[delphin]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

No, you're not being obtuse, it may be one of the detailed options you haven't found yet. Some of them are buried deep

It's not just that some of calibre's options are 'buried deep'; it's that they are often not very logically organized, and change from version to version.

Also, many of the more advanced options require knowledge of the arcane unix 'regex' language, which makes them useless to most people, unless they are given very specific cut-and-paste instructions.

Another simple alternative that does not rely on telling Calibre to rewrite the books metadata tags, and that will work not only with Calibre, but is also compatible with books that are manually transfered to the Sony from other sources, is to simply adopt a naming scheme for all your book files that give them file names in the format -

AuthorsLastName, AuthorsFirstName - Title

This lets you sort your books by the authors last name, simply by using the Sony's drop down sort option 'by File Name', and still have the option to also sort by first name as well when you select the 'by Author' option.

Calibre can be made to follow this naming scheme when sending books to your Sony quite easily by swapping a few fields under the "Preferences -> Sending books to devices" tab.

Here's how -

- Open the Calibre Preferences window and select the "Sending books to devices" Tab.

- Now, about half way down the page, find the 'Save template' entry field that reads . . .

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

- and change it to read . . .

{author_sort}/{author_sort} - {title}

Then delete all books on your reader (after making sure to back up any that aren't in Calibre!!!) and then reload them from Calibre to save them in the new 'last name first' file format.

After doing this, you can display your books either sorted by Sony's original authors first name ordering (using the original drop down 'by Author' sort option) or alternately sorted by the author's last name (by simply selecting to sort 'by File Name').