PRS-505 author sort issue

[Worldwalker]

I have a Sony PRS-505 and I use Calibre rather than Sony's annoying, buggy, inflexible, and fundamentally worthless software. There is a problem with the 505 that I've been trying to find a Calibre solution to. I'm fairly sure there is one, but the past hour or so of reading FAQs and searching here on teh forum hasn't turned it up.

The problem is that the PRS-505 doesn't honor the author-sort field. It does all its sorts by the author's full name, so Isaac Asimov is sorted as I, not A. This is supremely annoying. While it's Sony's fault, I've been hoping there is a Calibre fix for it, one that would swap author and author-sort on transfer or something. Even one that would do it in bulk metadata editing would serve -- I could just swap them, transfer, then swap them back.

Speaking of bulk metadata editing, while I'm asking n00b questions, is there a way to tell it to strip all tags from the selected files, rather than having to de-tag them individually? PG's epubs have their whole LoC category list as a single tag, which is freaking annoying, and it would save much grief if I could just make them all go away in one swell foop.

Thanks in advance!

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Speaking of bulk metadata editing, while I'm asking n00b questions, is there a way to tell it to strip all tags from the selected files, rather than having to de-tag them individually? PG's epubs have their whole LoC category list as a single tag, which is freaking annoying, and it would save much grief if I could just make them all go away in one swell foop.

To remove some tags from selected books:

• Select the books marked with the tag you wish to remove
• Click Edit meta information↓Edit metadata in bulk (or press 'E')
• In the Remove tags field, type the tag(s) to remove
• Swell foop accomplished

To remove a tag from the database:

• Highlight a single title in the main window
• Click Edit meta information or press shortcut key E to open the Edit Meta Information dialog
• Click the Open Tag Editor icon to the right of the Tags: field
• If the tag to remove is in the Applied tags column on the right, select it, then click the 'x' icon to the right of the Applied tags column to move it to the Available tags column on the left.
• Select the tag(s) to remove in the Available tags column.
• Click the trash can icon to the left of the Available tags column to delete the tag(s) from the database.
• Click OK to exit the Tag Editor dialog
• Click OK to exit the Edit Meta Information dialog

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by GRiker

To remove some tags from selected books:

• Select the books marked with the tag you wish to remove
• Click Edit meta information↓Edit metadata in bulk (or press 'E')
• In the Remove tags field, enter the tag(s) to remove
• Swell foop accomplished

"Enter the tag(s) to remove" is the problem: no two of the books will have the same set of tags. For instance, "Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat" gets tagged with:

Swift
Tom (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction
Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction

(yes, the first two are supposed to be one, but the tag system latches onto the comma)

...whereas "Tom Swift and His Airship" has:
Swift
Tom (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction
Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction
Airships -- Juvenile fiction

Even with only one difference between them, multiply that by 50 or 100 books, with 3 or 4 tags each (sometimes with differences in spelling or formatting) -- and it becomes a major pain. The problem with the bulk edit (which is what I've been using) is that I need to already know what tags are on the books in order to remove them, because it's removing specific tags; there is no general tag removal, which is what I need to clean up PG's overly verbose and variable tags.

Hence the need for a function to remove all tags from a selected group of books, rather than having to type in each possible tag individually.

(and removing the tags from the database only seems to affect the particular book I'm editing; other books are still listed with that tag)

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

The problem is that the PRS-505 doesn't honor the author-sort field. It does all its sorts by the author's full name, so Isaac Asimov is sorted as I, not A. This is supremely annoying. While it's Sony's fault, I've been hoping there is a Calibre fix for it, one that would swap author and author-sort on transfer or something. Even one that would do it in bulk metadata editing would serve -- I could just swap them, transfer, then swap them back.

You might want to check out PRS+ for your 505 this has a browse by folders option. I attached the sequence that gets you to the folders setup by author like you want. PRS+ is a simple install that gives you quite a few new options including a clock.

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Speaking of bulk metadata editing, while I'm asking n00b questions, is there a way to tell it to strip all tags from the selected files, rather than having to de-tag them individually? PG's epubs have their whole LoC category list as a single tag, which is freaking annoying, and it would save much grief if I could just make them all go away in one swell foop.

You can do a couple of things to make it easier.

1. Get your public domain ebooks from mobileread not from PG. Even if a epub version isn't available here grab the prc version and convert via Calibre.

2. Turn off grabbing tags when fetching metadata. Go to preferences - plugins - metadata download plugins - amazon - customize plugin and uncheck download tags from Amazon.

[Worldwalker]

Thanks a lot! I'm reading the install guide for PRS+ now, and I'll look into mobileread for books.

In some cases, I'm stuck with PG because they have books that other sites don't. Speaking of which, is there a comprehensive list of public domain ebook archives somewhere around here?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Speaking of which, is there a comprehensive list of public domain ebook archives somewhere around here?

I linked to the book list above, but in the top corner of that list are links to a full list either via html or text.

Update: I'm sorry I thought you meant a full list of the books here. Hopefully others can steer you to all other sources out there.

Good Luck!

[Worldwalker]

Oh, I'm working my way through the books here.

I've been using PG, Feedbooks, Manybooks, the Baen Free Library (except that I can't get near Baen's site without buying books!), that disaster currently called Munseys, and occasionally the Internet Archive (when they have something other than bad scans and worse OCRs) for ages. I was just wondering if there was a link somewhere around here to a good list of more of them.

Ebooks have made me lazy. Go out into the actual outdoors and drive 30 miles to the bookstore for the new P.C. Hodgell book? Or click over to Baen and buy the ebook for instant gratification? No contest. When I ordered a package of pens from Amazon so I didn't have to go out in the rain to the nearest Staples, I realized that the Internet is just too convenient; I'm in danger of becoming sessile!