Beginner. Bookmark Function with Sub Categories

[RgaDawg]

I see the Mark function, which seems limited to only one marking(s) at a time.

Is there some functionality like in FireFox, Chrome, etc., for Bookmarks? Like Bookmark menu item with as many sub-folders as named. Then just set one or more selected books into a specific sub-folder. Perhaps, even a quick context menu item for book(s) to set into a specific bookmark category?

Something like that would require a bookmark manager as well I would think.

I did find the most excellent Plug-in Reading List by Grant Drake, which works pretty similar.

Thanks.

[theducks]

The only thing that can be assigned to multiple items is Tags, and Authors. All others are a 1 value item

select the many books, tap E (this is Bulk Mode, metadata edit) You can Add Tags, Remove Tags or change EVERY BOOK SELECTED to the values you choose here

[BetterRed]

The Mark Books feature sets a session temporary flag against a book (they're gone when you switch libraries or close calibre) - how you use it is up to you.

FX: I do external content searches on my libraries with X1 and Windows Desktop Search (WDS). An optional plugin (Drop Search Results) provides the means to Mark the books the search tools find. From there I can set a tag on the Marked books, and/or save them, and/or send them to a device, and/or put them in a reading list etc.

I also Mark books as they're added, this means I can get back to those books if I lose sight of them due to searching and/or sorting the booklist.

BR

[RgaDawg]

Originally Posted by theducks

The only thing that can be assigned to multiple items is Tags, and Authors. All others are a 1 value item

select the many books, tap E (this is Bulk Mode, metadata edit) You can Add Tags, Remove Tags or change EVERY BOOK SELECTED to the values you choose here

Tags do seem to be the obvious, but not a good replacement for the kind of bookmark functionality like browsers. Here's why. My data shows about 1,400 tags. So, I mark some book(s) with tags, Read Next, Discuss with Group, Waiting to Read, etc. Sure, I can search for these tags in my category section, but a month from now I'm not going to remember the exact name of the tag I used to search for, unless I write them down.

The Plug-in Reading List by Grant Drake seems to come the closest to doing something like bookmarks we see in browsers.

Perhaps, I'm missing something.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by RgaDawg

The Plug-in Reading List by Grant Drake seems to come the closest to doing something like bookmarks we see in browsers.

I use the Reading List PI via the context menu. Hit the menu key (or Shift+F10) to access the menu, then arrow keys and Enter to select Action, Reading List... Configure (create/edit/remove).

BR

[RgaDawg]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I use the Reading List PI via the context menu. Hit the menu key (or Shift+F10) to access the menu, then arrow keys and Enter to select Action, Reading List... Configure (create/edit/remove).

BR

It is a very nice PI. I have it set up on context menu, main tool bar and menu bar. Not drag & drop, but does the job

I sent $$ to calibre developer, probably should send some to Grant as well.

Thanks for feed back Ya'll (Texan).

[RgaDawg]

Maybe as an effective alternative is to use the Series category. My tags category is too populated to make it useful as bookmarks, but I have nothing in Series. So, I can make a Series for multiple books, add, edit, etc., with the Names I want .. Reading Now, Read Later, For Elizabeth, Discuss with Group, bla bla. Works pretty well. Quick.

From there it's just an easy click to bring up that series.

In case anyone else is reading these posts looking for same answers

[BetterRed]

@RgaDawg - one day you might want to use Series for its intended purpose, and some metadata download sites provide it. So why not create a custom column for your Reading Now, Discuss etc 'category'.

BR

[RgaDawg]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@RgaDawg - one day you might want to use Series for its intended purpose, and some metadata download sites provide it. So why not create a custom column for your Reading Now, Discuss etc 'category'.

BR

You are correct. It was a sloppy way to isolate some books. I have since discovered Virtual Libraries, which are very nice, indeed. One just has to remember that filtering books within a virtual library effects all of the previously saved search criteria, tags, series, and any other categorical functions, which is, of course, very logical. I'm sure that is in the Manual, oops.

I am picking up some (possible) glitches when filtering books via the Reading List PI as it relates to the other functions like Saved Searches, Virtual Libraries.

The glitch is not consistent.

If I set up a virtual library based on the set of Reading List criteria, or a saved search based on that criteria, then sometimes moving between Virtual libraries, even saved searches doesn't list any books.

For example

a saved search or virtual library based on the PI criteria

> marked:reading_list_my_reading_list

Rather than plain search criteria not based on the Reading List PI

> search:"=Robert A. Heinlein"

The saved searches and virtual libraries don't mess up when they are not based on the Reading List PI.

However, the Reading List PI is always consistent and will show books correctly. Selecting Random books don't fit any search criteria, so nothing can be saved to search or virtual libraries.

Maybe I'm just thinking about something wrong, which is usually the case

And I just realized that comment is pretty far off topic.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by RgaDawg

You are correct. It was a sloppy way to isolate some books. I have since discovered Virtual Libraries, which are very nice, indeed. One just has to remember that filtering books within a virtual library effects all of the previously saved search criteria, tags, series, and any other categorical functions, which is, of course, very logical. I'm sure that is in the Manual, oops.

I am picking up some (possible) glitches when filtering books via the Reading List PI as it relates to the other functions like Saved Searches, Virtual Libraries.

The glitch is not consistent.

If I set up a virtual library based on the set of Reading List criteria, or a saved search based on that criteria, then sometimes moving between Virtual libraries, even saved searches doesn't list any books.

For example

a saved search or virtual library based on the PI criteria

> marked:reading_list_my_reading_list

Rather than plain search criteria not based on the Reading List PI

> search:"=Robert A. Heinlein"

The saved searches and virtual libraries don't mess up when they are not based on the Reading List PI.

However, the Reading List PI is always consistent and will show books correctly. Selecting Random books don't fit any search criteria, so nothing can be saved to search or virtual libraries.

Maybe I'm just thinking about something wrong, which is usually the case

And I just realized that comment is pretty far off topic.

That's working as expected. When you view a particular reading list, it temporarily marks the books in it and the search is used to display the marked books. If you change to a different list, then the marked books change. Saving the search used by the plugin as a saved search or virtual library won't work unless the last reading list used matches that search.

For what you want to do, you probably should use a custom column. I keep the tags column for genre type data and use others for process or status things. So, I have a column called "#status". This is a tag-like column. I use it for the reading status plus some other things. I also have Reading Lists for some of the statuses. When I get a new book it gets added to the "ToRead" list. This sets #status for the books to "toread". When I start reading the book, it gets moved to the "Reading" list. This removes "toread" from #status and adds "reading". Then the book gets moved to "Finished". #status can also have values like "cleaning" (fixing code in the book) or "cleaned".

The values in #status are used for several things such as searches, icons, colours and a virtual lists. They have also been used to create a collection on my ereader.

[RgaDawg]

Thanks, theducks, BetterRed, davidfor for all the tips.

@davidfor, thanks for the tip, custom columns. Now, I'm going to read up on subgropus.

The more I work with this software the more crazy powerful I see it is.