Many books display Author name first regardless of settings

[emmabee]

I want my books ordered Last Name first, many are many aren't.

I've read every thread I can on the subject & regardless of whether I set it to comma, copy, or ln fn in author sort tweaks it still randomly puts the first name first on many books.

Is there any way to fix this? Many respondents in these threads say read this thread it will answer your question. It never does & is usually a lecture on not touching the file system.

It particularly like to put it in the wrong order when the author has initials instead of a first name but it does it with actual first names too. Having it higgaldy piggaldy is annoying.

thanks

[theducks]

Quality Check Plugin: Fix (you can use other sections to DISCOVER which need help)

When Calibre imports it (usually) reads the metadata in the book
Your problem is you expect OSFA setting. Your setting is for ONE condition.

Reality is it is the Wild West of metadata entries.

Just set your preference for Initials (mine is: C. B. Author) and the Fix: Author Initials will make it so when launched. Takes seconds.
Flippin wrong Author names, takes very little time also.

Now, you LIBRARY has the proper metadata. REMEMBER TO EMBED if you bypass Send or have a fussy device

[emmabee]

Thanks for attempting to help I appreciate it

Originally Posted by theducks

Quality Check Plugin: Fix (you can use other sections to DISCOVER which need help)

When Calibre imports it (usually) reads the metadata in the book
Your problem is you expect OSFA setting. Your setting is for ONE condition.

Sorry I do not understand OFSA

Reality is it is the Wild West of metadata entries.

Are you rolling your eyes at me or calibre....

Just set your preference for Initials (mine is: C. B. Author) and the Fix: Author Initials will make it so when launched. Takes seconds.
Flippin wrong Author names, takes very little time also.

Sorry I do not understand any of this

Now, you LIBRARY has the proper metadata. REMEMBER TO EMBED if you bypass Send or have a fussy device

Again sorry I do not understand you

[Sirtel]

Install the Quality Check plugin and use the FIX option to change your author names in bulk.

If you want your names to be already correct when importing, then that's not really possible, because metadata has often been entered every which way, regardless of any rules. That's what theducks meant by Wild West - not you or Calibre, but the general situation with metadata.

[emmabee]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Install the Quality Check plugin and use the FIX option to change your author names in bulk.

If you want your names to be already correct when importing, then that's not really possible, because metadata has often been entered every which way, regardless of any rules. That's what theducks meant by Wild West - not you or Calibre, but the general situation with metadata.

Hi thanks for answering, rather than fix (something other people have stated is hit & miss with that plugin any way) after the event I'd like to know the correct way to set this up.

Years ago I swear calibre had all my stuff sorted correctly. I don't know what has happened. I check the metadata of each book as I import it & remove any extraneous nonsense from the title field etc.

Then I convert it.

In the past the edit metadata interface had the author name written like this for example
& the result was it displayed as last name first. ie correctly as I want it

Author(s) Joan Aiken > Author sort Aiken, Joan
Now it still looks like that but it seems hit & miss as to how it stores it the folder might be last name first name or the other way around. And trying to fix them fails


Somewhere I believe I must have messed something up. I want to know how it should be set to get the results I want. Surname first & given name or initials last. Following the guides in here to change the tweaks section has not worked form me

[PeterT]

OSFA One Size Fits All

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by emmabee

Author(s) Joan Aiken > Author sort Aiken, Joan
Now it still looks like that but it seems hit & miss as to how it stores it the folder might be last name first name or the other way around. And trying to fix them fails

If you're talking about the folders on disk, they get created on first import, and I don't think they get changed when you change the metadata in the database later (either by hand or with something like the Quality Check plugin).

But I might be wrong there.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by emmabee

Author(s) Joan Aiken > Author sort Aiken, Joan
Now it still looks like that but it seems hit & miss as to how it stores it the folder might be last name first name or the other way around. And trying to fix them fails

When I experimented with changing the author name (not the author sort), calibre does change the directory name and the author name appended to the file names. OTOH, don't do this manually unless you enjoy unscrambling eggs. Another reminder not to peek under the skirts and to treat the calibre library directory as a black box.

