Finding books with multiple formats

[todwatts]

Need help culling same book stored in different formats.

I have a library of books approaching 4,000 ... I'd like to cull or atleast be able to identify a book that is stored in multiple formats (say epub, mobi and lit).

By scrolling through my library, I've been able to delete some space ... but according to my format count ... I have some 32 books stored in multiple formats ... but for the life of me, I can't find them.

Is there a plug-in or a search method. I have "Find Duplicates" but it doesn't seem to point out the same book, stored in different formats.

Thanks for your help

[lar3ry]

Originally Posted by todwatts

Need help culling same book stored in different formats.

I have a library of books approaching 4,000 ...

By scrolling through my library, I've been able to delete some space ... but according to my format count ... I have some 32 books stored in multiple formats ... but for the life of me, I can't find them.

I would use the format tag in the tag browser. If you only have 32 books stored in multiple formats, it should be easy to do.

Bring up the tag browser, and click on "Formats". This will show you what formats are present.

Click on the format with the least number of entries. This will result in all those entries with that format in the book list.

Click on each one in turn, and have a look at the "Formats" line in "book details".

Delete any unwanted formats using "Remove Books of a specific format".

Repeat for any other formats you want to delete.

[davidfor]

What lar3y said is a good idea, but we can extend it a bit.

If after clicking on a format to display all the books with that format, you CTRL-click (hold the CTRL key down while clicking) on another format, all books for both formats will be displayed. In the search bar will be something like:

formats:"=EPUB" or formats:"=MOBI"

The above show all books with either EPUB or MOBI formats.

If you remove the "or" from that line and press enter, this will change to doing an "and" between the two search conditions. So, it will only show books with both formats.

You can type the search in directly if you want and you know what the search terms are.

[lar3ry]

Originally Posted by davidfor

formats:"=EPUB" or formats:"=MOBI"

The above show all books with either EPUB or MOBI formats.

If you remove the "or" from that line and press enter, this will change to doing an "and" between the two search conditions. So, it will only show books with both formats.

I like it! Works like a charm for Authors (as in collaborations or anthologies) as well, which is something I have wanted to do a few times.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by todwatts

I have a library of books approaching 4,000 ... I'd like to cull or atleast be able to identify a book that is stored in multiple formats (say epub, mobi and lit).

search for "formats:#>1" (no quotes) or for whatever number you want. The hash sign tells calibre to count the number of values instead of looking at the values.

[todwatts]

davidfor>formats:"=EPUB" and formats:"=MOBI"

Worked like a charm! Thanks. About drove myself crazy looking one at a time for the 32 books stored in multiple formats in a 4000 library library.

I know deleting multiple formats are a small space saver ... but I back up my library to various external harddrives ... some of which are pretty tight.

You guys are GREAT!

chaley>"formats:#>1"

Thanks for that! Even though I've used boolean searches in dBASE, I didn't realize Calibre was so powerful.

Thanks for all the help!