Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Converting Word Files Into an E-book

How can I convert Word documents into an e-book to download and use on my iPad?

You can do it several ways, including buying a word-processing app for the iPad that opens Microsoft Word files. Apple’s Pages or DataViz’s Documents to Go are two of the many options in the App Store. If you want to view the documents and not edit them, uploading them to a free Google Drive or Microsoft SkyDrive account online is another way to go — and both sites have free apps for tapping into your online files if you don’t want to use the iPad’s Web browser.

If you prefer to keep things securely between your iPad and computer, combining the files into one and converting the Word document to a format that works with the iBooks app (or other e-book app) is another method. Most apps can display files in the ePub or PDF formats, and it is not too difficult to convert a Word document to either. Microsoft has instructions for Windows users with Word 2007 and later. Mac OS X users can open each document, press Command-P to summon the Print box and choose “Save as PDF” from the PDF menu.

Saving the documents as ePub files lets them function more like e-books, with the ability to adjust text size and font. An e-book utility program to convert Word documents to ePub files can do the job; Calibre is one such program and has instructions on its site.

Once you convert the files, you need to sync them to iBooks or your e-reader app. Apple’s site has steps for syncing content, as well as specific information for using PDF files with iBooks

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Converting Paper to Digital Files

What’s the best way to convert a box of old newspaper and magazine clippings to digital files, doing it myself and without spending a lot of money?

If the ultimate goal is to convert piles of paper into legible PDF files for electronic archiving and future reference, you can get the job done with a relatively inexpensive all-in-one printer that can also scan documents. These multifunction printers usually cost around $100 to $150. But if you want a machine with more functions or features designed just for document scanning, or optical character recognition software that converts the printed image into text that can be edited, you usually pay more.

These all-in-one printers include software for scanning, and the software can have a setting for scanning documents as well as photos. Several Hewlett-Packard multifunction printers, for example, have a document-scanning option that saves the digitized results as PDF files, which take up considerably less cabinet space than a stack of clippings. Desktop programs like Evernote, which also has versions for several mobile platforms, organize digitized documents and can also be helpful for keeping track of the converted clippings.

If you prefer a more flexible option than buying a multifunction printer or portable scanner — and have a tablet or smartphone — most app stores have some sort of scanning app that uses the device’s camera to capture an image of a document. Quality may vary, but you can find scanning apps for less than $10, including Scanner Pro for iOS devices, DocScanner for iOS and Android and Document Scanner for Android.