MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - PRS-505 Getting Authors to sort by last name using Calibre's metadata plugboard.

ligelowbee · 10-13-2010, 06:09 PM

I've had my prs505 for a while now and it's always irked me that when listing books by author it sorted by the author's first name. I used to use a few messy work arounds (like altering a book's author metadata after copying it to my device) but now Calibre has given me a nice clean solution.

First I set Calibre's metadata management to Automatic management. Now when I update metadata in Calibre it gets synced to the device when plugged in. Very nice:
Preferences -> Sending books to devices -> Metadata management.

Then I made a Metadata Plugboard in Calibre that would have the device to use the author_sort entries as its authors entries:
Preferences -> Metadata plugboards
Add new plugboard -> format: device_db , device: PRS505, Source template: {author_sort}, Destination field: authors

Then I saved the plugboard, applied, and when I plugged in my PRS-505 Calibre massaged its database so that authors were listed as Lastname, Firstname. Swell.

As a side note I've found that the best format to use for books with multiple authors is:
Jane Doe & John Smith & Foo Bar
This gets translated neatly as:
Doe, Jane & Smith, John & Bar, Foo

I hope others enjoy this as much as I do.

Cheers,
Lee

10-13-2010, 06:09 PM	#1
ligelowbee Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 510 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: St. John's, Newfounland Device: Sony PRS-T2	Getting Authors to sort by last name using Calibre's metadata plugboard. I've had my prs505 for a while now and it's always irked me that when listing books by author it sorted by the author's first name. I used to use a few messy work arounds (like altering a book's author metadata after copying it to my device) but now Calibre has given me a nice clean solution. First I set Calibre's metadata management to Automatic management. Now when I update metadata in Calibre it gets synced to the device when plugged in. Very nice: Preferences -> Sending books to devices -> Metadata management. Then I made a Metadata Plugboard in Calibre that would have the device to use the author_sort entries as its authors entries: Preferences -> Metadata plugboards Add new plugboard -> format: device_db , device: PRS505, Source template: {author_sort}, Destination field: authors Then I saved the plugboard, applied, and when I plugged in my PRS-505 Calibre massaged its database so that authors were listed as Lastname, Firstname. Swell. As a side note I've found that the best format to use for books with multiple authors is: Jane Doe & John Smith & Foo Bar This gets translated neatly as: Doe, Jane & Smith, John & Bar, Foo I hope others enjoy this as much as I do. Cheers, Lee Last edited by ligelowbee; 10-13-2010 at 06:14 PM.