2 Simple questions about Calibre

[redhot]

One is a dumb question but please humor me. It is a about metadata....

I know how to go in and update all of the info and series and installment data as well what my question is say a book is part of a series (and it is notated in calibre as such) when you put it on your reading device (mine is a kindle) while it show what installment the book is in the series?

Also, I looked and could not find this, is there a place in the software to note a book as read? Or can I add a column to note that, so when I am looking in the grid I can easily see what has been read and what has not or for that matter sort from read to unread?

Thanks in advance.....

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by redhot

I looked and could not find this, is there a place in the software to note a book as read? Or can I add a column to note that, so when I am looking in the grid I can easily see what has been read and what has not or for that matter sort from read to unread?

Yes. You have to add that column. Watch this video.

[redhot]

Thank you for your help in regards to the read column! Can anybody offer up some advice or assistance on the other?

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by redhot

I know how to go in and update all of the info and series and installment data as well what my question is say a book is part of a series (and it is notated in calibre as such) when you put it on your reading device (mine is a kindle) while it show what installment the book is in the series?

Well, that kind of depends on whether your reader uses a format that stores series info in metadata and then actually reads it. To my knowledge, the Kindle does neither. But you should be able to tell Calibre that you want it to name your book using series info. You can find that option in the saving preferences. (Sorry, I can't tell you exactly what it's called in english, I'm using the german translation...)

[redhot]

Thanks Manichean.....I have a save to disk preference for that I just didn't know as far as specific fields saved in the metadata field how that worked. Thanks for your help.....

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by redhot

Thanks Manichean.....I have a save to disk preference for that I just didn't know as far as specific fields saved in the metadata field how that worked. Thanks for your help.....

I believe there's a list of allowed expressions underneath the relevant input field. That should help building the expression you need.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by redhot

I know how to go in and update all of the info and series and installment data as well what my question is say a book is part of a series (and it is notated in calibre as such) when you put it on your reading device (mine is a kindle) while it show what installment the book is in the series?

There are two things that might help you beyond what has been mentioned already.

First you can create a catalog of all your books using the dropdown menu to the right of the Convert E-books icon. This way a complete list of all your books including summaries, tags and series info. You can't jump straight to a book on your Kindle using this but using the below you can navigate easily to the book you want via the instructions below.

Originally Posted by GRiker

Unfortunately, Amazon disabled the ability to jump from one book to another directly via an embedded link.

It is possible to jump indirectly, though slight tedious. When you find a book in the catalog that you want to read:

• Type the name of the book, e.g., War of the Worlds
• Toggle right twice on the joystick so that 'my items' is highlighted in the search bar, then click
• The progress spinner animates in the upper left of the screen.
• When the search results are displayed, move the highlight to the book you want to read, toggle right once to display the jump options:
  • Go to Last Page Read
  • Go to Beginning
  • Go to Location...
• Select an option, click to jump to the book

G

The second idea is to create a book jacket via calibre. Every time I convert a book I check the Insert metadata as page at start of book option under Structure Detection. This creates a book jacket as the first page just inside the cover. See attached image for example. This allows you to see the series number when you open a book.

I hope this helps.