Tech Thursday: Managing e-book
collections with Calibre
What is Calibre?
E-books are still not quite as straightforward to manage as paper books. This post is
about Calibre, free software to help you with almost everything you need to do with
your e-books on your computer. It can:

Copy e-book files from your computer to you e-reader

Convert e-book files between different formats (such as ePub and MOBI)

Convert Word and PDF documents into e-books

Read e-books on your computer

Edit e-book files

Manage a large collection of e-books

Acquire free e-books from online collections

Buy DRM-free e-books from online stores

Download news from the web in e-book format
Calibre works on all three major operating systems: Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Video overview
Here you can watch a short video about how to use Calibre.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/t-BhR4m0gHo"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Note: This video describes an older version but most of the main features are the
same.
What files can you manage with Calibre
Calibre works with any files without DRM protection. These include:

Files downloaded from Load2Learn

Free e-books downloaded from repositories such as Project Gutenberg

DRM-free books purchased from various locations
This means that you cannot use Calibre with books you purchased on Amazon.
This is unfortunate but luckily Amazon provides a very useful interface for managing
your e-books on its website.
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If you purchased books in other online bookstores such as Kobo, you can manage
the collection with Calibre but you have to take some additional steps and download
Adobe Digital Editions software for your computer.
Main features of Calibre
Import books into Calibre
Adding existing files into Calibre could not be easier. You can:
1. Drag and drop any text file into the Calibre window
2. Click on the Add books button and navigate to where you have stored your
file
You can even add whole directories and take advantage of other options when
you click on the dropdown menu arrow on the side of the Add books button.
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Send books to your e-reader
Many people still struggle to get e-books onto their e-reader. Calibre makes this
incredibly simple with support for all the main e-reader devices (both e-ink devices
and tablets).
All it takes is 3 steps:



Plug in your e-reader device with a USB cable – a device button will appear
on your toolbar
Click once on the e-book you want to send to the device – use Ctrl-Click to
select multiple books at once
Click on the Send to device button – Calibre automatically recognises if the
e-book format is compatible with the device and offer you conversion if
needed
Calibre will also let you manage books on the device




Click on the Device button to see the e-books that are stored on the device
You can delete or rename any books you see in the Device repository
If a book is both on the device and in your computer library, you can
delete a book on your device, it will still remain in your computer library (Note:
You will see a green tick next to books that are both on the device and in the
library)
You can switch back to the library by clicking on the Library button
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Convert e-books to different formats
Calibre will offer to convert books automatically when needed but you can also do it
at any time by using the Convert books button.
If the conversion gives you some strange results (such as broken lines), you can
fine-tune it in the settings.
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Read e-books on your computer
Calibre also comes with a built-in e-reader app to help you read e-books on the
computer. It does not have all the best features but is more than enough for
previewing e-books and you may even find it sufficient for your day-to-day reading.
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Get books from online repositories
With Calibre, you can also search online repositories and download books directly
into Calibre. Click on the Get books button to open the search interface.
You can choose between the many online book stores from both free and paid
books. Be warned, the search may take a while if you try to search in too many
stores at once.
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Get news for your e-reader
If you like to read your news on your e-reader in the form of an e-book, you can use
Fetch news to select the online sources from which to download things to read. This
includes most of the mainstream news sources available online as well as many
lesser known services.
You can even configure Calibre to email the downloaded news files to your
device, if the device supports it.
Calibre plugins
You can even extend the functionality of Calibre with Plugins via the Preferences
menu.
The plugins available include integration with online services such as Goodreads or
repositories of reading such as Fanfiction.net. You will also find functional plugins
like duplicate finder or PDF converter.
Getting to know Calibre better
Calibre is the ultimate e-book manager. It has all the features you could wish for and
more. But the price you pay for all these features is an interface that can be very
busy or even confusing. But don’t give up. Learn to use Calibre one feature at a time
and don’t be afraid to experiment.
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Coming up
Next time we will have a look at what’s new in tech following the BETT show.
The post following that will answer questions from readers. Use this form to submit
your questions.
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