group by format and/or exclude types

[cybmole]

on tablet I have a mix of epub fiction and pdf reference ( user guides, manuals etc)

I don't really care for seeing them jumbled together on CC shelves, but I don't see how to exlcude say all PDF from a shelf view or how to group by format.

is there a simple way to do that please?

even if I tagged all the PDFs say, as "reference", I don't see how to create a grouping of "all except reference".

I don't want to have to tag every story in my calibre library as "fiction"

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

on tablet I have a mix of epub fiction and pdf reference ( user guides, manuals etc)

I don't really care for seeing them jumbled together on CC shelves, but I don't see how to exlcude say all PDF from a shelf view or how to group by format.

is there a simple way to do that please?

even if I tagged all the PDFs say, as "reference", I don't see how to create a grouping of "all except reference".

I don't want to have to tag every story in my calibre library as "fiction"

There is no way in CC to group by format (extension).

You can do in CC what you describe by creating the equivalent of a calibre virtual library with search for X or not X. Long press on the item X (reference) in the grouping drawer. A dialog will open asking if you want matching or not matching.

You can also create a custom column containing the names of calibre virtual libraries of which a book is a member. You would then add that column to the grouping drawer and use the same technique described above to limit what CC shows to the members of a particular virtual library. The custom column type is "Column built from other columns, behaves like tags" and the template is

program: virtual_libraries()

[cybmole]

ok thanks - so to exclude a format from a shelf view I am going to have to assign a common tag to everything in that format, as a pre-requisite to your suggested work-arounds.

I take it you have no plans to add a "by format" option in the near future ?

On a real bookshelf - you'd surely not muddle your appliance manuals in with your paperback novels- you'd group them into two sections ?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

ok thanks - so to exclude a format from a shelf view I am going to have to assign a common tag to everything in that format, as a pre-requisite to your suggested work-arounds.

A tag, a custom column, a virtual library, some way to know the difference based on content, not based on representation (format).

I take it you have no plans to add a "by format" option in the near future ?

I added it to the wish list. I am not yet convinced that it is a good idea.

On a real bookshelf - you'd surely not muddle your appliance manuals in with your paperback novels- you'd group them into two sections ?

Yes, but this has nothing to do with format and everything to do with content. A manual could be a hard back book, a paperback, pages in a spiral binder, separate sheets of paper, a DVD, 35mm slides, or anything else. It is only by accident that for you PDF is exclusively one thing and all other formats are something else. It certainly is not true for me.

[cybmole]

OK - well I decided to consistently re-title the PDF guide books , in calibre, so that they'd all appear in one place on the shelf.

I thought that all I'd need need to do was connect to content server & CC would then automatically pick up the updated titles - but that did not seem to work. even when I told it to download books it already had, I was still seeing some old titles.

so I went for the quick fix of nuking them all & re-downloading - that fixed it!

but what's my wrong assumption here - when /how does CC update its copy of something like a book title, if it has the book but the title is then altered within calibre on PC.
From somewhere, I picked up the ( maybe wrong ) idea that whenever CC connects to content server it compares it's records to those in calibre & updates as needed ?

To be specific, I edited the displayed title of some PDF books within calibre via the main window, by double tapping the title field & then editing its content.. then I got CC running on the Kindle & had it connect, then disconnect. Was I just too impatient or am I missing something ? there's less that 20 books on the tablet, so a metadata check should not take a long time, surely ?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

OK - well I decided to consistently re-title the PDF guide books , in calibre, so that they'd all appear in one place on the shelf.

I thought that all I'd need need to do was connect to content server & CC would then automatically pick up the updated titles - but that did not seem to work. even when I told it to download books it already had, I was still seeing some old titles.

so I went for the quick fix of nuking them all & re-downloading - that fixed it!

but what's my wrong assumption here - when /how does CC update its copy of something like a book title, if it has the book but the title is then altered within calibre on PC.
From somewhere, I picked up the ( maybe wrong ) idea that whenever CC connects to content server it compares it's records to those in calibre & updates as needed ?

Yes, you did get the wrong idea. Metadata for books on the device is updated automatically when you connect as a wireless device, not when you connect to the content server.

To be specific, I edited the displayed title of some PDF books within calibre via the main window, by double tapping the title field & then editing its content.. then I got CC running on the Kindle & had it connect, then disconnect. Was I just too impatient or am I missing something ? there's less that 20 books on the tablet, so a metadata check should not take a long time, surely ?

That process should work if you connect as a wireless device. For 20 books it should take very little time, a small number of seconds.

When you connect as a wireless device you see several progress dialogs related to updating metadata. First CC asks calibre what metadata it needs, if any, then sends it to calibre. Next CC waits for calibre to do its analysis, then receives metadata from calibre. Only when after those progress dialogs are gone has the process finished.

Perhaps confusing things, there are several reasons why connecting to the content server does not update all metadata on the device. The major one is capability: the content server offers no way to ask if the metadata on the client is the same as the metadata on the server. It also has no memory of what interactions it has previously had with a client. Of course, I could add all that to the content server, but then we get to the second reason: purpose. The content server connection is meant to be a convenient way to do get books onto the device. Connect, transfer, disconnect. It would be extremely annoying if it spent many seconds when it connected checking metadata.

[cybmole]

ok thanks - so if i'd connected as wireless device it would have updated all my changes - I'll try to remember that for next time!