How to Change the Author around

[Spur52]

I am really getting into Calibre. Lot to take in. Is it possible to change the way an author is handled? I want the "Author(s)" box to be Smith, Larry and the author sort to be the same way. Which brings me to another question. Right now the author sort is "Smith, Larry". What exactly is the Author Sort for as I can't see it sorted that way anywhere in Calibre or the Catalog?

Thanks

[itimpi]

If you sort on Authors in Calibre, it is actually the value of the author_sort field that is used to do the sort. If these fields are identical then this may not be obvious.

There are tweak settings you can use to define a variety of rules specifying how author_sort should be derived from Author.

[Spur52]

Thanks itimpi. I'm off to the tweak settings.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Spur52

Thanks itimpi. I'm off to the tweak settings.

If you run into trouble here is the section of the manual that refers to author sort.

[Spur52]

I made the tweak alright. The names changed Last, First. However when adding new books the change is not made to them.

Any Ideas??

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Spur52

Any Ideas??

If I had experience in this area I would detail possibilities. However, I do have one radical idea you might want to try. Have have you checked out the area of the manual I linked to?

[Spur52]

Yes, that is where I learned to make the change in the Tweak.

[thurayya]

Is there any way to undo the change to Last name, first name back to First name, last name?

[Spur52]

I have created a small database to experiment with. I have changed back to First name, Last Name waiting for some help.

[itimpi]

Tweak settings should only apply to NEW books. Existing books will be unchanged unless you tell Calibre to re-calculate the author_sort value for them.

If you are not sure what is going on, you should give an example of what you get for a given book for author and author_sort, and what you have set the tweak to do.

[Spur52]

Thanks for replying itimpi - Here's what I have done.
I uninstalled Calibre and all it's values. Reinstalled and created a test library. I then added 2 books, and imported the metadata. The author came back FN LN. The author sort was LN, FN. Then went to tweaks/author sort name algorithm. Changed the value author_sort_copy_method = 'comma' to 'copy' per the users manual:

Note
When changing from FN LN to LN, FN, it is often the case that the values in author_sort are already in LN, FN format. If this is your case, then do the following:

set the author_sort_copy_method tweak to copy as described above.
restart calibre. Do not change any book metadata before doing the remaining steps.
open the Manage authors dialog. Press the --copy all author sort values to author-- button.
Check through the authors to be sure you are happy. You can still press Cancel to abandon the changes. Once you press OK, there is no undo.
Press OK, at which point calibre will change the authors in all your books. This can take a while.

Calibre did make the changes as I wanted. However it did not make the change when I added another new book.

Frank

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Spur52

set the author_sort_copy_method tweak to copy

Calibre did make the changes as I wanted. However it did not make the change when I added another new book.

If you now have the tweak set to copy and you enter ln, fn in the author field then the author_sort will be ln, fn.

So what didn't calibre do?

[Spur52]

Maybe that is my problem. Where do I enter ln,fn? What author field?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Spur52

Maybe that is my problem. Where do I enter ln,fn? What author field?

The author field you see in your main library is the Author field. The author_sort field you don't see unless, in the tag browser, you right click on authors and select manage authors.

The default (without tweaks) is to display Authors FN LN, but sort the library via the unseen author_sort field which is LN, FN. My understanding is you wish to change this default behavior and followed the manual to set the tweak and change you library.

Populating the Author field can be done manually or via metadata download. If you download metadata you will want to check the box titled Swap author names from FN LN to LN, FN under Configure download metadata.

[Spur52]

So am I to understand that the tweak I used is to change existing authors. Then when adding a new book I should make the change in the Author Field (copy Author sort to Author) when I update the megadata? I did this and it works fine.