Jul 13th, 2014, 4:25 pm
Does anyone know if/how one can stop Calibre from adding a bookmarks file to every book? Am thinking there must be a way. Calibre allows so much else to be customized.
Jul 13th, 2014, 4:25 pm
Jul 14th, 2014, 3:53 pm
This should do the trick:

    Open a file in the viewer.

    Click the Preferences button - cogs towards the bottom of the left-hand column.

    On the General tab (which should be the default) click the bottom section: "Miscellaneous options".

    It should give you this:

    Image

    Untick the last option "Remember the current page when quitting".

You can remove the bookmarks using the Modify ePub plugin.
Jul 14th, 2014, 3:53 pm

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Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is Lost Carcosa.
Jul 14th, 2014, 4:50 pm
Carcosa, you came through for me again. Thank you!

It happens that someone else proposed a similar solution, via PM.

Only wish I'd asked about this sooner, not THOUSANDS of bookmarks files later. :lol: :lol: :lol:

My ONE excuse is I expected to find that option in the general Calibre preferences. That's where I'd been looking, over and over and over again. But nothing about 'bookmarks'.

I'd opened all the icons along the viewer window yet still had not twigged to that option. Had been looking specifically for something that read 'bookmarks' - because of that 'bookmarks.txt' file - so when my eyes scanned the myriad options and didn't see 'bookmarks', I assumed such an option didn't exist.
Jul 14th, 2014, 4:50 pm
Jul 14th, 2014, 5:17 pm
McJalm wrote:My ONE excuse is I expected to find that option in the general Calibre preferences. That's where I'd been looking, over and over and over again. But nothing about 'bookmarks'.

I'd opened all the icons along the viewer window yet still had not twigged to that option. Had been looking specifically for something that read 'bookmarks' - because of that 'bookmarks.txt' file - so when my eyes scanned the myriad options and didn't see 'bookmarks', I assumed such an option didn't exist.


Oh yes, that is a pain. It took me quite a bit of digging before I thought "surely they wouldn't hide the viewer preferences separately in the viewer" but, lo and behold, they do!! You'd think they'd a) have this accessible from main preferences and b) have it turned off by default.

McJalm wrote:Only wish I'd asked about this sooner, not THOUSANDS of bookmarks files later. :lol: :lol: :lol:


Well at least now you can remove them - on the Modify ePub thread I linked to they suggest that you can run Quality Check, which will find the bookmarks that you can then use Modify ePub to remove. I haven't done it yet, but I will later.
Jul 14th, 2014, 5:17 pm

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Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is Lost Carcosa.
Jul 14th, 2014, 5:51 pm
Yup, been using Modify ePub to remove that file - but one book at a time, if I'm going to share it; also iTunes, OS and Adobe files/links/tags. That plugin was among the other gems you've delivered here. :D

Er, now that I have your attention, another question… I notice an option in the plugin to "Remove all (calibre) metadata jackets." What are metadata jackets? I know what metadata is/are, but the 'jackets' bit throws me. Am thinking this might be an additional standard option I'll want to have checked.
Jul 14th, 2014, 5:51 pm
Jul 14th, 2014, 9:17 pm
McJalm wrote:Yup, been using Modify ePub to remove that file - but one book at a time, if I'm going to share it; also iTunes, OS and Adobe files/links/tags. That plugin was among the other gems you've delivered here. :D


Glad it has come in handy, now if only there was a plugin to remind me to always use the plugins...

McJalm wrote:Er, now that I have your attention, another question… I notice an option in the plugin to "Remove all (calibre) metadata jackets." What are metadata jackets? I know what metadata is/are, but the 'jackets' bit throws me. Am thinking this might be an additional standard option I'll want to have checked.


I don't use them myself, so I might not be 100% right on this, but it is an extra page inserted into your book that displays the books metadata.

It isn't really explained clearly in the manual but there is more information in Calibre itself:

Under Convert books >> Structure Detection you find the option to: Insert metadata as page at start of book.

The tooltip then says:
This is useful if your ebook reader does not support displaying/searching metadata directly.


I assume this is unchecked by default (I doubt I've ever unchecked it myself) and I'd hope that anyone releasing books on here or elsewhere would know what it was if they enable it and remember to deselect it, but you can't rely on it I suppose and that'd need removing too (I don't think I've ever run across one in an ebook, but it can't hurt to check).

If anyone really wants one, for their personal consumption, they can add it in themselves using Calibre.
Jul 14th, 2014, 9:17 pm

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Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is Lost Carcosa.
Jul 14th, 2014, 9:37 pm
Perhaps your description of metadata jackets explains what I've seen with books purchased from Kobo. At the front of the book, after the cover, there's always a page that includes star ranking, brief summary, title, etc. Its presence has always annoyed me because that's toying with the whole idea of getting a book 'retail' - meaning, imw, going straight from publisher to reader, not having something added to the book by a retailer.

Now perhaps I'm being unfair to Kobo. However, it's ONLY been with books purchased through them and then (oftentimes, immediately) shared here that I've seen this phenomenon. It would be far too coincidental that every single person who has purchased and shared a Kobo book has retrieved it from their Calibre library and had metadata jackets turned ON.

An additional problem always for me: if something is referred to as 'metadata jacket' here, then it must be referred to as 'metadata jacket' there. Else, I'm thoroughly thrown and suppose something else is being talked about. :( WRT the Structure Detection in Calibre's conversion window, the word 'jacket' is not there. So I remain somewhat dubious.
Jul 14th, 2014, 9:37 pm
Jul 15th, 2014, 1:40 am
McJalm wrote:Perhaps your description of metadata jackets explains what I've seen with books purchased from Kobo. At the front of the book, after the cover, there's always a page that includes star ranking, brief summary, title, etc. Its presence has always annoyed me because that's toying with the whole idea of getting a book 'retail' - meaning, imw, going straight from publisher to reader, not having something added to the book by a retailer.

Now perhaps I'm being unfair to Kobo. However, it's ONLY been with books purchased through them and then (oftentimes, immediately) shared here that I've seen this phenomenon. It would be far too coincidental that every single person who has purchased and shared a Kobo book has retrieved it from their Calibre library and had metadata jackets turned ON.


I can't think I've seen one (is this kepub only?) but it'd be interesting to see if removing the metadata jacket would clean this up too. I'd guess it wouldn't, as I assume it is a Kobo specific thing, even if inspired by the Calibre version. I notice in the Kobo Utilities plugin that it directly manipulates information in the devices database and I wonder if the Kobo books do something similar - generate a page based on the underlying data.

McJalm wrote:An additional problem always for me: if something is referred to as 'metadata jacket' here, then it must be referred to as 'metadata jacket' there. Else, I'm thoroughly thrown and suppose something else is being talked about. :( WRT the Structure Detection in Calibre's conversion window, the word 'jacket' is not there. So I remain somewhat dubious.


Welll, it needn't be used as a "jacket", although it could function in that role if you wanted - it might be it'd work well in that role on some readers. It might be that it is largely the users not the creators who refer to "metadata jackets"... It does make it difficult to work out what is being talked about.
Jul 15th, 2014, 1:40 am

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Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is Lost Carcosa.