[gplauche]

I know the FAQ explains why Calibre dictates folder structure so rigidly, but I still think it would be nice if Calibre was a little more flexible here.

I'd like to be able to categorize my document files like so: Fiction, Nonfiction, Comics, etc., then subcategorize within this structure by author.

Two reasons why this is useful:

1) It makes it easier to share batches of files with others. If I want to transfer all of my fiction, but nothing else, to someone's memory stick/computer/whatever then all I have to do is move the Fiction folder. I don't have to hunt through my Calibre Library folder trying to sort out which Author folder is fiction and which isn't, to say nothing of the problem of an author who writes both fiction and nonfiction.

2) I use other programs like Comix and Mendeley Desktop to manage (or view) my document library and well. It's easier to add comics to Comix when they are all in one folder. For my use of Mendeley Desktop, a reference/citation program with iTunes-style library functionality, I'd prefer to restrict it to my nonfiction documents because I don't often have need to cite science fiction, fantasy, and comics in my academic writings. Having all of my documents lumped together in Mendeley, which is what I currently have to do if I don't want to maintain two copies of all my nonfiction document files, clutters up Mendeley's library unnecessarily for my purposes.

Also, Mendeley gives me a variety of choices for how to organize my folders and name my files while also providing the tag, search, and sort functions Kovid touts as the advantage of Calibre's current approach. The point here is that it's not a case of either-or. A program like Calibre can continue to offer its tag, search, and sort interface while also providing Mendeley/iTunes/Songbird-style automatic folder organization according to options chosen by the user.

If Calibre could just watch and manage files in multiple folders (instead of one, as now) it would have most of the functionality and compatibility with other programs like Mendeley that I'm looking for. I could set Calibre to watch and manage all of my document folders while setting Mendeley to watch and manage only my nonfiction document folder (or, to go a subfolder down, only my academic nonfiction folder). Flexible options for folder structure and file name would also be nice but not as important.