ebooks | Renaming utilities and naming conventions for calibre

Hey--I'm so sorry to hear about all the troubles you've had with Calibre. (I've read your previous post.) I've used it and find it really annoying but didn't have nearly the level of trouble you have had.

Anyway, I think renaming like this is probably very straightforward to do with a script in Python or similar, if you're willing to install Python. (I found this very easy on a Mac, but I don't know what you're using or what your tolerance for technical things is.)

I'm not a programmer myself, but I might be able to persuade my husband to write a script to handle this. No guarantees, but: Is there somewhere consistent in the file the script could look to find the author in your current set of files, or would you be providing that as an input to the script? Even better, could you email me one of your html files so I can show it to him and think about how to make this easy for you? I'm at requiescat at cityofveils dot com.

If this is not helpful, my apologies, and I hope someone else will be able to help you!

The worst thing is I have no idea why it isn't working for me. I think I followed everyone's advice and there were no results. I don't understand it.

I don't want to have to install and learn to use any more programs, but at this point I think I will have to. I already downloaded Python for Windows, but I have no idea whether it will even install as a regular Windows program. I am definitely not a programmer of any kind, but I like to think I'm reasonably competent when it comes to technical things where I can follow step by step instructions (although calibre is rapidly changing that view of myself!).

I'll send you the files, they weren't posted under an flock, and maybe somehow we'll find a solution to my problems. If anyone else would like to join in, I certainly wouldn't mind; I've had an offer in the previous post as well. Thank you for volunteering to help!

Mail sent. :)

Better File Rename, which is not free but does 10 files at a time in trial mode. http://www.publicspace.net/windows/BetterFileRename/download.html

But it would depend on where the author name was in the file name or folder name already, to give you step-by-step instructions.

hi, thank you for the suggestion. I managed to find two free programs - Ant Renamer and Bulk rename utility. The second one is pretty packed with features and quite overwhelming. The first one is simpler and might be the one I keep.

I save my fics in flders by Fandoms > Fics > Individual authors > Author > fles, or Fandoms > Fics > Various authors > files.

The fist set up is the one I want to try first, since adding the foldername as part of the title would be simpler in that case. I want the folder names to be added as a prefix Author - File.html. But what do I do with fles I now have named as 01 Title.html, 02 Title.html etc? How do I handle increasing numbers and the space?

Also, there are some files with a fairly complicated naming scheme, such as

Book 1 - Title - Part 1 - Subtitle.txt

If I add author name to that, I would get

Author - Book 1 - Title - Part 1 - Subtitle.txt.

How in the world do I bulk rename it, and come up with a save template in calibre for that??

Well, it's not like I can tell you how to work a program I don't know. Better File Rename has multi-step renaming, including "add folder" to beginning or end, and a preview feature, so you can go through it step-by-step and see the results before you actually commit to them.

From what you describe it seems like Better File Rename is very similar to Bulk Rename Utility which also has those options. I realize you wouldn't be able to tell me how to work it without actually using it, but I was wondering if you could tell me what the workflow is with the program you use - how you deal with numbers and blank spaces, or have you never needed to do renaming of the kind I'm after? Thanks in advance!

Hey--have you gotten one of these working for you?

Preliminary consultation with my husband suggests that what you ask is roughly doable. The next question is authors--in the HTML files you sent me, there's this line

<title> Darling Coda: The Portrait by agelade </title>

Do you happen to know if all your files have the author in this format, "by [authorname]" right before </title>? Because if so, I think a script could pull it out and put the author's name in the rename automatically. That's assuming you want [authorname] left in that format. If you rename things to be like [LastWesternName FirstWesternName] when the title bit has it as [FirstWesternName LastWesternName], you may run into trouble because the program won't be able to tell the difference between [FirstWesternName LastWesternName] that needs to flip to [LastWesternName FirstWesternName], and on the other hand [Twoword Fanficwritername] (e.g., this is probably real somewhere but is a made-up example, Brightly Burning), which doesn't flip but stays [Twoword Fanficwritername]. If you see what I mean?

The alternative is to write the script so that it works on a folder full of fics all by the same author, and then the script could prompt you to type in the author name just as you want it to appear. This would be more work, but might have better results depending on how you want to organize your collection. This might also be the only way if your fanfics do not all have the author in the title field like in the files you sent me.

