Plugin ideas... add yours here

[Philosopher]

Would it be possible - because if so I think it would be very valuable/useful - to be able to have a plug-in that would check a PDF to see if the Text has been recognized - or if it is just an image.

And to create a custom field and column whereby you could see and sort those which HAVE/HAVE not.

Perhaps even - if this too is possible - to have that plug-in then have the PDF (or if it could create a batch process even better - for a group of files) perform the Text Recognition and then re-save the file.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Philosopher

I would like to see a plugin that could take the data stored in Calibre - i.e. Title, Author, etc. (any such) - and update the PDF file's Information to those fields. (I'd like it to offer a choice of what fields to take from Calibre and where to put them in the PDF file - and thus also what PDF fields you want to input into.

I believe calibre itself natively handles that. Also, plugboards are the official way of controlling what goes into each field.

[Philosopher]

I did not realize that - and have not used plugboards so I'll have to do a little reading/learning to see if I can figure that out.

Very much appreciated.

[Philosopher]

When you said "natively" handles that - are you saying it AUTOMATICALLY is updating these fields WITHIN the PDF - by default?

Or are you saying it is something that you have to TURN ON - and then use PLUGBOARDS to tweak the particulars? Or is it that BOTH aspects are handled through plugboards?

[Philosopher]

Hi,

I currently use - on a Mac - a program called PDF EXPLODE to break a PDF into Chapters or Sections files.

[NOTE: I was trying to link to PDF EXPLODE - which comes from http://onekerato.me - but when I go there - I can't find a direct link to the program (although some interesting articles) now. I did find another program being called by the same name (just different CAP for one of the letters) - that I am going to try out: PDF-eXPLODE.

I have the Epub Split and Merge plugins installed. And I wonder if there would be a way to create a similar plugin for PDFs. Either doing what PDF EXPLODE does - or alternative (if possible - accessing PDF EXPLODE for this with the plug-in).

I know I can do this by individual file - using the OPEN WITH - and then manually importing the results into Calibre. But I was wondering if a Plug-In could do this internally in one step - select the PDF(s) - click the plugin - and set it on how to save the new file's metadata (like: setting a "tag" as Chapter, or Section, or something like that; and a tag with the original record (and full book) - possibly linking back to it) - and then automatically add the results - and setting how you want the name to appear (i.e. CHAPTER NAME - BOOK NAME, or variations thereof).

[dickloraine]

Originally Posted by Philosopher

When you said "natively" handles that - are you saying it AUTOMATICALLY is updating these fields WITHIN the PDF - by default?

Or are you saying it is something that you have to TURN ON - and then use PLUGBOARDS to tweak the particulars? Or is it that BOTH aspects are handled through plugboards?

You have to either click on "embed metadata" or export to file or send to a device for calibre to update the metadata. Like for all files.

[Philosopher]

Originally Posted by Philosopher

Hi,

[NOTE: I was trying to link to PDF EXPLODE - which comes from http://onekerato.me - but when I go there - I can't find a direct link to the program (although some interesting articles) now. I did find another program being called by the same name (just different CAP for one of the letters) - that I am going to try out: PDF-eXPLODE.

Ooops. A more careful look at that last program - its completely different (even though same name). Its a mass mailing program ("explode" your "pdf's" TO people ) - sending your PDF to multiple recipients - rather than the program like I was referring to.

[Philosopher]

Thanks DickLoraine.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Philosopher

When you said "natively" handles that - are you saying it AUTOMATICALLY is updating these fields WITHIN the PDF - by default?

Or are you saying it is something that you have to TURN ON - and then use PLUGBOARDS to tweak the particulars? Or is it that BOTH aspects are handled through plugboards?

I mean that calibre has native support for writing PDF metadata.

calibre will never write metadata to any format, however, except as dickloraine said -- if you export the book (e.g. send-to-device, send-to-email, save-to-disk) or use Embed Metadata (manually update all supported metadata in all supported formats) or Polish Books (manually update metadata and do a lot more, for EPUB and AZW3 only.)

