Quote:
Originally Posted by travger
Maybe whole author database is too much work. I would surely appreciate even a simple text file with basic info - if it's accessible from Calibre. And to have author's picture would also be nice.
It *is* possible to use custom column (like comments), but I'd like to have it only once for every author...
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Something that might be doable with the amount of effort I am willing to spend is to make it possible to add a link to an author. This link could point at whatever you want. My thought is that it would point at an author's page on fantastic fiction, goodreads, or what-have-you, but it could just as easily point at a word document on the local machine. The link would be added in the manage authors dialog. Right-clicking in an author's field would result in a context menu item offering the links associated with the author(s) of a book.
This isn't something I would use, so I am not particularly interested in getting too fancy with it. I would be willing to investigate the above if the assembled multitudes think it might be useful, but I am worried about the fall out. For example, allowing links on authors will almost certainly create pressure to add links on titles, publishers, series, and the like (no good deed goes unpunished), will create maintenance headaches, and will create backwards compatibility problems. Setting an expectation that something can happen is sometimes worse than doing nothing.
Another thought that might work out, especially in terms of expectations: a new custom column of type 'link'. The column would contain (tah dah) a link. Double clicking on the column would open the link using whatever program is associated with the link type (file:// http:// ???). F2 or edit metadata or whatever the edit key is would permit changing the link. This would allow a user to create as many link types as needed by creating columns. I imagine that the column would display with an icon, not the text, so it would be visually compact. Of course, this doesn't work particularly well with multiple authors. (I can see the responses now -- "Do both!")
(Just noticed transmitthis's post. I could interpret that as interest in the author link solution.
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(Just noticed kiwidude's answer. This is similar to the link column -- it handles searching for book data, but does not handle associating specific links with a category item such as an author. However, it might be the right way to go, given that it exists and is customizable.)