Google Play

Your iPhone or iPad shows you all the books which you've purchased in the "My Books" shelf, with those read most recently listed first. Whenever you buy books on Google Play they will be automatically added to this shelf and be available in the Google Play Books app on your iPhone, iPad, and any other device or reader you use to read books. New books may take a couple of minutes to appear, but closing the app and re-opening it will show new books immediately.

Removing and restoring books. Tap "Manage" to archive books, which will prevent them from showing on the home screen and free memory on your device. (This won't change your reading position or remove the book from your other devices.) You can restore them by tapping "Archive" at the bottom of the screen.

Sorting your books. You can sort your books library by most recently read, by title or by author. To do so, go to the controls in your app's library. On the iPad, this can be found at the bottom of the screen. On the iPhone or iPod touch, you need to drag down on the screen to get the controls to appear. Then, simply tap "Date", "Title" or "Author" to sort accordingly. On the iPhone and iPod touch, you are also able to view your library in grid () or list () mode by tapping on the respective buttons.

To read a book, tap it. It'll begin downloading if it hasn't already. The book cover will remain dimmed until the download has finished, although you can still start reading. If you're offline and the book hasn't completed downloading, a warning message will pop up to let you know. You will have to go online to complete downloading your book.

Book controls. Tap the center of the screen to bring up or dismiss the menu bar and slider. The "My Books" button in the menu will return you to your list of books.

Navigating. To turn the page, tap the right side of the screen or drag from the right side to the left. (To turn back, tap the left side or drag the other way.) The menu has a table of contents icon () which you can use to access specific chapters.

Dragging the marker on the slider allows you to "flip" to another page.

Bookmarks. Note that this feature is only available for books in "Flowing Text" mode. To place a bookmark in your book, tap the top-right corner of the screen you wish to bookmark. A red bookmark () will appear. To remove a bookmark, simply tap on it.

To review all of the bookmarks you've placed in a book, tap the center of the screen to bring up the controls, then tap the table of contents button (). Then tap "Bookmarks" to display all of the pages you've bookmarked. Tap on a displayed result to be taken to that page.

Your bookmarks will be synced to the cloud and accessible from any of your Google Play Books apps that support this feature on other devices.

Selecting text. Note that this feature is only available for books in "Flowing Text" mode. To select text in your book, touch and hold on a word, until a magnifying glass appears:

While still holding your finger down, you can drag the magnifying glass to select a different word. Then take your finger off the screen, and the word will be selected. You can also expand the text selection by dragging the blue handles on either side of the selection:

Searching. If you're looking for a specific word or phrase within your book, tap the magnifying glass button () in the menu to search the book. In "Flowing Text" mode, you may also select text in your book, which will bring up a menu with the option to "Search", among other options:

Tapping "Search" will bring up the options to search for that text "In Book", on "Google" and on "Wikipedia". Note that the last two options are limited to a maximum of 10 words per selection, and require your device to be connected to a network.

Highlighting and Taking notes. Note that these features are only available for books in "Flowing Text" mode.

To highlight a word or phrase in your book, select the desired text. Then tap a color in the menu that appears:

To remove highlighting from text, select the text. In the menu that appears, tap the empty box with an "x" in it, to the right of the highlight colors.

Similarly, to take notes about a word or phrase, select the desired text. In the menu that appears, tap "Note". You can type your note into the notepad that's displayed:

To edit or remove a note, touch and hold anywhere in the highlight. Your note will appear, allowing you to edit it in the notepad, or delete the note by tapping "Delete".

To review all of the text you've highlighted or notes you've taken in a book, tap the center of the screen to bring up the controls, then tap the table of contents button (). Then in the menu, tap "Notes" to display all of the text you've highlighted or taken notes against. Tap on a displayed result to be taken to that page.

Any text you've highlighted or notes you've taken will be synced to the cloud and accessible from any of your Google Play Books apps that support these features on other devices.

