Help:Navigation Bar

The Navigation bar is the section of an ISFDB database page on the left of the screen containing various possibly helpful links to other database pages, to ISFDB wiki pages, to pages on external sites, or to perform various database functions or queries. Not all links are present at all times -- the links available depend on the nature of the page currently shown.

Search section
At the top is the Search section. This includes the Basic Search group, which consists of an edit box, a combo box listing the available types of search, and a "GO" button. Below the basic search group is a link to the Advanced Search form.

Logged In As section
Below the search section is the "Logged In As" section. This displays or links to information about the current user.

User ID
The first line of this section displays the User ID of the logged in user, or "Not Logged In" if the page is displayed without a logged in user. Note that all editing features and all user-specific links require that a user be logged in with a (free) registered ISFDB account.

Log Out / In
If a user is logged in, this link will log the user out of the ISFDB (but not the ISFDB Wiki). If the user is not logged in, this link will take the user to a log in page, where the user may log in to an existing account or create a new account.

Help Navigating
Links to this help page.

My Messages
Links to the currently logged-in user's User Talk page.

My Preferences
Links to the User Preferences page, where the currently logged-in user can customize the behavior of the ISFDB software.

My Recent Edits
Links to a list of the user's recent accepted edits, with the most recent ones at the top. The Timestamp, edit type, approving moderator ("reviewer"), and subject (generally the title of the publication or work, or name of the author or publisher, affected) are listed for each accepted edit.

My Pending Edits
Links to a list of edits submitted by the currently logged-in user, which haven't been approved yet.

My Rejected Edits
Links to a list of edits submitted by the currently logged-in user, which have been rejected by a moderator. The "Reason" column shows the rejection reason given by the moderator who rejected the edit. More detail may be found on the user's Wiki Talk page.

My Votes
Links to a list of votes by the currently logged-in user. The highest ranking titles are displayed first.

My Tags
Links to a list of tags used by the currently logged-in user. The most frequently used tags are displayed first.

My Primary Verifications
Links to a list of verifications recently performed by the currently logged-in user.

Other Pages section
This section includes various links to useful pages within the ISFDB and the ISFDB wiki. None of these perform any editing or data entry function, although some of them lead to Wiki pages which can be edited.

ISFDB Wiki
Links to the Main Page of the ISFDB wiki, from which a user may navigate to many wiki functions, or search for any wiki page, or log in to the wiki (a user must log in to the wiki separately, even though the User ID and password are the same).

ISFDB FAQ
Links to the ISFDB FAQ, i.e. list of Frequently Asked Questions, which answers common questions about logging in, editing ISFDB and so forth.

Author Directory
Links to an index by the first two letters of an author's last name. From here, a user can link to any author record on file.

Award Directory
Links to a list of all awards currently cataloged within ISFDB.

Magazines
Links to the wiki Magazines page which is an index to the various wiki pages on specific magazines. These generally give overall information about the magazine, and link to records for specific issues.

Publishers
Links to Category:Publishers, which lists many publishers cataloged by ISFDB and provides additional data about them. Note that much of this data is in the process of being moved to the ISFDB database proper.

Statistics/Top Lists
Links to a page that displays the current numbers of titles and publications by type, of authors, award records, verified publications, and other such statistics. Derived from the current database.

Recent Edits
Links to a page showing the most recent changes to the database. Shown for each edit are the timestamp of the submission's approval, the submission number and type of the change, the editor who submitted the edit (with a link to the editor's wiki page), the moderator who approved the edit (with a similar link), and the subject, which is the title of the work concerned, or the name of the author or publisher concerned.

Recent Verifications
Links to a page showing the most recent changes to the verification flags. These indicate that a particular publication has or has not been checked against a particular source. "Primary" verification is checking against the physical (actual for ebooks) publication. See Help:How to verify data for more on verification.

The page shows the publication record number for each pub (with a link to the pub record display), the publication title, the source verified against (the "reference"), the user ID of the verifier, and the timestamp of the verification.

Editing Tools section
This section includes links that lead to forms where editing functions can be performed. The available functions, and thus the list of links shown, depend on the type of page currently displayed, In most cases, the editing functions of these links in some way act on or use the item currently displayed. On the home page, and some other pages, the links from the are included in this section.

Moderator
Links to the New Submissions page, where moderators can approve, hold or reject submissions, and have access to other moderator-only tools. For non-moderators, this page is a way to access the Top Lists pages, but has no other use.

Key Maintenance
Links to a page used to set up keys for the Web API, used for remote (automated) submissions to the ISFDB, and for automated data retrieval from the ISFDB. Normal online editing does not require use of this page.

Edit Title Data
Allows the user to view and edit the title-record metadata, such as the overall title (as opposed to the title of any particular publication), the year of first publication, the series, the story length (for SHORTFICTION records), a link to a Wikipedia article, the record type, a synopsis, and title-level notes. See Help:Screen:EditTitle for more detail.

Only visible when a title record is being displayed.

