Powells.com eBooks FAQ (show everything)

An eBook is a digital version of a book that can be read on personal computers, tablet computers, many mobile devices, and dedicated eReading devices.

Depending on the title, the following formats may be available:

DRM-Free PDF

If you want to read an e-book, your e-book reader device or application must be compatible with both the file format and the DRM format of the e-book.

For more information, please see the eBook comparison chart.

The format you choose entirely depends on the device or application you intend to use for reading your eBook.

For more information, please see the eBook comparison chart.

To find out if a title is available as an eBook, simply search Powells.com for the title. In the Search Results page, find your title and see if eBooks is listed as an available format.

If so, click the eBooks link and you will immediately see the eBook formats available for purchase.

For detailed information about any available format, click more info to find a whole page dedicated to the title. Such information includes geographic restrictions, file size, printability, and operating system compatibility.

For more information, please see the eBook comparison chart.

For select eBook titles, click the Google Preview graphic on the eBook’s detail page, as shown below.

ePub is the standard eBook format that makes it possible to optimize and customize text and images for both large displays like a desktop computer and small screens like a smartphone.

PDF, or Portable Document Format, is the standard format for document interchange created by Adobe.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) ensures that the person who buys an eBook is its sole owner and is unable to share the file with others. DRM specifications for each eBook are set by the publishers who own the respective copyrights.

Absolutely. For every eBook you would like to purchase, simply click and your eBooks of choice will all be located in your shopping cart ready for purchase.

Absolutely. The shopping cart example below shows a sample assortment of eBooks and a physical product:

Your Powells.com eBook Library is where all of your purchased eBooks are stored, as well as where you can go to download your eBooks.

To view your eBook Library, click here.

As an alternative, you can get to your eBook library as follows:

After logging in to Powells.com, click my account, which is always located near the top of your screen. Now, just click view your eBook library, located under View Your Order Status and History.

No, eBooks are not returnable.

All downloadable eBook files with DRM purchasable from Powells.com are in the Adobe Digital Editions format. If you lose any of your downloaded eBook files, they may be restored using backup copies. However, you must be using the same Adobe ID used when you originally purchased your eBooks.

The first thing you will want to do is review your eBook Library on Powells.com or check your email inbox. If your purchase was successful, you will see the title in your eBook Library as well as an email with your receipt and instructions on how to access your file.

If you do not have an email from Powells.com and your purchased title is not in your eBook Library, then the transaction did not complete and you will need to try again.

ACSM files are small downloads that are used by Adobe® Digital Editions to generate an encrypted eBook, which is then downloaded to your personal computer.

In order to work properly, Adobe® Digital Editions must be both installed on your computer and activated. Activating Adobe® Digital Editions using an Adobe ID allows you to do more with Adobe eBooks, such as downloading them on multiple computers and transferring them to supported portable devices.

and downloaded

Windows: If you have not changed your preferences in Adobe® Digital Editions, the .epub or .pdf files are located in your "My Documents \ My Digital Editions" folder.

Mac OS: If you have not changed your preferences in Adobe® Digital Editions, the .epub or .pdf files are located in your "Documents \ Digital Editions" folder.

Google eBooks^™ is a new way to discover, buy, and enjoy your favorite books, online and offline, powered by Google. You can read Google eBooks on your computer, your smartphone, or your electronic reading device.

Google eBooks are kept on the cloud (Google's computer servers), which means you can do more than just read your book. You can buy new and out-of-print books, switch from one reading device to another without losing your place, manage your digital book collection on your digital bookshelf, and write reviews for other readers to see.

We offer you a choice of more than one million titles ranging from new bestsellers to out-of-print classics. Please note that not every book on this website can be purchased as a Google eBook. If you find a title that cannot yet be purchased as a Google eBooks, please check again soon.

Your Google eBook purchases are kept on Google's vast network of computer servers, or cloud. This system provides you with a lot of benefits in your reading experience.

Keeping your place. Since you're accessing the same digital book every time, Google's system knows when you stop reading on a given page. For example, if you are reading a Google eBook on your home computer and stop at page 100, you could access the same book on your phone or e-reader and continue from page 100 without losing your place.

Accessibility. Since Google eBooks are kept on the cloud, you don't have to worry about moving a downloaded version of your book from one device to another. As long as you have a Google account, you should be able to access any Google eBooks you have purchased, from any computer, as well as most phones and e-readers.

Due to license agreements, you may only purchase and download Google eBook content within the United States.

Once you have purchased a Google eBook, you can easily access your purchased title from your Powells.com eBook library.

After logging in to Powells.com, click my account, which is always located near the top of your screen. Now, just click view your eBook library, located under View Your Order Status and History.

Find your Google eBook, and click Read Now to view it in the full screen Web Reader.

The Web Reader allows you to take advantage of a full screen for a more pleasant reading experience, accessed directly from Powells.com. 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.

