Two Problems: Author Names and Series

TheArtfulDodger · 01-16-2020, 09:17 AM

Hello:

I have been using Calibre for a very long time and I have never been able two things no matter how hard I try! They are:

1. I prefer Author names (and, hence Author Sort) to be First Name Last Name (FN LN). I can force this if I use Quality Check | Fix | Swap Author FN LN <-> LN, FN but before I can use this I have to be very careful to only select the ones that are already LN, FN because if I select one that is already FN LN, it'll go the other way! It would be nice to have an option to LN, FN -> FN LN but alas, no joy there.

2. I have a Kobo Clara (I tell you that because this may differ among readers) and I would like for the books to display thus (an example only):

White Jade
The Project [1]

or similar so that in the index of books I can see the series and the number in the series.

I would appreciate any advice anyone can give.

Sparky

mbovenka · 01-16-2020, 10:59 AM

1) Use the 'Check Metadata -> Authors with commas' QC check to select only the LN, FN ones to run the swap on.

2) Make sure the series info is filled in correctly in Calibre, and that 'Update Metadata' is set to 'Automatic' in the Kobo driver settings. You also need to eject your reader and reconnect it to have the driver update the series info (it can only do that when the books are already in the Kobo DB). For existing books you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to update them.

theducks · 01-16-2020, 11:56 AM

In addition to the good advice in post #2
Did you configure the driver (while the Kobo is attached) settings (right click the device view icon) for series?

davidfor · 01-16-2020, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbovenka

2) Make sure the series info is filled in correctly in Calibre, and that 'Update Metadata' is set to 'Automatic' in the Kobo driver settings. You also need to eject your reader and reconnect it to have the driver update the series info (it can only do that when the books are already in the Kobo DB). For existing books you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to update them.

A small correction. If the driver is configured properly, it will check the metadata each time the device is connected. Then it updates the device database with whatever has been changed. With that, the only real use for the metadata update function of the Kobo Utilities is if you don't want the driver to do it every time, or you made some changes to the metadata while the device was connected and want to push them to the device without disconnecting and reconnecting.

TheArtfulDodger · 01-17-2020, 06:19 AM

Hello:

Regarding the question about "Quality Check | Fix | Swap Author FN LN <-> LN", it was really a two part question:

a. I cannot seem to be able to always force the author name to be 'added' as FN LN; sometimes they come in as FN LN and sometimes they come in as LN, FN. I would like to find an option which always brings them in as FN LN.
b. Since I can't ensure the authors come in as FN LN (a. above) I need to be able to change them. Therefore I would like to see an option in Quality Check which might be "Conditional Swap LN, FN -> FN LN" where if the name is already FN LN nothing would happen but if the name was LN, FN, it would swap the format to FN LN. I don't know how to contact Grant Drake (author of Quality Check) or I would ask him directly!

The reason I would like to see this option is because I'm not perfect. In fact, yesterday I added a large number of books and, in attempting to select only those that were in LN, FN format I missed several that were already in the correct format and I wound up converting some that I had to convert back!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Sparky

theducks · 01-17-2020, 09:16 AM

You missed that this can be done already as 2.5

steps using this PI.
1) Detect . Check Metadata: Authors with...
1.5) Select All results (ctrl-A

2)Fix (applies the choice to the selected results)

TheArtfulDodger · 01-17-2020, 01:50 PM

Hello:

To mbovenka: You said to set Update Metadata to Automatic - I can't for the life of me find where that setting resides.

Thanks in advance.

Sparky

davidfor · 01-17-2020, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheArtfulDodger

To mbovenka: You said to set Update Metadata to Automatic - I can't for the life of me find where that setting resides.

It is on the "Sending books to devices" page of the preferences.

01-16-2020, 09:17 AM	#1
TheArtfulDodger Zealot Posts: 144 Karma: 155110 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Ashford, Kent, England Device: Kobo Clara, Kobo Touch, Kindle, Nook Touch	Two Problems: Author Names and Series Hello: I have been using Calibre for a very long time and I have never been able two things no matter how hard I try! They are: 1. I prefer Author names (and, hence Author Sort) to be First Name Last Name (FN LN). I can force this if I use Quality Check \| Fix \| Swap Author FN LN <-> LN, FN but before I can use this I have to be very careful to only select the ones that are already LN, FN because if I select one that is already FN LN, it'll go the other way! It would be nice to have an option to LN, FN -> FN LN but alas, no joy there. 2. I have a Kobo Clara (I tell you that because this may differ among readers) and I would like for the books to display thus (an example only): White Jade The Project [1] or similar so that in the index of books I can see the series and the number in the series. I would appreciate any advice anyone can give. Sparky

01-17-2020, 06:19 AM	#5
TheArtfulDodger Zealot Posts: 144 Karma: 155110 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Ashford, Kent, England Device: Kobo Clara, Kobo Touch, Kindle, Nook Touch	More Information - Author Names Hello: Regarding the question about "Quality Check \| Fix \| Swap Author FN LN <-> LN", it was really a two part question: a. I cannot seem to be able to always force the author name to be 'added' as FN LN; sometimes they come in as FN LN and sometimes they come in as LN, FN. I would like to find an option which always brings them in as FN LN. b. Since I can't ensure the authors come in as FN LN (a. above) I need to be able to change them. Therefore I would like to see an option in Quality Check which might be "Conditional Swap LN, FN -> FN LN" where if the name is already FN LN nothing would happen but if the name was LN, FN, it would swap the format to FN LN. I don't know how to contact Grant Drake (author of Quality Check) or I would ask him directly! The reason I would like to see this option is because I'm not perfect. In fact, yesterday I added a large number of books and, in attempting to select only those that were in LN, FN format I missed several that were already in the correct format and I wound up converting some that I had to convert back! Thanks in advance for any advice! Sparky

01-17-2020, 01:50 PM	#7
TheArtfulDodger Zealot Posts: 144 Karma: 155110 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Ashford, Kent, England Device: Kobo Clara, Kobo Touch, Kindle, Nook Touch	Further Question - Probably Dumb! Hello: To mbovenka: You said to set Update Metadata to Automatic - I can't for the life of me find where that setting resides. Thanks in advance. Sparky

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01-16-2020, 10:59 AM	#2
mbovenka Wizard Posts: 2,018 Karma: 13471689 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Almere, The Netherlands Device: Kobo Sage	1) Use the 'Check Metadata -> Authors with commas' QC check to select only the LN, FN ones to run the swap on. 2) Make sure the series info is filled in correctly in Calibre, and that 'Update Metadata' is set to 'Automatic' in the Kobo driver settings. You also need to eject your reader and reconnect it to have the driver update the series info (it can only do that when the books are already in the Kobo DB). For existing books you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to update them.

01-16-2020, 11:56 AM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,800 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	In addition to the good advice in post #2 Did you configure the driver (while the Kobo is attached) settings (right click the device view icon) for series?

01-17-2020, 09:16 AM	#6
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,800 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	You missed that this can be done already as 2.5 steps using this PI. 1) Detect . Check Metadata: Authors with... 1.5) Select All results (ctrl-A 2)Fix (applies the choice to the selected results)