Forma How can I have my books' subtitle in its own line, under the book's title? (see pic)

[droopy]

Please take a look at a photograph of my Kobo screen. You'll see two instances of the same book:

1) The top one is my personal copy
2) The below one is a library/overdrive copy. This version has the subtitle ("How Seeing the World through the Lens...") is below the title ("Reading People) and is in smaller text.

Is there a way I can have all my personal books' subtitle in the same way? How?

[MGlitch]

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=193184

Has what you need

[droopy]

mglitch, I searched the linked page for the word "subtitle" but found nothing. I also searched the entire thread for the word "subtitle", and found nothing.

[MGlitch]

It’s using the series information

[droopy]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

It’s using the series information

Hmmm... I understand using the series field for fiction books. But these are non-fiction books. I want to keep my "series" info/field/column reserved for those that are really series, and not subtitles.

How did the Kobo preview in the photo I shared do it?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by droopy

Hmmm... I understand using the series field for fiction books. But these are non-fiction books. I want to keep my "series" info/field/column reserved for those that are really series, and not subtitles.

How did the Kobo preview in the photo I shared do it?

They did it by setting it as series metadata.

[droopy]

Oh, I see. So if I start inputting the subtitle into the series field, that will compromise the quality of Series info in the Series column.
This is quite a dilemma for me to ponder:

Should I just have the subtitles in the title field?
Or
Should I enter subtitles in the series field?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by droopy

Hmmm... I understand using the series field for fiction books. But these are non-fiction books. I want to keep my "series" info/field/column reserved for those that are really series, and not subtitles.

How did the Kobo preview in the photo I shared do it?

There is a subtitle field in the Kobo SQLite database content table. I'm going to leave it up to you to determine how to place the subtitle information in that field.

Edit: I see @ps67 has already suggested a method to populate that field. See attached image for subtitle and series both added.

[ps67]

I don't know if it is the correct way but it works for me. It is similar to collection with a slight difference. Create a new custom column, for example Subtitles, then in the "find name" field write #subtitle (my calibre setting is in Italian so I translate and may be not exactly the same but I think You can understand).

In the driver settings of the plugin, in the part of "Metadata, on device & advanced" check the subtitle button and write {#subtitle}

When connecting Your Kobo it should give to You the subtitle, not the first time after invoicing a book but the second, when the book is already in the database, of course If You decided of modifying database whenever You connect Your Kobo to calibre.

In this way You can obtain series - using the apposite column of calibre - and subtitles (I know, very few books have both but they are not the same thing).

You can also change manually it, with others metadata, using the "update metadata in device library", also check Subtitle button and write again {#subtitle}

[JSWolf]

I'm not all that up on Python. I want to create a subtitle template that does the following...

If tag is not empty and series is empty. Meaning use the tag column data as the subtitle if there is data and no data in the series column.

Thanks.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm not all that up on Python. I want to create a subtitle template that does the following...

If tag is not empty and series is empty. Meaning use the tag column data as the subtitle if there is data and no data in the series column.

Why on earth do you only want to set the subtitle only if there is no series? Just use:

{tags}

or maybe:

{:'raw_field("tags")'}

The difference there is the sorting.

And if you just want the first few tags:

{:'sublist(raw_field("tags"),0, 2, ",")'}

But, if you insist:

{:'ifempty(field("series"),sublist(raw_field("tags"),0, 2, ","))'}

[ps67]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Why on earth do you only want to set the subtitle only if there is no series?
....

He wants to do it because he can do it, it is his Kobo!

And he can do it because the driver plugin uses a template (or a function, it is not very clear the difference for me in that case: the function must be used in the template?), so one can use all the fantasy of the world to fill a field even when it should be empty: ie when there is no subtitle.

Let me explain: I would have thought that there is no need for a function to fill a field like the subtitle, if the book has the subtitle I will write it, if the book does not have it I will not write anything.

