PRS-650 [calibre] How do I set it up so I can sort by author - Series - Title??

[booklover6]

Yes I do have a 16 GB card in. I will check the links you mentioned.

[Zorglab]

Another thank for Jackie_w, and one question :
I have a Sony PRS-T1 and would like to know if it is possible to set it in order to have the same type of books sort as shown at the ned of your post in the attached thumnails (prs505 and prs650). If yes how.
Thank again
Zorglab

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Zorglab

Another thank for Jackie_w, and one question :
I have a Sony PRS-T1 and would like to know if it is possible to set it in order to have the same type of books sort as shown at the ned of your post in the attached thumnails (prs505 and prs650). If yes how.
Thank again
Zorglab

Hi Zorglab, Welcome to MobileRead.

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you saying that you followed the instructions, but your PRST1 does not look similar to the thumbnails (a PRST1 would be more like the PRS650 pic than the PRS505 pic)? If so, can you be more specific about what you are seeing instead?

[Zorglab]

No, I was thinking about how to have the "letter" column on the rigth (I don't know how to call it : excuse me for my poor english).

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Zorglab

No, I was thinking about how to have the "letter" column on the rigth (I don't know how to call it : excuse me for my poor english).

Ahh, no, I'm afraid the letter-index down the right was a feature of the earlier Sony models PRS350/650 (and 950 ???).

On the PRST1 the best you can do to quickly scan through all your books is to open the book list using the 'Books' button from the Home screen. Then tap on the page numbers at the bottom of the screen. This will pop up a slider bar which cycles through the book info of the first book on each page. So if your books are displayed 'sort by author' then you will cycle through author names, which, if you followed the long post actually shows
author (lastname, firstname) - series index_number

[Zorglab]

OK, too bad Sony keep this feature in T1. Thank you again for your help.

[Montezuma]

Great explanation jackie_w, Thank you.

[sharky]

Thanks a lot for this excellent "tutorial"!

I tried to extend this a bit to my personal needs and have a question. What I want to do is generate collections for author-language combinations (i.e., one collection for all author books within one language).

I added a custom column with template "{authors} ({language})" and look-up name author_lang. Then, in Prefs - Plugins - Device Interface - SONY PRST1 - Customize I set #author_lang in the "comma separated list of .." field.

This seems to work quite well, except that the collection field when copying a book to the e-reader is now filled with: author (language) (author_lang), i.s.o. only author (language).

Any ideas how I can get rid of the trailing (author_lang)?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by sharky

Thanks a lot for this excellent "tutorial"!

I tried to extend this a bit to my personal needs and have a question. What I want to do is generate collections for author-language combinations (i.e., one collection for all author books within one language).

I added a custom column with template "{authors} ({language})" and look-up name author_lang. Then, in Prefs - Plugins - Device Interface - SONY PRST1 - Customize I set #author_lang in the "comma separated list of .." field.

This seems to work quite well, except that the collection field when copying a book to the e-reader is now filled with: author (language) (author_lang), i.s.o. only author (language).

Any ideas how I can get rid of the trailing (author_lang)?

Yes... I believe it's default behaviour to have the name of a custom column in brackets when creating the Collection name. I don't think the same is true for a calibre standard column (e.g. tags or authors).

You need to visit Prefs - Tweaks and from the Tweaks list down the left-hand side find the one called Specify renaming rules for SONY collections. Then read the Help notes in the top panel (it's v-e-r-y l-o-n-g and detailed). I believe it exists for those who want to combine several categories into one Collection, or who want to create several different Collections and know which is which.

This is not a Tweak I use myself, but I think you may get what you want if you change the default

sony_collection_name_template = '{value}{category:| (|)}'

to

sony_collection_name_template = '{value}'

but you'll need to 'read and inwardly digest' in case I've got it wrong

[sharky]

Exactly as you expected! Thanks for showing, strange that I could not find this one myself

[Blue2u]

First, thank you to jackie_w for the clear and concise post!

However, I think I've done something wrong along the way. I'm moving my library from KoboTouch to my new T1 via Calibre. I loaded the 2 'series sort' metadata plugboards as follows:

{author_sort}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>5.1f} - {title}

They are showing up in the correct order under collections tab. But my library itself is showing up sorted by author's first name. ie, first author is 'Adam Creed' and not 'Lara Adrian'.

