Alphabetical bar?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by goldilocks

I wanted to view titles for all the books that start with "the" and due to frustration of moving up and down in Calibre I added a column. I named it "Title Order." In the column I have "A" "A.A" "A.B"..."B" "C"..."T" "The.A" "The.B"... Now whenever I add new books I add the letter(s) applicable to the title immediately (wish I could figure out to get Calibre to do it!).

It is a mechanical process? If so, can you describe it in steps that don't require a human to decide? I ask because you might be able to do this automatically with a column built from other columns.

Also, did you look at the tweak "Control sorting of titles and series in the library display (ID: title_series_sorting)"? If you change that to "strictly_alphabetic" then the articles are not moved to the end when automatically constructing the title sort value. If you change the tweak then you must tell calibre to recalculate all the title sort values by selecting all the books, going to Edit Metadata, and checking the "Update title sort" box.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I just don't have the wherewithal to do anything about it. 10-15 years ago I might have gotten into PI development ...

I would be surprised if you can do this with a plugin. The layout of the main screen is fixed in calibre itself and plugins cannot add to it. I would be happy to be proved wrong, but I don't think I am.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

I would be surprised if you can do this with a plugin. The layout of the main screen is fixed in calibre itself and plugins cannot add to it. I would be happy to be proved wrong, but I don't think I am.

@chaley - I'm more than happy to concede to you on that, in which case... '10-15 years ago I might have gotten into 'core' and calibre PI development...'

Now if I could just find my cotton buds I could clean the glyphs on this tablet

BR

[goldilocks]

Originally Posted by chaley

It is a mechanical process? If so, can you describe it in steps that don't require a human to decide? I ask because you might be able to do this automatically with a column built from other columns.

Also, did you look at the tweak "Control sorting of titles and series in the library display (ID: title_series_sorting)"? If you change that to "strictly_alphabetic" then the articles are not moved to the end when automatically constructing the title sort value. If you change the tweak then you must tell calibre to recalculate all the title sort values by selecting all the books, going to Edit Metadata, and checking the "Update title sort" box.

If by mechanical, you mean automatically have the system do it. No, I have to put the first letter for each book in the column. I was trying to figure out if a plug-in would work but couldn't wrap my mind around it, yet.

Yes, I have my sort set to "strictly-alphabetic. I have about 650 ebooks starting with "The" and in the tag browser using my column they are broken down further by The.A, The.B, The.C, etc. Sure cuts down on reviewing the titles.

If I did a "column built from other columns" would I be able to get the hierarchy of A.A, A.B, A.C, The.A, The.B...? I have also used a comma in a few places where there is the main title with a colon and then the title of that eBook (like an eBook of 3 that I split and kept the original title: eBook title.)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by goldilocks

If by mechanical, you mean automatically have the system do it. No, I have to put the first letter for each book in the column. I was trying to figure out if a plug-in would work but couldn't wrap my mind around it, yet.

By mechanical I mean a process that does not require human reasoning and discretion. It would have a small number of rules that fully describe what is to happen.

Yes, I have my sort set to "strictly-alphabetic. I have about 650 ebooks starting with "The" and in the tag browser using my column they are broken down further by The.A, The.B, The.C, etc. Sure cuts down on reviewing the titles.

I hope it is set to "strictly_alphabetic", an underscore instead of a dash. If you used a dash then it almost certainly isn't working correctly.

If I did a "column built from other columns" would I be able to get the hierarchy of A.A, A.B, A.C, The.A, The.B...? I have also used a comma in a few places where there is the main title with a colon and then the title of that eBook (like an eBook of 3 that I split and kept the original title: eBook title.)

Using commas in tags-like columns isn't recommended, and probably doesn't work in many cases. The comma separates tag values and cannot be used internally to a value.

Yes, columns built from other columns can be hierarchical.

[goldilocks]

Originally Posted by chaley

I hope it is set to "strictly_alphabetic", an underscore instead of a dash. If you used a dash then it almost certainly isn't working correctly.

Yes, it has an underscore. Forgive my typo, but I am having a little problem typing (wrist swollen).

Originally Posted by chaley

Using commas in tags-like columns isn't recommended, and probably doesn't work in many cases. The comma separates tag values and cannot be used internally to a value.

I really don't understand this. The Tags column uses commas, so does the Format column. I have only done a few with commas so I haven't noticed any problems.

I was just trying to give to OP an alternative to an alphabetical bar by using a column. My Title Order works fine except I have to put the data in the column.

Thanks for the info!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by chaley

Using commas in tags-like columns isn't recommended, and probably doesn't work in many cases. The comma separates tag values and cannot be used internally to a value.

Originally Posted by goldilocks

I really don't understand this. The Tags column uses commas, so does the Format column. I have only done a few with commas so I haven't noticed any problems.

