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Posts: 1,275 Karma: 1101600 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle PW, K4 NT, K3, Kobo Touch

[GUI Plugin] Kindle Collections (old) This Calibre plugin allows you to manage your Kindle collections, margins, and fonts.



Main Features Works on Kindle DX, 2, 3, and 4 non-touch (but not the Kindle Touch)

Create collections automatically on your Kindle using Calibre Authors, Series, Tags, custom columns or categories Preview changes before saving them Customize which collections are automatically created - include or ignore specific collections, add a prefix to sort collections, set minimum books counts, and even rename collections Import collections from your Kindle into a custom column in Calibre

Edit collections on your Kindle with a GUI without needing to use Calibre to store or manage your books

Modify your Kindle settings including horizontal margin, justification, and fonts

View a report of your Kindle collections and books - including collections sorted by most Recent, collections and books sorted by Title, books per collection, collections per book, and any duplicate, invalid, or uncollectable books

The plugin does not modify your Kindle books, or Calibre information when creating or editing collections or settings

This plugin does not work on Kindle Touch because Amazon changed the way the Kindle manages collections on the Touch. This cannot be fixed by modifying the plugin since the collection information is no longer accessible by users. You may want to contact Amazon and ask them to provide a way to manage your collections without having to edit them using the Kindle. .

Install or Remove the Plugin

Spoiler:

Install or update

Requires Calibre 0.8.06 or later - http://calibre-ebook.com/

In Calibre select Preferences->Plugins

Click the "Get new plugin" button

Select "All" next to Filter list of plugins

Click on the entry for Kindle Collections

Click Install then Yes to allow the install to continue

You will be prompted to add the plugin to the toolbar if you have not installed it before. Select where to put the plugin , e.g. "The main toolbar when a device is connected " and press OK. Restart Calibre If you are NOT prompted or no icon shows up in your toolbar , click on Preferences->Toolbar and select "The main toolbar when a device is connected ". Then select the Kindle Collections icon an press OK. Restart Calibre.



Remove Select Preferences->Plugins

Expand "User Interface Action plugins" and select "Kindle Collections"

Select Remove Plugin

Remove the file "plugins/Kindle Collections.json" from your Calibre configuration directory (e.g. $HOME/.config/calibre) to remove all customized configuration information



Create Collections on your Kindle automatically using Calibre data



The first way to manage your collections with this plugin is to create them automatically on your Kindle using the information in Calibre. This is the best approach if you have lots of books in Calibre, especially if they are already tagged or organized.



Spoiler:

First Use Spoiler:

Start Calibre Connect the Kindle via USB to your PC Click on the Kindle Collections icon in Calibre to see a drop down menu of options Select Customize to choose which collections to create from Calibre (set the Action column to "Create") Click OK to save your customizations Run Preview to see what collections will be created/modified (edit Customizations again as necessary) Run Create to save the collections to the Kindle Eject the Kindle (Devices->Eject) Disconnect your Kindle from the PC Restart your Kindle to load the new collections (this is not the same as using the power on/off switch)

On the Kindle press the Home key, then press Menu, select Settings, then press Menu again and select Restart To update your collections for new/changed books, just run Create Collections again.

To update your collections for new/changed books, just run Create Collections again.

Examples Spoiler:

These are examples of how to customize the plugin to choose which collections are automatically created. You can test your settings using Preview Collections without any changes being made to your Kindle. Use the "Customize" menu option of the plugin to change what the plugin does.



Choose a Calibre field to use for creating collections by selecting "Create" from the down down menu in the field's "Action" column.



See the Customization Details section in this post for extensive details on the options available.

Collections for every Author, or every Series, or every Tag, etc.

Spoiler : Set 'Authors' to 'Create' (or set 'Series' or 'Tags' or any field)

Make sure other fields have no Action selected

You can select 'Create' for multiple fields



Collection names that sort to the top of the list when Sorting by Title on the Kindle

Spoiler : Set the Prefix column to '_'

(You can use other symbol besides "_" - see Customizations Details for more information



Collections for just 1 Author, or 1 Tag, etc.

Spoiler : Set 'Authors' (or 'Tags' or any field) to 'Create'

Enter the name of the author or tag into the 'Include' column



Collections for Series if there are more than 3 books in the series

Spoiler : Set 'Series' to 'Create'

Set Minimum column for 'Series' to "3"



Collections using a Custom Column

Spoiler : You can select any of your custom columns just like Calibre's built in fields

See the Custom Columns section in this post for how to create custom columns - if you want more control of your collections, custom columns are the way to go



Collections for tags except those starting with "-"

Spoiler : Set 'Tags' to 'Create'

Set the 'Ignore' column for 'Tags' to "^-.*" (without the quotes)

(See Customization for more information on patterns)



Collections only for the tags starting with "+" and removing the "+" before saving to the Kindle

Spoiler : Set 'Tags' to 'Create'

Set the 'Include' column to: ^\+.*

Set the 'Rename from' column to: ^\+(.*)$

Set the 'Rename to' column to: \1



Collections A-Z using Author Sort

Spoiler : Set 'Author Sort' to 'Create

Set prefix to: _

Set rename_from to: ^(.).*$

Set rename_to to: \1



Collections [A-Z] using Title

Spoiler: Set 'Title' to 'Create

Set prefix to: [

Set suffix to: ]

