Trying to do a few things in Calibre

[nerys]

well if i can get the LRF viewer working that will be a HUGE bonus. I for now just use it as a converter. I add a book. Add the meta data and cover output an LRF. test on the reader and if all is well I MOVE the lrf calibre made to "my" store of ebook and delete everything from calibre.

one of the problem I have is that I can not seem to put book in order of newest to oldest with the date being the date I added them to calibre.

SO when I add a few books if I already have a few dozen books in calibre I now have to SIFT or SEARCH through the list to "find" the new ones I just added. This is a pain.

so I add 10. do them and then delete everything from calibre. This way when I add the next 10 there is no searching sifting or sorting I know the 10 I see is the 10 I am working on now.

the LRF viewer will greatly speed up this process as I can confirm results and move on without having to first test in the reader :-)

I guess maybe I should start outputting epub as well so I am "ready" for future readers? though once I have a properly formatted LRF (which I think is html on some level???) it should be pretty easy to convert to epub if the need arises.

[itimpi]

I just click on the column header for the date column to sort by date order. Clicking again reverses the order. I normally keep my Calibre library sorted so that newest added is at the top.

[Kristo]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I just click on the column header for the date column to sort by date order. Clicking again reverses the order. I normally keep my Calibre library sorted so that newest added is at the top.

This would work perfectly if there was a time stamp associated with the added date. As it stands, it won't separate batches of books that I've added at different times throughout the day.

[theducks]

The timestamp is there, it is just hidden

Look at the CalibreDB (--List) command line tool. You can export the time stamp in full.

Note: The Date sort appears to Honor the full time stamp

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by nerys

Hmm I wonder what I am missing. When I tell it to view an LRF nothing happens. I mean literally nothing. I wonder if I have a bad install. I will try reinstalling again. Or maybe since I DID have the sony software installed (needed to install the driver for the reader and the only way to do that was to install the sony software) when I uninstalled the sony software it might have left the association blank??

I keep forgetting your using a PRS-500, what version of Calibre are you using?

Under Calibre - Preferences - Interface do you have lrf checked under internal viewer?

I'm not sure if you are using Windows or its version number. I use Windows XP and to associate a file extension you open My Computer - Tools - Folder Options - File Types - select lrf - click Change - Select the lrfviewer.exe program in the Calibre Directory. If lrf isn't listed then you have to choose New instead of change and create the association.

Originally Posted by nerys

I tell it NOT to add the summary as first page of the LRF since if I am viewing it on the reader I have already decided I am going to read it and have no need for the summary.

One of the reasons I was was intrigued by Calibre is I can view the summary "in" calibre before I decide to put it on the reader.

The summary aspect is nice and the newest versions of Calibre allow you to create a catalog of all your books which allow you to view every book's metadata including summary, series, tags, rating etc... in a nice all in one ebook.

Originally Posted by nerys

and I am not sure how you mean it does not change the folder structure. I "watch" it change the folder structure based on the meta data it downloads in real time.

Maybe I missed something some new people do. When you first install Calibre it asks for a Library location. You should be pointing this to an empty folder. If you pointed it to your giant collection of ebooks then it will change things in that structure and drive anyone nuts in the process.

Best practice is to start with a empty directory. When you add books it will create folders for them in this new directory and never mess with your source folders or books.

Originally Posted by nerys

When Itunes or media Monkey or zune get new Metadata for an mp3 they DO NOT change the file name of the MP3 they DO NOT change the folder its located in or the position in the tree its located in. They do NOT create a duplicate set of files (note a conversion is not a duplicate to me)

These programs index your existing library. Calibre creates a totally new library and leaves your existing files alone. That way no matter what the user may do in Calibre the original books are safe.

If you initially pointed to a Directory full of books you are doomed to fight Calibre every step of the way. If this was the case I would do 5 things.

1. Select all books you currently have in Calibre and use the save to disk function placing them in a temp directory.

2. Created a new directory (Calibre_library)

3. Exit calibre, restart using "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" --with-library C:\Calibre_library\

4. Calibre should be empty, add one book as a test case.

5. Use the add books drop down menu and choose the second option then point to the temp directory you saved the books to. This will place all those books with their metadata in tact back in Calibre.

Now that you have a fresh library. You needn't worry about your original file structure being screw up by Calibre.

Originally Posted by nerys

Calibre does. Try changing the "author" name of the book in calibre while the books folder you assigned to calibre is open.

it will alter the folder name in REAL TIME as you alter the meta data. How you could possibly not notice this is beyond me.

