Personal Column to tags Column

dunhill · 03-29-2025, 08:52 PM

I'm helping a school manage their library with Calibre, as I mentioned in another thread.
Like everyone who isn't familiar with Calibre, they used an Excel spreadsheet. And they wanted to maintain its structure. They had a column for the book's subject. I initially suggested they use the labels column for that data. They said no, so I converted their Excel spreadsheet to a CVS file and imported it with the settings they requested. Now they're asking if it's possible to convert the data from the subject column to tags. Could someone tell me how to convert it? I tried importing the CVS file by changing the header for that column to tags, but the result changed some things instead of adding them. That's why I'm asking for your help.

Katja_hbg · 03-30-2025, 04:04 AM

Maybe import list will help. But it seems you need to clear the current tag colum before importing, otherwise the values will be appended.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=604

theducks · 03-30-2025, 02:19 PM

"we want it to look (and work) just like our old flat file did"

Calibre is a Relational Database, not a simple flat file.
I peeked with DBbrowser for SQLite.

This is brilliant (I never got past 4th normal form DB work with what I did back in the DOS days) DB structure planning.

Then Chaley added his table tricks (1 being User columns), along with the extra Template stuff. This IS NOT Flat File thinking.

My point is They should specify what they wish to ACOMPLISH, not tell you how to do it. It also helps if you can watch the daily use of the current system to see what actually is involved so you have an idea of where you can include help (lookup) features.

Trying tricks like using {identifiers} to keep track of multiple copies (of the same book) has limits.

Find duplicates will flag multiple lines if you go that route because it only looks at a few fields. That may lead to a improper cleaning

Planning is 100% important to save on High Maintenance (service calls) or frequent complete redo just to add/change a feature.

chaley · 03-30-2025, 04:11 PM

IYou can probably do it with metadata search & replace with different source and destination columns. If the source (subject) requires modification then use template as the source and have the template change the data as required.

03-29-2025, 08:52 PM	#1
dunhill Guru Posts: 923 Karma: 810834 Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Device: moon+ reader, kindle paperwhite	Personal Column to tags Column I'm helping a school manage their library with Calibre, as I mentioned in another thread. Like everyone who isn't familiar with Calibre, they used an Excel spreadsheet. And they wanted to maintain its structure. They had a column for the book's subject. I initially suggested they use the labels column for that data. They said no, so I converted their Excel spreadsheet to a CVS file and imported it with the settings they requested. Now they're asking if it's possible to convert the data from the subject column to tags. Could someone tell me how to convert it? I tried importing the CVS file by changing the header for that column to tags, but the result changed some things instead of adding them. That's why I'm asking for your help.

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03-30-2025, 04:04 AM	#2
Katja_hbg Groupie Posts: 186 Karma: 197760 Join Date: Oct 2015 Device: Kobo Glo HD (landscape), Kobo Aura One	Maybe import list will help. But it seems you need to clear the current tag colum before importing, otherwise the values will be appended. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=604

03-30-2025, 02:19 PM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,270 Karma: 61916422 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	"we want it to look (and work) just like our old flat file did" Calibre is a Relational Database, not a simple flat file. I peeked with DBbrowser for SQLite. This is brilliant (I never got past 4th normal form DB work with what I did back in the DOS days) DB structure planning. Then Chaley added his table tricks (1 being User columns), along with the extra Template stuff. This IS NOT Flat File thinking. My point is They should specify what they wish to ACOMPLISH, not tell you how to do it. It also helps if you can watch the daily use of the current system to see what actually is involved so you have an idea of where you can include help (lookup) features. Trying tricks like using {identifiers} to keep track of multiple copies (of the same book) has limits. Find duplicates will flag multiple lines if you go that route because it only looks at a few fields. That may lead to a improper cleaning Planning is 100% important to save on High Maintenance (service calls) or frequent complete redo just to add/change a feature.

03-30-2025, 04:11 PM	#4
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,525 Karma: 8065948 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	IYou can probably do it with metadata search & replace with different source and destination columns. If the source (subject) requires modification then use template as the source and have the template change the data as required.

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