Anyway to change the "My Books" in Kobo to include the amount of pages?

poczynek · 10-08-2019, 11:40 PM

Ok I used to read with Kindles up until 6 months ago until i got a Kobo Forma and find it is a much better device for tweaking with patches etc.

One thing i miss from Kindles is that on the list of books you have it gives you an idea of how long the book is with a series of dots. A long book will have lots of dots in a row, a small book will have not many dots.

On the Kobo on the 'My Books' list of books the only thing re size is the size of the book e.g. 638kb.

The only thing i have been able to do is use the Calibre plugin to change the book title to have the number of pages next to it - see attached. It is not ideal and quite ugly.

Is there any way of changing the information on the right hand side where it says the size so it can show the total pages?

Barbara1955 · 10-09-2019, 12:13 AM

Go to Settings> Page 2> Book Progress...tap the V Pick how you want to be shown your progress.

poczynek · 10-09-2019, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Go to Settings> Page 2> Book Progress...tap the V Pick how you want to be shown your progress.

No i don't want to know my reading progress.

I am after something which shows how long - probably in pages - each book is in the list in 'My Books'.

E.g.
War and Peace' - 1300 pages

Anna Karenina - 900 pages

Heart of Darkness - 200 pages

davidfor · 10-09-2019, 12:23 AM

The only way to do it is to modify one of the pieces of metadata the device displays like you already have. I don't have the need to see it like this, so I put the word and page counts into the comments. Others tag it onto the author, or use the subtitle field. The latter is probably the neatest in the display.

poczynek · 10-09-2019, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

The only way to do it is to modify one of the pieces of metadata the device displays like you already have. I don't have the need to see it like this, so I put the word and page counts into the comments. Others tag it onto the author, or use the subtitle field. The latter is probably the neatest in the display.

Ah thank you.

Which part is the subtitle field?

EDIT:

Have looked everywhere for 'subtitle' field in metadata - where is it located??

Terisa de morgan · 10-09-2019, 03:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poczynek

Ah thank you.

Which part is the subtitle field?

EDIT:

Have looked everywhere for 'subtitle' field in metadata - where is it located??

It's not located at any place. When you configure the metadata at the Kobo Utilities plugin, one of the fields is 'Subtitle'. You can configure it so number of pages goes there.

poczynek · 10-09-2019, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

It's not located at any place. When you configure the metadata at the Kobo Utilities plugin, one of the fields is 'Subtitle'. You can configure it so number of pages goes there.

Yes i have just configured that now - was working through it the last few hours with trial and error.

Ok so i changed 'Subtitle' so it looks like the attached but the subtitle is not coming through on the 'my books' list?

Terisa de morgan · 10-09-2019, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poczynek

Yes i have just configured that now - was working through it the last few hours with trial and error.

Ok so i changed 'Subtitle' so it looks like the attached but the subtitle is not coming through on the 'my books' list?

I don't know if metadata are updated every time you connect to calibre or only when you send a book.

JSWolf · 10-09-2019, 05:40 AM

@poczynek I hope you are not using downloaded pag numbers but are using ADE page numbers. Downloaded page numbers are a poor indication of how long a book is given different pBook versions with different page numbers. use the ADE page numbers and you'll get a much truer representation of how long the book is compared to other books.

poczynek · 10-09-2019, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

@poczynek I hope you are not using downloaded pag numbers but are using ADE page numbers. Downloaded page numbers are a poor indication of how long a book is given different pBook versions with different page numbers. use the ADE page numbers and you'll get a much truer representation of how long the book is compared to other books.

Yes am syncing to goodreads and getting it from there.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Knightreader · 10-09-2019, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poczynek

Ok so i changed 'Subtitle' so it looks like the attached but the subtitle is not coming through on the 'my books' list?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Ok so i changed 'Subtitle' so it looks like the attached but the subtitle is not coming through on the 'my books' list?

Seems to be a problem. Don't know if with Calibre or the Kobo itself.

