Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Software > Calibre

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 02-27-2012, 11:26 AM   #46
Pinecone
Guru
Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pinecone ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 902
Karma: 1660722
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Maryland
Device: PRS-650, PRS-600, PRS-350
Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks View Post
One thing I notice:
New people that try and force Calibre into doing things their (old) way seem to have the most problems.
Amazing, isn't it?
Pinecone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-27-2012, 02:00 PM   #47
AndrewH
Fanatic
AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AndrewH ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 553
Karma: 1234566
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Vancouver, WA
Device: Sony PRS-T1, & Kobo Mini
I don't think Calibre is "difficult to use", but rather it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, most of the basic functions one would use it for (add book, send to device, etc) are included as default buttons on the toolbar.
AndrewH is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-27-2012, 03:01 PM   #48
afv011
Captain Penguin
afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.afv011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
afv011's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,944
Karma: 2077653593
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Vancouver, BC
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Nook Glowlight
Quote:
Originally Posted by larsh View Post
Calibre is not as user-friendly as an Apple product.

Mainly because it is made by nerds, not by software designers with a sense of usability :-)
Thanks for the laugh! <sarcasm>I only wished Calibre was as user-friendly and easy to use as iTunes... </sarcasm>
afv011 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-27-2012, 06:22 PM   #49
jmaejr
Banned
jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jmaejr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 132
Karma: 566638
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Wouldn't you like to know.
Device: Sony PRS-350:Sony PRS-T1:Rooted Nook Tablet
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacLake View Post
Come on, such Apple bashing is really childish, as well as blaming the Cailbre developers for not implementing every feature one may find useful.

Apple makes great hard- and software, great design and easy to use. Sometimes they omit some features and you can’t configure everything. But Linux is also not everybody’s cup of tea. You can’t blame the users for that.

Calibre is a very useful program, but its user interface could be improved, and we should help the developers in dong that instead of just complaining. Nevertheless also in this case you shouldn’t blame the users for criticizing the usability. I’ve heard such complaints from VLC developers when I told in their forum that their settings GUI was very hard to use.
Hmmm...I didn't realize Calibre was Linux based. Evidently a nice looking interface equates to better usability...in Appleland.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Webstar View Post
Can anyone throw any light on this? I have an iphone. You'd think getting books on to an iphone might be one of the commonest tasks, and therefore pretty automated. Wrong. First off, Calibre doesn't accept .doc files as a source. But it doesn't say so straight out. It allows .doc files to be imported, but it won't convert them. (Why reject so common a format?). However, I then found out it accepts .rtf, so that problem was solved. But that was the easy part. How to get the resulting epub file onto the iphone? That took me at least an hour. Eventually I found I could drag it (not from within Calibre, but from the Calibre folder) into the Stanza section on the apps page of my iphone in iTunes. And, yes, I did study the 'help' provided in Calibre. And I did struggle with Stanza on my iphone. But when it comes to entering the IP address of my computer (a matter unknown to me), etc., etc. and some stuff about having Calibre as a server, I more or less have to give up. I know it's a free program, but really - putting an epub file on to an iphone...? Shouldn't that be simple?
IF Apple products and software are so great, then why is the OP looking for something other than an Apple product to get books onto his/her Apple product?

This user interface is pretty ugly...
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	usability_of_light_switch.gif
Views:	170
Size:	20.4 KB
ID:	83141  
jmaejr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-27-2012, 07:31 PM   #50
theducks
Well trained by Cats
theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
theducks's Avatar
 
Posts: 29,659
Karma: 54369090
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: The Central Coast of California
Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A
This is the old version
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	knifeswitch.jpg
Views:	171
Size:	8.4 KB
ID:	83143  

Last edited by theducks; 02-27-2012 at 07:34 PM. Reason: better picture
theducks is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2012, 04:28 AM   #51
toddos
Guru
toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
toddos's Avatar
 
Posts: 695
Karma: 822675
Join Date: May 2010
Device: Kobo Aura, Nokia Lumia 920 (Freda)
Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks View Post
This is the old version
This is the new, user-friendly version that's much more prone to breaking.

Also, people often say, "Calibre's UI is ugly and it should be fixed," but they never really provide any examples of how to fix it. At its heart, calibre is a database program. It's data-centric, and needs to display that data in a useful manner. I for one do not want a wood-grained shelf metaphor. I like the detailed list view of books in calibre. It gets the job done quickly and efficiently and looks just fine while doing it.

I'm not a big fan of some of the icons, but it's easy to replace those (I'm a software engineer, not a graphic designer, so I'm not even going to attempt to contribute icons ). Personally, I've been using the metro-look icons for some time now.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	largeWSS0S-D0.jpg
Views:	181
Size:	139.5 KB
ID:	83149  
toddos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2012, 11:43 AM   #52
ilovejedd
hopeless n00b
ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ilovejedd ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
ilovejedd's Avatar
 
Posts: 5,111
Karma: 19597086
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: in the middle of nowhere
Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9
Quote:
Originally Posted by toddos View Post
I for one do not want a wood-grained shelf metaphor.
I do. Not as a replacement to the normal details view (which is much more efficient when managing the library), but as an additional form of browsing books similar to the cover browser.
ilovejedd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2012, 01:50 PM   #53
toddos
Guru
toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.toddos ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
toddos's Avatar
 
Posts: 695
Karma: 822675
Join Date: May 2010
Device: Kobo Aura, Nokia Lumia 920 (Freda)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovejedd View Post
I do. Not as a replacement to the normal details view (which is much more efficient when managing the library), but as an additional form of browsing books similar to the cover browser.
But ... why? Your computer isn't a bookshelf. It doesn't have the physical limitations of a bookshelf. Trying to shoehorn a metaphor where it doesn't belong is a hallmark of bad design, not good. Bookshelf metaphors don't even really make sense in software. How many bookshelves do you have where you've shelved the books with the front facing out rather than the spine? But if you only show the spine, especially with a relatively tiny 96x96 pixel thumbnail, you're not going to be able to see any useful information. You're trading information density for an outdated concept of "pretty". For what it's worth, I also dislike the cover browser (and its iFlow inspiration from iTunes, as well) as it's a poor way to view information. Arguably pretty, though.

Calibre could use some minor UI cleanups (the settings dialog could be reorganized, for example), but overall it does what it needs to do quite well, with good default actions for most things while not preventing more complex actions from being taken.
toddos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2012, 02:07 PM   #54
theducks
Well trained by Cats
theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
theducks's Avatar
 
Posts: 29,659
Karma: 54369090
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: The Central Coast of California
Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovejedd View Post
I do. Not as a replacement to the normal details view (which is much more efficient when managing the library), but as an additional form of browsing books similar to the cover browser.
But my first book shelves were concrete blocks with boards
theducks is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-29-2012, 12:41 PM   #55
BookJunkieLI
Evangelist
BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BookJunkieLI ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
BookJunkieLI's Avatar
 
Posts: 435
Karma: 572984
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Long Island
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kindle 4, Nook Gl4, Nook STR, REB 1100, Ebookwise 1500,
Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks View Post
But my first book shelves were concrete blocks with boards
Mine were fashionably red milk crates which were great for portability.
BookJunkieLI is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
this is going to be difficult to do with Kindles somebaudy General Discussions 24 01-13-2012 04:50 PM
PRS-T1 Highlighting difficult because ... diddy Sony Reader 2 11-13-2011 06:17 PM
Difficult suggestion AprilHare Calibre 8 08-12-2009 12:37 AM
Why Is Basic Formatting So Difficult? sirbruce Workshop 10 02-11-2009 03:50 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:30 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.