[GUI Plugin] Kindle Collections (old)

[13hitchen]

Hi i have installed the plug-in and after install and restarting Calibre then connecting my kindle 3 there is no icon on my menu bar to click on!!
what noob mistake am I making...... HELP!!

[kiwidude]

@13hitchen - welcome to MobileRead...

Preferences->Toolbar, "The main toolbar when a device is connected", make sure you have "Kindle Collections" added from the left to the right.

Calibre has two toolbars for when a device is and is not connected. As wonderful as calibre is in other aspects, it is a design "feature" that should be given the boot imo, as it trips users up endlessly and just adds unnecessary friction. Sorry Kovid, you know I love your work, but we shall just agree to disagree on this one

[kovidgoyal]

@kiwidude: The solution is to have plugins added to both toolbars by default, unless the plugin specifies it does not want to be added to the device tollbar. Not to do away with separate toolbars.

[13hitchen]

When I click on preferences the main Caliber program freezes and i have to end process tree in the task manager..... grrr. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Calibre to no avail!!

[kiwidude]

@Kovid - well like I said, we shall just have to agree to disagree, as I see that as a workaround, not a solution . Has it already been implemented? As I reckon this question is coming up just as often as it always has?

I confess to just not understanding the use case for separate toolbars. I can't think of a single other application I have that forces me to add items to multiple toolbars, or has any similar concept. I completely understand that there are things that need to appear only when a device is connected, but in my mind there is just no use case for by default appearing to remove completely unrelated functionality when a device is connected? As why would I not want to be performing the same plugin activities (reading lists, metadata related stuff etc) just because I happened to plug my Kindle in? Other applications I use will *add* a toolbar related to current context if needed, they don't turn off the standard default toolbar. It surprises users, not in a good way

And while adding to two toolbars might work as a workaround when first installing a plugin, what happens if a user decides initially to put it on a context menu, and then later decides to put it on a toolbar? Or wants to change order on a toolbar? They have to do everything twice (once they do figure out what is going on). It is just too many clicks and friction.

I know it hits gui plugin authors like me far more than normal calibre support, since users are less likely to add to the toolbar without adding plugins. So maybe my perception of the problem it causes is distorted by that. It is just one of those quirks that no amount of counselling has removed my dislike of, and the 2-3 times a week I answer a post from a user bamboozled by it just reminds me all over again.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by 13hitchen

When I click on preferences the main Caliber program freezes and i have to end process tree in the task manager..... grrr. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Calibre to no avail!!

Are you sure the Preferences window isn't opening "off screen"? Any chance you have had multiple monitors at some point and not at the moment?

[13hitchen]

Doh! i'm such an idiot. Thanks for your help it is much appreciated

[eddyj]

I found a program (http://kindlean.com/) that claims to be able to handle collections, including on the Touch. So there must be a way to do this. I have not tried it myself, but it is free with less than 100 books.

[AndyW1691]

I'm using calibra 0.8.41 with the latest version of Kindle Collections on a Mac. If I select 'Edit Kindle collections manually...' from the Kindle Collections menu header a new screen is created which allows me to put books into collections. However, I can't use the main calibra screen while this screen is open. It means I can't look up a books tags or metadata.

Was this behaviour intentional or is it a bug?

[meme]

Its just the way it works.

[bluejay44]

Order of books within collections.
I downloaded the Calibre Kindle Plugin and thought I would just make one collection using the manual option on kindle to try it out.
However, on my kindle the Sort by Most Recent Option is no longer working, neither in the collection sort nor in the book sort.
For example if I am reading a book and then close it, I then have to search through page after page of books to find it again. With over 80 books in some collections this is not amusing.
I opened the sytems folder and reverted to the original collections.json file and restarted the kindle. But I still cannot sort my books by most recent.
Is there anything else I need to do in order to sort this out? Or (please not) will I have to do a factory reset and redownload and set up collections for over 500 books all over again.

ALL IS FINE NOW, I FOUND A THREAD IN ANOTHER FORUM ABOUT THIS PROBLEM. THANKS.

[kingtermite]

What am I missing?

Your instructions says it requires Calibre 0.8.6 but how is that possible when the current version of Calibre is 0.8.43 (as of March 16, 2012).

**Nevermind**
I was assuming a 2 places behind the decimal (as in 0.8.6 = 0.8.60), but
0.8.6 => 0.8.06.

[kiwidude]

0.8.6 is really 0.8.06 - so you are 37 versions listed behind that of 0.8.43.

[jangell2]

This has probably been covered, but it's a long thread and maybe someone can point me to the answer. I'd like to have a collection for Anne Rice. I've got books in 4 different series for her.

How can I get them properly sorted within the one collection? My current plugboard reads: any format:KINDLE2 = ([{series}{series_index:0>2s|-|-}{title}] -> title)

I thought this would put the series name and number in front of the title, but apparently not.

[kiwidude]

What name are you seeing actually displayed on the Kindle for those books? Have you re-sent the books to your Kindle after changing your metadata plugboard to that expression above?