Well the first thought is to double check all the settings, but I'm going to presume that's occurred to you. I do know that it should be possible for it to work, since other people use something like this, but without more information about what your setup looks like it's hard to say why it isn't working for you, so let's check some other things.
Right, so you import or update a story, it appears in Calibre, or the new chapters are added, but the "New" column stays empty. Is that what you're saying (there's more than one possible interpretation)? What about the "Send to Nook" Reading List list? Does the fic show up there? (To view it, click the Reading List icon in the toolbar, or right click in the main library area and select Reading List, then click View List > Send to Nook (This is assuming that the Reading List menu is in one or both of those places - it is removable. If it isn't in either one, go to Calibre preferences > Toolbar > Click to choose toolbar or menu to customize. Then add it to whichever area you want it)) This list is the important part for automatically syncing. The "New" and "On Nook" columns give you information, and if you did the plugboard bit, the "New" column is what Calibre checks when it's deciding which of the books it is syncing should have 000 prepended to their titles, but in terms of _whether_ a book syncs or not, the values in those columns shouldn't matter. Where it looks in is the "Send to Nook" list. If is showing up there, try syncing the list to your Nook. If the books appear on your Nook, then your main purpose has been served. Check to see that the On Nook column updated properly. The next thing to do would be to compare what you did differently with your setup for the "New" list and FFDL auto update of that list that might have resulted in it not working when the other list did.
If it isn't showing up in the "Send to Nook" list, you can still manually add books to the list after you update/import them. That way you don't need to remember them for the next time you connect your Nook. To add manually, select the book or books you want to add, then go to Reading List > Add to list > Send to Nook.
Some simple things to check for in the setup for column updating that might have resulted in the "New" column not being updated properly:
- Make sure the names match exactly. The names are case sensitive, so if the Reading List list is capitalised in Reading List, it needs to be capitalised in the FanFictionDownloader settings menu that tells FFDL to automatically update it when you get a new story, or update an existing one. If the value you have in the set of permitted fixed Values box in the Create a Custom Column window is capitalised, it also needs to be in Reading List settings that say to add it to the custom column.
- Make sure that you've selected the right Custom Column to update in the Reading List settings.
If you're stuck trying to get FFDL to automatically add stories to reading lists with its Reading List settings, there's another way you can try. Fair warning, this is more involved that the one in the tutorial example, and has some different limitations than the Reading List method. This is a rather messy way of doing this, and if you can find a way to get the automatic adding via Reading List to work, you would likely be better served.
- Go to the preferences for Reading List and in List type, under Population Options, set it to "Auto populated from search".
- In the text box in Population Options, write a search string that looks for a value you're using to indicate a story you want to sync. e.g.: tags:"=Sync to Nook" (this means look for Sync to Nook, indicated by the quotation marks after the colon, in the tags. If Reading List sees this string, it will add the associated story to the list. So next we add that tag to incoming stories.
- Go to FFDL preferences > personal.ini and under [defaults] add the line
Code:
extratags:Sync to Nook
This will add the tag "Sync to Nook" whenever you get a fic or update one using FFDL. Note: This will not add the tag to stories you update if in FFDL's settings > Standard Columns > Tags, you have "New only" checked, for obvious reasons. If you don't use the tags field, that doesn't really matter. If you do though, you may need to clean up your tags after update, which could be more work than just manually adding the fic to appropriate Reading List list. If you do use this method, and do put things in Tags manually, in FFDL preferences > Basic > Updating Calibe Options, check "Keep Existing Tags when Updating Metadata?", or you will lose any manually inserted/edited tags that don't match the story's tags.
Note: In the workaround option, I'm using an extratags: line. In the default personal.ini there are similarly
Code:
extracategories:Harry Potter
extracharacters:Draco Malfoy,Hermione Granger
extraships:Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
under [dramione.org]
What determines the acceptable values of "*" in extra*: lines, I'm not sure yet. Is it any valid entry for the level [default,format,site,override] the line is in, or just the ones defined without recourse to extra_valid_entries? Because if the former, I can set it up to put the Sync tag in a non-tag entry type, put that into a custom column, have it autoupdate without Reading List, and still have the "New only" checked for Tags. When I get around to it, I can test it and let you know, but I'm not sure when that will be. Having a site specific ability to add tag-like metadata in certain places could come in handy, so probably I'll look at it eventually, but I've got other things on the go.
As to places to start looking with customisation, well, I usually start with the documentation. Calibre's manual gives a good outline of what it can do, and you can get an idea of what you might want to try. For FFDL, a lot of the metadata management documentation is in the default personal.ini. You can find that in FFDL's settings > personal.ini > View Defaults (plugin-defaults.ini). More detailed descriptions of specific things people have done with FFDL are in this thread itself. You can save the thread in a searchable text document so that it's all in one place and easily searchable by clicking "Thread Tools" at the top of the thread, and "Download this Thread".
Specifically, for your question about getting books to stick out and to go to specific folders, go to Calibre Preferences > "Sending books to devices", look at the default template, and the list of standard template variables. These are also usable in Metadata Plugboards. Pay particular attention to Calibre's template language section in the Calibre manual. Take a look through the Reading List plugin thread, which is shorter than this one. You could also look at the "Technigues to use plugboards, custom columns and templates" post in Calibre > Library Management
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118563 but I'd recommend reading the documentation first or the template strings won't make sense. Experiment (obviously, back up your library and write down the settings you're changing, particularly the default template somewhere, so that you can go back to it). What you are interested in is doable. I don't have a Nook myself, so if you're doing things with shelves, I can't actually test anything, and stuff I write frequently doesn't work exactly as I intend it at first, so you're probably better off giving it a try yourself.
Good luck!