Set rename_from to: ^[the|a|an]*(.).*$

Set rename_to to: \1



Collections for Special Books:

News Feeds

Spoiler:

The Kindle will only allow files to be added to Collections if the file is of certain type: In order to get other file types into Collections, we can use Calibre to modify the file's type

To do this you need to use the steps below to tell Calibre that books with a specific tag (a Personal doc tag) should have their type updated

If you have setup a Preferences->Metadata Plugboard to re-write tags it may prevent this from working

Option 1 - using the default Personal doc tag "[PDOC]" Set Preferences->Output Options->Mobi output->Personal doc tag to "[PDOC]"

Select "Fetch News" then select your specific news feed.

Under the Advanced Tab set "Extra tags" to include "[PDOC]"

Select Download now

Save

You may need to delete your news feeds before running these steps

Calibre should send the news feed to your device automatically

Run Preview to verify it is added to a collection, then run Create to save the collections

Option 2 - using the default tag "News" given to News items Set Preferences->Output Options->Mobi output->Personal doc tag to "News"

Download your news items

Option 3 - use a different Personal doc tag other than "[PDOC]" or "News" for your news items Follow Option 1, but substitute "Myowntagname" for "[PDOC]"

Option 4 - Also put the News Feeds into another collection Follow Option 1, but add "Myowntagname" to your "Extra tags" field along with "[PDOC]" The Kindle will only allow files to be added to Collections if the file is of certain type:Option 1 - using the default Personal doc tag "[PDOC]"Option 2 - using the default tag "News" given to News itemsOption 3 - use a different Personal doc tag other than "[PDOC]" or "News" for your news itemsOption 4 - Also put the News Feeds into another collection

Calibre Catalogs

Spoiler:

The Kindle will only allow files to be added to Collections if the file is of certain type: In order to get other file types into Collections, we can use Calibre to modify the file's type

To do this you need to use the steps below to tell Calibre that books with a specific tag (a Personal doc tag) should have their type updated

If you have setup a Preferences->Metadata Plugboard to re-write tags it may prevent this from working

Option 1 - using the default Personal doc tag "[PDOC]" Set Preferences->Output Options->Mobi output->Personal doc tag to "[PDOC]" (without the quotes)

Delete all copies of your Catalogues from your library and device

Go to Convert books->Create a Catalogue

Uncheck "Send Catalogue to devices automatically"

Click OK, and wait for the catalogue file to be generated

Manually add the tag "[PDOC]" to the Catalogue book

Click the catalog file and then Send to Device

Run Preview to verify it is added to a collection, then run Create to save the collections

Option 2 - using a Personal doc tag name other than "[PDOC]" Follow Option 1, but substitute "Myowntagname" for "[PDOC]"

Option 3 - Also put the Catalog into another collection Follow Option 1, but add "Myowntagname" to your catalog book along with "[PDOC]" The Kindle will only allow files to be added to Collections if the file is of certain type:Option 1 - using the default Personal doc tag "[PDOC]"Option 2 - using a Personal doc tag name other than "[PDOC]"Option 3 - Also put the Catalog into another collection

Periodicals - Magazines, Newspapers

Spoiler:



Magazines and newspapers downloaded to the Kindle can be put into collections using this plugin and Calibre even though they can't be put into collections manually on the Kindle.



Option 1 - Just put the periodical into a collection Used Edit Collections and select the collection you want to use

Select the periodical to include (make sure there is a checkmark in the Include box)

Save the collections

Restart your Kindle

Be aware that the Kindle automatically deletes older periodicals unless you mark them Keep

Option 2 - Import the periodical into Calibre and put it in a collection Import the periodical into Calibre

Select Send to Device

Run the plugin, making sure you use customizations that select your periodical

If you have a Calibre save Template that changes the pathname of books sent to the Kindle you may end up with 2 copies of the periodical. The plugin will warn you about this the next time you run View Collections. Magazines and newspapers downloaded to the Kindle can be put into collections using this plugin and Calibre even though they can't be put into collections manually on the Kindle.Option 1 - Just put the periodical into a collectionOption 2 - Import the periodical into Calibre and put it in a collection

News FeedsCalibre CatalogsPeriodicals - Magazines, Newspapers These are examples of how to customize the plugin to choose which collections are automatically created. You can test your settings using Preview Collections without any changes being made to your Kindle. Use the "Customize" menu option of the plugin to change what the plugin does.Choose a Calibre field to use for creating collections by selecting "Create" from the down down menu in the field's "Action" column.See the Customization Details section in this post for extensive details on the options available.Collections for Special Books:

Calibre Tips: Custom Columns, Book Titles, Authors Spoiler:

Custom Columns

Creating custom columns in Calibre gives you more options when naming your collections with Create Collections. So instead of just using Author or Tag names as collection names, you can create your own names. They are also needed if you want to use Import Collections. For full details see the Calibre User Manual entry for Templates at



Empty custom column which you can use to type in your own text (or use with Import Collections)

Spoiler: Select Preferences->Add your own columns

Click Add custom column

Enter a Lookup name, e.g.: kindlecollections

Enter a Column heading that will be displayed in the GUI, e.g.: Kindle Collections

Select Column type, for example: "Comma separated text, like tags, that display in the tag browser"

Restart Calibre

You now have a new column in which you can enter comma separated names, and use in the plugin

In the plugin's Customization window, select 'Create' for the new custom column



For more advanced custom columns that use the information found in other columns, you have to define a Template to tell Calibre what to display. Use the steps in the example below for all of the examples that follow.



