Shortcut for Jumping to Author (starting letter)?

trumphodge · 03-31-2016, 11:35 AM

As my Calibre library gets bigger, it would be very useful to have a Keyboard Shortcut to "jump" to a letter of the alphabet for an author. My library always opens in alphabetical order by author--I think this is the default. If I want to go to books by Henry James, for example, I have to scroll down to find the J's-- a lot of scrolling. I know I can drag the slider down at the right side, but that's very inexact. It would be great to be able to hit a keyboard shortcut and jump to the J's. Does it exist? Can a user create this?

Thanks for any help--

kovidgoyal · 03-31-2016, 11:46 AM

There is no shortcut as such, but simply typing the following

/authors:~^J

Then press enter

will restrict your calibre book list to only books that have an author whose name starts with J

You can then sue any hotkey program like auto hotkey to create your own shortcut for this.

Similarly, if you want to look for authors whose last name starts with J

/author_sort:~^J

The leading slash focuses the search box in calibre.

Although, since you say you want to search for books by Henry James, just type

/authors:James

or more precise

/authors:"=Henry James"

trumphodge · 03-31-2016, 07:13 PM

Thank you for those suggestions--

fidvo · 04-01-2016, 12:30 PM

Any reason you can't just use the Tag Browser to jump to the right author? I believe by default it categorizes the authors by the first letter of their last name once the list of authors gets big enough. These are parameters you can set in the preferences.

So for instance, in the tag browser select Authors -> J -> James, Henry

It's not a keyboard shortcut, but it's still pretty quick.

03-31-2016, 11:35 AM	#1
trumphodge Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: kindle	Shortcut for Jumping to Author (starting letter)? As my Calibre library gets bigger, it would be very useful to have a Keyboard Shortcut to "jump" to a letter of the alphabet for an author. My library always opens in alphabetical order by author--I think this is the default. If I want to go to books by Henry James, for example, I have to scroll down to find the J's-- a lot of scrolling. I know I can drag the slider down at the right side, but that's very inexact. It would be great to be able to hit a keyboard shortcut and jump to the J's. Does it exist? Can a user create this? Thanks for any help--

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03-31-2016, 11:46 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,345 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	There is no shortcut as such, but simply typing the following /authors:~^J Then press enter will restrict your calibre book list to only books that have an author whose name starts with J You can then sue any hotkey program like auto hotkey to create your own shortcut for this. Similarly, if you want to look for authors whose last name starts with J /author_sort:~^J The leading slash focuses the search box in calibre. Although, since you say you want to search for books by Henry James, just type /authors:James or more precise /authors:"=Henry James"

03-31-2016, 07:13 PM	#3
trumphodge Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: kindle	Thank you for those suggestions--

04-01-2016, 12:30 PM	#4
fidvo Addict Posts: 309 Karma: 1645952 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: none	Any reason you can't just use the Tag Browser to jump to the right author? I believe by default it categorizes the authors by the first letter of their last name once the list of authors gets big enough. These are parameters you can set in the preferences. So for instance, in the tag browser select Authors -> J -> James, Henry It's not a keyboard shortcut, but it's still pretty quick.

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