Diff Publications
Links to a screen which allows a user to select two publications of a title, and see the differences between their content records (not their metadata). Not useful unless there are at least two different publications for the current title. Not usually useful on a NOVEL title, as most novel publication records have no content records beyond the novel record itself. Some novels include essay records for introductions, afterwords, or the like. Some include a "bonus story". But this feature is mostly used with collections, anthologies, and omnibuses.

Only visible when a title record is being displayed.

Delete This Title
Links to a form where the user can submit a delete request for the currently displayed title. Only works if the title has no publications.

Only visible when a title record is being displayed.

Make This Title a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work
Links to a form which allows the user to make the current title the child in a variant title relationship. This allows the user either to link to an existing parent title, or to create a new parent title. See Help:How to record a variant title and Help:Screen:MakeVariant for more information.

Only visible when a title record is being displayed.

Add Publication to This Title
This links to a form on which the user can enter the metadata for a new publication of the currently displayed title. The form does not permit the entry of any content records, those must be added in a separate edit. So if the publication is one that has contents, it is often better to find the best matching publication available and use the Clone tool. In any case, before creating a new publication, check to see that it is not already on record.

Only visible when a title record is being displayed.

Add a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work to This Title
Links to a form where a user can enter title-level data for a variant title that will be a child of the current title. The form does not enter any publication information -- that must be added separately. Therefore, it is usually best not to use this feature. Instead find or enter a publication of the variant title, then use from the title record of the variant.

See Help:Screen:AddVariant and Help:How to record a variant title.

Only visible when a title record is being displayed.

Unmerge Titles
Links to a form where the user can select one or more publications to "unmerge". If the unmerge is submitted and approved, each selected publication will be linked to a new, separate title record. This is often used when what should be variants have been merged into a single title record.

See Help:Screen:UnmergeTitles for more details.

Only visible when a title record is being displayed.

Add New Data section
On the home page, and some other pages, these links are included in the

Add New Novel
Links to a blank form for entering data for a novel not yet recorded in the ISFDB. Ideally, this should not be used to enter data for a new publication of a novel that already has other publications recorded in the database. The best practice is to search by title or author and see if the work is already on file. If it is, navigate to it and use Add Publication, Clone, Edit Title, or Edit Publication as appropriate.

See Help:How to enter a new novel and Help:Screen:NewNovel for more information.

Add New Magazine
Links to a blank form for entering data for a magazine issue not yet recorded in the ISFDB. This should not be used to enter additional data for an issue that is already recorded in the database. The best practice is to search by title or editor and see if the issue is already on file. If it is, navigate to it and use Edit Publication.

Detailed contents as well as title metadata can be entered on this form. See Help:Screen:NewPub for more information.

Add New Anthology
Links to a blank form for entering data for an anthology not yet recorded in the ISFDB. Ideally, this should not be used to enter data for a new publication of an anthology that already has other publications recorded in the database. The best practice is to search by title or editor and see if the work is already on file. If it is, navigate to it and use Add Publication, Clone, Edit Title, or Edit Publication as appropriate.

Detailed contents as well as title metadata can be entered on this form. See Help:How to enter a new book and Help:Screen:NewPub for more information.

Add New Collection
Links to a blank form for entering data for a collection not yet recorded in the ISFDB. Ideally, this should not be used to enter data for a new publication of a collection that already has other publications recorded in the database. The best practice is to search by title or author and see if the work is already on file. If it is, navigate to it and use Add Publication, Clone, Edit Title, or Edit Publication as appropriate.

Detailed contents as well as title metadata can be entered on this form. See Help:How to enter a new book and Help:Screen:NewPub for more information.

Add New Omnibus
Links to a blank form for entering data for an omnibus not yet recorded in the ISFDB. Ideally, this should not be used to enter data for a new publication of an omnibus that already has other publications recorded in the database. The best practice is to search by title or author and see if the work is already on file. If it is, navigate to it and use Add Publication, Clone, Edit Title, or Edit Publication as appropriate.

Detailed contents as well as title metadata can be entered on this form. See Help:How to enter a new book and Help:Screen:NewPub for more information.

Add New Nonfiction
Links to a blank form for entering data for a book-length work of non-fiction not yet recorded in the ISFDB. Ideally, this should not be used to enter data for a new publication of a book that already has other publications recorded in the database. The best practice is to search by title or author and see if the work is already on file. If it is, navigate to it and use Add Publication, Clone, Edit Title, or Edit Publication as appropriate.

Detailed contents as well as title metadata can be entered on this form. See Help:How to enter a new book and Help:Screen:NewPub for more information.

This should not be used to record an essay or other non-fiction work that was not published as a separate book.

Add New Fanzine
Links to a blank form for entering data for a fanzine issue not yet recorded in the ISFDB. This should not be used to enter additional data for an issue that is already recorded in the database. The best practice is to search by title or editor and see if the issue is already on file. If it is, navigate to it and use Edit Publication.

Detailed contents as well as title metadata can be entered on this form. See Help:Screen:NewPub for more information.

Tools Used to Create This Site section
Links to various third-party tools used in the creation of the ISFDB site.