How to Get PDFs onto Your iPad into iBooks

PDF is an acronym for "Portable Document File" and is a convenient format used for reading documents on all sorts of devices, regardless of application, device, or operating system you have.

There are many popular readers available to access and read PDFs from your iPad.  In fact if a PDF is emailed to you, you can click on it from your Mail app and it will open and you will be able to read it.  iBooks on the iPad is another good way to read PDF files and to store them for offline reading.  Often times when we are traveling, we don't have convenient access to wifi services, and it is nice to have a way to read our stored PDFs to read whenever we wish.

How Can You Find PDFs

There are many PDFs already on the web. We just need to find them.  The quickest way to find a PDF is to use Google Search from your Safari browser on your iPad.  For example, if you want to find a reference manual for your iPad, you can google for it.

Type in a phrase like, "iPad 2 manual pdf"  Using the additional word "pdf" will help find the file in pdf format. 

The search results will appear in a list.  The following result appears to be the best option as it is an Apple pdf file.  Clicking on this result will bring up the pdf.  Now, you can read the resulting pdf directly from your Safari browser; however, it may be something you want to keep as a reference for later.  In that case, after the document has fully loaded into the browser page, simply tap twice with your finger on the pdf and an option  bar will appear at the top of the page.  The option to read/save in iBooks will be one of the options.  If you select this one, your PDF file will be saved to your iBooks bookshelf.  You will be able to access this document offline at any time. 


Other Ways to Transfer a PDF to your iPad

Via Email. You can email a copy of a file by dragging it from your computer desktop to your new email window and send it to yourself.  You can then retrieve it from your mail on your iPad and can save it from there.  To save, merely open the PDF file while in your mail app by touching the opened file with your finger.  Once open, you should notice a small square with curved arrow in the upper corner menu bar.  If you tap on this icon you will be given the same option to open in iBooks.  If you select this option, your pdf file will be saved in iBooks.

Via another app.  Using GoodReader or Dropbox app one can transfer a pdf to their Mac.  You merely drag the PDF into the GoodReader of Dropbox app on your Mac or PC.  Then open the same app, either GoodReader or Dropbox on you iPad and select the document and option to transfer to iBooks. These methods do not require that you sync with iTunes.  Using iTunes to sync books or pdf files is not always convenient.

There is a way to transfer PDFs via iTunes without having to sync

Connect your iPad to your PC or Mac via the cable and run iTunes app on your computer. In the left hand column you will see the name of your iPad under Devices. Select Apps tab at the top in the right hand window.  Scroll down until you see the File Sharing section. Select either GoodReader of Dropbox from the list of apps that have file sharing capabilities on your iPad.  Drag the PDFs into the list for that app on the right-hand side.  They will appear on your iPad retrievable by the app.

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Solution for Transfering Photos from iPad to Computer and Back

When transferring photos between your mobile devices like iPad and iPhone or to your MacBook Air and back, you need to consider the amount of time and bandwidth or data transferred via the cloud.    As an alternate solution, one should consider one of the excellent apps available to do this efficiently and seamlessly.

How It Can Be Accomplished with PhotoSync

PhotoSynch is such an app available for the Mac and also the iPhone/iPad devices.  PhotoSync allows synching photos in both directions without hassle, using an easy-to-use interface, which allows transfer of all photos or a selection of photos. 

* This transfer from device to computer and computer to device can be accomplished via a wireless connection or 3G/LTE. The device to device transfer is available using bluetooth and wifi.
* The number of photos you plan to transfer can be limitless, but I haven't tried that yet.
* You can share photos to other sites such as Facebook, Dropbox, Picasa, and others like Google Drive (the new Google Docs).

* It also has Web Browser viewing capabilities where you can view your photos in a web page from a computer on your same network.
* Transfer is done in the background, allowing iPhone and iPad users to continue with phone calls or games.
* You can select the size to send, which computer to use as your default storage.

* You can setup defaults in the settings of the app for quick transfers and also choose to send to a certain folder or to iPhoto on your computer directly when receiving or sending photos.

Support for Mac and Windows Companion App

The iPad/iPhone app is relatively inexpensive for your iPad/iPhone and comes free for use on your desktop or Mac laptop (Mac OS X10.5 or higher Intel and PPC supported).  There is also a Windows PhotoSynch companion app that works for those using a PC as their default computer (Windows XP SP 2 or higher, Windows Vista or higher, Windows 7).  Location services needs to be enabled in order to use the app successfully.

For those who don't want to use a cloud server or have limited wifi capability or your internet connection is down this is a great solution as it offers a means to transfer photos and videos between devices and computers using a local network. I give PhotoSync a thumbsup rating of 5 stars for all my fellow travelers and photographers.






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How to Get an ePub Book onto My Mac

Today's journey involves transferring a free ePub book that I found online at Google Books to my iPad. Searching online for a good book about the Northwest Passage, I found one published in 1860, by James Alex Browne, called "The Northwest Passage and the Fate of the John Franklin."

It was an easy step to download the ePub file to my Mac's hard drive.  The next step was a bit challenging.  It seemed logical to me that I might be able to email it to myself, retrieve it from the inbox on my iPad and save it directly to iBooks app on my iPad.  That didn't seem to work for me.  Possibly it was due to my lack of coherence and coffee this morning. I tried other apps like Free Books and GoodReader. Nothing seemed to work.

Finally, I pursued the use of my Dropbox app.  I moved the ePub file into the cloud in my Dropbox by opening a finder window and physically dragging the ePub file to my Dropbox.  Once the file was located conveniently in my Dropbox in the cloud, I was able to select the Dropbox app icon on my iPad, next select the ePub file, and a popup selection box appeared on my iPad.

It was easy from there to add it to my iBooks library collection or into Free Books or GoodReader. 




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