Correct way to search in calibre?

[book64]

When searching for a book in calibre, I have just opened calibre and typed a book name.
However now when I do that nothing happens.
What am I missing?

Also sometimes it now shows books unrelated to my books highlighted.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by book64

When searching for a book in calibre, I have just opened calibre and typed a book name.
However now when I do that nothing happens.
What am I missing?

Also sometimes it now shows books unrelated to my books highlighted.

Check the state of the button (right end of search) with the blue bars. You want the version with the red slash

BTW a un-tweaked Calibre will find your (simple) search string in comments and series

[book64]

[QUOTE=theducks;2512804

BTW a un-tweaked Calibre will find your (simple) search string in comments and series[/QUOTE]

??? Sorry don't understand this.

Did find the button thanks, I remember pressing it now, as if I type in an authors name don't get the list of his books anymore.
Calibre seems to freeze.
All I want to do is put an authors name e.g James Patterson in the search box and his books appear. It happened before but not now.

[itimpi]

You can specify under the Calibre preferences what fields should be searched. The default setting include the comments which can both slow things down and also lead to unexpected hits.

You can restrict the search to a specific field by preceding it with the column name. For instance something like:

author:lackey

This will be much faster and be less likely to get unexpected results.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by book64

??? Sorry don't understand this.

Did find the button thanks, I remember pressing it now, as if I type in an authors name don't get the list of his books anymore.
Calibre seems to freeze.
All I want to do is put an authors name e.g James Patterson in the search box and his books appear. It happened before but not now.

book64 - maybe this will work better for your author and other queries

Make a book by the author current, make the author column is current, then press 'q' - you will get a Quick List in a separate panel of the authors book's, and as you move though that list, the book is displayed in the main book list - a hidden gem I recently learned of.

Here's a thread with more info - it works for other fields too - https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=210621

There are some changes in the pipeline that will make it a bit more obvious that the feature exists.

BR

[book64]

Originally Posted by itimpi

You can specify under the Calibre preferences what fields should be searched. The default setting include the comments which can both slow things down and also lead to unexpected hits.

You can restrict the search to a specific field by preceding it with the column name. For instance something like:

author:lackey

This will be much faster and be less likely to get unexpected results.

Thanks. I am finding calibre complicated eben though I suppose once you know how its not.

[book64]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

book64 - maybe this will work better for your author and other queries

Make a book by the author current, make the author column is current, then press 'q' - you will get a Quick List in a separate panel of the authors book's, and as you move though that list, the book is displayed in the main book list - a hidden gem I recently learned of.

Here's a thread with more info - it works for other fields too - https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=210621

There are some changes in the pipeline that will make it a bit more obvious that the feature exists.

BR

Thanks
That is a simpler answer for me. Will try it.
If only I knew why just entering an authors name as before is not bringing up a short list of his books.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by book64

If only I knew why just entering an authors name as before is not bringing up a short list of his books.

What does come up?

If you go to Preferences - Searching - Columns that non-prefixed searches are limited to you can change the contents of the field. I have mine set to title, authors, tags, series, publisher so when I type in a random (non-prefixed) query in the search bar it will not search the comments field too.

Allowing the search of the comments field will return books where one or more of your search words may be found in the comments of a book. Thus giving you a random appearing list.

You can also open (press the tag icon in the lower right) the tag browser and simply click on the author, this will enter a prefixed search for you in the search bar.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by book64

Thanks
That is a simpler answer for me. Will try it.
If only I knew why just entering an authors name as before is not bringing up a short list of his books.

book64 as your library grows search will get slower - one way to make it faster is to limit the searching to certain columns - in particular the book Comments makes searching slower. You can do that in Preference->Searching - the first attachment shows what I have, the #status column is a custom column - you will see that I exclude Comments.

if you have the Limit the searched metadata ticked and you don't have author included in Columns that have non-prefixed searches are limited to: then the author column is not searched

If you right click a book you will see an option for Similar Books, which has sub-options as shown in the second attachment, these options can be accessed with keyboard shortcuts as shown in the attachment - eg Alt/a for Author, Alt/p for publisher etc.

So to answer your original question [What is the] Correct way to search in calibre? There is no 'correct way', calibre has many ways to search and all are correct.

There's a Search button to the left of the search bar, it can also be useful.

BR x-posting with DoctorOhh

[book64]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

What does come up?

.

This is what comes up when I search
That's why I get confused

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by book64

This is what comes up when I search That's why I get confused

Thanks, but not very helpful.

The picture doesn't show me how many books out of how many books were returned (left side of the search bar). Nor does it show me the three icons to the right of the search bar which would let us know if the third icon needs to be toggled so you only see the search results.

If the number of books shown is your entire library then you need to hit F3 multiple time to go to each search result 1 at a time. If you would prefer seeing only the search results follow theducks advice above and toggle the 3rd icon to the right of the search bar.

If the number is some fraction of all of your books then your search is showing you everything that has Kristen or Hannah in a searchable field. The most likely cause of the massive results is due to having the Comments field set as a searchable field and you should follow BetterRed or my advice directly above your last post explaining how to limit the search fields.

Additionally you can follow itimpi's advice above and do a prefixed search or use the Tag browser to create the prefixed search for you as I describe above.

Bottom line is all the info you need is in this thread.

Good Luck &

[BetterRed]

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[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

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So we meet again.......

[book64]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

What does come up?

If you go to Preferences - Searching - Columns that non-prefixed searches are limited to you can change the contents of the field. I have mine set to title, authors, tags, series, publisher so when I type in a random (non-prefixed) query in the search bar it will not search the comments field too.

Allowing the search of the comments field will return books where one or more of your search words may be found in the comments of a book. Thus giving you a random appearing list.
You can also open (press the tag icon in the lower right) the tag browser and simply click on the author, this will enter a prefixed search for you in the search bar.

Thanks
Think I am getting there at last you will be very glad to know!
Changed the Preferences - Searching - Columns to title authors tags series yesterday But there was no change
But this morning I typed in a search and it found all my James Patterson! Yippee

Can I just query this though --

You can also open (press the tag icon in the lower right) the tag browser and simply click on the author, this will enter a prefixed search for you in the search bar.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by book64

Think I am getting there at last you will be very glad to know!
Changed the Preferences - Searching - Columns to title authors tags series yesterday But there was no change
But this morning I typed in a search and it found all my James Patterson! Yippee

When you change many of Calibre's preferences, a restart (ctrl-R) is needed.