02-11-2018, 07:50 AM | #1 |
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What Customs Columns do you use in your Calibre Library?
Hi Everyone,
I don't think anyone has posted on this before, closest was this post, and there a bits and pieces everywhere so... Apart from the default columns, what custom columns / columns made from other columns (it would be useful if someone could make a calibre tutorial on columns made from other colums with some examples as only small paragraph in manual on this) do you use in your calibre library? I'm finally at the point of finalising my library and just interested to know what everyone else has customised for their own libraries and wondering if there would be anything else useful to me. I know everyone has very different libraries depending on each individual, but I would be interested to know, so please share. What sort of custom columns (information/metadata) do you use/keep? I use the following:
Thanks, Inukami |
02-11-2018, 08:52 AM | #2 |
Wizard
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I have the following:
Making this list reminded me that I have a "Koboshelf" column which used to get filled in by a plugin-board. I've kept the same library format for a long time but I have re-install Calibre a few times and the formula for this has been lost. I don't miss it to be honest. So I've deleted it just now The issue of whether something is better as a tag is interesting. I have virtual libraries for read, unread, in progress and started-but-not-reading. These match my Goodreads exclusive shelves. The last of these is based on a tag rather than a column. I could've added another Y/N column but it would clutter up the interface. OTOH for e.g. read, it's much quicker to change the visible Y/N column than it would be to add/remove a tag. I think you find out over time which columns you use and which you don't really. I could probably get rid of a few of these. OTOH it's no huge hardship to keep them. If I ever do want to see if I'm reading more short story collections than novels I can see that quite quickly. |
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02-11-2018, 10:40 AM | #3 |
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I use tags for most content-type questions. There are almost always multiple genres: e.g. "Fiction, Science Fiction, Mystery" for a sci-fi mystery, or "Nonfiction, Cooking, Thai" for a Thai cookbook. And there are format tags (nothing for novels, but I have Short Story, Anthology, Poetry, Manual, etc tags). And there's a "Trash" tag for the handful of books I never want to see again.
I have a few virtual libraries: The main one, which excludes books in the others. I'ts essentially all adult fiction. There's a separate one for Children's/YA books. There's one for Recipes/Cooking. One for other non-fiction. And one for Manuals (every time I buy a new TV or blender or printer or whatever, I snag an electronic copy of the manual and put it here). The tags column is sync'd to shelves on my Kobo reader. I do not sync series to shelves, as it creates way too many shelves to be useful (Kobo shows the series anyway, so I can use that to read the next book in a series). I realized I never looked at word counts, so I got rid of that custom column. So I'm left with only 3 custom columns.
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02-11-2018, 12:18 PM | #4 |
hopeless n00b
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I don't have custom columns for my "normal" library. The built-in columns work quite well for that.
For my fanfic library:
I just use the built-in Tags column for tagging the fandom. Honestly, I haven't used Calibre in years. I just download epub directly from Archive of Our Own and save to Dropbox (all done on the iPad/iPhone). Alas, that has resulted in ~4K fanfics inclusive of dupes which I'm now trying to beat into some semblance of order. |
02-12-2018, 11:51 AM | #5 |
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I have several libraries with different custom columns, but these are the columns I have in every library because they're so useful:
Path: A hierarchical column that I include in my Save to Disk template. Since I grew up with hierarchical file systems, I can't quite force myself to abandon them entirely. It allows me to use the tag browser to mimic the behavior of Windows Explorer. Most of my virtual libraries are based upon the top level of this hierarchy. Title ID: Maybe I'm just OCD, but sometimes the built-in Title column just doesn't work for what I want to do, for example sorting or saving to disk. So I created a second title column to use as the file name in my Save to Disk template. Sometimes it's virtually identical to the Title column, but if the book is in a series, I usually begin the Title ID with the series index so that when I save the books out to disk, they're in order. The Path and Title ID columns complement each other, just like the folder and file name for a file on disk. Subseries: A lot of book series are divided into two levels of series. I use the main Series column to store the major series, and the Subseries column to store the series-within-a-series. OK: A yes/no column to keep track of whether the book's metadata is correct. I also have a "To Fix" virtual library based upon this column. When I import books, this column is not set, so they're automatically included in the virtual library. I'll then go through each book and clean up the metadata, then set the OK column to Yes. This way, I can keep track of which books I need to deal with. Other people accomplish much the same thing by using a separate intake library, but when you have several main libraries with different custom columns, having a duplicate of each structure is too unwieldy. A single custom column in each library works better for my work flow. |
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02-19-2018, 11:26 PM | #6 | |||
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@latepaul, @sjfan, @ilovejedd & @fidvo - Thanks for your comments.
Quote:
@sjfan - This is a good idea. I have heaps of manuals in my kitchen drawer. Maybe I should just digitalise all of my manuals. Quote:
Quote:
@ilovejedd - What tags do you use exactly? @latepaul - Do you export the price values to get the TOTAL price? Why is price so important to have for you? You like to see how much you spend? Inukami |
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02-20-2018, 12:58 PM | #7 |
hopeless n00b
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My state tags are quite specific to my fanfic library. I'm currently using pair done, char done and tropes done. The other cc are easy to populate (I've got saved S&R regex for the other cc which I apply upon import) but those three are a rat's nest requiring lots of elbow grease.
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02-26-2018, 06:08 PM | #8 | |
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Quote:
Ideally, that information is added before I need to find and cite the material. However, I usually add it only after reading it. Amber |
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02-26-2018, 07:22 PM | #9 |
Guru
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My custom columns are read, date read, word count, collections and genre. The first three are obvious, collections tells me where the book can be found (my tablet, husband's kobo, children's kobo, physical location for pbooks....) and I added genre so that my husband's kobo could be better organized without overwhelming him with my tagging system.
I only add genre if when my metadata is otherwise up-to-date so it doubles as a have-I-checked-the-metadata reminder. |
02-26-2018, 09:49 PM | #10 |
Evangelist
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Collection, Original title, Translator.
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03-01-2018, 04:47 AM | #11 |
Junior Member
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I've been using Calibre for years to manage me 3k+ epub library, but just recently I found this forum! I can't believe how much I've learned over the last two weeks! I've been reconfiguring my whole library thanks to what I've learned so far. Here are my custom columns:
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03-01-2018, 05:23 AM | #12 | |
Wizard
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Quote:
I actually run SQL directly against the calibre database to look at things like total price. I work in databases so it's pretty natural for me. So I have a script called "mr_status", which if I run it now shows me this: Code:
MR Report for Year beginning: 2018-01-01 title num_books ---------- ---------- Read Books 8 TBR 560 title num_books total_cost ------------ ---------- ---------- Money Spent 4 £ 14.85 Free Books 2 £ 0.00 Cost of TBR 431 £ 922.40 Cost of Read 7 £ 16.65 NB: counts with prices may be out due to books with no price I'm not too bothered by that by the way. It has built up over years. My spending on books is still less than on things like coffee. You can also see that I read 8 books but only 7 appear in the price section. That's because one (Frankenstein) was a PD title that I got for free. Actually I've read 9 books this year, but the other one was a re-read and my "read date" column only records the first read. I'm OK with that, particularly when looking at the price. Counting the full price as part of the read when I've read it before wouldn't be quite right. |
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03-01-2018, 05:37 AM | #13 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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I have:
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03-01-2018, 08:10 AM | #14 |
Fanatic
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My library comprises of mostly translated books, thus, I need Translator and Original Title fields as custom columns.
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03-01-2018, 04:41 PM | #15 | |
null operator (he/him)
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Quote:
BR |
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Tags |
calibre, custom columns, fields, metadata |
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