Google Play

From the product page for any books you have purchased on Google Play, simply click the Read Now button to access the full screen Web Reader:

Books on Google Play you have purchased are automatically displayed in your My Books on Google Play and Purchased bookshelves within "My Library", and you can directly access the Web Reader by clicking the title or cover thumbnail.

Navigation

The Web Reader allows users browsing books with Google Play to take advantage of their full screen for a more pleasant reading experience. If you re-size your browser window, the Web Reader will scale the book pages up or down to fit.

At the bottom of the page, a slider allows you to easily flip through and jump to different sections of the book. The current page number is displayed in the lower corner of the Web Viewer at all times.

Content: The list icon provides you easy access to the book's table of contents, with links to chapters and notable sections within the book.

Margin notes: The margin notes icon brings up a list of all the notes you've created and text you've highlighted in the book, with links to the pages of the book where they occur.

Settings: The "Aa" icon contains book viewing settings. For many books, this includes the ability to choose to view original page images or flowing text (when available). The flowing text mode allows you to adjust the font, text size, line height, and justification. Original page images may be more suitable for specially formatted books, such as for poetry.

Search: The magnifying glass icon allows you to search for words and phrases within the ebook you're reading. You can easily switch between viewing search results sorted by order of appearance or by relevance.

About this book: Displays the title and publisher of the current book. You can also see the average rating, check out reviews--or write your own--and view additional bibliographic information.

Define, Translate, and Search terms

To select text in a Google eBook within the Web Reader, double-click or highlight it with your mouse and a pop-up menu opens with a number of options for you to investigate words or phrases in the book you're reading.

(Note that this works when viewing ebooks that are available in "Flowing text" mode. If an ebook has flowing pages, you can ensure they are showing when reading in the Web Reader by clicking "Aa" in the top-right corner, and clicking the pop-down menu under "Show", and selecting "Flowing text". These features currently are not supported in Opera browsers.)

Define

Click "Define" and the pop-up now displays a definition of the word via Google Dictionary, without leaving the page you’re on in the Google eBook. Click on the audio icon to the left of the word you want defined to hear the definition pronounced aloud. If you decide you do want to leave the page, select "More" to go to the Google Dictionary page for the word, which provides additional information like usage examples and web definitions.

Translate

You can also translate a single word or several sentences of content into dozens of languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish, by selecting the "Translate" option. As with definitions, you'll see the translated text displayed in the pop-up window.

Search

By selecting one of the search options, you can search for the selected text in other places within the ebook you're reading or across the entire web.

"Search Book" brings up all the instances in which the selected text appears in the ebook. You can also access the search options by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Web Reader. Clicking on a search result brings you to the page that word appears in the book.

"Search Google" and "Search Wikipedia" open up a new browser tab displaying the search results for that text on Google and Wikipedia, respectively.

Margin Notes

You can add private margin notes in a Google eBook that's available in "Flowing text" mode. (Please note that margin notes in "Scanned pages" mode or in eBook samples are not supported at this time.) Make sure you're viewing the book in flowing text, which you can select in the Settings menu. Use your mouse to select the text that you'd like to annotate, then a pop-up menu will appear. In the menu, click "Add Note". A notepad will appear where you can write your notes down. You may also choose a color to highlight selected text.

In addition, you may add multiple lines of notes, and format them with bold or italic font style. To make text bold, place the text between two asterisks (*), and to italicize text, place it between two underscores (_). For instance, if you type the following text into a note:

This is my *bold* new note, and I am _very happy_ about this book so far

It will appear as:

This is my bold new note, and I am very happy about this book so far

When you are done writing the note, click "Save" to create the note.

To view all of the notes you've created in a book, simply click on the "Margin Notes" icon () at the top right-hand corner. A drop-down menu appears listing all the notes you've taken, as well as the text you've highlighted. Clicking on one of these notes will take you to the page where that note was created.

To hide notes, click on the "Margin Notes" icon () and click the link that appears in the drop-down menu that says "Hide margin note highlights". Likewise, the link "Show margin note highlights" in the same menu will display the notes again.

To edit a note, hover your mouse over the highlighted text until a pop-up menu appears with the "Edit" button on the left. Click that button, then the notepad with your note will appear, where you can make changes. Click "Save" to save your changes.

To delete a note, hover your mouse over the highlighted text until a pop-up menu appears with the "Delete" button on the right. Click that button to delete your note.

Highlighting

You can highlight the text of a Google eBook that's available in "Flowing text" mode. (Please note that highlighting in "Scanned pages" mode or in eBook samples is not supported at this time.) Make sure you're viewing the book in flowing text, which you can select in the Settings menu. Use your mouse to select the text that you'd like to highlight, then a pop-up menu will appear. At the bottom of this menu are several color choices. Click on one of these colors to highlight the selected text in that color.

To view all of the text you've highlighted in a book, simply click on the "Margin Notes" icon () at the top right-hand corner. A drop-down menu appears listing all the text you've highlighted, as well as the margin notes you've taken. Clicking on one of the results listed in this menu will take you to the page where that text is highlighted.

To hide highlights, click on the "Margin Notes" icon () and click the link that appears in the drop-down menu that says "Hide margin note highlights". Likewise, the link "Show margin note highlights" in the same menu will display highlights again.

To change the color of a highlight, or add a private margin note to already highlighted text, hover your mouse over the highlighted text until a pop-up menu appears with the "Edit" button on the left. Click that button, then a notepad will appear, where you can choose a new color or write your notes. Click "Save" to save your changes.

To get rid of a highlight, hover your mouse over the highlighted text until a pop-up menu appears with the "Delete" button on the right. Click that button to get rid of the highlight.

Keyboard Shortcuts

We support the following keyboard shortcuts to easily navigate through book pages:

• Next page: J, Right Arrow, N, or Page Up keys
• Previous page: K, Left Arrow, P, or Page Down keys