Collections within collections? Is it possible?

Nightwizard · 04-09-2012, 07:13 PM

Is there some trick or plugin or something that will let me make a collection to house other collections? Right now I have my books collected by series but they're starting to get up there in number and would be nice if I could make "Root" Collections for Author as well so on the kindle when I had it just set to Display Collections it would show the collections for Authors, then when I selected one of those inside would be my collections for series (that were by that author and thus added to their collection).

If that doesn't make sense just think of it like a folder in a folder on windows. On your desktop you have Folder A, inside that you have more folders B, C, and D. So to get to B C or D you have to go through Folder A with A being the primary one displayed on your desktop.

susan_cassidy · 04-09-2012, 07:16 PM

Collections are like tags, and are not hierarchical. There is no way to make them hierarchical.

Nightwizard · 04-09-2012, 07:20 PM

Why did amazon make them tags in the first place and not like, well, folders? Kind of limits the usability of them it seems.

booklover6 · 04-09-2012, 07:55 PM

Yes, it does. I hope they will improve that design for their next model.

susan_cassidy · 04-09-2012, 08:00 PM

Well, for one thing, you can place a book in multiple collections. You could have a book in both Romance and Fantasy, for example.

heeby · 04-10-2012, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by booklover6

Yes, it does. I hope they will improve that design for their next model.

It's just software. They could change it on existing models with updates if they cared to...they don't.

HarryT · 04-10-2012, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Collections are like tags, and are not hierarchical. There is no way to make them hierarchical.

Collections are not merely LIKE tags; collections ARE tags.

Blossom · 04-10-2012, 01:40 AM

I'm happy with what we have because the Kindle Fire doesn't even have Collections.

HarryT · 04-10-2012, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heeby

It's just software. They could change it on existing models with updates if they cared to...they don't.

As has been said, the benefit of tags is that you can classify your book in multiple ways without having to have multiple copies of the book on the device. Tags are the standard way to classify media - eg, all MP3 players that I'm aware of allow you to browse your media using tags (artist, album, genre, etc); I don't know of any which use folders. Amazon are very much following the industry standard here.

HarryT · 04-10-2012, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blossom

I'm happy with what we have because the Kindle Fire doesn't even have Collections.

Unfortunately neither the Android nor the iOS reading app currently support collections. It is a real omission; let's hope Amazon add them soon.

JoeD · 04-10-2012, 08:43 AM

Tags are more flexible than folders, but it'd be nice to have hierarchical tags too, a collection that will contain other collections.

A contrived example,

You could make collections called Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mystery and place your books accordingly (as you can now) then you could also make a collection for each author (books would then appear in both the genre and author collection)

So far so good. However, now you've a ton of collections on the main screen, wouldn't it be nicer to be able to see

* Authors
* Sci Fi
* Fantasy
* Mystery

and only when you open the Authors collection do you see all the authors.

The way I see this as working would be you add a tag to a book as you do now. But, you can also add a tag to a tag. So a tag (collection) on the main screen would show all books that have that tag and also all tags that have that tag. You'd have complete flexibility to arrange books how you like then.

Bit of care would be needed in the implementation to avoid circular tagging

Whilst Amazon could recreate this setup via checking the metadata and adding a fixed Authors category without tag/tag nesting, it that wouldn't be anywhere near as flexible since the above example was just one possible way people might want to setup their books and not the only possibility.

tubemonkey · 04-10-2012, 09:31 AM

I decided to add collections back on my K3. Since I can't organize by folders, I keep it really simple:

books
library books
audiobooks
games/ref

I keep each collection at 18 items or less, so I don't have more than two pages to sort through.

ProfCrash · 04-10-2012, 02:05 PM

Given how long it took Amazon to add collections, I was thrilled that they appeared at all. It would be nice to have collections within collections. Hopefully the next model will have that and page turn buttons. I want my page turn buttons.

Codetoad13 · 04-10-2012, 02:53 PM

One possible options is to use prefix in the collection name.

A. Ringo John
A. Weber David
SF.Classic
SF.Honorverse

In this case A. mean Author.
You can nest this quite deep if you want and still have the advantage of having books in multiple categories.

Wingpeople · 04-11-2012, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Codetoad13

One possible options is to use prefix in the collection name.

