Help with collections

[terryp52]

Hi everyone, please bear with me if this has ben covered, being a senior I'm not as fast at picking things up as you young ones.
Reading through some of your posts I have managed to make a collection by dragging and dropping from the books in my Ebook library, no problem there but I thought I could just delete them from the library and they would remain in the collection but I found that the books I had deleted from library were also deleted from the collection as well.
Is it not possible to do what I wanted, I thought I could make collections of different genres instead of searching through a long list.
Have I gone about it the wrong way?, and if so can someone show me in simple terms how to do it the correct way.
Thanks for any help.
Great forum and great product!!

[terryp52]

Hi again, I have just seen another query the same as mine and it looks as if it not possible to do as I wanted, unless someone knows differently

[omk3]

Hello terryp52. If I understand correctly you need to use collections to organize your books by genre. Of course you can do that. But collections are not folders. Which means, all your books will appear in your library, but you can also browse them by collection. A collection is more like a tag, not a physical location for you book. Every book will appear both in your library and in its collection (or more collections even). If you delete it from the library, it's deleted from the collections also.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by omk3

Hello terryp52. If I understand correctly you need to use collections to organize your books by genre. Of course you can do that. But collections are not folders. Which means, all your books will appear in your library, but you can also browse them by collection. A collection is more like a tag, not a physical location for you book. Every book will appear both in your library and in its collection (or more collections even). If you delete it from the library, it's deleted from the collections also.

To piggy back on this, rather than dragging and dropping the ebooks and collections on to my reader, I sync my reader with the eBook Library. I use collections to control the ebooks that are loaded on my reader, and where they will be stored (in the reader's internal memory, or on a memory card).

To do this I do the following:

- Create all of the collections I need in the eBook Library

- Drag and drop my ebooks into the appropriate collections

- Connect my ebook reader

- Click on the reader and select the sync button and check the collections on want on the reader's internal memory, including pictures and/or music

- Click on the sync button for the memory card and select the collections I want on the memory card, including pictures and/or music

Once set up, all I have to do is drag and drop the ebook into the appropriate collection and it will automatically be loaded on my reader when I connect it to my computer.

The advantage of doing it this way is that I can easily control the ebooks on my reader, and where they will be stored. If I don't want an ebook on my reader, all I need to do is delete it from the collection(s) it is in. I don't have to delete it from the library.

This allows me to do all of my eBook Library management without having my reader connected to my computer. I can manage my ebooks in the library, and when I connect my reader all of my changes are made at one time.

Three things I've come across when using sync with your reader like this:

- If an ebook is synced to the reader, the eBook Library won't let you delete it directly by selecting it and then deleting it. You will have to remove it from the collection(s) and then sync it.

- If you put a ebook in a collection that will be loaded in your reader's internal memory, and in another collection that will be loaded on a memory card, it will appear in both places.

- If you put an updated version of an ebook (deleting the old version from your library) in a collection, you may end up with two version of the same ebook on your reader, an old version and a new version. When this occurs, I just delete the version I don't want on my reader.

Sorry to be a bit wordy I couldn't think of a shorter way to say this. I hope this helps.

[terryp52]

Thanks for the information to OMK and Solitaire1, that is something to look into.
Thanks again

[alecE]

Just to extend the useful info given above, you could also use Calibre as your library manager. It's a breeze to define and apply tags to titles in Calibre. These tags are then used to define collections on the Sony reader.

One very annoying quirk I have come across if you have collections (say 'Science Fiction') which reference titles stored in main memory and titles stored on an SD card, the reader creates *two* (potentially three) identically named collections with just an icon to indicate one is on the SD card.

[terryp52]

Thanks again for your help, Solitaire1 gives some interesting information and I will study it with interest along with the info supplied by alecE

[Pangolin]

Hello Terry, I've been sick for the past week so found myself with a lot of time on my hands and have been playing with the ideas mentioned in various threads including Calibre.

I'm a tech pigmy and I can confirm it is very very easy. There is an excellent intro video that explains everything. Google "calibre+ebooks" and you're off. I've been like a kid in a sweet shop for the last couple of days, and have a wonderful, fat library. Now all I need is to pick up the reader - aaaargh have to wait to Feb!!

