Calibre 6.7.1 - HasEpub column

epicsaga · 10-23-2022, 02:05 PM

What's the deciding factor for the HasEpub column to be marked true/checked?

I have many books that show it (all of which have .epub versions) but I have almost as many that have .epub versions where this column is false/not-checked.

JSWolf · 10-23-2022, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by epicsaga

What's the deciding factor for the HasEpub column to be marked true/checked?

I have many books that show it (all of which have .epub versions) but I have almost as many that have .epub versions where this column is false/not-checked.

If you are using this column to see which books are available in ePub then (IMHO) you don't need it. You can just by format instead.

On the top left of the Calibre window, click Formats and then click EPUB and you'll see just the listing that include ePub. You can then click Virtual Library and create a virtual library from your ePub search.

epicsaga · 10-23-2022, 05:10 PM

I was actually going to use it for the reverse, to identify which books don't have an ePub so that I would know which ones I still needed to convert. Some of my books (particularly those from PDF, but some others) I need to setup custom search/replace strings so that they'll convert over into nicely flowing epubs.

chaley · 10-23-2022, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by epicsaga

What's the deciding factor for the HasEpub column to be marked true/checked?

I have many books that show it (all of which have .epub versions) but I have almost as many that have .epub versions where this column is false/not-checked.

There is no such column in calibre. If you have one then you added it as a custom column. Look there to see what the rules are.

JSWolf · 10-23-2022, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by epicsaga

I was actually going to use it for the reverse, to identify which books don't have an ePub so that I would know which ones I still needed to convert. Some of my books (particularly those from PDF, but some others) I need to setup custom search/replace strings so that they'll convert over into nicely flowing epubs.

When you convert from PDF, you WILL get a mess. PDF will never convert without errors. Don't do it.

epicsaga · 10-23-2022, 06:14 PM

Right after I posted my last comment, it occurred to me that it might have been a column I added ages ago -- rather than a built in one. And you are correct, apparently I added a Yes/No column at some point in the past, it's not using a template to determine it automatically.

For posterity's sake, after banging my head against the docs for a little bit, I've got this template sorted and it appears to do exactly what I was looking for:

program: str_in_list($formats, ',', 'EPUB', 'Yes', 'No')

epicsaga · 10-23-2022, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When you convert from PDF, you WILL get a mess. PDF will never convert without errors. Don't do it.

I actually usually get pretty good conversions from PDF, they're not perfect by far -- but with some custom search/replace values, single column PDFs that don't have huge amounts of formatting seem to convert over for me pretty well.

Quoth · 10-23-2022, 06:20 PM

I just sort by the Format column to find PDFs (which I don't waste effort trying to convert) or Mobi or AZW3 that are not yet converted to epub.
About 4,500 titles.

epicsaga · 10-23-2022, 06:36 PM

I have an old archive of PDF files, almost 60,000 PDFs that I dip into every now and then (most are not imported into Calibre.) But I also have LIT, AWZ, Mobi, etc -- and I was doing some clean-up and just wanted to spot all the places where I hadn't yet done an ePub conversion. The template I sorted out, combined with a field configured to display checkmarks is doing a good job, and could easily be converted to show me books that do (or don't have) any of the different formats -- which is a nice little bonus.

Quoth · 10-24-2022, 07:15 AM

I've a huge amount of PDFs accumulated over 25 years and some copied off bought DVD and CD archives. These are mostly service manuals organised by brand directory and datasheets of components organised by device type. There are also many PDFs of technical magazines from 1920s to 1970s. I'd not dream of putting that in Calibre or on an ereader. Most of the PDFs I've imported to Calibre are scans of novels out of print and not available as ebooks or old 1930s to 1960s scanned technical manuals. Some PDF instruction manuals for complicated to use things.
None of it is worth trying to convert to PDF and most of it would need OCR. The instruction manuals mostly have text and images but not worth converting as the diagrams are too small on less than 8" eInk.

So I'm curious as to what sort of PDFs you have and why you'd spend time converting them rather than using a 10" or larger LCD tablet, 8" Sage or 10.3" Elipsa (I know the Sage has more dots, but the text or diagrams can be too small on larger technical PDFs or magazines). Really most of the scanned old magazines would need more than 13" screen, so I read them on a 23" 4K monitor with two page display in the PDF reader.

epicsaga · 10-24-2022, 08:12 PM

I have a Boox Max 3 - which I do occasionally use as a PDF reader (or in a pinch if the PDF uses a lot of color, then I use the tablet portion of my Surface Book 2 as a reader) but I've found I just generally prefer using a smaller eReader w/ the utility of text that can reflow so I can change font sizes on a whim.

