Frequently Asked Questions

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

Thanks for the reply bob, But what do you mean Bebook doesn't support .rtf adding all my current ebooks are .rtf as they seem the most stable on the bebook fw, And that shouldn't matter if I'm using Calibre to convert them prior to copying to my bebook surly.

I am not saying your BeBook doesn't support them but the BeBook "driver" in calibre. For every device that calibre supports via the "send to device" there is a "driver" program that knows how to detect, talk to, and place books on that specific device. Within that driver is a list where it tells calibre what ebook formats it supports and what priority to give them.

For example, for the Sony it might say, this device supports LRF, EPUB, RTF, TXT and prefers them in that order.

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

So every time I want to add a book to Calibre I'm going to get a copy ?

Yes.

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

That's going to fill up the hard drive quickly !

Of course, ebook files are pretty small when compared to hard drives these days. But you can d/l your books to a download folder. Add them all to calibre then delete them. TaDa one copy only.

BOb

[gargoyle67]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Of course, ebook files are pretty small when compared to hard drives these days. But you can d/l your books to a download folder. Add them all to calibre then delete them. TaDa one copy only.
BOb

Ahh got ya I suppose support will get better for .rtf bebook in calibre's future releases

Kinda takes the automated point out of calibre if I've go to go into my book folder and manually delete double files

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

Ahh got ya I suppose support will get better for .rtf bebook in calibre's future releases

Kinda takes the automated point out of calibre if I've go to go into my book folder and manually delete double files

I know that Calibre has hooks where you can add stuff. I assume there is an "after add book" hook where you could create a script that deletes the original file.

Although, I am pretty this would never be on by default in calibre... Kovid doesn't want people complaining that calibre deletes there books.

BOb

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

Thanks for the reply bob, But what do you mean Bebook doesn't support .rtf adding all my current ebooks are .rtf as they seem the most stable on the bebook fw, And that shouldn't matter if I'm using Calibre to convert them prior to copying to my bebook surly.

What he is saying is that the calibre BeBook driver is not recognising that .rtf is a format supported by the BeBook. It sounds as though you should raise a ticket that .rtf should be allowed on the BeBook without conversion. If you are using the 0.6.x releases, have you checked to see if the right-click menu allows you to send a specific format including rtf.

So every time I want to add a book to Calibre I'm going to get a copy ? That's going to fill up the hard drive quickly !

Yes. This is deliberate design decision to leave the original alone. If you are happy for calibre to manage all your ebooks, then you can delete the original.

It sounds as though you have set Calibre to use the same library location as your current ebooks. This is bad practise as you are going to get calibre creating its own folder and file structures at that location mixed up with your own. It is better to treat the calibre library as a "black box" at its own dedicated location.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by itimpi

It sounds as though you have set Calibre to use the same library location as your current ebooks. This is bad practise as you are going to get calibre creating its own folder and file structures at that location mixed up with your own. It is better to treat the calibre library as a "black box" at its own dedicated location.

Totally agree... and this should be stressed during the initial use of calibre when it asks you to select a folder for your "library".

BOb

[gargoyle67]

Originally Posted by itimpi

What he is saying is that the calibre BeBook driver is not recognising that .rtf is a format supported by the BeBook. It sounds as though you should raise a ticket that .rtf should be allowed on the BeBook without conversion. If you are using the 0.6.x releases, have you checked to see if the right-click menu allows you to send a specific format including rtf.

Yes. This is deliberate design decision to leave the original alone. If you are happy for calibre to manage all your ebooks, then you can delete the original.

It sounds as though you have set Calibre to use the same library location as your current ebooks. This is bad practise as you are going to get calibre creating its own folder and file structures at that location mixed up with your own. It is better to treat the calibre library as a "black box" at its own dedicated location.

Yes I get that you wouldn't want your book deleted or corrupted, And I'm still in the testing phase with calibre so I've copied some of book my files into the calibre book folder just in case they get deleted\corrupted

But if I select do not auto convert my .rtf files shouldn't calibre upload them as is ?.

[Sirba]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The best way to convert doc files is to save them as HTML

Thanks, works great!

[phongdt]

Hi,

I'm new to eBook Reader and recently got a PRS-700. Then I found out about Calibre, great & amazing app. I especially like the News Fetch features.

However:

1. I want to feed news from some Vietnamese site and all I got is garbage characters. Reading the FAQ, understand I will need to do some firmware/font hack in order to read Vietnamese properly. I did try searching the net and only found the instruction for PRS-505. Any idea where is the instruction for PRS-700?

2. I schedule a news fetch (English) once a day at midnight. But some of the time, in the mornal wake up, I found Calibre created many same items in the library. I any idea?

