Chapter 19. Transferring Ebooks and Audiobooks to Your iPad
For those who love to read, an iPad can become an indispensable device since you can cram thousands of different books into an iPad. By holding an entire library in your iPad, you’ll never run out of reading material anywhere you go.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to transfer ebooks and audiobooks that are on your computer to your iPad.
Importing Ebooks into Your iPad
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.
Installing the Free iBooks App
Before you can start reading ebooks on your iPad, you need to download and install the free iBooks app, which allows you to read EPUB and PDF files stored on your iPad. To install the iBooks app, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap App Store. The App Store screen appears, as shown in Figure 19-1.
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.
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.
Importing Audiobooks, EPUB, and PDF Files into iTunes
After you have an audiobook or ebook stored on your computer, you’ll need to import it into iTunes. To import a file into iTunes, follow these steps:
Note
Alternatively, you can simply drag your files from Finder or Windows Explorer directly into iTunes.
Transferring Ebooks and Audiobooks from iTunes to an iPad
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 19-2.
Click the All books or Selected books radio button. (If you choose the Selected books radio button, you’ll be able 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 checkboxes 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.
Converting Files to EPUB Format
If you have non-EPUB or non-PDF files (such as a Microsoft Word .doc/.docx files) that you want to store and read on your iPad, you have several choices. You can use the iWork app to open and view these files (see Chapter 38 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/), Web Books Publishing (http://www.web-books.com/), 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 special PDF creation software, such as Adobe Acrobat, to convert different files into a PDF file.
Reading Microsoft Word Files on an iPad
Converting files into EPUB or PDF file formats can be troublesome and inaccurate. For another alternative to reading ebooks stored in Microsoft Word format, you can simply attach the Microsoft Word file to an email message and then send that email message to an account you can open on your iPad.
Note
To receive email on your iPad, you’ll need to set up an email account as explained in Chapter 16.
To read a Microsoft Word file sent as a file attachment, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Mail.
Choose the email account that contains the Microsoft Word file sent as a file attachment.
Tap Inbox. The Inbox window opens, listing all your messages. Messages with a file attachment appear with a paperclip icon, as shown in Figure 19-3.
Tap the message that contains the file attachment. The message appears, displaying the file attachment as an icon.
Tap the file attachment icon. The contents of the file appear on the screen. Now you can scroll up or down to read your Microsoft Word file.
If you want to view and edit Microsoft Word documents using Pages, Apple’s word processor, flip ahead to Chapter 38.
Reading EPUB and PDF Files
You can use the iBooks app to read both EPUB and PDF files. To read an EPUB or PDF file in iBooks, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap iBooks.
If the iBookstore screen appears, tap the Library button to see the iBooks main screen.
Tap the EPUB or PDF tab in the upper-left corner of the screen, as shown in Figure 19-4. All the EPUB or PDF files stored on your iPad appear.
Tap the EPUB or PDF file that you want to read.
Additional Ideas for Transferring Ebooks to Your iPad
Given a choice between lugging around an armload of heavy and bulky books or just carrying around a thin, light iPad, it’s easy to see how the iPad can make reading ebooks so appealing. If you’re a student, you could take notes in a paper notebook and then carry those pieces of paper around whenever you need to study (and hope you don’t lose your pieces of paper). Or you could convert your notes into an EPUB or PDF file and create your own ebook of class notes. Now when you want to study multiple subjects, you just need to take your iPad with you.
Businesspeople can convert their files to EPUB or PDF format and view them through the iBooks app on their iPad or just email Microsoft Word documents to themselves so they can open and read them on the iPad.
The true value of the iPad is its ability to load a virtually unlimited number of ebooks inside a single device that’s easy to carry and read. If you already have the Amazon Kindle ebook reader, download Amazon’s Kindle app (for free) on your iPad. Now you can download any ebooks you’ve already purchased for the Kindle and read them on your iPad.
After reading an ebook on the iPad, reading paper books will suddenly seem quaint. An iPad may never replace the feel of finely crafted book, but its versatility means you’ll never risk running out of reading material ever again—unless, of course, you forget to transfer enough ebooks to your iPad.