What Customs Columns do you use in your Calibre Library?

[BetterRed]

This is from the Windows version, I'd be surprised if the MacOS version was different:



Last Action is a custom column.

Afterthought : and it's right click the column header, not the column content.


BR

[AndyW1691]

The Mac OS version is different. I can't grab a screen shot as the menu keeps disappearing as soon as I activate the screen grabber. The menu choices on Mac OS are:

Hide column Read?
Sort on Read?
Show column
Shrink column if it is to wide to fit
Restore default layout
Add your own columns
Split the book list

There doesn't appear to be a way of aligning the column.

Andy

[kovidgoyal]

The macOS version is the same. You cannot center non-text columns, such as yes/no columns. Simply shrink the column so that it is just wide enough to fit the tick and cross marks instead.

[Inukami]

Originally Posted by AndyW1691

The Mac OS version is different. I can't grab a screen shot as the menu keeps disappearing as soon as I activate the screen grabber. The menu choices on Mac OS are:

Hide column Read?
Sort on Read?
Show column
Shrink column if it is to wide to fit
Restore default layout
Add your own columns
Split the book list

There doesn't appear to be a way of aligning the column.

Andy

I agree with Andy. The Mac version is different. Actually the option BetterRed mentioned is not available on my Mac or Microsoft version. So maybe it is only available on an older version? Shrink the column doesn't shrink it quite right.

EDIT: It is available for other columns but not the READ or other non-text columns as Kovid mentioned. Is the same for your BetterRed?

Inukami

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Inukami

I agree with Andy. The Mac version is different. Actually the option BetterRed mentioned is not available on my Mac or Microsoft version. So maybe it is only available on an older version? Shrink the column doesn't shrink it quite right.

EDIT: It is available for other columns but not the READ or other non-text columns as Kovid mentioned. Is the same for your BetterRed?

Inukami

I don't see it for Yes/No columns, but seems to be there for integers, floats and dates.

I should have mentioned that screen shot is from version 3.16, which is why you don't see the Split the book list option in my screenshot.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

By non text, I mean icon based numbers qualify as text

[Inukami]

Originally Posted by latepaul

I think I added it because someone else talked about it on here! I do like to keep an eye on how much I am spending. Actually I don't do that as much as I used to. I used to feel guilty if I was buying new books (especially if they might later go on sale) when I had so many unread ones.

I actually run SQL directly against the calibre database to look at things like total price. I work in databases so it's pretty natural for me.

So I have a script called "mr_status", which if I run it now shows me this:

MR Report for Year beginning:    2018-01-01

title       num_books
----------  ----------
Read Books          8
TBR               560

title         num_books   total_cost
------------  ----------  ----------
Money Spent           4   £   14.85
Free Books            2   £    0.00
Cost of TBR         431   £  922.40
Cost of Read          7   £   16.65

NB: counts with prices may be out due to books with no price

So I've bought 4 books this year, spending £14.85. But I've read 8 which cost £16.65 - so that's good because I'm reading more cost-wise than I'm spending. So I've reduced that "Cost of TBR" figure a little bit.

I'm not too bothered by that by the way. It has built up over years. My spending on books is still less than on things like coffee.

You can also see that I read 8 books but only 7 appear in the price section. That's because one (Frankenstein) was a PD title that I got for free.

Actually I've read 9 books this year, but the other one was a re-read and my "read date" column only records the first read. I'm OK with that, particularly when looking at the price. Counting the full price as part of the read when I've read it before wouldn't be quite right.

It sounds like you have a very useful tool in finding out all that price information. I would be very keen to try that but I don't think I can as don't have access to SQL database. You wouldn't by any chance have experience in python and be able to make a plugin would you? Anyway it looks like I will just have to use the export catalog function and then use excel to sort the data I need for price.

Inukami

[Beggar]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The macOS version is the same. You cannot center non-text columns, such as yes/no columns. Simply shrink the column so that it is just wide enough to fit the tick and cross marks instead.

Totally tangential and random but...

Kovid Goyal, you are a freaking bad-ass (which is a compliment of the highest order here in the USA) and you are my hero...

And it's time for me to make another donation to the Calibre cause... {done... 8AN013634P500852D}

Just had to say so.

[travger]

Other Formats: anything else than formats in Calibre - paper, pdf (if i have it, then it's usually somewhere in archives), audio.
In: for single stories that appear also in collection(s)
Pages
Words
Genre: I made it hierarchical, but now am having second thoughts. Science Fiction.Space Opera, Science Fiction.Military, Science Fiction.Romance gets too repetitive and cluttered. Much shorter to have Space Opera, Military, Romance, Thriller etc. and combine them as needed.
Subseries
Metadata check: Yes/No, No means that I checked and didn't find yet.
Original pubdate: I do like to know if i should forgive the outdated feel and old ideas of the story or marvel at author's ingenuity. Pubdate of THIS edition goes to Publication Date field. (Sometimes I have different editions of same thing)
Artist: Who painted cover and/or illustrations
Awards: this is hierarchical column. Nebula.2002.Novella.Nom, Hugo.2001.Novel.Win... In tag browser it's easy to see how many award-winning stories I have for each year. (Collections like "Nebula Showcase" get 1-2 entries for every story)
Contributors: authors in the anthology (Editor will be on the Author field); pseudonym or real name for the author (whichever they didn't use for this book and is not on Author field)
Notes: Miscellaneous info and notes that I don't want in comments. Links to various webpages go there too (FX Gutenberg or Smashwords page).
Quality: If I open a book and don't like the formatting, I'll put down 2 or 3 and it colors the title red. When next I feel like twiddling with a book, I'll find one of those and fix it to my liking.
Read: Yes / No (filled by Reading List plugin, also turns title green)
Read Date: I'm content to know only the last time I read a book
Source: also hierarchical - Baen.Free, Baen.Bundle, MR.jellby, MR.GrannyGrump...
Version: Sometimes is noted in the book

I try to unclutter my tags field and use it for things that are not really categories, like Non-Fiction, Novel, Novella, Short... Vampires, Angels, Time-travel... Historical used to be a tag, now it's a genre. Cookbook could be a genre, but I have only 1 or 2, so it's still a tag.

