"Shelving" books, bypassing Calibre...

[MicheleBS]

Dear Forum,

My premise:

sometimes I don't want to use Calibre to add an e-book to Kobo, because I'd like to read it quickly, and to simply paste the file to the device is brief. This is for news and short posts grabbed from the Internet, mainly.

But Calibre is useful for Collections: Kobo driver and Kobo Utilities plugin can manage Collections.

My question:

Is it possible to set a Collection for a book file, with my pc (not direcly from the Kobo "Add to Collection" function), so I can copy the e-book (.epub, .html, .pdf) to Kobo, and when I eject and turn on the device I will find the book just listed in the proper Collection?



Thank you!

[MicheleBS]

go up!

[davidfor]

There is a hack whose name completely escapes me that can create collections based on the directory structure. It is in the developers forum. Searching should find it.

[frostschutz]

Even with AutoShelf you'd have to plug the reader twice to get the book into the shelf. Since Kobo has to add it to its own database first. So that kind of opposes the "quickly" idea.

Don't new books show up on the main screen anymore so you can select directly without going through collections?

In the old homescreen that was the case so quickly reading them (and shelving some time later) worked just fine.

[milady133]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Don't new books show up on the main screen anymore so you can select directly without going through collections?

Even if they don't show up, if you go to your library, the show all books option, order by recent, the new books will be the first listed, if you only add a few books it won't be a burden to shelve them manually.

[MicheleBS]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Don't new books show up on the main screen anymore so you can select directly without going through collections?

Originally Posted by milady133

Even if they don't show up, if you go to your library, the show all books option, order by recent, the new books will be the first listed, if you only add a few books it won't be a burden to shelve them manually.

Both of you are right; thank you for your answers; but I feel somewhat... an obsession with ordering and classifying my items: I want to see them correctly positioned. I often add to my Kobo html files captured from the internet, eanch containing an article or a post grabbed from online newspapers and blogs;

this is a quicker alternative than the traditional orthodox procedure I execute in order to find them correctly storaged and classified:

1. Bringing them as .epubs with GrabMyBooks
2. Adding them to Calibre library
3. Setting Shelf and other metadata correctly for each one of them
4. Sending them from Calibre to Kobo
5. Ejecting Kobo
6. Re-plugging Kobo
7. Re-ejecting Kobo

This long procedure is ok for important articles and pages, essays, reviews, and any other content worthy enough to be preserved also after the first reading. For months I have been saving dozen of articles this way, and I'm quite satisfied.

But for brief articles, common posts and so on, one reading is enough, and the long procedure is annoying: these files are disposable, and it's a pity to bring up the long procedure.

It is annoying, though, also to find the .htmls listed instinctively together with the other .epubs, tagged with a terrible "Unknown Author" and a title chosen by default from the filename. When I add a lot of .htmls, it's quite uncomfortable to manually add all of them to the so-called "Brief Articles" Collection.

...

Ideas and suggestions about this will be welcome.

[tshering]

Did you consider trying Pocket for the disposable articles?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MicheleBS

Both of you are right; thank you for your answers; but I feel somewhat... an obsession with ordering and classifying my items: I want to see them correctly positioned. I often add to my Kobo html files captured from the internet, eanch containing an article or a post grabbed from online newspapers and blogs;

this is a quicker alternative than the traditional orthodox procedure I execute in order to find them correctly storaged and classified:

1. Bringing them as .epubs with GrabMyBooks
2. Adding them to Calibre library
3. Setting Shelf and other metadata correctly for each one of them
4. Sending them from Calibre to Kobo
5. Ejecting Kobo
6. Re-plugging Kobo
7. Re-ejecting Kobo

This long procedure is ok for important articles and pages, essays, reviews, and any other content worthy enough to be preserved also after the first reading. For months I have been saving dozen of articles this way, and I'm quite satisfied.

If you just want the book on the device an in a collection, you shouldn't need to replug the device. The collections should be set by calibre when sending the book.

[MicheleBS]

Originally Posted by tshering

Did you consider trying Pocket for the disposable articles?

( Pocket requires to be connected to the Internet: a source of distractions and dispersal of attention that prevents me from reading peacefully.

It could seem a tantrum, but really this is the main reason why I feel so comfortable with Kobo Aura One: large screen, and no Internet connection, and simil-paper experience. Thanks to Kobo, this year I read from the Internet more and more comfortably than during the past ten years, with an invaluable sense of calm and focus, concentration. Awsome. )

This is only a bracket. I don't want to go Off Topic.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by MicheleBS

( Pocket requires to be connected to the Internet: a source of distractions and dispersal of attention that prevents me from reading peacefully.

It could seem a tantrum, but really this is the main reason why I feel so comfortable with Kobo Aura One: large screen, and no Internet connection, and simil-paper experience. Thanks to Kobo, this year I read from the Internet more and more comfortably than during the past ten years, with an invaluable sense of calm and focus, concentration. Awsome. )

This is only a bracket. I don't want to go Off Topic.

You have to connect to the internet once to sync the articles with your pocket account. Then you can read them off line. The pocket articles are keep separated from your other books. You also do not have to worry about converting them into epub or whatever.

[Mrs_Often]

I dislike distraction as well and completely understand your wish to organise and structure your device's content. However, I agree with tshering. Pocket makes reading articles from the internet so extremely convenient that it is worth switching on wifi, syncing, and switching wifi back off*. A lot less steps than your current method, and that's even excluding the steps you forgo by not having to extract articles yourself! Plus as tshering says, all Pocket content is stored separately from the book library, nice and orderly

*And even if you forget to switch off wifi, there still isn't any distraction. You can switch auto-sync off in the settings and if you really want to you can make the distracting Kobo Store link in the bottom of the home screen disappear with a patch

[MicheleBS]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you just want the book on the device an in a collection, you shouldn't need to replug the device. The collections should be set by calibre when sending the book.

You are right; in fact, I plug twice in order to see those extremely essential other details like Author and Series.

😉

[MicheleBS]

@tshering
@Mrs_Often

I did't consider Pocket before; not seriously, at least.
But your reminds are interesting; this really coud be a chance fo disposable contents.

@Mrs_Often

Please could you tell me more about that patch for removing 'Kobo Store' from my territory?

Thank you.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by MicheleBS

@Mrs_Often

Please could you tell me more about that patch for removing 'Kobo Store' from my territory?

Thank you.

Take a look in de Kobo Developer's Corner sub-forum. Here's a list of instructions for patching per firmware version: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=260100

And this is the specific patch that removes the third row in the home screen: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=37

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MicheleBS

You are right; in fact, I plug twice in order to see those extremely essential other details like Author and Series.

For the type of books you are talking about, I wouldn't have thought the series was important.

But, what is the problem with the author? If you have the author in calibre, it should be set in the book when you send it to the device. The only issue is for multiple authors. And for those, I recommend using a metadata plugboard to put them in the format that Kobo likes.