[jecilop]

@cvlowe
Everything you said sounds very similar to what I do. In fact, I was just playing with that extra series style column and considering if I may utilize it more.

Re: Author sort issue and series...It seems a non-issue. You'll never get series in order that way, but as you realized series sort is the way to go. EVEN BETTER, if series is your focus, just click either the Series tag (or subseries tag) in the tags pane OR click the series link that shows in the book details pane if you have it showing at the right. Either give ONLY the books in that series. You can also set the subseries column info to be visible in the book details if it doesn't do so by default.

A suggestion on your "Meta/I'm working on it/It's complete column":
I have had the same overall approach and care about the same items you mentioned. As I got going and doing a lot, I realize my patterns and what Calibre could do. I found I didn't like losing space with custom columns unless really necessary. They were also an extra field to mess with and extra access to update individually or in mass. That time didn't seem worth it for what I was doing, especially when I used to just have files named with the 3 things that matter most which I would read and move on. So I came up with this efficient pattern for new books and clean-up.

I utilize just another tag to help with this allowing mass imports to be handled as I can.
1) I set an "auto tag" to apply when importing new books. I call it *new. (Preferences/add books) The star at the front helps it to show first in my tags field for easy notice (I've also recently added some auto coloring to the tags field so it jumps out at me as I scroll through things and add more - auto color is GREAT!). I can also just click that tag and see all of those books if I choose to do that way. There are other factors that make it easy for me, but it would just be wordy to share what you would probably see you can do with tags if you choose something like this. I "fix", then I delete the tag.

2) I also use a tag called "SERIES" as a nice reference for not only showing all books that are parts of series but also to ensure I've included the series field info when possible. In some cases, collections have a tag of SERIES to let me know they contain something even if not identified yet.

3) Just as an added step which has really cut down on time and boosted the end results, I may import and do a quick check of name formatting and titles and quick, but incomplete tag overview. This gets an added tag of "**" to let me know it at least sorts with other stuff as I want and will show up in Find Duplicates searches. I can get the meta stuff later.

4) When I complete my editing of a group of books, I tend to add a special tag "__" to let me know I've fully complete the review. I then remove the ** and *new. __ shows up first in the tag field. Tags if any with preceding *'s show next, and then all else alphabetically (alphabet. only in that field).

5) I keep my tags within a strict overall group, so this doesn't overload me.


It works well. It's easy to add or remove tags via batch edit metadata when you are doing group at a time. Individually isn't that difficult either.

A thought on authors an author sort. How you sort authors is completely according to personal taste. I make my name and sort field the same - FIrst Last (or First Last & First Last & ... for mult. authors on a book).
I sort by author from time to time (will use first in entry), but that just help see what's "__" and what's "*new" grouped in a different overview manner. If I seek a particular author ONLY anymore, I just use either the tags pane OR just type " author:NAME HERE and get it easily returned OR author:"=NAME HERE" .
ALSO, the BOOK DETAILS pane can work for or against you in quick searches you based on your setup. I LOVE THIS RECENT CHANGE. You may notice (if in latest Calibre) that the author field shows as a link (check your Pref/Look&Feel/Book Details for what you want to show). This link could do ONE OF THREE operations based on what you tell it under book details default author link template.
1) by default it searches for the author on wikipedia
2a) set to "search-calibre" - clicking this shows all books with that author as an entry
2b) I discovered, however, that IF you have a link such as an author website entered for the author (from Manage authors), it will open that link.

2a is a fast way to move around!!!!

There might be some other templates (programs) you can put in that default blank, but they would have to be researched in the manual.


This process has saved me TONS of time. So many things I wish I knew early on, but as always it takes working with it to see the efficiency and ease of use possible.

If you want more info or better explanations of these, ask away.