Home Resources Download tips
 

Download Tips

The two main sources of downloadable books have been described here. On this page we will look at the mechanics of getting the book from the Internet and onto your hard drive.

Internet Archive.

Having found a title you would like to download, you then click on the 'HTTP' link towards the bottom of the 'View the book' box on the left of each page. Then choose the format you require: djvu or pdf. I would recommend the djvu format. It is always smaller than the pdf equivalent and that means less download time; less space taken up on your hard drive; and less time taken to open the file for reading. Note: there may be links to these formats within the 'View the book' box but these are not to downloadable versions.

Google.

If you are looking at the 'About this book' page then the download link for the title, sometimes in different formats, is clearly visible towards the top of the page. However, if you have been reading the book, then the download link moves to the top of the page, far right, and is not so visible.

Download Manager software.

If you plan to download more than one title then you will find it helpful to use a download manager. Indeed, the convenience of such software makes it my method of choice when downloading even one title. One such download manager (for Windows) is the appropriately named Free Download Manager. External link

While Internet Archive allows your download manager to work its way through a list of queued titles, Google now restricts this and after just a few downloads close together requires you to type in a word in order to access the next download.

Viewing software.

Having downloaded the book to your hard drive what do you do with it then? You need some software to view the particular format you have downloaded. Viewing software for djvu format is available for a number of operating systems here, External link or here. External link It is likely that you will already have Adobe Viewer or similar to view pdf files. But you may wish to consider the free pdf reader External link from Foxit software which is much leaner, and faster than the Adobe equivalent. Be aware that Foxit also have enhanced versions for sale which they will seek to entice you with.

Warning! Be careful, some downloads are large files! You probably should not be considering downloading unless you have a broadband connection.