Example: Author Lastname, Firstname

Spoiler: Select Preferences->Add your own columns

Click Add custom column

Enter a Lookup name, e.g.: mycollectioncolumn

Enter a Column heading that will be displayed in the GUI, e.g.: My Collection Column

Select Column type: "Column built from other columns"

Enter this text into the Template box: {author_sort}

Restart Calibre

In the plugin's Customization window, select 'Create' for the new custom column

Author - Series if the book is in a series, otherwise Author

Spoiler: Template: {author}{series:| - |}

Author - Series if the books is in a series, otherwise empty

Spoiler: Template: {series:|{author} - |}

AuthorLastname, Firstname: Series only if the book is in a series

Spoiler: Template: {series:|{author_sort}: |}

Series if the book is in a series, otherwise Author

Spoiler: Template: {series:'ifempty($, field('author'))'}

Change 'author' to 'author_sort' to display Author's Lastname, Firstname

The text "Short Stories" if there is a tag called "Short", otherwise Author

Spoiler: Template: {tags:'contains($,"Short","Short Stories", field("author"))'}

Creating custom columns in Calibre gives you more options when naming your collections with Create Collections. So instead of just using Author or Tag names as collection names, you can create your own names. They are also needed if you want to use Import Collections. For full details see the Calibre User Manual entry for Templates at http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/template_lang.html or this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118563 s , but some basic examples are below.Empty custom column which you can use to type in your own text (or use with Import Collections)For more advanced custom columns that use the information found in other columns, you have to define ato tell Calibre what to display. Use the steps in the example below for all of the examples that follow.Example:if the book is in a series, otherwiseif the books is in a series, otherwise emptyonly if the book is in a seriesif the book is in a series, otherwiseThe text "Short Stories" if there is a tag called "Short", otherwise

Book Titles:

Book titles don't really have anything to do with this plugin or collections, but since its common to modify them using Calibre plugboards to make them more useful on the Kindle, here are some basic examples. These changes only affect the titles on your Kindle and not the information in Calibre. See this thread



Titles with the format: SeriesName - SeriesNumber - Title

Spoiler: Go to Preferences->Metadata plugboards

Under "Add new plugboard" select Format "any format", and Device "KINDLE2" (even for Kindle 3)

In Source template type: {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

Set Destination to "title"

Click "Save plugboard", then click Apply, Close

Resend your books to the Kindle



Titles with the format: Title [SeriesNumber]

Spoiler: todo

Book titles don't really have anything to do with this plugin or collections, but since its common to modify them using Calibre plugboards to make them more useful on the Kindle, here are some basic examples. These changes only affect the titles on your Kindle and not the information in Calibre. See this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118563 for more details.Titles with the format: SeriesName - SeriesNumber - TitleTitles with the format: Title [SeriesNumber]

Authors:

To show Authors as "Lastname, Firstname" on your Kindle:

Click on Preferences

Select Output Options

Click on Mobi Output on the left

Check the box labelled "Use author sort for author"

Resend your books to your Kindle To show Authors as "Lastname, Firstname" on your Kindle: Custom ColumnsBook Titles:Authors:

Import Collections to Calibre from your Kindle Spoiler: Create a custom column in Calibre to hold your data. See the Custom Columns section of this post for more details. Select Import Collections then choose the custom column you want to use. Your Kindle collections will be loaded into your column (only for books already in Calibre) If you want to update the list, just run Import again and all entries in the column will be updated Now you can use Create Collections to create collections from this column (select it in the Customize window) or just use the column to show you what collections are on your Kindle

You can use any of the following types of custom columns: Comma separated text, like tags (Recommended)

Text, column shown in the tag browser

Long text, like comments

Yes/No

If you want to import the actual books on your Kindle into Calibre, change to the Device view (click the Device icon), then select one or more books and right click on the books and select Add.





Note on Commas and Semicolons: Since collection names are separated by commas, in order to allow commas in collection names (like "Lastname, Firstname") the plugin temporarily replaces them with semicolon when you Import collections.

When you use Create Collections to generate collections the ";" will be changed back to a "," on the Kindle.

If you want to manually edit the collection name in the Calibre column you will need to use ";" instead of a ",".

If you have a semicolon in a collection name on the Kindle and you import it and export it, it will get converted to a comma.







You can use any of the following types of custom columns:If you want to import the actualon your Kindle into Calibre, change to the Device view (click the Device icon), then select one or more books and right click on the books and select Add.Note on Commas and Semicolons:

Customization Details Spoiler:

Customizations are used when running Preview or Create Collections.







