Searching for series by author name on device

Pixelpuncher · 11-02-2013, 11:23 AM

Hi, I just bought my first Kobo (a Kobo Aura HD) and I'm trying to organize my (sideloaded) books, and specifically series, in a way to easily find them again on the Kobo. These are my experiences up till now, I'm hoping someone can help me get past some of the obstacles and maybe this post will be of some use to other (potential) Kobo users.

Here is what I've done so far:

I've organized my library in Calibre (also first time using that) making sure all the metadata is correct, adding series info etc.
I'm using the Kobo touch extended plugin to send the books to the device as kepubs and to create shelves for series.
I'm using the the Kobo utilities plugin to sort the books in the series shelves by number in the series. ( Two questions about that actually: 1: is there a way to do this automatically? 2: is there a way to always sort by series index first, then title, not just within the series shelves?)

After seeing all the sorting options etc in Calibre the actual sorting and search options on the device are a bit disappointing.
Most of the metadata is ignored except author, title, series and cover.

For browsing you have the option of a long list of all your books sorted by recently read, title or author (and by file size/ file type which are a bit a useless), series are ignored in sorting but are shown under the title.

The second option is to browse the shelves you created sorted by shelf name or date created (and number of books which again seems useless), no sorting by author which would have been useful for series shelves.

For a larger collection its probably better to stick to the search option but that also seems a bit limited.
You can search by title, author or keyword although you can't specify what you are looking for so it's really just searching for keywords I suppose. If a word shows up in an authors name as well as a title it will show both, there are no sorting options and no way to see if the found item is an author, title or series.
I'm not entirely sure where it searches for keywords either, it seems to me it just looks in author names, titles and series. I figured it would also search for shelf names but those are (incredibly) ignored. My solution of making a custom series shelf including the authors name failed for that reason.
I suppose I should be happy to be able to search for series name at least, but I should note that (like I mentioned earlier) series found in this way won't show the books ordered by book number in the series but by title.

The only way I can think of next to be able to search for a series by author name and have them sorted by book number in the series, is to add the series info in front of the book title and add the author name to the series name. This would lead to some very long titles and series names though so I was hoping someone can think of a different solution.

If you've read this far,

and sorry if it's a bit of a rant, I'm becoming a little frustrated trying to get seemingly simple things to work I how I want them I guess.

Ps. Hey, first post here, how are you doing?

PeterT · 11-02-2013, 12:28 PM

I'm not at my PC right now but what many do is use a metadata plugboard to massage the book title as it is sent to the device.

I use one that prepends to the title an abbreviated series name and series index to the title, so for instance book 1 of Harry Potter becomes HP - 01 - Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.

There was a brief time that Kobo DID use the series info in a Book Title sort but unfortunately it was removed.

Pixelpuncher · 11-03-2013, 07:08 AM

Thanks for the suggestion, but I was hoping there was another way. I admit it doesn't look so bad for something like Harry Potter but for a book in a longer series and, even worse, series within series (same universe) like The Riftwar Cycle 07 - Conclave of Shadows 01 - Talon of the Silver Hawk would still look like this: TRC07CoS01, maybe RC07CS01 but that's the shortest I could make it.

Also it still wouldn't solve my other problem, which is searching for series by author.

I'll try posting in the firmware suggestions thread as well, do suggestions from there ever get implemented?

davidfor · 11-03-2013, 07:38 AM

Someone here appends the series name and index to the author name rather than prepending it to the title. That might get closer to what you want.

Pixelpuncher · 11-03-2013, 09:47 AM

That seems a bit messy, searching for an author would give you a giant list of the same author over and over again unless I'm missing something.

I just posted a big suggestions post on sorting & searching in the Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread if anybody is interested. I don't expect anything to come from that tbh so any other solutions are still welcome. I have a feeling I'll just have to deal with it though

Pixelpuncher · 11-03-2013, 12:11 PM

You know what, I can't even get the abbreviated series to look like RC07CS01. If I use the method in the sticky in the calibre part of the forum is just get RC0- CoS. And just looking at the codes I had to copy to get that far made my brain hurt, I don't think I can figure this out. Any idea how to change this template {#stripped_series:re(([^\s])[^\s]+(\s|$),\1)} to recognize the number in the series name and not shorten that and remove the - and space behind it?

