Shelves

The shelves

One shelf for each kind of item, in its own words (read, watched, played), with a line of what you are partway through and Shade, the app's penguin mascot.

The shelves and their own words

ShelfChronicles keeps a shelf for each kind of item: comics, manga, books, board games, video games, TV shows, movies, figures and statues, builds and crafts, and misc for everything else. You choose yours when your account starts, and can add or hide shelves in Settings > Shelves at any time.

Each shelf speaks its own language. A book is read and a film watched; a board game has expansions, a manga has volumes, a video game knows the machines you own it on. All puts every shelf together.

Films and TV shows are two shelves, Movies and TV Shows. A film is finished once watched; a show keeps its season and episode. A film added to TV Shows by mistake goes across with Move to Movies on its page (in its ⋯ menu once it has a session).

For builds, Last worked on is the date of your latest session, not a completion date.

The shelf's toolbar

On a computer

On a computer the line under a shelf's title reads View, Sort, Filters, Select and Share. View holds Covers, Small covers, List and Ledger, then Badges on covers, Rank this shelf and Dress this shelf. Press the shelf's title to go to another shelf; the sidebar lists them too.

On your phone

The shelf's toolbar holds its name, Filters, Sort and view and Add, with Search this shelf and Select under them. Sort and view opens a sheet with the orders, the views and This shelf (Import, Share shelf, Rank this shelf, Tier list).

Shade, Continue and an empty shelf

Each shelf has its own Shade, the ShelfChronicles penguin, busy with that shelf's kind of item.

A shelf with three items or more starts with how many you are in the middle of there (16 in progress): press it for the list, newest session first. A computer's shelf with fewer than three items lists them instead, each with its Log button.

When Owned is empty but another list is not, the shelf lists those items, each with I have it now, which moves it to Owned (with Undo).

Adding items

Add an item searches the catalogues behind your shelves and fills in the cover and details. Found nothing? Add it by hand and match it later.

Open a shelf and press Add an item (on a phone, Add, at the end of the shelf's toolbar). The sheet opens on Search; its other tabs are Scan, Import and By hand.

Type a title and pick the match.

On the card that opens, answer Is it yours?: Owned, or Not owned (played, read or watched without owning it). Other statuses has the rest, such as Wishlist and Want to play.

Press the add button. It names the list you chose: Add as Owned, Add as Not owned.

The catalogues are out of reach in these examples, so a search here finds nothing to add. The rest of the page works.

With the item in hand you can scan its barcode instead of typing its title, the next section shows how.

What the search looks through

Search looks through the shelf's catalogue: BoardGameGeek for board games, IGDB for video games, Hardcover for books, MangaUpdates for manga, and more. From Home, or with Every shelf chosen, it searches all of them and marks each result with its shelf. Editions of one work share a row with a picker (15 editions). A result already on your shelves names its list; One of yours has this title means only the title matches. From three items the field is Search this shelf, and its last row, Add “…” from the catalogue, searches the catalogue instead.

A manga series shows its English title when the catalogue has confirmed one, with the original title under it.

The card, and More details

A catalogue pick and an item added by hand open the same card: the cover, title, year and how you have it. Other statuses lists all six lists in two groups: Owning a copy (Owned, Wishlist, Pre-ordered with its expected date, Sold), then the shelf's own verb (Not owned, and Want to play, read or watch). TV Shows and Movies start on Not owned; every other shelf starts on Owned. On Not owned, Log it too logs a session, Today or on a date you pick; it starts on Not now. For a manga series, type the volumes you have (1-5). More details opens the item's own fields, such as tags, a book's series and author or a video game's machines.

Add what you paid (Add a price, on a wish) takes the amount and currency, where you bought it and how. It counts as today's spending; another date or split payments are set later in What you paid. Only you see it.

Adding by hand, and items you already have

Nothing found? Press the Add “…” by hand row under the results, or the By hand tab, which keeps what you typed. The item's page can match it to the catalogue later, and your sessions move with it. On a handmade build, Set or kit details can stay closed.

