Full Text Search

bluepeter · Today, 03:13 PM

Apologies if this is a silly question, but is there some way of of doing a full text search of only a limited selection of the books in my library?

Earlier today, I wanted to find a short section in a book that I read some time ago. I knew the author, and the incident involved cheese. Getting Calibre to do a full text search for cheese is simple, but approximately 60% of my books contain mentions of it. Obviously, I could (and did) sort my results by author, and find the passage I wanted by looking at the context. But it seems inefficient to ask Calibre to search thousands of books for references to cheese, when I know that I'm looking for is in one of a couple of dozen books.

Of course, I could have done it by an iterative process of opening each possible book in turn, and then searching them individually. But, even searching over 2500 books, Calibre can still do it more quickly.

DNSB · Today, 03:39 PM

It's not a pretty procedure. First you have to select the books you want to search. In your case search by author would work. Then in the FTS search, check Restrict searched books and then do your search. You can also use a VL (a fancy search) to restrict the search.

A quick search on MobileRead came up with Full Text Search - Restrict Searched Books for an older message.

bluepeter · Today, 03:53 PM

Ah, I see.

It's easy when you know how. I should remember it for next time.

Thank you very much.

Today, 03:13 PM	#1
bluepeter Addict Posts: 364 Karma: 2283182 Join Date: May 2024 Location: Salisbury, UK Device: Assorted Kobo, Boox, PocketBook, Xteink & Kindle readers	Full Text Search Apologies if this is a silly question, but is there some way of of doing a full text search of only a limited selection of the books in my library? Earlier today, I wanted to find a short section in a book that I read some time ago. I knew the author, and the incident involved cheese. Getting Calibre to do a full text search for cheese is simple, but approximately 60% of my books contain mentions of it. Obviously, I could (and did) sort my results by author, and find the passage I wanted by looking at the context. But it seems inefficient to ask Calibre to search thousands of books for references to cheese, when I know that I'm looking for is in one of a couple of dozen books. Of course, I could have done it by an iterative process of opening each possible book in turn, and then searching them individually. But, even searching over 2500 books, Calibre can still do it more quickly.

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Today, 03:39 PM	#2
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 55,394 Karma: 182532776 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	It's not a pretty procedure. First you have to select the books you want to search. In your case search by author would work. Then in the FTS search, check Restrict searched books and then do your search. You can also use a VL (a fancy search) to restrict the search. A quick search on MobileRead came up with Full Text Search - Restrict Searched Books for an older message.

Today, 03:53 PM	#3
bluepeter Addict Posts: 364 Karma: 2283182 Join Date: May 2024 Location: Salisbury, UK Device: Assorted Kobo, Boox, PocketBook, Xteink & Kindle readers	Ah, I see. It's easy when you know how. I should remember it for next time. Thank you very much.

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