I let calculate page count by the plugin in Calibre and put this in the subtitle metadata (like described above). The I connect the Kobo with my PC, send ebooks to the device, then eject the device. In the library on the Kobo the page count is missing. I reconnect the Kobo to the PC (with Calibre still open) and eject it after recognition in Calibre. After that the page count is visible as subtitle in the Kobo library.

It's always like this, I always have to connect the device twice.

davidfor · 10-09-2019, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poczynek

Yes i have just configured that now - was working through it the last few hours with trial and error.

Ok so i changed 'Subtitle' so it looks like the attached but the subtitle is not coming through on the 'my books' list?

That is the "Update metadata in Device Library" function of the Kobo Utilities plugin. That works for the books currently selected. When you press OK, it will update the database on the device for the selected books. When you eject the device, you should see the page count on the books you selected. But, this is not automatic. You need to do it each time you want to update the page count. Or other metadata.

The automatic way is in the driver. This has options to update the metadata in the database on the device each time the device is connected. That includes an option to update the subtitle using a template in exactly the same way as above.

JSWolf · 10-09-2019, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poczynek

Yes am syncing to goodreads and getting it from there.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Goodreads page numbers are rather worthless for what you want. Take Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

309, 336, 400 are all different page numbers for different pBook versions. But if you use ADE page numbers, you get page number that tell you how long the eBook is compared to other eBooks. ADE page numbers are based on 1024 bytes of compress data. So you get to know that a book that has 309 page is shorter then a book that has 400 pages. But with the example, 309 and 400 pages not telling you how long the book is because they are different numbers for the exact same text.

So stop using pBook page numbers and move change that to ADE page numbers. It will also mean deleting all your unread eBooks on your Kobo and reinstalling them.

davidfor · 10-09-2019, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightreader

Seems to be a problem. Don't know if with Calibre or the Kobo itself.

I let calculate page count by the plugin in Calibre and put this in the subtitle metadata (like described above). The I connect the Kobo with my PC, send ebooks to the device, then eject the device. In the library on the Kobo the page count is missing. I reconnect the Kobo to the PC (with Calibre still open) and eject it after recognition in Calibre. After that the page count is visible as subtitle in the Kobo library.

It's always like this, I always have to connect the device twice.

And that is how it works. The plugin or driver are updating the database on the device with metadata that the device doesn't read from the book. It cannot do this until the books have been imported by the device.

Terisa de morgan · 10-09-2019, 06:40 AM

Moderated by myself after ranting

10-08-2019, 11:40 PM	#1
poczynek Zealot Posts: 114 Karma: 26552 Join Date: Jan 2017 Device: Kobo Forma	Anyway to change the "My Books" in Kobo to include the amount of pages? Ok I used to read with Kindles up until 6 months ago until i got a Kobo Forma and find it is a much better device for tweaking with patches etc. One thing i miss from Kindles is that on the list of books you have it gives you an idea of how long the book is with a series of dots. A long book will have lots of dots in a row, a small book will have not many dots. On the Kobo on the 'My Books' list of books the only thing re size is the size of the book e.g. 638kb. The only thing i have been able to do is use the Calibre plugin to change the book title to have the number of pages next to it - see attached. It is not ideal and quite ugly. Is there any way of changing the information on the right hand side where it says the size so it can show the total pages? Attached Thumbnails

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10-09-2019, 12:13 AM	#2
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,454 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	Go to Settings> Page 2> Book Progress...tap the V Pick how you want to be shown your progress.

10-09-2019, 12:23 AM	#4
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	The only way to do it is to modify one of the pieces of metadata the device displays like you already have. I don't have the need to see it like this, so I put the word and page counts into the comments. Others tag it onto the author, or use the subtitle field. The latter is probably the neatest in the display.

10-09-2019, 05:40 AM	#9
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,887 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	@poczynek I hope you are not using downloaded pag numbers but are using ADE page numbers. Downloaded page numbers are a poor indication of how long a book is given different pBook versions with different page numbers. use the ADE page numbers and you'll get a much truer representation of how long the book is compared to other books.

10-09-2019, 06:40 AM	#15
Terisa de morgan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,227 Karma: 11768331 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2	Moderated by myself after ranting

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