Adding from the Log sheet asks Is it yours? too, so a friend's game goes on Not owned. Adding an item you already have offers Add another copy. A catalogue match that only shares its title with one of yours asks Same one?: Yes, open yours, or No, add this one.

Comics: the edition first

Comic searches look through the Grand Comics Database for collected editions. Type the series and volume, like Saga 3; picking one fills in the series, format, issues and cover. Abbreviations work too: TMNT, TWD and ASM. Single issues may not be catalogued, so add them by hand: on the Comics shelf, By hand asks What is it? first, then Find the edition for a collected edition, or the series and its number for a single issue. On an empty Comics shelf, the cards under More ways to add offer import, scan and add by hand.

Starting a shelf with nothing on it

An empty shelf opens on one large field named for it (Add a book: search by title or author). Type a title and pick the match, or use a card under More ways to add to import a list, scan barcodes (Books and Comics) or add by hand. Popular to start with offers covers to add, or Add to wishlist in one tap. On Builds & Crafts the field searches LEGO sets, and Add a project opens the form for anything else, such as a model kit or a painted mini. Once the shelf has an item, the field becomes the Add an item button, whose sheet can also scan barcodes and import a list.

There is no toolbar yet, only Shade and a search field. On Books and Comics a Scan barcodes card follows, then the imports and the popular picks.

Scanning barcodes

Books and collected comic editions (such as trade paperbacks) come in by their ISBN barcode: scan one to see if you have it, or a whole stack to add at once.

On the Books or Comics shelf, press Add an item and open the Scan tab.

Point your camera at the barcode on the back of each book or collected edition, a whole stack if you like.

Press Review the list, then untick or fix anything.

Press the add button, which counts what is ticked (Add 3 to your shelves).

Where the scanner opens, and with no camera

Every way in opens the Scan tab: the tab itself, the barcode at the end of Home's field or a new Books or Comics shelf's, the Scan barcodes card on an empty Books or Comics shelf (beside Import on one with fewer than ten items), or a barcode's number typed into Search. Opened from another shelf, it says that shelf can't be scanned.

Typed an ISBN into a find field? An orange strip under it offers Look it up, which opens the scanner with that number on the list.

With no camera

No camera, or a sticker over the code? Type the number, paste a list, or use a USB scanner. Board games, figures and video games are not scanned: add them by title.

The list: looking it over, adding and Undo

While you scan

Each barcode is looked up as it comes in, with a beep and a buzz, and the same one twice is caught. A single barcode gets a card with the item, its list if it is yours, and I have it now or Wishlist. Not found by barcode offers a search by title; it never means the item is not on your shelves. More barcodes pile up as spines, the newest on top.

Looking it over

Each row says what was found, such as a book's author and pages, or a collected edition's series, format and issues. Untick, remove or correct anything. Items already yours, manga volumes and books no catalogue knows start unticked.

Adding, and Undo

The ticked ones go on your shelves in one go. Undo in the message that follows takes them all back off and puts them back on the list.

If you close the scanner

The list stays if you close the scanner or reload the page, until you add it or clear it.

What it finds: books and collected editions

The scanner is made for books and collected editions. A single issue's barcode is not an ISBN, so add singles by title. A scan finds what a title search does not: the publisher's description and, for a collected edition, the issues it collects.

A collected edition is filed under its series with its volume number, and each printing is its own item on the shelf.

A collected edition's issues come from the publisher's description or the Grand Comics Database, and can be wrong. Its page says so until you fix the list or press Looks right.

Owned, wishlist and the rest

Owned and Wishlist are about a copy of your own; Not owned and Want to play are about items you use without owning. Select moves a pile at once.

Two lists sound alike. The Wishlist is for items you would like to own. Want to play (or read, or watch) is for items you would like to try, often at someone else's table: its first logged session moves the item to Not owned, and the save confirmation (the receipt) says so. Logging never moves a Wishlist item.