Plugboards are an optional extra that allows you to redefine metadata fields, e.g. instead of calibre writing the title field to the book's title metadata, you can tell calibre to write "title (series, Book #)" to the book's internal title metadata.
Plugboards only take effect when exporting a book, not when using Embed Metadata/Polish Books.

[BetterRed]

@Philosopher - Calibre Embed writes all the metadata to PDF's in an XML block. I'm not sure what PDF readers will show it, probably Acrobat, given that XML is Adobe spawn. PDF XChange Free does not show the XML metadata, but Pro might.

And as I posted in another of your threads exiftool will show it. That's the one I rely on, by default it shows everything without the xml verbage, just a simple two column list -- label:value.

BR

[fidvo]

I would like to see a "Create Note" plugin. It would work identically to "Add Empty Book" except it would include an empty text file as a book format.

The reason why is that I sometimes like to keep notes in Calibre about collections of books, such as series. Right now I drag and drop an empty text file into Calibre, edit the metadata, and double-click it to open it in a text editor to make my changes there.

It would be more convenient to have a menu option to create the text file for me without having to go back to Windows Explorer and browse to where I keep the empty text file.

Heck, with this one little change, Calibre could be a serious note taking app! Obviously it was never meant for that, which is why this would be better as a plugin than as a native feature.

Edit: I noticed you can create an empty epub with the Add Empty Book, but that's not particularly useful for those of us who aren't familiar with editing epubs. Text files are so much easier to work with.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fidvo

I would like to see a "Create Note" plugin. It would work identically to "Add Empty Book" except it would include an empty text file as a book format.

The reason why is that I sometimes like to keep notes in Calibre about collections of books, such as series. Right now I drag and drop an empty text file into Calibre, edit the metadata, and double-click it to open it in a text editor to make my changes there.

It would be more convenient to have a menu option to create the text file for me without having to go back to Windows Explorer and browse to where I keep the empty text file.

Heck, with this one little change, Calibre could be a serious note taking app! Obviously it was never meant for that, which is why this would be better as a plugin than as a native feature.

Edit: I noticed you can create an empty epub with the Add Empty Book, but that's not particularly useful for those of us who aren't familiar with editing epubs. Text files are so much easier to work with.

Step 1) Add empty book, adjust the metadata
Step 2) Drop the txt (created with your fav editor) file into the formats box

I create Series (Index.txt) files all the time for largish seried (I cut from series listings on the web and paste into the txt file)

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by fidvo

I would like to see a "Create Note" plugin. It would work identically to "Add Empty Book" except it would include an empty text file as a book format.

The reason why is that I sometimes like to keep notes in Calibre about collections of books, such as series. Right now I drag and drop an empty text file into Calibre, edit the metadata, and double-click it to open it in a text editor to make my changes there.

It would be more convenient to have a menu option to create the text file for me without having to go back to Windows Explorer and browse to where I keep the empty text file.

Heck, with this one little change, Calibre could be a serious note taking app! Obviously it was never meant for that, which is why this would be better as a plugin than as a native feature.

Edit: I noticed you can create an empty epub with the Add Empty Book, but that's not particularly useful for those of us who aren't familiar with editing epubs. Text files are so much easier to work with.

@fidvo -

Add (press A) will always open to last used folder - just put a blank txt file somewhere 'adjacent'

BR

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by fidvo

I would like to see a "Create Note" plugin. It would work identically to "Add Empty Book" except it would include an empty text file as a book format.
...
Edit: I noticed you can create an empty epub with the Add Empty Book, but that's not particularly useful for those of us who aren't familiar with editing epubs. Text files are so much easier to work with.

Copying the code that makes the empty epub to add a similar option to add an empty txt file is pretty straightforward.

I've submitted a bug report/patch to add it. We'll see if Kovid accepts it or not.

[BetterRed]

@fidvo - another idea - create an empty book (ctrl/shift/e) and put notes in Comments, or in a long text custom column (#notes/Notes)

Then you can display in Book Details sidebar, you'll also have the benefit of some formatting - bold, underline etc

BR