[Starson17]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

If a file name containing the book title is missing an apostrophe then the book isn't found when looking for meta data - this should be corrected as most folks will remove apostrophes from file names.

If a file is called "Tale of two cities.txt" then the book won't be found. I can understand this with lesser titles but surely it doesn't need an author name to work out which book this is?

You're asking for fuzzy matching to be implemented in the metadata fetch. It has been implemented in various parts of Calibre. I wrote fuzzy matching into the "If books with similar titles and authors found, merge the new files automatically" option. It's the "similar" in that option. I believe Charles wrote it into the matching algorithm for identifying books on Devices. If you want it, post an enhancement request on the bug tracker. However, there may be some drawbacks if you fuzzy match the title during an automated metadata fetch of multiple books. Perhaps it would make sense to only use it during bulk fetching if the author is also specified.

Many old classics will appear in the database under lots of different guises ie the original work, the book with commentary, perhaps a graphic version and then perhaps a study version. Rather than choosing none would it be better to choose the original version and grab the meta data and cover for that.

I'm not sure of your point. AFAIK, Calibre uses the first match for bulk fetches, and otherwise, shows the first 20 or so matches. I'm not sure when you think it is "choosing none." I think it only does that when no matches occur.

Does Calibre keep the original folder the file was in as meta data anywhere -

No

I'm not sure how to distinguish the books in my science folder with those in my science fiction folder. I wasn't sure but is it put into the tags?

Nothing is put into tags other than what you enter, or you allow to be added during metadata fetch. Just add all the books from the SF folder and tag them.

If I enter the meta data and cover for "Tale of two cities.txt" then it would be nice if it automatically updated the meta data for "Tale of two cities.lit".

It does when you Save to Disk or Send to Device. Calibre considers this to be one book, assuming you have entered into a single record. If not, use the Merge function (another feature I wrote and am proud of, despite the help I needed from Kovid). Merging will keep the metadata and put the two books in a single record. (If they were added to separate records, you need to turn on the "If books with similar titles and authors found, merge the new files automatically" option.)

Calibre's great but periodically it might be worth grabbing someone's library and seeing how easy it is to add all the useful info.

I'm not sure what this means. I added 14K plus books, and during that period wrote a half dozen bits of code to make it easier for me, then shared them. Most of the bits were designed specifically to make adding metadata or books easier. The difficulties involved in adding new books and metadata is the one area of Calibre that I'm really familiar with.