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Originally Posted by jackie_w
As this release features the Details page quite a bit I thought I'd add a couple of thoughts: - Before the full-width Comments option was available I renamed the labels for a couple of my custom columns to try and reduce the width of the label column to maximise the width for the actual values. I noticed that the new labels were only used for books sent after the label change in calibre. Existing books still displayed the old labels so I didn't gain anything. Is this inevitable or is there a way to update them all, other than resending all books?
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Calibre sending metadata to CC is controlled by the last modified date in calibre. Up to calibre 1.3 (the last release), changing the db metadata (custom column specs, composite column templates) was not treated as a "book changing" event, with the consequence that the new information was not sent to CC. Starting with 1.3, updating DB metadata will update the last_mod date, so the new info will be sent.
If you are still having the problem, you can fix it in two ways.
1) Go to the custom column definition and change it in some way. I don't remember if changing it to itself is enough.
2) Click the down arrow on the Library button, choose Library Maintenance, Library Metadata Backup Status, and click the Queue all books for backup. This has the side effect of updating the last_mod date for all the books.
After doing one or the other of the above, connect CC as a wireless device. The updated information will be sent.
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- This would be a nice-to-have if your To-do list ever gets low
 . When I'm browsing for my next read the most important metadata to me is the Comments. As this is a long way down the page (at least on my phone) I've often thought that it would be handy to 'promote' the Comments to be the first field shown (after the cover), so I don't need to scroll down for every book. I'm not sure what determines the current field sequence on the Details page but the ability for user configuration would be nice, including the ability to exclude some fields, e.g. some of my custom columns are only useful in main calibre not on the reading device.
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This is something I have been thinking about for some time. The problem is the UI. Because CC can connect to multiple libraries and libraries can change, it doesn't have an accurate list of custom columns so it cannot pop up a nice dialog where you would choose and order the columns.
It would be quite easy to provide a text box where you could enter the lookup keys of the fields you want first, similarly to how calibre's tweaks work. There would be three fields. The first would be to specify the order of fields. Any field listed in that box would be displayed first, and in the order given. The second would be a list of fields that are to be displayed. The third would be a list of fields that are not to be displayed. Similar calibre tweaks are "Order of custom column(s) in edit metadata (ID: metadata_edit_custom_column_order)" and "Set custom metadata fields that the content server will or will not display. (ID: content_server_will_display)".
However, even though the above is easy to implement, it isn't very easy to use. We are in the situation where the question "Is it better to do nothing than something that is just adequate?" is very pertinent. Steven and Annie both lean heavily toward the "do nothing" camp. I am not sure.