Column Settings: Action: Select what to do for each Calibre column:

Create - create collections based on the column

Delete - delete Calibre collections if you changed your mind

Prefix: Choose text to add to the start of collection names to allow sorting You can change the prefix once the collection is created For example: "_" or "~" or ":" or "__" - force collection names to appear at the start of sort By Title. Don't include quotes (") in any of the fields unless you need them. You can use more than one character to allow indenting ("_", "__", "___") Leaving the prefix blank will sort collections by title along with books - works best if just using Collections view Sort order on the Kindle is not straightforward. The plugin attempts to sort titles exactly as they'll show up on the Kindle 3 when you use View collections or see them in the detailed report, but this may not always be accurate. These characters are useful for sorting and will be sorted in this order: _`^~'([{$+<=>|" The full order of the characters used when sorting by Title on the Kindle 3 is: - _,;:!?/.`^~'"()[]{}@$*&#%+<=>|0-9a-z (case is ignored) You should avoid using a comma (",") to avoid issues with import into comma separated custom columns



But the following characters are invisible to the sort order: -?/]#.\'\\*})&:@%;"!,

Suffix Choose text to add to the end of collection names, e.g. use prefix "(" and suffix ")" Use symbols if you want to be able to automatically change suffixes later

Minimum - Set the minimum number of books required in a collection before creating the collection "3" - If there are only 2 books in the collection, it won't create the collection leaving blank is the same as "1" - at least 1 book If the book count goes below the minimum, the existing collection will not be removed (unless you uncheck preserve Kindle-only)

Ignore Skip certain words or patterns when creating collections: "History, Not this author,Or this one" - ignore the exact names (do not include the quotes) "-.*" - ignore any entry in the column starting with "-" ".*anywordinthemiddle.*" - ignore any entry in the column containing the word "anywordinthemiddle" ".*-nocollect" - ignore any entry in the column ending with "-nocollect" "\[.*\]" - ignore any entry containing in brackets. The "\[" is necessary because the "[" is a special character in patterns leaving blank means no entries in the column are ignored

Include: Select only certain words/patterns when creating collections "History,Biography" - create only the History and Biography collections if they exist in this column "\+.*" - create collections from entries in this column only if they start with "+" If you use an ignore pattern it will be applied before the include pattern

Rename Advanced feature to allow you to rename Calibre collections before saving them to the Kindle. Uses the python command re.sub(from_pattern, to_pattern, collection_name) on your patterns to do the renaming. Rename is run after the ignore/include patterns For example, to remove the '+' at the start of any collection in Calibre, use from: ^\+(.*)$ to: \1 To rename a specific collection, e.g., use from: "\[PDOC\]" to: "Personal Documents" To merge 2 names into one use: from: ^(FirstTag|SecondTag)$ to: NewMergedName (the old collections will still be on the Kindle until you remove them)

Split on character If you have a plain text column instead of a tags like column, you can split the text into separate collection names For example, if you had a plain text column containing "A/B/Sea" and entered "/" as the split character, the plugin would treat "A", "B", and "Sea" as separate collection names.



General Settings: Never delete or modify Kindle collections matching certain words or patterns: A failsafe list of Kindle collection names (with prefix/suffix) that will not be modified regardless of the other settings "___Currently Reading" - never delete the "___Currently Reading" collection on Kindle - whether it is in Calibre or not "\[.*\], Dictionaries" - never delete or overwrite any collection like "[somename]" or named "Dictionaries" "\*.*" - never delete or overwrite anything starting with "*" - "*" is a special pattern character

Preserve Kindle-only collections Defaults to true - keep collections that won't be modified/created by Calibre Calibre-managed collections are any collections that are selected by your customizations, Kindle-managed collections are any that are not selected This will make sure the collection will be kept in case the collection is not in the 'never delete' list and Calibre is not updating it

Toolbar icon default menu By default the icon on the Calibre toolbar will open a menu to choose what action to run You can change this so that clicking on the icon will automatically run an action (Create, Edit, Import, etc.) You can always access the menu of other actions using the small down arrow to the right of the icon

Ignore Prefix and Suffix Set whether to ignore the prefix and suffix when checking if a Calibre collection matches a Kindle collection Only considers non-alphanumeric characters as part of the prefix or suffix Useful to allow changing the prefix without creating new collections instead of replacing them

Ignore uppercase/lowercase Defaults to ignoring case when checking words/patterns

Fast reboot when you unplug your Kindle Only visible if you have the screensaver or font hack installed If checked, creates the 'reboot' file to cause the Kindle to quickly reboot once you disconnect the USB cable and load the new collections without restarting the Kindle

Reset timestamps on Collections By default the plugin updates the timestamps for each collection in order to force the collections to sort in alphabetical order when you use Sort by Collections or Sort by Most Recent on the Kindle Uncheck this option to keep the timestamps set when you last opened the collections on your Kindle



A special note on patterns: In order to be flexible, the ignore, include, rename and never overwrite/delete fields can support patterns

Patterns use special characters to represent normal letters/numbers (sometimes call regex or regular expression patterns)

For example "." means any character, "*" means 0 or more of the preceding character, ".*" means ignore 0 or more of any character, "^" means start of the text, "$" means end of the text

To use a normal "." in your word/pattern you have to put a "\" in front of it like "\."

