MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

jecilop · 09-01-2014, 07:10 AM

Uggh..feeling kind of stupid. I just realized I typed all of the below for a 2012 post..I was thinking it was 2014...Definitely an old one. Sorry if it bumped to your email updates because of me.

@travger, I have some good experience with this type of management. Here is what I've found and done. These are big "Been there done that" things where I learned how powerful Calibre really is and takes some of the work out of it for me that I was putting into it needlessly before I realized how some features work.
1) Enter all author names in the author field separated by "&". This creates a reference database for every author so that when you search the author name in any way, it will list this bundle/anthology/collection as part of their books.

2) Collections like this are few compared to individual listings so it isn't often worth knowing exactly what the story is inside from the database. You can open the book and likely see a TOC to have it. HOWEVER, it may be preferable. The trick I use that solves a minimum of 75% of these is downloading the metadata. Often, at least one listing with list all stories and the associated author in the book. It then import this into the comments whether by OK'ing or copy/paste depending on if the imported authors are correct and it you want to override what is already in the author(s) field.
For myself, I update the book jacket to.
When you search the author in any way, this book will show up. When you search the title of a book that may only be in the comments, it will show up if you search parameters include comments (there's some easy customization for that).

3) In reference to step 2, if the downloaded metadata doesn't give a listing of every book contained and the author, you can usually view the book and copy/paste the TOC into the comments under Edit Metadata. Formatting is also easily removed from the pasted info. I've done this a number of times. It is relatively fast and easy.

These methods allow me to simply search in a non-field specific way or field specific.

Ex: I have specific Jane Austen listings. Say I have a collection/bundle/anthology of Female British Lit writers. I would list the names of the authors from the collection in the author field. It's also easy to copy/paste them into the top of the comments for references or vice versa (comments to author). I then have a listing of all the books and associated authors in the comments section whether from metadata download or TOC copy/paste.
SEARCH
Jane Austen
This will return all books according to the default search fields I set up. HOWEVER, by searching the comments, if other book comment metadata references that name (like a similar author or voice or as a commenter), then that book will be returned also.
This is only one example of what can be typed in the search field. There are other ways to constrain the search.

This rather easy setup has taken the work out of it for me. What it takes a lot of words to describe above is actually really short and easy.

I hope this helps.

09-01-2014, 07:10 AM	#14
jecilop Addict Posts: 260 Karma: 139980 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: Android	Uggh..feeling kind of stupid. I just realized I typed all of the below for a 2012 post..I was thinking it was 2014...Definitely an old one. Sorry if it bumped to your email updates because of me. @travger, I have some good experience with this type of management. Here is what I've found and done. These are big "Been there done that" things where I learned how powerful Calibre really is and takes some of the work out of it for me that I was putting into it needlessly before I realized how some features work. 1) Enter all author names in the author field separated by "&". This creates a reference database for every author so that when you search the author name in any way, it will list this bundle/anthology/collection as part of their books. 2) Collections like this are few compared to individual listings so it isn't often worth knowing exactly what the story is inside from the database. You can open the book and likely see a TOC to have it. HOWEVER, it may be preferable. The trick I use that solves a minimum of 75% of these is downloading the metadata. Often, at least one listing with list all stories and the associated author in the book. It then import this into the comments whether by OK'ing or copy/paste depending on if the imported authors are correct and it you want to override what is already in the author(s) field. For myself, I update the book jacket to. When you search the author in any way, this book will show up. When you search the title of a book that may only be in the comments, it will show up if you search parameters include comments (there's some easy customization for that). 3) In reference to step 2, if the downloaded metadata doesn't give a listing of every book contained and the author, you can usually view the book and copy/paste the TOC into the comments under Edit Metadata. Formatting is also easily removed from the pasted info. I've done this a number of times. It is relatively fast and easy. These methods allow me to simply search in a non-field specific way or field specific. Ex: I have specific Jane Austen listings. Say I have a collection/bundle/anthology of Female British Lit writers. I would list the names of the authors from the collection in the author field. It's also easy to copy/paste them into the top of the comments for references or vice versa (comments to author). I then have a listing of all the books and associated authors in the comments section whether from metadata download or TOC copy/paste. SEARCH Jane Austen This will return all books according to the default search fields I set up. HOWEVER, by searching the comments, if other book comment metadata references that name (like a similar author or voice or as a commenter), then that book will be returned also. This is only one example of what can be typed in the search field. There are other ways to constrain the search. This rather easy setup has taken the work out of it for me. What it takes a lot of words to describe above is actually really short and easy. I hope this helps. Last edited by jecilop; 09-01-2014 at 07:26 AM.