# My idea of creating order within Collections, not sure if it'll work? Bit silly.



## hskye (Sep 13, 2010)

This may be a bit of a "Well duh" thing, but bear with me. >.<

As of now, I plan to have my Collections arranged like this, so that it may be alphabetised.
+1. Currently Reading
+2. Academics
+3. Fiction - Fantasy
+4. Fiction - Mystery/Thriller
+5. Fiction - Limited Time Offers
+6. Classics
+7. Foreign Languages
+8. Business/ Philosophy
+9. Science/ Philosophy
+10. Miscellaneous

However, I was thinking if it would be possible to _name_ my books in a certain way so that they would show up in a certain "order" within the collections? Sort of a collection within collection thingy.
For example, inside my +8 Science/Philosophy collection, could I possibly name my books as:

-B/P_Phil_An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Hume, David
-B/P_Phil_The Problems of Philosophy Russell, Bertrand
-B/P_Sci_On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life Darwin, Charles 
-B/P_Sci_Stories of Inventors The Adventures of Inventors and Engineers Doubleday, Russell

As you can see, adding "-B/P_Phil" or "-B/P_Sci_" would theoretically make all the Philosophy books clump together - the same goes for Science. Using this theory, I could make many mini "orders" within each collection like putting books that are in a series together...

Is this viable? Any thoughts, suggestions? Sorry if it's a little obvious. >_<

*Note: I don't have a Kindle. It is about to be shipped to me and may only be in my hands by the end of this month or the middle of next. As you can see, I'm anxiously awaiting my first Kindle and also planning all kinds of things I can do with it.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

When sorting by collections it will automatically list them by most recently opened.

When sorting alphabetically, you _can_ name the collections creatively so that they are always at the front of the list, with all the books behind.

You can NOT rename the books (bought from Amazon) without using third party software.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Just to expand a bit on what Ann said... you can rename the actual file that gets put on the Kindle, but it won’t change the name that the Kindle uses on the Home Page. The Kindle uses a book title that's embedded inside the file itself and is not accessible without a special program.


Mike


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## hskye (Sep 13, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> When sorting by collections it will automatically list them by most recently opened.
> 
> When sorting alphabetically, you _can_ name the collections creatively so that they are always at the front of the list, with all the books behind.
> 
> You can NOT rename the books (bought from Amazon) without using third party software.





jmiked said:


> Just to expand a bit on what Ann said... you can rename the actual file that gets put on the Kindle, but it won't change the name that the Kindle uses on the Home Page. The Kindle uses a book title that's embedded inside the file itself and is not accessible without a special program.
> 
> Mike


Ah, thank you. Third party software should work, but I assume I would need to remove DRM to do that. =( I did think renaming the actual fie on the Kindle would work! That's such a pity, oh well. Thank you, Ann and Mike, once again. I'll guess all that remains is to sit tight while I wait nervously for my Kindle to arrive! >_<


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

You can use Calibre to edit the metadata without having to remove DRM. You can edit the title, author, etc. I never messed with Calibre until it allowed that, but now I can't live without it! It's wonderful! 

I've edited the metadata in most of my books. Within a collection you can sort by title, author or most recent first. When you sort by author, it will sort all books by that author by the published date from newest to oldest. To get the books to show up in the order I want (either alphabetical order or series order) I simply edit the published date. I also edit the Title to remove extra info (such as : Bonus content included) or to put in the series number. I edit the Author field to get them to sort properly (they don't always.. Sometimes Nora Roberts sorts in the R.. sometimes in the N. Drives me BATTY!)

Book 1 would be Dec 2010
Book 2 would be Nov 2010
Book 3 would be Oct 2010
Book 4 would be Sep 2010 and so on.

As for your Collections, numbering them isn't the best idea. When you sort by Collection, it goes by most recent first. So all your numbers will get messed up (even with the symbol in front... Don't know about you, but having the numbers out of order would send my OCD self over the edge) I do recommend using a symbol at the beginning of the Collection, that way, when you sort by Title, they'll all show up at the top. To get them to sort in a particular order, just use different symbols to force the sort order. I use ` ( { {  There's a post around here somewhere that lists them all and the sort order... I'll see if I can't find it (or you can do what I did and just fiddle until you get it the way you like. I can tell you that ` sorts the highest of the ones I use) 

Hope that helps.


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## hskye (Sep 13, 2010)

Luvmy4brats said:


> You can use Calibre to edit the metadata without having to remove DRM. You can edit the title, author, etc. I never messed with Calibre until it allowed that, but now I can't live without it! It's wonderful!
> 
> I've edited the metadata in most of my books. Within a collection you can sort by title, author or most recent first. When you sort by author, it will sort all books by that author by the published date from newest to oldest. To get the books to show up in the order I want (either alphabetical order or series order) I simply edit the published date. I also edit the Title to remove extra info (such as : Bonus content included) or to put in the series number. I edit the Author field to get them to sort properly (they don't always.. Sometimes Nora Roberts sorts in the R.. sometimes in the N. Drives me BATTY!)
> 
> ...


