[codychan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Any metadata plugboard is there because you created it. None come with calibre. Having one that adds the series info to the title is common practice for all the devices that don't support series info. As you no longer want to fiddle with the title when sending the book to the device, just remove the template. That way it won't be changed when you send a new book to the device.

I've been using Calibre for my Kobo for several years, I think the default setting has the "series_index" or maybe I accidentally set it when I started to use Calibre before I knew what I was doing, but I never wanted "01 - title" from the first beginning. Anyway, since this is the solution, I got it now.

Originally Posted by davidfor

The series index is to show the order of the book within a series. Most people want to know this so they know what order to read the books in. There are very few series where this isn't important. You cannot hide the series index directly in calibre. The series column in the list always shows both. You could create a column that uses a template for the series name only and display that instead.

Thanks, it looks like the "series_index" is useful, I use this function sometimes but not the series_index directly, I just changed the title of all the books I need to read in order into "(1)title", "(2)title"... in my Calibre Library, since now I know "series_index" can do this, I'll keep it and use "series_index" for the order purpose .

Originally Posted by davidfor

On the Kobo devices, the series name can be set without the series index. And Kobo does do this for a few books in the store. But, in all the cases I have looked at, that is probably an error in the metadata that the publisher supplies. All of the ones I can think of have the series index in the title (Something like "Some great title (the fifth book in the Amazing Series Series"), subtitle or fairly prominently in the description.

But, from calibre to Kobo, there is no way to not set the series index when setting the series info on the device. The driver has an option to turn of off setting the series info. The Kobo Utilities metadata update doesn't have to set the series info when used (but it doesn't have an option to clear it). Neither of these have options to only set the series name. And I don't see any point in not setting it, so I don't have a plan to do so.

And for the record, the KoboTouch driver, and hence the KoboTouchExtended driver, has an option to update the metadata on the device automatically when it is reconnected. This will mean you do not need to use the plugin manually to update the device with any changes in the library. It uses any plugboard that match the book format and device, just as send-to-device does. But, it does not have options to only update certain metadata like the plugin does.

I already set "Automatic management" in "Preference->Sending books to device", but always update the metadata manually, I'll see if it works.

Thanks again for the explanation, it helps a lot.

UPDATE:
Actually the "Automatic management" is not that perfect, I plug my kobo forma, in one series A, I change a file title, add a comment in "Edit Metadata" window, change the series_index of multiple files, in series B, I change all the series index, change one title, unplug, series A got updated automatically, but series B is not synced, I replug and unplug again, then the metadata of series B is finally synced.