How to Download and Store eBooks for Free on PDA phones

When traveling, eBooks can be quite enjoyable, especially a layover in an airport, or while standing in a line. There are many eBook readers that are available; each with a varying number if free eBooks for each reader. The trick is to find a reader for your PDA that also has a source for eBooks. A PDA with a good color screen and a backlight will make reading eBooks more enjoyable. Read on to learn more.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PDA phone

1. Adobe has released its famous PDF Reader for some PDA's. With a program that can create PDF documents, you can carry just about any document with you on your PDA also. Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry (BB) PDA's can view Microsoft Word and Excel and PDF email attachments automatically. Newer BBs support more multi-media features including micro-Secure Digital (microSD) flash memory chips. These newer BB's also support at least one eBook reader, Mobipocket. Here is a list of some of the more popular eBook readers: MarkMyScriptures, Mobipocket, iSilo, eReader, Plucker, MSReader and YanCEyWare.

2. I have used YanCEyWare reader on an HP IPAQ running Pocket PC 2002 and Mobipocket on an 8830 BB. The YanCEyWare reader can be found at http://www.yanceyware.com/products/reader.htm. YanCEyWare Reader is distributed as donation-ware. If you use this program and find it useful, make a donation. It supports these Pocket PC platforms: Windows Mobile 6.0, Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 2003 PPC, Pocket PC 2002 and Pocket PC 2000.

3. If you go to the support forums you will find that there are tools available for more advanced users to create their own eBooks. A lot of the classic novels have been placed in the public domain. Many of these have been converted to YanCEyWare format. The tools mentions can also be used to convert them to YanCEyWare format. I was able to find both free eBooks and eBooks for reasonable fees for the YanCEyWare reader. YanCEyWare also has a Microsoft Windows desktop PC version of the reader. It allows you to read your eBooks on your desktop or notebook PC. You use the free Microsoft ActiveSync software to transfer your eBooks to your PDA.

4. The Mobipocket Reader is available on many more platforms. Here is the supported platform list: Windows, Windows Mobile, PalmOS, Symbian and Blackberry.

5. Please see the Mobipocket web site for the various versions of the operating systems on these platforms. The reader can be downloaded at http://www.ldspocket.com/mobidownload.html. This same page also covers the operating systems’ release levels. Mobipocket is distributed as freeware. The Mobipocket reader for Windows allows you to read your eBooks on your desktop or notebook PC and it handles the install of the reader on your PDA and the transfer of eBooks to your PDA. One really nice feature of the Windows reader is that it can convert many documents into eBook format for reading on your PDA. Here is a list of the type of documents that can be imported and then sent to your PDA: Office Document, PDF Document, HTML Document, Text Document, CHM Document and OCF Document.

6. Mobipocket can also be used by MacOS and Linux users. Please see the above web page for more details.
   
   Mobipocket also has separate products to help you create content for your PDAs. These tools are also free and can be found at http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp?Language=EN.

7. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes it scriptures and many other materials available for free on their web site at http://www.lds.org. Their materials are available for many of the above the readers. Have fun exploring all of the capabilities that eBook readers can add to your PDA and Smart Phone devices.

[designervcu]

on 3/20/2009 There are a several ways on the BB. BBs can view PDF docs and the Ensigns are on the Church web site in PDF format. A second way is to download Mobipocket reader for both the BB and the Windows desktop. Mobipocket for Windows can import PDF docs so that they can be read in the BB Mobipocket reader. A third way is to purchase Docs to Go for the BB. It can do Word, Excel, Power Point and PDF docs. Docs to Go comes on the BB Storm but can be purchased for other BBs and other PDAs. Some mobiles (PDAs and phones) come preloaded with a Adobe Reader LE that can view most PDF docs. For those who do not know how to use their BB in mass storage mode, they can send themselves an email with the PDF attachment and use the built in PDF viewer.

[1stSgtPinkerton]

on 3/12/2009 Great article, though I may need a little "hand-holding" to walk me through it all. I have "Documents to go", but I sure do need the Adobe. By the way, how can I read the Ensign on my 8820?