14. Reading eBooks, Magazines, and Newspapers
In this chapter, you learn how to use your iPad to read various types of publications.
Reading News Stories with the News App
Your iPad is a great device for reading. You can use your iPad and the appropriate apps to read books, newspapers, magazines, and other articles—all in electronic format, all in the palms of your hands.
Reading eBooks on Your iPad
Electronic books, also known as eBooks, are a convenient way to read your favorite books. You can store multiple eBooks on your iPad and read any of them whenever and wherever you want. No more bulky paper books to haul around; no more losing your place among the dog-eared pages. Everything fits on and is viewed on your iPad.
The Apple Books app is preinstalled on your new iPad. You use the Books app to purchase eBooks from the Apple Book Store—and to read those eBooks and audiobooks you purchase.
Find and Purchase Books with the Books App
Before you can read eBooks with the Books app, you have to buy something to read—which you do directly from the Books app, from the Apple Book Store.
From the iPad’s Home screen, tap the Books icon to open the Books app.
Tap Book Store to enter the Apple Book Store.
Tap Browse Sections to view all the categories in the Book Store.
Scroll to the New & Trending section to view new releases.
Tap See All to view all books in this section.
Scroll to the Top Charts section to view top books in various categories.
Tap See All to view all book charts.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to view the most popular genres in the book store.
Tap All Genres to view all genres in the store.
Tap a genre to view books of that type. Or…
Tap Search to search by title, author, or subject matter.
Tap a book to view more details.
Tap Sample to download a short sample of this book.
Tap the Buy button to purchase the book. You see an Apple Books panel.
Follow the instructions to confirm your purchase.
Amazon Kindle App
As an alternative to the Apple Book Store and Books app, consider the Amazon bookstore and Kindle app. You can purchase eBooks at www.amazon.com and then read them on the Amazon Kindle app, which you can download for free from Apple’s App Store. The Kindle app works very much like Apple’s Books app, but without the ability to purchase books within the app.
Read a Book with the Books App
All the books you’ve purchased are downloaded to your iPad and displayed on the Library screen.
From within the Books app, tap Library to view the books and samples you’ve downloaded to your iPad.
Tap Collections to view your books by type.
Tap a type of collection (Want to Read, Finished, Books, Audiobooks, PDFs, and Downloaded) to view the items within.
Tap a book cover to open that book.
Swipe from right to left (or tap the right side of the screen) to turn to the next page.
Swipe from left to right (or tap the left side of the screen) to turn to the previous page.
Drag the slider at the bottom of the page to move to another section in the book.
Tap the Fonts icon to change the look and feel of the page.
Tap the right A to make the text larger and easier to read. Continue tapping to make the text even larger.
Tap the left A to make the text smaller. Continue tapping to make the text even smaller.
Tap Fonts to display and select a different font for the book’s text.
Tap one of the colored circles to change the display theme for the book pages.
Tap “off” the Auto-Night Theme switch if you don’t want the screen to change in low-light conditions. (Leave it on for better reading in bed at night.)
Tap “on” the Scrolling View switch if you’d prefer to scroll through instead of flip through pages.
Tap the Search (magnifying glass) icon to display the Search box.
Type within the Search box to search for a given word, phrase, or page number.
Tap the Bookmark icon to bookmark this page for future reference. (To view bookmarked pages, tap the Contents icon at the top left and select the Bookmarks tab.)
Tap the Contents icon to view the book’s table of contents.
Tap the left-arrow icon to return to the Library screen.
Free eBooks Online
Some eBooks are free. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Apple Book Store offer some older books for free download. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you get a variety of free eBooks as part of that subscription. Free eBooks are also available at sites such as Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) and Open Library (www.openlibrary.org). You can find many free eBooks at your local library, often via the Rakuten OverDrive website (www.overdrive.com). Ask your librarian for more information.
Reading News Stories with the News App
Books aren’t the only things you can read on your iPad. You also can read online newspaper and magazine articles using Apple’s News app.
The News app aggregates stories from a variety of news sources based on your reading habits. You see stories about topics you’re most interested in from those sources you like the best.
Personalize What News You Receive
When you first launch the News app, you’re prompted to select news sources (Apple calls them Channels) you’d like to include in your news feed. A handful of sources are already listed just in case you don’t have any preferences yet. You can select additional news sources now or do so at any later time.
From the iPad’s Home screen, tap the News icon to launch the News app.
Tap Edit at the top-left corner of the screen.
The left column displays suggested channels and topics currently appearing in your feed. Tap the red – button for any item you don’t want in your feed.
Tap Unfollow or Ignore to remove that item from your feed.
Scroll to the bottom of the left column and tap Discover Channels & Topics.
You see a list of additional news sources you can add to your feed. Scroll through the thumbnails for suggested news sources, then tap the + to add any sources you want to follow.
Tap Done when you’re done.
Read News Stories
The News app assembles stories based on the sources and topics you select and then fine-tunes those selections based on what you actually read over time. Stories are displayed on the main For You page.
With the News app, stories are organized by news source and topic. Scroll down the screen to view additional sources and topics.
Tap a story to read it.
Swipe up to read more of the story.
Swipe right to left to go to the next story.
Swipe left to right to go to the previous story.
Tap the Font icon to change the size of the onscreen text.
Tap the Share icon to share this story via instant message, email, or social media.
