Add PDFs to your iPad via iBooks

Regardlesss of the merits of the iPad HD display versus the e-ink screens favoured by Amazon, Sony et al, Apple’s Book store is growing in popularity and already shaping up to be as comprehensive and ubiquitous as the iTunes Store has become for music.

But one feature that I really like about the iBooks app is the ability to store PDF files. For professionals, this makes iBooks the perfect library for sales brochures, marketing material, training guides, manuals, catalogues and price lists – any kind of document, in fact, that can be saved and viewed in the universal PDF format. Although with iOS4, iBooks is now available on the iPhone, this method of document storage really comes into its own on the iPad. So here’s a quick overview of how you achieve this.

First, open up iTunes. Select File -> Add to Library….

Navigate to the PDF file(s) you want to add to iBooks. By holding down the Cmd key you can select more than one file, or even an entire folder. Once you’ve made your selection, click Choose.

When you select Books in your iTunes library, you’ll see all the PDF files that you just added and you can also change the titles of each file to something more recognisable, and use the iTunes info dialog box to classify and categorise your document archive.  Make sure the Media Kind is set to ‘Book’.

Finally, select your iPad from the Devices list in iTunes. Choose the Books tab from the list at the top. Make sure that Sync Books is checked. If you just want to update all of the books you’ve added to iTunes, select All Books and then click the Sync button. If you want to only sync individual PDF files, choose Selected Books and place a check against each title you want to sync (and then click the Sync button).

Next time you open iBooks on your iPad, you’ll see all your PDF files neatly arranged on the shelves and be able to open them individually.  Tap the screen and a menu will appear at the top that will allow you to change the displays brightness, search the PDF, bookmark a page etc.