totally lost in Calibre

[degree6]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

You are obsessed with filename of the books in the calibre library. You need to get over that if you intend on using the calibre gui. The filename the book has *now* inside the calibre library is completely and totally irrelevant to you, because it is comprised of the title/author that you see on screen, not the filename of the book as it was before you imported it. So having it displayed would not help you in the slightest.

When you add a book to calibre, there is no "perfect" way for calibre to know what the title/author of that book is that suits every situation. So the default option it has turned on is to attempt to read the title/author from metadata stored inside the book format (for formats that support such a feature, like epub, mobi etc). If that metadata stored inside the book is rubbish, thats what your title/author is going to be when the book is displayed in calibre.

If instead your books you are adding to calibre are all named with filenames in a clean and consistent way you are happy with, then you will want to setup a correct regular expression in Preferences -> Adding books before you add the book to calibre, and turn off the "Read metadata from file contents rather than filename" option on that same screen.

So your best approach is to figure out how you want to add the books, configure your settings and start afresh - either with a clean library or deleting the existing books you have added (assuming you kept the originals, calibre of course makes its own copy). And take a look at the calibre Help manual/videos - this stuff is all covered in there.

So changing that setting and reloading will get Calibre to show filenames? I am sorry this is the first program I have ever seen which makes it difficult or even requires manual-reading to find out what file I am working with. The rest just show it automatically. If a simple preference setting enables this from now on that would be great.

[Terisa de morgan]

If you only want to convert book, forget about GUI and look at command-line programs

[HarryT]

Please see my post #14 above. You're right. Filenames don't show, because they aren't relevant to what Calibre's used for. Calibre stores a book. It's not a Mobi book or an ePub book, it's just a book. Calibre will generate an ePub book if you want to read it on an ePub device, and a Mobi book if you want to read it on a Kindle, but you really need to stop thinking in terms of "files" and think in terms of "books".

[jgaiser]

Once again. Forget about filenames and extensions. Once an ebook is added to calibre you no longer need to concern yourself about either. You will have a listing of book titles in the main frame and if you need to know which formats are available, click on the number to the left of book title and that information will appear on the "Book Details" frame at the right (Shift-Alt-D if the frame is not there).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by degree6

So changing that setting and reloading will get Calibre to show filenames? I am sorry this is the first program I have ever seen which makes it difficult or even requires manual-reading to find out what file I am working with. The rest just show it automatically. If a simple preference setting enables this from now on that would be great.

You are being stubborn or dense (or both).

At the top of the conversion screen:
Left side: the choice of Source formats (based upon what is available for THAT book).
At the Right: the choice of formats to convert TO

These values tend to remember and default to any Last Used (for that book) settings. In lieu of last used, the system preferences take effect. There is a button to forget these and use the current preferences.

All formats are stored (and Managed) together. You can usually see what formats you have for a selected book, in the details pane (or tap the 'I' key)

You can configure your device driver (device as shipped, not rooted) setting to send a preferred format.
There are similar settings when using a 'Save to Disk' device.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by degree6

You didn't read my comment. The name and extension simple do not show at all. I know these files have these extensions.

- if I click on Path: click to open in the book details pane, they show just fine in the pop-up window - but that display is controlled by windows folder options (show/hide extensions) not controlled by calibre.

I expect it is also quite easy to have filename appear as a custom column in main window if you really really want to see that.

[fullybook]

Originally Posted by degree6

You didn't read my comment. The name and extension simple do not show at all. I know these files have these extensions.

Calibre doesn't show the file extension of your ebook but it shows what format is your book. It's the same as showing the file extension because file extension of an ebook is also the ebook format. Like if you have a file with a filename: Awaken to Danger - Catherine Mann.epub, when you load it to calibre, the epub extension is dropped. Only the title and the author are entered in their proper field.

When you highlight a book, the right side panel (look at the pic below), you'll see FORMATS. That's the file extension you are trying to look for. There's PDF and EPUB. If you want to know where that book is, just click PATH: Click to Open.




Can you be more specific on what you mean by filename? Because when you load a book in Calibre, sometimes the Title and Author field is messed up like the in the pic below. It happens when the file you load is in PDF, HTML, or RTF.



When you change the Title and the Author name, the FILENAME of that book will change too into TITLE - AUTHOR.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by fullybook

Because when you load a book in Calibre, sometimes the Title and Author field is messed up like the in the pic below. It happens when the file you load is in PDF, HTML, or RTF.

