Calibre: 1. Introduction

[Lina]

So... what’s the go with this Calibre everyone keeps talking about?
Oooh, how do I love my calibre, let me count the ways...

1. It’s free to download. *Yaaay!* (go to http://calibre-ebook.com/)

2. It’s open source. This means that the program’s source code is freely available/accessible to any developers, who can all contribute to making it better. This is great for us users because it means there a whole bunch of excited people who use the program in different ways, who have access to make changes that we can also make use of. *More Yaaay!*

3. It allows you to convert books from one file type to another. This means you can take advantage of freebies or specials from different websites. Or even, say, change your books that you bought when you first got your Kobo (which takes .epub files), but then it broke and now you have a kindle which your hip grandma gave you for your birthday. (but the kindle doesn’t read .epub files) So convert the files. *Major Yaaay!*

4. You can edit the book’s metadata. It’s ok. Calm down. I’m not speaking a different language. Metadata in very basic terms, is information that would usually be found on the book cover, but since ebooks don’t have book covers, the metadata is embedded into your ebook file. So the fact that you can edit this information means you can change the cover, add more specific genre or subgenre tags, change the blurb or description, given it a rating, specify which series it belongs to... you can choose to file your “In Death” series books by Robb, J.D. or J.D. Robb or even JD Robb, you can specify which language it’s written in... The list is endless, but the short of it is, you’ve got the power to change the details of your book and how you sort them *Whoa, yay!*

5. It has a built-in reader So that when you double click on an ebook, it’ll open that book right on your computer and you can start reading it right away. *Double Yaaay!*

6. 7. 8. 9. 10...It’s a fricking awesome way to manage your ebooks on your computer!
Calibre helps you sort out ALL your ebook stuff. It helps you hide the information you don’t want to see and add bits that you do. It can help you keep note of where and when you got your books, or when you finished it and what you thought. There’s even a plugin (an additional feature created by those excited developers I mentioned above) that helps you sync that shit up with Goodreads so you only have to enter it once, can count how many approximate pages your ebook has, and even has a way that you can organise your ebooks as they’re being uploaded onto your eReader. There is even a way (!!!!) that you can upload your books directly onto your mobile for those of you who don’t have ereaders but do have Smartphones or tablets. And it’s not just for ebooks. You can fetch periodicals like newspapers or magazines into it as well. Last but not least, it acts as a middle-man for you to get DRM-free# books from a whole range of ebook stores. *That leaves Yaaay territory and goes smack into YEEEHA!!*

So you’ve read all this and think it’s wonderful but want to do your own research at your own pace? No worries, here are some links that I think anyone using calibre might find useful:
http://blog.calibre-ebook.com/
http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/ (kind of hard to follow at times, there’s a lot of tech-talk)
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/foru... (time consuming, but oh, so worthwhile. Kovid Goyal, the awesomesauce individual who created Calibre, and a lot of the additional developers, are part of the MobileRead community, so there’s a tonne of help in these forums!)

For those of you still keen and awake, the tutorials will continue!


#I don’t have it in me to go into the intricacies of the shitfight that is DRM (Digital Rights Management). So here is a link if you want to know about DRM and what it means for you as an ebook consumer.
(I’m not a huge fan of DRM. Put simply, for me it limits what books I can buy because of where I live. This sucks. I have personally found a way around this, but legally am not allowed to share it with you here in this forum. There are ways though. Keep looking. The internet is a wonderful place. )

[Lina]

It definitely will Jenny!

[Lisa Kay, Moderator]

I'll have to look this over when my migraine is completely gone. LOL! Thanks, though, CaroB!

[Robin (Saturndoo)]

OHHHHHHH thank you so much CaroB...I definitely look forward to the tutorials as I have calibre but have no clue how to use it. I got it mainly to convert books but have yet to find any free books in epub etc LOL

[Lina]

First things first, let's make sure we're all starting on the same page. This is what my calibre library looked like when I first downloaded and opened the program and before I had added any books:


Apart from all the bits I've outlined, you've probably already guessed that the bit with all the buttons along the top is the Main Menu bar.
What you might not know, is that the buttons directly under the Book Details section (let's call it the Status Bar section), provides some handy information and quick shortcuts:
1. In black writing to the left of the screen, it will tell you what version of calibre you are using.
2. On the right hand side, in green writing, it will tell you of the latest updates to the programme.
3. The three following buttons allow you to hide & view the Tag Browser, Book Details and Cover Browser respectively.
4. Finally, the words Jobs:0 and a little fading black wheel, let you know when calibre is working and how many jobs are backed up. This isn't anything you need to worry too much about just yet :-)

Ok, let's go add some books!

[Lisa Kay, Moderator]

Ah! Thanks, CaroB!