Calibre Author Sort - Not Alphabetic Order?

[elliebeans]

Hi!

I again aplogoise if I went to the wrong forum. I really tried to scan the entire place if I missed a post that already answered this and to even see if people ask.... Forums are just scary and vast!

Um okay, back to the real point. Does anybody have problems with their Calibre Alphabetic Order sorting?

I was scrolling through my library the yesterday and found authors for example like, i.e: Paige Bell, Anna Bell - That are sorted into the letter A because of their last name, even if my settings say "First, Last" and I even re-did that sorting in their own meta data setting....

I'm stuck.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by elliebeans

Um okay, back to the real point. Does anybody have problems with their Calibre Alphabetic Order sorting?

I was scrolling through my library the yesterday and found authors for example like, i.e: Paige Bell, Anna Bell - That are sorted into the letter A because of their last name, even if my settings say "First, Last"

It is a feature not a bug ;-), working as intended.

Have a look at the metadata for the book. Just click on the book, right click and select "edit metadata".
Next to the author name you have "Author sort".
You can also go to the left column on the main screen, right click on "Authors", select "manage authors" and here you can recalculate all author sort values to the default value "Surname, Name", or copy all author sort values to author.
If you hover the mouse over the "recalculate all author sort values" button you will see that there is an option in the Preferences - Advanced - Tweaks to change the the default behavior for generating the Author sort value.


If you wish to have books sorted on the author name, exactly according to the "Authors" column without recalculating the Author sort value for all your library, just create a custom column, call it "authorsort" [or whatever you wish] and put {authors} in the Template. Now you can have Calibre sort your books either by "Author sort" value, or by simple alphabetical sort of the Authorsort column. You can make this column very narrow, you do not need to see the author name twice on the main screen.

Please notice that Calibre is very highly customizable and that there are usually several ways to achieve almost anything. I am a power user and I have been using Calibre for a long time and yet I keep discovering cool features.

[elliebeans]

Oh is it? Well that is good to know. Thank you for such a lengthly explaination. I must apologise and say though that I only managed to follow 50% of it. I got lost somewhere in the codes. I kept trying to add what you suggested it and it never did accept it.

My goal is to have my books sorted by Authors by first name, last name. As I normally like typing the full name in the searches as it is.

Would you be so kind to please help me? Sometimes I am so not software savvy. Haha I am still out here trying to find the old iTunes to finally add books to my old iPad Mini on my PC. AhhhhH! Hhaha

[theducks]

Originally Posted by elliebeans

Hi!

I again aplogoise if I went to the wrong forum. I really tried to scan the entire place if I missed a post that already answered this and to even see if people ask.... Forums are just scary and vast!

Um okay, back to the real point. Does anybody have problems with their Calibre Alphabetic Order sorting?

I was scrolling through my library the yesterday and found authors for example like, i.e: Paige Bell, Anna Bell - That are sorted into the letter A because of their last name, even if my settings say "First, Last" and I even re-did that sorting in their own meta data setting....

I'm stuck.

Is the first One PERSON or 2 people, that have been entered wrong (Calibre uses a & between NAMES. Only Tags use the comma separator )

You say First Last <note there is no comma
Last, First gets a comma

The quality check plugin has 2 parts to get this sorted.
The Authors section to check for those with or without commas
and the FIX section to flip the SELECTED records around the commas

[BetterRed]

@elliebeans - you need to set this Tweak to 'copy' :



Don't forget to click the "Apply changes to tweak" button, and the "Apply" button. You'll then be told calibre needs to restart, click the Restart button..

After the restart, go into Manage Authors and click the "Recalculate all Author sort values" button.



Don't forget to click OK

BR

[elliebeans]

Oh my god, you guys! Thank you so much! It worked! I understood it AND I managed to fix it. I am so stoked!

Thank you so very very much. I appreciate the time and effort spent helping me figure this out.

@BetterRed, just to inquire. If I would want to lets say, revert it back to Last, First. Do I do what you instructed but write "comma" instead of "copy" like I did here? Or is it all about clicking in Manage Authors "sort by author sort"?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by elliebeans

Oh my god, you guys! Thank you so much! It worked! I understood it AND I managed to fix it. I am so stoked!

Thank you so very very much. I appreciate the time and effort spent helping me figure this out.

@BetterRed, just to inquire. If I would want to lets say, revert it back to Last, First. Do I do what you instructed but write "comma" instead of "copy" like I did here? Or is it all about clicking in Manage Authors "sort by author sort"?

Both, when/if ever you change the tweak you should go into Manage Authors and recalculate the Author sorts.

There are a number of options to check author name formation, including the sort values, in the Quality Check plugin's Check metadata sub menu.

BR

[elliebeans]

Thank you for the advice @BetterRed, I really appreciate the time you took to help me out here. I got everything I hoped for sorted without much panic so yeah, thanks a bunch! I shall go check out the options you mentioned.

[tempest@de]

Thank you for providing this images, I had the same problem and was able to fix it following your instructions.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@elliebeans - you need to set this Tweak to 'copy' :

Attachment 169297

Don't forget to click the "Apply changes to tweak" button, and the "Apply" button. You'll then be told calibre needs to restart, click the Restart button..

After the restart, go into Manage Authors and click the "Recalculate all Author sort values" button.

Attachment 169298

Don't forget to click OK

BR