Problem with user-categories

[Sghrn]

Hi there.

I'd like to put bunches of ebooks into user-categories for university.
Okay, after a while i get a clue of how to handle this. But there is a problem I couldn't solve until now. I'm just unable to put SINGLE books of an author into the user-category. Everytime, calibre takes all writings of the authors to the particular folders.. I cant imagine that there is no solution, right?

[theducks]

Moderator Notice
This is not a Recipe question. Moved

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Sghrn

Hi there.

I'd like to put bunches of ebooks into user-categories for university.
Okay, after a while i get a clue of how to handle this. But there is a problem I couldn't solve until now. I'm just unable to put SINGLE books of an author into the user-category. Everytime, calibre takes all writings of the authors to the particular folders.. I cant imagine that there is no solution, right?

If you put an author into a user category, then you get all books by that author. Same thing for series, tags, etc. Searching for a category finds all books with field:value matches for the items in the user category.

If you want to put a single book into a user category, then you must create a category with unique values for every book. One solution for that is to create a composite column (column built from other columns) with the template "{id}" and the 'show in tags browser' check box checked. The ID is the database ID and is guaranteed to be unique. The result is a category with one unique entry per book. Dragging that value to a user category will effectively add the book to the category, since there can be only one book that matches a given id.

Do note that composite columns can be slow on large libraries, especially when 'show in tags browser' is checked.

[kiwidude]

Another option if you are wanting to just create a "list" of specific books is to use the Reading List plugin. However note that such a list is not "dynamic" in that you cannot have books appear on the list based on them having say a tag, like you can with a User Category. You instead specifically choose individual book(s) to put on one or more lists.

Or a simpler variation if you still want to use user categories is to put a specific tag on the books you want in that category, as sounds like you already have that part figured out. It means altering the metadata of your books or course though.