[meme]

Originally Posted by koland

I had a version a bit before 1.5.6 (it had two icons). So, although when I checked the version, it said 1.5.7 was running, it was actually mostly running the older version (no icon for 1.5.7, for example), but with errors (and none of the newer features.

I removed the older version manually (under plugins), then removed the second icon on the toolbar (which wasn't automatically removed), restarted Calibre and then 1.5.7's icon started showing up.

All very mysterious - especially as the icon hasn't changed for a while. Maybe if someone has this situation we can try to debug what's going on. In any case - glad its up and running for you.

Is there a way to get into preferences (if not, there should be), without the Kindle plugged in?

No - the preferences are tied to the Kindle and the Library you are using since the plugin supports multiple Kindles with different settings. If I let you customize before you connected, then the defaults that apply to the newly connected Kindle would overwrite what you just set. (Ok, I could get fancy and remember the Kindles that were attached, etc. - but so far there hasn't been any driver to do that - and it would add confusion for the majority just using one).

I was wanting to check the version and update preferences before plugging in my Kindle, but don't see a method to do that.

I'll be adding an About button to the menu to show the version. Maybe that will mean I won't update it for a while after

Also, I don't yet have all my books from the Kindle in Calibre. Right now, I have two collections, one managed by Kindle and the other by Calibre. I want to combine them into a single collection. Since I can't see the books that are Kindle only to do anything to them, I was going to try this:

1. On the Kindle, move the books that are in the Calibre maintained collection to the Kindle collection.
2. Delete the Calibre collection
3. Rename the Kindle maintained collection (same as old Calibre name)
4. Import Collections into Calibre.

My question is: if I do this, when I update collections from Calibre, will it leave the (over a hundred) books that are Kindle only in that collection, or just create a collection of a handful of books that are in Calibre?

First - you can definitely see all the books on your Kindle and what collections they are in - and whether or not they are in Calibre - use Edit Collections.

Second, I think I'm confused

If you really only have 2 collections and you gradually want to move to one collection that is Calibre managed, then you may want to:

1. Import Collections into Calibre into a custom column (e.g. "Kindle Collections") (only books that are in calibre will get the collection name put into the column)
2. Setup the plugin's Customize to Create collections based on your custom column
3. Run Preview (to test/check) then Create - only the names in the custom column will be updated.
4. Now when you import a book into Calibre you can add your collection name into the "Kindle Collections" column and run Create, and manually delete (using Edit Collections if you want) the entry in the Kindle-only collection.

When using Create Collections, it will only update the names it finds in the columns you setup in Customize, and leave your Kindle-only collection names alone. To be extra safe, you can put the Kindle-only collection name in the "Never delete" text box on the Customize screen and it will never be modified (and will be ignored when checking for changes which will be helpful if you really do want to mix automatic and manual creation).