Kindle Template Problems Splitting Authors Names

[D..]

Help please, have spent hours on this & thought I knew how to input the correct plug-in template after my pc crashed & had to reformat! Have a KPaperwhite & input azw3 no probs with series & no but the rest!! I would like to have - author[surname first] series, series no, title. I input {author_sort}{series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title} destination author, which I thought I had used before the crash with no luck then tried destination author sort & then title. I am now getting on the K most books with the correct heading title, then underneath - surname on its own, series & no -then the christian name of the author. As I have a lot of books from various authors & many with half a dozen in the series, this was what I wanted so I could work thru the series,but it seems I have missed something. I would mention that I use surname comma christian name for both author & author sort when inputting metadata of each book before transferring. Please could someone help it is so frustrating & I feel so stupid trying different methods without success. Thanks:

[theducks]

I think you want to do this with the plugboard (on the Preferences screen)

Kindles don't use the filename. so you want to adjust the destination fields using the plugboard.
My device still supports the Collections PI, so I just insert the Series_index before the Title. (I don't care about custom other stuff, so I don't usually use the other fields)

[D..]

Thanks for your reply but that is exactly what I am trying to get sorted & cannot seem to despite trying the coding for different plugboards for hours. I am trying to find a Kindle azw3 plugboard to enter into Preferences, both for sending books to to device & also to disc where it lists the book as - Author [surname first], series, series no, and title. At present I can get half of the authors name [surname] after the title but the other half [christian name] comes after the title.
I have amended metadata on all books so that author and author sort is the same e.g. smith, john - but still cannot get the whole of the author name at the front and not split. Any ideas please. Another hour or so spent this morning still no luck!.

[jhowell]

Why are you trying to combine the author and title into one field?

I would put author sort into the author field and the series, series no, and title into the title field.

[D..]

I am not, that is what I am getting. What I am trying to get is a plugin kindle template that lists -
author - surname first,
series,
series no.
title.
What I am getting is either the authors surname or even christian name split, then the series & title correctly and then the second part of the author - either the authors christian or surname at the end.
I am trying to incorporate the authors full name
I am using {authors} {series:| - | }{series_index:0>2s} - {title} destination authors which splitting the authors name but I dont know why. Any thoughts please?

[D..]

Have tried author sort at the front, destination authors, author sort, you name it have tried it - for hours, nothing seems to work and I dont know where I am going wrong.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by D..

Any thoughts please?

It is because the Kindle expects that the author field holds an author name in "last, first" format and displays it as "first last". You have in the author field "last, first other stuff" and the Kindle is displaying that as "first other stuff last".

You are going to get better results of you use separate templates for destination author and destination title.

[D..]

Thanks so much for trying to help me. Firstly not sure what you mean about different templates. I use only azw3 files [converted via Calibre] and with all of them I enter the metadata with series and change authors to the same as author sort. If I download the metadata fromAmazon it also changes the author to surname, christian name as I do. How can I use different templates with different destinations? As far as I am aware I enter one temple for azw files as a plug in for the Kindle.
I tried your suggestion regarding naming and amended the author metadata back to christian name first then surname - after transfer they appeared on the Kindle with no series details whatsover neither name or no & there was no difference between author_sort or author on the plug in template when I tried both variations.
The problem for me is that I had the format just as I wanted previous to the computer crash & reinstall, but since then have had no luck. To me it seems the normal format would be author then -series, no then - title when listing books, using the surname so that they are listed in alphabetical order on the Kindle. I can then work thru a series by an author even tho other books are in the Kindle with their own series. I was hoping some "fairy godperson" with a Kindle knew the plug in, but it life is paying me back for having my back-up fail!!

[Sunlite]

You need to send the different metadata information to different fields in the plugboard

{author_sort} -> field 'author'

{series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title} -> field 'title'

If the Kindle displayes both information in the same line, you should get what you want.

[D..]

Thank you for that, your second suggestion worked. I now have -
{title} - {series} {series_index:0>2s} destination title this gives me thethe title & series no & underneath the author's name, which isnt split.
Thank you very much, so many hours, but you got me there in the end.
Now I can read rather than spend hours trying to get the plug in right.
Many thanks.