But in the plugin there is instead the possibility of displaying other things as a subtitle using tags or other fields, etc., thus increasing the user's freedom, even if it is a bit more complicated. And I respect this idea, don't get me wrong, only it took me a little longer to understand how it's done.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ps67

He wants to do it because he can do it, it is his Kobo!

You might want to look at my posts. That is a statement I have made many times. It still doesn't stop me from wondering why in people do things. I completely understand why Jon wants to display the tags somewhere. I do not see a good reason not to display them all the time. So I am curious about the reason.

Also, asking the question can trigger a rethink. Elsewhere, Jon's question was "display tags in the series if there is no series", which makes some sense. Maybe when changing to using the subtitle he didn't rethink when to display it.

And he can do it because the driver plugin uses a template (or a function, it is not very clear the difference for me in that case: the function must be used in the template?), so one can use all the fantasy of the world to fill a field even when it should be empty: ie when there is no subtitle.

Let me explain: I would have thought that there is no need for a function to fill a field like the subtitle, if the book has the subtitle I will write it, if the book does not have it I will not write anything.

But in the plugin there is instead the possibility of displaying other things as a subtitle using tags or other fields, etc., thus increasing the user's freedom, even if it is a bit more complicated. And I respect this idea, don't get me wrong, only it took me a little longer to understand how it's done.

Firstly, Kobo is the only one that has "Subtitle" as a separate metadata entry. Calibre doesn't have the idea at all. Hence, you need to tell calibre how to populate the subtitle. That could be done by selecting a column. But, a template is a lot more flexible. It can be as simple as "use column x", or quite complex code. The suggestions above are relatively simple examples.

But, overall, I have no idea what you think you are saying. I completely understand how to do this (as I clearly demonstrated in my reply to Jon). And this isn't the first time I suggested using the subtitle for something else. Such as page or word counts. So I understand why people want to do something like this. But, it doesn't tell me with the reason for the choices people make. Knowing the reasons will usually help to give better answers to questions like Jon's.

And, for the record, when I refer to the Kobo Utilities plugin, which can be used to do this, I generally put the word "my" in front of it. And, I am the maintainer of the KoboTouch driver in calibre. So, hopefully I do understand all this.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by davidfor

You might want to look at my posts. That is a statement I have made many times. It still doesn't stop me from wondering why in people do things. I completely understand why Jon wants to display the tags somewhere. I do not see a good reason not to display them all the time. So I am curious about the reason.

it was a joke, not a serious speech

Originally Posted by davidfor

Firstly, Kobo is the only one that has "Subtitle" as a separate metadata entry. Calibre doesn't have the idea at all. Hence, you need to tell calibre how to populate the subtitle. That could be done by selecting a column. But, a template is a lot more flexible. It can be as simple as "use column x", or quite complex code. The suggestions above are relatively simple examples.

But, overall, I have no idea what you think you are saying. I completely understand how to do this (as I clearly demonstrated in my reply to Jon). And this isn't the first time I suggested using the subtitle for something else. Such as page or word counts. So I understand why people want to do something like this. But, it doesn't tell me with the reason for the choices people make. Knowing the reasons will usually help to give better answers to questions like Jon's.

And, for the record, when I refer to the Kobo Utilities plugin, which can be used to do this, I generally put the word "my" in front of it. And, I am the maintainer of the KoboTouch driver in calibre. So, hopefully I do understand all this.

If you think I was criticizing your choices on how to populate the field of subtitles or even insinuating that you don't know how to do it I assure you that it was not my intention. The model is more flexible, I wouldn't have thought of it but it's true, so you can use it for something else (I prefer not, but it is question of personal choice).

My English is not so good and may be that something I write does not fully reflect my intentions but if I read again I can't find where I would have ever said that you would not know how to do it or questioned your abilities.

And, at the end, I think that Your driver is a very good work and it give us a much better experience with Kobo. I was just surprised about the use of a field to write on Kobo something else.

[JSWolf]

I would rather have the Tag field in Subtitle so it sorts correctly. I use the Tag column as a Series without a number. Is this something that can be done now or is this something that can be done? This way, I can see where all eBooks go.