Series Info & Send To Kindle for PC

[93terp]

I have meticulous metadata for my ebook library, thanks to Calibre, as well as a plugboard for maintaining series info. Additionally I've done a lot of reading about how to use the Send to Kindle for PC, and I like this option for archiving my library to the Cloud, from which I can then download to my Kindles (Basic, Paperwhite, and Voyage), as I've finally resolved myself to the fact that my library is too big to comfortably fit on a Kindle. Will series info be preserved & transferred to my Kindle when downloading an archived book? All books are mobi, if that matters.

[eschwartz]

Yes, the Send To Kindle app will preserve the plugboard-manipulated title.

In fact, it has no way of determining what the title was before the plugboard.

...

Note that calibre itself includes a send-to-email option which can send the book directly from calibre to your Send-to-Kindle email address, without including Yet Another Program.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Yes, the Send To Kindle app will preserve the plugboard-manipulated title.

In fact, it has no way of determining what the title was before the plugboard.

...

Note that calibre itself includes a send-to-email option which can send the book directly from calibre to your Send-to-Kindle email address, without including Yet Another Program.

Thanks Schwartz. Going back to my original post, last night I sent a few books to my archive/Kindle library/Cloud (whatever they are calling it these days!) using the Send to Kindle for PC program, and while the books transferred fine, none of the plugboard series info came over with it. The only thing I get is Title and Author (and title doesn't have the series info).

On the positive side, one thing I noticed with the Send to Kindle for PC program is that you can choose to send it to any or all of your Kindles, or to your device & archive, or to your archive only. But the downside is the Calibre plugboard series info isn't transferring over, at least based on my test last night

I'll give the Calibre send-to-email option and see if the plugboard series info comes over with it.

[eschwartz]

Well, I cannot imagine where the Send-to-Kindle app would get the false information from* but just to be sure, I believe you can manually set the title/author from the dialog box of the app -- so check what is in there?

I prefer to use email via calibre especially as I haven't used Windows in quite some time.



* -- Assuming you tried sending the copy of the book that was Saved-to-Disk, because calibre does not update the in-library copy unless you use Embed Metadata/Polish Book, and neither one uses plugboards anyway.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, I cannot imagine where the Send-to-Kindle app would get the false information from* but just to be sure, I believe you can manually set the title/author from the dialog box of the app -- so check what is in there?

The Send To Kindle Title dialogue box doesn't have any series information at all. While I guess I could manually enter it, it would be quite a PITA to do for 2000+ books!

[shamanNS]

That's because you are sending file copy from Calibre library which doesn't have title metadata altered. Metadata plugboards are only applied as part of "Send to Device" or "Save to Disk" procedure (similar to how creation of .apnx file with page numbers is part of "Send to Device" procedure and you can't access it [not without a custom plugin] / can't generate .apnx file without sending a book to Kindle eInk device).

So if the goal is for Calibre library copy of the book not to have mangled title metadata (== reason why people are using Metadata Plugboards instead of permanent title change) you have 2 option:


1) If you insist on using Amazon's Send to Kindle app (for example you don't want to archive the book you're sending, you only want one-time delivery to your Kindle) that has to be 2-step procedure:

• 1a) Create metadata plugboard targeting "Save to disk" as "Device". Save the book somewhere on your HDD using Calibre's "Save to Disk" icon/button.
• 1b) Sent THAT EXPORTED FILE COPY using "Send to Kindle" app

2) Use Calibre for emailing you mobi file to you Kindle AND create metadata plugboard targeting "email" as Device.



That way when you're sending you mobi book using Calibre plugboard will be applied (series info will be added to Title field) automatically before sending the email.


If you choose the Calibre built-in option keep in mind that you have to setup email sending and that you have to whitelist/allow the email address (scroll down to "Approved Personal Document E-mail List" under "Personal Document Settings" subsection) that will be used for sending to book to your Kindle.

