Kindle 3 and Collections

[brewjono]

This might be a bit out there but don't knock it 'til you've given it a go.

Connect your Kindle to Calibre.

Using the Column title "On Device" do a sort so that they all rise to the top.

Select all the items "On Main"

Right click and select "Convert Books" then "Create Catalog of Books in Your Library"

Change the output to MOBI.

Untick "Include Recenty Added"

"apply" then "OK".

It will create a book for you that has the Cover, Title, Author, Series, Description, rating etc"

Upload it onto your kindle.

Open the book and it has hotlinks to each book. There is a sort option at bottom called "View Section List"

When you do this you have ALL the metadata, and all the books in each series, in series numbered order.

Of course this doesn't change the sorting on your kindle but it means I can look at which books comes next in the series and give myself a quick reminder about the book from the description field. I can also see the cover.

For more help on it look at "Catalogs" for Calibre.

Brewjono.

[RonF]

Originally Posted by brewjono

This might be a bit out there but don't knock it 'til you've given it a go.

...some really great advice...

For more help on it look at "Catalogs" for Calibre.

Brewjono.

I should really look a little deeper into Calibre This is great, thanks for this.

[superstitious]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you put a character such as "_" at the start of your collection names, and then sort by title, you'll get all your collections listed first, in alphabetical order. It's a kludge, but it works.

It did work wonder for me too. I only have 14 collections. One of them being Reading Now. All I did was put a period in front of the collection names then follow by series name/author. Then I sorted by "title". It works fantastically. K3 is now sorted alphabetically starting with the collections first. However, I did put two periods in front of my Reading Now collection only to make sure that always stays on the top for easy access. The rest of the collections and book after that are still sorted alphabetically. I wonder though if there's a way for all other books not to also show up again once it's been added into the collection.

[Mirtika]

Originally Posted by TheKindleWorm

Congrats on your new Kindle purchase, I'm sure you'll love it once it arrives.

Unfortunately there is not a collection within collections option - it is just collections. However once you are in a collection it is easy to sort by author, title or most recent first.

Bummer. I just came to this thread to see how to do a "collections within collections" function.

THAT is so needed. Hope they provide it in future. I mean, once you have hundreds (or thousands) of books, that sort of becomes key.

Ah, well.

[HarryT]

Collections are not folders; they are tags. There's really no way that they can be multi-level.

[emalvick]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Collections are not folders; they are tags. There's really no way that they can be multi-level.

That is true right now, but as one who does a lot of photography, people have come up with ways of making multi-level tags in the metadata of photo files. I have actually even provided Amazon with feedback in the past week suggesting they improve collections including the potential for multi-level collections.

[greeny]

Hi guys, many thanks to all of you for coming up with some great ideas. I am still waiting for my Kindle to arrive so will have lots to play with when it does :-)
Can't wait now.......

[Greenbeast]

I sent some feedback to amazon asking for the possibililty of an alternative (user selectable) book organisation in the form of a tree structure (Author>Series>Title)

I think with the current system and an alternative along those lines many people would be satisfied.