I'm using Calibre 8.60 on Windows 7

If I put the Title and Author into the respective Properties (metadata) of an RTF or PDF then, when the RTF or PDF is added, Calibre will use those properties to determine the Book Folder name, irrespective of the original file name.

I don't think I made any special settings in Calibre to achieve this - but I can't be 100% certain of that.

If the data isn't in the file Properties then Calibre uses the file name, as best it can.

To put Properties into an RTF I use Word 2007, for PDF's I use PDF-Exchange Viewer.

BR

[ElMiko]

Originally Posted by degree6

I tried this, but could find nothing to specificy or show the file name and extension of where it was going. Only a directory.

My goal too is to use only the conversion function, but it is hard since Calibre does not show the file name (which includes title and author) and instead shows random character strings in the "Title" and "Author' columns. This makes it impossible to know which book I am looking at.

If your title & author fields are showing gobbledygook, that may be because the book you've added has gobbledygook in its embedded metadata, in which case you should be changing that to reflect the actual book information. Another option would be to change the way Calibre adds books to the library. i.e. Go into Preferences=>Adding Books, deselect "Read metadata from file contents rather than file name" and change the regular expression below so that it will correctly recognize your file naming pattern. I'm sure that if you were to tell us how your files are named (eg [Author] - [Series Name] [Series ##] - [Title].[ext]), someone'd be happy to give you the appropriate expression to paste in that preferences field.

There are bunch of ways for you to see which file types (extensions) are being associated with a given book.

• One way is by going into the Edit metatadata dialog (select the book and press "E"; or select "Edit metadata individually" from the context menu—that is, the right-click dropdown menu). From there, in the upper right hand corner, you'll see what the extension(s) is(/are) for the book in question.
• Another way is to look at the Book Details window on the right hand side of the interface (see attached image #1). If you're not seeing anything, hover your mouse around the right-hand border; you should see a drag-able border that will expand the Book Detail window. If you're not seeing any info there about the available file formats, go to Preferences=>Look & Feel. Under the Tab labeled "Book Details", make sure that "Formats" has a check mark next to it. If you're still not seeing anything in the Book Details window, it means that you haven't actually added a book file.
• And yet another way would be to add a custom column that displays the available formats for the books in your library. You do this by going to Preference=>Add your own columns. Then press the green plus sign ("Add a user-defined column"). In the resulting window, fill in the fields as per attached image #2

EDIT: ... he said after everyone had chimed in.... sorry if i've repeated what other's have suggested.... it took a while to type.

[BeeTee-Ess]

Hello degree6...

A lot of people have tried to help you here, some of them several times. One of the best pieces of advice many of them have offered is, forget about file names and extensions, and think instead in terms of book titles and their authors. Apart from that, I do not intend to repeat what the others have said.

Let me say, you have had advice from some of the best folk this forum has to offer, and as I read it, I have been asking myself why you have been unable to follow it.

From re-reading your posts, I wonder if your books have been properly added to Calibre. Can you post a screenshot of your Calibre main window, so that we can see if there is some underlying problem which is preventing you from getting to grips with working in the manner suggested by those helpers?

[cybmole]

degree6:
the "save to disk" option option on main menu bar allows you say exactly where you want files to go and also to say what formats.

like many others I am struggling to understand why you( & only you) are still finding the basic features this program so difficult to use, despite all of the good advice already given

once again in 3 easy steps.
1. add book(s) to calibre using the add books function. Allow calibre to name & store them within its database
2. convert book(s) using the convert book function. again, allow calibre to name & store
3. send the converted books to a folder or Device OF YOUR CHOOSING using the send to disc function. You now have output files, in the formats YOU chose, in the folder YOU chose, which you can rename & move around to your hearts content. and calibre stilll has the originals, safe in its database, in case you screw up.

which of those steps do you still not understand. ?

[travger]

It seems to me that degree6 does not grasp the difference between 'book' and 'format' in Calibre. One is just metadata info while the other is actual files. Think of it like this: what is the extension of 'I, Robot'?

Calibre does not deal with files and doesn't care about extensions. So it's possible to have empty book with no formats attached but all correct metadata in place (lot of people use them as wishlist items). It's harder to achieve files without corresponding book record (and who would want them anyway), but sometimes orphan files do happen and should be deleted.
Calibre is LIBRARY - it sorts, finds, stores info about the BOOK. Formats (or lack of) of the book are user's preference.