I probably am confused. I interpreted your comment as wanting to put a comma inside a tag, not as putting multiple title-tags on a book. If you are doing the latter then you are correct that there isn't a problem. More than that, you are using it as designed.

Thanks for the info!

Welcome.

[Bigo2]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Use the virtual library feature for this. Create virtual libraries witht he searches

title:~^A
title:~^B
title:~^C

and so on, then enable the virtual library tab bar and there you go.

Hi Kovid - you've never answerd my questions concerning the proposed alphabet tags bar.
How come you don't see how very useful feature this would be?
I am using the Virtual library as you have recommended, with the limitations I have mentioned, but really it is very useful - believe me. What I'm proposing would be even better.

Also I would like to ask you if it would be possible to add viewing the .maff files to the E-books Viewer.
Since I started using Comodo IceDragon browser (which is based on Firefox) I have found this great ability to save complete browser pages using the maff archiving feature. It is perfect, I'm using it all the time. However, for viewing these files there si no other viewer than the browesr itself. Considering that for everything else I'm using the E-book viewer it would be nice if it could open the maff files...

[kovidgoyal]

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....-what-can-i-do

[Bigo2]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....-what-can-i-do

Thanks for your friendly answer...

Anyway, I am using Calibre... so I just send $50 donation

[JaneKnits]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Use the virtual library feature for this. Create virtual libraries witht he searches

title:~^A
title:~^B
title:~^C

and so on, then enable the virtual library tab bar and there you go.

This is a really old thread, but I still could not find any way to get Calibre to jump to alphabetical point rather than endlessly scrolling through a very large library. Titles are still not an option in the Tag Browser and library search still did not get applied properly in the virtual libraries.
But there is some good news.
title_sort:~^A does work. And when you right-click the virtual library tabs there is now an option to lock them. The closing X that was the same size as the letter disappears. This is now very close to the alphabetical bar that the OP was suggesting. But if anyone knows of a plug-in that does as originally suggested, it would be nice to free up my virtual libraries for other options. Please let me know if I missed any other options while searching for this solution.
Thank you.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by JaneKnits

This is a really old thread, but I still could not find any way to get Calibre to jump to alphabetical point rather than endlessly scrolling through a very large library. Titles are still not an option in the Tag Browser and library search still did not get applied properly in the virtual libraries.
But there is some good news.
title_sort:~^A does work. And when you right-click the virtual library tabs there is now an option to lock them. The closing X that was the same size as the letter disappears. This is now very close to the alphabetical bar that the OP was suggesting. But if anyone knows of a plug-in that does as originally suggested, it would be nice to free up my virtual libraries for other options. Please let me know if I missed any other options while searching for this solution.
Thank you.

Assuming you don't insist on having buttons...

You can add title sort to the tag browser using a column built from other columns. For this case you would probably want to use the first letter of title_sort, not the entire title. This template does that

program: uppercase(substr($title_sort, 0, 1))

Be sure to check the "Show in tag browser" box.



Another option is to use saved searches. Make a search for each letter you want to find. If you wish you can make the search name hierarchical by adding a period in the name, for example "titles.A" and setting searches to be a hierarchical column in preferences. Using the "Saved searches" button might be easier than using saved searches in the tag browser.

A third more complicated option is to use keyboard searching in the book list. When a column is selected, typing a letter takes you to the next book with that letter in the column. The complexity comes from shortcuts: they take precedence over the search. You would need to change any single-letter shortcuts of which there are many, for example A (add books), E (edit metadata) and so on. You must also check the "Use keyboard searching in the book list".

EDIT 2: The shift key is significant in keyboard shortcuts but not significant when keyboard searching the book list. There are many fewer shortcuts that use the Shift key, simplifying the process of changing them. On my machine there is Shift-A, Shift-K, Shift-M, Shift-Q, and Shift-V.

A possible fourth option: use the Action Chains plugin. If it has an input dialog where you can type the desired letter then it can construct the search. I don't know if it has such a dialog or if one already exists as a module. Ask in the plugin's thread.

EDIT: If you want to make a virtual library from the current search, for example the search from the tag browser, use the shortcut Ctrl + * (be sure to shift if needed to get the *). You can unapply that VL using Ctrl + Up-arrow

[chaley]

For fun and with @capink's guidance I built an action chain that searches the current column for initial text. For example, if you click in the title column and run this chain then it will:

• ask you what character(s) you wish to search for
• find the correct rows (books)
• create a temporary virtual library for the results.

When you run the chain it presents you with this dialog:


Enter the text, 1 or more letters, into the "search_for" box. If you want the search to use the current virtual library, change use_vl to anything except "no". If you don't want the temporary virtual library, i.e. you want only the search, change the set_vl box to anything except 'yes'. The chain does the work when you press OK.

If you've clicked in the title column the chain searches title_sort. If in the series column the chain searches series_sort. If in the authors column the chain searches author_sort.