What's the best way to have "categories?"

kunkel321 · 05-12-2016, 01:14 PM

Hi All. Newb here. Hopefully this is the correct subforum.

Pretty open ended question...
I have nearly a thousand digital books in various formats. I want to organize then by topic. I googled and found how to make custom groups of Tags. This seems to work, but process is taking forever!
Screenshot of what I have going: http://i.imgur.com/hYm12fb.png
(Also, many of the "Tags" are things that were put into the tab field by accident, which is not helpful.)

It would be nice if the User Category Editor could, for example, highlight all of the items that contain the string "psy." Then I could put all the matches, en mass, into the Applied Items list on the right. Alas, that doesn't work. Are there any other tricks or tips to making this easier?

Or more broadly, is there a better way for me to organize my books?

kunkel321 · 05-13-2016, 12:31 PM

I might have found a better way to handle this... I made a custom column and called it MyCats (i.e. categories). I use the search function to group books with search strings such as title:"Art OR Drawing OR Painting." Then I do a select all, edit in bulk, and set MyCats to equal "Art." The custom category info does survive a bulk metadata upload -- so that's good. I haven't yet tried to get the cat info onto my Kindle Fire HD... But we'll see. The problem I'm having now, is that Calibre will find books even if one of the search terms is in the book description, which I don't want. Maybe I'll start another thread for that question...

Krazykiwi · 05-13-2016, 01:24 PM

Search in specific columns: tags=:"art" or tags:"=drawing" or tags:"=painting". or #MyCats:"=Art" and it won't look in the comments.

You can also have the tag mapper add another tag instead of a custom column, say MyCatArt, which you can run any time, and it will update your books (and that can be run when you do bulk metadata downloads automatically, so any new books are kept up to date too.

Any search you make can be saved (or used to create a user-category which will show up in the tag browser).

You can also create a virtual library for #MyCats:"=Art". Or tags:"=MyCatArt", so you can see those books in isolation.

Metadata downloads never remove existing tags, only add to them. Sorry I don't know how to use this to create collections on the Kindle, but I believe that can be automated too.

kunkel321 · 05-16-2016, 11:04 AM

Thanks Krazy! I ended up just using the custom column approach. Having the correct syntax for searching has saved me though. In case anyone is following this thread: It's possible to have the custom column shown in the Tag Browser on the left. Once the it's shown and expanded (such that all your custom categories are shown), then you can just drag-n-drop books from the main window right to a category group. So that's nice. The info transfers via Calibre Companion to my Kindle Fire HD just fine. I'm using the paid version of CC... Not sure if that matters. Oddly, I decided to rename the custom column. It was "MyCats" but I renamed it to just "Categories." The new name has not propagated to CC, and there does't appear to be a way to actually rename it on the device. That's all. Thanks again.

05-12-2016, 01:14 PM	#1
kunkel321 Enthusiast Posts: 45 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Near Seattle Device: Amazon Fire 10	What's the best way to have "categories?" Hi All. Newb here. Hopefully this is the correct subforum. Pretty open ended question... I have nearly a thousand digital books in various formats. I want to organize then by topic. I googled and found how to make custom groups of Tags. This seems to work, but process is taking forever! Screenshot of what I have going: http://i.imgur.com/hYm12fb.png (Also, many of the "Tags" are things that were put into the tab field by accident, which is not helpful.) It would be nice if the User Category Editor could, for example, highlight all of the items that contain the string "psy." Then I could put all the matches, en mass, into the Applied Items list on the right. Alas, that doesn't work. Are there any other tricks or tips to making this easier? Or more broadly, is there a better way for me to organize my books?

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05-13-2016, 12:31 PM	#2
kunkel321 Enthusiast Posts: 45 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Near Seattle Device: Amazon Fire 10	I might have found a better way to handle this... I made a custom column and called it MyCats (i.e. categories). I use the search function to group books with search strings such as title:"Art OR Drawing OR Painting." Then I do a select all, edit in bulk, and set MyCats to equal "Art." The custom category info does survive a bulk metadata upload -- so that's good. I haven't yet tried to get the cat info onto my Kindle Fire HD... But we'll see. The problem I'm having now, is that Calibre will find books even if one of the search terms is in the book description, which I don't want. Maybe I'll start another thread for that question...

05-13-2016, 01:24 PM	#3
Krazykiwi Zealot Posts: 137 Karma: 2156958 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Too many random androids to list	Search in specific columns: tags=:"art" or tags:"=drawing" or tags:"=painting". or #MyCats:"=Art" and it won't look in the comments. You can also have the tag mapper add another tag instead of a custom column, say MyCatArt, which you can run any time, and it will update your books (and that can be run when you do bulk metadata downloads automatically, so any new books are kept up to date too. Any search you make can be saved (or used to create a user-category which will show up in the tag browser). You can also create a virtual library for #MyCats:"=Art". Or tags:"=MyCatArt", so you can see those books in isolation. Metadata downloads never remove existing tags, only add to them. Sorry I don't know how to use this to create collections on the Kindle, but I believe that can be automated too.

05-16-2016, 11:04 AM	#4
kunkel321 Enthusiast Posts: 45 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Near Seattle Device: Amazon Fire 10	Thanks Krazy! I ended up just using the custom column approach. Having the correct syntax for searching has saved me though. In case anyone is following this thread: It's possible to have the custom column shown in the Tag Browser on the left. Once the it's shown and expanded (such that all your custom categories are shown), then you can just drag-n-drop books from the main window right to a category group. So that's nice. The info transfers via Calibre Companion to my Kindle Fire HD just fine. I'm using the paid version of CC... Not sure if that matters. Oddly, I decided to rename the custom column. It was "MyCats" but I renamed it to just "Categories." The new name has not propagated to CC, and there does't appear to be a way to actually rename it on the device. That's all. Thanks again.

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