Magazines - How to find/save/recall read articles?

[delaing]

I've reviewed the few posts on how others are "managing" their PDF magazine collections, but haven't seen anything that speaks to this.

I have a novice's understanding of calibre and eager to learn and implement its tools and tweaks(?) to et the most out of it. I love it, actually, but have only skimmed the surface of what I think it's capable of doing.

I have a growing collection of woodworking mags in PDF format and am doing okay with inputting my own metadata since there really is not source for downloading. And that's okay.

Questions:
1. What do you suggest as a method/means for finding(?) an article on a particular topic across the library of magazines?
Let's say I want to see the magazines which might have an article on how to build an "arts & craft style table" - what could I do to find mgz with those references?

2. Also, if I'm reading an article that I'd like to "star(?)" sorta as a favorite for future review, how to best keep that marked to find later?. Perhaps it's about a piece of furniture I might like to build at a later date.

It seems tagging is okay for this, but more for the overall mgz collection. And, I would have to have all possible topics tagged beforehand. I've seen the idea of creating a table of contents in the Comments section; not sure if that is most optimal way for doing this.

Thoughts?

Thank you,
Delain

[Sabardeyn]

For what you're trying to do, the only thing I can think of is to explode the magazine into separate articles.

Our sample mag is: Woodworking Today, Jul 2014 issue with it's 5 articles: Shed, Table, Desk, Bookshelf, Tobogan.

Entered into calibre as a standard book, The title and issue would be entered as the title (most likely) with various tags/keywords based on the included articles being entered for the magazine as a whole. You might include a ToC in the Description field to help with searches. Author would be blank or ambiguous ("Varies") due to multiple authors and no good way to cite them. I'm sure the above is exactly why you questioned this matter.

But if you explode the magazine you get finer and more accurate detail - at the expense of a lot more data entry. You would enter each article as if it was a separate book:

Title         Author            Series                         Tags                    Published       #Magazine
Desk          Danny Dobson      --                             Desk, Oak               Jul 2014        Woodworking Today
Table         Thomas Terney     Arts & Crafts Style Desk [1]   Arts & Crafts, Table    Jul 2014        Woodworking Today

Just give some consideration to the types of things you would need to know about an article in order to be able to re-locate it later on.

Most of these things may end up being tags, but a few might lead to distinct custom columns. For instance the wood used generally isn't a critical aspect of an article, so that can be a tag. That single mahogany and burlwood desk project will jump out at you when you enter those two wood types as tags. Alternately, you might find a lot of Seasonal or Occasion items like the Tobogan article, or a Crib. Creating a custom column #Occasion might allow you to group things in a more logical fashion. (But a seasonal or occasion tag would work just fine here, as well.)

As for your second concern, marking a book for later reading, you could use Rating to indicate your level of interest in the article (0=none, 5=Make this now). Or you could come up with various custom usage columns: Build it? Y/N; Thoughts? <comments field>; etc.

But the Reading List plugin might be a better option. (Note that I haven't used that plugin so I might not understand it's intended purpose.)

[delaing]

Thanks for your quick reply and good thoughts.

Wow! I cannot see exploding the mags since I already have close to 600 and that is soon to balloon to 1000 thereabouts.
Related to that suggestion, I've thought about doing a print-to-pdf of a specific article, from within the mgz, of something I'd like to refer to later and tag, label, ?? it for recall later. Still wrestling with how to 'manage' those separate articles.

I like the idea of perhaps a custom column for certain things like you suggested, build this Y/N type.

This is frustrating to a degree because you want to organize your collection in the most usable way with a program (calibre) that you don't fully understand all of its functionality(s). Even reading others history of use, they've been using for a year or so and are reworking their entire scheme because - now - they know the better approach after learning about an option or tweak, etc. they didn't know twelve months ago.

Keep the ideas coming. I didn't see much in other posts regarding this, so may help others looking in.

