New to Kindle (former Kobo user)

[HarryT]

Certainly you can add books to collections manually on the Kindle itself.

[missimpossible]

Originally Posted by melovesflying

It was mentioned in the jailbreaking thread that new Kindles shipped by Amazon no longer ship with firmware 5.6.5. Is there a way I can find out the firmware of my device before I turn it on, e.g. by looking at the files using the computer? Or should I do a downgrade and jailbreak it if it indeed ships with the latest firmware?

But just in case I won't be able to jailbreak it, can sideloaded books be added to the collections that were created in the non-jailbroken Kindle itself? I've read that there's an option in the Kindle to add a new collection and manually add books.

Not sure what country you're in but my Voyage just arrive d on Monday with 5.6.5 in the UK. So it's not beyond the realms of possibility to get one that's jailbreakable! I didn't bother, but I can see the benefits.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by melovesflying

It was mentioned in the jailbreaking thread that new Kindles shipped by Amazon no longer ship with firmware 5.6.5. Is there a way I can find out the firmware of my device before I turn it on, e.g. by looking at the files using the computer? Or should I do a downgrade and jailbreak it if it indeed ships with the latest firmware?

But just in case I won't be able to jailbreak it, can sideloaded books be added to the collections that were created in the non-jailbroken Kindle itself? I've read that there's an option in the Kindle to add a new collection and manually add books.

You can add sideloaded books to collections freely (heck, these days you can even add periodicals to collections, which used to be impossible), but you can only do it on the Kindle itself: Amazon don't provide a way to do it from an attached computer, though sometimes people have managed to reverse-engineer ways to do it on un-jailbroken devices and this might happen again in future. The collections themselves will show up in the cloud view ("All" or whatever it's called now), but the books obviously won't show up, so the collections might well appear empty until you switch to Downloaded.

This is a bit annoying if you have a lot of sideloaded books: it means pointless messing about on the Kindle to replicate a collections structure you already have on another device. Ah well, at least you only have to do it once.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by NullNix

You can add sideloaded books to collections freely (heck, these days you can even add periodicals to collections, which used to be impossible), but you can only do it on the Kindle itself: Amazon don't provide a way to do it from an attached computer, though sometimes people have managed to reverse-engineer ways to do it on un-jailbroken devices and this might happen again in future. The collections themselves will show up in the cloud view ("All" or whatever it's called now), but the books obviously won't show up, so the collections might well appear empty until you switch to Downloaded.

This is a bit annoying if you have a lot of sideloaded books: it means pointless messing about on the Kindle to replicate a collections structure you already have on another device. Ah well, at least you only have to do it once.

It depends on what you mean by "sideloaded" If you are adding the books over USB, then yes...you have to add the books to the collections manually on each separate device. If you are adding the books by emailing them to the Kindle cloud, or by using the Send to Kindle app, then once they are added to a collection on one device, then they are also shown in the collection on all other devices.

Shari

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by shalym

It depends on what you mean by "sideloaded" If you are adding the books over USB, then yes...you have to add the books to the collections manually on each separate device. If you are adding the books by emailing them to the Kindle cloud, or by using the Send to Kindle app, then once they are added to a collection on one device, then they are also shown in the collection on all other devices.

Shari

Yes, if and only if personal document archiving is turned on when you do that, and *if* Amazon's cursed SMTP server isn't rejecting emails from you this particular minute. (I've had to fall back to sending all email to Amazon via gmail, because it's the only provider I've been able to find for whom Amazon doesn't randomly drop the SMTP connection in the middle of the transaction, over and over again for days: this started about four months ago and shows no sign of getting better.)

