[GRiker]

(This is an excerpt from the 'Calibre + iTunes: Start here' thread. It's largely redundant with other posts already in this thread, but I wanted to add it here in case an iDevice user comes across this thread first.)

• Title transformations
  A common use of plugboards is transforming a book's title when it is part of a series. For example, consider 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' by Stieg Larsson, book 1 of the Millenium series. By default, iBooks would list it as simply 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.
  
  To have the book listed in iTunes/iBooks as 'Millenium 1: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo':
  • Open the Metadata plugboards dialog - Preferences|Import/Export|Metadata plugboards.
  • Select any format, epub or pdf from the Format dropdown list, then APPLE from the Device dropdown list.
  • In the Source template field, add this template:
    

    {series}{series_index:| |: }{title}

    This tells the templating engine "If there is a series_index for the book, prepend the series name, a space, the series_index, then a colon and a space before the book's title."
  • Select title from the Destination field dropdown list.
  • Click the Save plugboard button, then Apply (upper left corner of the dialog) to save and close.
  • All books matching the specified formats sent to iTunes/iBooks will have this plugboard transform applied.
• Using a custom column as Genre/Category
  Creating a custom 'Genre' column is useful when you want exact control of the Genre/Category applied in iTunes/iBooks:
  • In Preferences|Interface|Add your own columns, click the Add custom column button. In the Lookup name field, type genre. In the Column heading field, type Genre (or 'iBooks Category', or whatever you please). In Column type, select Text, column shown in the tag browser. Click OK to exit the dialog. Restart calibre.
  • Populate your new custom column with the Genre/Category names to be used with iTunes/iBooks.
  • Open the Metadata plugboards dialog - Preferences|Import/Export|Metadata plugboards.
  • If you already have an existing plugboard for APPLE, select it in the Existing plugboards list, otherwise follow the steps described in the first example to create a new plugboard.
  • In the Source template field, add this template:
    

    {#genre}

    In the Destination field, select tags. This tells the templating engine "Retrieve the value stored in the custom column whose lookup name is 'genre', and apply it to the tags field."
  • Click the Save plugboard button, then Apply (upper left corner of the dialog) to save and close.
  • All books matching the specified formats sent to iTunes/iBooks will have this plugboard transform applied.
  In the event that Preferences|Advanced|Plugins|Device Interface Plugins|Apple device interface|Customize plugin|Use Series as Category in iTunes/iBooks is checked, the normal behavior is to use the Series name as the Genre/Category in iTunes/iBooks. However, if a plugboard transform is defined for tags, it takes priority over using the Series name.
• Display Authors as LN, FN in iTunes/iBooks
  • If you already have an existing plugboard for APPLE, select it in the Existing plugboards list, otherwise follow the steps described in the first example to create a new plugboard.
  • In the Source template field, add this template:
    

    {author_sort}

    In the Destination field, select authors. This tells the templating engine "Retrieve the authors_sort value, and apply it to the authors field."
  • Click the Save plugboard button, then Apply (upper left corner of the dialog) to save and close.
  • All books matching the specified formats sent to iTunes/iBooks will have this plugboard transform applied.
• Force <dc:language> to specific value (ePubs only)
  • If you already have an existing plugboard for APPLE, select it in the Existing plugboards list, otherwise follow the steps described in the first example to create a new plugboard.
  • In the Source template field, add this template:
    

    fr

    In the Destination field, select language. This tells the templating engine "Set the value of <dc:language> to 'fr'."
  • Click the Save plugboard button, then Apply (upper left corner of the dialog) to save and close.
  • All books matching the specified formats sent to iTunes/iBooks will have this plugboard transform applied.