Delain

[BookJunkieLI]

If you're leery of @Sabardeyn's suggestion of setting up each article as it's own ebook, and with 600+ magazines already I can understand why, then you're next best option is probably tagging. You could go one of two routes.

1. Put each article title as it's own tag. ie How To Make An Arts & Crafts Style Table would be a tag all on it's own. You'll end up with a lot of long tags but you'll be able to find the exact article you're looking for.

2. This, I think, would take a bit of work and thought but might be the better way to go. Take a look at the article titles in your magazines and then classify them. ie How To, Artist/Woodworker Profile, Tool Review, etcetera. You can then set up each classification as either it's own tag or use it in conjunction with what the article is about. ie How To: Arts & Crafts Table; Tool Review: XYZ Machine; How To: Refinishing, etcetera. Or a combination of the two - How To; Arts & Crafts Table; How To: Arts & Crafts Table would all be tags.

No system will be perfect right out of the gate. You need to decide how detailed you want to get; how much time you want to spend; and be willing to adjust as you go. I suggest picking 2 to 5 magazines, use a pen and pad to make a list of the articles that are in them and then play with tagging scheme ideas. A little pre-planning can go a long way.

[BetterRed]

@delaing - PDF's can be indexed and then quickly searched by things like Windows Search, OS/X Spotlight and Linux Recoll. There's a calibre plug-in that integrates Recoll into the Linux version of calibre.

For Windows Search I create a CSV of Windows Search Results, a friend does the same for OS/X Spotlight. We both read the CSV with the Import List plug-in, and get it to create a Reading List (another plug-in)

Example - I wanted to find what I had in my library for 'Coco Bonds' or "Contingent Convertible'. To my surprise I found I had articles and papers going back as far as the early 90's with references back to the '70s. This enabled me to create and add a new tag for 'Coco Bond' to about 60 existing 'books'. Coco Bonds were one of the sleeping dogs let off the leash to play a role in the Financial Crash of 2007/8.

BR

[delaing]

BetterRed - Thanks for your suggestion.
Amazing! I just discovered yesterday through a non-MRead forum that you can search within PDFs using Windows Search. Took me a while to get it set up as I had to investigate why it wasn't working, then to find out how to download the only free Ifilter that I could find (Adobe). Works well on files in a Library or located on the C:drive. Can't seem to get it to work for files on a USB drive/stick. (Will worry with that later.)

What works better than that, for me, for searching within the magazine PDF files is also something I didn't know about till yesterday. And, with a program I've been using for a while now.

PDF-Xchange Viewer has this capability built-in to its Advanced Search and it will show the actual page reference where it finds the search string. Click on the result reference and it shows that page within the magazine with the string highlighted in the viewing window.

So, that seems to be the way to go for content searching.
I still am wanting to develop a workflow for managing the "found" articles or items. Been looking at Zotero, just a bit, because of another recommendation, but isn't coming across as user-attractive as calibre.

Did a google on windows search and csv files; appears I would need an addon utility to create a CSV of the search results. Correct?

So, I would save the csv list with a name representing the query criteria and then save that as a Reading List to use in the RL plugin?
I have zero time with the RL plugin; just installed it.

I don't use Linux, so Recoll won't be an option.

Thank you,
Delain

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by delaing

BetterRed - Thanks for your suggestion.
Amazing! I just discovered yesterday through a non-MRead forum that you can search within PDFs using Windows Search. Took me a while to get it set up as I had to investigate why it wasn't working, then to find out how to download the only free Ifilter that I could find (Adobe). Works well on files in a Library or located on the C:drive. Can't seem to get it to work for files on a USB drive/stick. (Will worry with that later.)

@delaing - IIRC, Control Panel->Indexing Options will only see drives that were attached at boot time, ie if you plug-in/turn-on a USB drive after Windows has started it wont show up in the Indexing Options locations list.

For reasons I've forgotten I use the PDF-Xchange iFilter in preference to the Adobe one.

Tip re searching - don't search for things other than programs in the Start Menu Search Box. Navigate to the relevant location in Windows Explorer, eg a calibre library and use the search box top right corner.

