Suggestion: Convert and Save To....?

[Anarel]

If we're already able to do this I apologize, but if not, maybe this could be implemented?

Right now, if you convert a book, it gets sent to the area where you ebook is. Can we, in addition to that, have a Convert to.... option, where we can choose a different location to send the book or books we are converting?

My reason is this, I'm converting my 200+ book library and if I convert them all the files will get sent to the same space, the only difference being the number in parenthesis next to the title, and after five or six folders trying to figure out if the converted folder is (231) or( 1938) is getting a little tiring...

Also, if I have a quick conversion to do, I'd rather be able to send it straight to my desktop, where I can drag and drop the new file onto my Kindle and go, as opposed to converting it, then going through the whole Calibre Library folder to find it...

[Stinger]

Also, if I have a quick conversion to do, I'd rather be able to send it straight to my desktop, where I can drag and drop the new file onto my Kindle and go, as opposed to converting it, then going through the whole Calibre Library folder to find it...

TIP: Pressing 'O' when you have a book selected in Calibre will open the source files in windows explorer, saving you the need from manually searching through the Calibre folder hierarchy.

You also have the 'Save to' option, where you can dump any selected books to the same directory: 'save to disk in a single directory'.

There IS logic behind why Calibre does what it does with the folder structure, see the posts HERE, HERE, HERE.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Anarel

Also, if I have a quick conversion to do, I'd rather be able to send it straight to my desktop, where I can drag and drop the new file onto my Kindle and go, as opposed to converting it, then going through the whole Calibre Library folder to find it...

I'm kind of unclear on why you're searching through calibre's library folders looking for the book to drag and drop on your Kindle instead of just selecting the book in calibre and clicking "send to device". Am I missing something Kindle-specific here?

[Anarel]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I'm kind of unclear on why you're searching through calibre's library folders looking for the book to drag and drop on your Kindle instead of just selecting the book in calibre and clicking "send to device". Am I missing something Kindle-specific here?

But the problem would still be that the listing in the Calibre library would be the original, not the converted wouldn't it?

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by Anarel

But the problem would still be that the listing in the Calibre library would be the original, not the converted wouldn't it?

The listing will be linked to both the original and the converted. Calibre will send the 'best' one, according to the device driver.

If the original is not a Kindle-friendly format, then Calibre will send the converted file. If BOTH are kindle-friendly, it will look at the priority list, and send the one that has a higher priority. Take a look at the 'Device Interface' plugin for your specific device to to change the list. From a quick look, the default, with descending priority (for the kindle), is:

AZW, MOBI, PRC, AZW1, TPZ, TXT, PDF

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Anarel

But the problem would still be that the listing in the Calibre library would be the original, not the converted wouldn't it?

Calibre organizes books, not files.

The "book" you see in calibre can actually consist of any number of files, each of them in a different format. For instance, I recently bought a bunch of books from O'Reilly, and downloaded both the pdf and epub (where available) formats. Why both? Because pdf is a terrible format for a 6" ebook reader, but it's great for the computer; the ebook reader (a Sony PRS-505) does much better with the epub. So if I want to read it on the computer, I use "view specific format" (alt-V) and pick PDF; if I transfer it to my 505, calibre automatically sends the epub instead, as Stinger explained a bit ago. There's just one listing for the book in calibre, and it uses whichever file what I'm doing actually needs. If I had a Kindle, too, and had prc/mobi books for it, then if I was loading a book on the Kindle, calibre would automatically pick mobi instead of epub or pdf (unless pdf was all that was available).

That's why I keep hammering on the idea that calibre is managing books, and the files don't matter. You don't need to worry about the files your ebooks represent any more than you worry about the tracks and sectors those files represent. Calibre knows what kind of files your device prefers (and you can set the priority yourself) and tends to all the details for you, just like the operating system knows which track and sector to fetch and takes care of that for you.

It takes a bit of getting used to, and it feels kind of weird at first -- after all, you've spent all this time dealing with files, not books -- but it's so much easier to use, once you've made that cognitive jump.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Anarel

But the problem would still be that the listing in the Calibre library would be the original, not the converted wouldn't it?

No, they would both be there unless you did something like a mobi to mobi conversion then only the converted mobi would remain.

Stinger's tip was solid, select the book in Calibre and press o to open the folder containing all versions you have added or converted to. Alternatively you could right click on the selected book and select Open containing folder.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Stinger's tip was solid, select the book in Calibre and press o to open the folder containing all versions you have added or converted to. Alternatively you could right click on the selected book and select Open containing folder.

But why would Anarel want to do either of these? Why not just use Send to Device to send it to the Kindle? It looks to me like Anarel was under the impression it was necessary to find the converted book in the Calibre Library, then drag and drop it onto the Kindle. As WorldWalker pointed out, that's not needed - just use Send to Device.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Starson17

But why would Anarel want to do either of these? Why not just use Send to Device to send it to the Kindle? It looks to me like Anarel was under the impression it was necessary to find the converted book in the Calibre Library, then drag and drop it onto the Kindle. As WorldWalker pointed out, that's not needed - just use Send to Device.

You're absolutely right. I didn't read Worldwalker's recent post. I was just addressing the poster's question. It does appear that the original question was based on confusion of how Calibre works.