How do I fix that? I'm not even sure it's a Calibre/metadata problem, this may be something else in setup that I missed?
Also, I checked the 2 images on the first page of this thread, and realize none of the series data is showing up under main 'books'. It shows name of book and author only, nothing about which series it belongs to or which number it is in that series, it's the same under main books or collections, although as I said, they do show in the correct order under collections.
ie 'Twlight' shows up under the collection "The Twilight Saga" and it shows as the first book under collections page. But under Books, it just shows as Twilight - Stephenie Meyer


Also, how the heck do you 'close' a book when you're done? And have it show as 'read'?

[jackie_w]

I am confused. You say you set the 2 metadata plugboards as

{author_sort}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>5.1f} - {title}

the {title} bit is not needed in my example plugboards

On your PRST1, in the full Booklist (i.e. after using the Books menu item, not the Collections one):

• what have you set the sort method to (little button at the top with an a-z label)? Sort by 'Author' is probably the most useful.
  
• Using an example of an 'incorrect' book from the Booklist , what do you see on the Title line and on the Author line underneath?

Select the same book in your calibre library, open the Edit Metadata window. What do you have in the following fields?

Author(s),
Author sort,
Title
Series,
Series number

[jackie_w]

Sorry, didn't see your extra questions before I posted.

Have you checked this part of my instructions?

Just a caveat here... if you're using a metadata plugboard to remap the Sony's Author field then you should make sure that Prefs - Plugins - Device Interface - Sony (or SONY PRST1) - Customize - Use author sort for author is UNCHECKED. Otherwise your plugboard info will be overwritten by the simple author_sort field.

The PRST1 doesn't have a 'mark as read' function that I know of. There is a special Collection called 'Unread Books' which lists all the books you haven't opened yet. Personally I delete books from the reader as soon as I've read them and mark them as 'Read' in the calibre library.

Another option, suppose you are using Tags to define your Collections then if you add a 'Read' tag (in calibre) when you finish the book, the book would automatically appear in the 'Read' Collection on your PRST1 next time you connect.

[Blue2u]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Sorry, didn't see your extra questions before I posted.

Have you checked this part of my instructions?



The PRST1 doesn't have a 'mark as read' function that I know of. There is a special Collection called 'Unread Books' which lists all the books you haven't opened yet. Personally I delete books from the reader as soon as I've read them and mark them as 'Read' in the calibre library.

Another option, suppose you are using Tags to define your Collections then if you add a 'Read' tag (in calibre) when you finish the book, the book would automatically appear in the 'Read' Collection on your PRST1 next time you connect.

Thank you SO much for your quick reply!
I just looked, it is unchecked.

I am confused. You say you set the 2 metadata plugboards as

Code:
{author_sort}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>5.1f} - {title}the {title} bit is not needed in my example plugboards

This was from original 'how to' towards the bottom on sorting larger series

or perhaps

Code:
{author_sort}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>5.1f} - {title}results in: Christie, Agatha - Hercule Poirot 015.0 - Death on the Nile

On your PRST1, in the full Booklist (i.e. after using the Books menu item, not the Collections one):
what have you set the sort method to (little button at the top with an a-z label)? Sort by 'Author' is probably the most useful.

Yes, just simple 'by author' is what I use[d].

Select the same book in your calibre library, open the Edit Metadata window. What do you have in the following fields?
Author(s),
Author sort,
Title
Series,
Series number

Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Author sort: Meyer, Stephenie
Series: The Twilight Saga
Series Number: 1

I appreciate your help so much, since you mentioned the {title} tag in your first post, do you think that's what it is? I will just edit it to one of the plugboards mentioned earlier on in your instructions. I just wanted the series short to show ".5" for books that fall as 'in between' series and that's why I chose that setting further down your instructions.

I am running out and will look at this tomorrow, but thank you again SO much for your help and your initial how-to, as I said, I'm sure it's something I messed up!

[jackie_w]

Ah no, this is a misunderstanding of what I meant.

Use this as 'Template' in step 3 (Define how you want to SORT Sony Collections)

{author_sort}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>5.1f} - {title}

and use this as 'Source template' of both Metadata Plugboards

{author_sort}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>5.1f}

Using your example, you should see on the PRST1
1st line: Twilight
2nd line: Meyer, Stephenie - The Twilight Saga 001.0


If it's still not working then perhaps you should try doing it in 2 stages:

• Revisit the instructions, check every step and use exact same settings as I used for the PRST1. Connect PRST1 to calibre. Once its finished its connection routine, disconnect. Make sure all the series info is visible. Does your reader Booklist now resemble the PRS650 image (without the rolodex initials down the righthand side)?
• If 'no', I'm stumped
• If 'yes', you can go back to the steps above and replace
  

  {series_index:0>2s}

  with
  

  {series_index:0>5.1f}

  in all the templates.

P.S I'm glad you're going out. It's 2:30am here, I'm off to bed.