Merge records

[mruseless]

Is there some way in Calibre to merge two records?

For example, I have a few books in .PDF, which I converted to .AZW. However, when I added them to Calibre, it added as a separate record. I would like to merge the two.

[kovidgoyal]

click the arrow next to the edit metadata button

[mruseless]

Ah, great!
I thought I looked in there, but I must have missed it.
Thanks very much!

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by mruseless

Ah, great!
I thought I looked in there, but I must have missed it.
Thanks very much!

It's two levels deep - inside the edit metadata level and a bit deeper than most other functions. It probably doesn't matter which you select first, unless one has wrong metadata. If so, select the one with the correct or better metadata first, then the other one, then choose the merge and "delete others" option. The "keep others" option will put your .azw and .pdf formats in the first selected record, but keep the second selected record anyway, with only its original format. The "merge" always occurs only in the first record you select, while the other records are either deleted or kept.

[mruseless]

Thanks for the explanation, it was a little confusing at first.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by mruseless

Thanks for the explanation, it was a little confusing at first.

It's difficult to make it clear how it works in the few words available on the menu. I tried to be more clear in the warning that pops up. You can always cancel after reading the warning, but I understand the reluctance to choose either option if you aren't sure what will happen. The warning differs between the "keep" and the "delete."

FYI, if you add an empty book (under Add Books) then select that record first, then select another book record and choose the merge-keep others option, it copies the book record into the empty record. (It doesn't copy the date). It's useful for testing conversions without messing up your master copies of the book.