I've also fixed a few minor crashes and added some additional columns that were missing from the Details view. I'm not sure when I'll update the preview on the site, but that will probably be in the next couple of weeks.

The following major changes have been made in this update:

• Backup Creation - Progress bar works and is a little more accurate.
• Browse Books - Browsing by series now includes the book number in the title as per bookTome 1.
• Browse Books - Major changes to sorting and thumbnail generation. Sort settings under Tools now lists "Remember Sort Direction" which is turned on and off, and then you choose a default column to always sort by. Generating a view by series will always sort by book number. Generating any other view will sort by the default column. The thumbnails view now always obeys the sort settings that are used in the details view, allowing it to be sorted on the fly. Please test this functionality as it may have introduced various bugs.
• Database Statistics - Added the general database statistics page.
• Startup Tasks (Backups / Updates) - Smaller delay from opening bookTome to the startup tasks running.
• Amazon Importing - Now correctly handles Unicode characters sent from Amazon.
• Amazon Importing - Hitting the enter key when in the items field now begins a search.
• Amazon Importing - Now handles Unicode characters sent via the Description providers better (there are still issues but there are now less). You can now also change the description source while the checkbox is unchecked.
• Amazon Importing - Fixed some rare crashes with ISBNdb when no data was being returned.

I continue to be particularly interested in any Unicode issues which are hard for me to find myself. I'm also interested in feedback regarding the sorting changes that have been made in this version, and any additional statistics people would like in the Database Statistics section (keeping in mind I'm yet to do the chart page as seen in bookTome 1).

Please note that as the first preview it is recommended for people who are already familiar with bookTome. You should continue to use bookTome 1 as your main program, as the database format will change between each preview release and it will be incompatible with future previews. There is also no installer (it operates as a portable version), and there are still quite a few features missing. It's reached the point however that I need feedback on bugs, missing features and limitations so that I can continue working on it.

Some of the main things that I'd be interested in hearing about are importing from bookTome 1, Unicode support and general usage.

Please note that this release won't be posted on the bookTome site as it is not yet ready for widespread use.

When you first go into Check for Updates, it will automatically check for updates and report its progress, as seen below:

[Image From Website]

If you click on More Information, a dialog box will be shown that shows you the version, date and changes that have been made:

[Image From Website]

The main improvement in bookTome 2 is that you can download and launch the installer directly from within bookTome. If you are using the portable version, it will download the portable version from the website to a folder you specify. If you are using the normal version, it will download the normal version from the website, and then offer to run the setup file, closing bookTome in the process.

[Image From Website]

It also supports proxy servers, using the same settings as the Amazon part uses. I'm open to any additional suggestions on this functionality as well, so feel free to email me (and excuse the fact that I'm very slow at replying to emails...)

I have also now released bookTome 1.72 on the bookTome website, a minor update that fixes some crashes and errors people have been experiencing with the past release. Apologies for the downtime in Amazon searching in bookTome this morning as well - my host was down for a few hours, but all has been fixed now.

The screenshots below show some of the progress I've made on the Wish List, which has been my focus lately:

The main things that now need to be done are Searching, CSV Importing and some Tools stuff like Backup Manager, Statistics and various other bits and pieces. I'll start working on these soon and see what gets done before this first release.

I'm also continuing to work on a minor release of bookTome 1.x, which should be available within a month or so as well, fixing some bugs and crashes that have been reported. No news on taskTome yet.

This has resulted in many more crash reports finding their way to me and has allowed me to uncover a few new bugs to fix. The major crash at the moment is a new one involving Amazon. In certain cases, Amazon now appears to be sending a blank Total Items value, instead of 0. This causes bookTome to display an error. If this happens, you should be able to continue and ignore the error. Try the search again later, or change the Amazon location to another. The next version of bookTome will correct the error.

It will also include improvements to the CSV importing thanks to a recent e-mail exchange with a new user attempting to get it working, along with fixes for crashes when an image being loaded is already in use by another program.

Work on bookTome 2 continues fairly slowly, with me not finding much time to do any development lately, although it is still on track for a release at the end of the year, with a beta towards the middle of the year. I intend to release at least one more release of bookTome 1.x however.

The screenshots below show the current progress of bookTome 2, although please note that the user interface is continually changing and may look different later on.

I expect that this will take about 9-12 months, although I will be releasing a preview/beta version before this as development continues. I'm undecided if there will be any more releases of bookTome 1.x during this time, if work goes well on bookTome 2 I may just move straight to the beta release.

The first version of bookTome 2 will not see any major changes in terms of features. Most of the work will be put into reconstructing the existing features. Having said that, it will be well worth it. bookTome 2 will include full unicode support, will support changing data locations, have an improved user interface, improved importing and exporting, full eBook support and various other changes. It should also be much faster than bookTome 1 in certain areas.

The screenshot below shows the Add Author dialog box I've worked on the past few days. Due to books now supporting multiple authors, you'll need to add authors to the database using this dialog now. Note that the user interface will most likely be tweaked as development continues. It will also support different color schemes, if you don't like the blue.

[Screenshot on Website]

I'll continue to post updates here every once and a while with the progress.

The taskTome update is fairly small, the main reason that it was released now is to fix a major bug with the Diary function occasionally loosing data if used from within the Planner.

The bookTome update is a more major update, with a new unified browsing interface which combines the previous Author, Series & Category browsing sections. It also adds the start of eBook functionality. Please let me know if you have any features for the eBook sections that you would like implemented in the next version.

As for bookTome, I expect to release a new version either at the end of December or the beginning of January. Not sure about taskTome, but that will probably be shortly afterwards.