How to Keep Calibre from Scattering Books as I Import Them???

[MarjaE]

Okay, suppose I need to import several books on a common topic.

I import them, I select them, I enter the common metadata, and then Calibre scatters them through the library database before I can enter the unique metadata for each book... How can I keep them together to edit the unique metadata?

I checked the manual and couldn't find any answer there, but I may have missed an answer there.

[eschwartz]

Sort your library on the "date" column?

[BetterRed]

I Mark them as they're Added (there's an option in Preferences->Add Books->The Add Process tab) and show Marked Books with Ctrl+Shift+M.

BR

[theducks]

Give them a unique TAG, then search
tags:<your tag name>

See, all these answers show how many ways Calibre allows you to get from there to where you want

[dwig]

Originally Posted by theducks

Give them a unique TAG, then search
tags:<your tag name>
...

This is what I've done for years. I simply have calibre add NEW ADDITION as a tag during import. I can then search for NEW ADDITION (manually or via the Tag Browser sidebar) to find any newly added books in need of metadata massaging. I delete the NEW ADDITION tag as a last step when I've finished massaging the book. This way I find the occasional book that I failed to finish massaging on some previous import.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Sort your library on the "date" column?

That's my default sort when adding books.

[eschwartz]

Same here.

[DavidTC]

Originally Posted by dwig

This is what I've done for years. I simply have calibre add NEW ADDITION as a tag during import. I can then search for NEW ADDITION (manually or via the Tag Browser sidebar) to find any newly added books in need of metadata massaging. I delete the NEW ADDITION tag as a last step when I've finished massaging the book. This way I find the occasional book that I failed to finish massaging on some previous import.

Same here, but I use _NEW so I know it's not a real tag and so it sorts first in the filter.

[loximuthal]

I do the sort by date as well, plus I have a virtual library called "Needs Metadata" or some such (away from my library at the moment) that shows only books missing all the stuff I add to new books.

[MSWallack]

I created a custom column (yes/no) that I check when I've finished adding metadata for the book. So I can search for books for which my "metafix" column is "no" and get a list of the books for which I need to edit metadata.

[MarjaE]

I don't have enough space for the important columns, let alone a date column. (Title, Author, Size, Rating, #Genre, Series, Tags, #More Tags, Publisher, Formats.) (I need to keep important stuff like "read" tags and "reference" tags in the second column, so I don't want them mixed in the first.) How would I add a tag to all new imports?

Apparently the Windows interface relies on function keys. Although Macs do have function keys, they don't work the same, they require two keys and often two-handed use, and they don't always work where they're supposed to.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

... How would I add a tag to all new imports?...

In Preferences > Adding Books there is a field "Tags to apply when adding a book". Simply enter your chosen new tag (e.g. New Addition, _New, ...) in the associated field.

You can then find those books still needing some metadata massaging by searching for this unique tag, either manually from the search bar or via the tag browser. I prefer this method to sorting by date as it finds older "new additions" that I may have missed (e.g. ran out of coffee after doing 3 of 10 new books and became distracted by a donut, ...).

[Joanna]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

I don't have enough space for the important columns, let alone a date column.

You could use View Manager to create a view sorted by date but with no date column visible.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Joanna

You could use View Manager to create a view sorted by date but with no date column visible.

Switch to Grid view: Right click offers all fields , the 'un'grid view. No PI needed

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

I don't have enough space for the important columns, let alone a date column. (Title, Author, Size, Rating, #Genre, Series, Tags, #More Tags, Publisher, Formats.) (I need to keep important stuff like "read" tags and "reference" tags in the second column, so I don't want them mixed in the first.) How would I add a tag to all new imports?

Apparently the Windows interface relies on function keys. Although Macs do have function keys, they don't work the same, they require two keys and often two-handed use, and they don't always work where they're supposed to.

@MarjaE - in Preferences->Add Books->The Add Process the following settings are available:

• mark books as they are added, Ctrl+Shift+M to Show all Marked Books, I have Alt_Shift+M set to Clear all Marked Books. Marks disappear when a library is closed.
• get a tag added to newly added books, depending on your usage of the Tags column you may want to use a value like !New so that it sorts to the start of the tags. You could create a Virtual Library based on the existence of !New in Tags. The !New will stick until you remove it.

AFAIK the only calibre features that use function keys in Windows (Linux too) are F1 for Help, and F2 for Cell Edit in the Book list (in OS/X its Enter). Here are the default keyboard shortcuts ==>> Keyboard Shortcuts. Function keys can be used in User defined keyboard shortcuts.

BR