Just Updated from 2.78 to 3.15.0, and all seems to be OK

[Bigo2]

However this surprised me:

In 2014 I was trying to motivate the expert people to improve the Calibre with the following addition (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=245434) saying:

…with Calibre database getting bigger it is becoming increasingly difficult quickly reaching the required Author or Title etc. I believe it would be quite helpful to have a permanent horizontal strip of buttons alphabetically organized, just under the main tool bar, something like: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z…

Kovid suggested this:

Use the virtual library feature for this. Create virtual libraries with the searches

title:~^A
title:~^B
title:~^C

and so on, then enable the virtual library tab bar and there you go.

I implemented it (I used Author:~^A etc., not title) and am using it since, even though there are some limitations like e.g. those "Close Tab" Xs on every button (which are easy to click accidentally), which also make the bar much longer…

Over the years this horizontal strip of alphabetic buttons proved to me very useful when listing through an extensive author database and honestly I'm quite surprised nobody tried to implement this handy feature properly, as a selectable bar in Preferences!
Here is the example how it looks (as I said, those "Close Tab" Xs would be quite unnecessary)

[Terisa de morgan]

I dislike so many tabs, really, it's OK for me the tag browser, which gives me the same access. For me, that's a mess.

[Bigo2]

Exactly Teresa, that's what the Preferences are for, aren't they? So apart from the others you wouldn't' enable it!

[JSWolf]

The way I do it is if I wanted to see all the A eBooks, I'd just do the search as I needed.

[Lizj1]

I like it, think I'll copy that!

[Bigo2]

Yes, you will find it very handy! There is so many unnecessary and unused options implemented in Calibre, funny something like this is NOT there...

[Divingduck]

For me the Tag Browser is still the better place as I use VL's for more complex library subsets.

[Bigo2]

Oh Boy. You don't know what you've been missing...

[Divingduck]

Who knows, maybe a wider wall as monitor and a foreseeing KI that knows where I want to look next for all these tabs? 10 m would be fine in combination with a fully automated chair connected to the KI

[peaceridge]

Divingduck, that is also the way I do it. The thing I do not like about it is that as I look for an author, if I leave the cursor on a name for an instant, a popup occurs telling me about that particular item, covering up the next author name. So, I can't just quickly go through the list. Very frustrating.

[Divingduck]

Maybe I missing here something. Can you show a sample screen shot?

[peaceridge]

Ok, I'll try to figure out how to upload.

calibre authors.docx

I was attempting to get to the author Krinard.

[Bigo2]

And this is what I'm talking about:
This can be implemented easily, only if those x's were not there...

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Bigo2

And this is what I'm talking about:
This can be implemented easily, ...

Then why don't you write an optional plugin to do it, sans the 'x's, then those that want it can install it.

BR

[Bigo2]

I wouldn't talk about it here if I could do it...
I just implemented what Kovid suggested (see the 1st entry in this thread) but that's about all I could do. I hope there is someone who would decide to do it, someone who would recognize that it is really handy feature.
Sometimes I think that the clever people participating on the development of a program (like e.g. Calibre) actually don't use it much, and so perhaps sometimes don't "see the forest for the trees".