A pattern like "^\[.*\]$" will match words that start with "[" with any number of characters up to "]" at the end of the word

Special characters in patterns include: \ | + . * [ ( ? ^ $ Customizations are used when running Preview or Create Collections.Column Settings:General Settings:A special note on patterns:

Reading List/Book Sync plugin Spoiler:

To automatically sync books and recreate collections when you connect your Kindle you can use Once you have customized this plugin to generate the collections you want, you can use the Reading List plugin to select new books to automatically sync/send to your Kindle AND to automatically run Kindle Collection's Create option when you next connect your Kindle. To automatically sync books and recreate collections when you connect your Kindle you can use kiwidude's Reading List plugin The first way to manage your collections with this plugin is to create them automatically on your Kindle using the information in Calibre. This is the best approach if you have lots of books in Calibre, especially if they are already tagged or organized.



Edit Collections Manually on your Kindle using a GUI



You can also use this plugin to manage your collections without entering any data into calibre by selecting Edit Collections to display a simple GUI editor. You can add/remove books to collections, add/remove/rename collections, and see a list of books in collections that you can sort by title/author/date (so it is also a useful way to view your collections).



Spoiler:

Start Calibre Connect the Kindle via USB to your PC Click on the Kindle Collections icon in Calibre to see a drop down menu of options Select Edit Collections, then add/remove books from collections Eject the Kindle (Devices->Eject) Disconnect your Kindle from the PC Restart your Kindle to load the new collections (this is not the same as using the power on/off switch)

On the Kindle press the Home key, then press Menu, select Settings, then press Menu again and select Restart



You can also use this plugin to manage your collections without entering any data into calibre by selecting Edit Collections to display a simple GUI editor. You can add/remove books to collections, add/remove/rename collections, and see a list of books in collections that you can sort by title/author/date (so it is also a useful way to view your collections).



Modify Kindle Settings such as Margins and Fonts

You can also set your Kindle's horizontal justification, margin size, and even fonts without installing any hacks using this option.



Spoiler:

Before connecting your Kindle to your PC and changing any of these settings, you must press the Home key on the Kindle to go to the Home page or your changes will be ignored .





Justification Control whether the text is left justified (ragged right edge) or fully justified (straight left and right edges). Not all books will be affected by this setting depending on how they were created. You can change the setting on the Kindle once you run the plugin and if check 'Allow user justification'.



Margin Control the amount of space between the edge of the screen and the text. The Kindle allows you to set to a few values (fewest, fewer, default), but you can use the plugin to set other margins (e.g. 20).



Fonts

Find some fonts to use. The font must have 4 Truetype or OpenType files - one each for Regular, Bold, Italic, and BoldItalic variants

For example, DroidSerif is popular and free, available from http://www.google.com/webfonts/famil...ly=Droid+Serif (you will need to extract the 4 files from the zip file, and rename DroidSerif.ttf to DroidSerif-Regular.ttf) Go to the Home screen of your Kindle, then connect your Kindle to your PC Create the directory "fonts" on your Kindle at the top (e.g. E:\fonts) if it isn't there already Copy the 4 font files to your Kindle's directory - you must use a specific name format, e.g. if your font is called "DroidSerif", then the 4 files in the font directory must be named as follows (use "-" not "_", and use ".ttf" even if its an OpenType font):

DroidSerif-Regular.ttf

DroidSerif-Bold.ttf

DroidSerif-Italic.ttf

DroidSerif-BoldItalic.ttf

Run the plugin - your font should be visible in the drop down menu for fonts. If it is not visible then check that the 4 file names are correct and in the right directory Select your font, and click Save Eject and Restart your Kindle

Notes: If you get the message "The selected item could not be opened" when you try to open a book, it means the font you selected is not compatible with the Kindle for some reason. Go to the Home screen of your Kindle, reconnect it to your PC, use the plug to select a default font, and restart your Kindle.

You can copy any number of fonts to your Kindle's font directory. The plugin will show a list of all fonts it finds (but each font must have the 4 files with the name pattern above, e.g. MyFont-Regular.ttf, ...). Only 1 font can be used by the Kindle at a time - you will need to use the plugin and restart the Kindle to change fonts.

To change back to a regular font, just use the "Aa" key to select "std". To use your custom font select "alt" (if "alt" is no longer available, use the plugin to reselect your custom font).

The plugin actually copies the 4 font files to the names alt-Regular, alt-Bold, etc. It sets the preferences to use the font name you gave, but when the Kindle restarts its automatically changed to "alt". The Kindle only seems to recognize the "alt" name and not other names, so the plugin just copies your font files to the "alt" name when you select it.

If you have only 3 of the 4 variants of a font, you could copy/rename one of the others, but this does not always work or look right The Kindle does allow you to use a different font for your books without jailbreaking and without installing a font hack. But you need to follow a few steps so that the plugin can find your font and the Kindle can use your font.Notes:

Font Size The size of the text on your Kindle will depend on the font you use. You can also set the size directly on your Kindle.



Line Spacing You can already control this on the Kindle, but you can use this to set more values.



Other







There are various other settings that the plugin will allow you to change, but they have no known effect. JustificationMarginFontsFont SizeLine SpacingOther You can also set your Kindle's horizontal justification, margin size, and even fonts without installing any hacks using this option.



Troubleshooting

Click on the Show buttons in this post to see more details.

