Editing Kindle Metadata

mdibella · 12-17-2007, 11:36 AM

Is there any way to edit the metadata for files on the Kindle? I used mobipocket reader and set all the titles/authors (I thought) but when moved to Kindle, that metadata is not set.

Also I found out that using mobipocket reader to move books to Kindle doea not work right. it moves them to the ebook folder on the Kindle, but in order for the Kindle to see them, they must reside in the documents folder. sigh

bwit · 12-17-2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdibella

Is there any way to edit the metadata for files on the Kindle? I used mobipocket reader and set all the titles/authors (I thought) but when moved to Kindle, that metadata is not set.

I set the metadata in Mobipocket Creator and then just copy the .prc files to the Kindle documents folder via USB and the title author info works fine. I don't use Mobipocket Reader to update the Kindle.

Bob

mdibella · 12-17-2007, 03:13 PM

So you use mobipocket creator and not mobipocket reader to convert the books? I used the Reader import function.

Will try the other way and see if it helps, be a pita to reconvert everything but I hate having the titles and authors all screwedm up.

Just4Fun · 12-17-2007, 10:13 PM

The problem that I have with Mobicreator is that the files have to be converted from a format other than prc in order to set the metadata. So, if you have a prc file, you can't load it into the creator and change the metadata. At least, I can't get that to work.

You're sure right about the messy directory file system on the Kindle. It drives me crazy.

I hope that they will address some of that in future software updates.

tklaus · 12-19-2007, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdibella

Also I found out that using mobipocket reader to move books to Kindle doea not work right. it moves them to the ebook folder on the Kindle, but in order for the Kindle to see them, they must reside in the documents folder. sigh

Note that the Kindle will detect books in the 'documents' folder, AND any folders under 'documents', so you can create any directory structure you want (including nested sub-folders). Kindle will still display them as a flat list, but I find it convenient to organize my directory structure so that when I am transferring via USB, I know what's what.

ctitanic · 12-21-2007, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tklaus

Note that the Kindle will detect books in the 'documents' folder, AND any folders under 'documents', so you can create any directory structure you want (including nested sub-folders). Kindle will still display them as a flat list, but I find it convenient to organize my directory structure so that when I am transferring via USB, I know what's what.

And in the SD Card, do you have to create a Documents folder too?

bwit · 12-21-2007, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctitanic

And in the SD Card, do you have to create a Documents folder too?

When I inserted a SD card in mine the Kindle detected the card and created the directories. If you were setting up a card to send content to someone with a Kindle I imagine you'd have to create the directories yourself.

Bob

Jiiri · 12-24-2007, 09:33 AM

Hi all, first post here. I just purchased a Kindle, and am loving it. I've been playing with a lot of things, trying to get a feel for what I can do, and I'm having some issues with the metadata as well. As Just4Fun mentioned, the Kindle's handling of the metadata for its book browser just sucks. When I grab books from different places, such as PG or Feedbooks (or...where is that other place.....oh yeah, here) it shows up on my Kindle as, say, MILL_UTILITARIANISM for one, and maybe just the book title, "A Tale of Two Cities" for another, and so on. This is becoming increasingly more annoying as I add more and more books to my Kindle. I'd like to open them and make them uniform, in the format "Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities," etc. Would BD be the where I need to go? I cannot open an already created PRC in Mobi Creator, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

HarryT · 12-24-2007, 11:28 AM

I am gradually reposting all my Dickens books in "proper" Mobi format with full-sized images, metadata, etc. If you have my old ones, redownload them - they'll look a lot better AND should should up with full metadata in the Kindle's library.

Jiiri · 12-24-2007, 01:03 PM

Thanks, HarryT, I'll check that out. But the problem is something I would like to learn to fix on my own, since some books are from PG or other places, and I want to be able to find them on the Kindle easily.

Also...on the Kindle, there is a place for Title, and, on the books from the Kindle store, the author is on the right. If you don't have a Kindle, I can take a picture or something to show you. What I would be extremely interested in doing is making all of the public domain material match the Amazon material. Any ideas where that comes from, or which program I would use for that?

Again thanks...do you have a link to a book that you have updated so I could check it out? Thanks!

Jiiri

HarryT · 12-24-2007, 01:08 PM

Jiiri,

Take a look at the tutorial I've posted on creating MobiPocket books here.

For a book with "proper" metadata (and nice pictures) try this version of Bleak House.

Do you not read the "MobiPocket Book Uploads" forum area? That's the place to go for info about creating Mobi-format books.

Jiiri · 12-24-2007, 01:20 PM

I checked out your new versions, and that is PERFECT. Could I trouble you to teach me how you do that? I've spent the last 3 days playing around with Book Designer and Mobi Creator trying to figure it out, and have not been able to accomplish that. You are a wizard.

EDIT:

You posted the answers to my questions before I asked them. As I said, I'm brand new to this and it's a decent learning curve, so my apologies for being in the wrong place. I'll head over there immediately. I'll check out that tutorial ASAP.

tompe · 12-24-2007, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jiiri

Thanks, HarryT, I'll check that out. But the problem is something I would like to learn to fix on my own, since some books are from PG or other places, and I want to be able to find them on the Kindle easily.

My tool mobi2mobi written in Perl (should work for Mac, Windows and Linux and a Windows binary is available) described here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17718

should work for the Kindle also. It can add or change author, cover image and long title for books.

It would be very good if somebody tested it for the Kindle and gave some feedback if it works or not. I do not have any awz files to test it with.

