Kobo Aura HD: Extra paragraph breaks in Synopsis.

[ownedbycats]

Calibre 5.11 (x64), Kobo Aura HD (latest firmware), using Kobo Touch Extended.

In Calibre, most of my book comments are like this:

<div>
<p align="justify">Blah blah blah blah blah.</p>
<p align="justify">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin eget sapien id erat pretium egestas vitae vel lorem. Etiam nec est sit amet risus fermentum semper.</p>
</div>

However, when books tranferred to the Kobo and then updated (or updated on my not-sideload books), this sometimes (but not always) ends up with an extra break between the paragraphs.

There's only one difference I found - the books without extra synopsis break are ones that had been re-sent to the device (mostly fanfics that I'd updated). However, I have automatic metadata enabled, so I dont see why re-sending would fix but updating metadata would not.

Any ideas?

[davidfor]

Actually, the reason you have the extra line is because the comment looks like that. The display on the Kobo device includes the new line between the tags. And the layout you are showing is what the comment editor does when you change the text or change to the HTML source view.

Probably what is happening is that when FFF downloads the book it is creating the comment text as a single line with tags. If that gets sent to the Kobo device, there will be a single line between paragraphs. For the update, either FFF is creating different comment HTML with a new line between each paragraph, or you are changing something before sending the book to the device and the comment HTML is being reformatted.

A solution is to use a metadata plugboard to set the comment. The template "{comments}" replaces line feeds with a space and that will display on the device without the extra lines.

[ownedbycats]

For FFF, I actually have this. I don't know if it affects things:

add_to_replace_metadata:
## Changes breaks to paragraphs in comments for better formatting
 description=><br/>=></p><p>
 description=><p>=><p align="justify">

I set a plugboard to anyformat:KOBO = ([{comments}] -> comments) and then ran a "update cached metadata." It didn't remove the extra breaks though. Did I do it wrong?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

For FFF, I actually have this. I don't know if it affects things:

add_to_replace_metadata:
## Changes breaks to paragraphs in comments for better formatting
 description=><br/>=></p><p>
 description=><p>=><p align="justify">

I set a plugboard to anyformat:KOBO = ([{comments}] -> comments) and then ran a "update cached metadata." It didn't remove the extra breaks though. Did I do it wrong?

The update cached metadata is not involved. That updates the file metadata.calibre which the Kobo device does not use at all.

But, that plugboard is against the wrong device. That is for the old devices such as the original Kobo or the WiFi. You need to create the plugboard for whichever of the KoboTouch or KoboTouchExtended driver you are using.

Then, if you have the driver configured to update the metadata on the device, just plugging it in should do it. The "Sending metadata to device" will take longer than normal as it will be updating the metadata for all the books on the device, but, all the comments should be updated.

[ownedbycats]

I changed it to KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED and it worked!

What is Update Cached Metadata for?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I changed it to KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED and it worked!

What is Update Cached Metadata for?

As I said, it updates the file metadata.calibre. This is used by calibre when matching books on the device to the library. If you have a book that doesn't match, you can do it manually. Then running this will update the file for the next time you connect the device.