Paste Metadata from (external) Clipboard

[Kelpman]

In Calibre I can use the clipboard to set metadata via the "Copy metadata" and "Paste metadata" menu entries. If I copy the metadata of a book and paste it into an external application like a text editor I get a formatted output of the copied metadata. Copying this formatted text back to the clipboard I'm not able to paste it back onto a book.

Is there any way to create a clipboard entry in an external application that I'm able to paste as metadata onto a book in Calibre?

Regards

Kelpman

[theducks]

In the MDE You can copy Comments: (Normal view) and it pastes into apps like NP++ just fine. OTOH I do not use formatting in my comments so YMMV

The command line tool calibre-db --list can export as CSV, but that may not be convenient to use as a single

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Kelpman

. . .
Is there any way to create a clipboard entry in an external application that I'm able to paste as metadata onto a book in Calibre?

Windows: short answer - No.

The clipboard data being pasted into calibre metadata must have been put there by the calibre copy metadata tool; with nothing in between such as a text editor or a clipboard extender. Why, because it's highly structured data in a format that is specific to calibre; text editors, clipboard extenders etc have editing features.

The above is based on my observations using Notepad, Notepad++, and Clipboard Fusion from Binary Fortress.

I haven't tried pasting from the Windows clipboard history stack, see ==>> How to Enable and Use Clipboard History on Windows 10.

I use calibre's metadata copy and paste several times a day, on most days of the week.

BR

[Kelpman]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The clipboard data being pasted into calibre metadata must have been put there by the calibre copy metadata tool; with nothing in between such as a text editor or a clipboard extender. Why, because it's highly structured data in a format that is specific to calibre; text editors, clipboard extenders etc have editing features.

That reply set me on the right track, thanks!

I actually got it working by reproducing the XML structure of the copied metadata and changing the MIME data to 'application/calibre-book-metadata'. I was able to easily do this in Python (with PyQt6) and it should also be doable in JavaScript (Clipboard API) and other languages as well.