Hey, that's fantastic! I thought I had to remove DRM first. Hmm....Though that would mean the 50+ books I loaded on my Kindle are now useless and I have to reload them again after editing the metadata. LOL. XD Still, that's a great thing to know! And I think I'll try out the symbol thing too, though I had hoped to use a standardised symbol. I guess I'll go and download all my ordered books onto my computer now, in case I feel hardworking enough to edit them one by one manually. =P Thank you! I can't wait to have my baby in my hands... I've already gotten the material for its cover (I plan to make my own as the ones being sold are too pricey for my wallet).  So...nervous. Hope it arrives safely!

Edit: Wait, I could just drag the files from my Kindle when it arrives, right? Instead of going to download them one by one from the Manage Your Kindle page. Sorry, I'm still half-asleep. Probably need more coffee. o-O


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

hskye said:


> Hey, that's fantastic! I thought I had to remove DRM first. Hmm....Though that would mean the 50+ books I loaded on my Kindle are now useless and I have to reload them again after editing the metadata. LOL. XD Still, that's a great thing to know! And I think I'll try out the symbol thing too, though I had hoped to use a standardised symbol. I guess I'll go and download all my ordered books onto my computer now, in case I feel hardworking enough to edit them one by one manually. =P Thank you! I can't wait to have my baby in my hands... I've already gotten the material for its cover (I plan to make my own as the ones being sold are too pricey for my wallet).  So...nervous. Hope it arrives safely!
> 
> Edit: Wait, I could just drag the files from my Kindle when it arrives, right? Instead of going to download them one by one from the Manage Your Kindle page. Sorry, I'm still half-asleep. Probably need more coffee. o-O


Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty quick. Calibre has evolved so much over the past year! When I decided to organize my books, I already had over 550 to do... YIKES! Looking back, 50 would have been a piece of cake.

Yes, you can add the books from your Kindle. You'll hook the Kindle up to the computer and from your Calibre Library you'll click on add books. Then point it to the document folder on your Kindle and add them all in one fell swoop. Then you'll want to delete them from the Kindle (if you don't, you'll have 2 of each book when you move the edited ones back over) You can do the right from the computer just select them all and delete... Then edit as you see fit and then send to device. It sounds far more complicated than it is.


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## hskye (Sep 13, 2010)

Luvmy4brats said:


> Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty quick. Calibre has evolved so much over the past year! When I decided to organize my books, I already had over 550 to do... YIKES! Looking back, 50 would have been a piece of cake.
> 
> Yes, you can add the books from your Kindle. You'll hook the Kindle up to the computer and from your Calibre Library you'll click on add books. Then point it to the document folder on your Kindle and add them all in one fell swoop. Then you'll want to delete them from the Kindle (if you don't, you'll have 2 of each book when you move the edited ones back over) You can do the right from the computer just select them all and delete... Then edit as you see fit and then send to device. It sounds far more complicated than it is.


Hmm..I've downloaded Calibre some time ago and experimented on it. It's really quite intuitive (unless I wanna do fancy shmancy programming O_O). Meh, I just don't want to "tax" my Kindle by making it index the books again. I regret sending the 50+ books to my Kindle now. xD Should have downloaded them to my comp instead of sending wirelessly. And I know it's not really that much a strain on the Kindle, but I just wanna baby my Kindle. (Bit silly of me I suppose. >_<) Plus, being in a non-Kindle supported country and doing this on my own, I won't be able to get back to Amazon for its warranty unless I want to incur shipping charges that will probably cost me a new Kindle. First time user + Starving student = extremely crazy about protecting my precious baby. I feel like an expectant mother. o-o Thank you! XD


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I wouldn't worry about 50 books taxing the Kindle by indexing them.. This coming from somebody that routinely transfer a few hundred back and forth at a time. 

Being a long time kindle owner is kinda like be a mom too... With the first one, you're extra super careful... by the 4th, as long as it's not eating cat poop out of the litter box, you're happy. Oh, wait, that's the BRATs I'm talking about. (I've actually had more than 4 kindles   and none of them have gotten near the cat box)


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## hskye (Sep 13, 2010)

Luvmy4brats said:


> I wouldn't worry about 50 books taxing the Kindle by indexing them.. This coming from somebody that routinely transfer a few hundred back and forth at a time.
> 
> Being a long time kindle owner is kinda like be a mom too... With the first one, you're extra super careful... by the 4th, as long as it's not eating cat poop out of the litter box, you're happy. Oh, wait, that's the BRATs I'm talking about. (I've actually had more than 4 kindles  and none of them have gotten near the cat box)


Righto, thanks for all yout help. ^^ Hahaha, that's how life is. I can't wait to baby my Kindle! <3


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