EDIT: Also keep in mind that if you're sending "dual mobi" (files with .mobi extension that contain both old mobi formating and new KF8) in order to get .azw3/KF8 book delivered to your Kindle (since Personal Documents Service doesn't allow azw3/KF8 only, this is a known workaround: sending dual mobis) that Calibre plugboards doesn't work with dual mobi files because Calibre edits only one of the two places containing book title (= you end-up with "wrong"/original/unchainged title when only KF8 part of the book gets delivered).

[93terp]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I prefer to use email via calibre especially as I haven't used Windows in quite some time.

I just did a test case using Calibre's email send feature, and no joy. Well, there was a little bit of joy in that the I set up the feature correctly, and my book was successfully transferred to my Kindle. But no joy in that none of the series information came over, just title & author.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

So if the goal is for Calibre library copy of the book not to have mangled title metadata (== reason why people are using Metadata Plugboards instead of permanent title change) you have 2 option:

1) If you insist on using Amazon's Send to Kindle app (for example you don't want to archive the book you're sending, you only want one-time delivery to your Kindle) that has to be 2-step procedure:

• 1a) Create metadata plugboard targeting "Save to disk" as "Device". Save the book somewhere on your HDD using Calibre's "Save to Disk" icon/button.
• 1b) Sent THAT EXPORTED FILE COPY using "Send to Kindle" app

Praise the gods, that did it! I've been searching for 2 straight days for this info, and was at my wits end! The only data point you don't get is the Page Number option under Kindle's font settings section (under Reading Progress). Is there a fix for this?

[eschwartz]

Ah. I did say above (in a footnote, in small print, and I could have done a better job of clarifying, so thanks, @shamanNS):

Originally Posted by eschwartz

* -- Assuming you tried sending the copy of the book that was Saved-to-Disk, because calibre does not update the in-library copy unless you use Embed Metadata/Polish Book, and neither one uses plugboards anyway.

Although I did forget to mention that calibre does not know how to apply metadata updates to the KFX portion of a dual-MOBI.

...

As for page numbers:

I happen to disagree about whether they are a good thing. As far as I am concerned, they are only good for academic citation that needs to be mapped to a paper book... which means that unless you have a publisher-generated Page-map/PageList the page numbers will be wrong.
IMHO, the Kindle's "Time Left To Read" feature and the percentage read indicator is superior for the purpose of seeing where you are in the book.

But it is irrelevant, because while calibre can create a pseudo-random calculated page number when using Send-to-Device with the Kindle E-Ink driver, that file must be sideloaded via USB. You cannot upload it to the Kindle Personal Document Service

[93terp]

@ eschwartz - the mystery piece I was missing was the metadata plugboard "save to disk". I should have clarified that prior to shamanNS's post above, I was only using a plugboard for Kindle. As soon as I added the "save to disk" plugboard, that did the trick. I guess in the end I'd rather have the series info over page numbers!

[shamanNS]

Originally Posted by 93terp

I guess in the end I'd rather have the series info over page numbers!

Well the real choice comes to reading progress/last page read sync between devices vs custom/fake page numbers. You can't have both (for non-Amazon books). Not until someone takes time to update APNX generator plugin (to make it use value from #pages custom column), then you could have both by USB connecting your Kindle to PC after downloading the books from Cloud/Archive and then generating apnx files. Similar to how some people use (python?) script to generate cover thumbnails for PDOCs that are delivered as azw3, post-download extra step.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

As for page numbers:

I happen to disagree about whether they are a good thing. As far as I am concerned, they are only good for academic citation that needs to be mapped to a paper book... which means that unless you have a publisher-generated Page-map/PageList the page numbers will be wrong.
IMHO, the Kindle's "Time Left To Read" feature and the percentage read indicator is superior for the purpose of seeing where you are in the book.

