Editing Book Titles

[BetterRed]

@lamont - the calibre Bulk Metadata Edit->General tab has an option to change the case of the Titles of selected books, just select the books in question and press 'E'.



I don't have a Kindle, so I'm not sure of the next step.

BR

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by lamont

If anybody could please walk me through editing just one book title step-by-step, I would be over the moon and out of your hair (in regard to this particular hairy topic).

Do not change the title in calibre to include series information. That's what the series column is for. But you can set things up so that when you send the books to (say) your Kindle, the series number automatically gets included in the title metadata of the copy that's sent to your Kindle. This, IMO, is the best of both worlds - your calibre database is clean, but you can see the series info easily on your Kindle.

Preferences/Metadata plugboards
I have it set for any format being sent to my Kindle to have

{series}{series_index:0>2s| |:}{title}

set in the title and title_sort fields.

So on my kindle, books show up with the series name and number in the title, followed by the individual book title.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by lamont

Alright, after getting the DeDRM removal plugin working, I can now deal with editing book titles.

At least one person mentioned this can cause problems with retrieving metadata. Specifically, what kind of problem can this cause?


Example: S. King's Dark Tower Series.

Titles shown as they appear unedited, and hopefully everyone can tell what bothers me:

The gunslinger
The drawing of the three
The waste lands
Wizard and glass
Wolves of the Calla
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower

Now, I don't know about anyone else, but three out of Seven seems terrible. Doesn't anybody at Amazon even proof-read the book titles? I can't stand looking at that sort of thing every time I grab my Kindle. Whether or not the problem is OCD should really not be the point of discussion here.

The other thing is that, since I am not gifted with total recall, I would like to have an indication at which number in a series I am looking. In the case of the above series, there are perfectly good alternative titles that would work for me.

The Dark Tower 1 (or I = see I am not that OCD)
The Dark Tower 2 (II)
etc ect ad nauseam.

If anybody could please walk me through editing just one book title step-by-step, I would be over the moon and out of your hair (in regard to this particular hairy topic).

Yup! I hate inconsistent output from the same publisher. There used to be 'House rules' (enforced).

Case change will not bother metadata retrieval. That is case insensitive.
<Ninjad by BR >
Select and Right click the books that lack 'Title case'
Tap 'E"
tick the box 'Change (the) title case to": <select type>

Note: most mixed case tools have issues if the original was ALL CAPS. Lower first, the case it

[lamont]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Do not change the title in calibre to include series information. That's what the series column is for. But you can set things up so that when you send the books to (say) your Kindle, the series number automatically gets included in the title metadata of the copy that's sent to your Kindle. This, IMO, is the best of both worlds - your calibre database is clean, but you can see the series info easily on your Kindle.

Preferences/Metadata plugboards
I have it set for any format being sent to my Kindle to have

Are Metadata plugboards the same as the Metadata reader and Metadata source plugins? How do you set them up?

Originally Posted by pdurrant

{series}{series_index:0>2s| |:}{title}

set in the title and title_sort fields.

So on my kindle, books show up with the series name and number in the title, followed by the individual book title.

Alright. That part seems easy enough.

Also, how can I keep the book file with the edited metadata in my Kindle? For example by saving to disk? Or is that not advisable and I should keep the file with the edited data only on my Kindle?

PS: Thanks for everyone's response!

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by lamont

Also, how can I keep the book file with the edited metadata in my Kindle? For example by saving to disk? Or is that not advisable and I should keep the file with the edited data only on my Kindle?

This is entirely up to you.

Letting Calibre update the metadata upon Send to device is probably the easiest.

Personally, I treat Calibre as kind of a black box. I use Save to disk to keep copies of books with edited metadata to a folder in my HDD using my preferred directory and file naming structure. Then I just drag and drop from the Save to disk folder to my Kindle (robocopy batch file, really). For me, this is quicker than using Calibre to manage the Kindle.

On Preferences - Metadata plugboards (under Import/export heading), I have this set up:

Format: mobi
Device: any device
Note: If you're using Send to device, you'd probably want to use Format: any format and Device: KINDLE. If you're okay with all exported books (content server, email, save to disk, send to device) having title of Series 01 - Title format, you can use Format: any format and Device: any device
Source template:

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

Destination field: title

If a series exists, this changes the title of the saved/exported mobi to the following:
Series 01 - Title

[lamont]

I am trying out things. I seem to have succeeded in editing titles permanently. Not sure yet about number in series.

Are Metadata plugboards the same as the Metadata reader and Metadata source plugins? How do you set them up?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by lamont

I am trying out things. I seem to have succeeded in editing titles permanently. Not sure yet about number in series.

Are Metadata plugboards the same as the Metadata reader and Metadata source plugins? How do you set them up?

plugboard is built in (since it is typically a Set & Forget, I took it off my toolbars) Preferences: Metadata plugboard

[lamont]

Thanks, I found it under Preferences -> Import/Export. So I don't have to set the plugboard up in any way?

[lamont]

So I am now able to edit the book title and after "saving to disk," the edited book title appears to be permanent.