If you have questions not answered here, just post - there are too many old/irrelevant posts to read through.



Spoiler: Restart your Kindle if you don't see the collections you created or changes you made:

On the Kindle press the Home key, then press Menu, select Settings, then press Menu again and select Restart





To change the Kindle to sort By Collections, or By Title, or By Most Recent: On the Kindle press the Home key, then go up on the 5-way pad, then go right on the 5-way pad and select a sort method Use sort By Collections to see just your collections in alphabetical order. If you open a collection it will move to the top of the list (until you run the plugin again) because the list is actually sorted by most recently accessed. If you only use this view, you can change the prefix text to blank since there are no books to mess up the sort order. Use sort By Title to browse your collections in alphabetical order. This isn't affected by what collections/books are most recently opened, but it does show all your books after your collections and requires using prefix text (e.g. "_") to force collections to the top of the list (see Customization details for the sort order of characters)

Use Restore if you've saved collections to the Kindle but want to go back to the previous version

If you delete books from the Kindle using Calibre, restart the Kindle to make sure it updates the collections

If News Feeds, Catalogs, Magazines, Newspapers , or other items are missing from collections check the Examples section for details on how to add them

, or other items are missing from collections check the Examples section for details on how to add them If you want to automatically create collection names with a comma in them you need to replace the comma with a ";" in Calibre (commas on the Kindle are ok, but semicolons on the Kindle will convert to "," on import to Calibre), - see Import Collections

A collection is either Kindle Managed or Calibre Managed. If you manually edit a Calibre-Managed collection, the collection will just get overwritten the next time you run Create collections. (The Preview report indicates whether collections are Kindle or Calibre managed - its determined by what Customizations you enter)

If the report indicates files aren't found, try resending the file to the Kindle

If the report indicates an invalid Mobi file, try reconverting the file to Mobi format from either the current Mobi file or another format, and resending to the Kindle. And test opening the book to make sure it isn't empty.

Some files on the Kindle are hidden from normal view - usually dictionaries. The plugin can only see these if you manually add them to a collection on the Kindle

When using patterns certain characters are special and must have a "\" in front of them to treat them like normal characters

If you click on the Device icon you can probably see a list of books on the Kindle and what collections they are in (after ejecting/restarting/reconnecting your Kindle) - but NOT for any Amazon purchased books, and sometimes it doesn't seem to work

If you still get more collections/different collections than you expected - check your Calibre templates in Preferences -> Sending books to devices, Preferences -> Plugins -> Device Interface Plugins -> Kindle 2/3 Device Interface, and check any Metadata Plugboards. Calibre can modify a lot of what gets written - so check your settings.



You can use Debug mode to view details about collection creation if you are having issues: Select the menu (down arrow icon) attached to the Calibre Preferences icon Choose "Restart in debug mode" Re-run the plugin and you will see a debug file and filename displayed once you close Calibre

OR run "calibre-debug -g" from the command line ("calibre-debug -g > output.txt" to save it to a file)

Click on thebuttons in this post to see more details.



Version History:



Requires Calibre 0.8.06 or later



Spoiler:

Version 1.7.11 - 30 Sep 2012

- Added support for azw3 files in collections using NiLuJes patch.



Version 1.7.10 - 23 Nov 2011

- Fixed non-english locales (@fr-FR) showing up at end of collection names



Version 1.7.9 - 6 Nov 2011

- Fixed error message about Nonetype object appearing after Create completes

- Fixed debug output to better handle encoding of text on some systems



Version 1.7.8 - 1 Nov 2011

- Added warning to Modify Settings to show any misconfigured fonts

- Fixed issue with locale sometimes showing up in Edit Collections for collections created on the Kindle



Version 1.7.7 - 14 Oct 2011

- Fixed failure when book contains apparently invalid utf8 characters in name



Version 1.7.6 - 08 Oct 2011

- Fixed failure when book contains invalid published date



Version 1.7.5 - 30 Aug 2011

- Added code to catch error in Topaz book metadata



Version 1.7.4 - 22 Aug 2011

- Added timestamp (Date of adding book to calibre) as a selectable field for collection names



Version 1.7.3 - 04 Aug 2011

- Added cbz as a valid extension to support books in comic format

- Added audio formats mp3, aa, aaz as valid extensions to help support audio books in collections



Version 1.7.2 - 17 July 2011

- Added audio subdirectory to directories checked for books



Version 1.7.1 - 25 June 2011

- Fixed error when encountering invalid utf8 character when sorting names



Version 1.7.0 - 17 June 2011

- Changed create/preview/view to background jobs to avoid blocking calibre and to support Reading List correctly

- Changed collections to merge when multiple Calibre columns have the same collection name

- Added code to refresh collection list in Device Tab after Create (but all collections won't be visible until calibre is updated to correctly show Kindle collections)

- Fixed issue with rare crash if a particular book's timestamp could not be read

- Moved warning about books being manually edited to report instead of dialog

- Removed unnecessary extra call to get device info which confused job percentage complete

- Requires Calibre 0.8.6 - in order to support jobs and syncing correctly



Version 1.6.3 - 30 May 2011

- Fixed creating extra collections in some circumstances when using a split character

