[Rellwood]

So I figured that a "Calibre Hacks" thread can be useful to users looking to make their library management better.

One of the best hacks I figured out is the copying of the timestamp into a "date added" column.

If you have a date added column that needs to be populated but you aren't sure of the date, the timestamp is a good indicator. If you are confident that the timestamp (date) of the book listed is accurate you can use it in the copy/replace feature in the bulk edit metadata. Although you need to create a custom column before you can do it. For whatever reason, the timestamp is not offered up as a column in the dropdown list of possible columns available in the regular expression option of copy/replace. So you need to create a mirror of the date column as a custom composite columm.

Create a composite column based on another column. Use {date} as the template and give it whatever name you like. I use d2 for the name and Date2 for the heading. Set the search/sort option to "date".

After this column is created it will mirror the date column and show up in the list of columns available for copy/replace. It is set for use in copying the timestamp into whatever other date or text column you like.

This is just one of many hacks I have figured out.