I know I am new and you WILL Laugh, but I need some advice

[RoosterNZ]

OK
I have spent HOURS painstakenly sorting my books, removing duplicates etc...
And I have managed to get my collection looking like this. ( ) and / = Folder

(Author - Last / First Name) ( Book ) Then all the different versions I have of that book e.g. ePub, Mobi, PDF, RTF, HTML and what ever else

Adams, Douglas / Last Chance To See / Last Chance to See.mobi and Last Chance to See.pdf

It can also look

(Author - Last / First Name) (Series) ( Book) Different Versions

Adams, Douglas / The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Series / The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy 01 - The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy / Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.lit and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.pdf and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.epub and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.opf and a jpeg of the cover

I am wanting to add these all to Calibre so that i can as and when i need convert them to ePubs to put on my phone, but I am not sure they best way to ensure nothing is missed and the port is clean, and well so I don't stuff it up.

Please help me obiwan kinobi you are my only help.

[zespectre]

I respect the amount of work you've done.

However

Calibre doesn't care. When you import the books it will put them in it's own location (or the location you set) and then use it's own internal scheme for how things are organized.

Basically click on the little menu arrow next to "Add Books" and select the appropriate "Add books from directory and sub directory" option and let it run.

In the future as you download new ebooks just put them in a download directory and tell Calibre to import them and let Calibre do all the "heavy lifting".

[DoctorOhh]

If the opf file in each directory has the metadata then using the dropdown arrow next to the Add Books icon and selecting Add books from directories, including subdirectories One book per directory should do the trick. just point to the parent directory that contains all of the Author directories.

I would start with a clean empty new library that points to a brand new empty folder and add the books to it. You can test this by just pointing to the Adams, Douglas folder and see if you get the results you expect. Start small and if it works go from there.

[RoosterNZ]

Please tell me that I didn't waste my time sorting them??? Well at least the back up of my library will be pretty... if nothing else lol. ( I feel a chorus of always look on the bright side of life coming on hahaha )

"If the opf file in each directory has the metadata then using the dropdown arrow next to the Add Books icon and selecting Add books from directories, including subdirectories One book per directory should do the trick. just point to the parent directory that contains all of the Author directories"

As for the above not every book has a .OPF , and i was kinda hoping after veiwing the help video that after I import my books i would be able to get the cool looking metadata that calibre found, I guess I kepf the .OPF and the Jpeg's where I could find them as a back up.

Also If I choose "Add books from directories, including subdirectories" is calibre smart enough to know that the Author / Series Folders are just for sorting purpose's? I am not gonna get a load of false listed books???
and will this option add all the different versions of the books like the merge function?

dwanthny, I like the whole start small idea, it has always been one of my downfalls... lol

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by RoosterNZ

Also If I choose "Add books from directories, including subdirectories" is calibre smart enough to know that the Author / Series Folders are just for sorting purpose's? I am not gonna get a load of false listed books???

Calibre doesn't use the directory info in any way to sort or label the incoming books. If the Author and series info were part of the file name calibre can use that info to fill in the author and series fields with the right regex under Preferences - Adding Books when adding the books to the library.

Since you have all the formats for a given book in one directory if you choose the correct "add books dropdown" then all formats of the same book will be added to one book entry.

[atjnjk]

@RoosterNZ. You could follow these steps:
- Use a program to batch rename your files, for example: "Adams, Douglas/Last Chance To See/Last Chance to See.mobi" to "Adams, Douglas/Last Chance To See/Adams, Douglas - Last Chance to See.mobi".
- Set calibre to add books' metadata using only file names with proper regular expression (Preferences > Import/Export > Adding books > uncheck "Read metadata from file contents..." and edit the regular expression text box to suit file names' structure).
- Add books normally.

PS: Some free file renamers you can use: Ken Rename, Rename Master.