Define and Translate. To define or translate a word or phrase in your book, select the desired text. In the menu that appears, tap "Define" or "Translate":

Note that these features are only available for books in "Flowing Text" mode. You'll also need to be connected to a network to use the Translate feature, as well as for full functionality of the Define feature (though iOS 5.0+ users can use Define even when not connected, if the word can be found in Apple's built-in dictionary).

+1 your book. Note that in order to access the +1 button, the Google account you used to sign into the Google Play Books app needs to have signed up for Google+.

To +1 your book, open the book and tap the center of the screen to bring up the controls. At the top right side of the screen, tap the +1 button (). To remove a +1, simply tap the +1 button again. You can also +1 your book by bringing up the controls and tapping the "About the Book" button (). Tap the +1 button that appears in the menu.

You are able to read your books offline on this app. Just make sure the books you want to read on the go are fully downloaded before you go offline. Books that aren’t downloaded have the words "Tap to download" under the book title. You will not be able to read these books if you go offline.

Once you tap the book cover, they will start downloading to your device. When books are downloading, the Google Play Books homescreen will show "Downloading..." under the title and a spinning circle over the book. You may have issues with reading offline if you get disconnected while the book is downloading.

Any books you've downloaded will remain downloaded to your device until you sign out of the Google Play Books app.

Use the Settings icon () from the menu to customize your reading experience.

Brightness. Select one of two brightness modes:

• Day displays black text on a white background.
• Night shows white text on a black background.

Text display. Some books offer a choice between "Flowing Text" mode and "Scanned pages." Note that the first time you switch between these modes for a book, you'll trigger a download of the other format

• Flowing Text offers additional options for customizing your reading experience, such as adjusting the typeface, text size, and line height to the size of your screen.
• Scanned pages let you view images of the original print pages, which may be preferable for structured text such as poetry.

Line height. Choose from three different line height options.

Text size and font. books where the re-flowable text is available to us offer the option to increase or decrease the size of the text as you prefer, in addition to the ability to change the font.

3-D page turns. You can also turn off 3-D page turns if you prefer to see pages slide instead of turn. Note that this feature is currently unavailable on the iPad and iPad 3 devices.

Tap on the Gear icon () for the options below. On an iPhone or iPod touch, you'll need to slide down on the home screen of the app to see the icon. On an iPad, the icon is in the bottom right corner:

• Sign out
• Help
• Manage your Books
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy
• Diagnostics

Please note that when you sign out of your account you will have to download your books again upon signing back into your account.

1. Open your Safari web browser

2. Go to the address: books.google.com/ebooks
3. Tap the bookmark symbol at the bottom of the screen

4. Tap "Add to Home Screen"

5. Tap "Add"

To shop in the Google eBookstore, simply tap this icon to access our vast selection of titles, including many of your favorites. Any books you purchase or download will automatically appear in your Google Play Books app for you to read.

You can browse through Google eBooks by searching for them, or browsing our categories

Once you have chosen a book, you can purchase it by clicking on the blue button featuring the price. You may need to sign into your account and enter your credit card information to complete your purchase.

Once you've purchased a new book, a screen will appear with the options to "Keep Shopping" or "Read Now". Choosing "Read Now" will take you directly to your book in your Google Play Books app. If you choose to "Keep Shopping", you can read your new book later by simply opening the Google Play Books app, where your book will automatically appear.

1. Open your Safari web browser

2. Go to the address: books.google.com/ebooks
3. Tap the bookmark symbol at the top of the screen

4. Tap "Add to Home Screen"

5. Tap "Add"

To shop in the Google eBookstore, simply tap this icon to access our vast selection of titles, including many of your favorites. Any books you purchase or download will automatically appear in your Google Play Books app for you to read.

You can browse through Google eBooks by searching for them, or browsing our categories

Once you have chosen a book, you can purchase it by clicking on the blue button featuring the price. You may need to sign into your account and enter your credit card information to complete your purchase.

Once you've purchased or downloaded a new book, a screen will appear with the options to "Read the book" or "Continue shopping". Choosing "Read the book" will take you directly to your book in your Google Play Books app. If you choose to "Continue shopping", you can read your new book later by simply opening the Google Play Books app, where your book will automatically appear.