Quote:
Originally Posted by kiwidude
@Jeannie - ummm - when you say you "skipped" the first step, you didn't really mean that did you? The steps listed for you weren't really "optional" for the sake of your future sanity  .
As I explained in a previous post, if you don't change your tweaks, then calibre will not do what you want at various places (such as when you change the author name, calibre will automatically put the author sort to that value rather than you having to copy/paste it). Or worse - not notice it is wrong and then have books appear out of order in strange places. Please do implement the Tweaks step too so it is set to a value of "copy" and then you really are done with it.
Also you mentioned copy/paste - I presume you are talking about the Edit Metadata dialog. There is a button to the right that sits between Author and Author sort that you can click on to just copy the value from one to the other. |
Dang right I meant it! When I had the tweek in place, both the author and author sort boxes had the author shown as FN LN. Clicking on the little button did nothing since all it was doing was copying data from
author to
author sort without changing it from FN LN to LN, FN. It's a royal pain the a$$ to have to retype in the author name every cotton pickin' time I add a book, which is what I had to do when the tweek was in place. I tried that way at first and hated it. The way I have it now, when the author name gets put in, all I have to do is copy what's in the author sort box and paste it into the author box. It works just fine (at least it did on the test books I did) as long as it is the last thing I do in the Metadata editor before clicking OK. I've learned to check every book I add, both in the tag browser and in the main listing, so I shouldn't get any surprises (if I had been doing so from the first time I started using caibre, I wouldn't have had so much clean up to do first before making the changes).
Ok, this next part is a rant so you can ignore it if you want. For all my life (which is probably longer for me than most of you), here in the U.S. whenever names are put in a list, they are almost always listed as LN, FN. In fact, it has always been considered improper to list names as FN LN. It is much, much, much easier to find a name in an alphabetical listing sorted by last name (which is traditional, at least here in the U.S.) when the names are listed LN, FN, especially if the list is very long. All the eye has to do is scan on the first letter or two while running down the list. When the list is FN LN, the eye has to follow a random, jagged line buried in the middle of the list of names. That takes much longer and is very tiring, both of which open more opportunity for error.
True, not all nationalities use the FN LN method of naming. But non-European names will almost always be a small minority when dealing with names in English (or whatever it is we speak this side of the pond). The rare exceptions (here in the U.S.), such as Kim Lee, usually get handled the same way (again, here in the U.S.) the same way as English names are (even though, technically, it is wrong), especially since most people in the U.S. would have problems finding the name otherwise. Even some European names don't follow the "rule", such as Sprague de Camp. De Camp (probably) should be sorted as "Camp", not "de Camp" yet a name like John DeChancie is (probably) sorted as DeChancie. Exceptions like that have to be dealt with individually, at least at first, and, fortunately, calibre has the capability to allow one to do so.
I don't know how names get listed on the other side of the pond and, frankly, I don't give the north end of a southbound furry little rodent since I live here, not there. What we do here works just fine and I see no reason to change it. Granted, other changes between here and overseas have been resisted here mostly because of sheer stubborness, such as adopting the metric system (and, frankly, I wish we would do so since it makes much more sense) but the apparent obsessive resistance to people listing authors as LN, FN by calibre's developers is baffling and has been the one single thing that has irritated the tar out of me from the first time I started to use calibre (fortunately, not enough to make me abandon calibre). One example of that resistance is the example one of you gave that was given about book spines having the author listed as FN LN is comparing apples to kumquats. Looking at books on a shelf is not the same as looking at a printed (or on screen) list. I've always found looking for books on a shelf, such as at a bookstore or library, to be a pain in the neck; and, at my age, it is a literal pain in the neck, not to mention my back (one reason I don't frequent bookstores like I used to, especially used bookstores since most of them do a lousy job of putting books in alphabetical order, if they even bother at all, and one has to look in an entire section instead of being able to home in on a specific area). When I use calibre, I don't look for books with the cover browser; I use the listing or the search function.
OK, rant over. You are being returned to your regularly scheduled thread.
Again, thanks for your help. I know I've been doing some industrial strength complaining (the polite term) but that doesn't change the fact that calibre is still an awesome program without equal and the help one receives here is great!