Books

Bindle can read EPUB books in the same reader as your articles, with the same fonts, themes, highlights, notes, Listen, Speed Read, and hands-free scrolling. Your place and highlights sync to every device, and the book files themselves travel between your devices over your own network.

Books are preliminary: they work, and they are being tested. The rough edges are listed under Limits.

Turn Books On or Off

Books has its own switch, "Books", in Settings > Reading > Books. It is on by default.

Turned off, the Books screen and Import Book go away and Bindle stops fetching book files. Your books stay in your library and on this device, ready for when you turn it back on. While this device holds a book's file, it still hands it to your other devices.

Earlier builds marked a book finished as soon as it was opened. Bindle fixes that once on each device, so those books show their progress again, and says "Books show their progress again" with Undo. For a week afterward, Settings > Reading > Books also has Undo Book Progress Fix, which marks those books finished again.

The Books Screen

• iPhone: Books is a tab.
• iPad: Mac: Books is in the sidebar.

The book you are reading leads under Reading now: its cover, title, and author, how far along you are and which chapter you are in ("34% · Chapter IV"), Continue, which opens it at your place, and Listen, which reads it aloud. It is the book you opened most recently that you have started and not finished. The rest stand on shelves under On the shelf, the most recently opened first, with Import Book at the end. Each book is turned a little so you see its pages beside its cover, and a longer book stands thicker: a short novella is a thin book and War and Peace a thick one. A book you have started shows it: the pages you have read are darker, a ribbon hangs from between the pages at your place, and the cover looks more handled the further you read. A finished book is worn, with a folded corner. A book you have not started has a red New band across its top corner, and one you have never opened is still in its shrink wrap, which comes off the first time you open it on any of your devices. Tip your iPhone or iPad and the light moves across the wrap. A red waveform seal on a cover means the book's audio is ready, and the seal wears with the cover. A book that is not on this device faces straight out, faded, until it is downloaded, since Bindle learns its length from the file. A book with no cover art gets a plain cover with its title. Under each book is its progress, or where the book stands on this device:

Tap a book to open it. Touch and hold (or right-click) a book for:

Organize Your Books

A large library is easier to find your way around when you sort it, narrow it, and group it. Each choice is kept on this device.

• Filters, under the title: All, Not Started, Reading, Finished, or With Audio (books with their audio ready, or some of it kept on this device).
• Sort (the arrows): Recently Opened, Recently Added, Title, Author, Series, or Progress (furthest along first). Titles file without a leading The, A, or An, and authors by surname.
• Group By, in the same menu: Author or Series puts each on its own shelf. A series stands in its own order, books 1, 2, 3.
• Shelf or rows (the button beside Sort): rows show a small cover, the title, the author, the series and number, and how far along you are, which is quicker to scan.
• Collection (the trays, when a collection holds books): show only that collection's books. Add a book to a manual collection from its menu, or make a smart collection that contains books. A collection's books also stand at the top of its list in Collections. See Collections.

Reading now leads the screen only when nothing is sorted, filtered, grouped, or narrowed to a collection.

Author and series come from the book's file and sync to your other devices, so a device without the file still groups it. To fix them, choose Edit Details from the book's menu. What you set stays, even if the file says something else, and clearing a field keeps it clear.

Import a Book

Choose Import Book (the plus) on the Books screen, or the Import Book button when you have none. Pick one or more .epub files. Each is checked before anything is saved, so a file Bindle cannot read adds nothing, and Bindle says why. While they're added, the capsule at the bottom counts them, and a note says "Added" when they're in.

The same file imported on two of your devices becomes one book when they sync.

Read a Book

A book opens in the reader one chapter at a time, at your place.

• The toolbar shows the book's title and where you are, and adds Contents.
• The top of each chapter shows the author and the book's title in small caps, and (after the first) a way back to the previous chapter, by name. The chapter's name is centered over a short rule.
• The end of each chapter shows a card for the next chapter, with Next Chapter and Contents. With "Books: go on to the next chapter by itself" on in Settings > Reading > Reader, it counts down on Next Chapter, then opens the next chapter. Nothing is archived. Scroll back up, or tap Stay Here, to stop it.
• At the end of the book, Bindle says "You finished the book." with Archive and Contents.
• A link to another chapter takes you there, with a way back (see Reading).