HarryT · 12-25-2007, 02:52 AM

Should work just fine, Tommy. Kindle files are just v4 Mobi files.

tsgreer · 12-26-2007, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tompe

My tool mobi2mobi written in Perl (should work for Mac, Windows and Linux and a Windows binary is available) described here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17718

should work for the Kindle also. It can add or change author, cover image and long title for books.

It would be very good if somebody tested it for the Kindle and gave some feedback if it works or not. I do not have any awz files to test it with.

Um, I have no idea how to use Perl on my mac. I'm not even close to wanting to learn any sort of programming thingy--regardless of how "easy" it is. I am more of a "double-click to unstuff, drag to applications folder, start application" sort of guy.

The whole drama of downloading several apps and trying to get them to talk to each other is too much of a reminder of my PC days. But it does sound like a cool app and it's nice to see some mac .prc creator stuff out there.

But I can't use until it's a simple application file...

12-17-2007, 11:36 AM	#1
mdibella Groupie Posts: 193 Karma: 1107 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Infinite Kindles, Occasional Sony's	Editing Kindle Metadata Is there any way to edit the metadata for files on the Kindle? I used mobipocket reader and set all the titles/authors (I thought) but when moved to Kindle, that metadata is not set. Also I found out that using mobipocket reader to move books to Kindle doea not work right. it moves them to the ebook folder on the Kindle, but in order for the Kindle to see them, they must reside in the documents folder. sigh

12-24-2007, 09:33 AM	#8
Jiiri Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 78 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle	Metadata problem Hi all, first post here. I just purchased a Kindle, and am loving it. I've been playing with a lot of things, trying to get a feel for what I can do, and I'm having some issues with the metadata as well. As Just4Fun mentioned, the Kindle's handling of the metadata for its book browser just sucks. When I grab books from different places, such as PG or Feedbooks (or...where is that other place.....oh yeah, here) it shows up on my Kindle as, say, MILL_UTILITARIANISM for one, and maybe just the book title, "A Tale of Two Cities" for another, and so on. This is becoming increasingly more annoying as I add more and more books to my Kindle. I'd like to open them and make them uniform, in the format "Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities," etc. Would BD be the where I need to go? I cannot open an already created PRC in Mobi Creator, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

12-24-2007, 01:20 PM	#12
Jiiri Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 78 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle	I checked out your new versions, and that is PERFECT. Could I trouble you to teach me how you do that? I've spent the last 3 days playing around with Book Designer and Mobi Creator trying to figure it out, and have not been able to accomplish that. You are a wizard. EDIT: You posted the answers to my questions before I asked them. As I said, I'm brand new to this and it's a decent learning curve, so my apologies for being in the wrong place. I'll head over there immediately. I'll check out that tutorial ASAP. Last edited by Jiiri; 12-24-2007 at 01:23 PM.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Editing metadata on my Kindle	CCLady	Calibre	4	09-22-2010 09:51 PM
Editing Metadata for Kindle ... ???	ToeRag	Calibre	11	02-05-2010 10:00 AM
Editing metadata	dande	Calibre	2	07-02-2009 08:17 AM
Editing Kindle (.prc) metadata on a Mac	GJN	Kindle Developer's Corner	15	03-10-2009 01:22 PM
Editing LRF metadata?	curtw	Sony Reader	11	02-01-2008 12:43 AM

12-17-2007, 03:13 PM	#3
mdibella Groupie Posts: 193 Karma: 1107 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Infinite Kindles, Occasional Sony's	So you use mobipocket creator and not mobipocket reader to convert the books? I used the Reader import function. Will try the other way and see if it helps, be a pita to reconvert everything but I hate having the titles and authors all screwedm up.

12-17-2007, 10:13 PM	#4
Just4Fun Enthusiast Posts: 40 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Amazon Kindle/iphone/ipad/Pocket Entourage/MacBook/Windows	The problem that I have with Mobicreator is that the files have to be converted from a format other than prc in order to set the metadata. So, if you have a prc file, you can't load it into the creator and change the metadata. At least, I can't get that to work. You're sure right about the messy directory file system on the Kindle. It drives me crazy. I hope that they will address some of that in future software updates.

12-24-2007, 11:28 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I am gradually reposting all my Dickens books in "proper" Mobi format with full-sized images, metadata, etc. If you have my old ones, redownload them - they'll look a lot better AND should should up with full metadata in the Kindle's library.

12-24-2007, 01:03 PM	#10
Jiiri Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 78 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle	Thanks, HarryT, I'll check that out. But the problem is something I would like to learn to fix on my own, since some books are from PG or other places, and I want to be able to find them on the Kindle easily. Also...on the Kindle, there is a place for Title, and, on the books from the Kindle store, the author is on the right. If you don't have a Kindle, I can take a picture or something to show you. What I would be extremely interested in doing is making all of the public domain material match the Amazon material. Any ideas where that comes from, or which program I would use for that? Again thanks...do you have a link to a book that you have updated so I could check it out? Thanks! Jiiri

12-24-2007, 01:08 PM	#11
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Jiiri, Take a look at the tutorial I've posted on creating MobiPocket books here. For a book with "proper" metadata (and nice pictures) try this version of Bleak House. Do you not read the "MobiPocket Book Uploads" forum area? That's the place to go for info about creating Mobi-format books.

12-25-2007, 02:52 AM	#14
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Should work just fine, Tommy. Kindle files are just v4 Mobi files.

Advert

Advert