Forma Just got my first-ever erader device. What should a new user like me do/know?

[droopy]

I just got my first dedicated ereader device.
I've been lightly scanning the topics on this forum about different things but not sure I completely understand. Hope you don't mind my creating this thread.

Some things about me:
I plan to do all (or most) ebook-reading on it (and no longer on my smartphone or laptop).

I have about 200 ebooks that I want to now read on my new Kobo Forma. None of my ebooks are from Kobo Bookstore, and I don't plan to buy any ebooks from the Kobo Bookstore. I'd say 95% are in ePub file format, 4% is PDF, while 1% or less is in mobi file format. My ebooks are non-DRM.

Kobo Forma's "software version" is 4.15.12920 (b231bfea36, 5/27/19).

I run Linux Mint. (I don't have Apple or Windows.)

Questions:
What should I do before adding the files into my Forma via USB connection? (I assume USB is the best/only way to get the epub books onto my Forma, and that WiFi is only an option for adding books from Kobo Bookstore.)

I sometimes am in an environment where I don't want people to know what book I'm reading. I noticed that when the Forma is sleeping, the book's cover appears. How can I hide that info?

When going from Power-Off to Power-On, is there a way to add a lock so that no one can snoop around on my books when I'm away from my Forma?

Do I need to use Calibre? What is this shelf management I read about?

On my Kobo Forma, how are books arranged? Alphabetically? By date added? By filesize?
Can I set them in groups of my making? For example:
1. First-Priority-to-read books
2. Productivity books
3. Books about health
4. All books by Fyodor Dostoevsky

(In the above example, there may be a book that is found both in "Priority" and in "Books about health".


On my Samsung phone, when I'm not looking at the phone's screen, I make it habit to tap the power button to immediately save on power (since lighting up the "display" consumes much of the battery energy). Should I carry on that habit and press the power button when my eyes are not going to be off the page for more than 5 seconds? If so, how is sleep different from "powered off"?

Has anyone bought a sleepcover case off of AliExpress? I see them going for about $10USD (for example, https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33001809548.html), while original ones are $50USD. If you have, what are your thoughts on these inexpensive sleepcover cases? I'd love to save money on a case.

Anything else I should do/know?

[ps67]

You could learn something about differences between epub and kepub (the second has no ligatures but is better for everything else, especially if the book has notes or imagines, in kepub a rapid double tip in the imagine can enlarge it). the issue is explained in the forum.

With calibre You can handle collections and many others thing like subtitles and others metadata in Kobo.

About collections: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kob...nd_Collections

Shelves and collections are the same thing, a book can belong to several collections.

For privacy in setting option there is the possibility to settle a PIN number to avoid that someone else could use the device.

The cover when the device is sleeping or is off can be settled with a little trick:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=321609

Finally: convert Your mobi file into epub (or kepub), mobi file are terribly formatted in Kobo. And download calibre from the official page, don't use the version provided by Your Linux distribution (this is recommended by the creator of calibre).

[4691mls]

I have a Clara not a Forma, but I expect the settings are similar? On the Clara, the setting to show the book cover (or not) is under the "energy saving and privacy" settings. If you don't want the cover of your current book to show when the reader is asleep, simply uncheck the box for "show current read".

I have this unchecked and when asleep it shows "Walmart ebooks by Rakuten Kobo". I assume this varies by what store you bought the reader from.

[davidfor]

@droopy: The thing you should do is put a few books on the device and use it. For the moment, forget about anything else. Just use it. Read a book. Play around with the interface. Look at all the settings pages. See what you can do with it. Most of what you have asked will be answered by doing that. And for the rest, you'll probably end up having different questions.

[ZodWallop]

First, I'd follow davidfor's advice: Put some books on the device and use it. See what you like and what you don't.

And ps67's advice regarding kepub vs. ePub. Kepub is a split of ePub that plays very well with your Kobo.

I'm going to quote your original message out of order to try answering your questions.

Originally Posted by droopy

I sometimes am in an environment where I don't want people to know what book I'm reading. I noticed that when the Forma is sleeping, the book's cover appears. How can I hide that info?

Under Settings/Energy saving and privacy you should see Show current read with a checkbox next to it. If you uncheck that it won't show the cover when asleep.

When going from Power-Off to Power-On, is there a way to add a lock so that no one can snoop around on my books when I'm away from my Forma?

Again, under Settings/Energy saving and privacy you should see Ask for PIN on wake up or power on with a checkbox next to it.

On my Samsung phone... I make it habit to tap the power button to immediately save on power... Should I carry on that habit and press the power button when my eyes are not going to be off the page for more than 5 seconds?

eInk only consumes power when something on the screen changes. The reason eInk devices display something on the screen even if the device is powered off is that it is not consuming any energy to do it.

