# If Amazon Gives Us Folders ...



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I set up a database for Little Gerties books, but I'd like to add a "folders" field.  I'm not sure how I want to sort the books.  Of course, I can do it by author and title, but I'm looking for something more definitive.  

If Amazon gives us folders, how would you label your folders?  How would you decide which books went in which folder?


----------



## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

gertiekindle said:


> If Amazon gives us folders, how would you label your folders? How would you decide which books went in which folder?


Like music with nested folders maybe: Genre, Author, Series, Title.


----------



## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I like Jeff's suggestions..

I'll add:  Samples, Documents


----------



## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Heck, if I could just get the samples in a different hole I'd be happy.   heck, give me subfolders for the samples


----------



## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

Jeff said:


> Like music with nested folders maybe: Genre, Author, Series, Title.





luvmy4brats said:


> I like Jeff's suggestions..
> 
> I'll add: Samples, Documents


What Jeff and luv said...


----------



## ScottBooks (Oct 28, 2008)

First off, I'd call them "Shelves" and fill them by genre, sorted by author. I do think a shelf for samples would be needed in my new bookcase  . The top shelf would be my TBR pile. And it would look something like this :








but less organized.


----------



## durphy (Nov 5, 2008)

Those are all great ideas! I'd like to be able to file away the books I've already read.


----------



## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

It would be cool if they let us sort our books by length....I would read the shortest to the longest in order.


----------



## Sherlock (Dec 17, 2008)

Vegas_Asian said:


> It would be cool if they let us sort our books by length....I would read the shortest to the longest in order.


But wouldn't that be problematic? As you keep adding books of different lengths the long ones are always the bridesmaids!


----------



## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

1. Folder by category
          sci fi, mystery, business, current events, etc.
2. Sub folder by further category, if needed.
          sci fi/time travel
            sci fi/fantasy
            business/investing
            business/biographies
3. sub sub folders "read/not read"
4. Perhaps further classification of read books into great, OK, not so good

This would be set up to handle a large book collection, perhaps into the thousands. it would be too cumbersome if you were having only a few dozen books.


----------



## Guest (Dec 21, 2008)

I'm not that organized.  I'd just like to have my books sorted by author.  If the author has more than one series out like Jim Butcher does or Charlaine Harris does, then sub folders for each series.  Then maybe a separate folder for all  of their stand alone books.

I do like that once I got my SD card installed, I could move all of the stuff I read to it and then change my kindle display to show only what was in the Kindle memory and not display what is on the SD card.

Anything marked 'Sample" should go to a "Samples" folder automatically.


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I think I'd keep it very simple:

samples
free books (I download the freebies that are offered, but I am not sure I'll ever read them)
purchased books: TBR
purchased books: in process
purchased books: finished

L


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I too would keep it simple, but slightly different from Leslie. I'd like a dedicated folder for:

samples
things I send me
reference
non fiction
paid for fiction
free fiction

As I get more books, there may need to be more divisions but this would do for now. Samples is obvious. Things I Send Me is documents I send that are work related; maybe better to call it Work Related. Reference is obvious; Non Fiction is obvious. I'd divide Fiction into _paid for_ and _free _because, off the top of my head, it seems like a good indication of whether I am pretty sure I want to read the book, or I just got it free and thought I'd try it out.

Oh, and Periodicals would be another category. I don't see a need to sort by what I'm currently reading or haven't started as I have the dots to tell me that. And books I've finished I send back to Amazon.

Ann


----------



## Guest (Dec 21, 2008)

I would like to be able to have a folder for free stuff downloaded from places other than Amazon. I am always afraid I am going to delete something that will then disappear from the free site. I suppose I could get a SD card and move those things. Hmmmmm, too bad I forgot to tell Santa that is what I wanted.

It would also be nice to have a sample folder with divisions for unread, read-maybe buy, and read-definite buy.


----------



## jah (Oct 28, 2008)

I would love folder as well. For things like series Sampler, Genre, Author, Series, Title, Person Doc, Freebies(from places other then Amazon).  I would like to cut the number of page on have on my home page. I now have over 35 page, A lot of them are Sampler. Just having a folder for sampler would go a long way.


----------



## mwb (Dec 5, 2008)

No folders please. Folders were always clunky and limited technology based on people's thinking still being stuck in last century DT filing systems. Folders with extensive sub-folders have too much space and processor overhead on a handheld device.

Instead they should do something truly useful like labels or tags using in gmail. Where any book can have multiple labels that can be searched for alone or in combination and sorted as needed.