Each list, and what it keeps

Each item sits on one list: Owned, Wishlist, Pre-ordered or Sold for a copy of your own; Not owned or Want to play (or read, or watch) with no copy. Not owned is what you have had without owning it: a friend's game, a library book, a streamed film. How far along you are is separate: not started, in progress, finished or set aside. When three or more lists show, a line under the list chips says what each one means (on a phone, the ? at the end of the chips).

A pre-order carries its expected date, and Home tells you when it should be arriving.

A wish can be a Grail, Really want, Would like or Someday, and a shared wishlist lists the grails first.

Sold keeps an item in your history as something you once owned.

Counts, and a game's expansions

The count on each list is the cards you see; an expansion filed under its game counts with the game.

Moving a game to Sold, or taking it off your shelf, asks about the expansions (DLC, for a video game) filed under it: Also the expansions, or Just the game. One Undo brings back whatever went.

Counts lead with what you own; a shelf with items on other lists says both (3 owned · 1 not owned). On TV Shows and Movies, Not owned is for a show or film you watched without owning it, and All is what you own and what you have watched.

Moving a pile at once

Press Select, or long press a cover on a phone.

Tap the covers, or drag sideways across a row. The bar counts them; a series stack picks all its volumes.

Press Change status (Status, on a phone) and choose the list to put them all on.

Press Done to stop selecting.

Selecting on a phone, on a computer and in List

The covers stand three to a row while you pick, and the bar holds the count, Select all and Done. The tabs at the foot of the screen give way to Status, Tags, Remove and More (For trade, Favourite, Move to shelf).

Shift+click takes everything between two.

In List

Each row gets a box at its start: tap the rows, or drag down the boxes.

What you can change, and Undo

Change status puts them all on another list, and Tags, For trade and Favourite work the same way. Move to shelf takes them to another of your shelves with their sessions, tags, notes and prices; a Top 10 place goes to the end of the new shelf's Top 10 while it has room, and tier list and series places are let go.

Remove takes them all off your shelves, with their sessions and tags kept for 30 days in History > Removed. On a computer, Remove from your shelves is also at the foot of the Change status sheet.

The message that follows has Undo, which puts each one back as it was; Ctrl+Z works too.

Your rating

Give any item a rating from 1 to 10 on its page. A feeling is how a session left you; a rating is what you think of the item. Neither changes the other.

Open an item's page and press Your rating, the row with a star under Progress (Not rated until you give one).

Drag the slider to the figure, in tenths, or type a number such as 8.25 in the field beside it and press Enter.

Press Done. Clear, beside it, takes the rating away.

The scale and its colours

A rating is a number from 1 to 10 with up to two decimals: 8, 8.5 and 8.25 are all fine, and 8,5 is read the same. A third decimal is refused, never rounded. On the slider, an arrow key moves a whole point and Shift with an arrow a tenth.

A rating shows as one star and the number out of 10. The colour follows the score: red below 3, orange from 3, yellow from 5, green from 7 and blue from 9.

What can be rated, and when it is asked

Every item on every shelf can have one, on any list. It is always optional, and you can change it whenever your mind does.

ShelfChronicles never asks for a rating out loud. Once an item is Finished or has three sessions, the rating box adds one line of context (You have finished it, or 3 sessions in). Logging a session never asks.

A BoardGameGeek or Letterboxd import brings your ratings from there, for items that have none here. A spreadsheet of video games, shows or movies brings the ratings in its file too, and unless you untick “Use this file’s lists and ratings over yours” they replace yours.

Who sees your rating, and where it shows

Show my ratings, in Settings > Who sees what, decides for all of them, and starts on. On, a rating shows wherever its item is already shown to someone else, such as your profile and the pages you share. Off, only you see your ratings.

A rating never opens an item to anyone new: an item you keep off public pages never shows its rating.

A rated item wears its rating on its cover and on its List row; Badges on covers can take it off the covers.

You can sort by Your rating or filter by Rating, and save either into a smart shelf, a saved set of filters that updates on its own. Ranking a shelf shows ratings as a reminder only.

Notes on an item

Every item holds two notes, on its page: a shared note that others read with the item, and a private note that only you ever see.

