Opus Sorting help needed

[irmar]

I have bought my Cybook Opus recently, and it's my first ereader.So, although I'm experienced in computers, I'm a novice regarding ereaders.
In the past few days, I've got myself a huge collection of ebooks, especially oldies. The ones I'm downloading right now are epub, and the - many - I had collected before were .pdf, so I'm converting them little by little with Calibre. I don't use Calibre for anything else than converting (which it does beautifully, most of the time), because I want to do my own sorting.
I deleted the library system that came with the Opus and made it to my specification. I deleted all the .pdfs, changed the folder names etc... For instance, why ebooks folder and then Digital Editions folder? They are all ebooks, right? So only one folder, called BOOKS, and then inside divided by language, then classical and contemporary, non-literary etc...

Now I have this dilemma on how to name the books for better sorting.

Fact is, I noticed that the existing epubs that came with the device were inconsistently named. The English ones had the title then the author, the other languages I speak and read (Italian, Greek, French, Spanish) all had different orders. I don't remember right now, but one was Author Surname- Name - Book Title; another Author name-Surname-birth and death dates-Book Title.
So I don't know which one to use myself now that I'm reordering my library on the PC before copying it on the Opus. Could it be that it doesn't matter?

I like my books to be by author. The logical thing would be Surname - Name - Title (for instance: Austen, Jane - Emma) It looks awkward, but lets you find them more easily. But most of the one you download from gutenberg and others are title-author. This means that all books by the same author will be scattered all over the place!
Working on my PC, I've put each language's literature into alphabetical folders, and inside those I made Author folders, and put the relevant books inside. It took me hours.
Now for the sake of finding them in the computer, things are under control. I can easily find anything I want. But now comes the hard part, for the ones to be copied in the ereader (not all of them, because I tried to and it got veeeery slow).
I have to go to each author's folder and individually rename the book. It means about 800 ebooks to rename. I am a patient person, but still I have better uses for my time, so before doing all of this I need to know, is it needed? Does the Opus read the filename just as it is after I modify it, or does it read some metadata hidden somewhere? And if yes, where is it so I can change that? Do I do it with Calibre?
In music files, it's easy enough to modify metadata: especially with Windows 7, you don't even have to right click, choose Properties and go to Details. It's all on the bottom of the Windows Explorer page (I love Win 7!). But for ebooks, Properties doesn't show anything more than the filename.

So before I waste hours and hours of time doing a tedious job, please somebody tell me how it works.

[EowynCarter]

The opus, if meta-data are present, will use them. If not, it will use the file name.

If your file are without DRM, you can :
- open the ePub with a zip program, and edit manually
- use calibe to edit metadata
- use sigil to edit metadata

The opus will create a few files, with thumbnail, metadata, position. You will need to delete these to refresh.

[irmar]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

The opus, if meta-data are present, will use them. If not, it will use the file name.

If your file are without DRM, you can :
- open the ePub with a zip program, and edit manually
- use calibe to edit metadata
- use sigil to edit metadata

The opus will create a few files, with thumbnail, metadata, position. You will need to delete these to refresh.

I said, let's try these options one by one. Open the epub with a zip program. OK.
I right clicked, chose "Open with" and then went to Winrar. It opened its window where it showed various things inside the epub. "iTunesMetadata.plist", "mimetype", as well as two folders, OPS and META-INF.
I right-clicked "iTunesMetadata.plist" and it showed me some metadata. I found the artist (it obviously means the author), the title and some other incomprehensible things. I tried to write on that document, but it wasn't possible to change anything.

I selected everything and told Winrar to extract. It made a folder, with all those things inside.
The META-INF folder only had container.xml. I opened that one with Dreamweaver, and it had some lines of code, nothing specific. Not even the name of the book or author.
The OPS folder had another folder inside it, called images, in which there was only one image,
epubbooks-logo.png
Nothing to do with metadata.
So the iTunesMetadata.plist is the only one containing metadata, but it couldn't be opened. I probably need iTunes to open that one? Since I don't have it and don't want to have it (Apple has been pestering me for years to install it even when I have never asked for it!), I tried opening it with Calibre but that didn't work. Hmmm....

So I didn't succeed with the first solution. Maybe I didn't understand the directions, they were aimed at somebody more experienced in this than I am.

Now for the second option. Edit with Calibre.

I opened Calibre and added my book, then clicked on "Edit metadata", choosing "Individually". I saw the author and title. The author was named twice:
Author(s): George Eliot
Author string: Eliot,George.

Now I tried the same thing with an ebook which had the filename all messy:
"Alvin Maker 2 - Red Prophet - Card_ Orson Scott.epub"
I opened it with Calibre, and went to Edit Metadata.
Here I found chaos.
Author: Card, Orson Scott
Author string: Scott, Card, Orson

Now in this case, on the first line they have the name by Surname, Name 1 and 2 (as it should be on the string line) and on the second line, just a complete mess, like if the program didn't know which was the first name, which the middle and which one the last name.

