Click the ‘Fetch news’ button in the top tool bar to open the news download scheduler. With so many sources the best thing to do is find the ones you like and set them to automatically download at a time convenient for you. If you don’t want to schedule automatic downloads and would rather handle it manually, you can. Just use the ‘Download now’ button that appears when you have selected a news source.

In the news download scheduler you can expand the categories that are relevant to you (the ones in languages you can read) by clicking the disclosure triangles to the left of the language groupings. Look through the entries for something of interest. When you find one, select it and check the ‘Schedule for download’ check box on the right, or click ‘Download now’. You can also set how often and when you want it to download. Once downloaded the content will be converted to an e-book according to your conversion preferences.

By default when you connect your e-book reader calibre will automatically transfer the downloaded news to the device. If you don’t want this to happen, and would rather transfer manually go into the ‘Preferences’, select the ‘Behavior’ category, and uncheck ‘Automatically send downloaded news to ebook reader’. Also, if you do want it send to the reader automatically it’s usually a good idea to check the ‘Delete news from library when automatically sent to reader’ option.

Task 5: Interacting with e-book readers

In my mind the reason people start reading e-books as opposed to physical books (p-books) is due to e-book readers. That’s precisely why I started collecting e-books. Calibre has full support for a wide variety of e-book readers. In total, calibre currently supports over 40 e-book readers. Yep, over 40. Everything from eInk devices like the Kindle, Kobo and Nook to cell phones and tablets.

5.1: Putting an e-book on your e-book reader

Connect your e-book reader to your computer, and start calibre if it’s not already running. If your device is supported by calibre a ‘Device’ icon will appear next to the ‘Library’ button in the tool bar. Clicking the ‘Device’ icon will switch the book list from your library to a listing of e-books on your connected device. If you want to send an e-book to your device just switch back to your library, select the ‘Library’ and click ‘Send to device’ in the top tool bar. It really is that simple. Another often-used feature is removing e-books from the device by selecting a book on the device and click the ‘Remove books’ button in the top tool bar.

Once you’ve finished managing the e-books stored on your device, click the down arrow next to the ‘Device’ button. You will see an eject icon (upward-pointing triangle inside a circle). Clicking the eject icon disconnects your e-book reader from the computer. Always eject your device before disconnecting it. Bad things can happen if you don’t do this.