Questions: Concerning Metadata, Interface, Plugins

[Zalbag]

I have several questions concerning Calibre so I’ll try to group them properly.

How do you embed the metadata to your original files? As in, overwriting your original metadata for your files. I couldn’t find that option but, I can only assume it’s under Preferences: Import/Export: Saving Books to disk?
Meta Data Questions: Under, Preferences: Sharing: Metadata download: What websites should I set to priority and can I input additional websites to search from into Calibre? Also, why do multiple websites have their priority set to 1 or 2 instead of in a sequence?

If I can’t find the metadata for the books or it returns with the improper information how can I crop the image from the pdf/epub file and set it as my cover? If it has the right cover and information concerning the title, author & etc will that help it find the metadata better? I’ve tested Calibre’s metadata search and it seems to have problems with finding light novels, some comic books and the right manga volume #’s. Are there sites, that I can add to settings so it can find the metadata?

Concerning Calibre’s interface on the left side panel, where it shows the categories you can sort by. Is there a way to create new categories for sorting your books? For example: creating sub-groups that you can drag & drop your books into (organize/sort them better) like: Books, Educational Books, Comic Books, Light Novels, Manga, & etc?

Are there any good plugins, interface changes or other suggestions that anyone knows that I should be aware of?

Any information about the matters above would greatly be appreciated, thanks.

[theducks]

Polish, Embed Metadata are builtin tools that affect the formats stored by Calibre (you may need to add these to your toolbars )

Convert (same format) will also embed , but it may make other changes

Modify EPUB plugin works for.... EPUB

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Zalbag

<snip>

Concerning Calibre’s interface on the left side panel, where it shows the categories you can sort by. Is there a way to create new categories for sorting your books? For example: creating sub-groups that you can drag & drop your books into (organize/sort them better) like: Books, Educational Books, Comic Books, Light Novels, Manga, & etc?

Custom columns of the following types will appear in the left sidebar, which is commonly known as the 'Tag browser':



Within the Tag Browser the word 'Category' is used to refer collectively to the 'columns' that are displayed there. I mentally rename the sidebar as the 'Category Browser'.

If you right click on 'empty space' in the Tag Browser, there are some settings you can apply to the panel as a whole, there are more panel wide settings in Preferences->Look and Feel->Tag Browser, and yet more behind the Configure Button at the bottom-left of the sidebar. The Category names (e.g. Authors) also have right click settings, and right clicking individual items presents a list of available actions.

Have you watched the Video Tutorials. I found them very useful when I started using calibre. Ordinarily I loathe instruction videos, but with these I found it easy to watch a segment, pause, and try out the related feature. if I didn't 'get it' I'd rewind the video, re-watch the segment, and try again.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Zalbag

<snip>
How do you embed the metadata to your original files? As in, overwriting your original metadata for your files.

You can edit the data using the Metadata Edit dialogue, or directly into the book-list cells via the F2 key where Tab/Backtab will traverse the cells whilst remaining in cell-edit mode. The latter is my preferred method.

The earlier post from theducks has explained how to get the new metadata into the ebook format files. If you use the Send to Device and/or Save to Disk tools the files(s) Sent and Saved will have the current metadata, some users prefer that the files within the library remain in their original state.

Originally Posted by Zalbag

<snip>

If I can’t find the metadata for the books or it returns with the improper information how can I crop the image from the pdf/epub file and set it as my cover?

If its an EPUB or AZW3 (KF8) file open it in the calibre editor, find the image you want, copy it to the desktop and drag/drop it onto the book details panel (right sidebar). Similarly, if its a PDF open it in a PDF editor, find the image and do the same thing.

You can use calibre's Open With feature to configure external tools for different file types (formats) - e.g. Acrobat for PDF, Word for DOCX etc. Right click the format in the Book Details panel to access the feature, a format can have many external tools - e.g for DOCX I have MS Word, LO Writer and WinRAR.

Originally Posted by Zalbag

<snip>

If it has the right cover and information concerning the title, author & etc will that help it find the metadata better? I’ve tested Calibre’s metadata search and it seems to have problems with finding light novels, some comic books and the right manga volume #’s. Are there sites, that I can add to settings so it can find the metadata?

For regular books, the primary item you need for retrieving metadata from external sources is the ISBN. The Extract ISBN plugin will help with that.

BR

[fidvo]

Originally Posted by Zalbag

Concerning Calibre’s interface on the left side panel, where it shows the categories you can sort by. Is there a way to create new categories for sorting your books? For example: creating sub-groups that you can drag & drop your books into (organize/sort them better) like: Books, Educational Books, Comic Books, Light Novels, Manga, & etc?

My recommendation is to create a custom field to store the book category. If you're certain that a book will never belong to more than one category, make the field type Text. If there's a chance you might want to add a book to more than one category, make the field type Comma-Separated text.

Keep in mind that the options listed in the Tag Browser for a field are made up of the entries in the book records themselves. You will not see, for instance, a "Manga" option unless at least one of your books has "Manga" in the field. You'll have to enter the information by hand in at least one of each type of book.

Once you've done that, the Category field in the tag browser to the left will show each of the options. You can then drag and drop books from the list into those options to add them to the category.

If you want to add more than one book to a category at a time, use the Bulk Metadata Edit option. Adding the specific category to the Category field of a book is identical to dragging and dropping it into the category in the tag browser.

[Zalbag]

Thanks a lot I really appreciate all the information, I ended up reading it all and trying additional things to what you guys recommended. I was able to create the categories by tagging them manga & etc then going into the tag's folder and just moving it up to the front by clicking Manage User category. I ended up downloading all the metadata plugins & 11 others. I personally find: ADLIBRIS_NO, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, BOL_NL, Goodreads, Google, Kobo Books, Martinus, & Moly_hu are the best websites to find metadata from. These are the non-metadata plugins I downloaded: EpubMerge, EpubSplit, Extract ISBN, Find Duplicates, Import List, Kindle Collections, Manage Series, Open With, Prince PDF, Quality Check, & Read MP3 AudioBook metadata. Anyways, thanks a lot guys.

[BetterRed]

@Zalbag - Kovid added a built-in OpenWith feature to calibre a while back, IMO it's easier to configure/use than the plugin.

Easiest way to configure it is to right click on a format in the book details panel, e.g. EPUB, PDF, MOBI etc. Easiest way to use it is via keyboard shortcuts you assign in Preferences->Keyboard, and/or via the View specific format feature.