11-02-2013, 11:23 AM	#1
Pixelpuncher Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2013 Device: Kobo Aura HD	Searching for series by author name on device Hi, I just bought my first Kobo (a Kobo Aura HD) and I'm trying to organize my (sideloaded) books, and specifically series, in a way to easily find them again on the Kobo. These are my experiences up till now, I'm hoping someone can help me get past some of the obstacles and maybe this post will be of some use to other (potential) Kobo users. Here is what I've done so far: I've organized my library in Calibre (also first time using that) making sure all the metadata is correct, adding series info etc. I'm using the Kobo touch extended plugin to send the books to the device as kepubs and to create shelves for series. I'm using the the Kobo utilities plugin to sort the books in the series shelves by number in the series. ( Two questions about that actually: 1: is there a way to do this automatically? 2: is there a way to always sort by series index first, then title, not just within the series shelves?) After seeing all the sorting options etc in Calibre the actual sorting and search options on the device are a bit disappointing. Most of the metadata is ignored except author, title, series and cover. For browsing you have the option of a long list of all your books sorted by recently read, title or author (and by file size/ file type which are a bit a useless), series are ignored in sorting but are shown under the title. The second option is to browse the shelves you created sorted by shelf name or date created (and number of books which again seems useless), no sorting by author which would have been useful for series shelves. For a larger collection its probably better to stick to the search option but that also seems a bit limited. You can search by title, author or keyword although you can't specify what you are looking for so it's really just searching for keywords I suppose. If a word shows up in an authors name as well as a title it will show both, there are no sorting options and no way to see if the found item is an author, title or series. I'm not entirely sure where it searches for keywords either, it seems to me it just looks in author names, titles and series. I figured it would also search for shelf names but those are (incredibly) ignored. My solution of making a custom series shelf including the authors name failed for that reason. I suppose I should be happy to be able to search for series name at least, but I should note that (like I mentioned earlier) series found in this way won't show the books ordered by book number in the series but by title. The only way I can think of next to be able to search for a series by author name and have them sorted by book number in the series, is to add the series info in front of the book title and add the author name to the series name. This would lead to some very long titles and series names though so I was hoping someone can think of a different solution. If you've read this far, and sorry if it's a bit of a rant, I'm becoming a little frustrated trying to get seemingly simple things to work I how I want them I guess. Ps. Hey, first post here, how are you doing?

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[Solution] Kindle Paperwhite: Lastname_Firstname author, Series in author field	Katsunami	Library Management	6	11-15-2013 11:45 AM
searching words within books in my device library	kiwi_fruit	Android Devices	1	07-09-2013 06:53 PM
Searching for Books by Author	harpangel36	Library Management	10	11-12-2012 10:11 AM
Searching for author or title of book	Kraftwerk	Library Management	4	03-13-2012 08:11 AM
Searching for Ebook on Kindle 2 by series	gandor62	Amazon Kindle	2	02-09-2010 10:51 PM

11-02-2013, 12:28 PM	#2
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,545 Karma: 79436716 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	I'm not at my PC right now but what many do is use a metadata plugboard to massage the book title as it is sent to the device. I use one that prepends to the title an abbreviated series name and series index to the title, so for instance book 1 of Harry Potter becomes HP - 01 - Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. There was a brief time that Kobo DID use the series info in a Book Title sort but unfortunately it was removed.

11-03-2013, 07:08 AM	#3
Pixelpuncher Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2013 Device: Kobo Aura HD	Thanks for the suggestion, but I was hoping there was another way. I admit it doesn't look so bad for something like Harry Potter but for a book in a longer series and, even worse, series within series (same universe) like The Riftwar Cycle 07 - Conclave of Shadows 01 - Talon of the Silver Hawk would still look like this: TRC07CoS01, maybe RC07CS01 but that's the shortest I could make it. Also it still wouldn't solve my other problem, which is searching for series by author. I'll try posting in the firmware suggestions thread as well, do suggestions from there ever get implemented?

11-03-2013, 07:38 AM	#4
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303824 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Someone here appends the series name and index to the author name rather than prepending it to the title. That might get closer to what you want.

11-03-2013, 09:47 AM	#5
Pixelpuncher Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2013 Device: Kobo Aura HD	That seems a bit messy, searching for an author would give you a giant list of the same author over and over again unless I'm missing something. I just posted a big suggestions post on sorting & searching in the Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread if anybody is interested. I don't expect anything to come from that tbh so any other solutions are still welcome. I have a feeling I'll just have to deal with it though

11-03-2013, 12:11 PM	#6
Pixelpuncher Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2013 Device: Kobo Aura HD	You know what, I can't even get the abbreviated series to look like RC07CS01. If I use the method in the sticky in the calibre part of the forum is just get RC0- CoS. And just looking at the codes I had to copy to get that far made my brain hurt, I don't think I can figure this out. Any idea how to change this template {#stripped_series:re(([^\s])[^\s]+(\s\|$),\1)} to recognize the number in the series name and not shorten that and remove the - and space behind it?