How I Manage eBooks with calibre

[theducks]

Originally Posted by mraxehandle

I still don't understand why so many people use forums as a kind of wiki (I think of XDA in particular.) It seems strange to me, given how many great wiki-type tools are out there.Does MobileRead or Calibre have a wiki space that can be used?

These kind of forums have been around a lot longer than a Wiki.

Compuserve, USENET, Genie and private BBS were the most common ways of getting help in the infancy of Computers.

BTW
Look at the 3rd word on the Very Top Line of any Mobilread page

[copyrite]

I bet, theducks, your pretty kitty was not active on FidoNet. Woof!

(I am showing my age.)

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by copyrite

I bet, theducks, your pretty kitty was not active on FidoNet. Woof!

Its not that long ago. It seems like yesterday I sold, via FidoNet, a 386sx motherboard w/8 megs of ram soldered on the board internationally to a buyer in Canada.

Good times!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by copyrite

I bet, theducks, your pretty kitty was not active on FidoNet. Woof!

(I am showing my age.)

You are correct.
I did use 'The Source' at 300 Baud (Readers Digest got into the Information game)

[PeterT]

I remember using an acoustic coupler modem in a wooden box....

[unboggling]

I remember sliderules, calculators, typewriters, IBM & Honeywell mainframes, DEC Vax, commodore64, among others. I remember chats on USENET fondly, and chats on AOL not so fondly. I vaguely remember using The Source, CompuServe, and Genie.

(btw, USENET is still useful.)

Young people Twit.

I'm an old codger, twitless.

[copyrite]

Problem is my ISP doesn't offer Usenet access anymore.

My better half probably would still be using the Apple IIe if it could be hooked up to the internet. Even at a creeping pace.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by copyrite

Problem is my ISP doesn't offer Usenet access anymore.

My better half probably would still be using the Apple IIe if it could be hooked up to the internet. Even at a creeping pace.

Google Free usenet (eternal september for text groups).
APN has low cost (tiered) USENET with binaries (if you use Forte' Agent, you get a free trial of APN)

[unboggling]

Revision Notes

Editing Metadata, Title or Series, issue, path length:
Incorporated the prior revisions about series & title path length better there, and in Note Templates in Reading Books section.

Assessing Formats, issue, bulk convert prior to assessment:
Clarified with list of conversion settings (few and minimal) and some discussion.

Assessing Formats and Editing Metadata, issue, removing Original Formats:
Deleted all mention of removing Original Format from all sections except one (…I hope…). In Editing Metadata, in the paragraph labeled Formats, baldly stated the issue. For awhile in my real-life workflow I won't remove any Original Formats. And I'll evaluate (for me) the level of confusion from figuring out which format is best (or even which is the original format) versus the level of feeling-safer along with the level of utility for keeping the Original Format.

That confusion is demonstrated with this example. I add and process an Original Format, let's say it is a MOBI. Now I have EPUB (Preferred) and MOBI (Original). The EPUB was for initial assessment of the format quality of the Original MOBI, as well as generally keeping "masters" in EPUB. During the conversion from MOBI to EPUB some minimal conversion settings were applied, which I do for all books. Weeks/months/years later, I want to load the book to Kindle to read it. How do I know at a glance from booklist or book details pane which format is the best one to auto-convert (if necessary) and Send? Which of them is the Original Format? Which of them is the fixed format? I want to generate MOBIs on demand from EPUB for reading on Kindle. After reading, I want to delete the MOBI in the calibre library if it was generated from the EPUB master, but how do I know it's an Original Format I need to keep versus a temporary MOBI I don't need to keep which was generated months or years ago the first time I read it, followed by forgetting to delete the temporary MOBI from the calibre library after reading it…. (I often forget that.) ? ?? ???….

Am I missing something obvious?

[Man Eating Duck]

Originally Posted by unboggling

After reading, I want to delete the MOBI in the calibre library if it was generated from the EPUB master, but how do I know it's an Original Format I need to keep versus a temporary MOBI I don't need to keep which was generated months or years ago the first time I read it, followed by forgetting to delete the temporary MOBI from the calibre library after reading it…. (I often forget that.) ? ?? ???….

Am I missing something obvious?

A custom column? I think I would consider that

As for deleting "Throw-away" formats, my CDO (keeping the db neat) and my hoarder instinct is battling. I've settled for keeping any converted file if I didn't delete it right away, after all, if I found it worthwile to convert and tweak it I might need it again. My Calibre library disk consumption is absolutely dwarfed by other content, even by a single game, so I don't fret about disk space.

