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Calibre tips

Posted: Tue 1. Mar 2011, 08:41
by pookakitten
Hey, thought I'd post some Calibre tips that I've found for dealing with fan fiction and the files ffdl creates.

One major issue with Calibre and fanfiction is Calibre doesn't understand the concept of books being updated and revised. If you try adding a story with a new chapter, it creates a new entry instead of replacing the old with the new. I've come up with a workaround.

Configuring ffdl:

In ffdl, set the file naming format to %s - %a in the configuration settings. In most cases this is the naming scheme Calibre uses. Occasionally it truncates the story's name.

Updating a story in Calibre:

1. Highlight the story being updated.
2. In the summary panel on the right side of the screen, click the link labeled "path." In the picture, I've circled it in red.
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3. This opens the folder Calibre stores the story in. Take the story downloaded by ffdl and place it in that folder. NOTE: Occasionally Calibre shortens the file name so you may need to rename your file to match the name Calibre gave it.
4. If you do any conversion processing in Calibre, do it now.

Re: Calibre tips

Posted: Tue 1. Mar 2011, 08:53
by pookakitten
I also use Calibre to reformat the files I've downloaded to look more like what I'd read in a book. Here's how.

1. The first time you add a file to Calibre, delete the cover it generates from the summary page. Use the following picture to find the option on the right click menu. NOTE: This is only necessary the first time a story is added.

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2. Select the stories to be reformatted and press the letter "C." This brings up the conversion window. Select "Look and Feel" and check the boxes as appropriate. This is how I format my stories.

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[*]"Remove spacing between paragraphs" does that and adds the indent.
[*]"Smarten punctuation" changes the punctuation to look prettier. (Opening and closing quotes, etc.)
[*]"Transliterate unicode characters to ASCII" is occasionally needed, though I haven't needed to use it with files created by ffdl. One file had characters that my Sony Reader did not like. It rendered ... as .?.?.? This check box fixed that problem.

Once you have settings you like, you can make them the default when converting files through the program preferences.

Re: Calibre tips

Posted: Tue 1. Mar 2011, 09:01
by pookakitten
I also use tags and series in Calibre to make stories easier to find on my Sony Reader.

I generally tag a story with a fandom. If you look at the "delete cover" picture, a couple stories are tagged "Mass Effect."

When I have multiple stories by a single author, I use the author's name as the series. In the above example, I have a series called "GaggedCenobite." The number in brackets after the series name shows the order the stories are in. For example, "GaggedCenobite [1]" comes before "GaggedCenobite [2]."

Use of series lists the stories in the right order when my Reader creates its categories. (I don't know what the kindle, nook, etc. do with the tags and series.)

For ease of navigation, for fanfiction I have a story labeled with a series or a tag, but not both to keep the fandom category size manageable on my Reader.

How does everyone else organize their stories?