indicator

This checkbox can be used to indicate if a title is still being published.  You have options to display only active titles in various locations and reports. 

 

Starting Issue Number

Enter the first issue of this title, usually "1", sometimes "0", and recently, thanks to Marvel, even "-1" may be a valid entry. If you enter the correct info here, your Missing Issues report will be much more accurate.

Final Issue Number

This is the final issue of the series. For example, the final issue of "The Sandman" is issue 75. Realms of Wonder defaults to "9999" for ongoing series', "4" for Mini-series', and "1" for Oneshots. If you enter the correct info here, your Missing Issues report will be much more accurate.

 

Add to TPB List

If you use the Detail TPB Entry, and you are entering a trade paperback, check this box so that this title shows up in the TPB list on the Issue Detail window.

Subscription Indicator

This field is used to indicate that you subscribe to this title. The Subscription Report uses this field to know whether or not to include this title in the report.

First Issue to pull for subscriptions

If you decide to add this title to your subscription list, this field tells your LCS what issue to start pulling for you.

 

Other Issues that are part of this title

This field enables you to enter non-numeric, special issues that are part of this title - variant covers (1A, 1B, etc.), previews, etc.  This makes the Missing Issue report more accurate for these kind of issues.  Separate multiple issues using semi-colons, not commas, since a comma can be part of a valid issue number.

 

Restrict the Missing Issues report to these issues

There are times, especially with titles that have hundreds of issues, and have been around forever (Detective Comics comes to mind), where you know there are some issues you will never get, so you may not want to see them on the Missing Issues report all the time.  This allows you to restrict the Missing Issues report to a smaller range (or ranges) than the entire run of the title.  Enter individual issues, or ranges of issues separated by semi colons - 1; 3-5; 9, for example.

Exclude these issues from the Missing Issues

This field allows you to specifically enter issues that should never show up on the MI report.  If a title is missing a specific issue or range of issues, enter that information here.  An example is when only variants exist for a specific issue - 1A, 1B, 1C, etc, but no issue 1.  In that case, you would enter a "1" (no quotes) in this field.  Enter individual issues, or ranges of issues separated by semi colons - 1; 3-5; 9, for example.

 

Exclude this Title from the Missing Issues Report

You can exclude any titles that you wish from the Missing Issues report simply by checking this box.  This makes it easier to limit the report to only titles that you really are interested in.  This is very different from the field above which excludes individual issues.  This checkbox indicates that the entire title should be excluded.   You can over-ride this exclusion when you actually produce the MIR (Missing Issues Report) by selecting any excluded titles.  Click here for details.

 

Comments

Use the comments field to enter anything else you want about this title. There's no limit to what you can enter here

Zoom button

Click this button to display the comments in a separate, sizable window.  If the comments get long, this makes reading and editing them much easier.

 

Display Title

This is the title that actually displays on most of the screens and all the reports. It's actually a combination of the title from above, publisher, series type, volume number and original published date. Which of the 5 fields you wish to include is completely up to you. Realms figures this out for you based on which fields you select to include.

 

Frequency of Publication - How often is this title published?

Here's where you enter how often this title is published.  Put a number in the Frequency field.  Enter the actual time period in the per (time period) field.   For example, most titles would be "1 per Month".  Annuals would be "1 per Year".

 

Irregular Release Schedule

Check this box if this title suffers from the irregular release schedule blues.  At some point I hope to enhance Realms to be able to predict what issues should be coming each month, and these last three fields will make that possible.

 

User Defined Group By Fields

These two fields allow you to group titles, and the associated issues any way you wish.   The most common usage I've seen is by Primary Character.  For example, you could enter Batman as the primary character for all the Batman related titles, and then group those together very easily on the Summary window.  Future versions will make more extensive use of these fields, especially in the reports and the Explorer view.

Image name Format for Batch Image Update

The format of how your image files must be named, based on your entries in the image update fields below, is displayed here.  Click here for a detailed explanation of updating image locations using these fields.

Image path, prefix, , extension, format and other image location fields

These fields are used to assign images to all the issues for this title based on your entries.  Click here for a detailed explanation of updating image locations using these fields.

User Defined Group By Fields

These two fields allow you to group titles, and the associated issues any way you wish.   The most common usage I've seen is by Primary Character.  For example, you could enter Batman as the primary character for all the Batman related titles, and then group those together very easily on the Summary window.  Future versions will make more extensive use of these fields, especially in the reports and the Explorer view.

Previous Title

If this title used to be published under a different name, enter that here.  This is FYI only.  Realms does not link these titles together in any way.

Became Title

If this title became a different title, enter that here.  This is FYI only.  Realms does not link these titles together in any way.

List of Titles

The bottom of the window displays a list of all the titles currently on file.  Use the scroll bars to move around the list.  This is another simple way to move from title to title.  Click on any title in the list to make it the active title, where you can enter / edit data.  Double click any title to bring up the issues for that title on the Issue Detail window.

 

Features and Functions

Many of the functions described below apply not only to titles, but to many of the data entry windows in Realms.

First, Previous, Next, Last navigation buttons

On entry windows where multiple records can be displayed (Titles, Issues, Contacts, etc.), this is one way to move from record to record. clicking on any of these buttons moves to the appropriate record - first, previous, next or last.

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.

Find (search) button

Most of the data entry windows allow you to pull up records by any field. Clicking the Find button brings up a window where you can enter your selection criteria. See the Summary window for a more detailed explanation of this very powerful and flexible feature.

New button

Click this button on any data entry window to clear the fields and prepare the database to enter a new record.

Add / Update button

Click this button on any data entry window to save any changes you have made. Realms will enable this field when it detects you have made changes. In addition, it will warn you if you make changes without saving.

Duplicate a record

The duplicate option is an extremely powerful feature that can significantly reduce data entry, especially on the Issue Detail window. Click this button to make a copy of the current record. on the Detail window, Realms will actually increment the Issue Number and Issue Date fields, along with others. This allows you to accurately enter complete records with just a couple of clicks or keystrokes. I use this function more than any other on the Detail window.

Delete button

Click this button on any data entry window to delete the currently active record. Realms will always verify your deletion request before actually deleting the record.

Refresh button

Click this button on any window where it exists to refresh the current data.  This is a simple way to make sure everything is put back in the correct order, and up to date.

Issues button

Click this button to show all the issues on the Issue Detail window for the currently selected title.  For example, if you just entered "Amazing Spider-man", and now you want to enter issues for this title, click this button (or double click the appropriate row on the list) and the Issue Detail window will display showing any issues for Amazing Spider-man, if they exist.  If they don't, the Issue Detail window will be ready to enter new records.   This is really just a shortcut.  It does the same thing as clicking the Find button on the Issue Detail window, and selecting a title.

 

Print button

Click this button on any window to print the report associated with the window. If multiple reports could apply, you will be asked which to print.

Web Download Button

Click this button to open the Web Download Window, where you can download title and issue information from the Grand Comics Database, one of the largest comic databases on the web.
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Close button

Click this button to close the currently active window. You can also us the normal Windows close options as well.