Adding properties to books

IzzyMad · 10-13-2010, 10:30 AM

Hi Can Anyone help I have several books (150+) I need to add the properties to.
Such as Title, Author and series.

I am using a mac computer.

I know I can do it through Calibre (brilliant piece of software) but I was hoping to do it individually without having to open each file up in textedit or some such software. What I was really hoping for was some little app that just reads and allows editing of this data in a similar way that you can view the file info on a mac.

I'm not even sure if the info is called properties so can not trawl the web for help.

So can anyone help in any way
or have got to carry on doing it the hard way.

Before you say I am now doing it as I format them to .rtf files. So it is just the ones I forgot to do.

Please help.

Izzy

frabjous · 10-13-2010, 07:47 PM

What you describe is usually called "metadata".

Calibre comes with subprograms you can run from the command line. One of them ebook-meta can be used to set metadata in files. This can be done without opening calibre's GUI at all, and is much faster than doing through the graphical interface. (IMHO anyway.)

You can use it like this. Open the mac terminal, and then:

Code:

cd "/path/to/folders-containing-file/"

and then:

Code:

ebook-meta "ebook filename.epub" --authors="John Doe" --title="Autobiography of John Doe"

(and so on), and it will update the metadata to what you enter. (If you just put ebook-meta "filename" with no options, it'll just show the current information in the file.) For more information, including a list of fields, see here.

Since it's a command-line program, you could even use it inside a bash script. In fact, if your files have patterned file names, it wouldn't be hard to write a batch file to set the author and title of each book automatically by reading it from the file names. If you wanted help writing a script, feel free to ask. I've done it before.

There may be other options out there, but this works great for me. (I'm on linux, not mac, but it should be the same.)

IzzyMad · 10-15-2010, 08:14 AM

Thnaks for that frabjous it sounds a little complicated just reading it through but that is just my dyslexia kicking in once I get my head around it by trying it I am sure it will be simple but it certainly sounds like the sort of advice I am looking for Thanks once again I will let you know of my progress

Izzy

frabjous · 10-15-2010, 11:05 AM

It's actually very simple. Don't fear the terminal. The terminal is your friend!

But do feel free to ask if you need help with something in particular.

10-13-2010, 10:30 AM	#1
IzzyMad Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: UK Device: PRS-505	Adding properties to books Hi Can Anyone help I have several books (150+) I need to add the properties to. Such as Title, Author and series. I am using a mac computer. I know I can do it through Calibre (brilliant piece of software) but I was hoping to do it individually without having to open each file up in textedit or some such software. What I was really hoping for was some little app that just reads and allows editing of this data in a similar way that you can view the file info on a mac. I'm not even sure if the info is called properties so can not trawl the web for help. So can anyone help in any way or have got to carry on doing it the hard way. Before you say I am now doing it as I format them to .rtf files. So it is just the ones I forgot to do. Please help. Izzy

10-13-2010, 07:47 PM	#2
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	What you describe is usually called "metadata". Calibre comes with subprograms you can run from the command line. One of them ebook-meta can be used to set metadata in files. This can be done without opening calibre's GUI at all, and is much faster than doing through the graphical interface. (IMHO anyway.) You can use it like this. Open the mac terminal, and then: Code: cd "/path/to/folders-containing-file/" and then: Code: ebook-meta "ebook filename.epub" --authors="John Doe" --title="Autobiography of John Doe" (and so on), and it will update the metadata to what you enter. (If you just put ebook-meta "filename" with no options, it'll just show the current information in the file.) For more information, including a list of fields, see here. Since it's a command-line program, you could even use it inside a bash script. In fact, if your files have patterned file names, it wouldn't be hard to write a batch file to set the author and title of each book automatically by reading it from the file names. If you wanted help writing a script, feel free to ask. I've done it before. There may be other options out there, but this works great for me. (I'm on linux, not mac, but it should be the same.) Last edited by frabjous; 10-13-2010 at 07:51 PM.

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10-15-2010, 08:14 AM	#3
IzzyMad Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: UK Device: PRS-505	Thnaks for that frabjous it sounds a little complicated just reading it through but that is just my dyslexia kicking in once I get my head around it by trying it I am sure it will be simple but it certainly sounds like the sort of advice I am looking for Thanks once again I will let you know of my progress Izzy

10-15-2010, 11:05 AM	#4
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	It's actually very simple. Don't fear the terminal. The terminal is your friend! But do feel free to ask if you need help with something in particular.

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