However, if I type into the series field and choose a volume number, these two entries do not take. After "saving to disk," if I open this file in Calibre, the series field is empty and the volume number shows a greyed out 1.0.

How do I get the series name and volume number to stick?

[theducks]

STD only affects FILENAME BASED DEVICES. (and never, the Calibre Library folder)
The Plugboard, only affects METADATA BASED DEVICES like the Kindle.

The intent of the plugboard is to modify the DEVICE COPY of the book so that it APPEARS to have more metadata fields than it does.

(Series/Series Index is NOT a standard field like Title, Author. We fake it by cramming additional info into a known area, while leaving the original Library, pure)

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by theducks

STD only affects FILENAME BASED DEVICES. (and never, the Calibre Library folder)
The Plugboard, only affects METADATA BASED DEVICES like the Kindle.

The intent of the plugboard is to modify the DEVICE COPY of the book so that it APPEARS to have more metadata fields than it does.

(Series/Series Index is NOT a standard field like Title, Author. We fake it by cramming additional info into a known area, while leaving the original Library, pure)

Further clarification for the OP since I think he's getting confused by conflicting information.

If the Update metadata in saved copies option is checked/enabled in Preferences - (Import/export) Saving books to disk, the Save to disk command will update metadata for standard metadata fields (title, authors, publisher, tags/subjects, comments/description, date published, etc) so exported books (note: NOT Calibre's copy) look the same as they do in the Calibre library.

Now, devices like the Kindle don't have support for all the extra fields that Calibre does such as series. For that, we go to Preferences - (Import/export) Metadata plugboards to, for example, insert series information in the book title.

I posted instructions and an example plugboard for inserting series information into titles of MOBI files in this post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=35

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by lamont

So I am now able to edit the book title and after "saving to disk," the edited book title appears to be permanent.

However, if I type into the series field and choose a volume number, these two entries do not take. After "saving to disk," if I open this file in Calibre, the series field is empty and the volume number shows a greyed out 1.0.

How do I get the series name and volume number to stick?

I'm confused at what exactly failed. Is the series information for the original book/entry correct in the Calibre library?

Don't open the exported/saved to disk file in Calibre. Open it in your Kindle and see if everything looks good there. Or just use Send to device to send books directly to your Kindle.

[lamont]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I'm confused at what exactly failed. Is the series information for the original book/entry correct in the Calibre library?

Don't open the exported/saved to disk file in Calibre. Open it in your Kindle and see if everything looks good there. Or just use Send to device to send books directly to your Kindle.

There is no series name and number (volume) in the Calibre Library. That's why I wanted to add them so that I don't have to remember for each book series all volume numbers.

What I am saying is that I can edit the book title. but the series name and volume number do not take:

I edit the metadata via the Metadata tab in Caliber. I edit the book title and I add a series name and choose a volume number.


Whether I send the edited file to "Main Memory" (Kindle) or "Save to Disk" (pc) the only thing that has been edited is the title. No series name, no volume number appear anywhere. I don't even know where the series name and volume name is actually supposed to show up when I look at the book in the Kindle Library.

If I read the duck's post correctly, I simply cannot make use of the series and number (volume?) field.

I think I better give up on this since without a step-by-step tutorial every attempt at helping me results in more questions that need answering and instead of making progress I find out I know even less than I thought.

I thank you all for getting me at least to the point where I can edit the book title (seemingly) permanently. That alone already helps.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by lamont

What I am saying is that I can edit the book title. but the series name and volume number do not take:

I edit the metadata via the Metadata tab in Caliber. I edit the book title and I add a series name and choose a volume number.

Whether I send the edited file to "Main Memory" (Kindle) or "Save to Disk" (pc) the only thing that has been edited is the title. No series name, no volume number appear anywhere. I don't even know where the series name and volume name is actually supposed to show up when I look at the book in the Kindle Library.

But on Calibre itself, the series information is correct/shows up, right?

The Kindle does not support series information. That's the reason we use Metadata plugboards to add series info to the title. Basically, your Save to disk/Send to device books still won't have separate series info, it will just be part of the title.

Again, I posted instructions and an example of using Metadata plugboards here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=35

Once you have the Metadata plugboards setup, just Save to disk/Send to device again. The newly exported books should have the following title if you follow the instructions from the above post:
Series 01 - Title.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by lamont

I edit the metadata via the Metadata tab in Caliber. I edit the book title and I add a series name and choose a volume number.


Whether I send the edited file to "Main Memory" (Kindle) or "Save to Disk" (pc) the only thing that has been edited is the title. No series name, no volume number appear anywhere. I don't even know where the series name and volume name is actually supposed to show up when I look at the book in the Kindle Library.

If I read the duck's post correctly, I simply cannot make use of the series and number (volume?) field.

The Kindle does not understand series metadata. The work-around is to include the series and number in the title when the book is sent to the Kindle, but NOT in calibre. Calibre has a column explicitly for series name and number. All the suggestions about metadat plugboards have been to get an automatic process set up so that when a book is sent to your kindle the metadata title of the book sent to the kindle also includes series information, added in by calibre on-the-fly as the book is sent to your Kindle.

You should not include series information in the title of the book in calibre. Use the series column for that.