[chaley]

Originally Posted by kgn

There is a column called 'Author'. This is VERY confusing as it displays one thing, but actually contains another. I find it very hard to read. It sorts by Author 'Sort Order', but it displays 'Author'. These can be totally different, which makes the sort order of the column almost meaningless.

Although we can debate 'meaningless', that isn't productive.

Would it be possible to either -
1. display in the column the actual 'Sort Order' details.
2. add another column called 'Sort Order'

You can choose how author_sort is constructed. The default is to try to invert names so that a 'first last' author name is converted to 'last first' author_sort. You can change the conversion so that author_sort equals author. See the file 'tweaks.py' in your configuration directory.

The option was added for those of us who enter author names as 'last, first', but it certainly can be used if you want 'first last' authors sorted 'first last'.

Once you set the tweak, you can automatically recompute author_sort by selecting all the books, choosing edit metadata, clicking 'automatically set author sort' (and filling nothing else in), then OK. When it finishes, all the author_sort fields will have been changed.

In similar vein, the Title column strips out leading 'The' (and probably other things). This also makes the display look weird.

Calibre has a hidden field/column for title sort, similar to author sort. When a title is edited (or a book is added), this field is computed. Today, articles are pushed to the end, giving the results you see (and don't like).

0.7.2 has a new 'tweak' that changes how this title sort field is computed *for the GUI*. You have the choice of today's behavior or copying unchanged. If you select the latter, the book 'The Client' will sort with the 'T's, not the 'C's. The tweak does not change how device drivers compute title sort, because it would break some of them.

Note that setting the tweak does not recompute the title sort field. You must edit the title. Double-clicking on the title and hitting return is sufficient. You can find all titles starting with 'The' (or some other word) using the regexp search title:"~^the", then quickly run down the list touching the titles.