As somebody who tends to copy a lot of PDFs onto his iPad for later reading and reference, I’d have to rate this as one of the coolest little-known tricks of the Mac.
In any Mac app that prints, you can choose to send a PDF of the document straight into the iTunes library.
It’s an option under the PDF button at the lower-left of the Mac’s Print window.
Click that button and from the drop-down menu select Add PDF to iTunes.
This will copy the PDF into the Books section of your iTunes library, from where it’ll copied onto your iPad and loaded into iBooks during the next sync session (provided your iPad is set up to automatically synchronise books from iTunes).
I use this trick most often for copying very long articles off the Internet – quality tomes of 10,000 words or more, from the likes of Wired or Vanity Fair – to read on my iPad over a coffee or on a flight.
This smart shortcut has plenty of other uses, too.
Let’s say you’re attending a conference and the itinerary, conference guide and other materials have been emailed to you as PDFs. Open each one in Preview, hit Print and then Add PDF to iTunes.
Downloaded a book or magazine in PDF format? Same deal.
Remember: if you can print it, you can PDF it and then fast-track it onto your iPad.
For more savvy travel tips, keep an eye on our tweetstream – we're @AusBT.
About David Flynn
David Flynn is the editor of Australian Business Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
1 on 2/10/12 by am