Author Sort

polly · 10-03-2009, 04:58 AM

I'm wondering if there's a way to change how the authors are sorted on Sony Readers. In Calibre, the authors are displayed as First Name Last Name. While I'd prefer to see them as Last Name, First Name, I can live with them as they are because they still sort by last name. Alas, when Calibre transfers them to the reader, they are sorted by first name. While it's disturbing to find Connie Willis under the Cs instead of the Ws, it's a real problem with new books since I often don't remember the author's first name. I might only remember that the author's last name was someplace in the J range and recognize the title when I see it. With Calibre's excellent tagging and collection abilities, I can tag all new books as unread, but it would be really nice if the authors listed alphabetically by last name on the reader.

In Calibre metadata, I have, for example, Connie Willis in Author and Willis, Connie in Author Sort. Any suggestions?

Thanks

pepak · 10-03-2009, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polly

I'm wondering if there's a way to change how the authors are sorted on Sony Readers.

The original firmware respected author-sort, but the support was removed in 1.1.

CapnKirk · 10-03-2009, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pepak

The original firmware respected author-sort, but the support was removed in 1.1.

Curious. Do you happen to know why? Have they indicated that it will return?

So, we're left with putting Last name, First name in the author field, then.

pepak · 10-03-2009, 11:08 AM

I have no idea why, except for the plain old stupidity.

FizzyWater · 10-03-2009, 10:05 PM

I know this is not ideal, but when I build books in Calibre, I enter the names in last name, first name order.

So the only ones displayed the other way are purchased (and not converted) ebooks.

polly · 10-04-2009, 05:53 AM

Thank you all for the replies. I did some more experimenting. If all of the metadata in Calibre has the author as last name, first name, then the authors display properly in Calibre and the Reader with last name, first name. Is there any way to automate author display in Calibre? I suspect that if Calibre sent Author Sort instead of Author over in the metadata, the Reader would display last name, first name with the authors in alphabetical order, but could be wrong on that.

I'm finding that I have update the metadata for each author to get this to work. That's not the end of the world, but it already shows Author Display as last name, first name, so it would be nice if that was an option under preferences. Would this be a new feature request?

CapnKirk · 10-04-2009, 08:22 AM

Polly, I've been thinking about the problem since I just got a 16GB SD card for my prs-600 and will be loading a ton of pdf's and others (a lot of technical literature...). How to organize it? Especially with the issue you mentioned of not being able to remember the exact author name.

The search function will be useful if I can remember a word or string of words relating to the book/document.

The other way is with collections (tags in calibre). For fiction, I have favorite authors and own a lot of their works. So I put all those into a collection. Of course, remembering author name is not a problem here. But it's convenient to have everything in one place. The other technique I'm going to use is subject headings. For the technical literature, I'm going to look up the Library of Congress subject heading for a group of books/documents and use those or a modification of them. And for fiction, general genre would help, too: science fiction, mystery, romance, historical fiction, etc.

Collections have their limitations: you can't nest one collection inside another. But given those limitations, they help cut down what one must scan to find something.

10-03-2009, 04:58 AM	#1
polly Evangelist Posts: 454 Karma: 270240 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Sony PRS 650, PocketBook 360, Astak PocketPro (RIP), Tungsten T3	Author Sort I'm wondering if there's a way to change how the authors are sorted on Sony Readers. In Calibre, the authors are displayed as First Name Last Name. While I'd prefer to see them as Last Name, First Name, I can live with them as they are because they still sort by last name. Alas, when Calibre transfers them to the reader, they are sorted by first name. While it's disturbing to find Connie Willis under the Cs instead of the Ws, it's a real problem with new books since I often don't remember the author's first name. I might only remember that the author's last name was someplace in the J range and recognize the title when I see it. With Calibre's excellent tagging and collection abilities, I can tag all new books as unread, but it would be really nice if the authors listed alphabetically by last name on the reader. In Calibre metadata, I have, for example, Connie Willis in Author and Willis, Connie in Author Sort. Any suggestions? Thanks

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10-03-2009, 11:08 AM	#4
pepak Guru Posts: 610 Karma: 4150 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-T3, Kobo Libra H2O	I have no idea why, except for the plain old stupidity.

10-03-2009, 10:05 PM	#5
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	I know this is not ideal, but when I build books in Calibre, I enter the names in last name, first name order. So the only ones displayed the other way are purchased (and not converted) ebooks.

10-04-2009, 05:53 AM	#6
polly Evangelist Posts: 454 Karma: 270240 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Sony PRS 650, PocketBook 360, Astak PocketPro (RIP), Tungsten T3	Thank you all for the replies. I did some more experimenting. If all of the metadata in Calibre has the author as last name, first name, then the authors display properly in Calibre and the Reader with last name, first name. Is there any way to automate author display in Calibre? I suspect that if Calibre sent Author Sort instead of Author over in the metadata, the Reader would display last name, first name with the authors in alphabetical order, but could be wrong on that. I'm finding that I have update the metadata for each author to get this to work. That's not the end of the world, but it already shows Author Display as last name, first name, so it would be nice if that was an option under preferences. Would this be a new feature request?

10-04-2009, 08:22 AM	#7
CapnKirk Member Posts: 18 Karma: 56 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Philadelphia, PA Device: Sony Reader Touch PRS-600	Polly, I've been thinking about the problem since I just got a 16GB SD card for my prs-600 and will be loading a ton of pdf's and others (a lot of technical literature...). How to organize it? Especially with the issue you mentioned of not being able to remember the exact author name. The search function will be useful if I can remember a word or string of words relating to the book/document. The other way is with collections (tags in calibre). For fiction, I have favorite authors and own a lot of their works. So I put all those into a collection. Of course, remembering author name is not a problem here. But it's convenient to have everything in one place. The other technique I'm going to use is subject headings. For the technical literature, I'm going to look up the Library of Congress subject heading for a group of books/documents and use those or a modification of them. And for fiction, general genre would help, too: science fiction, mystery, romance, historical fiction, etc. Collections have their limitations: you can't nest one collection inside another. But given those limitations, they help cut down what one must scan to find something.

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