Quote:
Originally Posted by PyroDevil
Are the people really happy with this situation, that I can't simply copy my data on a file storage device put it into another portable device and browse/open/read it?
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I don't mind.
I've noticed a lot of people come to this forum and they seem a tad irritated that you can't use folders to organise your Kobo. I suppose it is sort of instinctive to want to drag and drop. But perhaps I've been using Calibre so long that I don't mind. It is an indispensable part of my ebook hobby. When friends start with ebooks, I urge them to start with Calibre alongside it. The benefits are huge, but its hard to explain to someone til they use it.
When I first started reading ebooks, it was on an old pocket PC thing that someone gave me. I stuck a micro SD in it and discovered mobipocket reader. I also used MS reader for lit files. The mobipocket PC application handled my ebooks and shovelled them onto my device for me. Calibre was around, but I didn't need it. It was big and itimidating. People said it was an excellent library manager, but why did I need to bother? Fidling with metadata and stuff seemed pointless. Mobipocket did everything I needed.
Then the ancient pocket PC broke. I found an IPAQ (remember those?) on eBay. But when I got it, I found that mobipocket didn't like it so well. By then, they'd been bought by Amazon and updates had stopped. Conversions were no longer smooth. I got it working, but it wasn't a seamless process. I remembered thinking that having my library handled by one application, that could convert file types for me would have helped. Wish I'd started with Calibre then. Would have saved me a lot of work..
Then when the Kindle 3 came to the UK, I was given one for Christmas. No problem, most of my library was in .mobi anyway, right? I could drag and drop from folders.
Er, no. Massive problem actually. I had different author and series spellings, no series information, some books without or with wrong covers and no way to manage that at all. I had books that hadn't converted well, and no backups of the originals without going back to the vendor. I was so irritated!
I had little choice but to download Calibre. It now manages everything I didn't know I needed to manage for me. Need to make sure series info is all the same in a series? Find an ISBN for a book? There's a plugin for that. Need to rename all my books when I move them to my device? Does that. Download metadata and covers? Convert from any other filetype while keeping the original? Tweak the book layout? Store my whole library in folders I can backup to an external drive and dropbox? Move stuff to a whole new device that uses a different format? Does all that and more stuff I don't use and don't even know it can do. Take a look at the sticky in this forum on Calibre and shelves.
Calibre seems a bit overwhelming at first, but for me the benefits outweigh the positives.
There is a brilliant Calibre community here on these forums who will help with anything, no matter how daft you think your question is. Learning to love it made my ebook experience better and less painful than any other way I've found. I found that like any library owner, managing my books properly makes reading them easier and better. Sounds like you write your own scripts anyway -- there's developer sections on here who might be able to help you make those into plugins so you can still use them. I don't use Kobo Desktop. I don't need it.
I really appreciate all the work David and others does with the Kobo Driver for Calibre. You can set it to make and manage your shelves, covers, series info, send books to SD rather than main memory. I can't do any of this by just dragging and dropping folders. Having it all handled automatically or with a few clicks, makes my ebook reading a far better and easier experience.
I know folders seem natural. Give Calibre a try. There are plenty on here who will hold your hand through any learning curve.