The art of using Tags

[DrChiper]

After removing for the x-th time useless and meaningless Tags (it looked like all the words in the book were used to form Tags), I began to wonder how others manage their Tag problems. It should be possible to grasp a book with just a view Tags. And how could calibre help to automate this as much as possible? A kind of automatic Tag cleanser?

In other words: "The art of using Tags, and how to survive it"
Any thoughts?

[avantman42]

If a newly-imported book has a lot of tags, while in the edit window, I put my cursor in the tags text box, press CTRL-A to select all text, then DEL to delete. Then I enter my own tags.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by avantman42

If a newly-imported book has a lot of tags, while in the edit window, I put my cursor in the tags text box, press CTRL-A to select all text, then DEL to delete. Then I enter my own tags.

That's obvious.
My intention was: what is a good manner to create useful tags and perhaps to do that as automagically as possible. I myself can think of many ways to do it, but I tend to make things always way too complex. So I'm looking for new ways, perhaps existing and simple ones.

[kiwidude]

Turn off tags for the Google metadata plugin using Configure metadata download. You could even disable that plugin completely if you want. People fall into either the love 'em or hate 'em camp with the tags that it produces, I'm with you in the hate 'em camp.

One approach a lot of people use is to install the Goodreads metadata download plugin. This plugin is designed to retrieve Goodreads genre shelf names as tags - so if you like your tags being things like "Science Fiction", "Fantasy" etc without all the other rubbish of character names, locations, advertisement plugs and who knows what else then this should give you what you want.

Additionally it has something called "tag mapping" which lets you map Goodreads shelf names to your own desired naming convention, if you don't like what Goodreads calls them. So if you want "YA" to map to "Young Adult", or don't want to receive "Contemporary" you have control over that. The plugin comes with around 60 of the most common Goodreads shelves mapped (from the genres of books I tend to work with), and dwathny has expanded on this to map several hundred tags if you want a more substantive set of mappings to start with. His post with instructions is on the first page of that Goodreads thread (see post#15).

[DrChiper]

Sounds good, kiwidude. I'll give that plug-in a try.
Some confusing though: According your link above its version 1.0.9, according the calibre plugin installer (Preferences>Get plugins to enhance calibre) I can automatically install version 1.6.2. Which one is recommended (I'm using calibre 0.8.33)?

[kiwidude]

There are two Goodreads plugins - the one called just "Goodreads" is the one you want. "Goodreads Sync" is to do with adding your own books to Goodreads shelves, it has nothing to do with metadata downloading.

[spindlegirl]

I find that I get fewer tags in the preferences for metadata, check "Prefer fewer tags", and then the maximum number. I have mine set to 1 - but I wonder if 0 would work.

Edited: tried it on one of my books, and it worked.

[DrChiper]

Is putting to zero not the same as unchecking the downloading of tags?

[DrChiper]

Adding dwathny's Goodreads.json file posed a problem. I could find the location (under Win7), which is not as expected in the Program Files, but under: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\calibre\plugins

However, there was no original Goodreads.json file present. The Goodreads plugin could however find dwathny's settings fine. So there is now no way to go back to the initial setting?

[kiwidude]

That location is correct, it will never be under Program Files. It is part of quite a number of data files that live in that folder you found that are untouched when you upgrade Calibre versions (unlike the files that are in Program Files).

As for why you do not have a file there already - it depends on whether you had after installing the Goodreads plugin gone into the configuration options for that plugin. It will only create the file when it is needed.

If you want to go back to the original settings, just delete or rename dwanthny's file, then restart Calibre and go to the configuration screen for that Goodreads plugin. As soon as you click ok you should see a file appear which is the "default" settings.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Is putting to zero not the same as unchecking the downloading of tags?

Heh I just noticed that.

Anyway, the point is that I don't need to look for a special plugin to avoid getting a tag dump.
I too, prefer to add my own tags as I see fit.

[JSWolf]

You really don't want tags put in for you since tags are used for collections.

[DrChiper]

Correct me if I'm wrong but collections equals series, and tags are completly independend until you choose otherwise.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You really don't want tags put in for you since tags are used for collections.

For Sony owners that might be true, but not necessarily for other devices (and yes I can see that the OP is a Sony owner, but others reading the thread may not realise this).

And *really don't* is far too absolute a statement. The OP in their first post asked for a way to get a few tags - which is what this plugin allows them to do. Winding down the number of tags on GoogleBooks to "a few" is pointless given there is no guarantee the couple that come through have any relevance. However doing that for Goodreads will give you a pretty good idea of the genre(s) for a book.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Correct me if I'm wrong but collections equals series, and tags are completly independend until you choose otherwise.

Not necessarily. If I have books ordered under "Series", it is different than a tag. However, it does put it in a collection by the name of the series once it reaches my Sony reader.

But if I have a lot of books labelled "Mystery", "Romance", etc as a genre or whatever I want to call it, I tag it as such, and it will go into a collection (on my sony device) called those things.