I tried another one:
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens.epub
I found everything in order.
First line Charles Dickens
Second line Dickens, Charles.
So, although it wasn't so in the filename, inside Calibre it was alright.
I tried to change the filename to
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities.epub
and re-added it to Calibre. Again it was ok. No changes whatsoever.

So, a bit laboriously, I got my answer. Actually, what you already told me: If the file is well made, and has its metadata, it doesn't matter if the filename is put in the right order, because the Opus doesn't it find it from there but from the metadata.

All this calls for another question. To know whether the metadata is there (and is correct), should I open one by one with Winrar? Or load each and every one of them in Calibre?
The answer is NO. I mean, even if I should, I am not prepared to do it. I'd rather change all the filenames, just in case!

The opus will create a few files, with thumbnail, metadata, position. You will need to delete these to refresh

Delete these where? When I have the Opus connected to my computer and I can view/modify its folders, right?

Well, my idea was to delete all of the content of the folders and put them back, properly renamed and re-arranged.

Of course, it will take a while to complete the job. Maybe I'll do it gradually. SIGH!
But still I'm thankful that I have an Opus and not a Kindle, and at least I'm able to tamper with things.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by irmar

I said, let's try these options one by one. Open the epub with a zip program. OK.
I right clicked, chose "Open with" and then went to Winrar. It opened its window where it showed various things inside the epub. "iTunesMetadata.plist", "mimetype", as well as two folders, OPS and META-INF.
I right-clicked "iTunesMetadata.plist" and it showed me some metadata. I found the artist (it obviously means the author), the title and some other incomprehensible things. I tried to write on that document, but it wasn't possible to change anything.

I selected everything and told Winrar to extract. It made a folder, with all those things inside.
The META-INF folder only had container.xml. I opened that one with Dreamweaver, and it had some lines of code, nothing specific. Not even the name of the book or author.
The OPS folder had another folder inside it, called images, in which there was only one image,
epubbooks-logo.png
Nothing to do with metadata.
So the iTunesMetadata.plist is the only one containing metadata, but it couldn't be opened. I probably need iTunes to open that one? Since I don't have it and don't want to have it (Apple has been pestering me for years to install it even when I have never asked for it!), I tried opening it with Calibre but that didn't work. Hmmm....

So I didn't succeed with the first solution. Maybe I didn't understand the directions, they were aimed at somebody more experienced in this than I am.

Now for the second option. Edit with Calibre.

I opened Calibre and added my book, then clicked on "Edit metadata", choosing "Individually". I saw the author and title. The author was named twice:
Author(s): George Eliot
Author string: Eliot,George.

Now I tried the same thing with an ebook which had the filename all messy:
"Alvin Maker 2 - Red Prophet - Card_ Orson Scott.epub"
I opened it with Calibre, and went to Edit Metadata.
Here I found chaos.
Author: Card, Orson Scott
Author string: Scott, Card, Orson

Now in this case, on the first line they have the name by Surname, Name 1 and 2 (as it should be on the string line) and on the second line, just a complete mess, like if the program didn't know which was the first name, which the middle and which one the last name.

I tried another one:
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens.epub
I found everything in order.
First line Charles Dickens
Second line Dickens, Charles.
So, although it wasn't so in the filename, inside Calibre it was alright.
I tried to change the filename to
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities.epub
and re-added it to Calibre. Again it was ok. No changes whatsoever.

So, a bit laboriously, I got my answer. Actually, what you already told me: If the file is well made, and has its metadata, it doesn't matter if the filename is put in the right order, because the Opus doesn't it find it from there but from the metadata.

All this calls for another question. To know whether the metadata is there (and is correct), should I open one by one with Winrar? Or load each and every one of them in Calibre?
The answer is NO. I mean, even if I should, I am not prepared to do it. I'd rather change all the filenames, just in case!

The opus will create a few files, with thumbnail, metadata, position. You will need to delete these to refresh

Delete these where? When I have the Opus connected to my computer and I can view/modify its folders, right?

Well, my idea was to delete all of the content of the folders and put them back, properly renamed and re-arranged.

Of course, it will take a while to complete the job. Maybe I'll do it gradually. SIGH!
But still I'm thankful that I have an Opus and not a Kindle, and at least I'm able to tamper with things.

Calibre can read metadata. So it can be a good test.

.plist ?? what the ...
usualy it's a .opf, and prefectly editable.

ah, that's what wikipedia says.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_list
Why can't apple follow the gooddam standards !

I'm not sure if that's supported by calibre, or adobe digital edition. Do calibre, or the opus, seams to read the metadata from the .plist file correctly ?
Look for content.opf, should be there, with the metadata.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I'm not sure if that's supported by calibre, or adobe digital edition. Do calibre, or the opus, seams to read the metadata from the .plist file correctly ?

I don't think so. You can safely delete the .plist file (I believe iTunes will re-create it if it needs it) and concentrate on having the right metadata in the OPF file.

With calibre you can edit the metadata, but you have to "save" or "export" the book afterwards, otherwise the changes are only for the benefit of calibre and not applied to the ebook file (I'm not sure about the exact functions). Or you can use the command-line tool "ebook-meta", which is part of calibre too.