Using a simple example imagine I have several books. One is a mystery set in Victorian times. Another is classic literary novel from that period.

I can label each one Victorian but also label the mystery as mysteries and the other as Classic Literature. So doing that across many books I can go to any set in Victorian time (if I'm on a period kick) or if I'm just looking for mysteries I'll still see the mystery or just look for literature I'll see the literature. But if I want specifically a Victorian Mystery I can see the first book directly.

Way, way better than folders - especially for books across different genres or reader interests.

----------------
Listening to: Ernest Tubb - You Nearly Lose Your Mind
via FoxyTunes


----------



## jah (Oct 28, 2008)

mwb said:


> No folders please. Folders were always clunky and limited technology based on people's thinking still being stuck in last century DT filing systems. Folders with extensive sub-folders have too much space and processor overhead on a handheld device.
> 
> Instead they should do something truly useful like labels or tags using in gmail. Where any book can have multiple labels that can be searched for alone or in combination and sorted as needed.
> 
> ...


I never even thought about that, it does seem like a better option.


----------



## auntmarge (Dec 4, 2008)

Geez, at this point I'd settle for ANY kind of organization that let me separate by genre, urgency, or even by drive (SD vs. regular Kindle memory).


----------



## jah (Oct 28, 2008)

auntmarge said:


> Geez, at this point I'd settle for ANY kind of organization that let me separate by genre, urgency, or even by drive (SD vs. regular Kindle memory).


I agree, It hard sometime look through page after page to find a book I want to read.


----------



## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

mwb said:


> ----------------
> Listening to: Ernest Tubb - You Nearly Lose Your Mind
> via FoxyTunes


Off topic, but I Love Ernest Tubb.
debbie


----------



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

Leslie said:


> I think I'd keep it very simple:
> 
> samples
> free books (I download the freebies that are offered, but I am not sure I'll ever read them)
> ...


That's pretty much how I would sort them also.

Mike


----------



## bosslady402 (Nov 6, 2008)

mwb said:


> Instead they should do something truly useful like labels or tags using in gmail. Where any book can have multiple labels that can be searched for alone or in combination and sorted as needed.


But you'd still want them to 'appear' as folders on your kindle home page, wouldn't you? If you had dozens (or hundreds) of titles, you wouldn't want to page through them all, regardless of how they were sorted.

I know they have the capability of giving us folders, because that is what you get now when you subscribe to a newspaper - click on the title and you get a list of each days' edition; click on the edition and you get headline groups ('todays headlines' 'worldwide news') click on the group and you get the article lists, then you click on the article. Hitting the back button takes you back one level.

Maybe the issue they are trying to work out is how much to hard-code into the process v.s. let you build your own. It would be great if all you had to do was go into each book and fill in a half-dozen pre-determined tags from drop-down menus, and voila! your folders are created from your choices. It would be more work if you had to come up with the labels yourself, and type each choice in with the keyboard, but some people would want that option. Another option would be to create/modify the outline on your computer, and export it. And the greatest challenge would be for Amazon to come up with a solution that would satisfy all 3 scenarios! (maybe that's whats taking so long...)

Whatever they do, they would need to allow a book to have several classifications simultaneously.


----------



## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

I don't think tags alone is the answer, because that doesn't sort them anywhere, that just makes it easier to search for those who need to.  A combination of folders and tags, perhaps, would be ideal in that instance. Simple folders, similar to Leslie's arrangement, would suffice for me just to give it some kind of simple organization on the Kindle itself; I keep them better organized by genre, series etc. on a separate spreadsheet.  I don't really care about tags, but others might (and do, as shown above ).


----------



## Lizzy (Nov 26, 2008)

I would sort my folders by catagory and then by authors. That would make the most sense to me. Dont want tags cause then i would still have 50 pages. I want a 1 or 2 page homescreen at the most.


----------



## bkworm8it (Nov 17, 2008)

I would like any option that allows me to organize my books/samples etc. right now I sort them all on my computer.  But my computer is not always with me to findwhat I'm looking for.

Theresa


----------



## mrmac1 (Nov 23, 2008)

Would it bring my Kindle to a standstill if I made and labeled my own folders.  These could be created using my PC, and each book/document would be dragged to its most relevant spot.  New material could just sit outside any folders until I couldn't stand it any longer and did a little clean up.

As things stand now, a book title is linked to the contents of that book.  How difficult would it be to have a system in which folder titles are linked to several/many book titles which are linked to the contents of their respective books? 