The LEDs use some power, but I don't believe it's much. Nothing like the screen of a phone.

Under Settings/Energy saving and privacy, check out Automatically go to sleep after and Automatically power off after. On my Clara, I have sleep set to 15 minutes (in case I fall asleep while reading) and power off is set to Never.

If you really want to save power, just turn off WiFi. Since you aren't planning on buying books from Kobo, there's no real need for it, except for software updates.

Do I need to use Calibre?

Need? No. But I'd recommend it because using Calibre for sideloading will answer all the rest of your questions. At least, my answers to your questions will point back to it because it does everything you asked about.

I have about 200 ebooks that I want to now read on my new Kobo Forma... I'd say 95% are in ePub file format, 4% is PDF, while 1% or less is in mobi file format.

I'd suggest installing Calibre and its Kobo Touch Extended driver. Using that, you can send your ePub and mobi to your device and the driver will convert them to kepub as it adds them to the Forma. So your Forma will have kepubs and your original copies on your hard drive will remain untouched.

PDFs aren't usually worth converting. Just move them over as PDFs.

What is this shelf management I read about?

On my Kobo Forma, how are books arranged? Alphabetically? By date added? By filesize?
Can I set them in groups of my making? For example:
1. First-Priority-to-read books
2. Productivity books
3. Books about health

First: Don't worry about how the files are stored on the Forma's hard drive. What matters is how accsible they are on the device. You aren't going to be using something like File Explorer on the device.

If you use Calibre, you can create collections based on tags. So in Calibre you could tag a book as 'Priority' and 'Books about health' and then on the Forma in My Books you will have a collection titled 'Priority' and one titled 'Books about health' and your tagged book will show in both.

4. All books by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Kobo should already allow you to display all books by Dostoevsky, under My Books/Authors with or without Calibre.

One other thing: Depending on the sources of your books, the metadata might be a mess. I've had books that showed the author under title and the title under the author. Then there's also things like the same author being listed as Rpbert Heinlein, Robert A. Heinlein and Robert Anson Heinlein.

With Calibre, you can check the metadata and update it if needed, to make sure all book titles/authors/series show up correctly.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Under Settings/Energy saving and privacy you should see Show current read with a checkbox next to it. If you uncheck that it won't show the cover when asleep.

Sorry I did not remember

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ps67

Sorry I did not remember

Oh, it's cool. I just wanted to answer as many of the guy's questions as possible.

[Barbara1955]

Check & see if it has a Guide you can DL Read that it will answer most questions.

[droopy]

Thinks everyone for your input.
I have a black png as my screesaver , which turns the entire screen black when sleeping.

I haven't used the PIN feature, because I dunt want a PIN for un-sleeping, but just for powering back on.

[droopy]

I installed calibre 3.46 and Kobo touch extended plugin.
I noticed that when I add ePub or mobi or azw3 to my forms, Calibre first converts to a ”kobo epub” format.

[droopy]

What are the benefits of auto-sleep (after X minutes) if I have brightness all the way down to 0?

[droopy]

What's the difference between sleep and power-off? (Like, with regards to power)

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by droopy

I installed calibre 3.46 and Kobo touch extended plugin.
I noticed that when I add ePub or mobi or azw3 to my forms, Calibre first converts to a ”kobo epub” format.

If you don't want calibre to send your books as "kobo epub" (also known as kepub) to the Kobo then you don't need the KoboTouchExtended plugin - so uninstall it. Sending as kepub is its main purpose.

Kobos don't support azw3 format so you'll need to convert those to epub. Kobos kind of support some mobis but the reading experience is inferior to epub. I wouldn't recommend mobi if you want an easy life.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by droopy

I installed calibre 3.46 and Kobo touch extended plugin.
I noticed that when I add ePub or mobi or azw3 to my forms, Calibre first converts to a ”kobo epub” format.

Which is exactly the purpose of the KoboTouchExtended driver. If you don't want to sideload books as kepubs, don't use it. Calibre has the KoboTouch driver built into it for communication to Kobo devices. The extended driver does the transformation to kepubs and little else if you turn that function off.

Edit: Beaten by jackie_w

[droopy]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

If you don't want calibre to send your books as "kobo epub" (also known as kepub) to the Kobo then you don't need the KoboTouchExtended plugin - so uninstall it. Sending as kepub is its main purpose.

Kobos don't support azw3 format so you'll need to convert those to epub. Kobos kind of support some mobis but the reading experience is inferior to epub. I wouldn't recommend mobi if you want an easy life.

Hi Jackie & David,
Thanks for your reply. I don't have a preference for a file type. "kobo epub" (aka kepub) is a okay with me, especially if it's better for my Kobo Forma. I just wrote about that to share an update.