Also, I would STRONGLY advise you to make a copy of a representative selection of your fanfic files, and test any program on those copies so that you don't risk your actual files. (Spoken from having messed up my own files in the past! Nothing like a typo in grep...)

Anyway, husband indicates this is possible but I don't know how long it would take, and if you have a better solution you should go with that instead. Let me know!

Hi - yes, I was able to figure out how to prepend the folder name as the author name to the file, now I need to figure out how to rename the file so that it adds a dash and a space after the number. So, I got it to change from 01 Title.html to Author - 01 Title.html, now I need to change it to Author - 01 - Title.html and the rest of the fics in the series. I've looked at the help files of the programs I've installed, but couldn't find anything that would help me with not touching the numbers, but adding a dash and a space.

No, not all my files have authors in this format, because some were plain txt files saved years ago from now-dead archives (my earliest is from 2004), some were fics I saved from LJ or DW or author websites, some downloaded through two different downloaders (Graffer and Fanfiction Downloader). I think it's going to be a massive undertaking, even with automating a part of the process. I will have to figure out which fics were saved in what way, and what tags they have. :headdesk:

I don't rename fanfiction authors to [FirstWesternName LastWesternName] (or vice versa) but keep their fannish pseuds; [FirstWesternName LastWesternName] would only apply to fiction written by professional authors. When I save files myself, I always use the Author - Title.html format. Titles I take from the way the author named them, so I might end up with a fairly complicated naming scheme (e.g. Author - Book 1 - Title - Part 1 - Subtitle.txt). But whether the authors themselves add html tags or simply copy/paste their stories into LJ/DW varies wildly. The cleanest files come from archive downloads because the program adds that information.

I also think the best way to go about it is to do it on an author folder basis and work on the fics by that one author at a time. I can make a copy of it, do whatever renaming I need, then delete the extra files. (And there a folder where I keep fics by what I call various authors - a single story or two I liked out of the entire collection of an author; there all the fics have a different author so those will most likely have to be dealt on a one by one basis.)

Righ now, the way things stand, I think I will have to use two programs: one for renaming the files, and one for making changes to their content. Last night I was poking around Notepad++ and discovered that I can edit several files at once. That will enable me to do bulk corrections even though I'll have to open the files in Notepad++. It's a more time consuming way to do things, but it's the best I can come up right now while I'm trying to work out calibre.

I hope I explained myself, English is not my native language. Thank you for the help and the patience!

If you're working author-by-author, in my preferred program's workflow I could tell it "add dash and a space after X characters," since the author name would the same # of characters for each fic by that author. Perhaps yours has something like that?

I was looking at screenshots of Better File Rename and Bulk Rename Utility and discovered there's a huge difference in the way they're set up. BRU has a massive amount of sections and subsections (http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Screenshots.php), so I am now going through their help files and forum.

I'm going to install BFR too and see which one is easier to work with.

OK, that seems like something I can work with, and I'd only have to change the number of characters after which I wanted to ad a dash when I started working on a new author folder. (This would be number of characters counted from the beginning of the file, yes?)

Yup!

(Whuff, BRU looks complicated to me. But if you like it, then hey! There's a reason that there are different tools out there, after all.)

It is, and I may give up on it in favor of something simpler. I now have BFR open and am trying out its functions (moving articles to their correct position).

Howdy--it looks like you've found a working solution, so best wishes and I hope your files are quickly sorted!

Yes, it seems like it. I just hope nothing new crops up!

I have one more question: how would I go about renaming a file in which the article is moved to the end? I found a few of those:

Author - Story Title, The.html

Oh, that's easy--tell it to delete the last five characters / the first instance of ", The" from the file name, then add "The " after the first instance of " - ". Just have to think about it step-by-step.

Yay, it worked! \(^_^)/

I think this one is for keeps. I can't see whether it can add the folder name as prefix to the file? That's one of the features I liked in BRU, if only the rest of it wasn't so complicated. :(

Mine has "add folder to beginning / end" somewhere in the first set of options in the dropdown menu of actions--program is at home so I'm going by memory, but I definitely checked it yesterday.

I think that settles it then. I still have plenty of files I need to rename, so I'll look for the option. Thank you for the help!

I also recommend file rename. the following website do that:
Read Online ebooks (http://ebookspdfepub.com)

That's a very good website. I also recommend (http://ebookspdfepub.com)

Renaming utilities and naming conventions for calibre

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File rename

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