I'm a pretty disorganized person, but having 25 pages of books in which a recipe is next to the 9/11 Commission Report which is next to a recent Jeffery Deaver book seems clunky. 

Isn't 64 MB of RAM sufficient to accommodate folders w/o a slowdown?  At the very least, Amazon should offer an explanation as to why their organizing functions are so primitive.


----------



## jah (Oct 28, 2008)

I don't really care what how, just that I can find my books fast and with the min. amount of trouble.


----------



## mwb (Dec 5, 2008)

I think folks aren't understanding what tags are and can do.

[quote author=bosslady]But you'd still want them to 'appear' as folders on your kindle home page, wouldn't you? If you had dozens (or hundreds) of titles, you wouldn't want to page through them all, regardless of how they were sorted.

I know they have the capability of giving us folders, because that is what you get now when you subscribe to a newspaper - click on the title and you get a list of each days' edition; click on the edition and you get headline groups ('todays headlines' 'worldwide news') click on the group and you get the article lists, then you click on the article. Hitting the back button takes you back one level.
[/quote]

Actually those aren't folders, but a use of tags. All the periodicals are in the same folder Documents no sub-folders at all. It displays only the title tag for things tagged as periodicals. So when you select the Title you are just selecting a tag called say (New York Times) then it shows you only the periodicals titled New York Times.

If you have periodicals and books on the kindle you can easily see that basic tags and support for them are already there. You can go "Show and Sort" and you'll see:


Show All
Show Books Only
Show Periodicals Only

The first is show everything regardless of tag. The second shows only things tagged as "Books" and the third only things tagged as "Periodicals."

Instead of by being tagged by DT equivalent those same things work exactly the same with genre tags.

Mysteries (Shows Only Mysteries)
Science Fiction (Shows Only Science Fiction)
etc.

You would not be looking at 100s of titles but only those things within the genre you want to see. Exactly like when you select Periodicals.

[quote author=Steph H]I don't think tags alone is the answer, because that doesn't sort them anywhere, that just makes it easier to search for those who need to.[/quote]

Of course, you can. See what I say above. When you "Show Only" books, periodicals, etc. you can still sort by title, author, most recent within it. I do it all the time.

The tags are already implemented and supported within the Kindle and can display in ways that are nested like folders - but they are not folders.


----------



## Lynn (Nov 4, 2008)

> I do like that once I got my SD card installed, I could move all of the stuff I read to it and then change my kindle display to show only what was in the Kindle memory and not display what is on the SD card.


I thought you could only do that from content manager- I must be missing something here?

Lynn L


----------



## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

The problem with tags is that the Kindle is not a configurable data base manager. I can create folders in any way I want. Tags would limit me to what Amazon programmed in.

Steve


----------



## mwb (Dec 5, 2008)

mrmac1 said:


> Would it bring my Kindle to a standstill if I made and labeled my own folders. These could be created using my PC, and each book/document would be dragged to its most relevant spot. New material could just sit outside any folders until I couldn't stand it any longer and did a little clean up.
> 
> As things stand now, a book title is linked to the contents of that book. How difficult would it be to have a system in which folder titles are linked to several/many book titles which are linked to the contents of their respective books?
> 
> ...


Well, I don't know about you but every time I go to the home page there is a wait as it is "updating" which is the system going through every file in the Documents folder to show me what I have. Since I have a SD card that is just two folders. So it noticeable but not a big pain. I'd imagine it would be more if it had to plow through dozens of subdirectories in both places.

Keep in mind that if you have a SD card (which many do) you'd have to duplicate the folder structure on both the kindle main memory and the SD card (Kindle - Documents - Mysteries, etc. and SD - Documents - Mysteries) then the it not only have to scan both sets of parallel sub-folders and combine them into one listing. Even bigger file managers on desktops don't have to deal with that.

Some programs do but that makes the software more complex and creates more overhead for what is a basic processor and memory on a handheld device. Even then those programs generally for music and video (like iTunes, etc.) you tags for genre rather than folders. The folders are generally just artist or show titles.

Both of which are reasons I suspect they left the folder structure simple, while having a simple tag system in place which they will be building on (I suspect and hope) in the future.


----------



## Margarita (Dec 10, 2008)

A good start would be to be able to read Kindle memory OR SD from the home page. I have moved a bunch of stuff to the SD but from home page Kindle still finds it and lists it all. .
My only solution is to pull the SD card and I would rather not. If you can read Kindle or SD from content manager why not from home page?


