Identifying 'primary' format

Agama · 03-26-2013, 11:11 AM

Now that I buy Kindle books as well as ePubs and convert between the two formats I have a problem identifying which was the 'primary' format, (original) and which was the conversion. (If I want to tweak and reconvert then I want to work with the primary format.)

Does calibre's library have any way of knowing which the primary/source format was?

Would it be best to separate my Kindle books and ePubs into different libraries or is there any metadata field which I could use which is format specific?

I thought of simply using tags such as P:ePub and P:Kind as the indicator but this seems a bit messy and would create an unecessary collection on my Sony reader.

theducks · 03-26-2013, 11:24 AM

I use a custom column (Mstr Format: #master) with a Fixed list of values.

Code:

Multi,RAR(Html),EPUB,HTML(zip),RTF,KF8,Mobi,ODT,PDB,LRF,PRC,DOC,PDF,RAR,Other,BAD,TXT,LIT

The order is funky as I usually type the first letter. (Multi means I downloaded more than 1 format from the publisher. Archives list the content format. YMMV

Unfortunately, setting this is a Manual operation

Agama · 03-26-2013, 11:27 AM

Thanks that looks just the job, though my list will be a lot shorter. I don't have any custom columns yet and have seen posts that suggest they slow down calibre. Is this likely to be significant on a library of < 200 books?

theducks · 03-26-2013, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agama

Thanks that looks just the job, though my list will be a lot shorter. I don't have any custom columns yet and have seen posts that suggest they slow down calibre. Is this likely to be significant on a library of < 200 books?

How would I know

I added 500 books (All in PRC formats from the Baen CD's) the first day I got Calibre in 2009. The number of books just keeps going UP

Agama · 03-26-2013, 11:34 AM

Fair enough! I'll give it a go and see what happens. Is it possible to delete a custom column or should I just back up my library first?

theducks · 03-26-2013, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agama

Fair enough! I'll give it a go and see what happens. Is it possible to delete a custom column or should I just back up my library first?

It is easy to delete.

Anytime you plan on a major structure change, you should have a backup.

Note: adding a custom column will update all the (backup) Metadata.opf files in the folders

03-26-2013, 11:11 AM	#1
Agama Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 2751519 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Device: PW2, Nexus7	Identifying 'primary' format Now that I buy Kindle books as well as ePubs and convert between the two formats I have a problem identifying which was the 'primary' format, (original) and which was the conversion. (If I want to tweak and reconvert then I want to work with the primary format.) Does calibre's library have any way of knowing which the primary/source format was? Would it be best to separate my Kindle books and ePubs into different libraries or is there any metadata field which I could use which is format specific? I thought of simply using tags such as P:ePub and P:Kind as the indicator but this seems a bit messy and would create an unecessary collection on my Sony reader. Last edited by Agama; 03-26-2013 at 11:32 AM.

03-26-2013, 11:24 AM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,803 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I use a custom column (Mstr Format: #master) with a Fixed list of values. Code: Multi,RAR(Html),EPUB,HTML(zip),RTF,KF8,Mobi,ODT,PDB,LRF,PRC,DOC,PDF,RAR,Other,BAD,TXT,LIT The order is funky as I usually type the first letter. (Multi means I downloaded more than 1 format from the publisher. Archives list the content format. YMMV Unfortunately, setting this is a Manual operation

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03-26-2013, 11:27 AM	#3
Agama Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 2751519 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Device: PW2, Nexus7	Thanks that looks just the job, though my list will be a lot shorter. I don't have any custom columns yet and have seen posts that suggest they slow down calibre. Is this likely to be significant on a library of < 200 books?

03-26-2013, 11:34 AM	#5
Agama Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 2751519 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Device: PW2, Nexus7	Fair enough! I'll give it a go and see what happens. Is it possible to delete a custom column or should I just back up my library first?

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