Open an item's page and find Your notes, at the foot of the Your copy card (under Progress and Your rating, in a narrower window; on a phone, on the Details side). It holds a Shared note and a Private note.

Press Add a shared note for what you think of the item, or Add a private note for what only you should read, and write it.

Press Save note, or Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac). Cancel, or Escape, drops your changes.

Which note to use for what

The shared note is what you think of the item, written for other people: why it earned its place, a house rule worth passing on. It is your own comment on the item.

The private note is for you alone: what you paid, which box it is in, who gave it to you, a gift idea.

The two are independent: write either, both or neither, and saving one never changes the other. Search this shelf reads both and says which note matched.

What one evening was like goes with that evening: Notes, in the Log sheet, is a note on a single session, and neither of these two.

A BoardGameGeek import brings the comments you wrote on your games there as their shared notes, where a game has none here. To keep one to yourself, remove it from the shared note and write it in the private note.

Who sees each note

A shared note can be read wherever its item is already shown to someone else: your profile and the pages you share. In a Top 10 the shared note is printed under the item's title. It never puts an item in front of anyone who could not already see it.

Under a saved shared note, one line says who sees it: Shown wherever this item is shown to others.

To keep shared notes to yourself, turn off Show my shared notes in Settings > Who sees what, or turn on Keep off public pages for the item.

People who are not your friends see your profile and shared pages as of Monday, so a shared note you write or reword this week reaches them next Monday. Friends see it at once.

A signed-in visitor can report a shared note, with Report beside it. One hidden after reports stays readable to you, and its line says it is hidden from everyone else.

A private note is never on your profile or on any page you share, whatever your settings. No switch shows it and no audience includes it, it is never sent to a page anyone else can open, and nobody can report what they cannot read. Its line reads: Only you ever see this.

Length, editing and your export

Each note is plain text, up to 2,000 characters, with line breaks kept as you typed them; nothing in it turns into a link or formatting.

Edit opens a saved note again. The day shown with a note is the day its words last changed.

Remove note takes that note away and leaves the other one alone, with Undo in the message that follows.

Your data export carries both notes.

Tags

Tags are yours to invent. Filters on a shelf narrow by them, and a shelf with no match says which filter hides what.

Open an item's page and press Add tags (Edit tags, once it has some). On a phone, tap the tags under the title.

Type a tag and press Enter, or pick one of yours from the list.

Press Done. Tags are saved as you go.

Inventing tags, and other spellings

Tags are yours to invent: co-op, signed, comfort, the cabinet it lives in. As you type, the tags you already use are offered, and another spelling of one you have is filed under yours (“coop” goes under co-op).

A tag is a word to filter by. A sentence about one item, a house rule or where it came from, goes in its notes.

Filtering a shelf by tag

On a shelf, Filters shows your tags. Tap one to see only what carries it, and more to narrow it further. Above them you can narrow by when you last picked an item up: never, not in six months or not in a year. A filter that is on shows as a chip above the covers, and its × takes it off.

Once you have rated an item, Filters also has Rating: Any, 9 and up, 8 and up, 7 and up, 6 and up, or Not rated; Your rating says how to give one. On a shelf that keeps progress there is Progress too: Not started, In progress, Finished or Set aside. A smart shelf does not save the Progress filter.

When nothing matches

The shelf lists the filters that are on, each with how many items taking it off would bring back, and shows the few items that miss by a single filter.

Filters opens as a sheet over the shelf. The covers behind it follow each tap, its button counts what is left (Show 11 of 23), and Clear all puts the shelf back as it opens.

Filters opens as a panel at the right and works the same way. Clear all also ends the line above the covers whenever a filter is on.

Renaming, merging and removing tags

Settings > Shelves lists every tag with its count, to rename, merge or remove one everywhere at once. A removed tag waits 30 days in History > Removed, where Restore puts it back on the same items.

A favourite is marked with the heart, not a tag. A tag called favourite is offered there once as Favourites: Convert hearts everything that carries it and removes the tag, with Undo.

