which books did I edit?

[ardeur]

Yesterday I encountered a problem after I made a BUNCH of metadata edits on the ebooks in my calibre library (30-45 minutes of work). I cannot find a way to tell which books I edited (I can try to guess from memory... eek!), so now I have no idea which books to transfer back to my device.

A few days ago I made a bunch of metada edits, and calibre kept track of those newly edited books by unchecking the box in the "on device" column. I could easily tell which books I worked on, and then transfer those to my device. This didn't happen yesterday, though. Calibre thinks the edited books in its library are identical to the unedited versions on my device.

I noticed that my device, at some point along the way, had ejected, so calibre no longer recognized it while I was making all those metadata edits yesterday. Maybe this had something to do with it?

Maybe there was a more efficient way I should have been doing this from the start? :-(

ETA: I have a nook, and I cannot edit the metadata from the device library in calibre. I have to transfer the books to the calibre library to make any edits.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by ardeur

ETA: I have a nook, and I cannot edit the metadata from the device library in calibre. I have to transfer the books to the calibre library to make any edits.

That is by design, as far as I know. It never worked for me, at least

[kovidgoyal]

You can create a custom column that shows the last modified date and sort on it to find the most recently edited books.

And note that editing metadata directly in the device view is only supported ona handful of readers (most readers do not make their metadata databases available via the USB connection).

[neilmarr]

Edit, Ardeur? Let's get our publishing ducks in a row. You are technically re-organising. NOT 'editing' a work, any more than an online ebookstore 'publishes' a book and returns 'royalties to its author or publisher'. With all due apologies, I'm hitting problems with a distorted new vocabulary. Neil

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Edit, Ardeur? Let's get our publishing ducks in a row. You are technically re-organising. NOT 'editing' a work
...
I'm hitting problems with a distorted new vocabulary.

Not new vocabulary, existing terms to describe items and actions within the calibre program. He was editing metadata via the Edit Metadata window in calibre, anyway you slice it using the term edit under those circumstances is correct.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Edit, Ardeur? Let's get our publishing ducks in a row. You are technically re-organising. NOT 'editing' a work, any more than an online ebookstore 'publishes' a book and returns 'royalties to its author or publisher'. With all due apologies, I'm hitting problems with a distorted new vocabulary. Neil

I think you are using a way too narrow view on the terms.

Who is the 'Publisher'? The Printer who printed and bound the book or the office dude in the city?

Is the person who does the Interior Layout design not also an editor?

my 2cents

[nynaevelan]

Does Calibre do something to modify the last modified date regularly? I created a custom date on last modified date and 90% of my library has a date of two days ago, or could this possibly be due to something dropbox did on a sync??

[kovidgoyal]

The last modified date was introduced a few version ago, any books you added before the feature was introduced will all have the same lm date.

[nynaevelan]

Thanks Kovid

[ardeur]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Edit, Ardeur? Let's get our publishing ducks in a row. You are technically re-organising. NOT 'editing' a work, any more than an online ebookstore 'publishes' a book and returns 'royalties to its author or publisher'. With all due apologies, I'm hitting problems with a distorted new vocabulary. Neil

I am not using the term "edit" according to your narrow definition. I explicity described how I had been editing the metadata for my books, so my use of the term IS correct, especially within the context of Calibre functions.