Author Sort

JeffGeorge · Yesterday, 11:20 AM

I believe this is something that was a standard part of the Calibre GUI.

In the left pane of my screen is an Authors section. This opens up to a submenu of each letter. Inside each letter (A, B, C, etc.) is alphabetized list of authors and how many books I have by that author. It is sorted by last name. This is great except it's displayed as First Name, Last Name. Is there a way to make it display as Last Name, First Name instead?

theducks · Yesterday, 12:45 PM

Not that I know of.
It may be a generation thing (those that grew up with Phonebooks and card catalogs).So I can handle Library order, Ln,Fn or Fn Ln w Ln sort.
I just look at the part that is obviously 'Ordered'

JeffGeorge · Yesterday, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Not that I know of.
It may be a generation thing (those that grew up with Phonebooks and card catalogs).So I can handle Library order, Ln,Fn or Fn Ln w Ln sort.
I just look at the part that is obviously 'Ordered'

That's what I do, as well, though I don't remember our card catalogues or phone books ever displaying FirstName, LastName. Regardless, my mind is currently conditioned to be slower at looking for a substring of a text object instead of a left-to-right sort sequence.

Sirtel · Yesterday, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffGeorge

That's what I do, as well, though I don't remember our card catalogues or phone books ever displaying FirstName, LastName. Regardless, my mind is currently conditioned to be slower at looking for a substring of a text object instead of a left-to-right sort sequence.

You can arrange your authors to display Last Name, First Name with the help of the Quality Check plugin. Of course they'll display that way in the library list as well.

JeffGeorge · Yesterday, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can arrange your authors to display Last Name, First Name with the help of the Quality Check plugin. Of course they'll display that way in the library list as well.

I may not mind that because I'm not sure where the library list is. I use a layout of book covers as my center screen, and I only see the author's name on the book cover.

theducks · Yesterday, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can arrange your authors to display Last Name, First Name with the help of the Quality Check plugin. Of course they'll display that way in the library list as well.

This is why the Forum is so great. I was thinking that the Library view was as wanted and the OP wanted the Tag Browser different

Sirtel · Yesterday, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

This is why the Forum is so great. I was thinking that the Library view was as wanted and the OP wanted the Tag Browser different

Yeah, I don't think you can do that.

Sirtel · Yesterday, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffGeorge

I may not mind that because I'm not sure where the library list is. I use a layout of book covers as my center screen, and I only see the author's name on the book cover.

Only bear in mind that if you use calibre to send books to a Kobo eink reader, then your Kobo won't like the author names to be LN, FN - it wants them to be FN LN.

Personally I use LN, FN in my main library and FN LN in a separate sub-library, and use the latter for interaction with my Kobos.

JeffGeorge · Yesterday, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Only bear in mind that if you use calibre to send books to a Kobo eink reader, then your Kobo won't like the author names to be LN, FN - it wants them to be FN LN.

Personally I use LN, FN in my main library and FN LN in a separate sub-library, and use the latter for interaction with my Kobos.

Uh oh. I think my Kobo is a Kobo Plus. However, I'm still not sure what interface you are looking at when you refer to the "main library." As I noted previously, the only way I see any author name is if it's on the displayed book cover or I use the Authors multi-level dropdown on the pane to the left of that center panel.

Sirtel · Yesterday, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffGeorge

Uh oh. I think my Kobo is a Kobo Plus. However, I'm still not sure what interface you are looking at when you refer to the "main library." As I noted previously, the only way I see any author name is if it's on the displayed book cover or I use the Authors multi-level dropdown on the pane to the left of that center panel.

In the lower right corner of the main window there should be an icon labeled "Layout". Click on it and then on Cover Grid/Hide. Now you should see the library list.

JeffGeorge · Yesterday, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

In the lower right corner of the main window there should be an icon labeled "Layout". Click on it and then on Cover Grid/Hide. Now you should see the library list.

So that's where that is! I kind of like having that down there now that I look at it. But if changing it's going to be an issue for my Kobo, I'll just fall back to the old scan for last name in the author list instead of creating multiple libraries. I probably could actually just use the filter field to find the author I'm looking for faster, any way, instead of scrolling through the letter the surname starts with.

Sirtel · Yesterday, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffGeorge

So that's where that is! I kind of like having that down there now that I look at it. But if changing it's going to be an issue for my Kobo, I'll just fall back to the old scan for last name in the author list instead of creating multiple libraries. I probably could actually just use the filter field to find the author I'm looking for faster, any way, instead of scrolling through the letter the surname starts with.

Yes, Kobo readers want FN LN or the authors will be all messed up on the device.

retiredbiker · Yesterday, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, Kobo readers want FN LN or the authors will be all messed up on the device.

How will it be messed up? I've used LN, FN in all my Calibre libraries forever...that is I keep the "Author" and "Author Sort" both the same. So everything displays in Calibre as LN, FN.

I send books to my Kobo, and look in My Books, and there is the list, sorted and labelled as LN, FN. I've never had a problem with it.

Sirtel · Yesterday, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

How will it be messed up? I've used LN, FN in all my Calibre libraries forever...that is I keep the "Author" and "Author Sort" both the same. So everything displays in Calibre as LN, FN.

I send books to my Kobo, and look in My Books, and there is the list, sorted and labelled as LN, FN. I've never had a problem with it.

In the Books tab, yes. Go to the Authors tab on your Kobo. What do you see there?

Even worse mess will result if you have books written by more than one author.

CAIArchive · Yesterday, 07:33 PM

May or may not be what you are looking for but
Preferences > Tweaks > (search for author sort)
On the left side you will see your results. You might try "Author sort name algorithm" > under edit tweak (bottom center) "author_sort_copy_method" maybe try invert?
The left side option below the above might also be useful "categories_use_field_for_author_name = 'author_sort'"

Yesterday, 11:20 AM	#1
JeffGeorge Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2013 Device: Kobo	Author Sort I believe this is something that was a standard part of the Calibre GUI. In the left pane of my screen is an Authors section. This opens up to a submenu of each letter. Inside each letter (A, B, C, etc.) is alphabetized list of authors and how many books I have by that author. It is sorted by last name. This is great except it's displayed as First Name, Last Name. Is there a way to make it display as Last Name, First Name instead?

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Yesterday, 12:45 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,280 Karma: 62000000 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Not that I know of. It may be a generation thing (those that grew up with Phonebooks and card catalogs).So I can handle Library order, Ln,Fn or Fn Ln w Ln sort. I just look at the part that is obviously 'Ordered'

Yesterday, 07:33 PM	#15
CAIArchive Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2025 Device: Android Tablet	May or may not be what you are looking for but Preferences > Tweaks > (search for author sort) On the left side you will see your results. You might try "Author sort name algorithm" > under edit tweak (bottom center) "author_sort_copy_method" maybe try invert? The left side option below the above might also be useful "categories_use_field_for_author_name = 'author_sort'"