My big achieve is mostly of individual articles from periodicals, or out of print books that someone transcribed, or posts/articles from websites during the 90's or early 2000s that people achieved. Nearly all are big single column affairs that were probably once txt, rtf, or straight forward word docs with minimal formatting that someone decided would be more portable saved as a PDF (oh, the ignorance of folks from 20 years ago -- I'd prefer almost all of them as just straight txt files rather than pdf)

A great many of the novels I could probably find as epubs if I took a little time to search for them, or could be acquired new from Google or Amazon in modern formats -- but I honestly usually don't have much problem with just converting them in Calibre -- I turn on heuristics, I make sure that I'm not removing empty lines between paragraphs, and then I use Search/Replace during conversion to remove artifacts like page numbers, or watermarks. Usually only takes about a minute or two of my time per.

For PDFs with a lot of special formatting, images, multiple columns, etc -- yeah, I usually either load that directly on my Boox Max, or depending on how large the font is, sometimes I'll crop the margins out to make it easier on the eyes.

10-23-2022, 02:05 PM	#1
epicsaga Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2022 Device: Kindle Voyage	Calibre 6.7.1 - HasEpub column What's the deciding factor for the HasEpub column to be marked true/checked? I have many books that show it (all of which have .epub versions) but I have almost as many that have .epub versions where this column is false/not-checked.

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10-23-2022, 05:10 PM	#3
epicsaga Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2022 Device: Kindle Voyage	I was actually going to use it for the reverse, to identify which books don't have an ePub so that I would know which ones I still needed to convert. Some of my books (particularly those from PDF, but some others) I need to setup custom search/replace strings so that they'll convert over into nicely flowing epubs.

10-23-2022, 06:14 PM	#6
epicsaga Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2022 Device: Kindle Voyage	Right after I posted my last comment, it occurred to me that it might have been a column I added ages ago -- rather than a built in one. And you are correct, apparently I added a Yes/No column at some point in the past, it's not using a template to determine it automatically. For posterity's sake, after banging my head against the docs for a little bit, I've got this template sorted and it appears to do exactly what I was looking for: program: str_in_list($formats, ',', 'EPUB', 'Yes', 'No')

10-23-2022, 06:20 PM	#8
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,045 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	I just sort by the Format column to find PDFs (which I don't waste effort trying to convert) or Mobi or AZW3 that are not yet converted to epub. About 4,500 titles.

10-23-2022, 06:36 PM	#9
epicsaga Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2022 Device: Kindle Voyage	I have an old archive of PDF files, almost 60,000 PDFs that I dip into every now and then (most are not imported into Calibre.) But I also have LIT, AWZ, Mobi, etc -- and I was doing some clean-up and just wanted to spot all the places where I hadn't yet done an ePub conversion. The template I sorted out, combined with a field configured to display checkmarks is doing a good job, and could easily be converted to show me books that do (or don't have) any of the different formats -- which is a nice little bonus.

10-24-2022, 07:15 AM	#10
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,045 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	I've a huge amount of PDFs accumulated over 25 years and some copied off bought DVD and CD archives. These are mostly service manuals organised by brand directory and datasheets of components organised by device type. There are also many PDFs of technical magazines from 1920s to 1970s. I'd not dream of putting that in Calibre or on an ereader. Most of the PDFs I've imported to Calibre are scans of novels out of print and not available as ebooks or old 1930s to 1960s scanned technical manuals. Some PDF instruction manuals for complicated to use things. None of it is worth trying to convert to PDF and most of it would need OCR. The instruction manuals mostly have text and images but not worth converting as the diagrams are too small on less than 8" eInk. So I'm curious as to what sort of PDFs you have and why you'd spend time converting them rather than using a 10" or larger LCD tablet, 8" Sage or 10.3" Elipsa (I know the Sage has more dots, but the text or diagrams can be too small on larger technical PDFs or magazines). Really most of the scanned old magazines would need more than 13" screen, so I read them on a 23" 4K monitor with two page display in the PDF reader.

10-24-2022, 08:12 PM	#11
epicsaga Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2022 Device: Kindle Voyage	I have a Boox Max 3 - which I do occasionally use as a PDF reader (or in a pinch if the PDF uses a lot of color, then I use the tablet portion of my Surface Book 2 as a reader) but I've found I just generally prefer using a smaller eReader w/ the utility of text that can reflow so I can change font sizes on a whim. My big achieve is mostly of individual articles from periodicals, or out of print books that someone transcribed, or posts/articles from websites during the 90's or early 2000s that people achieved. Nearly all are big single column affairs that were probably once txt, rtf, or straight forward word docs with minimal formatting that someone decided would be more portable saved as a PDF (oh, the ignorance of folks from 20 years ago -- I'd prefer almost all of them as just straight txt files rather than pdf) A great many of the novels I could probably find as epubs if I took a little time to search for them, or could be acquired new from Google or Amazon in modern formats -- but I honestly usually don't have much problem with just converting them in Calibre -- I turn on heuristics, I make sure that I'm not removing empty lines between paragraphs, and then I use Search/Replace during conversion to remove artifacts like page numbers, or watermarks. Usually only takes about a minute or two of my time per. For PDFs with a lot of special formatting, images, multiple columns, etc -- yeah, I usually either load that directly on my Boox Max, or depending on how large the font is, sometimes I'll crop the margins out to make it easier on the eyes.