PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY – TIP #4

UNDERSTANDING & USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

May 17, 2011

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 2 OF 11

Contents Organizing and Navigating Your Document Library (GoodReader) ....................................................... 2

GoodReader User Instructions – Basic Interface Review ......................................................................... 3

Overview ............................................................................................................................................... 3

Find Files .............................................................................................................................................. 5

Manage Files ......................................................................................................................................... 5

Managing Content (Web Downloads and Connect to Servers) ............................................................ 6

Settings and Other Features .................................................................................................................. 9

Navigating Your Documents .............................................................................................................. 10

Organizing and Navigating Your Document Library (GoodReader)

This app is designed to read, show, and/or view just about any file you might want to access on your iPad,

including PDF, text, Microsoft Office/iWork, audio, and video. You can transfer files directly from your

computer via Wi-Fi or cable, or connect to any of several popular online document storage services.

This is one of the most recommended and highly rated apps for the iPad and is essential for managing any

document (or any file formats) library. The screenshot below indicate the basic layout of GoodReader.

Reviews

TabletPCReview.com

Video review – YouTube

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 3 OF 11

GoodReader User Instructions – Basic Interface Review

Overview

GoodReader is a substantial application, and spending a few minutes understanding the menus, tools

and process to accomplish a few things is essential. Summarized below are those items I think are

critical to understand, in order to maximize your use of the application. That said, it is worthwhile to

explore a few things on your own, which are not explained in detail below.

“My Documents” pane. This is

where folders/files are displayed.

Folders are set up through the

“Manage Files” section.

Screen shot of GoodReader

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 4 OF 11

Link to GoodReader User Manual (on website)

As indicated earlier, the basic

GoodReader interface includes a “My

Documents” pane (left side) and the

application features/management pane

(right side).

The left side is set up by the user and

should conform with however you want

your files organized.

Below we review the functionality of

each of the separate “menu bars” located

on the right side of the application.

File Preview

Once a file is selected on the My

Documents pane, and the Preview pane is

activated, a document preview is presented.

This is helpful when reviewing numerous

files and you are not sure exactly which file

is the one you are looking for.

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 5 OF 11

Find Files

Manage Files

This is where the majority of the functions you will use reside.

From the Manage Files pane, you can

perform various functions that are routine

for working with your files. This includes:

Organizing

Copy, move and zip a group of files

(for email, etc.)

Create a New Folder or New File (for

text document creation, much like a

word processing document).

File handling

Includes various functions such as Star,

Protect, MarkUnread, E-Mail, Rename,

Link, etc.

Find Files is a quick and convenient way

to search GoodReader for your desired

documents.

GR provides the ability to search for

documents based on four criteria:

By name

Recently read

Recently added, and

Starred

So, as an example, if “favorite” files are

“Starred”, they are easily accessible at any

time without needing to remember exactly

where they are located.

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 6 OF 11

Managing Content (Web Downloads and Connect to Servers)

There are many options for getting documents and files into the GoodReader app. The following is

copied verbatim from the GoodReader “How-To” manual (see earlier link).

1. Computer-to-GoodReader: using USB cable. Read more here.

2. Computer-to-GoodReader: using WiFi-connection. If your device and computer are connected to

the same WiFi network, use WiFi-transfer window to transfer your files wirelessly. See the WiFi

File Transfer Manual.

3. Internet-to-GoodReader: use built-in web-browser to browse for files to download, or enter their

URLs to start downloading immediately. See the Web Downloads Manual.

4. Other apps-to-GoodReader: use inter-app Document Interchange (a.k.a. Open In... functionality)

to exchange files between apps (including Apple's Mail app to transfer E-Mail attachments to

GoodReader). Works both ways - GoodReader can open files stored in other apps, and other

apps can open files stored in GoodReader. Apple's Document Interchange works only with apps

that explicitly support this feature.

5. E-Mail Servers-to-GoodReader: access E-Mail servers via IMAP or POP3 protocol to

download e-mail attachments. Read more here.

6. WebDAV Servers-to-GoodReader: connect to servers like MobileMe

iDisk, box.net, FilesAnywhere.com, MyDisk.se or any other WebDAV server on the cloud to

download and upload files. Read more here.

7. Google Docs-to-GoodReader: connect to Google Docs to download and upload files. Read

more here.

8. Dropbox-to-GoodReader: connect to Dropbox to download and upload files. Read more here.

9. FTP Servers-to-GoodReader: connect to FTP servers to download and upload files. Read

more here.