Smart shelves

A smart shelf is a saved set of filters that updates on its own, kept under a name, and one you can rank from favourite down.

Open a shelf and set its filters.

Press Save this view, above the covers (on a phone, at the foot of Filters).

Give it a name of your choosing and press Save.

What a smart shelf keeps

A smart shelf keeps tags, a list, the last session and a sort under a name you choose, like “Co-op, not lately”, and fills itself as your shelf changes. On a computer it is a row under its shelf in the sidebar; on a phone, a chip under the toolbar. Settings > Shelves lists every one.

A sort by your rating (highest first, unrated items last) or a Rating filter saves like the rest.

While a filter, a search or a smart shelf narrows the shelf, the list chips end with Every list: every match, whichever list it is on.

Its address, ranking, renaming and removing

A smart shelf has its own address, so a bookmark opens it, and Pick for me can draw from it. Rename a tag and every smart shelf that uses it follows.

Any shelf view keeps its filters, search and sort in the address, so a reload, Back or a link you send keeps the shelf as you left it.

Rank, Rename and Remove sit on the Shows line above an open smart shelf's covers (on a phone, beside its chip). Ranking a shelf explains Rank. Remove asks first, and History > Removed keeps the smart shelf with its ranking and tier list for 30 days.

Played with, and Players, Length and Complexity

Played with keeps what you played with someone: pick people or Circles (your regular groups), then Any of them, or All together. It saves like any filter, so Played with Gerald can be a smart shelf of its own.

On Board Games, Filters also has Players, Length and Complexity, from BoardGameGeek's figures (6+ is six or more; Light is under 2 out of 5, Medium under 3, Heavy from 3). A game typed in by hand has no figures, so it is left out while one is on. Each row appears once six games carry its figure, and all three save into a smart shelf.

Ranking a shelf

Rank a shelf from favourite down by choosing between two covers at a time. The order numbers the covers, and you can share it.

How ranking works, in six steps

Start from Sort by

On a shelf's Owned list with no filters on, pick Your ranking in Sort by, or press Rank this shelf in View, which does both. A strip above the covers says how much is ranked: press Start ranking, or Rank the rest.

Head to head

Which do you prefer? Tap one of the two covers. Each item finds its place in a few taps, and Not sure sets it aside, unranked.

Your top three

When the pairs run out, your top three stand on a podium, and a line under it counts what you set aside. Press Done, or Adjust the order.

Order, by hand

Order is the same ranking as a list. Drag a row by its grip to move it. Under the rows, each unranked item has a Rank box to slot it straight in, and Place to compare it instead.

The shelf, in your order

Sorted by Your ranking, every cover carries its number. An item you add later waits at the end, unranked, until you place it.

A smart shelf has its own

Open a smart shelf and press Rank on its Shows line (beside its chip on a phone). Once ranked, the button reads Ranked and the count, and that order is the smart shelf's alone.

Head to head

Head to head asks which you prefer, two covers at a time, and places each item in a few taps (the arrow keys pick, Not sure leaves one unranked).

Undo, or Backspace, takes the last answer back.

Each cover shows your rating, if you gave one, as a reminder; it never decides for you. Hide ratings, beside Undo, hides them while you rank, and this device remembers the choice.

Order, a tier list start and the shelf in its order

Order is the list by hand, for when you disagree with the outcome: drag a row by its grip, or type a number beside an unranked item to slot it straight in.

Made a tier list of the shelf already? Start from your tier list puts its items in tier order and leaves the rest to place. Over an order you already have, it asks first: Replace or Keep mine.

Sort by Your ranking shows the shelf in that order, numbered on the covers; a newcomer to the shelf waits at the end, unranked.

What can be ranked, and sharing it

A whole shelf: on Owned with no filters on, press Rank this shelf in View (on a phone, in Sort and view), or pick Your ranking in Sort by.

A smart shelf: press Rank on its Shows line.

A shelf's Not owned list keeps an order of its own; on TV Shows and Movies it shares the shelf's one ranking.