[yonkyunior]

So far i've been creating and organizing calibre for my books, i tried it to be one library for all books, then i broke it to Fiction, OnlineNovel, NonFiction, and ManualBook. Different Library, sometimes different custom column.


#awards (I dont care if it won in what year or anything, so just stay with Pulitzer, Nebula, Hugo, ManBooker, etc)
#types (ANT, SS, SSC, NVLA, NVLT, OMNI, MAGZ, BundleMultiAuthor)
#superseries
#subseries

Title (#title_alt) alternative title, or different names of the novel in another language.

Authorcolumn (#pseudonym, #editor, #coverartist, #illustrator, #translator, )
in the author i keep the real and pseudonym like Robert Galbraith & J.K. Rowling

#genre (FIC.General, SF.LitRPG, F.Urban, HORR.Comedy, THR.Action, ROM.Adult)
Genre is troublesome, i am not librarian so i think to stick to one site or rules.

#read (Y/N)

#gr_review ( for my review, first created because the goodreads plugin)

#pages, #words for Count Pages Plugin

----------------------------------------
For Online Novel Library
#types (CN=ChineseNovel, WN=WebNovel, LN=LightNovel, KN=Korean Novel, SRL=Serial, FanFic ) for Online Novel
#lc (Last Chapter)
#coo (Country of Origin Status Total Chapter)
#original_language Language of Origin
----------------------------------------
#mytags
[completed], for Online Novel Story Chapter Story Status
!Wishlist, for series gap,
!Unpublished, for empty book waiting list
!NeedReplace, for better quality epub
%UpdatePlease, need update asap


For NonFiction
The Power of Habit : Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
#subtitle : Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
#genre (NF.Writing, NF.Biography, NF.Self-Help)

[Montana Harper]

I have so many custom columns in my profic library. (I also have a fanfic library and a magazine library.)

#onipad and #kindle - Y/N columns that are populated by the Reading List plugin, so I know if I have the book on an external device without connecting it.

#fic_nonfic - Text with a fixed set of permitted values (fiction, nonfiction, poetry). I mask the contents with images of the initial letters using a narrow, bold font so it's obvious at a glance.

#title_plus - For subtitles.

#contrib - I try to keep non-authors out of the author column, so this is where I put editors, translators, illustrators, etc.

#pseud - Because I want to be able to readily find everything by a given author, regardless of what name they wrote it under (e.g., J. K. Rowling vs. Robert Galbraith), I put the psuedonym here and their real name in the author field.

#series2 - Sometimes things fall into two different series. (Why, authors, why?!)

#words - I use the Count Pages plugin to populate this.

#formats - Column built from other columns.

#in_collection - The name of any anthologies an individual short story can be found in.

#category - Column built from other columns. I reduce major genres down to one- or two-letter abbreviations that are appended to the title using a metadata plugboard when sending books to my Kindle. I also show this column in my main view, and I don't show the Tags column.

#overdrive_date - The date when I last ran Overdrive to check for this book from the library.

#ol_wait_audio, #ol_wait_ebook, and #ol_wait_weeks - Columns related to the Overdrive Link plugin to track the wait for audio and ebook format. The first two columns are built from the third, which is the one OL populates.

#hold_date_e - The date I put a hold on the ebook at the library.

#hold_date_a - The date I put a hold on the audiobook at the library.

#my_tags - Custom hierarchicial tag column for random stuff. I keep the main tag column to strict BISAC tags.

#mm_reading_list - Y/N column populated by Reading List plugin. (I think this was originally created by Marvin, back when the Marvin Sync plugin still worked with my iPad.)

#awards - Hierarchical tags for Major Awards.Year.Nominated or Won.

#ddc, #lcc, #oclc_owi, #lcead - Columns created by the LC plugin to store various identifiers (Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress) and extra author details.

#source - Tag-like text. Where I got the book: Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, Author Promo, Humble Bundle, Story Bundle, etc.

#this_pubdate - The publication date of this edition. (I keep the original publication date in the main pubdate field.)

#this_publisher - The publisher of this edition. (I keep the original publisher name in the main publisher field.)

#version - Some publishers include version information in their ebooks.

#notes - This is where I include any external URLs, links to additional information on my HDD (thanks, BetterRed!), etc.

#review - My review from Goodreads.

It's really been interesting (and educational) to read what other people are doing with their custom columns!

[Inukami]

Originally Posted by Montana Harper

It's really been interesting (and educational) to read what other people are doing with their custom columns!

Indeed it has. I have some new ideas to try. Thanks for everyone's input and I welcome more.

Inukami

[DrChiper]

Just curious: There used to be some performance penalty on using lots of user defined columns. Does this still apply?

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Just curious: There used to be some performance penalty on using lots of user defined columns. Does this still apply?

Mainly if they are composed (columns built of other columns), and yes, I think so (POV of a heavy user of composite columns )

[DrChiper]

I'm utterly amazed by all the items people are registering for their books
However, I'm disappointed to see that nobody seems to care to register the cover design artist. And yet, the cover is most of the time the very first contact with any book. Curious.