Some suggestions for Calibre to help new users

[Rellwood]

I think Calibre needs some changes in how it’s set up for new users.

I see so many posts on r/Calibre from people asking “Where can I get covers?” or “Where can I find book info?” They don’t realize that Calibre can do this automatically. They don’t know they need to click “Download Metadata” — or what metadata even means — and so they end up filling everything in by hand.

Even if they do figure out the Download Metadata button, most don’t realize that plugins are almost mandatory to get good results, and that those plugins may need to be configured. The tiny gear icon is easily overlooked, and the tooltip that just says “Download metadata for this book” is basically useless. If you don’t know what metadata is, you don’t know what you’re downloading.

Plugins themselves are intimidating. They live under Preferences → Advanced → Plugins. To a new user, “Advanced” sounds like something dangerous where you could break Calibre. The plugin list is also just a giant alphabetical dump of 200+ items. Nobody wants to scroll through that trying to guess what’s important.

What would help:

Organize plugins by type (Metadata Sources, Conversion, UI, etc. - and use the tool tips to make sure that people know what Metadata and UI means).

Add a direct link to metadata source plugins from Edit Metadata.

After installing a plugin, show a clear message: “This plugin may need to be configured to work properly” (with an option to turn this reminder off).

Simplify the context menu for new users — remove advanced options like “content server,” “share over the internet,” and “open containing folder” from the default view and include the plugin and look and feel section from preferences.

Use clearer wording: “Download Book Info (metadata)” instead of “Download Metadata.” Or something along those lines.

Improve tooltips to actually explain what’s happening and describe better what the user is looking at.

The tool tips should be able to be adjusted - maybe have a "New User" setting to Calibre that makes the tool tips bigger and more verbose - gives better instructions on things - when you hover over areas it will identifiy them - like "book list" and "GUI" and "UI". I see the tool tips, but they are tiny and often not seen. For the "Beginning User" setting - have the tool tips be overly verbose - really give the information. Especially for important settings that can make or break a user experience.

Calibre is incredibly powerful, but right now it makes new users feel lost and overwhelmed. A few small changes like these would make it much easier for beginners to get started without giving up.

What do you think? Does anyone else see new users struggling with this same problem?

[Sirtel]

Personally I don't use metadata download, as I always end up correcting the downloaded metadata manually, and I have many custom fields. It's faster to fill everything in manually to begin with, at least for me.

I do download covers and use plugins to do it.

[kovidgoyal]

There you go: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...1539b22d15d16f

[Rellwood]

Ok I actually read through the work - Thank you Kovid! I am so surprised you actually did all that and did it so quickly. I really think this will help. I look forward to not seeing so many questions about basic metadata adding.

I got this the other day:

"Why should I update Calibre- it hasn't changed since I first installed it"

This was told to me by someone who was annoyed they couldn't format the date columns to YYYY-MM-DD and they couldn't arrange the Calibre columns they way they like - as in they didn't realize they could grab and move them.

People are running Calibre version 5.0 and are "happy" with it. But then they wonder why they are having problems.

Then next chore is getting people to understand that they need to leave the library folders and files alone

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

People are running Calibre version 5.0 and are "happy" with it. But then they wonder why they are having problems.

If they're running 5.0, they're still pretty up-to-date compared to some. I've seen reports about running 3.x and 4.x versions several times, and in one case even 0.x (yes, recently). Granted, that person only used calibre for conversion, not for library management. Their reason for running a stone-age version was that it does what they want and they don't need anything else.

[Martinoptic]

Might they also take time to read the manual?

[AnnieQuinn]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If they're running 5.0, they're still pretty up-to-date compared to some. I've seen reports about running 3.x and 4.x versions several times, and in one case even 0.x (yes, recently). Granted, that person only used calibre for conversion, not for library management. Their reason for running a stone-age version was that it does what they want and they don't need anything else.

Yes, my friend also uses a very old version.
And when I talked and used other features of Calibre, she was surprised and asked me: Can it do that? But I couldn't find it, I searched and searched but still couldn't find it.
Then we realized that the version she used and the version I used were very far apart.
I asked why not update? She said that updates are just fixes. She didn't think there would be any other features so she kept the most stable version because she didn't want to update and what if there was an error? She thought like updating the operating system, if it's stable, then try not to upgrade.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Personally I don't use metadata download, as I always end up correcting the downloaded metadata manually, and I have many custom fields. It's faster to fill everything in manually to begin with, at least for me.

I do download covers and use plugins to do it.

I also don't download metadata as I find I have to manually check for errors. So since I have to do that, I may as well manually make any corrections/additions.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

I think Calibre needs some changes in how it’s set up for new users.

What would help:

Organize plugins by type (Metadata Sources, Conversion, UI, etc. - and use the tool tips to make sure that people know what Metadata and UI means).

Improve tooltips to actually explain what’s happening and describe better what the user is looking at.

The tool tips should be able to be adjusted - maybe have a "New User" setting to Calibre that makes the tool tips bigger and more verbose - gives better instructions on things - when you hover over areas it will identifiy them - like "book list" and "GUI" and "UI". I see the tool tips, but they are tiny and often not seen. For the "Beginning User" setting - have the tool tips be overly verbose - really give the information. Especially for important settings that can make or break a user experience.

My issue with all of this... is that, in the end, it's based on people reading the tooltips... and through different places (even this forum), I've sadly understood that reading is overrated (not wanting to rain in your parade, just my experience).

[JSWolf]

@Rellwood what you could do is write a FAQ/manual for new users with all of the info. calibre itself does not need any changes for new users. It could use a new user guide with all of this information.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

@Rellwood what you could do is write a FAQ/manual for new users with all of the info. calibre itself does not need any changes for new users. It could use a new user guide with all of this information.

If they don't read tooltips, they're not going to RTFM.