Getting started

Choose shelves and add an item

Choose the kinds of items you collect, then add one item. Keeping a collection never requires logging a session.

Add your first item

Open a shelf and press Add. On a computer, a new shelf also has a search field at the top (Add a board game: search by title).

Search for a title and choose the match, or press the Add by hand row under the results to add it yourself. Items you already have come first: the ones you own, then the ones on your other lists.

Choose how you have it: Owned or Not owned, or Other statuses for Wishlist and the rest. The button names your choice, such as Add as Owned: press it. Adding an item logs no session unless you choose Log it too.

Already have a collection elsewhere? Import a list, or scan barcodes on supported shelves.

The shelves you can pick

ShelfChronicles keeps one shelf for each kind of item you collect: comics, manga, books, board games, video games, TV shows, movies, figures and statues, builds and crafts, and a misc shelf for the rest.

Each shelf knows what it holds. A board game has players and scores, a manga has volumes, a film has a runtime. Add something by searching for it and ShelfChronicles fills in the cover and the details.

Your account's first steps

Read the beta welcome first. It explains the trial and lets you browse sample receipts (on a phone, behind See a sample); accepting it continues setup.

Choose a permanent username and a display name you can change later. The preview shows what someone opening your profile would see.

Choose your shelves, then any pastimes you do (a jog, the gym, walking the dog), or skip that step. Then choose how to start: three cards under How do you want to start?. Log something you did lately turns the page into Log a session, its search ready (Back returns to the three cards); Add items to a shelf opens Home and its search; Import a list opens the importer. The ones you do not pick stay on Home: the Log button, the Add an item field, and importing. Pick a title and the form under it is the log sheet's own: how long, when, who was there, how it felt, with Save at the foot.

Create your free account, then choose shelves that fit your interests. You can add or hide shelves later in Settings.

The steps are counted in the corner, each one done ticked off as you go. Back goes to the step before, in the app or in the browser, a reload keeps the step you were on, and once you are through, the steps leave your browser's history, so Back from Home leaves as it would from any page.

Who can see what, in full:

Sharing.

A shelf with nothing on it yet

A shelf with nothing on it yet opens on one way in. On a computer, a picture of the empty shelf (Start your Books shelf) comes first, then one field named for the shelf (Add a book: search by title), with cards under More ways to add: import a list, scan barcodes or add by hand; on a phone, one Add button. Builds & Crafts takes a project of your own as readily as a boxed set: its field is Add a LEGO set, or start a project of your own, with an Add a project card under it. With the shelf's third item the field gives way to Search this shelf, with Add beside it, and the sort and the filters arrive.

Log a session and find it again

A session is one moment with an item: reading, playing, watching or building. Log one if you like, then find it in History.

Press Log and pick the item, or open the item and press Log a session on its own page. Both open the same sheet.

Check how long it took.

Tap a face for how it felt, if you like.

Press Save.

Log is the first button in the sidebar on a computer and the middle tab on a phone. It asks which item first; Log a session on an item's page already knows, and on a phone so does the Log tab while that page is open (Different item, at the top of the sheet, picks another).

History

keeps your sessions together. Open any entry to revisit its details.

What a session is

A session is one sitting with something: an evening with a game, a few chapters, an episode. Press Log, pick the item, say how long it took and how it felt. That's all it needs; people, scores and notes are there when you want them.

Your very first one

Your first session is also the first line of your history. Everything else in ShelfChronicles, from Home to Stats to your yearly recap, is built from these.

The very first one comes back to you full screen, as the first page of your story: who was there, who won, and how it felt.

If that first log was a mistake, Undo this log on that page takes it back, with the item it added and anyone it added to your people, and returns you to the step.

If every shelf you picked is one you keep rather than log (figures and statues, misc), there is no session to write down: the step says so and takes you to your shelf to add the first item.

On the day of your first session, Home leads with a Day one card: what you added and logged that day (3 items, 2 sessions), and the day your first weekly letter arrives, which opens Letters.

Timers, Again, game nights and logging with no signal:

Logging sessions.

Your Home

Home helps you pick up what you are reading, playing or building. When your collection is empty, start with its Add an item field or open a shelf to add an item. In your first weeks, a History line on Home says what you have logged so far and opens History. The suggestions are optional. The Home chapter explains the rest.

Your people

When you log a session with someone, type their name and they become one of your people. They don't need an account. Over time, their page fills with everything you have done together.

A group you meet with often, like a game night or a book club, can be a Circle. And anyone with a ShelfChronicles account can be a friend, which links your sessions together.

Where to go next

One item is enough to start. Log sessions when you want to remember them; History brings them together. You can explore the rest at your own pace.

Use ShelfChronicles in your browser, or optionally add it to your phone’s home screen. No app-store download is needed.

See Install the app.

Prefer a guided walk? Take the tour: Shade leads you through the app on a sample collection, one step at a time, and nothing is saved to your account. It is at the top of the guide's first page, in More under Help and in the account menu.

Explore more when you are ready

Stats

for what your time adds up to.

Circles

if you have a regular game night or club.

Letters and recaps

for the Monday letter and your year.

Logging sessions

for timers, Again and logging with no signal.

Importing

if your collection already lives somewhere else.

Return to this guide any time from Guide, at the foot of the sidebar on a computer, or from More on a phone (under Help).