[SimonMc]

I may have misunderstood how Calibre works but I think of it as when you import books each book gets a new record (depending on config) with a single book file and piece of metadata containing any imported attributes.

If you wish to merge records then you can choose which records metadata to retain but each of the book files will be added to the same record.

This leads me bumbling in to my area of confusion:
1.) Having selected edit metadata why is the term merge book records used ? Wouldn't merge metadata or merge records be more appropriate ?

2.) Having selected merge book records wouldn't it then say merge in to first record delete metadata ?

I always hoped I wasn't stupid but the options and terminology leave me confused, bewildered and afraid for my ebooks.

My preferred work flow would be after initial import I would sanitise author and title, merge all the records whilst retaining all book formats and then download the metadata. Once I have done that I would them do a 2,3 or 4 way diff of the files and retain whichever seemed to be the best formatted and complete file. This would then be exported to, probably, a .mobi format and uploaded to my Kindle.

TL;DR: I would like to select 2+ records and merge all of them into a single record whilst keeping ALL ebooks from each record (multiple .mobi .epub files possibly with the same name), without deleting any of them. Problem is that the terminology confuses me and I don't understand if Calibre will do it or delete ebook files which I want to keep.

My apologies if this is a stupid question or if I am, indeed, stupid.

Simon