# Adding Books

You can add books to &app; in several different ways:

You can also import a list of books into &app;:

&app; will remember which method you prefer, and will automatically select the most recently used method. For instance, if you last added a book by searching for an author, &app; will open the Add Book... dialog with the Add book by author field selected.

## To add a book by supplying an ISBN

If you know the ISBN of the book you wish to add to a library, choose Library Add Book..., or click on the Add button on the toolbar. The Adding a Book dialog is displayed. Type in the ISBN of the book you wish to add, then click Add.

### &app; Adding a book by ISBN

Shows the &app; Add by ISBN dialogue, allowing you to add a book by searching all online information providers the book with that ISBN.

- &app; will validate the ISBN supplied and will warn you if the number entered is not a valid ISBN.

- &app; supports both 10-digit ISBN and the newer ISBN-13.

- ISBNs are frequently written with dashes at various positions to aid legibility, but these are ignored by &app;.

&app; will attempt to fetch the information about the book from online information sources, searching in the order specified in the application preferences. If the book is found by one of the online providers, it will be added to the currently selected library. To add the book to a different library, select the library name from the Save in drop-down menu. If there is only one library, there will naturally be no choice to be made.

## To search for a book whose ISBN you do not know

If you do not know the ISBN of the book you wish to add, you can specify either the Title, the Authors or the Keywords, and &app; will search your online information provider, such as Amazon, for books that match. You can then select the desired book from the displayed list and click Add to the book to the selected library.

With the Adding a Book dialog open, click on the Search checkbox then choose either by title, by authors or by keyword from the drop-down menu. Type in the details of the book you are looking for, then click on Find.

### &app; Adding a book by searching

Shows the &app; Add by Search dialogue, allowing you to add a book by searching your online information provider for a specific Title, Author or Keyword.

Where possible, &app; will show thumbnails of the books it finds, making it easier to choose the right book or edition of a book. Select the book you want from the list, and click Add.

You may have to try several different search terms to find the book you want.

## To add a book by scanning its barcode

&app; supports CueCat barcode scanners. (At the moment, only unmodified CueCats are supported; support for ordinary barcode scanners is planned.) If you have a USB or PS/2 CueCat barcode scanner attached to your computer, choose Library Acquire from Scanner. Scan each book barcode in turn, and they will be listed in the Acquire from Scanner window.

### Adding books by scanning ISBN barcodes

Shows the &app; Acquire from Scanner dialogue, while scanning and then after scanning a book barcode.

Choose which library you wish to save the books in with the Save in drop-down menu, and click Add to complete the operation.

## To manually add a book

Sometimes you will not be able to search for a book online. The book may not not have an ISBN (ISBN numbers only became standard in the 1970s). Perhaps the book is too new, and no information is available online. Or perhaps you simply don't have an Internet connection. &app; allows you to specify all the details of a book - the Title, Authors, cover image and so forth - by supplying them yourself.

To manually add a book to a library, choose Library Add Book Manually. The following dialog will appear:

### &app; adding a book manually

Shows the &app; Add book manually dialogue, allowing type in all the information for the book yourself.

This dialogue is very similar to the Edit Book dialog. There are three tabs to this dialogue - General, Loaning and Notes. There is space for you to specify the book title, the ISBN if you know it, the book publisher, the binding (such as Paperback, Hardback, or Audiobook), and the Authors.

To add an author, click on the + next to the author list, then type the name. To remove an author, select the name and click -. To edit a name, click twice on the name.

You can also add a set of Tags to a book by entering words or phrases separated by commas. Tags are used as an informal way to note subject information.

To supply a book cover image, click on the Cover button. A standard file selection dialogue will open. Navigate to the cover image file on your system - which can be in JPEG or GIF format - and click Open. The image will be scaled to fit into the Edit Book dialogue.

You can rate a book by clicking on the stars. To clear the rating, click on the space immediately to the left of the first star.

When you have filled in all the information, click on the Add button.

## To import a list of books

&app; can import Tellico files, (used by the Tellico application). It can also import a simple list of ISBNs, fetching the details for each book in turn. To import either a Tellico file or a flat ISBN list, choose Library Import.... Navigate to the appropriate file, and click Import. &app; can automatically determine what type of file is being imported; you can, of course, specify the file format by choosing either Archived Tellico or ISBN List from the Autodetect drop-down menu.

### &app; importing a list of ISBNs

Shows &app; importing a list of ISBNs.

&app; will create a new Library when importing a library - its name will be the same as the filename you imported. &app; will automatically select and highlight this library in the library pane - you can immediately rename this by typing a new name, or accept the default by clicking the left mouse button.

### Renaming the new library after importing a list of ISBNs

Shows &app; new library after importing a list of ISBNs.