Adding metadata page (without reconversion)?

[thrawn_aj]

(The two actual questions are underlined - the rest is context ).

I have several epubs converted from various formats over time, mostly with Calibre. I completely missed the "add metadata page" option during conversion (until today) and with an unrooted nook, there's really no way to see a book description for sideloaded books, so I'll sure to add that helpful page to each book from now on.

As for the books I have already, I just re-converted about a dozen epubs (to epub) with a metadata page added. The question is - is there a better way to do this (for ~360 books )? Reconversion seems like overkill somehow, especially if I have to check them manually (for reasons explained below).

More importantly, I'm worried that when I change that one option (to add a metadata page), I'm overriding the saved conversion option for that book and it may miss chapter detection, TOC conversion, etc. that I had to customize for different books in the past (but that's probably just because I just don't know exactly how that part of the conversion process works - i.e. what settings are saved and how the various possibilities are prioritized). Maybe I'm being needlessly paranoid? So, question#2: Would an epub to epub conversion leave any existing TOC and other things unharmed if the only thing I change in a bulk conversion job is the "add metadata page" option?

If the reconversion issue above is not something I should worry about, I'll just queue up all the books some night and let it reconvert . Any help at all will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to suggest any other way of doing this that you can think of. *sigh* maybe it's just time to root my nook and get a proper library browser - this organizational gymnastics is hurting my lower back .

[jackie_w]

Re: Q1 - I don't think there's a better practical way. The metadata page is an extra file (jacket.xhtml) added inside the epub, built from a standard jacket template and filled in with your calibre metadata during the conversion. Although I'm sure you could do this manually it would take many times longer than a conversion.

Re: Q2 - When converting epub to epub, when I want to retain the TOC as-is I use the following settings:

Convert - StructureDetection - Detect chapters : /
Convert - TOC - Level 1/2/3 TOCs: all blank
Convert - TOC - Force use of auto-generated TOC : unchecked

I don't know whether any/all this is strictly necessary but I do it anyway.

These are just my opinions. I'd wait for a few more responses before undertaking any large reconversion exercise. I'll be interested to read them myself.

[thrawn_aj]

That was a lightning-quick reply .
I think you've answered my questions pretty well (and I think I can proceed with bulk reconversion without worry), but as you said, perhaps we'll wait to see if anyone else has anything to add.
Thanks again .