Much appreciated for the feedback.
Phongdt

[miha]

Am I correct to using following sequence in converting cyrillic book from RTF format to EPUB format with Calibre:
1. convert RTF to HTM
2. customize in the Calibre program HTML to ZIP plugin to UTF-8
3. convert book in Calibre to EPUB

[kovidgoyal]

yes assuming your html files are actually utf-8

[polly]

Hi. I've read the Calibre FAQ twice and all of this thread once without noticing the answers to these questions, so I may be asking new questions. I'm hoping that some kind and patient soul will help.

I've been reading ebooks for several years on my Palm, resulting in multiple copies of the same book in a variety of formats. I'm planning to use Calibre to help me organize these books. Also, borrowing a friend's 505 firmly demonstrated the importance of correct metadata when putting books on a reader. My problem is that I'm holding out for the new 600 before I purchase my reader. I'm going on a series of long trips starting in mid-September and it's very likely that I'll have a day or two at most to load books before I go. I have time right now to load books into Calibre, but no reader to play with to make sure I get it right. Experience has taught me that a clean database is a thing of beauty while dirty data is a tedious nightmare, so I want to do it right the first time. Being on an 18 hour flight with no more books to read because they weren't loaded right would also be a bad thing. In no particular order, here are some questions.

• When I do a backup, which files do I need to grab? I'm assuming everything in the Calibre folder and the Calibre library, but are there any other files that I need to worry about?
• Do I understand correctly that the easiest way to move Calibre from one computer to the next is to save to disk?
• If Calibre is currently on an external hard drive, will it throw a fit if it ends up with a different drive letter on a different computer, or is it OK with that?
• Is there any way to merge different Calibre libraries. Right now, I'm confining myself to working on my laptop, but at some point I'm going to want to move this to my server computer.
• I noticed that when I convert a book from input format to e-pub format, I end up with two copies of the book in the Calibre library, with one copy showing up in the list. I'm assuming that when I send that book to the device, the e-pub version will be the one to go?
• What about books that are in non-reader compatible formats like Lit and Pdb. Do they get converted on the fly? Is it better to be converting now because it will take a long time? Did I mention that I'm not going to have a lot of time with the reader to get everything loaded properly?
• What's the best way to manage series? I've accumulated quiet a few Star Trek books. They all have different authors, but I really want them to all be together, preferably on one SD card so they don't gum up the works too badly. Does Calibre have a gracefull way to handle that? I almost want to have two Calibre libraries-one for the fanfic and one for the normal stuff. Is this possible on the same computer?
• If the answer to that last one was yes, how do I pull this off?
• Am I correct in assuming that the Sony will gracefully handle the Series section and arrange those books under Category? How exactly does that work? I'm guessing that it's, say, Category, CS Lewis, Narnia, and then a list of books starting with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?
• Is there any way to track which books are on the reader and which are not? It's easy enough now, with 54 books in Calibre and no reader, but what happens when I have 500 in Calibre and 100 on the reader. Do I have to do side by side comparisons to see what's already there? Will the reader reject an identical book if I try to reload it? Do people use tags for this sort of thing so they can easily see what's on the reader. Will this become an area that I can sort by when a reader is attached, the way that I can by format and publisher now?

Have I asked too many questions now? Thanks to all of you who take a shot at any of these.

[kovidgoyal]

http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/user_m...ter-to-another

the best way to merge is to save one library to disk and import it on the other computer.

calibre will automatically send the correct format and if it is not present convert on the fly.

[JvdW]

Originally Posted by polly

Hi. I've read the Calibre FAQ twice and all of this thread once without noticing the answers to these questions, so I may be asking new questions. I'm hoping that some kind and patient soul will help.

When I do a backup, which files do I need to grab? I'm assuming everything in the Calibre folder and the Calibre library, but are there any other files that I need to worry about?

You'll need atleast to grab the Calibre library, including the metadata.db file! If you install the same version of Calibre on a new computer then you don't need the Calibre program files.

Originally Posted by polly

Do I understand correctly that the easiest way to move Calibre from one computer to the next is to save to disk?

IMHO, no. just copy the whole library part over to the new computer and point Calibre to that folder. Done

Originally Posted by polly

If Calibre is currently on an external hard drive, will it throw a fit if it ends up with a different drive letter on a different computer, or is it OK with that?

It won't find its metadata.db file and will create a new one. Just point Calibre to the new location by using the preference.

Originally Posted by polly

I noticed that when I convert a book from input format to e-pub format, I end up with two copies of the book in the Calibre library, with one copy showing up in the list. I'm assuming that when I send that book to the device, the e-pub version will be the one to go?

