Managing books and folders - Page 2

kiwidude · 07-07-2012, 07:51 PM

There is nothing "random" though I agree it can appear so - there is always a specific reason why each and every book appears in a particular sort order. However I do also agree about author sorting being overly complicated to use in calibre. There is a rationale and a history behind why it is the way it is but I too felt like binning the product when I first used it for the fact that unless you get a number of hidden levers configured correctly it just won't display in a way that made sense to me.

I've explained above what it is that you need to do, and I can tell you for a fact that it does work - you won't have multiple collections for an author on your Kindle, nor will you have to endure the pain of manually editing Kindle collections. And rows will not sort "randomly" on screen if you have configured calibre correctly for your author sorts. It is knowing what that "correct" that can be difficult to figure out. People will help you on these forums to work through the issues as they did for me when I struggled with it if you want them to.

For myself I intend to be maintaining an ebook collection for many, many years to come and fully expect that calibre will be the software to do that for me (across a range of devices, I don't expect it will be a Kindle forever) so tying myself into Kindle or Sony specific software makes zero sense to me. So some hours of effort to figure it out once and then never have to bother about it again was worth it for me, but you may prefer not to. As you say calibre does a *lot* of stuff that a lot of users love to make use of and will continue to be dramatically improved - only you can make the decision as to whether it is the right fit for you.

JollyRoger · 07-09-2012, 11:38 AM

Well, 1 author seems to not to want to play the game, but the rest are.
I do agree, Calibre is overall the only contender out there. Sorry if I seem harsh, I think when something makes you so dependent on it, it's difficult to cope when things don't work, or are incredibly difficult to suss out.
I suppose I want Calibre to have the drag and drop ease and simplicity of Kindlean, across all of it's features.
In fact though, all it does need apart from a .doc input filter, is people who understand it, who can help you when you need it.

Thanks again, all my issues are sorted for now and Calibre remains the only real solution as far as I'm concerned.

theducks · 07-09-2012, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JollyRoger

Well, 1 author seems to not to want to play the game, but the rest are.

Please explain and or post a screen shot showing the authors placement in the Tag browser relative to the others around it

kiwidude · 07-09-2012, 11:57 AM

If you have an author not sorting right it is usually an issue with the default sort specified for that author.
http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....es-and-sorting

For most users it is going to be the case that an edit of the Author Sort column is required via the Manage Author(s) dropdown on the Tag browser screen and/or editing the author sort for the books in question. There are a range of permutations of that though depending on what your preferred sort/display order is, what your tweaks are set to etc. Just read the help section above and if you are still stuck with it post *all* of the details of the issue, attaching screenshots always helps.

Edit: of course theducks had the same thought at the same time...

JollyRoger · 07-18-2012, 10:34 AM

Not sure hot to take a screenshot of the Kindle, but I now have 4 Douglas Adams folders, as the books when he had aa collaborative author have each gone to their own folder. *sigh*
More manual work.

kiwidude · 07-18-2012, 10:43 AM

@JollyRoger - there is no point in coming on here and sighing. Calibre has done exactly what you asked it to do - *you* specified multiple authors for that book, *you* specified the author sort column to create collections on, and so calibre followed your instructions and did exactly that. As I have said multiple times in this thread you can edit the author sort field for that book on the edit metadata screen to remove those extra authors, so as to allow displaying multiple authors in the calibre view, while having just a single author for a collection on the Kindle.

And as I have also said before if you instead want collaborations to be treated as individual author collections on the Kindle so you don't have to edit, then go knock on meme's door in the Kindle Collections plugin thread and request it as a feature. Ask nicely and I'm sure he would at least respond to the idea as to whether he wants to implement it or not.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Managing notes on books	Artha	General Discussions	3	08-24-2011 08:41 AM
Managing books from UK public library	Kevan	Library Management	0	02-24-2011 03:29 PM
Managing books on multiple kindles	stargazir	Amazon Kindle	19	02-15-2011 09:22 PM
Managing iPad books	HowardBrazee	Apple Devices	12	10-19-2010 05:46 AM
Managing your library or how you consume books	pwalker8	General Discussions	37	09-02-2010 07:58 AM

07-07-2012, 07:51 PM	#16
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,729 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	There is nothing "random" though I agree it can appear so - there is always a specific reason why each and every book appears in a particular sort order. However I do also agree about author sorting being overly complicated to use in calibre. There is a rationale and a history behind why it is the way it is but I too felt like binning the product when I first used it for the fact that unless you get a number of hidden levers configured correctly it just won't display in a way that made sense to me. I've explained above what it is that you need to do, and I can tell you for a fact that it does work - you won't have multiple collections for an author on your Kindle, nor will you have to endure the pain of manually editing Kindle collections. And rows will not sort "randomly" on screen if you have configured calibre correctly for your author sorts. It is knowing what that "correct" that can be difficult to figure out. People will help you on these forums to work through the issues as they did for me when I struggled with it if you want them to. For myself I intend to be maintaining an ebook collection for many, many years to come and fully expect that calibre will be the software to do that for me (across a range of devices, I don't expect it will be a Kindle forever) so tying myself into Kindle or Sony specific software makes zero sense to me. So some hours of effort to figure it out once and then never have to bother about it again was worth it for me, but you may prefer not to. As you say calibre does a lot of stuff that a lot of users love to make use of and will continue to be dramatically improved - only you can make the decision as to whether it is the right fit for you.

07-09-2012, 11:38 AM	#17
JollyRoger Groupie Posts: 150 Karma: 68 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Kindle	Well, 1 author seems to not to want to play the game, but the rest are. I do agree, Calibre is overall the only contender out there. Sorry if I seem harsh, I think when something makes you so dependent on it, it's difficult to cope when things don't work, or are incredibly difficult to suss out. I suppose I want Calibre to have the drag and drop ease and simplicity of Kindlean, across all of it's features. In fact though, all it does need apart from a .doc input filter, is people who understand it, who can help you when you need it. Thanks again, all my issues are sorted for now and Calibre remains the only real solution as far as I'm concerned.

07-09-2012, 11:57 AM	#19
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,729 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	If you have an author not sorting right it is usually an issue with the default sort specified for that author. http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....es-and-sorting For most users it is going to be the case that an edit of the Author Sort column is required via the Manage Author(s) dropdown on the Tag browser screen and/or editing the author sort for the books in question. There are a range of permutations of that though depending on what your preferred sort/display order is, what your tweaks are set to etc. Just read the help section above and if you are still stuck with it post all of the details of the issue, attaching screenshots always helps. Edit: of course theducks had the same thought at the same time...

07-18-2012, 10:34 AM	#20
JollyRoger Groupie Posts: 150 Karma: 68 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Kindle	Not sure hot to take a screenshot of the Kindle, but I now have 4 Douglas Adams folders, as the books when he had aa collaborative author have each gone to their own folder. sigh More manual work.

07-18-2012, 10:43 AM	#21
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,729 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@JollyRoger - there is no point in coming on here and sighing. Calibre has done exactly what you asked it to do - you specified multiple authors for that book, you specified the author sort column to create collections on, and so calibre followed your instructions and did exactly that. As I have said multiple times in this thread you can edit the author sort field for that book on the edit metadata screen to remove those extra authors, so as to allow displaying multiple authors in the calibre view, while having just a single author for a collection on the Kindle. And as I have also said before if you instead want collaborations to be treated as individual author collections on the Kindle so you don't have to edit, then go knock on meme's door in the Kindle Collections plugin thread and request it as a feature. Ask nicely and I'm sure he would at least respond to the idea as to whether he wants to implement it or not.

Advert

Advert