Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunaaa
I just bought a Kobo Aura H2O 2nd edition and I don't understand much.
tl;dr: I want a hierarchical file structure on my Kobo device with the file names showing up like on my PC and I want a tagging system and search for tags on my Kobo within that file structure.
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Why bother worrying about a file structure? It's just so 20th century. Even under Linux and using symlinks
* , search on the PC using calibre or on the Kobo using it's search functionality was a lot faster than clicking/tapping my way through a directory tree. Koreader will use the calibre metadata files stored on your Kobo for searching but under than trying it a few times for .pdf files, I find no real advantage for me in not using the default Kobo software.
* I played with symlinks to allow multiple links to a single book by series, multiple authors and genres without needing duplicate files. Basically, it wasn't worth the effort.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunaaa
Long version:
So I just copied my A:/ partition, which contains a well organized structure whit many subfolders, to the Kobo device when plugged in. I just opened Kobo in the explorer when the device is plugged in and copied everything in there. To me that seems a bit dilettanthish and not the way it should be done(?) Anyway, the documents show up on the reader after that, but there is no file structure on my ereader and the names of the files do not correspond with the names on my PC all the time. Seems like it's using some metadata to choose the filename on the reader and not the name I gave to the file in the explorer.
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Your Kobo uses the metadata embedded in the file unless there is none so renaming your files does little good. Calibre lets you modify that metadata, add series information, update the covers, etc. After getting good metadata, either Polish (builtin calibre function) or use the Modify Epub plugin to update the metadata in the books. Then copy the ebooks to your Kobo and be a happy reader. It takes a while to go through your initial collection but once that is over, updating the metadata is just part of my workflow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunaaa
I tried Calibre, but I don't see the point of that programm. Yes, it let's me rename the book and the author and will be shown on the ereader just like that, but it copies every book into it's own files with no hierarchy at all. If I used it, then I would have my own A:/ partition and a separate Calibre direction with the same data, but no hierarchy. Just a waste of space. (I know I must be wrong judging Calibre as useless, but so far I don't get the benefits of that programm).
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Given the capabilities of calibre when it comes to managing your ebooks, I am quite happy to live with it's directory schema. Why worry about a pretty but essentially useless directory structure when, for instance, I want to pull up every book in David Weber's Honorverse. Enter the search term in calibre and the results are there (I do have a custom column for hierarchial series). Try doing this with a directory structure considering that that set of books encompasses 5 series, 12 authors and 35 books plus several short stories/novellas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunaaa
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You could try
Kute File Monitor: A smarter file-trigger based launcher as an alternative to KSM 09. Personally, I no longer see any benefit to having a file structure when search is easier and faster while not requiring hopeless complexity to try to cover all possibilities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunaaa
An additional benefit would be a tagging system. I have seen that in Calibre, but when I transfer the books with Calibre on my reader, I don't see how that tagging is useful. I can't search for tags, only title, author or series (whatever the last one is).
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You can use tags to create collections on your Kobo. A collection for an author, a collection for a series, etc. No issues with placing books in multiple collections. As for series?
It's hard to understand anyone who has read any books in the last 50+ years not knowing about series. You know, when authors write multiple books in a set or publishers generate a set of books based on a common theme.
Multiple series wrapped in spoiler tags to cut down the need to read:
Once again, calibre will allow you to add that metadata to your books and transfer it to your Kobo ereader.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunaaa
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Start using calibre, get some experience with it and refer to the manual once you've had that experience. Much of the manual needs that hands on experience to be able to understand what the author was trying to say.
Just don't muck around in the calibre library structure. It's designed that way for good reasons and I suspect few people in these forums are up to arguing with Kovid Goyal about his design decisions.