Guide to Collections Management with calibre (Touch / Glo / Mini /Aura)

[davidfor]

@Kuram: If you want to see an example of what Terisa is talking about, have a look at this screenshot. That shows several books with series info. And the recent firmware versions support sorting by the series info in the lists. Very useful if you have a collection for each series.

So the device does have the concept of series, but it doesn't have the concept of "series collection". Using the "series" column, you are creating collection that just happens to have the name of a series. It doesn't have any different behaviour to my "Testing" collection which is a list of books I have put on my devices to test some something, usually a bug.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Kuram

I need help understanding part of the process for setting up the collections. As per the wiki: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kob...nd_Collections


Specifically for the "Driver / calibre Configuration" section, what is the relevance of the custom column? Could I not simply setup the stock Series column alone to be the "collection" that the Kobo device uses?

I use both Tags & Series. They already exist and there's no need for any custom columns. This is why I don't get the inclusion of custom columns in the directions. We have two perfectly good columns that work as is.

[Kuram]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I use both Tags & Series. They already exist and there's no need for any custom columns. This is why I don't get the inclusion of custom columns in the directions. We have two perfectly good columns that work as is.

Only if you don't use tags for something else. I don't like the idea of having collections based on tags.

[compurandom]

I use to use tags for collections, but when I imported books, it would import junk into tags. It's a much better idea to use a custom column instead so that you can leave the imported tags alone and manually populate what you want for collections.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I use both Tags & Series. They already exist and there's no need for any custom columns. This is why I don't get the inclusion of custom columns in the directions. We have two perfectly good columns that work as is.

Jon, we've been over this before. I'm sorry that you don't get it, but just about everyone else does. And here's the thing:

If the instructions didn't include using a custom column, this thread would be littered with questions on how to use them.

If you don't believe me, go back to the threads before these instructions were created and read them. Hell, just look through this thread for how many times people have asked if the had to use the series column. If you can't accept the need, then please accept that others see the need and stop ranting about it.

The function is there, it needs to be described properly.

And personally, tags are completely useless for collections.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If the instructions didn't include using a custom column, this thread would be littered with questions on how to use them.

Despite your apparent irritation at this being brought up again, I was grateful the last time it was brought up, because I didn't get it when I read the instructions.

The instructions as currently written do a great job of explaining the best way to do it, but they don't explain well why it is useful to make a new custom column for tags rather than use the perfectly good one that already exists.

And personally, tags are completely useless for collections.

I assume by that you mean that the pre-existing tag column is useless because it becomes polluted with what publishers think things should be tagged with, rather than what you want your shelves to be. Not that a tag formatted custom column is useless, which is what I think you don't mean to imply.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by compurandom

Despite your apparent irritation at this being brought up again, I was grateful the last time it was brought up, because I didn't get it when I read the instructions.

The instructions as currently written do a great job of explaining the best way to do it, but they don't explain well why it is useful to make a new custom column for tags rather than use the perfectly good one that already exists.

If that was JSWolf's problem, I'd be OK. But, his problem is that he doesn't think custom columns should be mentioned at all. The instructions could probably do with a rewrite. And if someone wants to do that, then good.

I assume by that you mean that the pre-existing tag column is useless because it becomes polluted with what publishers think things should be tagged with, rather than what you want your shelves to be. Not that a tag formatted custom column is useless, which is what I think you don't mean to imply.

Yes the "tags" column is useless. The type of information in them tends not to be how I want to organise things. Plus, it would lead to a much larger number of collections. I use two or three different tag type columns, but one is a status column associated with some Reading Lists, and the other is manually maintained.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by compurandom

I use to use tags for collections, but when I imported books, it would import junk into tags. It's a much better idea to use a custom column instead so that you can leave the imported tags alone and manually populate what you want for collections.

Most of the time when I add books to Calibre and I get something in Tags, I find it's rubbish and delete it and before I load said book onto my H2O, I remove the tags in the OPF. I prefer to populate Tags myself unless I'm populating Series.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by davidfor

And personally, tags are completely useless for collections.

Back before Kobo Readers existed, there were Sony Readers. The driver for Sony Readers used Series and Tags for managing collections. Nobody complained (back then) about Tags not being appropriate. It was hard coded into the Sony driver and it just worked. So if it worked back then, there's no reason it cannot work now.

And when Tags is populated with something from the eBooks, you can remove what's there and put in nothing or what you want. IMHO, i don't like having Tags populated with data I don't want and I won't use. So if I was using a custom column, I'd have Tags empty so why not use Tags?

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Back before Kobo Readers existed, there were Sony Readers. The driver for Sony Readers used Series and Tags for managing collections. Nobody complained (back then) about Tags not being appropriate. It was hard coded into the Sony driver and it just worked. So if it worked back then, there's no reason it cannot work now.

Jon, you should only read scrolls (or even clay tablet). It they worked back then, there's no reason it cannot work know.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Back before Kobo Readers existed, there were Sony Readers. The driver for Sony Readers used Series and Tags for managing collections. Nobody complained (back then) about Tags not being appropriate. It was hard coded into the Sony driver and it just worked. So if it worked back then, there's no reason it cannot work now.

And when Tags is populated with something from the eBooks, you can remove what's there and put in nothing or what you want. IMHO, i don't like having Tags populated with data I don't want and I won't use. So if I was using a custom column, I'd have Tags empty so why not use Tags?

Jon: You really should read what you comment on. The word "personally" is important. I do populate the tags column, and I look at them when deciding on a book to read. I put the tags into the comments on the device so I can see them when looking at a book and deciding if I want to read it now. But, they don't make useful collections for me. I have made absolutely no claim about the usefulness of creating collections from tags, series or any other column for other people.

As to the Sony driver, tags is not hardcoded. It is one of the only three possibilities, but it is a default. I have no idea why only three columns were allowed. But, I would be completely stunned if there were no posts asking for other choices. I'm not going go looking for them because I don't really care. But, what I do know is that there are plenty of Kobo users wanting to use lots of different columns to make collections. Your continued insistence that only tags and series make useful collections is rubbish.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And when Tags is populated with something from the eBooks, you can remove what's there and put in nothing or what you want.

So, you are saying that instead of making a custom column that I can populate myself, I should use a pre-existing column that is used for a different purpose, destroy the metadata in that column that comes with the book, and THEN manually populate it after I do the work to clear it instead of using a custom column that is already clear and not polluted.

I think you have done a very good job of explaining why your idea is stupid. Thanks.

[catsknit]

I used the instructions to have it make new shelves, based on Tags. I had (I thought) already edited my tags and pared them down to what i wanted, but on import I found that there must have still been a lot of tagging I wasn't aware of, so now I have lots of worthless shelves I don't want, like "hard-boiled" LOL

So I went through and made a new column for shelves and then sorted my books to various shelves I want to have like Mystery, Nonfiction, Young Adult. I then manually (on the unconnected reader) deleted all the imported books on my Kobo Glo, thinking that then all the shelves would disappear, since empty (I have that checked in Kobo Utilities). But all the extra shelves are still there and list 1 to several books each. When I open that shelf I see they are all Kobo books which have been removed, but it kept the shelving info and the books are listed as ready to download. I don't want to sync with kobo as I don't want all these shelves saved. I can't find any way on the Kobo itself to remove the shelves? Will I need to factory reset?

[davidfor]

You can delete a collection from the collections list. Long press on the collection and menu will be displayed. Select delete to remove the collection.

[catsknit]

Perfect, thank you!