Using multiple genres?

[MorWired]

Hello. I hope this is a quick and simple question for y'all.

How does one mark a book with more than one genre hierarchy? For example, if I have a book in Nonfiction.Memoir but would also like to add the genre Humor, how would I do that?

I tried separating them with commas, but it simply appends the comma and subsequent non-genre to the name of the one genre that it creates (e.g., Nonfiction.Memoir, Humor, where "Memoir, Humor" is a single subgenre of Nonfiction). I also tried to drag the book to the Humor genre, only to have it replace the already selected Nonfiction.Memoir.

Help please.
Thanks!

[chaley]

I assume you are using a genre custom column. When you created that column, you probably used the type 'text, shown in tags browser'. If you want more than one genre per book (multiple entries in the column), you should use 'comma-separated text, like tags, shown in tag browser'.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by MorWired

Hello. I hope this is a quick and simple question for y'all.

How does one mark a book with more than one genre hierarchy? For example, if I have a book in Nonfiction.Memoir but would also like to add the genre Humor, how would I do that?

Since I can't find Genre as a column or field in calibre the question isn't simple. In your example above I would have the tags Nonfiction, Memoir and Humor associated with the book and use the search feature to find sub groups.

I assume you are trying to follow this section of calibre's user manual. Personally I haven't seen a reason to create any genre hierarchy since, for my needs, being able to search on multiple tags (including or excluding tags as needed) is simple using calibre's tag browser.

Hopefully either the manual I linked to will help you or someone will stop by who can guide you in this feature's use.

[MorWired]

Hi. Thank you for your reply.

Yep, that's the part of the manual I was following. I had started out with tags, but since they couldn't be nested in a hierarchy, I switched over to the genre column scheme that is described in the manual.

Having multiple tags for the genre categories seemed simpler to implement, but having the books neatly organized in subgroups struck me as an ultimately more useful way to go.

I've seen comments in this forum (as well as in that user manual entry) about applying more than one genre to a book. The problem is, none of the comments include a "how-to" followup. I've tried with commas, bars, semicolons, and ampersands, with surrounding spaces and without, but no luck to date.

Thanks again, though. I appreciate your reply.

[Manichean]

I think you did what chaley said and selected your custom column (the genre column) to be of text type, not a tags column. You can verify that by going into the custom column settings, selecting your column, and pressing the button with the blue i on it, that should bring up an edit window. Verify that the column type is "comma-separated text, like tags, shown in tag browser".

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by MorWired

I've seen comments in this forum (as well as in that user manual entry) about applying more than one genre to a book. The problem is, none of the comments include a "how-to" followup. I've tried with commas, bars, semicolons, and ampersands, with surrounding spaces and without, but no luck to date.

After glancing at the manual it seems that Nonfiction.Memoir, Nonfiction.Humor in the Genre column you created will work just fine. If this doesn't work it is because you created the column wrong, review the manual and try again.

[itimpi]

I thought that the following section from the User Guide was a good write-up of this topic: http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual...tory-structure

I had not spotted it before so I think it may be new.

[Manichean]

Either you linked to the wrong section, or we're getting a little off-topic here. That's the link to a section on the directory structure of the library, not of the sub-tags feature recently introduced.

[MorWired]

Originally Posted by Manichean

I think you did what chaley said and selected your custom column (the genre column) to be of text type, not a tags column. You can verify that by going into the custom column settings, selecting your column, and pressing the button with the blue i on it, that should bring up an edit window. Verify that the column type is "comma-separated text, like tags, shown in tag browser".

Wow, right you are!

I had this all set up exactly by the book in my test library (5 books), but then managed to zap the file with the settings before I could copy it to the "official" library. So, setting up the column the second time, I thought, been there done that, and did it from (obviously *faulty*) memory. Duh me!

This has been making me nuts, thank you so much for accurately diagnosing my lapse in attention to detail -- I set up a second column, and it works perfectly, just as advertised. It's really amazing what following the directions can accomplish.

Thanks again, you saved my sanity (although, according to some indicators, it may long be too late for that :-D).

[MorWired]

Originally Posted by chaley

I assume you are using a genre custom column. When you created that column, you probably used the type 'text, shown in tags browser'. If you want more than one genre per book (multiple entries in the column), you should use 'comma-separated text, like tags, shown in tag browser'.

My apologies, you had the right answer from the very beginning. When I clicked on the arrow in front of the thread name, it took me to the last post only -- I didn't know there had been other posts prior to that one. Obviously more user error -- I'm just making a grand first impression, aren't I?

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to reply, I appreciate all the help.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by MorWired

Wow, right you are!

The honours belong to chaley, I just repeated his advice. Glad you got it working now.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Manichean

Either you linked to the wrong section, or we're getting a little off-topic here. That's the link to a section on the directory structure of the library, not of the sub-tags feature recently introduced.

I'm obviously losing it . The linkI thought I had posted was http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/sub_groups.html (this time I checked it).

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I'm obviously losing it .

Join the club, I'm not the sharpest these last weeks, either

[Joanna]

I have the very same problem. Unfortunately, I created a wrong type of column. Do I have to transfer the information manually to the new column of the right type or is there any semi-automatic of doing that?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Joanna

I have the very same problem. Unfortunately, I created a wrong type of column. Do I have to transfer the information manually to the new column of the right type or is there any semi-automatic of doing that?

If you don't have a type violation, Use the Search and replace feature of the BULK metadata editor (after you have created the proper column)
Source =
Destination = the New column
(.+) is the REGEX search term
\1 is the replace term