----------



## Teninx (Oct 27, 2008)

Don't have a need or a desire for folders. Never more than a couple books on my homepage; everything else on Amazon's servers and my hard drive.


----------



## Guest (Dec 21, 2008)

Lynn said:


> I thought you could only do that from content manager- I must be missing something here?
> 
> Lynn L


That's how I did it. I used the content manager found on my Kindle.

Another way would be to use the USB connector and use my computer to move the files but it's not needed for that. The Kindle will show up as one HD and the SD card as another.


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

A lot of interesting ideas from all of you.  I don't know if or when Amazon is going to give us another way to sort.  I just want to organize my database.  I've labeled my series so I can find all of my Quinn series, Plum series, etc. and I think for a database mwb's suggestion of tags/labels will work best for me.  

I do move everything back to Amazon once I've read it, but like Lucky Rainbow, I'm afraid I'll delete something that I downloaded from another site.  Actually, I've already done that.  Fortunately, the book was one I won't be reading again, anyway.

My home page is getting out of hand since I've downloaded so many freebies and bargain books that I haven't read yet.  I don't want to move anything back to Amazon until I've read it.  At least my samples are under control ... for now.


----------



## Wannabe (Nov 6, 2008)

I guess I wouldn't need folders if I could reliably sort by author's last name. Another helpful thing would be to have the book I'm currently reading be listed first so that when I navigate away from the book, I don't have to sift through my library to get back to the book.


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Wannabe said:


> I guess I wouldn't need folders if I could reliably sort by author's last name. Another helpful thing would be to have the book I'm currently reading be listed first so that when I navigate away from the book, I don't have to sift through my library to get back to the book.


If you sort by "most recent" the book you are currently reading will be at or near the top, most of the time. At least it is for me.

L


----------



## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

mwb said:


> If you have periodicals and books on the kindle you can easily see that basic tags and support for them are already there. You can go "Show and Sort" and you'll see:
> 
> 
> Show All
> ...


No, I don't think I would want to have to change the "show and sort" every time I wanted to look at another genre or folder or type. I'd want them all listed on my home page all the time, like folders, and just be able to drill down into them and back out. Does it work that way now if you have Periodicals and show them on the Home Page at the same time as books? I don't know since I don't have any.


----------



## Jesslyn (Oct 29, 2008)

mwb said:


> No folders please. Folders were always clunky and limited technology based on people's thinking still being stuck in last century DT filing systems. Folders with extensive sub-folders have too much space and processor overhead on a handheld device.
> 
> Instead they should do something truly useful like labels or tags using in gmail. Where any book can have multiple labels that can be searched for alone or in combination and sorted as needed.
> 
> ...


If we have tags, wouldn't we just end up with another list depending on how many tags were used? The only problem that I have with tags is that I would probably forget what got put where; I do that now with documents on my pc. Over the years, I have found that the K.I.S.S method works best for me when I am dealing with info that I don't access for long periods of time. And my plan now with Isabella is to keep a steady list of my 'favorites' that I can pick up and read whenever the need arises, just like I used to have a single shelf of 'Save these to read again' books. I would grab those when I had nothing else to read.

I think that whatever Amazon gives us, we'll find that we will have to use a very simple sort/filter/categorization option due to the navigation limitations of the device. I would imagine that we would get a one click option to navigate thru folders/tags then subfolders with a single option to take us back to the top-level. or back up one level.


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Steph H said:


> No, I don't think I would want to have to change the "show and sort" every time I wanted to look at another genre or folder or type. I'd want them all listed on my home page all the time, like folders, and just be able to drill down into them and back out. Does it work that way now if you have Periodicals and show them on the Home Page at the same time as books? I don't know since I don't have any.


Here's a screen shot from my home page. See how it shows the New York Times? If you click on that and open it, it brings up another home screen with all of the copies of the Times listed (all the copies that are on my Kindle, that is; I usually have at least a few weeks' worth) and sorted by date.


----------



## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Since I download everything to my computer (I'm somewhat anal about backups) then to my Kindle, I've created my folder set on my computer and just copy it to my SD card. Since I don't really want to be searching through pages and pages of book names on my Kindle, I only keep about 30 in the documents folder; my current read and the next several that I plan on reading. The rest stay in thier respective folders on the Kindle until I'm reeady to read them. 

Oh, to respond to the thread, I create folders rather eclectically. Some are by author (Doyle, Kipling), some by genre (Western, SciFi), some by series (Pern, Honor Harrington)


----------

