Noob import question - adding books by genre, ln, fn . . .

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by deleteriousone

Any assistance is VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.

Let's see if I can be more help.

Originally Posted by deleteriousone

I have now Calibre setup so that it imports recognizing series and number in the series. I have given up on having it put the files in genre as when the books are imported. I will have to manually sort each book into genre for those authors that write both fiction and non-fiction books.

How did you do this?

Originally Posted by deleteriousone

What I really want Calibre to do is also bring in the author's name listed as Ln, Fn by default so I do not have to use the Manage Authors function to change every author.

That would require you changing all of your file names prior to import to a format similar to LN, FN - series 01 - title of book.epub

Originally Posted by deleteriousone

I really do not want to have to rename each file as this would be even more work for the files from the purchased DVD collections which had cryptic names which were linked to via html pages.

Calibre did a great job in my test with with these files reading the metadata. In fact once I get the author name import sorted out I will probably export from Calibre to better file name.

Your best bet since you don't want to rename the files is to let calibre read the metadata and populate the library as FN LN for Author. Once your library is populated read this thread, change the below tweak, then use the search and replace outlined in post 12 of that thread to change the author field from FN LN to LN, FN.

Preferences - Tweak

Author sort name algorithm

The algorithm used to copy author to author_sort Possible values are:
invert: use "fn ln" -> "ln, fn" (the default algorithm)
copy : copy author to author_sort without modification
comma : use 'copy' if there is a ',' in the name, otherwise use 'invert'
nocomma : "fn ln" -> "ln fn" (without the comma)
When this tweak is changed, the author_sort values stored with each author
must be recomputed by right-clicking on an author in the left-hand tags pane,
selecting 'manage authors', and pressing 'Recalculate all author sort values'.

I believe you would want to set this to comma. That way your author sort will reflect your desire to sort on last name.

author_sort_copy_method = 'comma'

Originally Posted by deleteriousone

Thanks again for putting up with a noob. No animosity is intended in any reply which I have made. If any have been taken as being confrontational , I apologize.

No need to apologize to me. I just hope what I pointed to helps you get your setup the way you like.

[Archon]

deleteriousone:

I am trying to get calibre to import from a directory structure of:
<Genre><Author (Last, First)><Series><Title> i.e.
Science Fiction\Anthony, Peirs\Adept Series\ Adept Series 01 - Split Infinity.lit
Science Fiction\Anthony, Peirs\Adept Series\ Adept Series 02 - Blue Adept.lit

I think you confused everyone with your posts indicating two problems.

#1 How do you import from the file structure above.

#2 How do you control how calibre displays these files in the GUI.

These are two different problems.

My solution was to the first problem. Rename the files before you import them.

I do NOT suggest you do this manually. That would be a lot of work.

I pointed you to a piece of software that would rename files — in bulk — for you. Unless you are a handy script writer and can create you own scripts for renaming the files in bulk. "In bulk" means you can take the whole Piers Anthony folder and drop it on "A Better File Rename" and it can load all files in all subfolders. You can then add "Piers Anthony - " or "Anthony, Piers - " to the beginning of every filename in those folders. (I have the Mac version "A Better Finder Rename" and it is a "must have" for anyone working with large amounts of files. It can even use regular expressions to re-arrange filenames, I use that to re-order three name authors to proper format for importing. I also have thousands of books and wouldn't dream of manually renaming them.)

Then you just import them into calibre with the checkbox in calibre preferences marked for the Author name to be swapped or not swapped depending on your choice of lastname, firstname or firstname lastname.

Calibre rule #1
Don't worry about how calibre keeps the files in its file structure!
If, for any reason, you have any thoughts about this refer back to rule #1

As always, make a copy of your book database and rename the files on the copy NOT the originals. When you are done loading books into calibre, delete them from your hard drive to recover the space. (After you have backed them up to dvd of course.)

Happy Wednesday
Archon