Sort authors by last name

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Does anyone know why the author_sort field is not included in the list available to be displayed in the Calibre library view?

For the same reason that the title sort field isn't displayed -- it is redundant. Both fields control display order, and have no additional information.

[kgn]

Originally Posted by chaley

For the same reason that the title sort field isn't displayed -- it is redundant. Both fields control display order, and have no additional information.

I don't wish to be picky, but this does not seem to be correct at all (in my humble opinion). The Author Title can be totally different to Author Sort fields. This happens quite a bit, and can be hard to find.

For example, I could have an author "Fred Bloggs". The Author Sort field could be "Mary Smith". Don't think this cannot happen - it happens all to frequently! Often the Author Sort field can be downloaded metatags - even worse to find! Unless you are watching carefully, this book 'disappears'. If you are importing many books at one time, you often don't notice that one book has gone. In my case, with about 2,000 books on the device, I probably will not find it again - why would I look for a book by 'Mary Smith", I will be looking for "Bloggs, Fred", and not find it.

In practice, what happens is I copy a whole bunch of books to the device - and eventually I notice some weird folders - or I notice that a book in a series is missing. It always comes down to the Author Sort field being incorrect.

This is the actual problem - what is displayed in the Author column has no bearing on what Calibre does with the book, nor indeed how it sorts it. That is the issue - there is no link between what you are looking at, and the data the program is using, except in theory.

What I really would like to see is BOTH columns displayed. Then I could simply scroll down and see which fields do not match.

Just my 2 cents worth

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kgn

What I really would like to see is BOTH columns displayed. Then I could simply scroll down and see which fields do not match.

Use the manage authors dialog from the tag browser. It shows you both fields and permits changing either of them.

[jackie_w]

Thank you for the quick reply, Charles.

I'm not sure that I agree that author_sort would provide no additional information.

I think some users would prefer to see author_sort instead of author.

As it happens I am not one of them but there have been times when I have imported a new book and not noticed that although author was imported correctly, author_sort was not. These have come to light later when I have created a Calibre catalog which has flagged errors. I have then corrected them and all is well. If I'd had the ability to view author_sort at-a-glance, I may have noticed them sooner. I know you can see this info in Edit Metadata but if you don't know there's a problem you wouldn't go looking.

[kgn]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Thank you for the quick reply, Charles.
As it happens I am not one of them but there have been times when I have imported a new book and not noticed that although author was imported correctly, author_sort was not. These have come to light later when I have created a Calibre catalog which has flagged errors. I have then corrected them and all is well. If I'd had the ability to view author_sort at-a-glance, I may have noticed them sooner. I know you can see this info in Edit Metadata but if you don't know there's a problem you wouldn't go looking.

This is exactly my point. This has happened to me many times.

[chaley]

@kgn and @jackie_w: this is the kind of change that will be made only if someone is passionate enough about it both to do the work and to convince Kovid that it is worthwhile. If that person isn't one of you, then perhaps someone else will feel strongly enough about it to sign up.

[kgn]

Originally Posted by chaley

@kgn and @jackie_w: this is the kind of change that will be made only if someone is passionate enough about it both to do the work and to convince Kovid that it is worthwhile. If that person isn't one of you, then perhaps someone else will feel strongly enough about it to sign up.

fair enough