Calibre update from 1.45! (ha) to 2.42

[sleepy6553]

You read it right. I haven't updated my Calibre since forever! I've been using my original Kindle Keyboard for years and had no reason to update the Calibre because everything was working just fine.

However, I have just purchased a new Kindle Voyage that will arrive today. I'm guessing I'll need to update Calibre to 2.42 to have it recognize the new Kindle. I'm just wondering if that will mess with the plug-ins I have installed already to convert books to MOBI format. I don't want anything to happen to this setup. I would have to dig around in my files to even see what plug-ins I have installed. I'm not much of a techie in this regard and had lots of help setting it up in the beginning.

Also, since I've been out of the loop for years, what other plug-ins are most helpful/popular and is there a place to read about each plug-ins features?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Christine

[theducks]

Normal updates mess with nothing special.

If there is a NEW toolbar item, YOU must choose to add, as Calibre will not mess up your thoughtfully customized toolbars.

Standard Icons may change. CUSTOM icons (those in the configuration folder path), stay

There will be advisories (they are few) here at MR and change notes, when the OLD way differs.

The last biggie was 'T' (Tweakbook now Unpack) Became the shortcut for the e-book editor.

[fidvo]

I recently upgraded from 1.x to 2.x and everything worked almost seamlessly. Plugins won't have to be updated unless you want to, and their settings should all transfer fine.

Most of the changes are cosmetic.

As theducks mentioned, you might see some new icons. If you don't like them, you can install a different theme. Unfortunately, you can't get back the 1.x icon theme.

The close buttons on the Virtual Library tabs are a little annoying. I switched over to the dark blue icon theme so they wouldn't be as visible, but as far as I know there's no way to turn them off.

The height of the rows in the book list has been increased. If you don't like it, you can change it with the "Extra spacing between rows" parameter under Preferences -> Look and Feel. I found that a value of -11 seems about right to set it back to the 1.x row height.

Aside from that, you shouldn't notice too many changes. The rest is new features that aren't in-your-face.

[sleepy6553]

Thank you, TheDucks and Fidvo, for your response. I feel better updating now. I just didn't want to mess with the success I had in the past.

Christine

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fidvo

As theducks mentioned, you might see some new icons. If you don't like them, you can install a different theme. Unfortunately, you can't get back the 1.x icon theme.
.

Actually You can, it is just not automated like Themes

Copy the entire set of icons from the OLDY-MOLDY Calibre2\Resources\Icons
into the configuration folder Resources\Icons

This only changes those the had a 1.X counterpart and T will have a wrong icon

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by fidvo

Plugins won't have to be updated unless you want to, and their settings should all transfer fine.

Actually depending on the age of plugins updates might well be needed. calibre 1.x used QT4 while calibre 2.x uses QT5. Many plugins required upgrades for QT5.

[fidvo]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Actually depending on the age of plugins updates might well be needed. calibre 1.x used QT4 while calibre 2.x uses QT5. Many plugins required upgrades for QT5.

Good point. All my old plugins worked just fine once I upgraded to 2.x, and I stopped upgrading plugins shortly after I stopped upgrading Calibre (because I needed it to run on XP), but I guess by that point all the plugins I used had been converted over to work with 2.x.

However, I can say this: all my plugins upgraded just fine after I installed Calibre 2.x, aside from the Open With plugin, which has a reasonable replacement built into Calibre now. (And the second-to-last version of the Open With plugin, which I had thankfully backed up, works with the new Calibre. YMMV)

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fidvo

Good point. All my old plugins worked just fine once I upgraded to 2.x, and I stopped upgrading plugins shortly after I stopped upgrading Calibre (because I needed it to run on XP), but I guess by that point all the plugins I used had been converted over to work with 2.x.

However, I can say this: all my plugins upgraded just fine after I installed Calibre 2.x, aside from the Open With plugin, which has a reasonable replacement built into Calibre now. (And the second-to-last version of the Open With plugin, which I had thankfully backed up, works with the new Calibre. YMMV)

Open With PI was updated to be compatible, so you might have bumped your version way back when.

Most updated PI work with both QT's

[eschwartz]

Keep in mind that while updating calibre is always nice, you don't actually NEED to if all you want is to connect your Voyage.

Amazon has been re-using their USB IDs, as far as calibre knows the Kindle 2/3/4/Touch/PW1/PW2/PW3/KT2/KV are all the same.

The Original Kindle and the DX do use separate USB IDs though.

[sleepy6553]

Just got my Kindle Voyage and decided to try dragging and dropping one of my books over to it. It worked just fine on my old version of Calibre so I may just keep it as it is. I'm sure there are lots of great features if I update it, but this does all I need for now. Thanks everyone for your help.

Christine

[sleepy6553]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Keep in mind that while updating calibre is always nice, you don't actually NEED to if all you want is to connect your Voyage.

Amazon has been re-using their USB IDs, as far as calibre knows the Kindle 2/3/4/Touch/PW1/PW2/PW3/KT2/KV are all the same.

The Original Kindle and the DX do use separate USB IDs though.

I didn't see your post until I after I connected the Voyage to my computer. Thanks. You are right. No need to update for me.

[fidvo]

Originally Posted by theducks

Open With PI was updated to be compatible, so you might have bumped your version way back when.

Most updated PI work with both QT's

Actually, I updated to Calibre 2.x only about a month ago, and that's when I installed all new versions of plugins. I got errors when switching between libraries, and showing the error log revealed a problem with the Open With plugin. Downgrading to the previous version of the plugin stopped the errors.

But I'm perfectly willing to accept that it might just be my particular Calibre setup (Trust me, I'm using Calibre in ways that were never intended), and others might not have the same problem.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fidvo

Actually, I updated to Calibre 2.x only about a month ago, and that's when I installed all new versions of plugins. I got errors when switching between libraries, and showing the error log revealed a problem with the Open With plugin. Downgrading to the previous version of the plugin stopped the errors.

But I'm perfectly willing to accept that it might just be my particular Calibre setup (Trust me, I'm using Calibre in ways that were never intended), and others might not have the same problem.

I use the current openwith PI on XP (Calibre 2.0) and W10 (latest)
One PI update corrupted the settings, which I restored from a backup

That is it. It woiks (mostly I call Sigil and Paintshop Pro. The latter, less as the ebook editor has a image crop and resize built in)