Guide to Collections Management with calibre (Touch / Glo / Mini /Aura)

[Ladyrixx]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The difference is in where the series information is stored and the firmware version.

Up until firmware 2.2.1, the only way to have series information was to add it to the title via a plugboard. Doing that meant the series was displayed and sorting by title on the device put all the books in a series together.

From FW 2.2.1, the firmware supports series information. This is displayed on a separate line in the library lists. But, the firmware can't get this from the books. Series info is not part of the standard metadata for an epub. So, an option was added to the driver to write the series info into the database on the device. The sorting in FW 2.2.1, 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 treated the series info as part of the title in much the same way as when using the plugboard. This meant the plugboard was not really needed.

In FW 2.4.0, there was another change. This time the series info was dropped from the title when sorting. The series info is still displayed, but there is no way to sort the books in the library so that all books in a series are grouped together and in order. That means that if the plugboard comes in handy again to get the sorting working.

All that means is that you have options. You can use the "Set series information" option or the plugboard. Or both. How useful they are depends on the firmware version and how you want your books displayed on the device.

Are those firmware numbers for the Touch? My mini is on 2.1.5 and swears that there's no updates available.

While I'm on it, can you somehow re-tag the books in Calibre that are already on your Kobo? I have a bunch of manga that should be in the _Manga folder, but they arn't. This is well over 100 books, so I'd love a faster way to punt them into the correct folder.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ladyrixx

Are those firmware numbers for the Touch? My mini is on 2.1.5 and swears that there's no updates available.

The firmware versions are for all three devices. Kobo is keeping the Touch, Glo and Mini on the same firmware versions. The later firmware have been out for a while, so the device should update automatically when you connect via WiFi or using the desktop application.

While I'm on it, can you somehow re-tag the books in Calibre that are already on your Kobo? I have a bunch of manga that should be in the _Manga folder, but they arn't. This is well over 100 books, so I'd love a faster way to punt them into the correct folder.

Do you mean a shelf? If so, following the instruction in the first post of this thread should get you there. If that doesn't work, we'll have to see why.

[kgr]

First, thanks for the work done on this subject.

Second: however, for those who like me have followed this opening instruction on setting up series and shelves, plus many additional pages of discussion, but who have not had any luck PLEASE note the following...

With you Kobo connected (I use a cable connection) click the down arrow beside 'device' icon and select "configure this device". In the space below the note about shelves add
"#myshelves" without quotes.
Also check appropriate boxes on the right.

As I understand it this is what is meant by configuring the driver or some such.

Hope this helps other frustrated users.

Thanks

[franklekens]

I've followed the instructions as per this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=193184

But it doesn't quite seem to work. There are e few things I don't understand.

1) I've added a new column called "shelves".
But if in Calibre I select the device and browse the contents of the device, that column doesn't show up. I do see a column called "collections", which does seem to correspond to the shelves I'd created already on the device.

2) I can edit the information for that column "collections" within Calibre. (It's visible only in the device overview, not if I look at the library.) Calibre seems to be doing something when I do that, it churns a little. But after I eject the device, it turns out the Kobo hasn't taken account of the changes in collections (i.e. shelves) I'd edited through Calibre.

3) I've added a large number of books to the device simply by dragging them to a folder on the device. I.e. without using Calibre.
Calibre now sees thees books on the device.
But does the method to "shelve" these books through Calibre maybe work only if you actually add them to the device via Calibre? The manual mentioned about isn't entirely clear about that. But it's the only way I've managed to add a book to a shelf through Calibre so far.
I've selected " Automatic management", but it doesn't really help. See point 2: I can't edit the shelves column on the device since Calibre doesn't show it. And if I edit the shelf column of a book that's both in the library and on the device in the library window, nothing changes in the collection column of the device window.

[davidfor]

Sorry, but the Collections column on the device list is read only. Or at least it is for the Kobo devices, I don't know about other devices as I haven't tried them. It displays the current status of the shelves and books on the device.

The shelf management works at connect time or when a book is sent to the device. When this happens, the shelves for books are updated to whatever is in the library. The shelf columns are used for this. This only happens for books in the library that calibre can match to a book on the device. If you send the book from calibre, the match will happen automatically the next tome the device is connected. For books on the device from other sources, calibre attempts to match them to books in the library. It uses the title and author to do the matching. If calibre can match the books, then the shelves will be updated. If not, they won't.

As changes to the device are only done at connect time, any changes made to the shelve column won't be on the device until then.

[franklekens]

That's a pity. It more or less means it's easy to organize things if things are already organized pretty well.
If you just have a huge pile of books you want to add and manage in bulk, that's just not possible.

[davidfor]

Well, calibre is all about organising books in calibre and then on devices. And the driver is about the connection between calibre and the device. Once you have the books in calibre it is easy to organise.

Add the column, select all the books you want on the column and press the edit metadata button. The bulk edit dialog will open and you can add a shelf name to all the selected books in one go.

Or, add a value in it to one book. Then look in the tag browser for the column and expand it. Drag any books you want to put on the shelf onto the value in the tag browser. That will add the value to each of the books.

After that, connect the device and the shelving will be done.