	My Powells.com Library: Clicking the book icon will return you to your Powells.com library, where you can browse your bookshelves.
	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.
	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, but you might find the original page images 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 book you're reading. You can easily switch between viewing search results sorted by order of appearance or by relevance.
	About this book: The "i" icon displays the title and publisher of the current book alongside a link to assist with viewing your Google eBook on a number of devices. You can also see the average rating, check out reviews — or write your own — and view additional bibliographic information.
	Help: The question mark icon allows you to view help about using the Web Reader.

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

• Page Forward: J, Right Arrow, P, or Page Up keys
• Page Backward: K, Left Arrow, N, or Page Down keys

Google eBooks can be read with any dedicated eBook reader that runs Adobe Content Server 4’s ePub DRM, including the nook™, Sony® and Kobo® Readers. At the moment, Google eBooks are not compatible with Amazon® Kindle devices.

Make sure your eReading device is compatible with Adobe Content Server 4’s ePub DRM. The full list of Adobe-compatible devices can be found at:

www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/devices/

To transfer downloaded Google eBooks between your computer and eReading device, follow the procedure below.

1. Download, install, and activate Adobe Digital Editions software on your computer.
2. Download your Google eBook from either of the following locations:
• From your Powells.com eBook Library

• Or from the Web Reader: While viewing a Google eBook in the Web Reader, select the information icon and click the "Read on your device" link.

• Every Google eBook can be downloaded in one of two formats, and sometimes both: PDF and ePub.

• The actual file that you download will have an .acsm extension; these downloads are for use only on devices which run Adobe Content Server 4's DRM (including the Adobe Digital Editions software for your computer, or these devices). Opening the ACSM file will then trigger the download of the actual PDF or ePub and open your Adobe Digital Editions program.
• Go to Library View in Adobe Digital Editions by clicking the  icon.
• Connect your eReader device to your computer using the USB cable that came with your device.
• Authorize your device (you can skip this after your first time).
• In the Adobe Digital Editions program, drag and drop your downloaded Google eBook from the All Items bookshelf to your device’s icon.

1. Note: Some publishers may opt to provide DRM-free downloads, in which case you can download the PDF or ePub file directly and transfer it to the machine or device of your choice.

At the moment, Google eBooks are not compatible with Amazon® Kindle devices.

Google eBooks can be read on Android devices, iPhone, eReaders, and more. The Google eBook lives on Google’s servers so you can access it anywhere, anytime. By linking your Powells.com and Google accounts you will be able to read on all these devices and enable additional features.

Google Ebooks are designed to accommodate one book per user. This means that sharing books among multiple users is not currently supported.

Read the Google Books Terms of Service.

Read the Google Books Privacy Policy.

Adobe Digital Editions is software that offers you the means to view and manage downloaded Google eBooks and Adobe Digital Edition eBooks. Use it to download digital content and transfer DRM-protected eBooks from your personal computer to other computers or devices, including the nook™, Sony® Reader, or Kobo® Reader.

For more information, please see:

www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/

There are several resources to use when running into any problems with Adobe Digital Editions:

1. View the Powells.com Adobe Digital Editions FAQ, which is full of some of the most frequently asked questions that we have encountered with our customers.
2. Visit the Adobe Digital Editions Support Center for assistance with installation or access to a very thorough FAQ.
3. Visit the Adobe Forums, an incredibly valuable troubleshooting resource.
4. Searching online for the exact text of any error messages will oftentimes bring up other people’s experiences with the error (including solutions!).

Authorizing your software prior to downloading your book will ensure that you retain accessibility to that book when using any copy of Adobe Digital Editions that has been activated with the same Adobe ID. This is a very important step if you do not want to run into a situation where you cannot access the book that you paid for.

To make sure this process goes smoothly, we recommend that you install the newest version of Adobe Digital Editions and authorize it with an Adobe ID before you purchase any Adobe eBooks. An Adobe ID is a free and a nonintrusive way of identifying users — you need only provide a name, country, and e-mail address. You can create your Adobe ID when prompted within Adobe Digital Editions as you authorize your computer, or go directly to the Adobe.com membership site.

Adobe Digital Editions does provide the option not to authorize the software, but by doing this, you will not be able to transfer your eBook to multiple devices. In addition, if you have to reinstall Adobe Digital Editions, there is the possibility that you may not be able to open your eBooks that were downloaded without authorization.

You are certainly able to download books to the program as an anonymous user using Easy Activation. Then, once you decide to activate the software, the books will activate to your Adobe ID at that time. However, this is not 100% foolproof, and there is a chance that your book will not be able to reauthorize itself at this later time. We highly recommend just going ahead and authorizing at the time that you download the software.

Under the Library menu for Adobe Digital Editions, you will find an Authorize Computer menu item that you can use if you prefer not to activate the software at this time.

You can activate up to six computers and six devices. If you reach the limit, please contact Adobe® Customer Service to increase your allowable activations.

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