Library Management: various questions not worth their own thread

[DNSB]

Personally, I would suggest using both plugins. Use Quality Check to locate books with multiple jackets, select those books, use Modify ePub to remove the jackets from those with multiple jackets and then run a second pass with Modify ePub to add/replace metadata jacket.

[jonnyl]

Is it possible to bulk set the metadata from the e-book files, but only for certain fields (e.g., only author and title)?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by jonnyl

Is it possible to bulk set the metadata from the e-book files, but only for certain fields (e.g., only author and title)?

No!
Calibre reads the Books metadata, then puts it in the places it belongs.
(Calibre will also include, Calibre (tagged) metadata if found in the book '
Most common: Series and series_index

[jonnyl]

Thanks. I suppose there's also not a way to only fill in empty fields, to avoid it overwriting fields that already contain data? Otherwise it will often overwrite good existing metadata with bad data from the book file.

[ownedbycats]

Maybe ask if it can be done with Action Chains plugin.

[saxondawg]

Thanks so much for the suggestions on summary metadata. VERY helpful.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by jonnyl

Thanks. I suppose there's also not a way to only fill in empty fields, to avoid it overwriting fields that already contain data? Otherwise it will often overwrite good existing metadata with bad data from the book file.

I'm confused a bit. You said FROM BOOKS. Which is different from Get Metadata.
The latter can be configured to cherry pick (or ignore) by site (a configure the selected source). In my case, I globally ignore Rating. Tags only from certain sites.
Unfortunately, Calibre has no such filter at any level: Add or read from books (used mostly by folk that use Filename as the metadata source )

[jonnyl]

Yes, I meant metadata from the book files. It is called 'Set metadata (except cover) from the e-book files' (I didn't say "get"). Unfortunately it's not really suitable for bulk processing if you already have some good data entered that may be overwritten, or don't want all the garbage tags and reviews etc... (Single books can just be exited out and the changes dismissed.)

I will look into the external sources, thanks.

[BetterRed]

FWIW - maybe you can make use of the Copy & Paste metadata actions.



There's a Tweak to define which columns get Copied, you can Paste what you just copied to multiple books.

I find it very useful when I add 'books' to my Periodicals and Media libraries, not so much my Books library.

BR

[Far_Pen_6884]

I'm having an issue with creating a custom rating column in Calibre. I've tried to create a new column with a specific name, but it says the column already exists. I understand that it's one of the default columns created by Calibre, and I can't delete it. I want to have a rating column with that name, similar to what is described in the link below:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...52&postcount=9

Does anyone know how I can achieve this? Thanks!

edit: Nevermind, I saw it's not actually the same name. It's called ratings instead of rating.

[theducks]

The Lookup name can't duplicate another and and column type can't be changed once created.
But the Label can be anything AND you can change that. 'My Rating' to avoid confusion (and hide the rating column)

[Far_Pen_6884]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Here's a modified copy of my Mark as Read action chain.

1. Sets #lastread (datetime) to current datetime.
2. Sets #percentread (integer) to 100.
3. Increments #timesread (integer) by one.
4. Prompts to set rating (rating).
5. Copies the date from #lastread to #readdates (taglike) as 'MMM d yyyy' - (Jan 16 2024). Changing the format should be simple if you prefer something else.

I found this very useful, thanks! I adapted it a bit to work with my own custom columns.

1. Sets #last_read (datetime) to current datetime.
2. Sets #percent_read (integer) to 100.
3. Increments #times_read (integer) by one.
4. Prompts to set #ratings (rating).
5. Copies the date from #last_read to #read_dates (tag-like).

[Far_Pen_6884]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Attachment 211451

As I often re-read books, I like to store all my completion dates in a taglike column (e.g. 2021-03-13, 2022-04-21, 2023-04-17, 2024-05-29). I use this composite column to group them by month in the tag browser:

program:

	new_dates = '';

	for dates in '#datesread':
		converted = format_date(dates, 'yyyy.MM (MMMM)');
		new_dates = list_union(new_dates, converted, ',')
	rof

Hierarchical Tag Browser: Set the `#read_dates` column to hierarchical in the `Look & Feel > Tag Browser` settings to group them by month.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by theducks

The Lookup name can't duplicate another and and column type can't be changed once created.
But the Label can be anything AND you can change that. 'My Rating' to avoid confusion (and hide the rating column)

You have it ass-backward.

Because it is prefixed with '#' when it is used, a custom column lookup name value can duplicate a built in column lookup name when it's defined. But a custom column's Header name value cannot duplicate a built-in column's Header name when it's defined… because—?

I would never reuse a built-in Lookup name or Column header value for a custom column… goes against the grain.

BR

[Far_Pen_6884]

I'm looking for advice on how to effectively track my reading progress for fanfiction that isn't complete or abandoned. I currently keep notes (on a #notes custom column) for each of those stories, noting either the progress (percentage) or the last chapter I've read (e.g., 'ch 37'), and I listen to EPUBs using the TTS feature of Moon+ Reader Pro. I'm wondering if there's a way to sync this reading progress with Calibre, or if anyone has suggestions for better methods to manage and track my fanfiction reading.

Here's my current calibre config.