The Wishlist has its want levels instead.

Share ranking makes a link to the order, never the filters behind it, and a Top 10 with room offers the top three of each ranked shelf.

Covers

Catalogue covers where they exist, drawn covers for comics, and your photos for the rest. List shows one row per item or series, and a table on a computer.

Where a cover comes from, and changing it

Where a catalogue has cover art, ShelfChronicles shows it, linked from the catalogue and never copied; a collected edition found by its title or its barcode shows its cover from Hardcover. Anything without art gets a drawn cover: one colour, its title and a picture of what the shelf holds, one look per series so a run reads as a set. Figures, builds and misc are yours to photograph. Tick Mature under a photo, or as you add one, to keep it off your profile and share links; you still see it.

To change a drawn cover, press Cover under it on the item's page (on a phone, in the page's ⋯ menu) and pick a preset. Settings > Look > Drawn covers switches every cover you have not styled between Simple and Classic. Customize builds a cover part by part and belongs to Supporter; you can try every option first.

Badges on covers

A cover can wear badges: your rating, its rank, its expansions, a heart on a favourite and the best disc format. Badges on covers, in View (on a phone, in Sort and view), turns them off or on, and this device remembers it.

What List and Ledger show, and the table on a computer

Small covers fits more to a row, with one line under each: when you last used it. List is one row per item, with your progress, when you last used it and which list it is on. On a big shelf sorted by title, a strip of letters takes you to any letter.

A series in List

A series is one row, with its count (6 of 9 volumes owned) and the time on it all; tap it to open its volumes under it.

From 1024 pixels of page, List becomes a table: cover, title, the author on Books, progress, sessions, time, last used, added and tags. Click a heading to sort by it, and again to turn the order round.

Ledger

Ledger, after List in View, is the shelf as a catalogue: title and cover, the list it is on, the last session, the hours, your rating and its code. A heading sorts it, and sorted by title an index down the side (# and A to Z) takes you to a letter. Like the other views, the choice is remembered.

More than one copy

A second copy is its own entry, with its own details. What you paid is a row of Your copy that only you see. Shows and films keep formats and edition.

Copies, formats and cost

Sometimes you own two of the same item: a reading copy and a signed one. Adding an item already on your shelf offers Add another copy, and the second sits beside the first as Copy 2.

Each copy keeps its own details in Your copy, on the item's page: What you paid, the format, the shelf's own fields such as edition or platform, condition, Ownership and your two notes. A book's, comic's or manga's format is yours to set; until you choose, it shows the catalogue's. On a phone, the switch under the item's header card, Sessions or Details, opens Your copy on Details.

On TV Shows and Movies, Your copy also keeps formats (4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, VHS, LaserDisc, Digital), the edition and its spine number. The cover wears the best disc as a badge, and the Format filter narrows the shelf to one.

Robin keeps one of everything, so the sample has no second copy to show.

What you paid

What you paid is the first row of Your copy on every item. It opens a sheet for the amount and currency, Date bought, Where bought and Bought as (Retail, Second-hand, Gift and more); a gift or a free item counts what it is worth, never as spending. Paid in splits a price into monthly parts, a pre-order can stay planned until it arrives, and Sold adds Sold for and Sold on.

Money is never shown to anyone else, whatever your settings. It counts on your own Budget page, and your data export carries it.

What an item has cost you

With What you paid filled in, the item's page shows its cost per session and per hour (hours from a library import do not count). Only you see these figures, and Settings > Shelves can hide them.

Volumes of a series are not copies. For those, see

Series and volumes.

Create a Story

Create a Story from text and photo panels, then choose who can see it.

On an item's page, press Start a story. Your story opens as a private draft with that item tagged in its first text panel.

Give your story a title. Edit the first panel or add text panels. You can remove the item's tag; no photos are added automatically.

Use Add photos when uploads are available. Reorder the panels, then Preview your story.

Publishing and who can see your story

Check Visible to before Finish story. Only you keeps the finished story private; another audience makes it visible to those people.