Organizing PDFs on IPad

Question

Organizing PDFs on IPad

Question: Is there a trigger or setting for the PDF directory such that one can "MOVE" files to another directory whether than "COPY" them.

Background:In a past iteration of IBooks, I could import files into the main PDF directory and "MOVE" the pdf to a more specific topic directory to keep them organized. Now, all I can do is "COPY" the pdf to a directory while they all remain in the primary PDF directory.

I can not longer move them and have not been able to for some time. The problem created for me is that I cannot tell with certainty that all the PDFs have in fact been copied to another topic-specific directory. If I could move them, I could work with an empty directory for importing then empty it again by moving them.

iPad 2, iOS 10.1.1, IPhone 6s, PC Windows 10

Posted on Dec 6, 2016 9:06 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 7, 2016 9:40 AM in response to Rusty-Maryland

GoodReader is amazingly flexible. All files are stored on the iPad. It can sync in either direction with any Cloud service. It can access Windows SMB shares. It can even publish itself as an SMB share, so you can open it on a PC and update it at will. And it's a very configurable PDF reader as well. I've tried Acrobat, but it's clunky by comparison.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 6, 2016 10:32 AM in response to Rusty-Maryland

Hi. I believe that iBooks works similarly to the Photos app. There is only one copy of each document. The Collections that you create are just virtual views of the the documents, similar to Albums in Photos. As a test, I created a Collection and used Move to add a document to it. The document still appeared in All Books and PDFs. Then I deleted the document from the Collection and it disappeared from all views. That means this isn't very convenient for your organizing method. My choice for PDFs is GoodReader (not free) which stores files in a true directory tree. New downloads land in the Downloads folder and you move them where you want. I currently have 2 GB of documents on this iPad, all organized and easy to find.

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 7, 2016 9:40 AM in response to Diana.McCall

Thank you. I needed another opinion to make sure I wasn't missing something. This is a change in IBooks from a few years ago.

I did read the Goodread suggestion somewhere else and will check it out. My dominant uses are absent of wifi plus I need immediate access and not to have a wifi connection hesitate, bumble, and burp. I'll be looking to see if Goodreads is all on the cloud of if I can maintain the inventory from my PC to the cloud then sync from time to time.

I have Docs to Go but have not used it in years.... not since Apple introduce the first IPhone. I'll investigate where it is for this application too. I would think that Adobe Reader would offer a file manager and sub directories but have not seen it.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 7, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Diana.McCall

OK, good suggestion Diana. I got it wrong. While you said GoodreadER, the one by Good.IWare, I read it to be Goodreads and thought that the book app handled pdfs and I had not noticed.

Now with your recommendation and reading the description of Goodreader, I just bought it. With the PC connection you mentioned, this is sounding like exactly what I need.

Thank you.

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 7, 2016 1:35 PM in response to Rusty-Maryland

Great. Hope you enjoy it. When I was still working, I was even able to pull files directly from our office server over VPN. Amazing.

Reply