Guide to Collections Management with calibre (Touch / Glo / Mini /Aura)

[peaceridge]

A quick question I haven't seen thus far. I like to name my shelves with author last name, author first name. If I put say Andrews, Ilina in "myshelves" I get, of course, a shelf named Andrews and one named Ilina - I've tried various naming conventions (quotes, etc around the name) and thus far nothing works. I certainly can call it Andrews-Ilina, but that just looks wrong (lol). What am I missing?

PS - what a wonderful plugin and great directions - just got a new Glo and shelves are working perfectly from Calibre (other than my ocd about naming)!

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

A quick question I haven't seen thus far. I like to name my shelves with author last name, author first name. If I put say Andrews, Ilina in "myshelves" I get, of course, a shelf named Andrews and one named Ilina - I've tried various naming conventions (quotes, etc around the name) and thus far nothing works. I certainly can call it Andrews-Ilina, but that just looks wrong (lol). What am I missing?

PS - what a wonderful plugin and great directions - just got a new Glo and shelves are working perfectly from Calibre (other than my ocd about naming)!

Use author_sort or authors. Should be good.

Helen

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Use author_sort or authors. Should be good.

Helen

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. When I insert the name of the author in the Edit Metadata/Custom Metadata field that I called My Shelves I want to end up on the Glo with one shelf that says "Andrews, Ilena" not 2 shelves, one saying Andrews and the other Ilena. I use author_sort in the Preferences.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. When I insert the name of the author in the Edit Metadata/Custom Metadata field that I called My Shelves I want to end up on the Glo with one shelf that says "Andrews, Ilena" not 2 shelves, one saying Andrews and the other Ilena. I use author_sort in the Preferences.

Sorry it is still not clear to me. To have author sort shelves I do not use a custom column as the plugin definition works fine. I am thinking the comma in your My Shelves may be the problem, but unsure why you need a custom column in this instance. Probably dense on my part.

Helen

[rxmom03]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

A quick question I haven't seen thus far. I like to name my shelves with author last name, author first name. If I put say Andrews, Ilina in "myshelves" I get, of course, a shelf named Andrews and one named Ilina - I've tried various naming conventions (quotes, etc around the name) and thus far nothing works. I certainly can call it Andrews-Ilina, but that just looks wrong (lol). What am I missing?

Could you name it Andrews.Ilina ? I've never tried that so don't know if that would work. And that may look wrong too

Mary

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Sorry it is still not clear to me. To have author sort shelves I do not use a custom column as the plugin definition works fine. I am thinking the comma in your My Shelves may be the problem, but unsure why you need a custom column in this instance. Probably dense on my part.

Helen

Custom column is to name my Kobo shelf and put the book on it when I send to device.

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by rxmom03

Could you name it Andrews.Ilina ? I've never tried that so don't know if that would work. And that may look wrong too

Mary

Thanks, it looks better than the dash - I just tried it and it works. Seems odd that I'm the only person who names shelves this way. I have a Dee Henderson and a Zinna Henderson - If I use just Henderson, their books are intermixed on one shelf - not necessarily a bad thing, I just like a more organized look.

Lyn

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Custom column is to name my Kobo shelf and put the book on it when I send to device.

well you don't need to do this, but if it is what you prefer by all means.

The reason you got two shelves was because a comma in a tag type custom column is used to separate entries (delimiter). So it would have to make a separate shelf for each comma delimited word or set of words.

I prefer using the device interface plugin with author_sort as an entry (where you put myshelves and yes you can have them both). Neater and easier IMO, one little step gives me lastname, firstname as a single shelf for each of my authors. But each to his/her own.

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Thanks, it looks better than the dash - I just tried it and it works. Seems odd that I'm the only person who names shelves this way. I have a Dee Henderson and a Zinna Henderson - If I use just Henderson, their books are intermixed on one shelf - not necessarily a bad thing, I just like a more organized look.

I don't know if you are the only person naming your shelves this way, but there is another way to do it. What Helen was suggesting was that instead of using a custom column, that you use one of the standard. If you use "authors" as one of the shelf columns, a shelf for each author on the device will be created automatically. That means you don't have to manually maintain the shelf column. And as you wanted a "LN, FN", then using "authors_sort".

And the problem with using a comma is the type of custom column. You have used a tag like column. These allow a list of values to be entered in the one column. A comma is used to separate the values in the list. Hence "Henderson, Zinna" is two values and will make two shelves.

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

well you don't need to do this, but if it is what you prefer by all means.

The reason you got two shelves was because a comma in a tag type custom column is used to separate entries (delimiter). So it would have to make a separate shelf for each comma delimited word or set of words.

I prefer using the device interface plugin with author_sort as an entry (where you put myshelves and yes you can have them both). Neater and easier IMO, one little step gives me lastname, firstname as a single shelf for each of my authors. But each to his/her own.

Helen

Hi Helen, I wasn't understanding you. I just figured out what you were saying. How cool is that! I just tried it and got exactly what I wanted on my Glo! Thanks so much!

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't know if you are the only person naming your shelves this way, but there is another way to do it. What Helen was suggesting was that instead of using a custom column, that you use one of the standard. If you use "authors" as one of the shelf columns, a shelf for each author on the device will be created automatically. That means you don't have to manually maintain the shelf column. And as you wanted a "LN, FN", then using "authors_sort".

And the problem with using a comma is the type of custom column. You have used a tag like column. These allow a list of values to be entered in the one column. A comma is used to separate the values in the list. Hence "Henderson, Zinna" is two values and will make two shelves.

Thanks David, Helen gave me the info I needed - I just had to read and get what she was saying . Appreciate all the help - I have what I wanted (for now )

[peaceridge]

Here's a new question - probably I can't do this, but never hurts to ask. I will have my favorite books saved to the sd card in author last, first name order like we talked about above. Now, I'd also like to save my new, non-read books to the main storage as just one shelf called currently reading or some such. I know I can put the tag on my shelf and calibre will also send them to that shelf. Anyway not to send these particular ones to an author shelf? - I don't want to clutter the shelves with books that are one to a shelf. If not, I can always send them to main storage and ignore all the shelves except the current one (name it .current and maybe it will sort first?), but it would be cleaner not to have the several shelves on the main storage.

Lyn

[speakingtohe]

This is similar in concept.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...gy#post1986335

Helen

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

This is similar in concept.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...gy#post1986335

Helen

Thanks Helen, yes, this is exactly what I need! It will work for my Anthologies, to be sure and once I figure out the code better, for my current reads also. Appreciate it.

Lyn

[speakingtohe]

One nice thing about the column built on other columns is that you can change the template by clicking in that column.

Helen