Merging book records

[edeniz]

I've got a quick question about calibre's "merge book records" function.

There are 3 options, but all of them a variation of "merge into first selected book". Am I correct in assuming this means there is no way for me to merge books when there are multiple books. As in:

I have right now 38 different books, each with 2 or more formats (epub, html, pdf) because each format has a different style that I liked even if it's the same text. I have at the time added them as new books into the calibre library. But because of the "first selected book" thing, I'm guessing the "merge book records" option is useless for me and I have to do it for each book manually? Or is there a way for a mass merging I'm just not seeing?

Thanks in advance for your help

[theducks]

Merge Books (M key) is typically for the The SAME EXACT book, just the formats were not together

Merge EPUB PI is a tool to combine (EPUB ) books into a single book (collection/anthology)

Create a Custom Series Like Column to allow you to make Groups of versions of a book

[fidvo]

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish, but hopefully this should point you in the right direction.

The "merge book" feature is to merge two or more book records that are logically the same book.

For instance, if you have two identical books, one in epub and one in pdf, you can merge the records so that you end up with only one book, but it will have both epub and pdf formats. The "merge into first selected book" wording is so that you know which book record will keep its metadata when the others are discarded.

Also, a book record can have only one file of each format, so if you merge two epub books, only the "first selected book" will keep its epub file. The other will be deleted.

There's also the EpubMerge plugin, which is designed to assemble multiple books into one omnibus. You might use this, for instance, if you've downloaded the individual chapters of a book as separate files and want to merge them into a single book. It only works with epub files.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by fidvo

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish, but hopefully this should point you in the right direction.
...

I believe the OP is looking for a batch merge function that would batch merge identical titles. e.g. start with 6 entries, 3 "fred's book" each in different formats and 3 "geroge's book" again each in different formats, merged as a batch into 2 entries, "fred's book" with 3 formats in one record and "george's book" with 3 formats in one record.

[edeniz]

Originally Posted by dwig

I believe the OP is looking for a batch merge function that would batch merge identical titles. e.g. start with 6 entries, 3 "fred's book" each in different formats and 3 "geroge's book" again each in different formats, merged as a batch into 2 entries, "fred's book" with 3 formats in one record and "george's book" with 3 formats in one record.

Thank you all for your responses.

dwig explained it better than I did. That's exactly what I want to do, but somehow can't.

[BetterRed]

@edeniz - Given there are only 38 books its not much effort to use the facilities that exist to merge a few formats for each book.

An alternative approach I've used, is to move the 'books' you don't want to keep to temporary library, then change the Add books settings so that duplicates get merged, and then move 'em back again.

And then spend some time implementing a procedure that prevents the creation of 'duplicate' books. This sub forum (Library Management) has a number of threads where members have documented how they achieve this end. Do a sub forum search for 'duplicates'.

For low volumes its easy to add a format to an existing book, either use the Add Books->Add files to existing books option (Shift+A), or just drag and drop the file into the Book Details panel (Shift+Alt+D will toggle its display).

BR

[edeniz]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@edeniz - Given there are only 38 books its not much effort to use the facilities that exist to merge a few formats for each book.

Well, yes, that's true. Such a manual approach was my plan b anyway. But I wasn't sure if I was simply not seeing an already present option for batch merging, or if I was misunderstanding something, so it was better to ask more knowledgeable people first. It has happened a few times for me that I overlooked an obvious option of calibre and needlessly wasted hours of time. So this time, better safe than sorry.

An alternative approach I've used, is to move the 'books' you don't want to keep to temporary library, then change the Add books settings so that duplicates get merged, and then move 'em back again.

Yes, that could work, thanks for the idea. I'd forgotten about that.

And then spend some time implementing a procedure that prevents the creation of 'duplicate' books. This sub forum (Library Management) has a number of threads where members have documented how they achieve this end. Do a sub forum search for 'duplicates'.

For low volumes its easy to add a format to an existing book, either use the Add Books->Add files to existing books option (Shift+A), or just drag and drop the file into the Book Details panel (Shift+Alt+D will toggle its display).

BR

for the tips