Alternative to calibre

[cnf]

Is there any alternative to calibre on a mac for a PRS-505? I personally really dislike calibre. I am reasonably happy managing files myself onto SD cards, but I would like a way to create collections.

Thnx

[igorsk]

Try this one.

[cnf]

Oeh, that looks like a good start! A bit more stability, and support for epub files, and I am all happy!

Thank you :P

[cnf]

Hmm, it seems it actually does epub files. Too bad it keeps crashing on me 20 seconds after launch...

[cnf]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Try this one.

I opened a bug report for it, but it does not seem to be maintained anymore. As it crashes on launch for me, I can not really use it.

So I repose my original question...

"Is there any alternative to calibre on a mac for a PRS-505? I personally really dislike calibre. I am reasonably happy managing files myself onto SD cards, but I would like a way to create collections.

Thnx"

[GJN]

Originally Posted by cnf

Is there any alternative to calibre on a mac for a PRS-505? I personally really dislike calibre. I am reasonably happy managing files myself onto SD cards, but I would like a way to create collections.

Thnx

Why would anyone dislike calibre? It's a terrific piece of software that makes eBook readers without decent database capabilities useable, integrates various format conversion tools, and lets us correct sloppy eBook metadata.

[cnf]

If you must know, it is ugly, slow, has no way of editing what is on my reader without putting a new ebook on it (which I have to do MANUALLY, it does not trigger on change), it has no playlists, no way of tracking what I want on there, etc etc

All it does for me is ADD complexity, not subtract from it.

I have it installed for the command line tools, but the UI is utterly horrible.

You may like it, and that is fine, but I do not.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by cnf

If you must know, it is ugly, slow, has no way of editing what is on my reader without putting a new ebook on it (which I have to do MANUALLY, it does not trigger on change), it has no playlists, no way of tracking what I want on there, etc etc

All it does for me is ADD complexity, not subtract from it.

I have it installed for the command line tools, but the UI is utterly horrible.

You may like it, and that is fine, but I do not.

we all have different needs and tastes so it's hard to design one soft which can satisfy everyone, luckily there are other options.

just one thing though, you mention calibre has no playlists, have you tried using the tags and series functions for those ? i use them all the time, both of them will create "collections" when you transfer the books to the sony, this could be a good way to make a playlist... you can add tags and series info individually (highlight book in the library view, type E for Edit meta data, type in tas or select from the drop-down list among the tags already created), or in a batch edit : holding down the ctrl key (i think it's option key on a mac) select all the books you want to tag, type E, enter tag / series name. also, when your reader is connected, you can view what is on it by clicking on the reader in the top bar (next to library view icon), then you can see what is on there and if necessary add tags without re-loading the book. i do this sometimes when i forget to tag a book before sending it.

i hope you find something that works for you, anyway.

[cnf]

I know it creates collections. But I still have to manually track what I put on my reader, and what I did not. I can not say "just sync everything in this playlists" or something similar.

[iain_benson]

You could try raising a support ticket asking for collection syncing as a feature request.

[itzmeigh]

I dislike it too. Maybe because I don't really understand it.

But I don't like that I had it search for eBooks and it added something like 7 million (ok, maybe not that many!) files that mean nothing. Then when I try to delete these weird files it asks if I'm sure I want to remove them from my COMPUTER. Hum, no... I just don't want them in Calibre.

So now like the first 7 million files (give or take a few) aren't even eBooks at all. Just weird files.

So I just stopped using it and just use the Sony program instead. (but then I'm not a Mac user either.)

[MrDrWatson]

When you install Calibre you define a directory for it, when it adds a book, it creates a directory inside the directory you have defined with the author's name. So when you delete a book (or file) in Calibre it only removes it from Calibre's directory.

also Hi everyone! this is my first post, I ordered a Sony psr 505 which I believe might arrive tomorrow at my doorstep. I live in Portugal and I found out yesterday I can't buy an ebook in the Sony store
When I get it in my hands and use it a bit, I'll post some more.
Great forum here (one of the reasons I decided to buy an ebook reader)

[sam1am]

Calibre is awesome but the key to any software is knowing how to use it.

Besides that, the developer is incredibly responsive and helpful. There is no better option for software on a Mac. I even prefer it to Sony's Windows software ... talk about crappy.

Ask the dev for what you want, he'll probably add it in by tomorrow morning...

[cnf]

I'd actually use the sony software over calibre, if it where not windows only. And what I want is a completely new GUI, as well as playlists, and playlist syncing.

[roger64]

Calibre.
1. - I give him five stars for:
- the "recipes" allowing to download magazines are truly wonderful and work extremely well (at least for the ones I tried)
- it converts odt, doc, txt to epub files simply and most of the time well

2. - I do not use it systematically though.
- I do not keep any calibre library file. As soon as I upload a file to my Reader, I suppress the calibre entry on my computer.

- When I know that the file to be uploaded is OK (coming from Feedbooks for example ), I just place it directly in the Reader without using calibre and let the Reader update itself the cache.xml file.

3. - I use other utilities as a complement to calibre.
- I use a syncing utility called grsync to backup my Reader files (this is Linux).
- Calibre is useful for editing meta-files for epub, lrf and others, though I found that I had better edit PDF meta-files with third party software. Maybe this will soon be fixed in calibre.

I never used the Sony library software.