How do I import a PDF file onto my iPhone 3GS?

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wayn1234 wrote:
Yes, but isn't there another way?
eg. When you have your iPhone connected to your PC, isn't there a way of copying and pasteing the PDF file into a certain directory on the phone?

There are several ways but they all require an app be installed on the iPhone. Personally I load PDFs into my iPhone two ways. One is by importing the pdf into iTunes and then syncing the phone. That places it in iBooks. Of course you must have iOS4 installed and have installed the iBooks app.

The 2nd is to use GoodReader. One can drag and drop the file into the GoodReader area in the Apps tab File Sharing area. The problem with this is GoodReader hasn't been updated for iOS4 yet but that is coming soon. By installing iOS4 I lost GoodReader (for now) but gained iBooks so I didn't lose the ability to view my PDF files.

There are other apps but GoodReader worked so well I didn't investigate further.

Dropbox? Works for me.
https://www.dropbox.com/

If you install iBooks on the iPhone then sync, there should be a "Books" item in the left column of iTunes. Select it, drag your PDF file to the "Books" section of the iTunes window, then sync. The PDF should appear in the PDF section of iBooks on your iPhone.

Have you tested that Malcolm? I tried a pdf in Stanza book reading program and got one illustration on page one and all the layout disappeared from all the other pages - whereas with Dropbox the pdf appeared as originally laid out.

Have you tested that Malcolm?

Yes. I dropped the iPhone manual PDF into iTunes then synced. It is now in iBooks on the ipHone and works fine.

I tried a PDF in Stanza book reading program and got one illustration on page one and all the layout disappeared from all the other pages - whereas with Dropbox the pdf appeared as originally laid out.

Just having Stanza installed has been causing some problems with PDFs in other apps. Try removing it, Restoring, then trying the PDF in iBooks.

Also see this thread
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2469728&tstart=0>
ereader and other PDF app can interfere with iBooks.

Not exactly obvious about dragging and dropping on iTunes is it.
I opened a pdf in iBooks and it did preserve all the layout and pix.
So getting rid of it is just a matter of deleting on the iTunes panel somehow?

So getting rid of it is just a matter of deleting on the iTunes panel somehow?

You can delete it from iTunes, or with the phone connected, you can go to its "Books" tab, set which you want to sync, then sync. The ones you have unselected will be deleted from the iPhone.

glenidol wrote:
Not exactly obvious about dragging and dropping on iTunes is it.

Was obvious to me since that's how you get everything else into iTunes. Dragging a PDF was first thing I tried.

Download iBooks. Update iTunes 9.2 and OS 4.0 on iPhone 3G.
Open iTunes. Attach iPhone. Right click on any PDF file, "Open with" and choose iTunes. Then Sync phone. Ta-da. Even more fun is to use "Pages" to Export files as PDF's so you can then import as PDF to the iPhone. Take any document you can think of with you and view in iBooks!