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How to put Office Watch ebooks on an iPad or iPhone

Reading an Office Watch ebook on a portable device like an iPad or iPhone is quite easy. We’ll take you through the steps, which work for any PDF or other files, not just our ebooks.

Many thousands of our Office Watch ebook readers use their iPad/tablet to read our books.  The other day we received an email asking for ‘step by step’ help and we’re happy to oblige.

A few notes before we begin.

  • Almost all of this article applies to PDF files generally.  If you’ve ever wondered how to get files from your computer to an iPad, iPhone or other device – this is the place.
  • Menus and options will be a little different, depending on the device, browser and especially what PDF compatible apps are installed.

Get the ebook

First step is to get the PDF or other file onto your device – iPad or iPhone.  There are many ways to do that, we’ll mention the easiest options to either download direct or copy from another computer.

Download direct from the Office Watch web site

(this is the only part of the article which specifically applies to Office Watch ebooks).

The simplest way to get your ebooks onto an iPad etc is to download them from your Office Watch ebook account. 

  1. Open up a browser on your iPad.
  2. Go to https://shop.office-watch.com and login to your account.
  3. Choose one of your ebooks to download.
    • All the above is the same as on a desktop/laptop computer!
  4. When the download is complete, an ‘Open with’ option should appear.
    • The exact message varies, depending on the browser.
  5. Click on ‘Open with’ and select an app to view the PDF file.
    • The exact apps available depend on what’s installed. On Apple devices, the supplied Books app should be listed.  Here’s an example.

We suggest the Adobe Reader DC app.  Yes it has annoying prompts for extra paid services but at least it supports all the main PDF features, which other apps might not.

Where is the download?

Did you miss the ‘Open with’ option after downloading?  It might accidently disappear but that’s not a problem because the downloaded file is saved on the device.  This is where things might get a little confusing because iPhone/iPad downloads are saved differently from Windows or Mac computers. 

On Windows/Mac there’s a single ‘Downloads’ folder which most programs use to save downloaded files.  iPad/iPhone keep files and downloads separate for each app so you have to look in the dedicated folders for that app.

Some browsers have a list of recently downloaded files where you can choose ‘Open with’. Others don’t have a downloads list, for example the current Microsoft Edge browser for iPad (hopefully on Redmond’s To Do list).

Never fear, the Apple Files app will show you files linked to many apps.  Open Files then On my iPad (iPhone), choose the browser app and look for the file you downloaded.

Tap on the PDF to open it in the linked app.  Or choose Move to relocate the PDF to another apps file folder (for example, the Acrobat app).

Transferring a file from desktop to device

There are many, many ways to move files between your devices including Windows/Mac  computers and any portable devices.  For us, the best choice is to use online cloud storage like OneDrive, iCloud, Dropbox etc.

From any of your computers/devices, save your PDF (or other) file to a folder in your OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud or other storage. It’s then available on your other devices (assuming you have the matching storage app installed).   See your chosen cloud service help for details, if necessary.

On another device, find the file in the cloud storage app, in our example the OneDrive app, then choose ‘Open with’ or ‘Open in another app’ and choose an app related to that file type.  In other words, the same as for a downloaded file, mentioned above.

In case you’re wondering, there are other methods of transferring files between devices, most are older more complicated options created in the dark days before online storage became common and cheap. Few people now bother with using iTunes on desktop machines and the little-known file management option.

Office Watch ebooks

Click here to see the full range of titles.

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