best way of organizing actual book files on device

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by marp68

Aha, great thanks. I have now configured accordingly to wiki and you.

I have also come to the conclusion to completely abandon "analogue" management and instead try to mirror the calibre library to the device. I would like to set/define/manage everything about a new book first in calibre library and the mirror it to the device when transferring it. For example, that i first define the collection names in the calibre library and add one to a new book and make other adjustments. And then, when transferring the new book to the device, the collection definitions and other settings about the book are transferred as well. The calibre library is the original source and the device an exact copy of the source.

Is that how you normally do it? And is this what you can do when configuring acordingly the way described on wiki and you.

Yes, I do collection management exactly as described in the wiki.

And when finishing a book, since there is no way of automatically synching back the annotations etc to calibre library, I just copy the DE file and put it in a DE folder in the calibre library folder. If I would need it in the future.

My annotations are all short-lived, so I have no need to keep them. But, that sounds like a reasonable way to handle this.

[marp68]

Just to clarify,
So this mean I can have the same collections on both the calibre library view (computer) and the calibre device library view (device)? And if I have predefined a collection name in the calibre library view (for the books stored on the computer) and add a new book (stored on the computer) to it, when transferring it to the device, will it be defined to this collection when looking at the book in the calibre device library view and when looking at the book in the actual reader book collection list?

I have some problems understanding the collection instructions in the wiki and how to use the calibre collection feature in both calibre library view (computer) and the calibre device library view (device).

[davidfor]

That's not how I would describe it, but yes.

Calibre itself doesn't really have the concept of collections. What you are doing is deciding what piece of metadata in the library that you are going to use to create a collection. This could be existing metadata such as tags or series name, or it could be custom column you create just for this purpose.

The collections column in the device view just shows what collections the books are in on the device. It does include some virtual collections that are defined by status of the books on the device. So, "Im_reading" is for books that have been opened but not finished. And "Finished" (or "Read", can't remember which is used) is for books that have been finished.

[marp68]

OKej, have been experimenting a bit now.

I have now applied different genres as tags to all books. Is the search function above the list the only way to filter out, for example, languages:"=Swedish", tags:"deckare". Seems a bit akward to have to write all those things. Is there any easier way to just mark the different existing languages, tags etc to filter out. That's how the public library online search can be done.

And is it correct that in the device there is ony one level of collections. So I can't make a similar hiarchy structure based on, for example, Swedish and Spanish books. And then within these collections I can continue to filter out, for example, a specific genre. If one ave hundreds of books in different languages and many different genres, the collection doesn't seem so user friendly. Or have I missed something or do anyone have a good recommendation on how to do it.

Or a collection within a collection somehow to filter down from.

A real filter function would be good, perhaps based on the existing metadata for the books, like languages, genre etc. One just choose from several drop down lists based on the existing options. No I have to create several collections for, for example, Swedish Drama, Swedish Short Stories, Swedish Criminal, Swedish Scifi etc to Spanish Drama, Spanish Criminal, Spanish, Scifi etc. In the end it will be a huge lot of different collections on the same level. May there be any reason for not creating an easy filter function?

[Mellobob]

I'm probably doing this the "hard way" ... but it:

1. works
2. is understandable
3. mostly eliminates duplicate book names
4. is portable between devices

In Calibre I simply rename the books to reflect the series, etc. So, I end up with "titles" containing the series name (usually abbreviated), a 2 digit series number and the original title. So, for an Agatha Christy book I might have "Poirot 02 - The Murder on the Links".

[marp68]

Originally Posted by Mellobob

I'm probably doing this the "hard way" ... but it:

1. works
2. is understandable
3. mostly eliminates duplicate book names
4. is portable between devices

In Calibre I simply rename the books to reflect the series, etc. So, I end up with "titles" containing the series name (usually abbreviated), a 2 digit series number and the original title. So, for an Agatha Christy book I might have "Poirot 02 - The Murder on the Links".

But how can you filter among 100 books with different languages, genre, authors, series etc? If I, i.e, would like to see my Spanish criminal shortstories, then I would have to have a collection named Spanish criminal shortstories.

On my girlfriends Letto (Cyberbook) there is no way of doing this as well but there is a folder browser function, so she at least can sort them in corresponding folders and from the menu go to a specific folder. Not needing to also create a collection for each folder.

Either I want a functioning filter function based on metadata or a working folder browser function, so I myself can sort my books and browse among then. If Calibre can do it, why not the creators of the devices. Since the advertise them to store 2000 books. Then one need a good organizing and filter function on the device.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by marp68

If Calibre can do it, why not the creators of the devices. Since the advertise them to store 2000 books. Then one need a good organizing and filter function on the device.

