A few problems, (bugs?)...

[Dave Berk]

First, thanks to Kovid (& crew) for the best programs in its domain.


I have a few little niggles that pop up from time to time & I'd like some feedback. (I'm using the latest version of Calibre).

1. Sorting by author doesn't work.

I have about 90 books in my library. Trying to sort by author works, kind of. For example, terry pratchett books (I have about 15) are sorted into three different groups with other authors between them. same goes for other authors with more than 3 books.


2. changing some series tags from the main window doesn't work.

When double clicking on a series tag & editing it, for a few tags (Don't know why those in particular), Calibre adds a few extra spaces after the series name and before the number ([#]). No matter how many time I will change it manually it will add those again.


3. Editing series tag through the edit meta info window change the series no. as well.

I don't know if that's by design, but for example, if I change the "discworld" series tag into "Discworld" it automatically set the series number into the last number I have + 1. The problem is that even if I afterwards change it manually, once I press ok I see it changed back into that last number..


Happy new year
Dave

[itimpi]

Regarding item 1) the sorting is by the Author Sort field - I suspect that is not set correctly for the books you mention.

[Dave Berk]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Regarding item 1) the sorting is by the Author Sort field - I suspect that is not set correctly for the books you mention.

That's what I first thought. I went and copy&pasted the author from one field to all the others and it didn't help..

[itimpi]

Sorting works fine here - so I still think that must be your problem.

You did use the edit Metadata dialog to change the relevant field? That is the only place you get access to the Author Sort field. You cannot make the change from the main Calibre screen.

[Dave Berk]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Sorting works fine here - so I still think that must be your problem.

You did use the edit Metadata dialog to change the relevant field? That is the only place you get access to the Author Sort field. You cannot make the change from the main Calibre screen.

Nope. That's my problem! I thought the author sort field depends upon the author field.

Thanks! Any insight into 2 & 3?

[itimpi]

Regarding item 2) I do nott really know as I never change these fieldsd from the main screen - only via the edit metadata dialog. One slight anomoly that might be relevant - Calibre allows trailing spaces in the Series field which is more obvious if done via the edit metadata dialog. I exploit this for the case where different authors have used their own names for a series and there is a clash. I give one of them the trailing space so that they get treated and sorted separately by Calibre.

Regarding item 3) I suspect this is something to do with the auto-completion feature which ignores case on that field.

You might want to try setting all occurrences of the series to something completely different, and then back again to the exact value you want. You can select them by using an expression like "series:discworld" (without the quotes) in the Search field. If you then select the edit metadata option you will get the Bulk Edit dialog which allows you to change them all at once. Once they have all been changed to another value, you can then change them back to the value you want with the correct case.

[user_none]

Originally Posted by Dave Berk

3. Editing series tag through the edit meta info window change the series no. as well.

It was a requested feature. When setting the series it will auto increment. This way if you add a new series you set the first book it sets the number to 1. Set the next book it sets the number to 2 and so forth. There is no way to disable this behavior.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by user_none

It was a requested feature. When setting the series it will auto increment. This way if you add a new series you set the first book it sets the number to 1. Set the next book it sets the number to 2 and so forth. There is no way to disable this behavior.

I think there is something broken here.
What you see is not what you end up with

1) I added my January Webscription from Baen
2) I used the Meta-data Editor to update Notes and set the series on each title
3) I corrected my errors

When I looked later, the series_index for those titles was incremental from 1
Not all were even in the same series.

[kovidgoyal]

Regarding [3] it should not be getting changed back when you press OK. That's probably a bug, I'll look into it.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Regarding [3] it should not be getting changed back when you press OK. That's probably a bug, I'll look into it.

Thanks. FWIW The original series was blank, I updated tags Both as Bulk and later individually, set a Series and Index.
It was almost like the original (not visible) Index(es) for the 7 imports were used.

[kovidgoyal]

I just tried it on my machine and it works as expecied. i.e. I changed the series name to a non existing series in the edit metadata dialog, which caused the series index to be reset to 1 then I manually changed the series index to 2 and clicked OK. the series index remained 2 in the main view.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I just tried it on my machine and it works as expecied. i.e. I changed the series name to a non existing series in the edit metadata dialog, which caused the series index to be reset to 1 then I manually changed the series index to 2 and clicked OK. the series index remained 2 in the main view.

Hmm! I am on Windows XP SP3. I will watch out for it the next import of a group of titles.

I watched what happens.
When you assign or change a series name, it assumes the next HIGHEST index for that series, regardless of it's setting. As soon as you touch the index, it jumps to the highest+1 .
This is happening on a Single title Meta-Data edit. The books added were not all the same series or belonged to a non-ordered series [0]