Problem with author directory

mariaclaudia · 11-07-2025, 01:12 AM

Good evening everyone. As you can see in the screenshot, I have many authors and many more books in my library. It's really inconvenient to find an author, and the search function is significantly slow. Plus, I might misspell the name, making it even more complicated. Do you know of any way to improve the author directory? I don't know, maybe a plugin or hidden setting in Calibre, because finding an author like this is really difficult and tedious.

Sirtel · 11-07-2025, 01:24 AM

There is the Similar Books feature, you can add it to the toolbar. It allows you to see all the books by an author or in the series. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to those functions too.

theducks · 11-07-2025, 08:07 AM

Click the ► next to the letter to see the list of Names starting with that letter
Then when you click on the name, you will see the books by that Author

Another way is to click the name in the book list, then tap Q to see a popup of the other works.
Q (Quickview) works for many columns

JSWolf · 11-07-2025, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariaclaudia

Good evening everyone. As you can see in the screenshot, I have many authors and many more books in my library. It's really inconvenient to find an author, and the search function is significantly slow. Plus, I might misspell the name, making it even more complicated. Do you know of any way to improve the author directory? I don't know, maybe a plugin or hidden setting in Calibre, because finding an author like this is really difficult and tedious.

I just tested the latest calibre on my laptop doing an author search from the left side under Authors and it works very well and is not slow at all. How much ram does your system have and how much stuff do you also have running? Are you using an SSD or a hard drive? Also what OS are you running? If it's Windows, boot so safe mode and try calibre again.

Sirtel · 11-07-2025, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just tested the latest calibre on my laptop doing an author search from the left side under Authors and it works very well and is not slow at all. How much ram does your system have and how much stuff do you also have running? Are you using an SSD or a hard drive?

I can confirm it's not slow, it's basically instantaneous, and I have more books than the OP.

That said, I usually just type the name in the search bar above the book list, then select the name in the list and use the keyboard shortcut to see all the books by that author (because I rarely use the tag browser). I have my search limited to only title/author/series, so it's fast.

Quoth · 11-07-2025, 06:46 PM

About 9,000 ebooks and the Library is on slow SATA HDD on laptop and author search is near instant.
Generally if possible I use hybrid setups, an SSD for OS and SATA HDD for user files.

mariaclaudia · Yesterday, 08:18 PM

Thank you so much for the replies. It was my mistake not to explain myself well. I'm sorry.

The problem isn't with slowness, performance, or finding a particular author. The issue is that, for example, in one screenshot 414, look at the number of authors per letter. For instance, I have 538 that begin with the letter B. To find a specific one, I have to scroll for quite a while, and there's no way to speed this up by clicking on the first letters of the name, because when I press B, it opens the "annotations browser," for example.

That's what I mean: the way the authors are presented, grouping them only by the initial letter of their last name, is inefficient. It's not practical at all. In a second screenshot, I'm showing the directory of the IMSLP website (415), which contains scores by classical composers. There, they are grouped much more efficiently. That's what I mean.

I hope I've made myself clear this time. That's what I'm looking for: a better way to organize the authors.

Sirtel · Yesterday, 08:43 PM

Why do you need to scroll to find an author? It's much faster to just search for it.

BetterRed · Yesterday, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariaclaudia

. . .

…when I press B, it opens the "annotations browser," for example.

To stop that you need to go into Preferences->Shortcuts and change the single letter shortcuts to None or a modified key sequence (e.g. Ctrl+Shift+B).

The Calibre Config Reports plugin can help in identifying the relevant shortcuts:

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BR

11-07-2025, 01:12 AM	#1
mariaclaudia Groupie Posts: 162 Karma: 12316 Join Date: Jul 2014 Device: none	Problem with author directory Good evening everyone. As you can see in the screenshot, I have many authors and many more books in my library. It's really inconvenient to find an author, and the search function is significantly slow. Plus, I might misspell the name, making it even more complicated. Do you know of any way to improve the author directory? I don't know, maybe a plugin or hidden setting in Calibre, because finding an author like this is really difficult and tedious. Attached Thumbnails

Yesterday, 08:18 PM	#7
mariaclaudia Groupie Posts: 162 Karma: 12316 Join Date: Jul 2014 Device: none	Thank you so much for the replies. It was my mistake not to explain myself well. I'm sorry. The problem isn't with slowness, performance, or finding a particular author. The issue is that, for example, in one screenshot 414, look at the number of authors per letter. For instance, I have 538 that begin with the letter B. To find a specific one, I have to scroll for quite a while, and there's no way to speed this up by clicking on the first letters of the name, because when I press B, it opens the "annotations browser," for example. That's what I mean: the way the authors are presented, grouping them only by the initial letter of their last name, is inefficient. It's not practical at all. In a second screenshot, I'm showing the directory of the IMSLP website (415), which contains scores by classical composers. There, they are grouped much more efficiently. That's what I mean. I hope I've made myself clear this time. That's what I'm looking for: a better way to organize the authors. Attached Thumbnails

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11-07-2025, 01:24 AM	#2
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 14,010 Karma: 243829945 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	There is the Similar Books feature, you can add it to the toolbar. It allows you to see all the books by an author or in the series. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to those functions too.

11-07-2025, 08:07 AM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,271 Karma: 61916422 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Click the ► next to the letter to see the list of Names starting with that letter Then when you click on the name, you will see the books by that Author Another way is to click the name in the book list, then tap Q to see a popup of the other works. Q (Quickview) works for many columns

11-07-2025, 06:46 PM	#6
Quoth Still reading Posts: 15,045 Karma: 111111255 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	About 9,000 ebooks and the Library is on slow SATA HDD on laptop and author search is near instant. Generally if possible I use hybrid setups, an SSD for OS and SATA HDD for user files.

Yesterday, 08:43 PM	#8
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 14,010 Karma: 243829945 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	Why do you need to scroll to find an author? It's much faster to just search for it.