Version 2.8.1
Collections Manager offers a much more flexible way than the built-in one to manage
Kindle Touch and
Kindle PaperWhite collections.
Here's an (old) screenshot of what it looks like on a Kindle Touch with Firmware 5.1.x; the second picture is annotated with descriptions. The third picture shows the new entry format on a Kindle Paperwhite with Firmware 5.3.x, using the russian localization.
Features:- Nest collections inside collections
- Toggle Home Screen visibility of items
- Synchronize collections with Calibre, using the Kindle Collections plugin.
- Synchronize collections to the directory layout
- ... and more
Requirements:
- Kindle Touch: Firmware 5.1.0 - 5.3.7.3
- Kindle Paperwhite: Firmware 5.2.0 - 5.4.4.2 (ATTENTION: See the note about FW >= 5.4.2 on the next line!)
- Kindle Paperwhite 2: Firmware 5.4.0 - 5.4.2.1 & 5.4.3.1 - 5.4.5.1 & 5.6.5 (ATTENTION: On FW 5.4.0, everything works correctly. However, starting with FW 5.4.2, not all of the functionality is working correctly. See this, this, and most importantly THIS post for details).
- Jailbreak
- Mobileread Kindlet Kit
Installation:
Make sure that
all requirements are met; download and extract the attached file, and copy the contained CollectionsManager.azw2 to the "documents" folder on the Kindle.
Troubleshooting:
Localization:
Spoiler:
Starting with version 1.1.2, this program can be localized. If you want to have the program display something else than the default english texts, download
this file and save it as "CollectionsManager-localization.txt" on the Kindle. More instructions are contained in the file itself.
If you have created or updated the localization for a particular language, feel free to post it - I will either update the localization file (if the Kindle supports the language out-of-the-box), or make the translation available from this post (if the Kindle doesn't natively support the language).
Languages that should work out of the box on the Kindle if the localization file is available (incomplete translations are marked with "
(~)"):
- english
- french (NiLuJe)
- german (diba, ixtab)
- italian (Mterry)(~)
- portuguese (zamana, denydias)
- spanish (cristbo, coolpable)(~)
The latest revision date of the official (=committed to the repository) localizations is
2014-01-30.
"Unofficial" support for other languages (these must
replace the english texts) -- I can't guarantee anything for these translations, but I'll at least try to update this post to point to all of the contributions that were posted in this thread):
If you have created a translation for an "unsupported" language, please post it in this thread. I will then link to it from this post.
Upgrade Notes:
Version history / release announcements / change log:
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to the following people:
- NiLuJe, for numerous suggestions and tips, for the calibre plugin patch, and much more!
- rorogio, for the icons and the help screenshot
- jangell2, for the help with tweaking the icons
- all translators, for making CM accessible to people around the world
- mhnotnot, for handling FW 5.4.3.2 & FW 5.4.4.2
- ADambi, for handling FW 5.4.5.1, FW 5.4.4.2, FW 5.6.5; as well as search support in FW 5.4.4.2, FW 5.4.5, FW 5.6.5
- everybody who contributed valuable feedback and suggestions
- last but not least, everybody who donated to support CM development
Notes on Calibre Synchronization:- The Export function exports all collections which contain at least one "normal" item. However, it does not export the collection hierarchy (because Calibre does not support that).
- The Import function will never remove collections; it will only update existing collections, or create new ones (visible in home by default). In particular, this means that after deleting collections from Calibre, you may also have to manually delete these collections from the Kindle.
- Calibre Synchronization will never change the collection hierarchy, or the visibility of existing items. This applies to both import and export.
Other Notes:- To see which collections an item is contained in, either long-click it, or click on the indicator shown at the right.
- Swipe up or down to "synchronize" the collections that are shown.
- When using the "Create Collection" button, the newly created collection will be placed in the collection which is showing in the top pane.
- Collection names must be unique. In other words: you can't have two collections with the same name. If you try to create a collection with a name that already exists, or try to rename a collection so that its name would conflict with another one, the operation will silently fail.
- Fun fact 1: you can create infinite recursions, by including collection A in B and B in A
- Fun fact 2: There is a little easter egg in the program which is triggered when you try to hide Collections Manager itself from the home screen and it (CM) hasn't been put into any collection. Try it out!
- To integrate Collections Manager with the GUI Launcher or KUAL, and/or to actually hide Collections Manager from the Home Screen, see this post. Note that the launcher script has to be edited to use the correct filename (CollectionsManager.azw2, not KTCollectionsManager.azw2).
- On 5.1.x Firmwares, the search bar disappears if the device enters sleep mode and wakes up again. There is no known workaround, but you could just actually use the device, so that it doesn't enter sleep mode ... or simply restart the application.
- On *some* firmwares >= 5.2.0, the search functionality is not available.
- On Firmwares >= 5.4.2, some functionality is unavailable (cf. the section about supported FW), and trying to maintain CM collections through the framework's UI instead of CM may lead to a soft deadlock.
Source code:
https://bitbucket.org/ixtab/ktcollectionsmgr/ &
https://bitbucket.org/NiLuJe/ktcollectionsmgr/.
Totally Off-Topic:
License, Redistribution and Links:
Collections Manager is released as
Free and Open Source Software, under the terms of the
Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License. You are free to share all Collections Manager files in whichever way you want. However, note that the links provided here are not necessarily stable. In other words:
do not distribute direct download links to the files, but link to this post instead.
If you like Collections Manager:
I sincerely hope that you find this program useful. If you like the enhancements that it offers to your Kindle experience, you are more than welcome to donate a little something... but don't give your money to me.
Please donate for a much more important cause, namely: for a Literacy project in Laos. You will make not only me happy. Thank you!
NEWER VERSIONS
As I'm not regularly updating this post anymore, it can be difficult to find versions that support newer firmwares (they're attached to various posts in this thread). Here's a wiki page that attempts to provide the downloads in one place. Please edit that page whenever you add a new version -- thanks!
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DOWNLOADS