moving to folder without disrupting database

[hotwired]

I have a few instances where I have many books by the same author but they're not in a single folder. I'd like all books by Ernest Hemingway to be in a folder called Ernest Hemingway, for example. In cases where this is not so, can I simply manually create a folder and move books into it or would I be disrupting the database?

Thank you!

[theducks]

In the Tag Browser, simply (right-click) rename the author to what you want
Copy the 'good' one from a book
Then paste it into the Rename box
Calibre will do the rest

I 'normalize' author and series names like this (metadata sources are inconsistent) Be wary that the difference is really the same Author, I have run into a couple that were truly different people

[dwig]

Originally Posted by theducks

In the Tag Browser, simply (right-click) rename the author to what you want
Copy the 'good' one from a book
Then paste it into the Rename box
Calibre will do the rest

I 'normalize' author and series names like this (metadata sources are inconsistent) Be wary that the difference is really the same Author, I have run into a couple that were truly different people

As long as the authors' names are identical, calibre will put them in the same folder.

As to differing authors with the same or similar names, one classic problem pair are Winston Churchill (American author) and Winston S. Churchill (aka Winston Spencer-Churchill, British statesman and author). Some early editions by the latter lack the "S" or "Spencer-". This confusion led the two authors to agree to their respective pen names with the British statesman using his full surname, Spence-Churchill, or later just the initial S. Another would be father and son pairs like the two Alexander Dumas', per and fils.

[lumpynose]

Like theducks I also fix the author's names in the metadata (taking into account dwig's response about using the same folder). Select one or more books by the same author and hit the E key to bring up the metadata editor. And turn on the box for setting the author sort.

The one thing to watch out for is if you have different e-readers. I started with a Kindle, which sorts by the "normal" name, e.g., Abel Winkle is sorted before Zachary Adams. So in calibre I changed all the author names to be in the form of LastName, FirstName, which made it the same as calibre's author sort field. Then I got a Kobo (much nicer than the Kindle) and it wants the names in the form FirstName LastName for its author sort. Argh. Luckily I heard about the Quality Check plugin, which can swap the names regardless of which form they're in.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Like theducks I also fix the author's names in the metadata (taking into account dwig's response about using the same folder). Select one or more books by the same author and hit the E key to bring up the metadata editor. And turn on the box for setting the author sort.

The one thing to watch out for is if you have different e-readers. I started with a Kindle, which sorts by the "normal" name, e.g., Abel Winkle is sorted before Zachary Adams. So in calibre I changed all the author names to be in the form of LastName, FirstName, which made it the same as calibre's author sort field. Then I got a Kobo (much nicer than the Kindle) and it wants the names in the form FirstName LastName for its author sort. Argh. Luckily I heard about the Quality Check plugin, which can swap the names regardless of which form they're in.

You can configure the CONNECTED Kindle driver to use Author_sort, thus leaving Calibre Fn Ln.
( You can NOT configure the driver from Preferences Plugins, Only by right-clicking the Device-view icon)

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by theducks

You can configure the CONNECTED Kindle driver to use Author_sort, thus leaving Calibre Fn Ln.
( You can NOT configure the driver from Preferences Plugins, Only by right-clicking the Device-view icon)

The current save template is

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

Do you mean I should change the 2nd one, authors to author_sort?

EDIT:

As a test I changed the second one to author_sort but that didn't help. With it as it was,with author_sort at the beginning the books are stored in folders with the name LastName, FirstName, but on the kindle in the my books view (home page for me; I turned off the other home page) when sorting by author it's sorting by their first name.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

The current save template is

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

Do you mean I should change the 2nd one, authors to author_sort?

No, there is a tick box that affects the Kindle side DB for authors. (The plugboard also affects internal metadata that K's use)

Templates just affect the File name. They just need to be unique ({authors} by itself limits you to 1 book per as #2 will overwrite )

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by theducks

No, there is a tick box that affects the Kindle side DB for authors. (The plugboard also affects internal metadata that K's use)

Templates just affect the File name. They just need to be unique ({authors} by itself limits you to 1 book per as #2 will overwrite )

The checkboxes I have are

Read metadata from files on device
Use sub-directories
Send page number information when sending books
Overwrite existing apnx on device

This is on a Kindle Oasis, 2018 or whatever the newer one is.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

The checkboxes I have are

Read metadata from files on device
Use sub-directories
Send page number information when sending books
Overwrite existing apnx on device

This is on a Kindle Oasis, 2018 or whatever the newer one is.

Ah! Mines the K4 (the simple Kindle driver)

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by theducks

Ah! Mines the K4 (the simple Kindle driver)

Dern, you got my hopes up!