As to why Kobos don't support genuine folder navigation (thus I had to emulate it with my AutoShelf mod) you can only ask the developers I guess. They're probably convinced their system is the superior, more comfortable one. It might be true if the user is computer agnostic...

The only way to get sane file names for ebooks is to use Calibre, but Calibre is after all a third party software and it tends to be ignored by manufacturers (they'd like you to just buy books at their own stores instead). Most ebook shops/download systems use random filenames (product ID of their shop system for that book or whatever) and that by itself would not be useful on a reader.

You can use Calibre, you can use mods to Kobos original firmware, or you can use alternative readers like KOReader, Coolreader. Lots of options even if Kobo does not behave the way you want it out of the box.

Originally Posted by Mellobob

So, I end up with "titles" containing the series name (usually abbreviated), a 2 digit series number and the original title.

So to navigate these, you put the series name (your abbreviation) into the search bar so it will only list books of this series? That's good too, only I'm not sure if I could remember all the key words :-)

[filmo]

I only have 2176 books in Calibre on my laptop computer. Calibre lists 636 Authors, 1 Language, 2 Formats, 39 publishers, 248 Tags. This makes easy to find a book to read using Calibre then use search on one of my Kobo Readers to find that book. My Android Phone and Tablet has Aldiko Book Reader Premium with my 2176 books which has all of the library sort categories listed by calibre. This makes it easy to find next book to read on one of my Android devises then search to find that book on my Kobo with little to no extra work to manage my book library. Much faster and easier to read covers, author and title captions with quicker scrolling through library with Aldiko App on Android than on Kobo Reader a page at a time. I also have Kobo Reader App on my Android devices which is ok for reading Kobo books but do most all of my reading on a Kobo reader not on Android phone or tablet.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by marp68

OKej, have been experimenting a bit now.

I have now applied different genres as tags to all books. Is the search function above the list the only way to filter out, for example, languages:"=Swedish", tags:"deckare". Seems a bit akward to have to write all those things. Is there any easier way to just mark the different existing languages, tags etc to filter out. That's how the public library online search can be done.

And is it correct that in the device there is ony one level of collections. So I can't make a similar hiarchy structure based on, for example, Swedish and Spanish books. And then within these collections I can continue to filter out, for example, a specific genre. If one ave hundreds of books in different languages and many different genres, the collection doesn't seem so user friendly. Or have I missed something or do anyone have a good recommendation on how to do it.

Or a collection within a collection somehow to filter down from.

A real filter function would be good, perhaps based on the existing metadata for the books, like languages, genre etc. One just choose from several drop down lists based on the existing options. No I have to create several collections for, for example, Swedish Drama, Swedish Short Stories, Swedish Criminal, Swedish Scifi etc to Spanish Drama, Spanish Criminal, Spanish, Scifi etc. In the end it will be a huge lot of different collections on the same level. May there be any reason for not creating an easy filter function?

The search is in calibre us a real filter. But, if you don't want to type, then don't. Click the button to the left of the search to open a dialog box. Or, click in the tag browser on the left for filter (i.e. create a search for you). Then press hold the control key down and click on another entry in the tag browser to combine the search. That will either create and "and" or an "or" between the two terms. Which one is used depends on an option chosen in the menu that is under the tag browser.

If you come up with a search you always use, then you can save it. Or create a Virtual Library based on the search. That is all calibre. It is explained in the manual.

On the Kobo device collections are single level. But, a book can be in multiple collections. And yes, if you go to "Swedish x" and "Spanish x" for lots of values of "x", there will be lots of collections. But, if you handle this in calibre it is simple. If you don't like the collections or other elements of the Kobo interface, then maybe you should look at one of the alternate reader applications such as KOReader.

[marp68]

Thanks, yes I will have to experiment a little with the filer section. A drop down list with all defined values available would however be nice solution.

And I now learnt how to manage more of the books on the device from the calibre. For example, the myshelves and edit in a bulk. This makes it easy to create collections. And I ended up doing it Swedish - X and Spanish - X. Since they are sorted alphabetically, it looks rather okej.

[Mellobob]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

So to navigate these, you put the series name (your abbreviation) into the search bar so it will only list books of this series? That's good too, only I'm not sure if I could remember all the key words :-)

Ahh, there's the rub. Finding something to read

Actually, I have calibre save the books to my device into collections by author.

It's not perfect ... If I want a SF book, I need to know the authors for that, etc.

[marp68]

Maybe there need to happen somethin similar to what happened with Android, since now it's used on many different brands devices.