How do I change the number of a book in the list?

[Bouboule]

Hellow,

I have exported 30 books from the same series, but I would like to see them in chronological order.

But the books have been imported a little bit anyhow (even with the metadata, a little pity by the way).

If I want them in order, do I have to import them one by one? Or can I change the number afterwards?

Even in the future, when I add books other than this series, they won't be in the right place.

So is it possible to change the number of the book? (the incremental id in the bookstore)

[davidfor]

I'm not completely sure what you want. You mention series, chronological order and and "incremental id in the bookstore".

Taking the last one, I think you mean the id number calibre uses. If so, this is just incremented each time you add a book. It doesn't really mean anything, but, is used internally for lookups and things.

For a series, the series index is used for the order. If you don't do anything except add a book to a series, it will just increment (though there are tweaks on what to do). You can reorder the series by changing the index for the books to whatever you want. Just edit them. Or, use the metadata download to get them from an on-line source. There is also the Manage Series plugin. That you can use to reorder books in a series in one go.

For chronological order, it will depend on what you mean. If you mean publishing order, then you can set that in the metadata and sort on that. If you mean chronological in the series, then it is probably simplest to set the series index to represent this. Or add a second series column if you want to maintain the chronological order separate from the series order.

The above is what your post suggested to me. Hopefully it will help. But, I feel I might have missed something. Can you explain a bit more what you want?

[Adoby]

Every book you add to calibre gets a number. This is a database index thingy. You can't change it. If you see the number chances are you are doing something wrong or looking where you are not supposed to look.

Once the books are in calibre you can freely specify and modify published dates and series and series index and much more. You just use the calibre GUI.

Look at the books in the calibre GUI. There you can set and sort on series index and published date and whatever you want to.

Look at the books after you save them to disk. Then you can use a save template to add series info and/or published date to the filenames and/or subfolders.

Look at the books after you sent them to your device. Then you can use a plug board to add info to fields your device use to sort or show the books.

Don't look inside the calibre library. That is rude and demeaning. If you still do it, at least don't admit to it openly. I will say no more about it.

[theducks]

Don't mess there. The LIBRARIAN UNION will file .
Series Index (you must set a series name) is how you set an order. use 0 for books the 'just belong', but have no real place. 0.nn for prequals

[Bouboule]

I show you an example by picture, here is my bookstore:

https://i.imgur.com/52f7SiA.jpg

I would like to change the id on the left so that it is in order for the book volumes.

So I have to delete my books, and add them one by one to be in the right order?

[BetterRed]

@Bouboule - That number on the left is the line number in the list, if you re-sort the list on another column, the line numbers will still be 1 to N, i.e. they are assigned dynamically - like a spreadsheet. They can be suppressed by un-checking Preferences->Look and Feel->Show row numbers in the book list

They are not the database row identifiers. The database row identifiers are meaningless numbers used internally which cannot be changed by the user. That they may roughly reflect the order in which books are added is coincidental.

BR

[Bouboule]

I'm a developer too, so I know how it works. So we can't change the ids on the books. I have to delete and add them in the right order. Because I like it to be in the incremental order of the software

[theducks]

NO No No!
That is a Row number (you can even turn it OFF. Preferences: behavior: Show row numbers: remove tick)


Your metadata is in a terrible mess

Regardless of what you may have received in the book or downloaded, YOU need to make it uniform (at least within groupings of books) so you can group

Downloads are no solution: Author names vary, depending on who mad the source. I see the SAME Author with and with out middle initial And With or without a . or space AND even sometime a full middle name (even if that has NEVER appeared on the cover ) Pick how you want it and make ALL usage the same

I saw easily 2 variations of what I believe (I am a English only user ) is a series or magazine issue

Make those all look the same way. Use standard Calibre columns when possible, removing series info from a title when possible (it may ALSO appear in the series column), because the title may only be Title 2 which is the same series as Title 1. The series would be Title [1],Title [2]

You sort on Series to get the order (you can NOT sort an index by itself as someone suggested)
See the 2 attachments. 1 is unsorted (the way it was added to the Library), the other sorted by Issue (series) I used a Magazine to show a way to deal with titles that do not vary normally.

[skb]

If it were me, I would print out the list (or use the screen grab) and then edit the metadata for each book in Calibre.

My edits would look something like this (and the comments/description would be in French).

https://imgur.com/a/xUys2tS

In Calibre, you can edit the title, author, series etc - so there's no need to re-import.

Edited to add: Once you've got your books as a Series, they're easily displayed in the right order.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by skb

In Calibre, you can edit the title, author, series etc - so there's no need to re-import.

FWIW: you can edit metadata in the book list, hit F2 in a cell and it will open for editing, Tab into the next cell to edit it, hit enter to get out of cell edit mode. Dates can be set to current and cleared with '=' and '-', numbers can be cleared with a space.

BR

[DoctorOhh]

Moderator Notice
If you choose to include an image, please click on Go Advanced and use the paperclip icon (see attached) to attach your image to the post and stop using image hosting sites.

[Bouboule]

Thank you for your answers, but we're straying from the subject. Finally I got my answer, we can't edit the incremental id defined by Caliber, here it is :P

For the rest I will finish my library quietly

Thanks to you

[Bouboule]

Now is good, i have change the date of publication to have a good order ^^

[skb]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

If you choose to include an image, please click on Go Advanced and use the paperclip icon (see attached) to attach your image to the post and stop using image hosting sites.

Sorry! I had no idea (I've only been using the site for...OMG ten years!). I would never have guessed the paper clip.

Thanks Doc

[phossler]

Originally Posted by Bouboule

Now is good, i have change the date of publication to have a good order ^^

If you sort by a column, the metadata changes order, but the row numbers remain 1, 2, 3, ....

I've found that it's better not to fight Calibre, but to work with it

The Series and the Tag fields, together with the 'Manage Series' plugin does everything I ever need or want to do