organize books in iTunes?

Question

Level 1

121 points

organize books in iTunes?

Anyone see a way to create or at least file books into collections in iTunes? It's very slow and cumbersome to do it in iBooks.

Posted on Dec 15, 2010 11:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 16, 2010 12:33 AM in response to Allan Marcus1

It's fast here...

Open the bookshelf that has all your books... Click on the Collections button... New and name it... Done. Click on the Edit button... Pick the books you want to move to the new Collection... Click on the Move button... Pick the new Collection from the drop down menu... Done.

Reply

Answer 2

Allan Marcus1 Author

Level 1

121 points

Dec 16, 2010 6:41 AM in response to David M Brewer

Sure, if you have a few books and a few collections. What if you have hundreds and multiple iPads? Some of use use iPads in business and use it to carry hundreds of PDFs rather than walk around with a truck load of paper.

I use Readler with folders now, which can easily be manipulated on the Mac. I was hoping to use iBooks, but I guess iBooks is just the wrong app for what I need. I mean, it's a great app, but maybe not for organizing a lot of material.

I'm actually surprised at Apple. Jut a beautiful app for books and the best they can come up with is a "collections", a non-hierarcical very basic list. I mean come on, folders has been around for years, and nested folders since Mac OS 4.3 (or so).

Oh well. Thanks.

Reply

Answer 3

gsl

Level 1

13 points

Dec 17, 2010 8:21 PM in response to Allan Marcus1

I've got the same issue/concern. And I am more interested in being able to group or make "collections" in iTunes as I'll never put all my books on the iPad, but I want an easy way to store them, group by collection (such at a series by a particular author, etc). iTunes just doesn't handle books very well and the new version of iBooks is definitely slower.

BTW - what is "Readler"? I googled it and couldn't find it. Do you have a better way of storing books and collections? I'd be interested and how you are doing things. Thanks!

Reply

Answer 4

hejish

Level 1

15 points

Jan 14, 2011 12:04 AM in response to Allan Marcus1

I'm very interested in this topic as well. I sync a set of PDF files in iBooks to my phone and my wife's phone. I would like to put them in several folders from iTunes, and then have those folders/collections of books exist on both of our phones. Right now I have to do this manually on each phone, which is tiresome, every time a new book is sync'ed.

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 24, 2011 11:28 AM in response to David M Brewer

This is done within iTunes on one's Mac or on your iPad? Can you create subfolders? I have numerous doc and pdfs handouts from school and want to be able to create folders and subfolders so I can organize each week and class assigned readings.

I don't have an iPad yet, but it would be worth the outlay of cash just so I don't have to print-out each and every "hand-out" I need to read for class.

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 25, 2011 5:22 AM in response to AA101

Genre (which is displayed as Category in the flat list for some reason) isn't the same as "Collections". Collections are separate independent lists. Why collections aren't "Albums" or something in iTunes is beyond me. iTunes is rubbish for managing, well, just about everything.

Reply

Answer 7

ksims3

Level 1

0 points

Jul 25, 2013 7:40 PM in response to Allan Marcus1

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I'm wondering if there's anything better out there, yet?

I've got 415 epub books I just loaded into ibooks, and it's frustrating that it doesn't let me organize them by series. I've already gone into Itunes, and set up the series as the 'album'.. So my Itunes is organized, but that doesn't seem to transfer over to the Ipad. They didn't even sync over in any particular order, from what I can tell.

Ibooks, as far as I can see, still only gives a categorical/author/title/bookshelf view...

If all else fails - and I don't want to do it this way - I'll make the 'Category' field the same as the Series the books are from, so I can atleast organize it by that.

If anyone has any better solutions, hit me up?

Reply

Answer 8

Jul 28, 2013 5:13 AM in response to ksims3

I'm looking for the same thing but haven't got there yet. I've been looking at other apps. There are great apps for organizing .pdf and .cbz files. Comic Zeal is my favourite but is $4.99. Sidebooks does a similar job for pdfs only and is free. I have yet to find anything for all my epubs. I have tried Marvin, Bluefire and

NeoSoar

Reply

Answer 9

Allan Marcus1 Author

Level 1

121 points

Dec 17, 2010 10:20 PM in response to gsl

Sorry, readdleDocs

Both it and good reader lets you organize in folders, and use WebDAV or other means to do it easier. For PDF and docs, not for Apple eBooks.

Reply

Answer 10

AA101

Level 1

1 points

Jan 12, 2011 11:06 PM in response to Allan Marcus1

I heard you can change the books genre and when you sync up it drops it in the correct collection. I haven't tried it yet though.

Reply

Answer 11

Jan 14, 2011 5:31 AM in response to Allan Marcus1

Use GoodReader.

It has a better PDF engine and even allows proper annotation. Web downloads, folders, box.net, etc.

iBooks is ssssllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Reply