Calibre is a free software program which makes it easy to organize your eBooks and send them to your device. Here is a refresher on how to add a book to Calibre!
First, you need to download the Calibre eBook library software, if you haven’t already. You can find it here:
Then you need to save your eBook file. I usually just download it and save it onto my desktop so I can find it later. A DRM-free book will download and save the same as any file would; there are no special procedures.
Now, open your Calibre library. Choose the big red ‘add to Library’ button. A file browser will pop up. From there, you can choose your file, select ‘ok’ and add away!
Now that it’s there, you can click the ‘edit metadata’ button to modify the tags for keyword searching, download a new cover or otherwise pretty up your new book. Happy reading!
Editor’s Note: For further Calibre tips and tricks, check out our Calibre series.
Here’s a little trick I only picked up recently.
Sometimes when you buy books in a bundle, you get them in multiple formats. If you want to keep all those multiple formats in your library (for example, you might have different e-readers that use different formats), open the “Settings” window and choose “Adding Books” under “Import/Export”.
“When using the ‘copy to library’ action check for duplicates with the same title and author” should be checked.
Also put a check next to “Automerge added books if they already exist in the calibre library” and make sure “Overwrite existing duplicate formats” is checked.
That way, when you drag multiple formats of the same book to Calibre, it will put them all into a single listing for that one title.
(It’s not perfect; sometimes PDFs have different naming metadata than other formats, and you’ll have to select both listings, right click, go to “Edit Metadata,” and choose “Merge book listings” to put them together.)
You can also just drag and drop the files onto the Calibre window to import them.
Frode, if you do that without setting the right option first, it will just complain you’re trying to add duplicate books.