It's pretty simple. To elaborate on what BetterRed said:
- Start Dropbox. Wait for it to fully sync.
- Pause Dropbox.
- Start calibre. Do whatever you wanted to do with it.
- Close calibre.
- Un-pause Dropbox. Wait for it to fully sync.
...
You can make sure that happens automatically with one action, by using a Windows batch file or OSX shellscript. And using the aforementioned `calibredb --backup_metadata` command can provide additional security and peace of mind.
But that assumes you are comfortable with scripting.
And clearly you are not, which means it was rather counterproductive for BetterRed scare you off with overly-complicated instructions in the first place.
Rest assured -- it is by no means required. Just follow the manual, GUI instructions I provided above.
