Show book summary column

[kamille3]

Is there a way to add a custom column that will show the book summary/plot?

Right now summary is only shown in the sidebar when a particular book is selected.

[theducks]

You can change Where that summary is displayed (Preferences: Look & Feel: Main... (a tab): User Interface Style: Narrow or Wide) AND there is an Alternate that Floats (Info pane) really great if you have a second monitor

Summaries can be HUGE and not on a single line, so it would not be practical to keep pushing the next book down screen just to display.

[kamille3]

Originally Posted by theducks

You can change Where that summary is displayed (Preferences: Look & Feel: Main... (a tab): User Interface Style: Narrow or Wide) AND there is an Alternate that Floats (Info pane) really great if you have a second monitor

Summaries can be HUGE and not on a single line, so it would not be practical to keep pushing the next book down screen just to display.

Your solution just shifts the details pane from the right panel to the bottom.

What I meant was a separate column (like Title, Author ) in the main window dedicated just for the book summary/synopsis...So that I can quickly view the summary of every book while scrolling through the list. It makes stuff finding easier in a large library.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by kamille3

Your solution just shifts the details pane from the right panel to the bottom.

What I meant was a separate column (like Title, Author ) in the main window dedicated just for the book summary/synopsis...So that I can quickly view the summary of every book while scrolling through the list. It makes stuff finding easier in a large library.

Did you read my second paragraph?
BTW you can search Comments (comments:<the words to look for> )

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by kamille3

Is there a way to add a custom column that will show the book summary/plot?

Right now summary is only shown in the sidebar when a particular book is selected.

You could use a composite column (a column made from others). I don't know how to format the text as html, but here is a starting point:

template: {comments}

Calibre will display the book summary in the newly created column. I'm sure @chaley could provide a more complete template.

[kamille3]

Originally Posted by thiago.eec

You could use a composite column (a column made from others). I don't know how to format the text as html, but here is a starting point:

template: {comments}

Calibre will display the book summary in the newly created column. I'm sure @chaley could provide a more complete template.

Your solution worked flawlessly.

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by kamille3

Your solution worked flawlessly.

I guess you don't mind the <p>'s, <div>'s and stuff, then.

P.S.: Actually, those tags will not always show up. It depends on how the field was originally filled. If it came right from the file, it usually has no HTML tags.

[kamille3]

Originally Posted by thiago.eec

I guess you don't mind the <p>'s, <div>'s and stuff, then.

P.S.: Actually, those tags will not always show up. It depends on how the field was originally filled. If it came right from the file, it usually has no HTML tags.

While not distracting..it will certainly be nice to get that cleaned up..

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kamille3

While not distracting..it will certainly be nice to get that cleaned up..

I think that's why Comments cannot be shown as a column (cell) in the book list (spread sheet) - if the HTML was formatted, the book list line height would have to be variable and then you'd loose the convenience of a compact fixed line height list.

FWIW: I do the following, but my primary objective was to be able to edit the text from the book list rather than see it.

I have a long text custom column called Blurb/#blurb



In the book list I cloak Blurb with an icon



Initially, I used this to bulk copy all the Comments/comments to Blurb/#blurb



IIRC I then had to clear the Comments manually using a SQLite database editor, but there may be a better way now.

Today, I do it manually for individual books with Cut and Paste in metadata edit.

The end result is



It may be possible to use the Action Chains plugin to do what the F2 does (pop the long text editor for a specific column) without the need to tab to the cell.

BR

[thiago.eec]

After BR post, I decided giving a try to remove the HTML code, and it was not that difficult after all. Maybe not the cleanest way, but it worked here.

template:

program:
	re(field('comments'), '<.*?>|<\/.*?>', '')

This will simply delete every instance of HTML tags. And if you want to play safe, you can define those tags explicitly:

program:
	re(field('comments'), '<div.*?>|<\/div>|<p.*?>|<\/p>|<i.*?>|<\/i>|<b.*?>|<\/b>|<h.*?>|<\/h.*?>', '')

You can add other tags if you want, like <strong> or <em>.

P.S.: if you do not remove the tags, the formatted text can be visualized hovering the cell.