New Calibre User confused.

[dmcd]

I'm still finding my way around Calibre, and am amazed at the complexity of the software hiding behind a user friendly interface. It really is an incredible achievement and I'm so grateful to the developer.

Please forgive if I've missed something obvious but I would like to know how to configure a couple of things.

I cannot see the point in having two columns on the screen giving publication and whatever the other date is about. Neither of these is the date the original book was published and that is the date I want to see. The actual sequence of publications by the one author is important if one is following the actions of a particular character, but the author has not actually written them as, and labelled them a series. I don't need to know the date it was converted into an ebook, which is meaningless. How do I dump the date columns and replace with an original publication date please? Can I even do this? Can I just get rid of these useless columns to increase screen real estate?

The other thing I would like to have is a column that indicates the format of each entry so that I can see these at a glance and know immediately which ones need converting to my particular reader format and which ones I can just drag and drop in a bunch to my reader. It's such a pain to open every book just to read the format in which it currently exists. I did find instructions online for playing around in the templates to change column things, but it was way beyond my capabilities to do this and then I would have to populate the info in the column manually.

I know I can search for individual formats, but my aim is to eventually have only my compatible formats in Calibre library and the other formats stored elsewhere in case I ever change readers. If I buy a second ereader for another family member that uses a different format, I want to see at a glance if I have both formats of a book in the Calibre Library.

Any words of wisdom please?

Dale

Edit: I think I posted this in the wrong place. Sorry.
[Mods: Moved to main calibre forum]

[Divingduck]

Hello dmcd,
may be I can help you a bit to solve your needs.
To your first point: Two date fields. The second date field is used to see when a book was added into the library. When I update a book, i.e. if I made error corrections I update this field (different needs different solutions). If you do not want to use it you can hide it from the view with right click on the column header and select hide or you go to preferences-->look and feel-->book details or preferences-->add your own column and choose your favorite column view by activating or deactivating.
To your second point: Calibre put all available formats of a book in one folder. That’s how the Calibre library works - everything on one place in the library for one identical book. To have the right selection for the reader you have several methods to get these solve. One is to choose the right formats in the device-template. For seeing in your library only book formats you want, you can work with the tag-browser in the left and choose the formats you want to see. When you hold the Strg- key by selecting your choice you are able to select more then one criteria. Then save this as a filter. You can tell Calibre as well to choose that filter by starting the library. Take a look on the manual, there is a lot more of possibilities.
If you don't want to have some formats in the Calibre library, don't store them into the library or make a second library and leave them there. I do not prefer this way because you have to deal with two libraries but every one need to find the solution what works best for his needs. You can handle everything with a bit of creativity in one library.

[kiwidude]

Divingduck addressed most of your points, but to answer your other query about the published date column. Calibre since v0.8 does attempt with the metadata download to identify the earliest published date for a book, rather than the published date of that specific edition.

However it is at the mercy of the metadata source it pulls from (Worldcat?) in combination with the ISBN associated with the book. I find that "most" of the time it gets it good enough, but yes there are occasions where it is wrong (or missing). Mostly I only notice it when looking at the books in series order if dates stick out, or when comparing the books I have with a site like Fantastic Fiction which often lists in published order. It is simple enough to manually edit the date to put a correct value in such cases.

[dmcd]

Thank you both so much for the clear and concise information and directions.

I am still struggling through the Instruction Manual but wish it was in PDF format so that it was printable for easier digesting without a lot of cutting and pasting. Can't absorb anything on a 'puter screen!

Dale

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dmcd

Thank you both so much for the clear and concise information and directions.

I am still struggling through the Instruction Manual but wish it was in PDF format so that it was printable for easier digesting without a lot of cutting and pasting. Can't absorb anything on a 'puter screen!

Dale

Brand new Calibre installs come with a 'First book' installed: Calibre Quick start Guide.
You can Convert that to PDF.

[jgaiser]

User manual is available as an epub on the Calibre site.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by dmcd

How do I dump the date columns and replace with an original publication date please? Can I even do this? Can I just get rid of these useless columns to increase screen real estate?

You can manually edit the published date column yourself or you can use the download metadata option in the metadata editor to obtain the published date you want for that column by selecting the right version of the book. Certainly you can customize the columns that show up, check out this blog or the video tutorial for ways to customize the columns.

The other thing I would like to have is a column that indicates the format of each entry so that I can see these at a glance and know immediately which ones need converting to my particular reader format and which ones I can just drag and drop in a bunch to my reader. It's such a pain to open every book just to read the format in which it currently exists. I did find instructions online for playing around in the templates to change column things, but it was way beyond my capabilities to do this and then I would have to populate the info in the column manually.

One of the custom column templates is 'formats', it's very easy to add a custom column for it, see the blog I linked above.

I know I can search for individual formats, but my aim is to eventually have only my compatible formats in Calibre library and the other formats stored elsewhere in case I ever change readers. If I buy a second ereader for another family member that uses a different format, I want to see at a glance if I have both formats of a book in the Calibre Library.

Storing formats in other places is unnecessary, the calibre database is capable of storing multiple formats for every book and it can send the compatible format to each device.

[Gardenman]

Even though I have been using Calibre a while I still learn something every time I read new users questions.

I have a question of my own. In a yes/no column is is possible to center the check marks under the column headers?

[Synamon]

deleted

[dmcd]

This is just the best help, and nobody has any exasperated sniping over a beginner's query that old hands must have answered countless times. Many thanks everybody.

I did naturally read the Calibre Quick Start Guide, but it was very basic and so I foolishly deleted it as I had found the other manual online. I first installed it many months ago, well before I bought (and returned as being unreadable) my first ereader in early December.

Off to print out the manual. I had been unable to find it in PDF form. Thanks for the link.

Cheers,

Dale

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dmcd

This is just the best help, and nobody has any exasperated sniping over a beginner's query that old hands must have answered countless times. Many thanks everybody.

I did naturally read the Calibre Quick Start Guide, but it was very basic and so I foolishly deleted it as I had found the other manual online. I first installed it many months ago, well before I bought (and returned as being unreadable) my first ereader in early December.

Off to print out the manual. I had been unable to find it in PDF form. Thanks for the link.

Cheers,

Dale

Never fear
There is a copy still on your computer in the Program's, resources folder.
(nothing is safe from the prying eyes of 'theduck' )

\opt\calibre\resources\quick_start.epub
or
/Program Files/calibre2/resources/quick_start.epub

Just drag that to the Calibre window