Enhancement suggestion - "Range" for series

[HarryT]

Would it be feasible to extend the current series information stored by Calibre to include a range of values? The reason I believe this would be useful is that omnibus editions of books in a series are very common, and at the moment there's no very good way of entering this information in Calibre, for subsequent output via a plugboard.

An example may serve to illustrate the problem: I have Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn Trilogy", a single-volume edition of the first three books in the "Mistborn" series. I also have "The Alloy of Law", which is the fourth book in the series. At present I have two options:

1. Label "The Mistborn Trilogy" as "Mistborn 1", and "The Alloy of Law" as "Mistborn 4", which is correct, but doesn't make it clear that the first book actually contains 1, 2, 3 in the series.

2. Label "The Mistborn Trilogy" as "Mistborn 1" and "The Alloy of Law" as "Mistborn 2". This makes it clear that "The Alloy of Law" follows on from "The Mistborn Triology", but incorrectly numbers the series.

Ideally, I'd like to see "The Mistborn Trilogy" labelled as "Mistborn 1-3", and "The Alloy of Law" as "Mistborn 4". I believe it could be achieved simply by allowing the user to enter a string, as well as a numeric, value in the "Series Number" field, although I realise that there may be sorting issues to consider as a consequence.

I realise this isn't a high-priority issue, but I think it would be a very useful enhancement, and I respectfully submit it for Kovid's consideration.

Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

series type fields are floats in the db, that is not going to change. You can create a custom text column and enter the info there, though that will not sort well.

[HarryT]

Oh well, thanks for considering the suggestion.

[theducks]

@HarryT

I use Mistborn[1.23] for the: Trilogy (Omnibus)
and
Mistborn[2] for: The Well of Ascension
Mistborn[4] for: The Alloy of Law

Note the books are still in proper order (for the first story)

This works for Omnibus of 3
It falls on it's face for larger series in one volume as Calibre only allow 2 digits after the decimal.

BTW for other series with Multi-Omnibus
Gandalara Cycle[1.23]
Gandalara Cycle[4.56]
Gandalara Cycle[7]

I ruled out a custom column as a maintenance nightmare (I have to remember to populate that one. Templates get really complex if they have to check 2 places to do the Name thing on send

[HarryT]

Thanks, Ducks - that's very helpful.

[GeekyGal]

More work, but another possible solution.

I list the Omnibus as x.y where x is the first book in the omnibus and y is the number of books in the omnibus, then create empty book placeholders for the titles in the omnibus to keep the series order tidy. Those show in a custom color in the library. Where the first book in the omnibus is also the first book in the series, I list as 0.y to list the omnibus before its components. I use a leading zero for collections which contain the first book because I prefer the order to logic.

Anything not listed in red has an actual book file; the rest are reminders.

Thursday Next Omnibus -- Thursday 0.5
The Eyre Affaire -- Thursday 1 [red]
Lost in a Good Book -- Thursday 2 [red]
The Well of Lost Plots -- Thursday 3 [red]
Something Rotten -- Thursday 4 [red]
First Among Sequels -- Thursday 5 [red]
One of Our Thursdays is Missing -- Thursday 6 [Not red, so an actual book file]
The Woman who Died a Lot -- Thursday 7 [red, because it has not been released yet]

Same thing with am intermediate omnibus. Series order 3.6 means books 3 through 6 are in this collection, with placeholders for the intermediate titles.

Yes, I know this overstates the library size, but that's not an issue for me. I'd rather have the separate empty book records and a tidy list. I also use Calibre to track series which are not e-available yet, samples, wish lists, stories in collections or magazines, so the impact of these additional titles is not significant.

Cheers.