Automatically remove tags when adding books

[garytshepherd]

My apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, I've looked but can't find the answer, so far.
I would like all tags removed when adding books. I have it setup already for this in regards to downloading metadata. Preferably I would love it if Calibre would remove all tags except those already existing in my collection, but if not I can do so manually later. Hope I have been clear enough.
And as so many others have said, I LOVE Calibre. Thank you so much for this irreplaceable program.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by garytshepherd

My apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, I've looked but can't find the answer, so far.
I would like all tags removed when adding books. I have it setup already for this in regards to downloading metadata. Preferably I would love it if Calibre would remove all tags except those already existing in my collection, but if not I can do so manually later. Hope I have been clear enough.
And as so many others have said, I LOVE Calibre. Thank you so much for this irreplaceable program.

If the Tags exist INSIDE the book, Calibre will only ignore those if you DO NOT use the Read metadata from Contents, not file name.

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by theducks

If the Tags exist INSIDE the book, Calibre will only ignore those if you DO NOT use the Read metadata from Contents, not file name.

Eh, just to clarify because it took me a minute to figure out what you meant, Ducks.

If you use the Read Metadata From Contents option Calibre *will* import any tags that are listed in the books' metadata.

If you use the Read Metada from File Name option Calibre will *ignore* any tags that are in the books' metadata.

[garytshepherd]

Originally Posted by theducks

If the Tags exist INSIDE the book, Calibre will only ignore those if you DO NOT use the Read metadata from Contents, not file name.

Thanks for the replay & answer. I do have that option disabled, but sometimes I am getting the tags anyway?? I'll look somemore, perhaps there are some metadata.opf files I did not notice?. It only seems to happen lately with books that originated from someone else's 'Calibre'. No problem with any other files, regardless of the format. (mobi, epub, etc)

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by garytshepherd

I'll look somemore, perhaps there are some metadata.opf files I did not notice?. It only seems to happen lately with books that originated from someone else's 'Calibre'. No problem with any other files, regardless of the format. (mobi, epub, etc)

External metadata.opf's is probably the issue. I would shift them over into a separate directory then try importing the books based on filename and see if that works for you.

[uli]

I wish there was an option "Read Metadata from File", with checkbox options like:
Except Tags
Except Publisher
Except Series
etc.

[Joanna]

Originally Posted by uli

I wish there was an option "Read Metadata from File"

That's what I'm dreaming of as well.

I don't mind importing publisher, author, pubdate etc. from files, but I really hate it in the case of tags - I have my own tag system and I don't want it to get messy which usually happens if I add some new books and don't have time to edit metadata straight away.

And one little thing: sometimes I notice tags (before I change them manually in Calibre) include some other data, such as ISBN. It would be nice if Calibre could recognize it is an isbn what has been put into tag, and place the info directly where it should go.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by uli

I wish there was an option "Read Metadata from File", with checkbox options like:
Except Tags
Except Publisher
Except Series
etc.

I am going to point out the flaws with this (exclusive) approach.

Publisher OMG how many way can you enter a Publisher (I have see all of these)
Baen
Baen Books
Baen Publishing Enterprises <<current releases internal
Baen Pub (with and without punctuation)
Baen Pub Ent
Baen Fantasy
Baen Science Fiction

Series Even the Publisher has used different series names in various books WITHIN the series

plus the variants with (leading or trailing) and without articles

Even Author naming is not exempt:
A. Bertram Chandler
Bertram Chandler
Bertram A. Chandler

While I would like New Book Tags to only allow intersection with existing Tags, That falls apart with: Fictitious Character 'x' Imaginary Place 'y' type tags
In most cases, this one is the most recoverable data, after the commit has been done.

Colorize/Bold (New) non-existing tags in the (Manual) Metadata edit screen, calling attention that these will be added if they are still present when you click OK

[LMF]

Not sure if this will help but it did for me when I had a similar problem (it has been a while since I've used this set up but I'm assuming it will still work). You can set calibre to add a specific tag to books when they are added to the library - I had mine set as @added. Then using the tags browser you can find all @added books and do a bulk metadata change (ie. clear all tags etc). It takes very little time if you're adding books in bulk - it would be of little use if you're adding a single book here and there though.

[Joanna]

Thanks, that's a nice idea! I did use a workaround with adding a tag "added" (in my case: "needs edition" ) but didn't know it is possible to add such a tag automatically. Where can I choose this option?

I am not sure if I will clear all tags in bulk, though. Sometimes they contain useful information (mostly ISBN so don't need to look for it in the book then). It would be nice if Calibre new when an ISBN is given as a tag.

[garytshepherd]

Thanks everyone for the idea's. I've since set it so Calibre adds a tag to new imports, so a search later will help me find any newly added books I may have missed when ediing the metadata information. I also prefer my own tagging system. The example using Baen books in regards to publishers was excellent, I have the same "problem", but am ignoring that for now. I didn't know we can add colour, that could be useful. So, for now on my computer, I have it set to add a new tag to imports, I then edit individually later. Plus I enabled the Find Duplicates plugin to further refine my library after I am done editing.

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by Joanna

Thanks, that's a nice idea! I did use a workaround with adding a tag "added" (in my case: "needs edition" ) but didn't know it is possible to add such a tag automatically. Where can I choose this option?

It's under Preferences=>Adding Books

[theducks]

There is a Separate/Additional Auto-add tag location in Add From ISBN, useful for tagging 'Empty' Books .
Remember, these are not the same (but you 'could' us the same tag)