2nd Author Column - Need help

[Chris_Snow]

Hello,

I'm trying to setup a 2nd author column and I'm not sure how I should go about it.

I currently have two author columns in Calibre - 1 showing First last name, the other showing Last First name.

I'd like to add another showing a 2nd author First last name.

Currently I set my authors to only include original authors. For example - All Star Wars books are by George Lucas so I can sort by author and series and they all show how I want them. But, if there is a 2nd author, I use George Lucas and Others (which denotes a 2nd author but not who it is).

I remember vaguely that when I originally setup authors that is was tricky because a template was involved.

Hope the above makes sense. Thx

[BetterRed]

@Chris_Snow - I think the tweaks that apply to Author Names regarding First & Last names, Initials etc, are applied to all Name-like columns

BR

[Chris_Snow]

I just added a normal comma separated text column with names.That seems to do the job. I'll see how it works out over time. Thx

[Chris_Snow]

Okay, I have what I want...except

2nd Author Column

Lookup name = second_author
Column Heading = 2ndAuthor
Column Type = Comma Separated Text, like tags, shown in browser Contains Names (Checked)

But I want the names to display LN, FN.

Can this be achieved?? Perhaps with a different type of column and a template.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Chris_Snow

...I want the names to display LN, FN.

Can this be achieved??

AFAIK not directly

Originally Posted by Chris_Snow

Perhaps with a different type of column and a template.

Perhaps, and maybe - but I can't see anything obvious in the list of template functions. You could use simple string functions to move the last token to the front of the string. But that wouldn't suit for authors such as 'Madeleine St John', where you'd really want 'St John, Madeleine' as the sort name, but there is nothing like 'Manage Custom Columns' in which to fix that.

Pray tell, what's wrong with putting all the author names into authors column?

BR

[Chris_Snow]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Pray tell, what's wrong with putting all the author names into authors column? BR

The sort doesn't work like I'd like doing it that way. I sort by author then series - this makes all the authors and series stay together - except when you add another author to the authors column.

When a main author starts a series of books, I always use their name (even if it's written by someone else) to keep things sorting like I want.

For eg - all Star Trek books are written by Gene Roddenberry (which they're not) but it keeps the sorting correct. Usually, if another author has written the book, I add "& Others" - like Gene Roddenberry & Others. Keeps the sorting order correct and lets me know there was another author.

One of the reasons I wanted to be able to add the 2dn Author was some secondary authors are better writers than others - so I'd like to be able to search for them.

I'm happy with it as it is at present - need to give it some time to see how it works in reality.

Thx for the help. Much appreciated.