PRS-T3 T3 indexing

[jjansen]

Last night I bought my mother a Kobo Aura HD. I am returning it tonight. I load all the books for her via Calibre. What she very much wants is to be able to ask to see a list of authors and select the author she wants or to ask to see the list of series and then select from the books within the series. On the Kobo, if I created bookshelves by author and series they were all intermixed together and she hated that. I will not root a device that I give my mother who I then have to support

If I remember correctly the Sony that I had in the early days let me select by author and it also let me select by collection. With Calibre I could make my collections equal my series. Does it still work that way? Can I get a list of authors and a separate list of series on the Sony T2 or T3?

Best Buy Canada has the T2 on sale. Is it much different from the T3 for simply reading?

I quickly tested a T2 the other night and I noticed that I needed to swipe to turn the page. Can you simply touch the page versus swiping on either the T2 or T3 to turn the page. Mum has arthritis very badly and the less that she needs to do the better.

Thanks a lot everyone............Jackie

[medard]

Touching doesn't work, you need to swipe the page. This is really different than on a Kobo, but I hope you and your mother will get used to it. Since the Sony Reader has page turn buttons, some people prefer to use these and won't swipe a lot.

The main difference between the T2 and the T3 is the design and the resolution of the Eink screen. The software is almost the same.

You can sort your books:

• By Date
• By Title
• By Author
• By File Name
• By Latest Read

You can sort your books in collections:

• By Added Date
• By Date
• By Title
• By Author
• By File Name

You can add your series as collections via Calibre. Personally I wouldn't give the Aura HD away since it has an excellent design. The Sony Reader T3 is surprisingly lightweight. If that's possible where you live, I would suggest to have a look at this device first at a local store. You can take your Aura HD with you and compare the devices there.

[jjansen]

I don't want to actually sort the books what I want is an index of authors where I choose the author and then see the book. I also want an index of series where I choose the series and then see all the books in that series. Do the T2 and/or T3 do this? The Kobo does not.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jjansen

I don't want to actually sort the books what I want is an index of authors where I choose the author and then see the book. I also want an index of series where I choose the series and then see all the books in that series. Do the T2 and/or T3 do this? The Kobo does not.

You won't find many eInk Reader that gives you a list of authors which you then choose to then get a list of books. The only way to do that is to use a collection with the author name.

You would need a device that supports folders. That leaves out Sony, Kobo, Amazon, and B&N.

The fundamental problem stems from the Author's name included as metadata in eBooks sold. The names are not provided as first and last names. So, if anyone wishes to sort book titles by author's last name, either find any eBook reader handling author's name with first and last names in separate fields or edit metadata of eBooks so that all authors' names start with last name first.
I think publishers should take care of this issue first and there is not much to blame any device manufacturers. Just a thought.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by yts06mgr

The fundamental problem stems from the Author's name included as metadata in eBooks sold. The names are not provided as first and last names. So, if anyone wishes to sort book titles by author's last name, either find any eBook reader handling author's name with first and last names in separate fields or edit metadata of eBooks so that all authors' names start with last name first.
I think publishers should take care of this issue first and there is not much to blame any device manufacturers. Just a thought.

The problem is not what you say it is. The problem is that there is no way to have collections with separate series from the authors. You need directories for that. Then you can have say Series/Authors and then you can have the author's name as you want when you create the directory. So if you want last name, first name you can.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is not what you say it is. The problem is that there is no way to have collections with separate series from the authors. You need directories for that. Then you can have say Series/Authors and then you can have the author's name as you want when you create the directory. So if you want last name, first name you can.

Good luck finding any ebook with metadata that gives the author's name in the order of last name and first name, unless you wish to manually edit the metadata with Calibre.
Also, for Reader's case, if they only allow collection(s) within a collection that would work just same as what you refer to as 'folders'.

[medard]

yts06mgr, you just need to press a button in Calibre and all authors will be sorted by last name, first name. This doesn't solve the problem with series, but maybe it helps a bit.

Originally Posted by medard

yts06mgr, you just need to press a button in Calibre and all authors will be sorted by last name, first name. This doesn't solve the problem with series, but maybe it helps a bit.

medard, that feature sounds convenient. I am wondering how Calibre would handle cases with names having middle name or a Dutch name like A. F. Th. van der Heijden....

[medard]

That's no problem at all. It should be Heijden, A. F. Th. van der then, but some people prefer to change that to Heijden, A.F.Th. van der (without spaces) or something similar as you can find it at the cover of some recent editions of his works.

[Parsifal]

I own a Kobo Glo and an Aura HD. I found a solution to get, more or less, the index you are looking for on my Kobo devices.

I created two custom columns in Calibre.

1. custom column = regal (this is used to get a collection for different genres)

program:
$=field('tags');
first_non_empty(
contains($,'Roman','1. Romane',''),
contains($,'Krimi & Thriller','2. Krimi & Thriller',''),
contains($,'Novelle & Erzählung','3. Novellen & Erzählungen',''),
contains($,'Lyrik','4. Gedichte',''),
contains($,'Drama','5. Dramen',''),
contains($,'Märchen','6. Märchen',''),
contains($,'Sachbuch','7. Sachbücher','')
)


2. custom column = serie_kobo

{series:| 8. Serie: |}


The KoboTouchExtended plugin is configured “collections: authors, #regal, #serie_kobo”

When I open the library by choosing collections I get on the first page the genre collections “1. Romane” to “7. Sachbücher”, followed by collection “8. Series: AAA, 8. Series: BBB, 8. Series: CCC” and so on. After the “8. Series: XYX” collections the authors with their books are shown, no matter of genre or within a series.

In your case, you only need the second custom column and change the prefix of the series in “1. Series:”

To get a better impression look at the pictures of the first four pages of my library.

Maybe this is a solution for you and your mother.