It looks like you're doing something wrong. I'll give an example how I do it:
Assume I have downloaded an epub to D:\Downloads\Test.lit I'll then start Calibre which will have its library located at D:\Calibre\Fiction, I'll then drag and drop the D:\Downloads\Test.lit into Calibre which will create the following folder structure:
D:\Calibre\Fiction\Unknown\Test(xx)\Test.lit
Notice that I'll have only one entry listed in Calibre!
Then I'll convert to epub without changing Author or Title. This will give my an additional file: D:\Calibre\Fiction\Unknown\Test(xx)\Test.epub. So now I have one book managed by Calibre with two formats and a THIRD original still in D:\Downloads.
Calibre will send the epub to your device if you haven't changed the default order of preference which you can do by going into Preferences -> Plugins -> Device Interface plugins -> sony 505. There you can select the order and which formats to send to your device.

Originally Posted by polly

What about books that are in non-reader compatible formats like Lit and Pdb. Do they get converted on the fly? Is it better to be converting now because it will take a long time? Did I mention that I'm not going to have a lot of time with the reader to get everything loaded properly?

Get converted on the fly to the preferred format and send over. Time to convert depends on size and format and your computer ofcourse. (simple Atom based pc versus quad core AMD/INTEL screamer PC makes a difference )

Originally Posted by polly

What's the best way to manage series? I've accumulated quiet a few Star Trek books. They all have different authors, but I really want them to all be together, preferably on one SD card so they don't gum up the works too badly. Does Calibre have a gracefull way to handle that? I almost want to have two Calibre libraries-one for the fanfic and one for the normal stuff. Is
this possible on the same computer?

Tagging as the end up as Collections on your Sony, Multiple tags are allowed. Calibre allows you to send to SD card instead of internal memory.
For the multiple library thing. That is possible when using a .cmd file (windows) or .sh file (Linux) which sets a couple of environment variables and then starts Calibre. Search the forums since I found it there too. If needed I can attach my version which I use on our network to let people have access to different libraries using Calibre.

Originally Posted by polly

Am I correct in assuming that the Sony will gracefully handle the Series section and arrange those books under Category? How exactly does that work? I'm guessing that it's, say, Category, CS Lewis, Narnia, and then a list of books starting with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?

No, corect me if I'm wrong. I use Tags within Calibre which become Collections. A book can have more then one Tag and it will be visible in more than one Collection.

Originally Posted by polly

Is there any way to track which books are on the reader and which are not? It's easy enough now, with 54 books in Calibre and no reader, but what happens when I have 500 in Calibre and 100 on the reader. Do I have to do side by side comparisons to see what's already there? Will the reader reject an identical book if I try to reload it? Do people use tags for this sort of thing so they can easily see what's on the reader. Will this become an area that I can sort by when a reader is attached, the way that I can by format and publisher now?

There is no way, as far as I know, to track which books are uploaded and which aren't. The reader will accept the book the second time without warning and atleast reset its 'Continue reading at' setting, maybe even bookmarks etc.

Originally Posted by polly

Have I asked too many questions now? Thanks to all of you who take a shot at any of these.

Those are a lot of questions and I wouldn't have (try) to answer them all, in more or less detail, if it wasn't for the fact that you don't have access to a reader now to check some of the asked things. Most of it is try it, know it, remember it.

Good luck with your cataloging/converting and ofcourse happy reading later on.

Regards,

Joop

[polly]

Originally Posted by JvdW

Tagging as the end up as Collections on your Sony, Multiple tags are allowed. Calibre allows you to send to SD card instead of internal memory.
For the multiple library thing. That is possible when using a .cmd file (windows) or .sh file (Linux) which sets a couple of environment variables and then starts Calibre. Search the forums since I found it there too. If needed I can attach my version which I use on our network to let people have access to different libraries using Calibre.


No, corect me if I'm wrong. I use Tags within Calibre which become Collections. A book can have more then one Tag and it will be visible in more than one Collection.


Regards,

Joop

Joop,

Thank you for taking the time to answer some of my questions.

I'm still a little confused about how to organize books in a series. It's interesting that tags allow a book to show up in more than one collection and gives me new ideas, but what about the Series column. Will it also generate collections? And if it does, will the books in that collection be organized according to series order? My problem is that I often read a series in order, but I don't always remember which book comes next. Since 01- First Book title doesn't work well on the Reader, I'm looking for other ideas.

Off to search the forums now for how to maintain more than one library at a time.

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by polly

Joop,

My problem is that I often read a series in order, but I don't always remember which book comes next. Since 01- First Book title doesn't work well on the Reader, I'm looking for other ideas.

This is how I organize series:

In the Title, I put author last name - series name - number in series - title in series. It appears in the collections under the author name, so it is easy to see the various series under each author. Since I do not look up books by title alone, this organization works for me.