Can I alphabetize my ibook collections?

[daisybelle]

I bought an iPad 2 recently and already have many books on my ibooks bookshelf, so i started organizing them by author in the collections tab. Now they're easy to find, as I have the books in the appropriate author collection, but the collections aren't listed in alphabetical order.

Is there a way to alphabetize the collections. I have 25 authors already and lots more to add, and it would be much easier to find if they were organized in alphabetical order.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

I have not found an easy way to do this but, as usual with the iPad, there is a (very ugly) workaround.

Entries appear in the order in which they were added, irrespective of the characters in the title - i.e. as you say, they are not in alphabetical order.

However, when you edit the title of an entry in your collection, it maintains its position in the order.

So, if I added two collections 'Z' and 'A' - in that order, they would appear in the drop down collections list with 'Z' and the top and 'A' at the bottom - and my 'Z' authored books would be in my 'Z' collection and my 'A' authored books in my 'A' collection. If I want to re-order the list then my (very very) ugly workaround is to edit the names of the collections - rename the 'A' collection as 'Z' and the 'Z' collection as 'A' (I have to go via an intermediate letter first of all because I can't have two collections with the same name).

So, because during the renaming process, the collections don't move their position, I now have the 'A' collection (albeit containing the 'Z' books) at the top and the 'Z' collection (with the 'A' books) at the bottom. Now all (!) I have to do is to move the 'A' collection books (currently in the new 'Z' folder) to the correct folder and the same for the 'Z' collection books.

It sounds a tortuous process but, in fact, since you're not going to be doing it that often, it's not really that bad. But, if you have a large number of collections to move around, I agree that it's impractical.....

Tim

 

[twerppoet]

There are two types of views, the bookshelf view and the list view. You can switch between them using the two icons at the upper left, beside the Edit icon.

In the bookshelf view, you can tap and hold on a book. It will get a little bigger and float above the shelf. Then you can drag it wherever you want. So, you can manualy re-order books that way.

In the list view you have three sort options; Bookshelf, Titles, Authors, and Catagories (genre).

The last three do exactly what you'd expect. So the easiest way to get what you want is to go into list view and choose Author.

The Bookshelf sort is thet same as the Bookshelf view, and you can manualy re-order. To do so tap the Edit button. Three gray lines will appear to the right of each item. Tap and drag these to move the books up or down the list.

Unfortunately all views are limited to the collection you've selected. I'd really like to see an all Books view that shows everthing, no matter what collection it's been added to.

 

[twerppoet]

Just realized you might be talking about alphabetizing the collection list. No auto way to do it, but you can manualy change thier order.

Tap the Collection button, and choose Edit from the bottom. The usual three gray lines show up to the right of each item. Drag them up or down to change the order of the list. The default Books and PDF's collections can not be moved from the top of the list.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Another gem!! Thanks - I'm just sad at all the time I've wasted going through the tortuous re-ordering that I described above when I could have saved so much time (and frustration) using your method. I knew there had to be a better way - thanks for this.

Tim

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. Don't worry, I'm sure that all the suffering was good for your character.

 

[wayneborean]

No problem. Don't worry, I'm sure that all the suffering was good for your character.

Might have been for him, but it just saved me a few more grey hairs <chuckle>.

Wayne

 

[greenapple77]

I was just encountering the same issue on iBook Collections! Thank for this!

 

[twerppoet]

Glad to have been of help. I just checked the iOS 5 version, and it all seems the same; with one nice addition. When you are in book cover view you can swipe left or right to move through your collections. Or maybe that was there in iOS 4, and I just never noticed it.

 

[JewelGarden]

I was just about to reorganize my books. This will help a lot. Thanks!

Never, never, never give up -- Winston Churchill

 

[twerppoet]

Joy! At least there is less sweat involved than when organizing the paper kind.

 

[JewelGarden]

Too true! Don't remind me ... I should weed out my hardcopy books and donate the "won't read agains" to the library book sale. Need to free up some space.

Never, never, never give up -- Winston Churchill