Can I sort by author, no authort_sort?

[paprion]

Hi, everyone
I hope I didn't miss the answer to my question in another post. If so, I am sorry...

In Calibre, in the metadata there are two author fields:
Author(s): [first name] [last name]
Author sort:[last name], [first name]

The 2nd field is used in sorting and the first in the appearance of the author names. So, for example, Raymond Chandler will appear as 'Raymond Chandler' but will be sorted before James Ellroy because their last name is used for sorting (Chandler, Raymond).
My question: is it possible to sort by first name without changing the 'Author sort' field?If not, how can I change in bulk all the 'Author sort' fields to match the 'Author(s)' field? (the opposite can be easily done from 'Manage authors'). This is not something I would like to do since it might come handy to sort by last name sometimes but if it is the only solution, I would do it.

Thank you in advance.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by paprion

is it possible to sort by first name without changing the 'Author sort' field?

You can't sort the author column by anything other than the contents of author_sort. You could create a custom column containing the author (FN LN) and sort by that custom column, but then you'd have two author columns. You could hide one.

If not, how can I change in bulk all the 'Author sort' fields to match the 'Author(s)' field?

Highlight all, bulk metadata edit all, use Search and Replace to find (.*) in author and set the destination to author_sort and replace with \1. You'll want to set the Tweak to Copy so it copies author to author_sort without change for new ebooks.

[paprion]

Thanks for the prompt answer

I think this works for me perfectly:

Originally Posted by Starson17

You can't sort the author column by anything other than the contents of author_sort. You could create a custom column containing the author (FN LN) and sort by that custom column, but then you'd have two author columns. You could hide one.

Just to correct a small mistake, in case another newbie like me stumbles upon this post, instead of /1 one should use \1 which refers to the content the parentheses

Originally Posted by Starson17

Highlight all, bulk metadata edit all, use Search and Replace to find (.*) in author and set the destination to author_sort and replace with /1. You'll want to set the Tweak to Copy so it copies author to author_sort without change for new ebooks.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by paprion

one should use \1

Fixed in the original.