Newbie with Queries.....

[OBoyle]

I am a relative newcomer to Calibre. I've been able to answer many of the questions I have by reviewing this forum. There are some, however, for which I have not found an answer. This could be because I'm reading something incorrectly, or I'm reading it correctly and I'm just too dense to understand it. In any event, and in no particular order…..

Is there a way for me to have the” author's” column display as last name, first name? The sort is correct, but I prefer the display to be reversed.

I have many catalog entries for which the publication date seems incorrect. Is there any way to force the correct publication date to be downloaded from ISBN?

On that same topic, if I output a CSV file from the catalog option, the publication date data leaves a lot to be desired. Is there a method to make Calibre, on CSV Catalog output, parse the ISBN Pub date to something a bit more meaningful, and useful to Excel?

Certain covers, display very well in Calibra, and yet fail to download to my Sony 600. I have no clue as to where to start with this problem.

That should be enough for today. If any or all of these have been answered elsewhere in the forum, please accept my apologies, and then perhaps point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

JLOB

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by OBoyle

Is there a way for me to have the” author's” column display as last name, first name? The sort is correct, but I prefer the display to be reversed.

Yes. See the tweak setting for the author_sort field in Preferences.

I have many catalog entries for which the publication date seems incorrect. Is there any way to force the correct publication date to be downloaded from ISBN?

You get what ISBN thinks is the correct date.

[speakingtohe]

Certain covers, display very well in Calibra, and yet fail to download to my Sony 600. I have no clue as to where to start with this problem.

You do have to convert the books for the covers to be downloaded to the Sony 600.
Helen

[OBoyle]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

You do have to convert the books for the covers to be downloaded to the Sony 600.
Helen

Convert then to what? They're already in Epub format.

J.

[OBoyle]

Originally Posted by Starson17

Yes. See the tweak setting for the author_sort field in Preferences.



You get what ISBN thinks is the correct date.

You guys are the experts, but I find it hard to believe that the ISBN system is that messed up.

J.

[ldolse]

Originally Posted by OBoyle

Convert then to what? They're already in Epub format.

J.

Convert from epub to epub.

[OBoyle]

Originally Posted by Starson17

Yes. See the tweak setting for the author_sort field in Preferences.



You get what ISBN thinks is the correct date.

I've played with that every way I can think of. I change it (from invert to copy, etc.) It seems to stick, but has no effect on the display. I guess I just need help, or direction, on how to work with tweaks.

J.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by OBoyle

Is there a way for me to have the” author's” column display as last name, first name? The sort is correct, but I prefer the display to be reversed.

If you mean in the Calibre Library window (rather than on your reader) you can display the author_sort field in an extra column.

• Preferences - Add your own columns (in the Interface section)
  
• Click on the little green plus-sign on the right to add a new column.
  
• In the creation box wich pops up enter:
  

  Lookup name: myauthor
  Column Heading: My_Author
  Column type: Column built from other columns
  Template: {author_sort}

  and press OK. The blue items can be names of your choice. (There may be restrictions with upper/lowercase, I'm not sure)
  
  
• You will then see the field My_Author has been added to the bottom of the list of available columns.
  
• Click on Apply. You will then need to close Calibre and restart it again to see the extra column.
  
• Once you have restarted you can drag-drop the new My_Author column heading into whichever position you want to see it

[chaley]

See these two threads for some help on the process of setting the author_sort tweak.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=102846

and

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99131

[theducks]

Originally Posted by OBoyle

You guys are the experts, but I find it hard to believe that the ISBN system is that messed up.

J.

ISBN is just the NUMBER (Langusge-Publisher-Book_number-Checkdigit)

Info about the title is supplied by the Publisher (or Agent). Every format is supposed to get a Unique ISBN, The only time a ISBN is allowed to stay the same, is when the book just has another print run.
Change anything (except price) in the body, and a new ISBN should be used.

Simply stated: Ordering a ISBN gets you the same Book, not just the same title-Author.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by theducks

Simply stated: Ordering a ISBN gets you the same Book, not just the same title-Author.

Yes.

The OP is complaining about data that Calibre has no control over. Calibre merely fetches the data supplied by the various metadata sources using an ISBN number to identify the book. The user can specify the ISBN number directly, in which case Calibre uses that number, or he can specify other info (author/title, etc) in which case Calibre presents the user with a list of books (having associated ISBN numbers) and asks the user to tell Calibre which book (and matching ISBN number) to use.

If the wrong data is retrieved, it's either because the metadata supplied for that ISBN is wrong (the fault of publisher or the metadata aggregator) or it's the fault of the user for selecting or providing the wrong ISBN number.

[OBoyle]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

If you mean in the Calibre Library window (rather than on your reader) you can display the author_sort field in an extra column.

• Preferences - Add your own columns (in the Interface section)
  
• Click on the little green plus-sign on the right to add a new column.
  
• In the creation box wich pops up enter:
  

  Lookup name: myauthor
  Column Heading: My_Author
  Column type: Column built from other columns
  Template: {author_sort}

  and press OK. The blue items can be names of your choice. (There may be restrictions with upper/lowercase, I'm not sure)
  
  
• You will then see the field My_Author has been added to the bottom of the list of available columns.
  
• Click on Apply. You will then need to close Calibre and restart it again to see the extra column.
  
• Once you have restarted you can drag-drop the new My_Author column heading into whichever position you want to see it

Perfect. That's exactly what I wanted/needed. Not sure why that's not a configurable option, but for now, I'm content.

Thank you.

J.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by OBoyle

Perfect. That's exactly what I wanted/needed. Not sure why that's not a configurable option, but for now, I'm content.

Be aware that the procedure you say is what you wanted/needed did not change the author field. It only displayed the author_sort field. The author field will remain first name first, last name last. When Calibre updates metadata inside ebooks, etc., it will still give you the FN LN format. If that's what you want, that's great (that's the way I'm configured). However, many Calibre users want the author to be LN, FN, and not FN LN, and if you want that order, you need to set the tweak and fix the author field, not just display the author_sort field.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Starson17

Be aware that the procedure you say is what you wanted/needed did not change the author field. It only displayed the author_sort field. The author field will remain first name first, last name last. When Calibre updates metadata inside ebooks, etc., it will still give you the FN LN format. If that's what you want, that's great (that's the way I'm configured). However, many Calibre users want the author to be LN, FN, and not FN LN, and if you want that order, you need to set the tweak and fix the author field, not just display the author_sort field.

But even without the tweak, you can still get the books on your reader to display LN, FN. For my PRS505 I've checked the 'Use author_sort' config option for the Sony Device interface plug-in. I've used the Metadata Plugboard to achive a similar result on my PocketBook 360.