How best to utilize the Books app

[Emperor Penguin]

I recently purchased a bunch of digital copies of books in both PDF and EPUB format and would like to figure out how best to get them into the ecosystem.

They are grouped into collections (e.g. ancient greece, enlightenment, etc.) so I would like to maintain these groupings as much as possible for organizational purposes.

I pay for iCloud 200GB and would ideally have them all stored there and accessible through the Books app on iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. What's the best way to do this?

 

[Blowback]

Not really sure of what you're asking but I simply drag books from the desktop into the Books application and then organize them. Same applies to PDFs. You may want to see which of your collection is duplicated/free on in the Apple Books store and grab them there...hope this helps.If your books are on your Mac/iPad / iPhone you should be able to drag them into the app.

 

[HDFan]

They are grouped into collections (e.g. ancient greece, enlightenment, etc.) so I would like to maintain these groupings as much as possible for organizational purposes.

Books are imported individually, You could create a collection in iBooks, then load all of the books from your collection folder into iBooks. Then create and load the next collection until done.

 

[Emperor Penguin]

Not really sure of what you're asking but I simply drag books from the desktop into the Books application and then organize them. Same applies to PDFs. You may want to see which of your collection is duplicated/free on in the Apple Books store and grab them there...hope this helps.If your books are on your Mac/iPad / iPhone you should be able to drag them into the app.

Thanks for the reply. I realize upon re-reading my OP that I wasn't really asking what I wanted to ask: when EPUBs or PDFs are dragged into the Books app, are they copied to the cloud (i.e. I can remove them from my computer's hard drive to free up disk space) or do they need to stay readable in a specific folder on my computer's local drive?

Books are imported individually, You could create a collection in iBooks, then load all of the books from your collection folder into iBooks. Then create and load the next collection until done.

Okay this is great, thanks for the help!

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I only use Books in the List view, and I've resorted to 'tagging' everything with keywords under Category column (Or whatever equivalent it is called in english). It has given me the best overview, since everything is then text based, and I can easily filter based on those keywords.

Note, Books is not behaving properly when editing fields in the List view for some reason, ie. deselecting fields at random points. And you can't edit multiple books at once, which is a real bummer. So I don't think it is a solution for you OP, but I wanted to let you know it also could be done.

 

[Blowback]

Thanks for the reply. I realize upon re-reading my OP that I wasn't really asking what I wanted to ask: when EPUBs or PDFs are dragged into the Books app, are they copied to the cloud (i.e. I can remove them from my computer's hard drive to free up disk space) or do they need to stay readable in a specific folder on my computer's local drive?



Okay this is great, thanks for the help!

Can't really answer but would AlWAYS keep a backup! Just like with physical books .....which I hate to lend out (read:lose)...would also hate to lose electronic copies.