Originally Posted by delaing

What works better than that, for me, for searching within the magazine PDF files is also something I didn't know about till yesterday. And, with a program I've been using for a while now.

PDF-Xchange Viewer has this capability built-in to its Advanced Search and it will show the actual page reference where it finds the search string. Click on the result reference and it shows that page within the magazine with the string highlighted in the viewing window.

Yes that's a good feature of Xchange_viewer - use with tabbed interface to search in multiple books. I use calibre search to identify books (by tag, author etc), then I open each one in xChange and use its search to find relevant passages. eg Search calibre for author Krugman or Stiglitz then open each PDF and search for 'underwater' etc.

Originally Posted by delaing

I still am wanting to develop a workflow for managing the "found" articles or items. Been looking at Zotero, just a bit, because of another recommendation, but isn't coming across as user-attractive as calibre.

IMO Zotero, Mendeley, Citavi etc are primarily targeted at academia and the like.

Originally Posted by delaing

Did a google on windows search and csv files; appears I would need an addon utility to create a CSV of the search results. Correct?

Not really, and I don't know that such a thing exists, you'd probably need something that converted a .search-ms to a .csv - but see below for what I do.

Originally Posted by delaing

So, I would save the csv list with a name representing the query criteria and then save that as a Reading List to use in the RL plugin?
I have zero time with the RL plugin; just installed it.

No, not quite

I have a swiss army knife called FileMenuTools (FMT), amongst other things it can copy a list of file names from a windows explorer window to the clipboard (it can also copy full paths in various forms, but we only need the file names here).

I select the results list (ctrl/a), from context menu I select FMT->Copy Name...->Copy Name then:-

• paste the list into an empty text file (I use Notepad++).
• replace all the ' - ' with ', ' (strictly speaking not necessary, by default the Import List looks for ', ' but you could have it look for a '-'.
• delete the extensions (.pdf, .txt, etc)
• save the file as results.csv

I read results.csv into the Import List PI (make sure to set it up for title followed by author). One of its 'output' options is to create a Reading List (using the corresponding PI) in the calibre library. From there I might tag the books or use it as the basis for putting things onto my tablet etc.

But Import List's integration with the Reading List PI optional - it has various other options, such as adding a tag to the books. So if you did a search for 'Rocking Chair' you could use Import List to add that as tag to those books.

Also don't forget that Windows can save search results.

You could use the secret (shift right click) Windows Explorer Copy as Path feature rather something like FMT to copy the search results list to the clipboard - but you'll then have to remove the front of the path in creating the csv. I use FMT for lots of other things.

BR

[delaing]

BetterRed

For reasons I've forgotten I use the PDF-Xchange iFilter in preference to the Adobe one.

Prior to installing the Adobe Ifilter, I tried to find the Xchange version, but it appears to no longer be free. If you know something that I don't, please share.

Yes that's a good feature of Xchange_viewer - use with tabbed interface to search in multiple books. I use calibre search to identify books (by tag, author etc), then I open each one in xChange and use its search to find relevant passages. eg Search calibre for author Krugman or Stiglitz then open each PDF and search for 'underwater' etc.

I went back and re-read my note that you responded to and realize I did not emphasize what I was so enamored with in Xchange's search feature. My description sounds like a simple search within a single book or magazine.

Actually, what I meant to describe is how Xchange has the ability to search within ALL magazines within a target folder (without opening any files first) and show you the results in its search pane of where each instance of the target string is found with the page reference of each location.
Even before the search has run through all of the files within the folder, you can click on a found result and Xchange will open the magazine and jump you to that page and the string will be highlighted.
(see attachment as an example of how it shows multiple 'found' locations and the highlighted string in the mgz I clicked in the list)
No need to do what it sounds like you described, if I understand you correctly.

One negative is that it isn't indexing anything; searches each page of each mgz each time you want to search for a new string. And, you cannot select a smaller set of mgz within a folder to save time on the search. It searches the entire folder.

