Using caliber

Caliber is an easy-to-use ebook management program. The special thing is that it can handle all kinds of devices. So you no longer have to use the program that comes with your e-reader or tablet. Very useful if you own several devices and do not want to use a different program each time.

You can read how to download and install the program in the ‘Calibre’ article. In this article we will discuss how to use the program. As a test device we do not use an e-reader but a tablet from Samsung (Galaxy Tab A with Android 8). The explanation below does not work for an iPad.

The Caliber program serves as a repository for ebooks on your computer. You must purchase and download these ebooks through an ebook provider, the purchase is not done in the program. You import the ebooks into Caliber. They then end up in the so-called library. Once you have collected your books, you can ‘send’ them to your device. This is done at the push of a button. Your device must be connected to the computer. The books will be placed in your device’s book library.

• Start Caliber on the computer. Click on the Startbutton > Caliber Ebook Management > Caliber Ebook Management.

The program opens with an overview window of the Caliber library. In the overview window you will see the following:

• At the top you can see the functions of the program.
• On the left you see a list of terms such as ‘authors’ and ‘appreciation’. Those are terms you can use to sort your books later.
• The middle box is empty when you are just starting out. Once you have added books, you will find the titles here. These titles together make up your book library. You can always return to this overview by clicking on the button Library.

The first step is to import ebooks to get them into your Caliber library. You probably have the ebooks somewhere on your hard drive. We are now going to add them to Caliber.

• Open caliber.
• If necessary, connect the hard drive to the computer.
• In Caliber, click the button at the top left Add books.
• The Explorer opens. Browse to the correct folder by clicking on the folder names.
• Click on the name of the desired ebook.
• click on To open.

You are returned to the Caliber overview window. The newly added book is now in the middle section. You will see the title, author and other information known about this book. The data you see depends on the file itself. Some book files contain a lot of additional information, others not much. If no information appears at all, you can add it yourself by clicking on the title or author and filling it in yourself.

Do you want to add multiple books that are in the same folder on your hard drive? Which can.

• Click to the right of the button Add books on the down arrow.
• Click on the option Add from folders and subfolders > new.
• The Explorer opens. Browse to the correct folder by clicking on the folder names.
• Click on the name of the correct folder.
• click on Select folder.

You are returned to the Caliber library overview window. All the books from your newly selected folder are now in the middle part of the window. You will see the title, author and other information known about this book.

• In Caliber in the top bar, click Device to see the contents of your device.
• You will see the books that are already on your e-reader or other type of device.

Now we are going to copy a book to the connected device.

• Click on the button in the top bar Library to return to the overview window.
• Click on the title of the book you want to copy to your device.
• Click on the button in the top bar Send to device.

Once that is complete, a green check mark will appear in front of the book title in the ‘On device’ column. This is useful because it allows you to know exactly which book from your Caliber library is already on your device.