- Added check in Import to skip import if no collections are found on the Kindle

- Added option to keep existing Collection timestamps instead of forcing them to sort by name in Sort by Collections

- Added information on how to restart Kindle to save dialog



Version 1.6.2 - 21 May 2011

- Fixed creating only empty collections when Kindle is reconnected on Windows

- Fixed incorrect number of books in collections when using split character

- Fixed crash of calibre when using Customize to change toolbar icon menu style

- Fixed incorrectly showing error if FONT_FAMILY setting does not exist

- Changed Edit to sort author by Calibre author_sort if available else name defined in Mobi book

- Removed invalid extension warnings to avoid false positives, but left in debug output

- Added warning message if two collection names from Calibre would conflict if prefix/suffix is ignored

- Added error message if no books on device are retrieved from Calibre

- Added error message if no books on device are retrieved from Kindle

- Added title of book in warning message about manually edited Calibre collections instead of code

- Changed displayed pathnames to full paths in correct windows/linux style

- Requires Calibre 0.8.2 or later due to tool bar fix



Version 1.6.1 - 07 May 2011

- Removed warning message about system encoding left over from debugging

Version 1.6.0 - 04 May 2011

- Added new feature to allow modifying Kindle settings such as margins, justification, and fonts

- Modified sorting code to improve performance and remove unnecessary custom and confusing sorting routines

- Modified encoding to convert windows cp1252 encoded titles/authors to utf8 correctly for display/sorting

- Added an About box to show plugin's version

- Fixed issue where Create would run even when icon was set to Show Menu

- Cleanup of routines loading calibre library data



Version 1.5.7 - 24 April 2011

- Fixed (hopefully) dealing with non-ascii characters in collections and pathnames

- Sorted book details in reports by title instead of path



Version 1.5.6 - 24 April 2011

- Fixed setting title and author from mobi file contents

- Fixed failure when encountering non-utf-8 characters in pathname



Version 1.5.5 - 23 April 2011

- Fixed failure when printing empty values in report



Version 1.5.4 - 23 April 2011

- Added customization option to change toolbar icon to either launch an action (create/edit/etc) or just show menu

- Added support for "," in collection names by converting to ";" when importing and re-converting to comma on export

- Added warning if you try to use the plugin before Calibre has loaded all book metadata from the Kindle

- Added error message if no columns have 'Create' or 'Delete' selected when running Create/Preview Collections

- Added version number to create/preview/view reports

- Modified boolean columns to create a collection name the same as the column name including books where column value is True

- Modified default keys in menu (e.g. after opening menu, pressing 'C' runs Create)

- Fixed crash when reporting that the collections file had an incorrect format that was fixed

- Fixed error when trying to create collections from a boolean column

- Replaced os.path.walk with os.walk and removed unicode encoding of path

- Various cleanup of messages, layout change to Customization window

- Requires 0.7.57 (book metadata check)



Version 1.5.3 - 17 April 2011

- Fixed failure when book has no author and calibre has multiple authors

- Fixed setting correct defaults for books without files



Version 1.5.2 - 16 April 2011

- Fixed setting of default values



Version 1.5.1 - 16 April 2011

Import

- Fixed failure to import on Windows due to pathname

- Fixed incorrect collections assigned to books

Create

- Fixed failure when column selected that has no data

- Fixed failure in Delete collections due to calling routing with an extra argument

Customize

- Fixed reset to defaults not working



Version 1.5.0 - 15 April 2011

Major rewrite to make use of new Calibre 0.7.53 plugin api

General

- Fixed adding periodicals to collections (corrected check to use code type not mobi type)

- Added caching of Kindle book data to improve performance

- Modified reading of calibre data to improve performance

- Added support for Palm Doc Mobi format to show titles instead of pathnames

- Added using author/title from Calibre if not available from Kindle

- Added additional debug output including timestamps

- Added support for skinning/replacing plugin icons

Quality Checks:

- Report empty files, invalid extensions, duplicate codes

- Report files with same title, author and date

- Report personal doc tag settings

- Warn of additional invalid patterns

- Warn of patterns containing special characters

- Cleanup for invalid entries in collections.json file

Edit Collections:

- Added columns for author and date

- Added column to indicate if book is in Calibre

- Added column to indicate if book is visible or can be added to a Kindle collection

- Added sort by Include/Title/Author/Date/In Calibre/Visible/Collections by clicking on header column

- Added ability to select multiple books using shift-click and add/remove them at the same time

- Added tooltip hints and details (path, code, etc.) to each book

- Added save/restore window size

- Removed requirement to run customization before using the first time

Import Collections:

- Added new function to import collection names from Kindle into custom columns

- Supports text or boolean custom columns and warns if data already exists in the column

Reports:

- Added author/date of book/periodical

- Added list of titles per collection, sorting by date for same titles as per Kindle

- Added "Periodical: Back Issues" collection if it exists to match Kindle

- Fixed listing of periodicals (show only 1 in main list, rest in back issues)

- Added listing of collections per book in the book details

Customization:

- Added Title column to customization choices

- Added ability to split a Calibre text column into separate collections

- Modified rename to convert single character collections to uppercase (make A-Z look better)

- Prevent saving if there are any errors

- Removed View report link to avoid confusion

- Changed default to not create any collections to avoid creating too many unexpectedly