To your how-to on using FileMenuTools (FMT), I'll need more time to see how to do this and work it with the Reading List PI.
Thank you for the suggestion and will get back with you about that.

Thank you very much,
Delain

[BetterRed]

@delaing - Re the PDF XChange IFilter, according to this PDF-XChange Shell Extensions and iFilter, it is an option in the viewer install that you must specifically select. I have no memory or record of buying it.

Also a lot of my library isn't in PDF, most is in docx, and/or epub. So the example I gave was hypothetical, in support of your comments re searching in xChange, what I'd probably do is, windows search the library for 'underwater', cull author not Krugman or Stiglitz, and put those articles into a Reading List.

Re going from Windows Search to Calibre my steps are

In windows explorer

do the windows search - eg 'underwater'
use FMT to copy the file names into the clipboard
paste the clipboard into Notepad++ and save as 'underwater.csv'

In calibre,

import the 'underwater.csv' into the Import List plug-in
do whatever needs doing so that Import List matches the books (usually nothing needs doing)
create the 'underwater' Reading List
open the 'underwater' Reading List

FMT and Notepad++ just make things a bit easier - you could use Shift/Right click Copy as Path and Notepad. The Import List PI is the key item, the Reading List PI provides a convenient means to store the list without polluting the metadata - e.g. by adding a 'Stig & Krug Underwater' tag

That sounds complicated but its the sort of thing I've been doing for years so I guess its 'second nature'. And as I hinted - sometimes I just save the Windows Search Results.

Which makes me ask - why not add the .search-ms to my library as a book?

Voila it works! Save the search results to desktop, drop that file into book list. That gives me a 'playlist' in calibre, for my purposes that is ideal. What I normally want to do is 'read the books' not manage/categorise/etc. If warranted I can create a Reading list later... as outlined above... from the .search-ms list.

@delaing Thanks for the inspiration

BR

[delaing]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Voila it works! Save the search results to desktop, drop that file into book list. That gives me a 'playlist' in calibre, for my purposes that is ideal. What I normally want to do is 'read the books' not manage/categorise/etc. If warranted I can create a Reading list later... as outlined above... from the .search-ms list.

To your note on dropping the search file into the book list:
Not quite understanding, but I might. So, you double-click to open this search "book" and it simply opens a Windows Search window showing the results of the search you ran earlier. Then, you can open the docs/pdfs as you wish from explorer, but not from within calibre, correct.

At least, that's what happened when I tried to follow suit.

Thank you,
Delain

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by delaing

To your note on dropping the search file into the book list:
Not quite understanding, but I might. So, you double-click to open this search "book" and it simply opens a Windows Search window showing the results of the search you ran earlier. Then, you can open the docs/pdfs as you wish from explorer, but not from within calibre, correct.

At least, that's what happened when I tried to follow suit.

Thank you,
Delain

@delaing Yes that's it.

Now, I only use my FMT->Notepad++>Import List->Add Tag/Reading List process (WDS Integration) if I want to do something to the metadata.

Example: if I did a search on my library for "Contingent Convertible" for the purposes of adding a 'Coco Bonds' tag then I would use that process.

But if I just want to read what Stiglizt and Krugman have had to say about 'underwater loans' then the search results list is adequate. Dropping it into the book list is merely a convenient means to ensure I won't lose it - once I've finished reading I delete it. I choose not to rely on Windows MRU lists because I frequently and indiscriminately purge most of them.

Also having the actual search results conveniently at hand facilitates using it in my WDS Integration process, should I identify a need to do so.

My guess is that I will only put ~30% of the search result lists I create through my WDS Integration process, the rest will get 'saved' into the library where I did the search.

NB A saved Windows search (like a saved calibre search) is not the actual list, but the search criteria. So if I add a Siglitz op-ed in which he mentions 'underwater loans' it will show up in the Underwater Loans Search 'book'. The difference is that the Windows search operates on the metadata and the text whereas a calibre search only operates on the metadata.

BR