A Style in NeverTooManyBooks is a saved configuration that decides everything about how your book list looks and behaves: which hierarchy levels the list is split into (e.g. Author → Series → Book), how each level is sorted, which fields appear on each row, how large the cover thumbnails are, and even the font scale. Every bookshelf remembers the last style you used on it, so you can have one style for your fiction shelf and a completely different one for your reference shelf without any manual switching.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/tfonteyn/NeverTooManyBooks/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Built-in vs. User Styles
NeverTooManyBooks ships with a set of built-in styles that cover the most common browsing modes. Built-in styles cannot be edited directly, but any of them can be cloned into a fully editable user style in one tap.Built-in styles are read-only by design — they serve as reliable starting points that are never accidentally broken. To customise one, tap the clone button in the style picker and give your copy a name. All settings of the original are copied over and are then freely editable.
Built-in Styles
| Style name | Default grouping |
|---|---|
| Author, Series (default) | Author → Series |
| 1st character of the Book title | Book title first character |
| Series | Series |
| Tags | Tags/Genre → Author → Series |
| Lending | Loanee → Author → Series |
| Read & Unread | Read status → Author → Series |
| Date Published | Publication year → Publication month → Author → Series |
| Date Added | Year added → Month added → Day added → Author |
| Date Acquired | Year acquired → Month acquired → Day acquired → Author |
| Author, Year | Author → Publication year → Series |
| Format | Format |
| Date Read | Year read → Month read → Author |
| Location | Location → Author → Series |
| Language | Language → Author → Series |
| Rating | Rating → Author → Series |
| Bookshelf | Bookshelf → Author → Series |
| Date last updated | Year updated → Month updated → Day updated |
Switching Styles
Tap the Style button in the book list toolbar (it shows the current style name). The style picker slides up and lists all preferred styles. Tap any style to apply it instantly — the list rebuilds without leaving the screen.Creating a Custom Style
Open the style picker
In the book list toolbar, tap the Style button to open the style picker sheet.
Choose a starting point
Either tap the + button to start from the current global defaults, or long-press an existing style and tap Clone to copy all its settings into a new style.
Name your style
Enter a descriptive name. The name appears in the style picker and on the bookshelf header.
Configure groups
In the Groups section, add, remove, or reorder the group levels that structure your list (see Available Groups below).
Adjust display settings
Set cover thumbnail size, text scale, book-level fields, header fields, and — on tablets — the screen layout.
Style Settings Reference
Groups
Groups
Groups define the hierarchy of the list. The first group is the top level (e.g. Author), the second is nested inside it (e.g. Series), and books appear below the deepest group.Each group can be added once or, for some types like date groups, replaced with a coarser or finer variant (e.g. year-only vs. year + month + day).Show books under each group — For Author, Series, Publisher, and Bookshelf groups, you can choose whether a book that belongs to multiple entries (e.g. two authors) appears under each of them or only under the primary one.
Sorting
Sorting
Each group level has its own sort direction (ascending A→Z or descending Z→A). The sort order of the book level itself is configured separately via the Book level fields setting, which lets you specify one or more fields to sort books by within each group, each with its own ascending/descending direction.
Book-level fields
Book-level fields
Choose which fields are displayed on each individual book row in the list. Visibility here is independent of the global Field Visibility setting — you may globally enable a field but still hide it on the list row to keep rows compact.
Cover scale
Cover scale
Sets the size of cover thumbnails shown in the list. Options range from hidden (no thumbnail) through small, medium, and large. Larger thumbnails make browsing more visual but show fewer books per screen.
Text scale
Text scale
Adjusts the font size used for group headings and book titles in the list, independently of the system font size.
Header fields
Header fields
Choose which summary fields appear in the group row header (e.g. the number of books, the Author’s full name style). You can toggle each header element on or off per style.
Screen layout (tablet only)
Screen layout (tablet only)
On larger screens, choose between:
- Single pane — the list fills the screen; tapping a book opens a full-screen detail view.
- Dual pane — the list occupies the left column and the book detail view is always visible on the right. Note: when the embedded detail frame is active the list always uses the standard list layout regardless of this setting.
Cover tap & long-press actions
Cover tap & long-press actions
- Tap action: Zoom the cover in a dialog, or navigate directly to the book detail screen.
- Long-press action: Ignore, or open the book’s context menu as a popup anchored to the cover.
Author display options
Author display options
Title display
Title display
Reordered titles — show “Lord of the Rings, The” instead of “The Lord of the Rings” in group headings and book rows. This mirrors the global sort-reorder setting but can be overridden per style.
Row height
Row height
Toggle between the system’s preferred list item height and a compact wrap-content height for denser lists.
Expansion level
Expansion level
Set which level of the group hierarchy is visible but not yet expanded when you first open (or rebuild) the list. For example, with an Author → Series hierarchy and expansion level 1, you see all authors collapsed; level 2 shows authors expanded with series collapsed.
Book count
Book count
Show or hide the running count of books next to each group heading.
Available Groups
The full set of grouping dimensions you can add to any style:| Group | Description |
|---|---|
| Author | Groups by the book’s primary author (respects the “show under each” option for books with multiple authors) |
| Series | Groups by series name |
| Tags / Genre | Groups by user-assigned tags (formerly the Genre field) |
| Publisher | Groups by publisher name |
| Bookshelf | Groups by the bookshelf the book is on |
| Read status | Read vs. Unread |
| Lending | Who currently has the book on loan |
| Format | Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, etc. |
| Language | Book language |
| Location | Physical shelf location |
| Rating | Star rating (0–5) |
| Color | Book colour tag |
| Condition | Physical condition of the copy |
| Original language | Language of the original work (for translations) |
| Identifier | External identifier type (ISBN, LibraryThing ID, etc.) |
| Book title 1st char | Alphabetical index by first letter of title |
| Series title 1st char | Alphabetical index by first letter of series name |
| Author family name 1st char | Alphabetical index by first letter of author family name |
| Publisher name 1st char | Alphabetical index by first letter of publisher name |
| Publication year / month | Year and/or month of publication |
| First publication year / month | Year and/or month of original publication |
| Date added year / month / day | When the book was added to your library |
| Date acquired year / month / day | When you acquired the physical copy |
| Date read year / month / day | When you finished reading |
| Date last updated year / month / day | When the book record was last changed |