would this be a useful sticky?

[BeccaPrice]

Would it be useful to put a sticky link to my calibre web help file?

http://stu.wccnet.edu/~rprice/Eng218/Calibre%20Help/

it isn't complete, of course, and gives links to the manual and to useful threads here, but I think it's a good guide for beginners to calibre, and answers some of the most common questions I see here.

[kovidgoyal]

I have added it to the start here sticky: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118558

[BeccaPrice]

Thank you. I hope beginners find it useful.

[FizzyWater]

Is this a student project? Will it remain at this link long?

[BeccaPrice]

Yes it's a student project, but will remain at that site indefinitely. Someday I may get my own domain and could host it there, but the school lets student projects stay up for years.

if you find mistakes or ways I can improve it, please let me know. I'll still have access to the source files and the software used to create it.

[FizzyWater]

You made it?! Cool!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

...if you find mistakes or ways I can improve it, please let me know. I'll still have access to the source files and the software used to create it.

BP - your help file says - "Although the Date column is given in European style (DD/MM/YY), the Date column is sorted by month, day, and year (MM/DD/YY)."

Are you sure 'your' Calibre sorts dates that way, mine appears to sort YYYYMMDD eg ascending

sortdate - display date

20091017 - 17/10/09
20100820 - 20/8/10
20110503 - 3/5/11

If it were otherwise I'd go nuts.

What did you use to write the html, looks like a real help file (i.e. a chm). I wish all online help used it.

BP

[theducks]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

BP - your help file says - "Although the Date column is given in European style (DD/MM/YY), the Date column is sorted by month, day, and year (MM/DD/YY)."

Are you sure 'your' Calibre sorts dates that way, mine appears to sort YYYYMMDD eg ascending

sortdate - display date

20091017 - 17/10/09
20100820 - 20/8/10
20110503 - 3/5/11

If it were otherwise I'd go nuts.

What did you use to write the html, looks like a real help file (i.e. a chm). I wish all online help used it.

BP

There is a Preference: tweak to set the date(time) display for each of various columns

[BeccaPrice]

oops - I'd better fix the date comment then. Since there are so many preferences, maybe I should just delete that comment. I'll get the revised version up Monday night.

I made it using RoboHelp, so yeah, it's a real help file. I could compile it as a .chm, but I felt web help would be more useful - I'm not sure how .chms work on Macs or on Linux machines.

Later this summer, I'll be converting it from RoboHelp to Flare -I like the way Flare handles searches better.

-becca

[BeccaPrice]

How's this for new text?

Spoiler:

Changing the Way Dates Display

The Date column is given as (DD/MM/YY), the Date column is sorted by year, month, then day(YYYY/MM/DD).

There is a Preference tweak to set the date(time) display for the various columns

To change the date display:

1. Press Ctrl + P and click the Tweaks icon.

2. Select "Control how dates are displayed".

3. In the "Edit Tweak" area, change the date format to the desired format. Use the "Help" area above the "Edit Tweak" area to format your dates.

[Zetmolm]

Thanks for this. I agree that for sharing this with other people over the Internet, Webhelp is more useful than .chm.
After you've done the conversion to Flare you could even publish as Epub!

[BeccaPrice]

I tried a quick conversion to ePub with RoboHelp, and wasn't pleased with the output - all my cross references were gone. Once I've got a better grip on Flare, I'll try their single-source output, but single sourcing from web help to epub is a lot of work. Would there be a need for this kind of task-based procedures in epub? because if so, it'll be worth the work to do, although I'm not sure how to set things up so someone could download the epub.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

How's this for new text?

Originally Posted by Zetmolm

... Webhelp is more useful than .chm.

If your offline or using a 256/64Kbps satellite link with a 1G/month download quota then Webhelp is a PITA.

Yes- I've dl'd the epub version of the Calibre User Manual. The Help button still insists on going to the 'net, be good it there was a tweak to tell to go to a file instead.

BR

Once they figure out how to create commodities out of thin air, as the central bankers have done with 'money', then we'll all be herded into cities so they can more easily watch what we're doing. The compensation will be that we'll each have a petabit link to Big Brother 'net to read manuals on line