Menus

- Added shortcut keys to menu and re-ordered menu list

- Added the option to add plugin to right-click context menus in Calibre

Create/Preview:

- Added deletion of Kindle collections that don't meet minimum counts

- Added deletion of Kindle collections if they are in Calibre but have no books on the Kindle

- Added check if collections other than Never Delete are manually edited since last Create



Version 1.4.3 - 16 March 2011

Fixed author_sort not being collected

Fixed encoding in edit collection titles

Fixed Sample Books can't be added to collections (EBSP type)

Added report messages about book types that can't be collected without updating their cdetype

Added additional file extensions to ignore in Edit

Added additional debug statements



Version 1.4.2 - 14 March 2011

Added detection of invalid book types such as news feeds that can't be put into collections

Fixed new users being unable to run plugin because customizations would not save

Fixed encoding to UTF-8 for title/collection list

Fixed allow same collection name to be created with different prefixes/suffixes

Fixed map ignore_prefix to ignore-prefix_suffix from legacy versions

Fixed import author_sort from legacy versions

Fixed set settings from older legacy versions



Version 1.4.1 - 12 March 2011

Fixed minimum count being ignored

Fixed encoding to UTF-8 for report



Version 1.4.0 - 11 March 2011

Renamed to Kindle Collections

Requires Calibre 0.7.48

- to show custom columns (0.7.45)

- to show error message when trying to customize when Kindle not connected (0.7.46)

- to support customization for multiple libraries / devices (0.7.48)

Added Edit existing Kindle collections (intended for non-Calibre managed collections)

Added View existing Kindle collections - sorted by title and by last access time

Added support for User Categories

Added support for multiple Libraries and multiple Kindles

- automatically migrate old customizations to new format

Added option to Delete Calibre-related collections (previously could only add/rename)

Added option to add suffix to collection names

Added option to do fast reboot/framework reset if hacks are installed (visible only if hack installed)

Added a customized Kindle Collections toolbar icon

Changed toolbar icon to only open a menu - to avoid accidentally running Create

Changed to using live Calibre data instead of Kindle's metadata.calibre file

- Setting Automatic Management is no longer required

- Changes to column data are immediately reflected in collections without re-syncing/sending to device

Changed sort order of collection names to match Kindle 3

Changed last access timestamp to keep existing timestamps for Kindle-only collections

Changed Column names to use actual names in customization window and reports

Changed report:

- display report in a messagebox instead of separate file

- added details on all books processed and what collections they've been added to

- showing deleted books separately to added/modified books

- using debug mode is no longer necessary for investigating issues

- use book titles for warnings instead of path names

Changed tooltips to include even more information

Changed version numbering in customization file to be independent of plugin version

Fixed warning to not show if no collections exist on the Kindle (1st time use)

Fixed Cancel in customization after running preview to restore original values correctly

Fixed the location where 1.3 saved the plugin customization json

Fixed preferences to be customized via Preferences->Plugins

Fixed regex symbols in collection names

Fixed ebook format exception checking

Fixed customization_help command line to work correctly

Restructured/rewrote/cleaned up most routines, converting many into classes

Moved version history to separate file



Version 1.3.3 - 12 February 2011

Fixed skip any books in metadata.calibre that are not active in Calibre

Fixed trap invalid Mobi files



Version 1.3.2 - 11 February 2011

Fixed exception handling for invalid unpack of Mobi

Fixed exception handling for invalid pattern or pattern in text

Added tooltip about special characters



Version 1.3.1 - 10 February 2011

Fixed help to change from hyperlink to automatically showing report due to windows bug



Version 1.3.0 - 10 February 2011

Added option to keep existing Kindle-only collections

Added option for general ignore - , e.g. to allow keeping Kindle collections just in case

Added option to ignore prefix when comparing on what to delete when keeping Kindle-only

Added preview collections without saving to Kindle to menu and Customize screen

Added displaying of a detailed report after running/previewing (before/after changes)

Added check for first time use to force user to see Customize window

Added check for Automatic management setting

Changed case-sensitive to global to avoid confusion with general ignore

Changed customization fields to preserve leading/trailing spaces to allow space in prefix

Removed Dictionary references since new keep Kindle-only will do similar function

Changed reference to plugin json to use os.path to avoid possible issues on windows

Added tooltips to customize window

More cleanup



Version 1.2 - 3 February 2011

Rewrote code to support GUI customization instead of tweaks

Specify collections to include as well as ignore, per column

Support case sensitivity in ignore/include patterns

Allow a couple built-in books/dictionaries to be put into collections

Split code into separate files to match example plugins



Version 1.1.1 - 28 January 2011

Fixed minimum books and lastAccess to make collections least recent



Version 1.1 - 28 January 2011

Added sorting by last access time, minimum books per collection type,



Version 1.0 - 27 January 2011

Initial release







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If you find this plugin useful, feel free to say thanks with Paypal. This Calibre plugin allows you to manage your Kindle collections, margins, and fonts. Attached Thumbnails Attached Files Kindle Collections.zip (81.1 KB, 190662 views) Last edited by meme; 09-30-2012 at 04:17 AM . Reason: Updated to 1.7.11 to support azw3 files in collections.