The Modern Reader - A guide to getting more out of Calibre in Windows 7

[rollercoaster]

Hi all, (First off, this is not a praise thread for Windows 7 )

This will be a ongoing project of mine to customize win7 and calibre such that the already awesome software is more tightly integrated and easier to use. I also want to highlight advanced features that a casual user may not otherwise use. I will post various customizations in individual posts further in this thread and list the permalink for those posts here. Here goes nothing...

Issues : (also on my blog)

1. Jumplist for Caliber (With multiple libraries)
2. Adding Calibre's library to the search indexer and effectively using it

In the think tank (very long term so please be very very patient)

1. Integrating Calibre with Windows 7's Federated search (this is a long term goal as it will require me to write an app to bridge Win7 and calibreDB unless caibre can provide ATOM/RSS see Open Search. see intro video)
2. Quick Launch utility with keyboard shortcut to quickly open an ebook in the correct reader. This would actually be already there if the above is implemented. (see ticket)

Please let me know how u like it and suggestions are welcome

[Knipfty]

I look forward to future posts. As I use both on my laptop and keep a copy at home as a backup.

[rollercoaster]

Jumplist for Calibre: The eBook Management Software

From my blog. See the original post for more personal commentary

Aim : Facilitate launching of calibre and related tools with different start parameters.

Side effects : Multiple libraries, Integration in Windows 7 using Jumplist feature, Easy of launching and grouping calibre related links

Requirements: Calibre eBook Management Software, Windows 7, Hedgehog’s JumplistLauncher (Download 476.6 KB), (Administrator Privileges may be required based on the location of the installation of the launcher)

Limitations: Only runs on Windows 7

Setting Up Icons:

1. Open Explorer with Ctrl+Shift to start it in Admin mode and Navigate to calibre’s installation directory (usually C:\Program Files\Calibre2)
2. Create a new folder and Extract JumplistLauncher e.g. C:\Program Files\Calibre2\Jumplist (power user tip: can be anywhere, can have multiple installs)
3. Right Click on JumplistLauncher.exe and select “Create Shortcut”. Select yes when asked to place on desktop. You can optionally cut-paste the shortcut back in the jumplist folder.
4. Rename the shortcut to “Calibre E-Book Management”. Optionally change it’s Icon to use calibre’s. See tutorial to change icon here
5. Right click the shortcut and select “Pin to Start Menu”
6. Right click the shortcut and select “Pin to Taskbar” (drag the icon to your preferred location)
7. The Icons should appear on you task bar as well as in start menu. Congratulations you are half done.

Setting up Jumplist items:

1. Press Ctrl+Shift and Click on the new icon to start the JumplistLauncher interface in admin mode. (Don’t worry if yours is empty, We are going to create these links.)
   
   
   
2. Add Items to the jump list
   1. Click the ‘Add File’ button to create a new item.
   2. Browse to calibre’s executable (C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe) and press ‘Open’
   3. In the ‘Selected Entry’ field group you can specify the name of you choice. for e.g ‘Calibre’
   4. In the ‘Parameters’ field add command line configuration parameters.
      1. To launch calibre with another library location then default enter “--with-library <path>” where <path> is the path to that library e.g. "E:\Books" (the path must be in quotes. thanks to @Fith)
      2. To add a URL (for e.g. a friend’s content server) use a browser’s exe for the file and the URL for the parameter. For e.g. I used Firefox with is normally located at C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
      3. Add Calibre-server.exe to easily start your content server. see available params
      4. If you have a skydrive, network backup etc, you can specify it’s path for the library
      5. If you use the various modular executable in calibre’s directory, create batch files for common tasks and add them by creating a shortcut with the Run minimised option
   5. Optionally change the icon of the jump list item by pressing the icon button.
3. Use the ‘Add Group’ button to great sections in the list. To edit a group’s name click on it in the list and it changes to a editable textbox.
4. Selecting one of the checkboxes in the list makes it the default launch operation when clicking on the icons we added to the task bad and start menu. If none is selected then this configuration window opens up.
5. Press the ‘Update Jumplist’ button to same you options and update the jump list without restarting the launcher.
6. Exit the configuration window and you are done!

I hope this is a very helpful tutorial and will go a long way to utilizing calibre to its full potential. I will be create more posts and tutorials in the future so please send me feedback on my blog or here.

[rcuadro]

I just want to say... THIS IS BLOODY BRILLIANT!!!!! Simply brilliant!
and almost, not quite though, makes me wish that I was on a Win7 machine vice Snow Leopard

[CleverClothe]

Sweet! I was so wanting jumplist integration. Thanks.

Another important wishlist item I have is for book meta data to be applied to the file metadata in Windows. Unfortunately, we first have to figure out how to tell Windows to allow the other categories of metadata for ebook files.

[Fith]

I thought, 'Jump lists and multiple libraries, what a great idea'!

BUT:

How did you get Calibre to use multiple databases/libraries? When I tried chnaging the database path in Preferences, it just moved the current books and copied the database.

Tried searching 'multiple database' and 'multiple libraries' but nothing telling you how its done turns up. If its in the manual please tell me where as I cant see it there either.

[itimpi]

It moves the library if there is not already a library at the specified location and you are changing the library location via the GUI. If there is already a library at the given location it switches to using it.

I think if you start with the --with-library option it might create a new one at the specified location if it does not already exist regardless of whether you have another library elsewhere. Easy enough to try it to check.

[Fith]

I thought that was what I was doing with the Jump Lists.

Do you add that to the end of the 'Target' field of a shortcut?

[rollercoaster]

@rcuadro @CleverClothe thanks guys. it is a lot of fun launching with a jumplist

@Fith well the functionality is totally calibre's. This is just to facilitate launching stuff sorry if the title is misleasing and like @itimpi said, it create a empty library(database file) in the folder if there isn't one already. I haven't tried pointing it to a non-existent location but it works great with an existing one!

[Fith]

Then I posted in the wrong thread, as it is not creating an empty DB but moving the current books and DB to the new location.

I'll start a new thread and ask there.

[Fith]

It now appears to work if I put the <path> in quotes.

[itimpi]

The quotes will be required if you have any spaces in the path name. They can be omitted if you do not.

[nohmi2]

Many thanks.

Cheers

[kovidgoyal]

@rollercoaster: Cool idea, useful for people that want multiple libraries.

[rollercoaster]

@Fith thanks for the info buddy. sorry for me lack of testing

@kovidgoyal You just keep adding more cool capabilities to calibre and I am the happiest bugger alive you may be interested is these:

1. Integrating Calibre with Windows 7's Federated search (this is a long term goal as it will require me to write an app to bridge Win7 and calibreDB unless caibre can provide ATOM/RSS see Open Search. see intro video) (should I create a ticket?)
2. Quick Launch utility with keyboard shortcut to quickly open an ebook in the correct reader. This would actually be already there if the above is implemented. (see ticket)