Hack or app to directly access files i ibooks wanted

[keevill]

I have a jail broken IPad 2 and I would like to be able to DIRECTLY access the PDF files I have downloaded and are currently in iBooks.
The reason is that I want to open them in iannotate app instead of iBooks.
I know I could email them to myself and "open in " but there are lots of them and they are large files ( 100mb + ).
is there a way to get an app to directly access and where are they located ?
Thx,
-keevill-

 

[Mickey330]

Okay, I took a look at this and the only thing I could find was, in iFile, that the PDFs are at this address:

/var/mobile/Media/Books/Purchases

But. They are in a long, incomprehensible named format. I had to open each one to see which document it was. And, I could not find the actual books that are in iBooks, just the PDFs.

So, you could try that. You'd have to open each document to figure out which one is which (maybe they're in download order?), but that's all I got.

Apple is just funny like that with it's native apps - the music in the iPod app is also strangely sorted/labeled...

Sorry I wasn't more help.

Marilyn

P.S. Maybe, since you say you've downloaded the PDFs, you can use Dropbox? It nicely integrates with iFile and you can do an "Open In..." from there. Although, it does depend on from where you downloaded the PDFs. Just a thought...

 

[keevill]

Okay, I took a look at this and the only thing I could find was, in iFile, that the PDFs are at this address:

/var/mobile/Media/Books/Purchases

But. They are in a long, incomprehensible named format. I had to open each one to see which document it was. And, I could not find the actual books that are in iBooks, just the PDFs.

So, you could try that. You'd have to open each document to figure out which one is which (maybe they're in download order?), but that's all I got.

Apple is just funny like that with it's native apps - the music in the iPod app is also strangely sorted/labeled...

Sorry I wasn't more help.

Marilyn

P.S. Maybe, since you say you've downloaded the PDFs, you can use Dropbox? It nicely integrates with iFile and you can do an "Open In..." from there. Although, it does depend on from where you downloaded the PDFs. Just a thought...

Actually, that's a great help. I can find the file I need simply by the date downloaded.
If possible, I would like to use Iannotate to edit a few files and then view them back in the ibooks app.
It seems a nicer interface.
Seems that changes ( higlights / annotates etc ) are not saved so when I open the file in ibooks, the changes are not reflected. If I re-open the file in Iannotate, the changes show up.
Any way to get the amended PDF's to show in ibooks ??
Thx again,
-keevill-

 

[Mickey330]

Doublecheck your iAnnotate's Save settings. I believe there is a way to flatten (i.e. "bake in") the changes and annotations you made so that iBooks can read them.

If I don't hear back in the positive from you by this afternoon, I'll take a look. No time right now...

Marilyn

 

[keevill]

Doublecheck your iAnnotate's Save settings. I believe there is a way to flatten (i.e. "bake in") the changes and annotations you made so that iBooks can read them.

If I don't hear back in the positive from you by this afternoon, I'll take a look. No time right now...

Marilyn

I can now see the option to 'print' or 'email' as flattened PDF but I don't see where to 'flatten' simply for viewing in ibooks.
If you have time.......
Thx,
-keevill-

 

[Mickey330]

Okay, here's what works for me...

In iAnnotate, press the curvy arrow icon (top left side) to get an "Open In..." option. When you select "Open In...," you are provide with an option to open the PDF (1) annotated, (2) flattened or (3) original. Obviously, you won't want to use the original as it won't show your annotations. The annotated version, when opened in iBooks, does not work (annotations don't show).

However, the flattened version opens up in iBooks with all my annotations showing. What's cool is that notes show up as footnotes. But, I digress...

Recap: You can have a PDF in iBooks, find/open it (via iFile) into iAnnotate, make changes all you wish and then [re-] "Open In..." the document back in iBooks as a "flattened" version with all annotations intact.

The only thing is that you will end up with two documents in iBooks, the original one and the annotated one. You'll just have to make sure to keep them separated (or delete one).

Hope this helps? Do let me know...

Marilyn

 

[keevill]

Okay, here's what works for me...

In iAnnotate, press the curvy arrow icon (top left side) to get an "Open In..." option. When you select "Open In...," you are provide with an option to open the PDF (1) annotated, (2) flattened or (3) original. Obviously, you won't want to use the original as it won't show your annotations. The annotated version, when opened in iBooks, does not work (annotations don't show).

However, the flattened version opens up in iBooks with all my annotations showing. What's cool is that notes show up as footnotes. But, I digress...

Recap: You can have a PDF in iBooks, find/open it (via iFile) into iAnnotate, make changes all you wish and then [re-] "Open In..." the document back in iBooks as a "flattened" version with all annotations intact.

The only thing is that you will end up with two documents in iBooks, the original one and the annotated one. You'll just have to make sure to keep them separated (or delete one).

Hope this helps? Do let me know...

Marilyn

This is just what I needed to do ! It's not very easy to spot how to do it but after your kind efforts, in the words of Johnny Nash, I can see clearly now !
Thx again !!
I guess the only way it could be improved, is if they could be opened directly from ibooks into Iannotate but, really, that's not a big deal.
So, to conclude, I find the pdf file in ifiles , open it into iannotate , do the editing, highlighting of text etc and then 'open in flattened' and then select ibooks.
I can just delete the duplicate .
Great !!
Thx again!
-keevill-

 

[Mickey330]

Yay! It works! Yeah, it's a bit of a kludge - but at least it works.

And thanks for the update. Always nice to hear back on success stories...

Marilyn

 

[keevill]

Postscript ...

I was finding it difficult to identify the correct pdf in order to open in Iannotate so I tried to rename the 'meaningless' names of the pdf files using Ifile from something like ORKM.pdf to Flight International.pdf but the Ibooks app won't open the file now.
Iannotate has no problem so it's not a deal breaker.
Is there any way to rename them in the /var/mobile/Media/Books folder and still have them opening in Ibooks ?
Actually, Iannotate is a bit of an overkill since all I want to do is to bookmark and highlight the occasional text and not to change the text at all. A simple addon to Ibooks to enable highlighting ( similar to highlight marker pen when reading a hard copy magazine) would be so welcome.
-keevill-

 

[f4780y]

Messing around with the actual files in an apps folders very rarely results in the outcome you want. The apps have been coded in a precise way, and you renaming their files or otherwise altering them is not what they expect. The short file names are likely also in an index file which the app is tracking.

As nice as it might be to rename things, it rarely works