[melovesflying]

I'm from the other side of the world and I had a small issue with my forwarder so I'm getting mine a bit later than expected

I've made a custom column in Calibre where I can mark a book as read using a Yes or No dropdown column. Is there a faster way that I can transfer books marked as read to the 'read' collection on Kindle or I can only do it manually and book by book?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by melovesflying

I'm from the other side of the world and I had a small issue with my forwarder so I'm getting mine a bit later than expected

I've made a custom column in Calibre where I can mark a book as read using a Yes or No dropdown column. Is there a faster way that I can transfer books marked as read to the 'read' collection on Kindle or I can only do it manually and book by book?

What I would do is transfer all of the books with the "Read" tag at the same time, and then go onto the Kindle, create a collection called "Read". Once the collection is created, it will automatically open the "add items" dialog. You can then sort by recent, and add all of the books to the collection by putting a check in the box.

Not as convenient as having the collections created for you automatically like on the Kobo, but easier than having to add each one individually.

Shari

[melovesflying]

That's a great idea. Never crossed my mind. I might just have to do that if I decide not to jailbreak. Thanks for the heads up.

Update: Looks like I won't be able to jailbreak mine. Had a chat with an Amazon representative and she confirmed that it ships with the latest firmware now. But she did remove the ads for free.

[melovesflying]

I've been looking at plugboard templates but I don't see a format for the one I wish to use. I was hoping to have something like this:

Fantastic Beasts (title)
JK Rowling - Harry Potter [7.50] (author followed by series and series number)

OR

Fantastic Beasts - Harry Potter [7.50] (title followed by series and series number)
JK Rowling (author)

Can anyone help me create a plugboard for these? Right now, what I have is:

{title} {series:|| }{series_index:0>5.2f|[|] }

and the destination field is the title. I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly.

Slightly off topic: are we allowed to double post here? Can't find it in the guidelines. I'm sorry if it isn't allowed.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by melovesflying

I've been looking at plugboard templates but I don't see a format for the one I wish to use. I was hoping to have something like this:

Fantastic Beasts (title)
JK Rowling - Harry Potter [7.50] (author followed by series and series number)

OR

Fantastic Beasts - Harry Potter [7.50] (title followed by series and series number)
JK Rowling (author)

Can anyone help me create a plugboard for these? Right now, what I have is:

{title} {series:|| }{series_index:0>5.2f|[|] }

and the destination field is the title. I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly.

Slightly off topic: are we allowed to double post here? Can't find it in the guidelines. I'm sorry if it isn't allowed.

You shouldn't post duplicate threads but you can start threads in the appropriate forum.

[melovesflying]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You shouldn't post duplicate threads but you can start threads in the appropriate forum.

Sorry. What I meant was double posting in a thread.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by melovesflying

Fantastic Beasts - Harry Potter [7.50] (title followed by series and series number)
JK Rowling (author)

Can anyone help me create a plugboard for these? Right now, what I have is:

{title} {series:|| }{series_index:0>5.2f|[|] }

and the destination field is the title. I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly.

{title}{series:| - |}{series_index:0>4.2f| [|]

For future reference, you should probably ask calibre-specific questions in the calibre forums. Even if it is for your Kindle, it's still done in calibre. And not all the calibre experts hang out in the Kindle forums as well.
We are currently running a deal: two threads for the price of one.

Slightly off topic: are we allowed to double post here? Can't find it in the guidelines. I'm sorry if it isn't allowed.

Posting two consecutive posts in the same thread is perfectly OK. Posting the same post in two threads (e.g. asking the same question in two different forums to be "sure you get an answer) is what we call double-posting and it is forbidden. See the forum guidelines (which are linked in the footer template of the site) for more details.

[melovesflying]

Got it. I'll do that then. Thanks

In other forums I frequent, double posting is the same as 2 consecutive posts in one thread. Must have been why I can't see anything about it in the guidelines. Glad to have cleared that up. Sorry.

[eschwartz]

Well, this time I was able to help you anyway.

And you will find we are a bit more relaxed here than many other fora.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, this time I was able to help you anyway.

And you will find we are a bit more relaxed here than many other fora.

That is an understatement.