Proper Case Titles

[Bozana]

I would love to have a feature that is Propercase, which is every single first letter, is Uppercase, such as a to A or the to The. Titlecase only goes so far, however, I would strongly prefer Propercase. Is there a way I could do this with Regular Expression for titles of books, please?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Bozana

I would love to have a feature that is Propercase, which is Every Single a First Letter, is Uppercase, such as a to A or the to The. Titlecase only goes so far, however, I would strongly prefer Propercase. Is there a way I could do this with Regular Expression for titles of books, please?

If you are using Windows have a look at AnyCase - Multi-Program Direct In-place Case Converter For Windows

The free version is adequate for most things. For me the big advantage is that can be used just about anywhere - calibre metadata and book editing, file manager, word processors, spread sheets, text editors, etc, etc. Avoids having to remember a dozen different ways to do essentially the same thing in a dozen different programs.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Sure use function mode and write a simple function to do that. You can use the builtin case functions as a guide for how to write the function. https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/function_mode.html

[Bozana]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

If you are using Windows have a look at AnyCase - Multi-Program Direct In-place Case Converter For Windows

The free version is adequate for most things. For me the big advantage is that can be used just about anywhere - calibre metadata and book editing, file manager, word processors, spread sheets, text editors, etc, etc. Avoids having to remember a dozen different ways to do essentially the same thing in a dozen different programs.

BR

Hi!

However, it doesn't do on mass, with over 45k worth of titles in Calibre. I need a regex script that works with Calibre to do it on mass. Anyone has ideas please?

I have Magic File Renamer By Fine Bytes, that is useful but only renames files and nothing to do with Calibre.

Thank you BetterRed for trying xoxoxo

[BetterRed]

The calibre book editor doesn't edit metadata - the way to do what you want is select multiple books in the book list, then Metadata edit->Edit metadata in bulk, viz:



BR

[Bozana]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The calibre book editor doesn't edit metadata - the way to do what you want is select multiple books in the book list, then Metadata edit->Edit metadata in bulk, viz:

Attachment 208762

BR

I'm not looking for title case. I'm looking for Proper Case. Title case leaves the "a" and "the" as lower case etc.., when converted. Whilst, Proper Case makes ALL first letters to Upper case, including "A" and "The" etc..

Title case:

He Lives in Edmonton, but Services all Over the Region, as a Electrican

Proper Case:

He Lives In Edmonton, But Services All Over The Region, As A Electrican

I already know that trick with Title Case that you've showed... I'm chasing Proper Case...

Thank you anyway.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Bozana

I'm not looking for title case. I'm looking for Proper Case. Title case leaves the "a" and "the" as lower case etc.., when converted. Whilst, Proper Case makes ALL first letters to Upper case, including "A" and "The" etc..

Title case:

He Lives in Edmonton, but Services all Over the Region, as a Electrican

Proper Case:

He Lives In Edmonton, But Services All Over The Region, As A Electrican

I already know that trick with Title Case that you've showed... I'm chasing Proper Case...

Thank you anyway.

You can do this with Bulk metadata edit / Search & replace using "template" as the source.

1. Backup your library in case things go pear shaped.
2. Select all the books you want to change.
3. Go to Bulk metadata edit, search & replace tab. Make it look like the following:
   
   
   The template code is:
   

   python:
   def evaluate(book, context):
   	import re
   	nt = []
   	for w in re.split(r'([ _.()])', book.get('title')):
   		nt.append(w.capitalize())
   	return ''.join(nt)

   The r'([ _.()])' is the list of letters that separate words to be capitalized. This choice may not be the best for your library. You might want to add more letters. You could use r'(\W)', all non-alphabetic letters, but this might do the wrong thing with words like "_aaa" (aaa would not be capitalized) or "a.b" (b would not be capitalized). The choice depends on how much cleanup is required. Personally, I would use r'(\W)' and clean up the odd wrong title.
   
   If you change the template you can test it on some books using the template editor before running it in Search & replace.
4. Press OK. Wait. Changing titles requires writing the disk, which can take some time.
5. Check the results. If they aren't what you want then restore the backup.

EDIT: This template uses the python title() function to "Return a titlecased version of the string where words start with an uppercase character and the remaining characters are lowercase." It does a better job in some cases but suffers from changing words like "isn't" to "Isn'T".

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
	return book.get('title').title()

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Bozana

I'm not looking for title case. I'm looking for Proper Case.

I mistakenly assumed that's what Capitalize case did, but I see it does what is commonly called Sentence case - I normally check these things

Moderator Notice
Moved to Library Management

BR

[Bozana]

Originally Posted by chaley

You can do this with Bulk metadata edit / Search & replace using "template" as the source.

1. Backup your library in case things go pear shaped.
2. Select all the books you want to change.
3. Go to Bulk metadata edit, search & replace tab. Make it look like the following:
   Attachment 208788
   
   The template code is:
   

   python:
   def evaluate(book, context):
   	import re
   	nt = []
   	for w in re.split(r'([ _.()])', book.get('title')):
   		nt.append(w.capitalize())
   	return ''.join(nt)

   The r'([ _.()])' is the list of letters that separate words to be capitalized. This choice may not be the best for your library. You might want to add more letters. You could use r'(\W)', all non-alphabetic letters, but this might do the wrong thing with words like "_aaa" (aaa would not be capitalized) or "a.b" (b would not be capitalized). The choice depends on how much cleanup is required. Personally, I would use r'(\W)' and clean up the odd wrong title.
   
   If you change the template you can test it on some books using the template editor before running it in Search & replace.
4. Press OK. Wait. Changing titles requires writing the disk, which can take some time.
5. Check the results. If they aren't what you want then restore the backup.

O

EDIT: This template uses the python title() function to "Return a titlecased version of the string where words start with an uppercase character and the remaining characters are lowercase." It does a better job in some cases but suffers from changing words like "isn't" to "Isn'T".

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
	return book.get('title').title()

Oh my goodness! Thank you so very, very much! This has been bothering me for years! I'm lvl 2 autistic and and old fashioned. I grew up with books that had Proper Case on book covers, in the 70's. So much appricated and I'm beyond grateful! xoxoxo

And yes it works and I'm so happy! You've made my day!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Bozana

I grew up with books that had Proper Case on book covers, in the 70's. So much appricated and I'm beyond grateful! xoxoxo

I just dug back into some of my older books from the 60s and 70s. 6 out of 10 used Title Case though many seemed fonder of Caps and small caps. Very few use Proper Caps. Now to avoid getting sucked into re-reading that box of Ace Doubles.

OTOH, your books and your choice for the titles.