What are "Series & Collections" exactly?

[RodRiquez]

Hi there!
I'm just looking for some clarification about "series" & "collections" & what the difference is.

I saw the sticky thread about Shelves (i presume this is an alternate name for Series?) but that doesn't really explain what these are, it was more of a Calibre tutorial.

I understand that "Collections" are a device-based way to organise books, as I am able to use my Clara to select a book & add it to a Collection.

I dont seem to make use of the "Series" feature & dont see any options to add books to series or create them.
Therefore, I was wondering if Series might be a book-based way to organise?
Can I edit the epub xml content to tag certain books as belonging to a series?

Thanks for your explanations.

[davidfor]

"Shelves" was the original name for "Collections". They were basically book shelves. But, as you can put books in more than one shelf on the device, collections makes more sense. But, they are really just a way to organise books together. How you do that is up to you. You create a collection, then you add a book to it.

"Series" are for books in a series. Such as the Harry Potter books. They have a series name, and there is a number for the order within the series. The series information has to come from elsewhere. Kobo populates it for books for books you buy from there. But, they do not read the series info from the book metadata. That can come from calibre when the device is connected, or using NickelSeries.

The information you read is a tutorial for how to create collections, and to a lesser extent, series on the device using calibre. The reason for this is that you can create collections on the device, but, it takes time. Doing it from calibre is a lot quicker. And most of the mentions of series is because before Kobo added the Series tab, using collections for series was popular.

[ownedbycats]

Question: Is there a reason "shelves" is still in use in Kobo Utilities? ('didn't feel like changing them' is as valid an answer as any )

[RodRiquez]

Perfect davidfor, thank you!
That is exactly the clarification I was looking for.

I have used Calibre but I dont really like that app. Instead I use Sigil.

In this case Ill probably forget about "Series", its device-based & harder to access/edit than collections, so doesn't feel worth the effort in my usage. But thank you for the explanation.

It's a shame Kobo doesnt offer a xml tag way to organise, users could add horror, sci-fi or whatever. But thats a discussion for another topic.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by RodRiquez

I have used Calibre but I dont really like that app. Instead I use Sigil.

Hmmm.... calibre and Sigil are two very different programs. calibre is primarily intended for organizing and managing your ebook collection while Sigil is an epub editor. For editing, I personally use Sigil as my primary editor but calibre's editor makes some tasks easier to accomplish.

Using calibre allows me to edit the series information and have it sent to my Kobo ereaders automatically. I prefer search instead of worrying about directory structures or collections. I also found collections less and less useful when the number of collections grew to the point when I started to need search to find a collection so I now have 1 collection for finished books.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by RodRiquez

It's a shame Kobo doesnt offer a xml tag way to organise, users could add horror, sci-fi or whatever. But thats a discussion for another topic.

I do add horror, science fiction and so forth, and series, using Calibre.

I too use Sigil to edit my ebooks. But owning a Kobo and not using Calibre to load books on it is like intentionally handicapping yourself.

[Sirtel]

Are there any advantages of using Sigil vs the calibre editor? I used Sigil a few times years ago, but didn't find it to be more useful than the calibre editor, which I've happily been using since it was introduced. Granted, my editing needs are not that huge. Or is it the case of familiarity? I guess many have been using Sigil since before Calibre acquired its editor.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Are there any advantages of using Sigil vs the calibre editor? I used Sigil a few times years ago, but didn't find it to be more useful than the calibre editor, which I've happily been using since it was introduced. Granted, my editing needs are not that huge. Or is it the case of familiarity? I guess many have been using Sigil since before Calibre acquired its editor.

For me, familiarity. I used Sigil before there was a Calibre editor.

I tried the editor, but didn't like it. Mainly because it was just close enough yet just different enough to be frustrating.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I tried the editor, but didn't like it. Mainly because it was just close enough yet just different enough to be frustrating.

Yeah, I felt the same way about Sigil.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, I felt the same way about Sigil.

I'd likely agree if I started with the Calibre editor in the first place. Just whatever you used first, I guess.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'd likely agree if I started with the Calibre editor in the first place. Just whatever you used first, I guess.

Like you, I changed to the calibre editor when it was introduced and because it looked like Sigil development was stopping. I didn't change back because I the way Sigil automatically rearranged the files caused some problems elsewhere. While that has changed, I am used to the calibre editor, so see no reason to change.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by RodRiquez

In this case Ill probably forget about "Series", its device-based & harder to access/edit than collections, so doesn't feel worth the effort in my usage. But thank you for the explanation.

It's a shame Kobo doesnt offer a xml tag way to organise, users could add horror, sci-fi or whatever. But thats a discussion for another topic.

It isn't completely Kobo's fault. Kobo reads the metadata from the epubs using the standards of the time. That standard did not include the series information. So, there was no way for Kobo to get the information. The way calibre does series info in epub2 is close to a de facto standard, but, it would be difficult to justify in a commercial product like these.

The epub3 standards added a way to define series information. They haven't updated to using that. Maybe if enough people push them, they will. There would still be issues with the Series tab as that is not done directly from the visible series info.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Question: Is there a reason "shelves" is still in use in Kobo Utilities? ('didn't feel like changing them' is as valid an answer as any )

Honestly, I had completely forgotten them. One should be removed, and the other two are things I never use, so don't notice. I'll fix them. Sometime.

But, somehow I think you would prefer me to finish something to allow choice of "to kepub or not to kepub" to happen when sending a book. And it will give you another opportunity to break templates, so you should be twice as happy

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Are there any advantages of using Sigil vs the calibre editor? I used Sigil a few times years ago, but didn't find it to be more useful than the calibre editor, which I've happily been using since it was introduced. Granted, my editing needs are not that huge. Or is it the case of familiarity? I guess many have been using Sigil since before Calibre acquired its editor.

I like the way Clipping and Saved searches are accessed in Sigil (nothing to do with how they perform). ( I also have many saved items and no simple converter )

I start with Calibre's Editor to run / Fix the code errors, I also like the Spell Check functionality a bit better.
The one thing I like about Calibres Saved Search is You can save ALL the modes used, not just the terms.

So I start with Calibre , then Sigil. For poorly created book (lousy TOC, poor OCR spelling), I may do a few cycles of these.
We then to favor what we start with (Sigil), but still embrace newer stuff when better. So I will continue to use BOTH.