Kindle Paperwhite and concatenated titles

[Sondar]

Hi all,
I have looked at existing threads without much luck, and instead of appending to an existing thread, as suggested in the thread vthat was closest to what I'm looking to do, I have started a new one.
I have a Kindle Paperwhite 4 (I think) and would like to save more information in the title than just the actual title. AFAICWO, the kindle doesn't allow for folders, and I've tried all the standard pre-provided templates that might match, with no luck. I still get just the title and the author. What I would like to do is concatenate Title with, if they exist Series and Series Index to form a compound title -, but not necessarily in that order. If what I'm trying to do is possible, would it be possible to use a sub-string of the series name rather than the whole verbage?

I'm thinking that, for instance,
Lord of the Rings 3, The Return of the King
could carry the title:

L3 The Return of the King

or:

LotR3 The Lord of the Rings.

Is either of these possible? If so, what would I have to do to achieve the result I'm looking for.

I still want to keep the author field, of course.

Thanking you in anticipation.

[davidfor]

What you are after are the plugboards. To start, have a look at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118563.

[Sondar]

Thank you, David. Could you tell me where i am going wrong.

I went to the thread that you suggested, and under Kindle / Kobo, I found

Kindle/Kobo

Metadata: Show series - series Index - Title as Title (Kindle/Kobo) (economix)
Spoiler:
I have been playing around with the Metadata plugboards to get the titles on a Kindle 3 to show series information. I used the following template:
format: mobi
device: kindle2
template: {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}
destination: title

This works very nicely for books that are part of a series e.g.:
Quote:
A Song of Ice & Fire - 01 - A Game of Thrones
A Song of Ice & Fire - 02 - A Clash of Kings
A Song of Ice & Fire - 03 - A Storm of Swords
A Song of Ice & Fire - 04 - A Feast for Crows

My thought was to substitute {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title} for the existing {author_sort}/{series}/{series_index}{title} - {authors} in Preferences -> Sending Books to Devices, but this had absolutely no effect on the books that I loaded into my Kindle, as far as the "Device" list in my Kindle is concerned. I have obviously missed something, and don't know what it is.
Most frustrating - 20 years as a 3rd Gen programmer (PL/1, Cobol etc) and this stuff is not clear to me - must be getting old!!

[Sondar]

OK, Next attempt
Using the piece of info that starts:
General Metadata

Metadata: Put series into the title, using either initials or a shortened form. Strip leading articles from the series name (any) (inspired by Gary_M_Mugford)
Spoiler:
The solution requires creating three composite columns. The first column is used to remove the leading articles. The second is used to compute the 'shorten' form. The third is to compute the 'initials' form. Once you have these columns, the plugboard selects between them. You can hide any or all of the three columns on the library view.

First column:
Code:

Name: #stripped_series. Template: {series:re(^(A|The|An)\s+,)||}

I tried creating the first column by adding my own columns.
What happened was

1. I tried to add the string Name: # etc as the first field
2. It didn't let me, so I guessed that this must go into the second box, with some sort of name in the top boc.
3. It accepted this, but wouldn't let me proceed until I'd restarted Calibre, which I did
4. It is now showing

calibre, version 1.38.0
ERROR: Cannot configure: Cannot configure before calibre is restarted.
even when I have restarted Calibre several times!
I am really trying to follow the instructions given, but I am feeling as thick as two short planks right now!

[davidfor]

What do you want to change? The name of the file on the device, or the title displayed when in the library on the device?

The save template changes the file name. But, that one is the default used if the driver for a device doesn't have a save template. You will need to open the configuration options for the device driver and set the save template there. The simplest way to do that is to right-click on the device button when it is connected and select "Configure this device".

If you want to change the title displayed when using the device, you want the "Metadata plugboards". These massage the metadata in the books as they are sent to the device. You will need to create a plugboard for the Kindle and the format you use. This will need to set the title to the template you want.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Sondar

My thought was to substitute {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title} for the existing {author_sort}/{series}/{series_index}{title} - {authors} in Preferences -> Sending Books to Devices, but this had absolutely no effect on the books that I loaded into my Kindle, as far as the "Device" list in my Kindle is concerned. I have obviously missed something, and don't know what it is.
Most frustrating - 20 years as a 3rd Gen programmer (PL/1, Cobol etc) and this stuff is not clear to me - must be getting old!!

That is for changing the filesystem path that the book is saved at. If you want to change the title as displayed on the device (i.e. when trying to actually read a book) you will need to do as the link suggested and save this plugboard (not save path) under Preferences -> Metadata plugboards.