Calibre - switching title and series column

There may be no elegant way to do what you're asking, but there is a way.

Create a temporary column to hold copied titles

place your cursor over any column heading, right click, and select "add your own columns"
click the "+" icon on the right margin of the dialog box
name your column "titletemp"
if you're like me and you routinely forget why you did something, add a description to remind yourself
click "OK"
Click "Apply" and accept the option to exit and restart Calibre

Optional: When Calibre re-opens, drag your new "titletemp" column over near the "title" and "series" columns so you can see them all together

Copy data from "series", which is actually the titles, to "titletemp":

select all the books you want to change, tap "E" on your keyboard to edit metadata in bulk
select the "Search and replace tab"
Parameters:

Search mode: Regular expression
Search field=series
Search for=([*])
Replace with=[leave blank]
Destination field=#titletemp ("#" denotes this is a custom field")
Mode: Replace field
This will copy the text without the index number, since your destination column type doesn't track index numbers

The result:

Copy data from "title", which is actually the series, to "series". This will overwrite the current contents, but that's okay because you have already copied to "titletemp".

Parameters:

Search mode: Regular expression
Search field=title
Search for=([d]*)
Replace with=[leave blank]
Destination field=#titletemp
Mode: Replace field

(Explanation: Since the mode is "Replace field", the search "([d]*)" removes the numbers and copies all other information to the destination field.)

The result:

The series information is now in the "series" field, but the series index numbers are wonky. That's because "series" and "series_index" are two distinct data points and we only copied one. So next, we'll fix your series numbering.
Copy series index number in "title" to "series_index":

select all the books again and enter bulk edit
Enter the same parameters as before, with these exceptions....

Search for=([a-zs]*), which removes all text leaving only the number
Destination field=#titletemp_index

you should see only the number in the test result section, so click okay to return to the main interface and admire the perfection of your new field. Take a moment to bask. I did.

Now we get our titles in the correct column. Copy data in "titletemp" to "title".

Parameters:

Search mode: Regular expression
Search field=#titletemp_index
Search for=([*])
Replace with=[leave blank]
Destination field=series_index
Mode: Replace field

Now, all your date should be in the correct columns.

remove "titletemp" column using the same dialog box in which you created it.

On a side note:
I use the following Regular Expression when adding books and it correctly imports books with or without a series, where file names are in the format: Author [- Series # ]- Title
To add this to your Calibre: Preferences > Adding books

^(?P[^-]+)(s*-s*([?(?P[^-0-9]+)s*(?P[0-9.]+)?]?)?)?.?-s(?P[^]{[()]+w)

---

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

---

(0)

Login to post a comment!