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Author Topic: Complete Noob Calibre Questions  (Read 690 times)
Geoffrey
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« on: March 14, 2010, 06:17:44 AM »

I hooked up my portable drive that has copies of all my books to my PC and tried using Calibre for the first time.  Unfortunately, I can't find a help function there so I thought I'd use y'all.  I pulled in those copies in with no problem.  But, it created copies of all the books - and in separate folders by author and book.  I hate that.  Is that just how it works or can I just edit things where they are now?  (or, put them in a new folder without a brazillion sub-folders?)

Then, I took a large print edition of a book, made a copy with regular print.  No problems - it appears on Sister Yasmini exactly as I want it.  (hurray)  So, I took a couple books with messed up title and author information and opened the Metadata.  One from Baen without author information at Home had author information in metadata - so I just retyped author information and saved.  One by Harry Turtledove that sorts by first name I updated to be Turtledove, Harry.  Finally, a Title with extra characters I updated so it's written in english.

I took the copies that I updated and put them into my kindle.  When I opened Home, the new copies were there but the title and/or author information was the same.  So, what did I do wrong?
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« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2010, 08:57:43 AM »

But, it created copies of all the books - and in separate folders by author and book.  I hate that. 

That's just how it is. Calibre is intended to be a black box database for ebooks, where the user isn’t concerned with where the actual file is.

Mike
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Geoffrey
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« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2010, 09:07:41 AM »

That's just how it is. Calibre is intended to be a black box database for ebooks, where the user isn’t concerned with where the actual file is.

Mike

That kinda makes sense, but I can't load it on my work laptop and my  personal PC is XP so it doesn't see my kindle ... so I have to move files by hand ...  That'll be annoying but I can live with it.
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« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2010, 09:11:46 AM »

Geoffrey,

If I understand your question properly, in order for the correct metadata to appear on your Kindle, you have to convert your file.  Just changing the metadata in Calibre of an existing book won't produce the corrected metadata on your Kindle.  Sometimes, converting an existing file to the Mobi format will produce results that you don't want, so open up the book when it gets on the Kindle and check it out (or open the viewer and look at it that way.)

Jim
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Geoffrey
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« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2010, 09:22:28 AM »

ooooh ....That's why it worked with changing the large print font and not with the others.   Are there problems converting amazon books 'cuz of the DRM or anything?
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« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2010, 10:16:14 AM »

I looked on the Mobiread Calibre forum and they say that you can change the metadata on DRM'd Amazon books with the latest release (0.6.45), including Topaz books.  Haven't tried it to see myself, and found one thread where people were having trouble with it and one of the developers was asking for info on titles that didn't work.

In view of my last post, in which I said you had to convert to Mobi in order to get the metadata right on your Kindle, don't know what to say about the above paragraph, because I'm sure it won't let you convert a DRM'd Amazon book to Mobi.  My suggestion would be to try changing the metadata and import the book from Calibre and see.  This assumes that you've saved the Amazon book in Calibre.  I'd delete the book from your Kindle first.

Jim
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strether
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« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2010, 02:01:16 PM »

I did download the latest version of Calibre (0.6.45) and tried changing the metadata of a Topaz-formatted book and it worked.  Amazing program, Calibre.  Smiley

Jim
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Pushka
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« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2010, 03:20:20 PM »

As confirmed, the metadata on topaz books now all works with the latest calibreBefore, it would work with some topaz, but not all.  I updated everything yesterday.  And the home page looks so much neater than some of the stupid titles, and also author errors, like random commas etc. And everything in correct author order.  I deleted the topaz books from the kindle first, corrected the metadata and then reloaded it.

Calibre will not allow you to convert DRM books to MOBI, at all.

And yes, those folders are there to stay.
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« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2010, 08:36:09 AM »

Amazing program, Calibre.  Smiley

Indeed. I liked it so much I sent him some money via PayPal.

Mike
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Geoffrey
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« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2010, 08:51:46 AM »

I still can't get books sorting by first name to sort properly.  I'm still chugging away on it slowly, but haven't quite figured it out ...
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« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2010, 09:02:44 AM »

Thanks for the information strether, very usefull, if you have more information please tell me. Wink
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« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2010, 10:40:08 AM »

Indeed. I liked it so much I sent him some money via PayPal.

Mike

I've sent him funds a couple of times.  Nice to see him so involved with the software and constantly improving it.  Too bad the Russian developer of Book Designer didn't do the same thing.

Jim
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« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2010, 10:42:08 AM »

I still can't get books sorting by first name to sort properly.  I'm still chugging away on it slowly, but haven't quite figured it out ...

You have to make sure the metadata for the Author Sort field on each book is set up in the exactly the same way. My preference, as shown in this pic, is last name comma first name.




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Pushka
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« Reply #13 on: March 16, 2010, 02:30:47 PM »

Yep, a random comma will undo all your work.  I thought I had everything squeaky clean, but one authore refused to go in her proper place.  So I checked again, and sure enough, there was a comma.

I have author and sort field set up exactly the same:

Surname, First Name (no second name/initial)

On the kindle they appear as First name, Surname  and in Surname order
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Geoffrey
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« Reply #14 on: March 16, 2010, 02:42:42 PM »

I'll have to play more ... I wasn't sure if the sort order was only for calibre ... but I had one where I thought it looked right but still didn't sort ... but thank you.  I'm glad I'm at least mostly doing it correctly .... it gives me hope for a happier tomorrow.
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« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2010, 03:27:34 PM »

I'll have to play more ... I wasn't sure if the sort order was only for calibre ...

It changes the metadata on the book, which is how the Kindle sorts the items; so no, the sort order is not only for Calibre.
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« Reply #16 on: March 17, 2010, 09:08:13 AM »

One more suggestion on the author sort.

In Calibre:

Preferences | Conversion | Mobi Output | Use author sort for author   (Make sure this box is checked) 
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