As the saying goes: "different strokes for different folks" I disagree with you disagreeing Man can do finite number of ;ReadingTimeReset before realizing that the timer feature doesn't work consistently enough.
My reading speed is constant enough that when combined with consistent page numbers (using "number of characters" option for Page Count plugin) gives much better "time left" estimate. Most importantly it doesn't stop working if and when I stop reading without putting Kindle to sleep mode or fast page couple of pages backwards, or jump shortly to some chapter or glossary section at the end of the book. It always the case of doing simple math: number of pages until the end * 2 minutes.

Also my use case for page numbers is primarily for answering "what's the length of next chapter" (and "should I go to sleep now or read one more chapter?") because I mostly read at night. Percentage number without extra context (like how long is the book, as in number of pages... I don't want to have to always remember book's page length) doesn't tell me much. And for "chapter length" via checking percentage number I would have to first jump to the next chapter and see the number, go back to where I was, subtract the numbers and then remember how does percentage number correlate to "number of pages"; while with page numbers pressent I just have to show "Go To" menu for 1 second. Or I could skip the "correlation part" if I would use "time left in chapter" value, but still have to go back and fort chapter navigation to glance at 2 values.

Then there is the aesthetic effect of having nice page numbers in "Go To" instead of location number. Page numbers <3

It veeery jarring and unsatisfying experience every time when I have to read something quickly delivered using PDocs Archive... especially when I get old mobi delivered: combination of FONT_RAMP thingy not being in effect AND not having page numbers AND not having soft hyphens added always takes me to the very edge of having a hissy fit

[eschwartz]

I don't care about the length of an individual chapter.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I don't care about the length of an individual chapter.

I do. If I only have a few minutes to spare it's nice to know how long a chapter is before I dive into. When reading a good back it can be hard to put it down once I pick it up

[shamanNS]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I don't care about the length of an individual chapter.

You're abnormal (joking)
IIRC you've also stated that you don't care for hyphens (or don't care if you have those jumbo holes between words because of bad line justification). Now all we need to hear is how you feel about font family, font size and line-height. aka are you @HarryT's clone (he doesn't care about any of those staff; which to me are the biggest advantages [and reasons to choose ebook] of reading ebooks vs reading pbooks).

Joking aside, you don't have to care about chapter length to appreciate having page numbers.
Just surrender yourself to page numbers

[shalym]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

You're abnormal (joking)
IIRC you've also stated that you don't care for hyphens (or don't care if you have those jumbo holes between words because of bad line justification). Now all we need to hear is how you feel about font family, font size and line-height. aka are you @HarryT's clone (he doesn't care about any of those staff; which to me are the biggest advantages [and reasons to choose ebook] of reading ebooks vs reading pbooks).

Joking aside, you don't have to care about chapter length to appreciate having page numbers.
Just surrender yourself to page numbers

Actually, count me in on the "don't care" bus. Really, the only thing I REALLY care about is being able to adjust the font size so that I can read.

I don't care about hyphens, or ligatures, or anything like that...unless they interfere with my ability to see the text.

For me, if I find myself noticing and being bothered by spacing or hyphens or ligatures (or the lack of any of those things), then it usually means that the book I'm reading isn't very interesting.

So yes...I generally have the font on my Kindle set to Helvetica, and on other readers it's similarly set to a sans serif font as well, but a big part of that is that it makes it easier for my eyes, and I can read at a smaller size. (the serifs can cause what looks to me like a lack of sharpness when set to a smaller size. I realize that I am an aberration, and most people seem to prefer serif fonts--that's fine. Just please don't try to convince me that serif fonts are somehow *better* for everyone.) I can read in pretty much any font, though, as long as I can adjust the size, and once I'm immersed in the story, I don't even notice the font I'm using.

Page numbers, reading speed, page flip, book cover--all of that is nice to have, but if I didn't have them, I wouldn't care. I know this, because I was perfectly happy reading books in plain text on my Palm back in the day, and that didn't have ANY of those features.

Shari