[franklekens]

Okay, I hadn't planned on doing so, but if I use Calibre all the way (i.e. wipe the reader clean, put all the books I want on it in Calibre first, edit, and then load them onto the device via Calibre) it does seem to work. Thanks.

[melonfresh]

Originally Posted by davidfor

In FW 2.4.0, there was another change. This time the series info was dropped from the title when sorting. The series info is still displayed, but there is no way to sort the books in the library so that all books in a series are grouped together and in order. That means that if the plugboard comes in handy again to get the sorting working.

All that means is that you have options. You can use the "Set series information" option or the plugboard. Or both. How useful they are depends on the firmware version and how you want your books displayed on the device.

Sorry if this question has been answered, but why was this decision made? Having a title appear for example as

Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire
The Hunger Games - 2

is neater and less redundant list to read than having to use the plugboard and getting

Suzanne Collins
THG - 02 - Catching Fire
The Hunger Games - 2

especially when you get to blocks of books with more than 5 in the series taking up a page, I know its not a terribly huge deal but I don't understand why this option was taken away

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by melonfresh

Sorry if this question has been answered, but why was this decision made? Having a title appear for example as

especially when you get to blocks of books with more than 5 in the series taking up a page, I know its not a terribly huge deal but I don't understand why this option was taken away

The change was made because the name of the sort is "Title" and using the series info as part of that is not strictly correct. And I agree with you on this and like it much better the other way. But, I can't say more as I promised someone here I wouldn't start that argument again

[Liesse]

Originally Posted by melonfresh

Sorry if this question has been answered, but why was this decision made?

I completely agree with you Melonfresh.

I think it gave Kobo and interesting feature not shared by other e readers. I do respect that other people feel that title sort should be just that -- TITLE sort and that alone -- but books are more than their titles for me. My prejudices are influenced by the fact that I read a lot of fantasy, urban Fantasy and scifi -- often they have similar names and long series. Series sort worked so much better for me than the current way. I hate having to scroll through pages in a shelf to find the next in a series when it used to be so simple and logical and amazing.

I also feel that anyone who didn't like the previous way could use calibre to influence the series information to alter behavior.

I dearly hope that Kobo and those who can influence them will put it back the way it was. An ideal situation would be for then to give us a series sort option from the library menu,, like we have author. In lieu of that, please put it back.

[PeterT]

Trust me when I say we're tried to raise this directly with developers and people involved in product management, and the responses from them has been totally underwhelming.

[melonfresh]

Originally Posted by Liesse

I dearly hope that Kobo and those who can influence them will put it back the way it was. An ideal situation would be for then to give us a series sort option from the library menu, like we have author. In lieu of that, please put it back.

Agreed. Additionally, I thought as most people would already have their series sorted into shelves, that they could add some kind of series order sort in a particular shelf's menu if it can't be added into the regular library menu.

Why would Kobo be against this? e-books and standards are still in relative infancy so it seems kind of disingenious to disallow a valuable feature to be removed based on a technicality.

[Liesse]

Originally Posted by melonfresh

Additionally, I thought as most people would already have their series sorted into shelves, that they could add some kind of series order sort in a particular shelf's menu if it can't be added into the regular library menu.

Why would Kobo be against this? e-books and standards are still in relative infancy so it seems kind of disingenious to disallow a valuable feature to be removed based on a technicality.

I used to have my series in shelves. As a former Kindle user, I had my books sorted that way there, in collections. I thought that was what you did. Collections used to slow my Kindle down when I had lots of them. I'm not sure if the same is true on a Kobo.

But a thread on here pointed out that the Kobo shows series information for books, so why did I need a shelf to tell me what series it was in?
Why was I duplicating information: creating shelves I didn't really need?
The series sorting on the older firmwares made this work brilliantly. My Kindle didn't do this! It was a great new feature: series was so important to books, the information SHOULD be shown by e readers! And Kobo had it, right there.

So now I have genre shelves. For example, I have an 'Urban Fantasy' Shelf that has books of that genre.
Sadly now due to the newer firmware changes to series sorting, things no longer work so well.

I want to show an example of the way this irritates. My Kate Daniels books all have titles that start with the word 'Magic'. Title sort is no help at all here. They all have the same author. The previous way of handling series information had this working so well. When you've got books with similar titles (and let's face it, genre books tend to keep repeating certain themes) and long series, title becomes less important.

Now it's either page through my shelves, looking for the fourth book after I've finished the third (it's here somewhere!), or go back to series = shelf. After seeing it work so well, I don't want to go back. The series information is there right on display after all.

Why did Kobo Change it? My guess is that they either wanted title to sort by JUST title. Strictly speaking, it's correct. It frustrates me hugely, as series is far more important to me, but the menu says TITLE SORT. Or they didn't realise what they had and made another change. I wish they'd given us a series sort option in either case. That would have kept everyone happy.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Liesse

Why did Kobo Change it? My guess is that they either wanted title to sort by JUST title. Strictly speaking, it's correct. It frustrates me hugely, as series is far more important to me, but the menu says TITLE SORT. Or they didn't realise what they had and made another change. I wish they'd given us a series sort option in either case. That would have kept everyone happy.

That is what happened. Someone raised it as a bug in the beta group and Kobo listened. There was a lot of discussion after the change.