[01100001]

Here's how I defined one of my custom colums:

• Lookup name: edition
• Column heading: Edition
• Column type: Long text, like Comments, not shown in the Tag browser
• Column heading: Show heading to the side of the text
• Interpret this column as: Short text, like a title

That, I feel, is the apt way to define a short-text custom column whose values I didn't want Calibre to see as tags/terms.

Now this is what my Book list template looks like:

<b>{title}</b>
<b>By</b> {authors}
<b>{#countries}&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{#edition}&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="color:green;">{#origin}</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{#formats}
<b>File(s):</b> {#filenames}

(I used custom spacing because I didn't want the spread-to-full-width invisible table that ||| provides. It's hard to parse at a glance when they are so far apart.)

Questions

1. {#edition} isn't interpreted in the template and the output for the field therefore is blank. I am assuming this is because the Column type is set to Long text?
   
   I do not intend to change the column type, so is there a workaround? (Or, am I missing something here?)
   
2. Calibre template language doesn't work and therefore cannot be used in the Book list template? For e.g., {#origin:contains(Ebook,⭐️,)} shows nothing, likely because it isn't being interpreted. (It works in the custom column's Template field.) Is there a way I can achieve what I want?