Library views and printing

On the website, the "Browsing mode" buttons in the toolbar ("Cover grid", "Compact grid" and "List") switch how the library is shown. "List" is one row per book: the title and authors always lead, and on a computer the columns beside them are Location, Copies (how many, and whether any are on loan), Year and ISBN until you choose others.

1. In list mode, click "Columns" above the list. Tick a column to add it at the end, untick one to remove it, and use the up and down arrows to change the order. Changes show straight away; click "Done" to close.
2. Optional columns: Format, Pages, Genre, Call number, Condition, Acquired, Published price, Purchase price, Estimated value, and — for Admins and Members — each active custom field of the library (up to 10 of them).
3. "Reset to defaults" goes back to Location, Copies, Year and ISBN.

Your columns are kept on this computer or browser, separately for each library and each account: another library, another browser, or someone else signing in on the same computer starts from the defaults. Changing columns never changes which books are listed, how many, their order or how far you have scrolled — the rows already loaded simply fill in the new column.

Copy facts — location, call number, condition, acquired date, purchase price, estimated value and custom fields — belong to each copy. Where every copy agrees the cell shows that one value; where they differ it says "Varies — 2 copies" (or however many), and clicking it, or pressing Enter on it, lists each copy with where it is shelved. Escape or a second click closes the list. A dash means nothing is recorded, which is different from a recorded 0 or No. While a custom-field filter is on, these cells, the location and the availability describe only the copies that match the filters, the Copies column reads "2 of 3 copies match", and a line above the list says so.

On a phone-sized screen the columns step aside: each row shows the title, authors and year, then where the book is (or "Varies — N copies" to list each copy’s shelf) and whether it is in — "Available", "On loan", "1 of 2 on loan" or, for a copy marked missing, "Marked missing" — on lines that wrap rather than making the page scroll sideways.

If a column is a custom field that has since been archived or deleted, it disappears from the list and a note above the list says so; "Remove from my columns" takes it out of your choice for good. If the field is un-archived before then, its column comes back.

Everyone in a library can use list mode and choose columns. Guests see no Location, Acquired, Purchase price, Estimated value or custom-field columns, and no loan status — only the catalogue facts and each copy’s condition and call number. The phone app has its own Rows and Covers views and no column chooser.

• Saved views — keep a set of columns with a view →
• Value & Insurance — the three amounts →
• Filtering by custom fields →

The library page shows books 60 at a time. As you near the end of the list the next books load by themselves, a few times over; after that the list waits for you to click "Load More" at the bottom, so the end of the page stays within reach. The button is always there, for the keyboard and screen readers too.

Once more than 120 books are loaded, only the books near the part of the page you are looking at are kept on the page; the rest are drawn again as you scroll back to them. That keeps a long library quick on a phone, but it means your browser’s own find-in-page (Ctrl+F, or Cmd+F on a Mac) only finds books near where you are. To find a book anywhere in the library, use the search box above the list. Going back from a book returns you to where you were in the list, and anything you had ticked in Select stays ticked as you scroll.

• Print a list — the whole view on paper →

The sort button in the My Library toolbar says how the list is ordered; "Recently added" is the default. Open it and pick an order — by title, author, publication year, date added, pages, weight, size, price, or shelf order by Dewey or Library of Congress number.

"Author (A → Z)" files books by the first author’s surname, the way a shelf or an index does: Austen, then Le Guin, then Tolkien. One author’s books then run by title, so this one choice gives "author, then title". A name already written surname first ("Tolkien, J. R. R.") files beside the same name written in the usual order, books with no author come last whichever way you sort, and correcting a book’s author refiles it straight away. While the list is sorted by author, each book shows its author before its title, with the first author written surname first ("Le Guin, Ursula K.") so you can see the order the list follows; this applies to the list, both grids and a printed list, but not to search results. "Newest published" and "Oldest published" use the year shown on each book; books with no year come last.

The surname is worked out from how the name is written, so a few names file unexpectedly: an organisation is filed under its whole name ("National Geographic Society" under N); a name like "Saint Ignatius of Loyola" is filed as written; and a two-word surname without a particle such as "de" or "van" files under its last word ("Gabriel García Márquez" under Márquez). Only the first author decides where a book files.

1. For more than one level — say, each author’s books from the newest published to the oldest — choose "Custom order…" at the bottom of the sort menu.
2. The first line is "Sort by": choose a field and a direction. "Add a level" adds a "Then by" line, which orders the books the line above leaves tied. You can have up to three; a field can only be used once.
3. Use the up and down arrows to change which line comes first, and × to remove one. Click "Apply". The sort button then names the whole order, for example "Author (A → Z), then Newest published".