Everything in the reader works in a book, except what only a web page can do (Open Website, snapshots, Send To, and Ask).

Contents

Choose Contents in the toolbar to see every chapter, with the one you are reading marked. Tap a chapter to go there; a "Back to where you were" button lets you return. Choose Done to close it. A part of the book with no title of its own is listed as "Section" and its number.

Footnotes

Tap a footnote's number and the note shows in a card over the bottom of the page, without moving your place. The card has Close and Go to Note. Tap outside it, press Escape, or iPhone and iPad: swipe it down to close it.

Go to Note jumps to the note, centers it, and tints it so you can find it. A "Back to where you were" button stays until you use it or choose Dismiss. After that, More still offers Back to Where You Were.

The footnotes themselves are hidden where they sit in the text, as other ebook readers do, and Listen skips them and their numbers.¹

Your Place, Highlights, and Finishing

Your place, highlights, notes, read state, and archive sync like any link's. A highlight remembers its chapter, so one opened from another chapter loads that chapter first.

Opening a book does not mark it finished. Bindle marks it finished when you reach the very end of the book, or when you choose Mark as Finished. A finished book you read again stays finished until you choose Mark as Unfinished.

Prepare a Book's Audio

With a natural voice, listening works out the sound of each sentence as it plays, and that uses battery. Prepare Audio makes the sound of a whole book ahead of time, from the chapter you're on to the end, and keeps it on the device. When you listen, the player plays what was made instead of working it out again.

• Choose Prepare Audio in the reader's More menu, or touch and hold a book on the Books screen (right-click on the Mac). It starts from the chapter you're reading.
• It starts right away, even on battery, because you asked for it. It pauses while the device is hot or in Low Power Mode. Book audio, in Settings > Listening > Audio ahead of time, can keep it to the charger instead. See Audio Ahead of Time.
• You can start listening at once. The chapter playing is read live, and the chapters after it are made while you listen.
• It first reads the text of each chapter, which needs Bindle open for a moment. After that, on iPhone and iPad it keeps going after you leave Bindle, with its progress shown by the system, where you can also cancel it. It is much faster with Bindle open: in the background the system lets it run at a fraction of the speed, so a long book moves a tenth of a percent at a time. If it has to stop, such as in Low Power Mode or before the chapters are read, the system says it paused and why, and it carries on when it can. The Mac does it whenever Bindle is open.
• While it works, the menu says Stop Preparing Audio with the percent made, and the activity capsule shows the book and chapter, such as "Preparing book audio: The Time Machine, chapter 4 of 22". Under its cover the book says "Audio" with the percent made, in red while it works and in gray if it stopped part way. Once every chapter from your place on is ready, the cover wears a red waveform seal in its top corner instead.
• One book is made at a time. Prepare Audio on another book starts it once the first is done.
• Stop Preparing Audio keeps what was made. Prepare Audio carries on from there.
• It is made for your voice and speed. After you choose another voice or speed, the book reads live again and its menu offers Prepare Audio once more.
• It keeps up to 1 GB of book audio, apart from Up Next audio, or the space you choose in Voices, Book Audio (10 GB on a device set to Full Archive). Chapters behind your place give up their audio as you read on, and a finished book's audio is removed.
• Remove Book Audio deletes a book's audio. Voices, Storage shows the space all book audio takes, and Delete All Book Audio deletes it; Saved Audio shows each book's.

Before making a chapter, Bindle asks your other devices nearby whether one already has it in your voice and speed, and takes it from that device if so. While it copies, the menu shows Stop Preparing Audio with the percent here, and the capsule says "Getting book audio". A chapter no device has is skipped for now and the next one is asked for; Bindle makes chapters itself only after three in a row that no device has. See Automatic Book Audio.

Automatic Book Audio

In Voices, Book Audio, choose which books have their audio made ahead without asking, from the chapter you're on to the end:

Books you asked for come first, then books you're reading, latest opened first, then unread books, newest first.

