use only year published in metadata

[kbrand]

I apologize if this has been asked before. I searched and could not find an answer and the user manual covering metadata doesn't seem to be loading.

Anyway, I am wanting to only download the year the book was published from the metadata. Is this possible? If so, could you explain how.

Thank You, and I appreciate your help and advice.

[chaley]

If changing how the publication date is displayed on the GUI is sufficient, then check the file 'tweaks.py' in your configuration folder.

You can open the configuration folder using preferences->advanced->Open calibre configuration directory. Once there, you should find the following in tweaks.py:

# Format to be used for publication date
#  A string controlling how the publication date is displayed in the GUI
#  d    the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31)
#  dd    the day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31)
#  ddd    the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. 'Mon' to 'Sun').
#  dddd    the long localized day name (e.g. 'Monday' to 'Qt::Sunday').
#  M    the month as number without a leading zero (1-12)
#  MM    the month as number with a leading zero (01-12)
#  MMM    the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. 'Jan' to 'Dec').
#  MMMM    the long localized month name (e.g. 'January' to 'December').
#  yy    the year as two digit number (00-99)
#  yyyy    the year as four digit number
#  For example, given the date of 9 Jan 2010, the following formats show
#  MMM yyyy ==> Jan 2010    yyyy ==> 2010       dd MMM yyyy ==> 09 Jan 2010
#  MM/yyyy ==> 01/2010      d/M/yy ==> 9/1/10   yy ==> 10
# default if not set: MMM yyyy
gui_pubdate_display_format = 'MMM yyyy'

Set the variable to 'yyyy'.

[kbrand]

I appreciate the reply Chaley, however I must not have been clear. The month and date are fine for the published date, but that is all I want "get metadata" to retrieve. I dont want it to retrive titles and authors and such, just the pub date. I know it sounds strange, but all to often I have to go back in and change the title or Authors back to what I want after selecting "get metadata". For instance when I get the metadata for Tom Clancy's "Ballance of Power" it changes to Author from "Tom Clancy" to "created by Tom Clancy & Steve Pieczenik". I like the Pub date as an organizer, and I have put all the titles and authors in by hand, I just dont want to look up every book to find the pub date. I know it is strange....

[kovidgoyal]

Preferences->General

Uncheck Overwrite title/author

[kbrand]

lol Thanks kovid, I must have look at preferences 5 times, and looked right past it. Thank you, and great piece of software you have there. I appreciate the hard work!