To see one author’s books, open Filters and type part of the name under "Author". The list offers only authors whose books are in this library, surname first, each with how many books it has; pick one, and the list, its count and the statistics narrow to the books that credit that author anywhere in their author list — co-authors included. On a book’s page in your library, each author’s name is a link that does the same. Names written differently only in capitals or spacing count as one author, but differently punctuated spellings ("C. S. Lewis" and "C.S. Lewis") are listed separately. The author filter combines with every other filter and stays on when you switch libraries.

The order and filters are part of the page address, so Back, reloading and a copied link keep them, and "Print list" prints in the same order. The library does not remember an order on its own between visits: to keep one, save it as a view with "Save view…" and pin it, and it is one click away from then on (see Saved views below).

Every role can sort and filter by author on the website. The phone app’s sort picker has "Author A–Z" (author, then title, with each row showing the author first) but no custom order and no author filter — its search box already finds an author.

A saved view remembers a way of looking at your library — its filters, search and sort — under a name, such as "Unsorted donations" or "Hardcovers by title". It is a live list, not a snapshot: reopening it shows the books that match now, including any added since by anyone in the library.

1. On the Library page, set the filters, search and sort you want, then click "Save view…" just above the toolbar (pointing at it, or moving to it with the keyboard, says what it does). Give it a name (up to 80 characters) and click "Save".
2. Reopen a view from the "Views" menu, or pin it: pinned views sit as buttons beside "Views", one click away. You can pin up to 5; the rest stay in the menu. These are separate from the up to 3 tools you can pin to the page header from Library tools (see Your home, tasks and tools → Library tools and pins).
3. While a view is open, "Viewing" and its name show above the toolbar. Change anything and "Unsaved changes" appears — the saved view itself stays as it was until you click "Update view". "Save as new…" keeps the original and saves your changes under a new name.
4. For the open view, the "Views" menu also has "Rename…", "Pin" or "Unpin", and "Delete…" (which deletes only the view — no books or tags). "Close view" goes back to the whole library.

A view can also keep a set of list columns — tick "Also keep the current list columns" when saving it, or choose "Keep current columns with this view" from the "Views" menu while it is open ("Stop keeping columns with this view" undoes it). Those columns show while the view is open and your own columns come back when you close it; they are never overwritten by the view. Changing columns while such a view is open counts as an unsaved change to it, saved by "Update view". A view that keeps no columns uses your own.

An open view is part of the page address, like any filter, so Back, reloading the page, and a bookmark all bring it back — including any unsaved changes.

Views remember locations, tags, genres and custom fields by identity, so renaming a shelf, a tag or a field never breaks one. If something a view filters on has been deleted — or a custom field it filters on has been archived, or a pick-list option it names has been removed — the view is marked "Needs repair" in the menu, and opening it does not quietly show a wider list: it tells you what is missing and offers "Remove missing filters and open" or "Delete view". Until you choose, the view is kept exactly as saved.

Saved views are personal: only you can see your views, and each belongs to the library it was saved in, so every library you belong to has its own set (up to 50). Admins and Members can save views; Guests cannot. Saved views are on the website, not in the phone app. Leaving a library, being removed from it, or the library being deleted removes your views for it; deleting your account removes all of them.

• Print a list — print the view you are looking at →
• Filtering by custom fields →
• Account deletion →

Any view of your library can be printed: the shelf you’re about to check, hardcovers by title, everything tagged "Signed", or the whole collection. The printout is exactly the list you were looking at — same filters, same search, same sort — with the library name, a line describing the scope in words, the date, and a count of books and copies at the top. The column header repeats on every page and rows are kept whole.

1. On the Library page, set the filters, search, and sort you want, then click "Print list" beside the view switcher. It opens in a new tab, so your place in the library is kept.
2. Choose the columns: Shelf list (location, title, author, copies) to walk the room with; Inventory (adds ISBN, format, price paid, and estimated value) for the insurance file; Compact (title and author); or Covers (a thumbnail, title, author, and year). Covers are only printed under the Covers preset.
3. Tick "Group by location" to print one section per room or shelf, with a book that has copies on two shelves listed under both and unlocated books at the end — handy for tearing off a page per shelf.
4. Click "Print / Save as PDF" — your browser’s normal print dialog, so paper or PDF both work, and the suggested filename names the library and preset.

A list loads up to 5,000 books; if your scope matches more, the first 5,000 print and the header says so — narrow the filters to print the rest. A search prints its results, up to 50, and the header names the search rather than claiming a complete list; for a complete list clear the search and use filters. The Inventory preset shows the owner-entered figures for each book’s most recently added copy and never totals them — the per-copy insurance inventory with totals is under Value.

Printing only reads your catalogue and never changes it. Every library member can print, including guests; guests are offered the Compact and Covers presets only, since location, price, and value are not shown to them, and the group-by-location option is not offered.