Have fun!!

[terryp52]

Thanks Pangolin, I have often seen mentions of Calibre but wasn't sure what it did, it looks as if it could be very usefull. Must examine it in detail.
Does it mean I could download lots of different formats which I currently steer clear of?, I usually use EPUB or lrf and occasionally Adobe digital Editions but sometimes the books are in a format that my Sony reader can't use.
Thanks for the information
Terry

[omk3]

Terry, Calibre handles a lot of formats and can convert from one format to another. However, it cannot open or convert books with drm. Chances are that if you buy an ebook, it will have drm. You would then have to go through the hassle of removing the drm (if possible at all), before you can convert it to a format you can view on your reader. So, all in all, it might be better to stick to epub, lrf and pdf, unless you are sure the ebook you are downloading has no drm - in which case you can convert it and edit it any way you want.

That said, I always use calibre to organize my collections and load my books to my reader. I find it much more powerful and straightforward than the sony software.

[terryp52]

Thanks everyone I think I am clear what to do now, I appreciate what the collections do and how to manage them and seeing as how I usually use Epub, Lrf and PDF I am reasonably using the most useful for my Sony Reader.
The Mobile Read Forums have a great bunch of guys and gals to answer all queries.
Thanks again
terryp52

[rebarnmom]

Originally Posted by omk3

If you delete it from the library, it's deleted from the collections also.

For the life of me, I can't get this to happen!
I'm trying to get my audio files off my reader (I don't listen to music when I read and songs keep getting played accidentally, and I don't realize it, until my battery is drained.) and also some other book files, but because they're syncronized it won't allow me. They are deleted from my library, but synching won't remove them from my Reader. I am so frustrated. I've read the directions over and over, because it does say that you can delete synced files, but it isn't happening!

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by rebarnmom

For the life of me, I can't get this to happen!
I'm trying to get my audio files off my reader (I don't listen to music when I read and songs keep getting played accidentally, and I don't realize it, until my battery is drained.) and also some other book files, but because they're syncronized it won't allow me. They are deleted from my library, but synching won't remove them from my Reader. I am so frustrated. I've read the directions over and over, because it does say that you can delete synced files, but it isn't happening!

My experience has been: If the books are loaded on the reader via syncing, then they can't be deleted by deleting them from the reader, you have to sync the reader with the library to delete them.

If you see my previous post in this thread, it will let you know how to remove a synced ebook from your reader. One thing I've found that helps avoid syncing problems is to only sync collections with my reader rather than my entire library. I hope this helps you.

[Mike_73]

I guess my approach was a little different. I've put files on SD-Card and onto the readers internal memory via drag and drop from my PC. Then I started the library and when I selected the appropriate memory (internal, SD), I could see what was on the reader without syncing. Then I assigned collections for the files on the reader and collections for the files on SD. Once a book/file is read, I just delete it from the reader via the options menu. Even if a collection gets totally empty, the collection still stays on the reader.

By the way, I'm using windows and want to "safely remove my hardware". As the reader shows the memory card(s), the internal memory and the library installation partition as seperate drives (in my case 3 drives), I have to safely remove each one individually. Is there a way despite just disconnecting the device to get this with a single click?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Mike_73

I guess my approach was a little different. I've put files on SD-Card and onto the readers internal memory via drag and drop from my PC. Then I started the library and when I selected the appropriate memory (internal, SD), I could see what was on the reader without syncing. Then I assigned collections for the files on the reader and collections for the files on SD. Once a book/file is read, I just delete it from the reader via the options menu. Even if a collection gets totally empty, the collection still stays on the reader.

By the way, I'm using windows and want to "safely remove my hardware". As the reader shows the memory card(s), the internal memory and the library installation partition as seperate drives (in my case 3 drives), I have to safely remove each one individually. Is there a way despite just disconnecting the device to get this with a single click?

I use the Reader Library software to manage my ebooks. What I've been doing to remove my reader from my computer is click on the Eject button next to the Reader in the Source View list (on the left side of the screen). When I click that button, it safely removes the reader from the computer including the reader's memory cards.