Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
calibre is a Swiss army knife of a program even before you start checking out the plugins.
My advice to new calibre users is to install calibre and for Kobo users, the Kobo Utilities plugin. Once that is done start using calibre and once you have some familiarity with it, if you want to add other plugins (the DeDRM plugins are likely one of the most popular), do so.
If you have questions, there are several places to ask. The calibre forum here on MobileRead is a good resource as is Reddit and even some of the YouTube tutorials.
|
I am on reddit a lot helping where I can, but my biggest challenge is that I often wouldn't know where to begin when someone says "Whats the best way to set up Calibre"
I guess starting with the metadata source plugins, Goodreads, and Goodreads More tags if they have standard books, or looking over the ones that interest them. ISBN extractor, Goodreads Sync to force an id if needed, Duplicate Finder, Page Count, Polish, Modify Epub, Quality Check. I always thing that having Get File Name is one of the most helpful yet underrated plugins.
If they plan on doing custom books from Fanfic or something then
Cover Generator, Epub Split/Epub Merge, FanFic Fare, Diaps Editor.
But those would be the base plugins - just getting the books into the library - metadata set up. This isn't even dealing with sending to the device.
I would say everyone needs a date added, date purchased, date borrowed, book source, read date (multiple read dates if needed), read status, y/n or icon column for each device the book is in, page/word counts, average rating and number of votes.
IF they have a Goodreads library and want to sync with that they they need those columns and import list.
Everyone should have a composite column with a "calibre id" that they can keep to always have a set id for a book no matter what happens. This is helpful for matching in the import list or comparing books. Plus, goodreads, asin, mobi-asin, isbn, isbn-13, and if they have goodreads and import the .csv's they need a column for each of those fields.
Job Spy, and Import List.
Yeah, it can get big quick.