Directory Structure

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by cocopuff

This could be a stupid idea but couldn't you just make an extra collection and place all the books not otherwise in a collection in there? Or when placing on the device just automatically place them in this collection and then move them to the "right" collection as needed? I don't use collections so this might not work but might be worth looking into

That would to me be a waste of time and effort.
I use collections on my k4pc. Only the cookbooks and only if there are more than 10 in a set. Now my physical recipes are really categorized. A few years ago, I condensed from 26 shoe boxes to 2 file cabinet drawers. Those two drawers are designed to hold 2 rows of 3 by 5 cards.
As far as other e-books, no real need for collections.

[barryem]

I use collections with my Amazon devices because it's convenient but the truth is they don't really matter that much to me.

I think the secret to making these devices easy to manage is not to keep too many books on them. I always have my current book and a few possible next books and a few short stories on board. I rarely have more than 30 books on it and when I do I clean it up, cutting it down to less than 20 books. And even that gives me more choices than I really need.

Barry

[HarryT]

To offer a contrary view, Barry, I have 1800 books on my Kindle Voyage and don't have the slightest difficulty in finding the books I'm looking for. It's simply a matter of using the available organisational facilities in an efficient manner.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by barryem

I use collections with my Amazon devices because it's convenient but the truth is they don't really matter that much to me.

I think the secret to making these devices easy to manage is not to keep too many books on them. I always have my current book and a few possible next books and a few short stories on board. I rarely have more than 30 books on it and when I do I clean it up, cutting it down to less than 20 books. And even that gives me more choices than I really need.

Barry

If the secret to organization is to not have too many books on the device (which it isn't), then you would find yourself on a slippery slope that ends with going back to paper books.



Ereaders are more than just illuminated books with changeable font sizes.
Some people like to use them to cut down on space.


There is a balance between offering no choice at all and offering way more choice than anyone could reasonably need, and it is far, far, far higher than 30.
If 30 books works for you, then good for you, but understand that you are very much in the minority.

[Cinisajoy]

I have roughly 250 on my K4. I had 500 on my K3 and never had a problem finding a book. I just wish I could remember which 500 so I could put them on my K4.
The K3 died with no chance of recovery.

[HarryT]

Many people simply don't know how to use their devices properly. I'm often asked, in the Kindle forum, how I can find books with so many in the device, and it comes as a surprise to many to learn that you can jump directly to any point in an alphabetical list of authors or titles without having to get there by endless scrolling through the pages of your library.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Many people simply don't know how to use their devices properly. I'm often asked, in the Kindle forum, how I can find books with so many in the device, and it comes as a surprise to many to learn that you can jump directly to any point in an alphabetical list of authors or titles without having to get there by endless scrolling through the pages of your library.

Using a device "properly" can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Barry

[meeera]

Originally Posted by davcefai

I would like a new ereader with a 7" epaper screen. The "killer" feature will be the ability to create directories and store my books by directory. I could do this in my "old" MeBook but my Kobo, and it seems the majority (if not all) of the epaper devices only support "collections".

This means that even if a book is in a collection it will appear in the general pool. When I download new books I have to hunt through the ones already on board to find the new ones and add them to a collection.

Managing your ebooks and collections with Calibre is, in my opinion, the simplest and most robust way to do this. A quick click on the collections column will then show you books not in any collection, if that's something you're inclined to do.

It also means you have a backup of all your books and their collections, so that restoration in the case of a broken/stolen/upgraded/factory-reset device is almost trivial. I don't know if there are 7" readers about, but Kobo Aura HD or H2O are 6.8".

If you are wedded to a hierarchical folder structure, I think you can do that with the alternative readers; but I encourage you to find out how collections work first.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by meeera

Managing your ebooks and collections with Calibre is, in my opinion, the simplest and most robust way to do this. A quick click on the collections column will then show you books not in any collection, if that's something you're inclined to do.

I just want to point out that this will only work if all of the books in Calibre are also on your device. This isn't true for everyone.

Shari

[LucyOne]

Originally Posted by davcefai

I have browsed here before but only registered today.

I would like a new ereader with a 7" epaper screen. The "killer" feature will be the ability to create directories and store my books by directory. I could do this in my "old" MeBook but my Kobo, and it seems the majority (if not all) of the epaper devices only support "collections".

This means that even if a book is in a collection it will appear in the general pool. When I download new books I have to hunt through the ones already on board to find the new ones and add them to a collection.

The only solution I can see is to name the books <author>-<title>, which I do not want to do.

Help appreciated.

The Pocketbook ereaders offer directories as you want them. You can create your own folders. I have mine on the SD card.

[Rizla]

I think the Nook Glowlight can organize books via directories. You can just drop them in. But check this in the Nook forum. It's a pretty good device, and with the new Nook devices coming out, you might be able to pick the older model up cheap. I think it's a pretty nice device. It does only offer about 500 MB to store side-loaded picks, but that's plenty and you can move stuff on and off.

Kobo is good too, but you will need to install Koreader / Coolreader if you want to organize via directories. But it's perfectly doable. The H2O is nice. But you can't organize books via directories using the out-of-the-box UI called nickel, which is a pity because it's really nice with immense functionality.

Obviously any open Android device will do it and offers the greatest felxibility of any device.

I recommend you don't touch Kindle. The UI and functionality is are super-limited and getting worse all the time. You cannot customize them in any way.

[meeera]

Managing your ebooks and collections with Calibre is, in my opinion, the simplest and most robust way to do this. A quick click on the collections column will then show you books not in any collection, if that's something you're inclined to do.

Originally Posted by shalym

I just want to point out that this will only work if all of the books in Calibre are also on your device. This isn't true for everyone.

Shari

I'm not clear what you mean - this works whether or not you even have a device connected, let alone whether all your books are also on your device.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by meeera

I'm not clear what you mean - this works whether or not you even have a device connected, let alone whether all your books are also on your device.

I believe what eschwartz was talking about was being able to see, at a glance, which books that are on the device, but not in collections. Your method only shows which books in Calibre are not in collections.

Shari

[meeera]

Originally Posted by shalym

I believe what eschwartz was talking about was being able to see, at a glance, which books that are on the device, but not in collections. Your method only shows which books in Calibre are not in collections.

Shari

Perhaps that's where the confusion lay, then. I was replying to davcefai, the original poster, not eschwartz. Since the OP doesn't want a six inch device, what is happening in eschwartz's Kindle isn't germane to the problem at hand.

If every book is appropriately shelved by the user after they import it into Calibre, there will be never be any books on the device that are unshelved.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by shalym

I believe what eschwartz was talking about was being able to see, at a glance, which books that are on the device, but not in collections. Your method only shows which books in Calibre are not in collections.

When the device is connected, the device list shows all books on the device. The collections column will show the collections the books are in on the device.