10. Other iPhone/iPod/iPad-to-GoodReader: if your device is on the same WiFi network with another

iPhone/iPod/iPad with any application that supports WebDAV access - for example, another copy

of GoodReader, or any other WebDAV-capable file sharing application - you can use

the Connect to Servers feature to exchange files with that application. Read more here.

11. Device Photo Album: import pictures and recorded videos from and export pictures to it

Rather than cover each of them, I will touch on the four that I have found to be most efficient, and

common in everyday use – numbers 3, 4, 7 and 8 above.

See screenshot on next page:

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 7 OF 11

DropBox Transfer

The DropBox file synchronization tool, discussed earlier, is the simplest way to move files into

GoodReader. Essentially, the process works as follows:

Save file in your DropBox folder on your computer

Once synchronized, open the document in DropBox on your iPad (normally, it is very quick to

synchronize depending on the size of the file)

Then elect to Open In…

GoodReader” – see screenshot below

When the “Open In…” icon is tapped,

Dropbox will provide options to open in

any compatible application that is installed

on the iPad device.

To select GoodReader, simply tap on the

item. Dropbox will then close and the

document will be opened in GoodReader.

Transferring items from DropBox (on the

device) is my preferred method, but using

the “Web Downloads” and “Connect to

Servers” is very effective as well.

These different methods are briefly

summarized below.

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 8 OF 11

Web Downloads

Files can be transferred to GoodReader by tapping “Web Downloads”. The tab expands and the

following bars appear:

New Download – either through “Browse the Web” or “Enter URL”. Tapping Browse the Web

will display a Mini-Browser similar to

the screenshot below.

Once a web page is selected, a dialogue will prompt you for your next step – either Follow the

Link or Download Linked File. The screen appears as follows:

If the requested web address is the file you

desire, tap “Download Linked File”.

Otherwise “Follow the Link” until you get

to the desired file.

The Mini-browser opens up with the

keyboard active and lists any recent

searches that were completed. This makes

it easy to refer back to previous web pages

and eliminates re-typing often referred to

web addresses.

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 9 OF 11

Downloads in Progress if a download is requested, this section will display the progress of the

download as it occurs.

Recent Downloads – shows the recent downloads performed in GoodReader. I typically delete

this information after the downloads are completed and I have verified.

Connect to Servers

This is more intimidating than it sounds. Essentially, any service you have “in the cloud” can be set up as

a server connection. The screen appears as follows when the Connect to Servers bar is tapped (lower

right portion of the screen):

Server set up is

straight-forward.

Simply tap on Add

and select the type of

account you are

setting up.

Indicated here are

three servers I have set

up, consisting of two

Google Docs accounts

and a Dropbox

account.

Settings and Other Features

Camera provides quick access to your photo

library on the iPad and ability to import pictures

into GoodReader.

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 10 OF 11

WiFi Transfer – provides capabilities to connect GoodReader to a computer over wi-fi for data transfer

(e.g., your laptop). I have not discovered a compelling

reason to use this functionality.

Settings – the screenshot here shows the options that can

be set for GoodReader. Each one of these menus

provides various options (sub-menu) that allows you to

choose how you want GoodReader to handle viewing

certain file types. The options here are rather extensive. I

would recommend reviewing the choices at your

convenience, but definitely review them. It is worth the

time to understand how you can control certain facets of

this application.

? (or Help function) – this is obvious, but again,

definitely worth some time for you to review. The Help

menus are comprehensive and go into much more depth

than I did in this summary overview.

File Downloading Tip

One very handy shortcut that is a huge timesaver for

downloading files through your browser is the “g” tool.

If you are surfing the internet and come across a file link

(or someone emails you a file link, which opens up your

browser by default), simply insert the letter g as a prefix

to the web address. This will automatically download the

file and open it in GoodReader.

Navigating Your Documents

Navigation of GoodReader documents is done through a pop up menu that occurs when you quickly tap

the middle of the screen. Occasionally, tapping in the middle of a PDF document is not a good thing,

such as when the PDF link resides in that location of the document. In those cases, a quick tap with three

fingers anywhere on the screen will turn the navigation menu on or off.

See the screenshots below:

PDF DOCUMENT LIBRARY

UNDERSTANDING AND USING GOODREADER ON THE IPAD

PAGE 11 OF 11

These three menu items (Bookmarks, Go To Page, and Search) are the most frequently used navigation

tools. Get used to these three and you will be able to manage and navigate extremely large files with little

effort.

Reading mode – no menus

Navigation mode – with menus

(tap center)

1

1