To read ebooks on your iPad, you need to install the free iBooks app, which you can download from the App Store. The iBooks app can display ebooks stored in the EPUB or PDF file formats. To install the iBooks app, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap App Store. The App Store screen appears.
Tap in the Search field in the upper-right corner of the screen. The virtual keyboard appears at the bottom of the screen.
Type iBooks, and tap Search. The iBooks icon appears on the screen.
Tap FREE next to the iBooks app. The FREE button turns into an INSTALL APP button. (If you see the word INSTALLED next to the iBooks icon, that means you already have iBooks installed on your iPad.)
Tap INSTALL APP. A dialog may appear, asking that you type your iTunes account password. After you type your password, the iPad downloads and installs the iBooks app.
If you already have an audiobook or ebook stored on your computer, you just need to import it into iTunes, just like you would a song or video. To import a file into iTunes, follow these steps:
Once you have some ebooks or audiobooks in iTunes on your computer, you can transfer them to your iPad. To transfer your files, follow these steps:
Connect your iPad to your computer using the USB cable.
Run iTunes on your computer.
Click the name of your iPad in the Devices category.
Click the Books tab. The Books screen appears, listing all your stored EPUB and PDF books, as shown in Figure 15-7.
Check (or uncheck) the Sync Books checkbox.
Click the All books or Selected books radio button. (Choosing the Selected books radio button allows you to select EPUB and PDF books individually.)
(Optional) Click the pop-up menu under the Books heading and choose Books and PDF files, Only Books, or Only PDF files.
(Optional) Click the second pop-up menu and choose Sort by Title or Sort by Author.
(Optional) If you chose the Selected books radio button, check the check-boxes of the books you want to transfer.
(Optional) Check (or uncheck) the Sync Audiobooks checkbox, and click the All audiobooks or Selected audiobooks radio button. (If you choose the Selected audiobooks radio button, you’ll be able to select audiobooks individually.)
Click Apply to start synchronizing your EPUB files and audiobooks with your iPad.
If you have non-EPUB or non-PDF documents (such as Microsoft Word .doc/.docx files) that you want to store on your iPad, you have several choices. You can use the iWork app to open and view these files (see Chapter 29 for details). Or you can convert the file to the EPUB file format. Some websites that offer free EPUB conversion are 2EPUB (http://www.2epub.com/), EPUB 2 Go (http://www.epub2go.com/), and ePubConverter (http://www.epubconverter.org/).
Note
Converting any file into another file format, such as a Microsoft Word file into the EPUB file format, may not always be accurate. This could mean text is formatted incorrectly or pictures may be missing.
If you’d rather not hassle with converting files, you can download free EPUB books from sites such as ePubBooks.com (http://www.epubbooks.com/), Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/), and Google Books (http://books.google.com/). Many classic books are freely available for download because they are in the public domain.
Rather than convert files to EPUB format, you might find it easier to convert files to a PDF file instead. On a Macintosh, you can choose the Print command to convert any file (such as a word processor or spreadsheet file) into a PDF file. On a Windows PC, you may need to use PDF creation software, such as Adobe Acrobat, to convert files to PDF.
Note
If your .doc or .docx file is small enough, you can also just email it to yourself and open the attachment in the Mail app.
If you’re ready to learn how to read ebooks and navigate the iBooks app, flip ahead to Chapter 19.