Open Lab on your e-Reader

Many people have inquired as to whether there is or will be an e-reader version of Open Lab. The short answer is: yes. But because of various technological constraints, the only e-book format available is PDF, and its already available.

Since the link for the PDF download is not especially obvious on the Lulu website, here is a direct link to the page to purchase the PDF version.

Okay, I downloaded the PDF, now how do I get it on my e-reader? Read on.

For the iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone:

Open iTunes, and click "File," then "Add to Library." Navigate to the PDF file, and click "Choose." Now, select "Books" in your iTunes library, and your PDF should appear in the list. Right-click on the PDF and select "Get Info," and open the "Options" tab. Make sure that "Media Kind" is set to "Book." Now click on over to the "Info" tab, where you can fill in any missing information (e.g. author names, year, etc).

Now select your iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone from the "Devices" list in iTunes. Select the "Books" tab from the list at the top. "Sync Books" should be checked. If you want to sync all of the books you've added to iTunes, select "All Books" and then "Sync." If you want to only sync certain books, choose "Selected Books" and then place a check next to each of the books you want to sync (and then click "Sync").

When you open iBooks on your iPad, after syncing, you'll notice a toggle-switch at the top that will allow you to switch between viewing "books" and "PDFs" - switch to "PDFs" and Open Lab should be right there.

(Want screenshots for each step? These instructions adapted from simplehelp.net)

For the Amazon Kindle:
If you have a Kindle 2, Kindle DX, or the latest 6-inch Kindle (Kindle 3), then your device has native support for PDFs - just load the PDF onto it. (The early version of Kindle 2 did not have these capabilities, but a software update will fix this.)

If you have a Kindle 1, this is a bit more complicated. Amazon.com lists instructions for adding a PDF to your device here.

For the Barnes and Noble Nook:
Connect your Nook to your computer, and simply drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste your PDF files into the Nook's "My Documents" folder. After it's done loading, start your Nook. Click "My Library," then "My Documents," then "Check for new content," then choose Open Lab from the list, and press "Select."

A video tutorial for this process can be found here. (Click question #10: "Can I put other files on my NOOK, and what file formats does NOOK support?")

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