A. Ringo John
A. Weber David
SF.Classic
SF.Honorverse

In this case A. mean Author.
You can nest this quite deep if you want and still have the advantage of having books in multiple categories.

Good suggestions -- I guess I'll have to be content with using a schema like this until Amazon is convinced to allow nested folders (categories). Actually, it wouldn't even be that necessary to allow the feature on the devices themselves if we could organize our "cloud" entries (a.k.a. "Manage Your Kindle" on the Amazon site) in a variety of ways.

04-09-2012, 07:13 PM	#1
Nightwizard Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: Kindle Keyboard	Collections within collections? Is it possible? Is there some trick or plugin or something that will let me make a collection to house other collections? Right now I have my books collected by series but they're starting to get up there in number and would be nice if I could make "Root" Collections for Author as well so on the kindle when I had it just set to Display Collections it would show the collections for Authors, then when I selected one of those inside would be my collections for series (that were by that author and thus added to their collection). If that doesn't make sense just think of it like a folder in a folder on windows. On your desktop you have Folder A, inside that you have more folders B, C, and D. So to get to B C or D you have to go through Folder A with A being the primary one displayed on your desktop.

04-10-2012, 08:43 AM	#11
JoeD Guru Posts: 895 Karma: 4383958 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: na	Tags are more flexible than folders, but it'd be nice to have hierarchical tags too, a collection that will contain other collections. A contrived example, You could make collections called Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mystery and place your books accordingly (as you can now) then you could also make a collection for each author (books would then appear in both the genre and author collection) So far so good. However, now you've a ton of collections on the main screen, wouldn't it be nicer to be able to see * Authors * Sci Fi * Fantasy * Mystery and only when you open the Authors collection do you see all the authors. The way I see this as working would be you add a tag to a book as you do now. But, you can also add a tag to a tag. So a tag (collection) on the main screen would show all books that have that tag and also all tags that have that tag. You'd have complete flexibility to arrange books how you like then. Bit of care would be needed in the implementation to avoid circular tagging Whilst Amazon could recreate this setup via checking the metadata and adding a fixed Authors category without tag/tag nesting, it that wouldn't be anywhere near as flexible since the above example was just one possible way people might want to setup their books and not the only possibility. Last edited by JoeD; 04-10-2012 at 08:46 AM.

04-10-2012, 09:31 AM	#12
tubemonkey monkey on the fringe Posts: 45,746 Karma: 158575914 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Seattle Metro Device: Moto E6, Echo Show	I decided to add collections back on my K3. Since I can't organize by folders, I keep it really simple: books library books audiobooks games/ref I keep each collection at 18 items or less, so I don't have more than two pages to sort through.

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04-09-2012, 07:16 PM	#2
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	Collections are like tags, and are not hierarchical. There is no way to make them hierarchical.

04-09-2012, 07:20 PM	#3
Nightwizard Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: Kindle Keyboard	Why did amazon make them tags in the first place and not like, well, folders? Kind of limits the usability of them it seems.

04-09-2012, 07:55 PM	#4
booklover6 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,545 Karma: 14008730 Join Date: May 2008 Location: PA (USA) Device: Kobo Clara, 2E, Libre 1, PW4, PW5, 2022 Kindle, Kobo Libre Colour	Yes, it does. I hope they will improve that design for their next model.

04-09-2012, 08:00 PM	#5
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	Well, for one thing, you can place a book in multiple collections. You could have a book in both Romance and Fantasy, for example.

04-10-2012, 01:40 AM	#8
Blossom Treasure Seeker Posts: 18,708 Karma: 26026435 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Kobo HD Glo, Kindles, Kindle Fires, Andriod Devices	I'm happy with what we have because the Kindle Fire doesn't even have Collections.

04-10-2012, 02:05 PM	#13
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	Given how long it took Amazon to add collections, I was thrilled that they appeared at all. It would be nice to have collections within collections. Hopefully the next model will have that and page turn buttons. I want my page turn buttons.

04-10-2012, 02:53 PM	#14
Codetoad13 Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: Kindle Touch	One possible options is to use prefix in the collection name. A. Ringo John A. Weber David SF.Classic SF.Honorverse In this case A. mean Author. You can nest this quite deep if you want and still have the advantage of having books in multiple categories.

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