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Originally Posted by lestatar
While no stranger to ebook formats and even calibre, I have only now started using calibre to transfer books over to my first dedicated reader device. I never had a need to dig deeper into calibre beyond conversion tasks.
The tips about enabling/disabling subfolders created on Kindles/devices by calibre is priceless to me.
Being new to dedicated ereaders but a very old hand at tech and folder structures for stuff like music, I am still working out the best workflow process for myself and to get ebooks onto my devices.
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Welcome to the calibre club! There are a lot of powerful options to consider. I can't answer all your questions (no idea regarding file limits) but I will try to answer a few.
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- What is the exact/default folder name [when connected to PC] that the Kindle uses to look for books?
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It looks for everything in the Documents folder. Beyond that it doesn't seem to matter as long as it's all inside that folder.
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- Meta-tags: Is there any type of standard meta-tag format or a universal meta-tag editor for ebooks? Highly unlikely I would guess, if ebooks are anything like digital music [which sucks].
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They are like music files in the sense that there are two types of limitations: the metadata spec is different for different file formats (like MP3 vs WAV), and how much is used of any given metadata spec depends on the software being used to read it. For example, PDF can hold only the most basic metadata in the file itself; with ePub, you can specify several metadata fields but most reader software can't use most of it. Then you have fields that should be standard but aren't.
I don't think you'll be surprised by that answer though, considering we STILL don't have full support for the MP3 composer field.
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- Do ebook devices like Kindles and Android apps prefer tag into or can they also work off of filenames?
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Kindle uses the title and author metadata. If there is none, it uses the filename as the title, IIRC. Android apps vary. Some apps read limited metadata, others read filenames.
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I also plan to rename all my ebook files to adhere to this kind of uniform file naming convention:
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A few things to look at:
In calibre Preferences > Send to Device: Allows you to specify a template that dictates how the files will be organized on the device, including folder structure and filename.
Preferences> Save to Disk: Allows you to specify a template when using the Save to Disk feature. This is useful in the event that you'd like to have a copy of your library in your preferred file structure. This way, you have a copy that makes you happy (and also serves as a backup) and calibre gets to do its thing in its own library. Cuz calibre has to do its thing in its own library.
Plugboards: If you want to see series names or such on the Kindle, this is your go-to feature. There's a sticky in the calibre forum which explains how it works and has many useful template examples.
Get in there, dig in, play around. If you don't like the results, empty the Kindle and start over. That's the great thing about calibre's library being off-limits - you can screw up everything outside of the library, but the library will always be there to save your a$$. (Just be sure to occasionally back up the library itself - its god-like power doesn't extend to hard drive failures and other catastrophes.)