This is correct but this is happening within the Calibre file structure not in my original file structure. As stated above they should be separate structures.

Originally Posted by nerys

WORSE it puts each book in its own sub folder now. so instead of

Root/author/list of books I now get

root/author fluid/list of folders of book names fluid/single book

fluid meaning calibre changes this file or folder name as the metadata changes.

Once you understand that these changes should be within the Calibre file structure and not your file structure things change a little. First there are options now that allow you to limit overwriting of Author names and titles as well as allow for not d/ling tags when grabbing summaries.

At this point Calibre version makes a difference and if you are using a version of Calibre that allows you to transfer files to your (pre-update) PRS-500 then you have missed out on many of these options.

Originally Posted by nerys

so instead of a single author folder and all of his books I get a single altered author folder (sometimes) and a LIST OF FOLDERS one for each book (why?)

Changing the metadata should not entail changing the file name or the folder name/structure.

If you enter 4 different versions of an author's name then Calibre is going to file them as 4 different authors.

[al35]

Originally Posted by Starson17

[...]Yes, it was getting audio books for me too, which I didn't mind too much, but I did miind when it added the name of the reader for the audio book to the title and changed the title[...]

Does it mean calibre can handle audiobooks, too? I don't know much about Calibre, and trying to decide which software to use for my ebook/audiobook library. In Calibre, can I add an audio version of a book to an existing book entry?

Originally Posted by Starson17

Second, I've written code that automatically sorts all books you add into existing books as new formats by matching author and fuzzy matching title. This speeded up entry for me by a factor of 10. I had spent 2 months entering my first half of the library and only 2 days entering the last half. It was particularly annoying when I added 3 formats of the same book, and it made 3 records, not one.

This would be fantastic! Thanks for working on it. What happens if I have several versions of the same book in the same file format, say pdf? It can be the original of a book + version with notes, or different editions, or different versions of a cook recipe, etc. Is it possible to add different files (same format) under the same book entry?

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by al35

Does it mean calibre can handle audiobooks, too? I don't know much about Calibre, and trying to decide which software to use for my ebook/audiobook library. In Calibre, can I add an audio version of a book to an existing book entry?

Not really. You can do it sort of, by putting mp3's in a a rar, and adding the rar, but it's a hack. It just that the metadata fetcher seems to have a thing for selecting info about audio books, even though you really have an ebook.

This would be fantastic! Thanks for working on it

Don't get too excited. I wrote this for myself, and did submit it for possible inclusion, but there are reasons why Kovid may not include it, or may change it significantly. (Read my thread about Changing default Add book behavior).

. What happens if I have several versions of the same book in the same file format, say pdf? It can be the original of a book + version with notes, or different editions, or different versions of a cook recipe, etc. Is it possible to add different files (same format) under the same book entry?

I did not change anything about the default Calibre storage structure, so only one pdf is allowed per book entry. What I changed was the way the books get sorted into the database so that it tries to put new books into existing entries when possible by matching the author and title. If you really need to have multiple pdfs for a single book, you can put them into a rar file and add that to the ebook record, or you can change the book title (version2, etc.) so Calibre makes a new ebook record.

[al35]

Originally Posted by Starson17

Don't get too excited. I wrote this for myself, and did submit it for possible inclusion, but there are reasons why Kovid may not include it, or may change it significantly. (Read my thread about Changing default Add book behavior).

I looked at that thread, seems like a useful suggestion, I hope it will be included in the future releases.
Regarding multiple pdfs and audiobooks, there might be an intermediate solution. Is it possible (or easy to implement) to add a folder (or even multiple folders) to an existing book entry? Instead of archiving the mp3s, it would be more convenient to add one folder containing the audiobook. This way it would be stored in the same place as the ebook, easy to find and keep track of. Same thing with multiple pdfs -- put them in a folder and add the folder to the book entry.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by al35

Is it possible (or easy to implement) to add a folder (or even multiple folders) to an existing book entry? Instead of archiving the mp3s, it would be more convenient to add one folder containing the audiobook. This way it would be stored in the same place as the ebook, easy to find and keep track of. Same thing with multiple pdfs -- put them in a folder and add the folder to the book entry.

There's no way (that I know of) to do this at present - other than the folders you can add to a rar or zip. However, I believe I've seen a feature enhancement request for Calibre to handle audiobooks. Feature enhancement requests should be made through the bug tracker. It provides a very convenient way to keep track of bugs and changes that people want. It's also a good place to follow Kovid's thinking about features he may decide to add. If he thinks an idea has merit, he'll leave it in the list.