[chaley]

In an attempt to help make things clearer, this is what calibre does and has done for the 11-or-so years I have worked on it:

• There is no calibre setting that will change an author name when importing. You will get whatever is in the book or file name, depending on your add book settings.
• There is no calibre setting/tweak that will automatically change already imported books. You must do this by hand or with a plugin.
• The calibre tweak "Author sort name algorithm (ID: author_sort_copy_method)" controls to some extent how the author sort value is computed when you import a book.
• The calibre tweak "Author sort ..." also controls to some extent whether the author sort field is marked as inconsistent (red border) or consistent (green border).
• There are various options in tweaks that have appeared over the years that affect computing an author sort value, for example author_name_suffixes and author_name_prefixes amongst others. These options can help when adding a book or forcing a recomputation of author_sort values. But to repeat, they will not change an author name.
• The "Manage authors" dialog, found by right-clicking on Authors in the tag browser, is where you should change an author's name and sort value. Changes done in that dialog will be applied to book metadata in calibre's database. In this dialog you can ask that the author_sort be recalculated; that calculation uses the tweaks.
• None of the above automatically affects the metadata stored inside a book.

The default for the "Author sort ..." tweak is "comma". This value says that if the author name contains a comma then it is to be used unchanged. If not the last word in the authors name becomes the first and a comma is added. Example: Joe Van Blogs becomes Blogs, Joe Van.

[emmabee]

Originally Posted by chaley

In an attempt to help make things clearer, this is what calibre does and has done for the 11-or-so years I have worked on it:

• There is no calibre setting that will change an author name when importing. You will get whatever is in the book or file name, depending on your add book settings.
• There is no calibre setting/tweak that will automatically change already imported books. You must do this by hand or with a plugin.
• The calibre tweak "Author sort name algorithm (ID: author_sort_copy_method)" controls to some extent how the author sort value is computed when you import a book.
• The calibre tweak "Author sort ..." also controls to some extent whether the author sort field is marked as inconsistent (red border) or consistent (green border).
• There are various options in tweaks that have appeared over the years that affect computing an author sort value, for example author_name_suffixes and author_name_prefixes amongst others. These options can help when adding a book or forcing a recomputation of author_sort values. But to repeat, they will not change an author name.
• The "Manage authors" dialog, found by right-clicking on Authors in the tag browser, is where you should change an author's name and sort value. Changes done in that dialog will be applied to book metadata in calibre's database. In this dialog you can ask that the author_sort be recalculated; that calculation uses the tweaks.
• None of the above automatically affects the metadata stored inside a book.

The default for the "Author sort ..." tweak is "comma". This value says that if the author name contains a comma then it is to be used unchanged. If not the last word in the authors name becomes the first and a comma is added. Example: Joe Van Blogs becomes Blogs, Joe Van.

Appreciate that very much indeed , I have two questions in the edit metadata interface (individual book)
what is the purpose of the two boxes with the author name in? I assumed the left was as it arrived & the right was how it was to be catalogued. So mine were always usually first name last name on the left & calibre would change it to last name 'comma' first name on the right.

And what is the situation with initials instead of a first name. They always seem to end up first name (initials) last name?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

If you're talking about the folders on disk, they get created on first import, and I don't think they get changed when you change the metadata in the database later (either by hand or with something like the Quality Check plugin).

But I might be wrong there.

The directory does get changed when you change the author name. But that doesn't really matter all that much since this is stuff behind the scenes that you don't see often enough and even if you do, it doesn't matter.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by emmabee

Appreciate that very much indeed , I have two questions in the edit metadata interface (individual book)
what is the purpose of the two boxes with the author name in? I assumed the left was as it arrived & the right was how it was to be catalogued. So mine were always usually first name last name on the left & calibre would change it to last name 'comma' first name on the right.

The one on the left is the author's name, either as it arrived or whatever you changed it to. This value is what is displayed wherever the author name is needed.

The one on the right is called "author_sort" and is used when sorting by author. It is needed because the rules for ordering lists of authors are very vague. They depend on language and country, and on personal preference. For example, some people like to see names as First Last (e.g., Joe Blogs) but want them sorted by last name (e.g., Blogs, Joe). In some systems the name "Joe van Blogs" is sorted "Blogs, Joe van" while in other systems it is sorted as "van Blogs, Joe".

And what is the situation with initials instead of a first name. They always seem to end up first name (initials) last name?

I am not sure what you mean.

The author_sort generated by calibre depends on the value of the tweaks. If the tweak is "comma" then the author name "Harrison Blogs, Joe" is used for the author_sort. However, if the name is Joe Harrison Blogs (no comma) then calibre finds the last space then takes the word after that and moves it to the front. The value produced by Joe Harrison Blogs will be Blogs, Joe Harrison. I don't think initials will change this behavior.

My experience is that when I import a book I must first check and correct the author name. Next I check and correct the author_sort so that the book will be sorted in the list where I expect it to go.