Sony E-Reader: Categories and Tags

[tonyc46]

I'm confused about how Calibre handles Sony E-Reader categories.

It appears that every tag in Calibre becomes a category in the Sony. If one does a metadata download of tags, that could create 100s (or 1000s) of categories, some specific to just one book.

Is there a way to create a limited number of categories to be uploaded to the Sony? Then, if a book contains a tag with one of these categories, it would be included in that category in the Sony.

Hope I made that clear.

Thanks.

[itimpi]

Not exactly the way you described it. If you have the tgs field set to create collections then every value in it will create a Sony Collection - and as you say this can be a large number unless you have restricted the values you put into the Calibre tags field.

One thing you can do is to customise the Sony Driver to only create collections from the Calibre series field. This is what I personally tend to do as when I am not trying to access by series I tend to be happy to do it via author.

Another option is to create a custom column in Calibre that contains tags that you would like to be made into collections, and then customize the Sony Driver to include that custom column when creating Collections.

[Sparkling]

I solved this by not downloading tags at all. Not the optimal solution but it works. Instead I treat the tags as genre and have an extra "tag-like" custom column for additional tags I want to add.

[tonyc46]

Finally got a chance to look into this.

itimpi- Thanks for the tips. I'm going with Option 1 for now, although I think I would like to set up a custom column when I get a bit more time.

What I'd really like to be able to do is download all metadata, but have a selection list of the ones that would be converted into collections. In other words, have an option in Preferences to "Set Collections". Populate it with ALL the tags and have a check box with each one. Only the ones that are selected would be used as collections.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by tonyc46

What I'd really like to be able to do is download all metadata, but have a selection list of the ones that would be converted into collections. In other words, have an option in Preferences to "Set Collections". Populate it with ALL the tags and have a check box with each one. Only the ones that are selected would be used as collections.

Using a Custom column with tags of interest would achieve this without any change to Calibre. Since that solution already exists, I doubt you would find any developer prepared to put the effort into enhancing the Sony driver to work in the way you describe (but I could be wrong ).

[speakingtohe]

Collections by tags don't help me at all. But then I read mainly fiction on my Sony. I use author_sort and series (comma in author_sort helps me differeniate type of collection on reader) although I would just use author if the books would be in series order in the collection as well.

Helen

[chaley]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Collections by tags don't help me at all. But then I read mainly fiction on my Sony. I use author_sort and series (comma in author_sort helps me differeniate type of collection on reader) although I would just use author if the books would be in series order in the collection as well.

You can tell calibre to sort the author_sort collection by series index instead of by name, if that is what you want. Use the Specify how SONY collections are sorted tweak. You would want something like

sony_collection_sorting_rules = [(['author_sort'], 'series_index')]

Books without series will be sorted by title.

What I do is use a plugboard to construct a title that has all the info I want to see. This title is sorted by the default rule for the device display (collection, author, title). The plugboard is

{title} {pubdate} {series:<.8s| [|}{series_index:| [|]]}

This shows the title, the published year (because that is how I have set the tweak for pubdate display), at most 8 characters of the series, and lastly the series index inside brackets. I include pubdate to help me select books not in a series but where order of release can matter. The series and series index are formatted as "[series [n]]" so that it is easy to visually detect series information even when the sony elides the title.

[speakingtohe]

You can tell calibre to sort the author_sort collection by series index instead of by name, if that is what you want. Use the Specify how SONY collections are sorted tweak. You would want something like

Code:
sony_collection_sorting_rules = [(['author_sort'], 'series_index')]Books without series will be sorted by title.

Wow, pretty sure that is what I want. I shall for sure give it a try.
The double collections (author_sort,series) are fine of course, but I keep a lot of books on my ereader but it adds a lot of collections when an author has multiple series.

I shall have to try the plugboard as well. I did them a while ago for my mother's Kindle, but never could get them right for the Sony

Thanks for all of your hard work and creativity

Helen

[Pinecone]

I have my books on our two Sony (PRS-600 and PRS-650) in collections by author (custom column) and series and genre.

I did the custom author column to allow me to put the books in series order for the author (of course above shows how to do that automatically), but for some authors there are no series, so I typically place them in order written order.

I have series and sub series. Some books are part of a bigger series, but also part of a series within that series. FOr exampel, Jerry Pournelle has the CoDominion series, and within, that the Falkenberg series. So I have collections based on both.

As for Genre, I used to keep SicFi in it own, but my colection has grown too large to manage it that way. I do have Genre collections for Non-fiction, Aviation, and Classics.

I do NOT make collection by tags, as that generates too many odd ball collections.