To leave a book out, touch and hold it (or open More in the reader) and choose Don't Prepare Automatically; what was already made stays. Prepare Automatically Again puts it back. Prepare Audio makes a book's audio whatever the setting, and Stop Preparing Audio also leaves it out.

Your devices share the work:

• Before a device makes a chapter, it asks your other devices on the same network whether one has it, plugged-in devices first. A chapter one has arrives in seconds, so an iPhone can fill a book while Bindle is open without working it out itself.
• A device on battery leaves new chapters to a plugged-in device of yours that has the setting on, such as your Mac, and asks again later. If none has done it after 12 hours, it makes them itself. Book audio for every book, in Settings > Listening > Audio ahead of time, chooses when this device makes them; it starts out Only while charging.
• A chapter is only shared in the same voice and speed. When a device asks for a voice, a plugged-in device with the setting on makes books in that voice too, if it has that voice downloaded. Voices, Book Audio names any voice your other devices asked for that this device doesn't have.
• While book audio is being made on a device, Up Next audio there waits for it, since both use the same voice.
• Chapters move only between your own devices, over your local network. Book audio never syncs and never leaves your devices.

Books on Your Other Devices

A book you import on one device appears on all of them, and its file follows over your local network: each device asks your other devices for every book it lacks, and keeps a file only if it is exactly the one imported. Nothing goes through the internet or any server.

• A device that does not have the file yet shows the book as "Not on this device". Open it, or choose Download, while another device that has it is open on the same network. If none is in reach, the reader says so with Try Again.
• Remove Download frees the space on this device only. The book stays in your library, and this device does not fetch it again until you choose Download.
• Delete removes the book, its place, and its highlights from all your devices.

Books on an E-Reader

If you read on an Xteink e-reader running CrossPoint, it can download your books from Bindle and keep your place in step with your other devices. Any of your devices can answer the reader: a Mac whenever Bindle is running, and an iPhone or iPad while Bindle is open. The reader is set up once, and whichever device is answering takes over when another goes to sleep.

1. On one of your devices, open Settings > Reading > E-Readers and turn on serving. Turn it on for every device you want to be able to answer.
2. Note the sync server, the catalog, the username, and the password it shows. They are the same on all your devices.
3. On the reader, open KOReader Sync settings. Enter the sync server, username, and password, and set the choice for when positions differ to Ask every time.
4. On the reader, add an OPDS server with the catalog address and the same username and password. Open it to see your books, newest first, and download the ones you want.
5. While reading on the reader, choose Sync Progress. Bindle takes the reader's place, or offers its newer place from another device.

• Settings > Reading > E-Readers says which of your devices is answering the reader now, on every device.
• The reader and the answering device must be on the same network. When you are away, the reader can join your iPhone's Personal Hotspot, with Bindle open on the iPhone.
• Downloading a book again on the reader clears its place there; Sync Progress brings it back.
• If a device is removed from your circle, the password and address change. Enter the new ones on the reader.
• The connection is encrypted, but the reader does not check which device answers. Books and positions never leave your network.

Limits

Books are preliminary, so some things are not there yet:

• A book can be up to 200 MB.
• Books protected with DRM cannot be opened. (Fonts a publisher has hidden in the usual way are fine.)
• Fixed-layout books, such as picture books and comics laid out page by page, are not supported.
• Bindle drops the publisher's styling and fonts so your reader settings and themes hold. Tables, pictures, and links stay.
• Math (MathML), audio, and video inside a book are left out.
• Books are not in search, Ask Your Library, collections, tags, exports, the plain-file mirror, widgets, or Random Article.
• PDFs are not books, and books cannot be exported.

This Book

Everything in the Bindle comes with Bindle. It is added to Books automatically while Books is on, on every device.

• When an update brings a new edition, it replaces the old one. If you highlighted or wrote notes in the old edition, Bindle keeps that copy too, archived, so nothing you made is lost.
• If you delete it, choose "Open Everything in the Bindle" in Settings > Reading > Books to get it back.
• Mac: Help > Bindle Help opens it.