I admit that I haven't read all of your guide, as I'm familiar with most of the content, but it's certainly a nice categorised cheat sheet. Kudos for sharing it

[GeekyGal]

I'll see your Netware 4.x, theducks, and bid a Netware 2.x through Netware 6, inclusive, (until we just gave up and went to Win networking). Of course, cutting the number of users by 75% also simplified things.

Unboggling, FWIW, my approach to the long title / path names is to put the "extra bits" of title in a custom Subtitle / Subseries Column simply to get them out of the way. I sync my Calibre libraries between Win at the office and Mac at home with Dropbox.

FWIW, I found that Mac is more tolerant of long file and path names, but that "keep it short" works best. I had had a long persistent issue with the Library Maintenance > Check Library > Match to Database generating the same "extra title" errors over and over on three books. It finally dawned that all of the books involved had very long titles. Hand shortening titles in the Mac install then re-saving cured this. That never "stuck" in the Win Install, so the errors re-populated themselves.

THANK YOU, Unboggling and the Calibre wizards for all the time and assistance. KISS, in an earlier iteration, saved me HOURs and HOURS and a nice chunk of sanity.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by GeekyGal

I'll see your Netware 4.x, theducks, and bid a Netware 2.x through Netware 6, inclusive, (until we just gave up and went to Win networking). Of course, cutting the number of users by 75% also simplified things.

I'll see your Netware 2.x and raise you a Netware Lite on Lantastic cards
(I still remember what kind of numbers the NW Lite serial numbers were...)

[unboggling]

@Man Eating Duck, @GeekyGal, thank you both for the feedback.

Yeah, custom columns. I tried out 2 additional columns Edition and Title2 the other day, then went back to appending that info to Title because less than 300 books were affected, out of thousands, and I haven't had any pathlength problems yet (btw, that is on a Mac). I've been trying to avoid adding new columns. I've actually been looking for ways to reduce them. Also I've been trying to avoid complex template programming, which could solve the "which is which" issue regarding formats. Finally, I've been trying to avoid extra workflow steps, and reduce the number of steps.

I am aware that by bending over backward trying to keep things simple, I may actually be making things overly complex and shooting myself in the foot. So I'm also trying to miss my foot.

Disk space is cheap. That isn't the driver on the issue of keeping original formats or not. It is a major issue involving my basic strategy with Preferred Format and Original Format, which affects a lot of other things. The primary problem for me is confusion about which is master_fixed_best format, which is the original format, which is the temporary_generated_throw-away format. Without having extra workflow steps, extra columns, general program mode template programming, or anything adversely affecting performance. Keeping the database and booklist pretty, and reducing horizontal space for seeing formats at a glance in the booklist, are both minor factors in comparison to the confusion.

All downloaded books can be kept in an AddedToCalibre folder rather than deleted after Adding to calibre. That seems simpler than keeping incoming original formats in calibre, and seems to completely resolve the potential confusion, for me at least. Original formats are basically copies of the original downloaded books that were added into calibre. When I've had to resort to re-adding a book because I botched something, re-adding it from AddedToCalibre folder worked well. The book files in the AddedToCalibre folder are a bit different because they are not directly associated with the metadata in calibre, may have DRM, and may include multiple formats per title, some of which weren't Added, but those factors seem minor and the frequency is low for having to resort back to them to redo something, for me perhaps ten books a year or less.

[Stitchawl]

Wow... Unboggling, you have spent quite a lot of time and energy putting all this together, planning out each step, sub-steps, etc., etc., and made a masterful piece of instructional media! My hat's off to you. You certainly have all your ducks in a row, and a lot of folks will benefit from your efforts! Thanks!

Me?
1.Download a book I want to read and save to an external hard drive.
2. Use Calibre to correct title and author if needed, then convert (if needed) to a usable format for my reader, and send it to the device.
3. Read the book. When finished, delete the book from the reader.
4. Repeat steps 1-3

Stitchawl

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Wow... Unboggling, you have spent quite a lot of time and energy putting all this together, planning out each step, sub-steps, etc., etc., and made a masterful piece of instructional media! My hat's off to you. You certainly have all your ducks in a row, and a lot of folks will benefit from your efforts! Thanks!

Me?
1.Download a book I want to read and save to an external hard drive.
2. Use Calibre to correct title and author if needed, then convert (if needed) to a usable format for my reader, and send it to the device.
3. Read the book. When finished, delete the book from the reader.
4. Repeat steps 1-3

Stitchawl

Thank you for the feedback.
Regarding your process: KISSed to the max!
(Edit: translation = Keep-It-Simple'd to the maximum!)