Reading Books¶
Alcove has its own reader for EPUB and PDF books. You can still open any book in another app; see Opening in Another App.
Opening a Book¶
Mac Double-click a book in the grid or list, or select it and choose Book → Open (⌘↓). You can also click Read in the book's details, double-click its cover there, or Control-click the book and choose Open. Each book opens in its own window, so you can have several open at once. Reader windows that are open when you quit reopen with their library.
iPad Select a book, then tap Read in the detail pane or tap the cover. You can also touch and hold a book and choose Open. The book fills the screen; tap the ✕ button (top left) or press ⌘W with a keyboard to return to the library.
You can also ask Siri: say "Read book title in Alcove" or "Open book title in Alcove". The same action is in the Shortcuts app; see Automation.
If a book in an iCloud library isn't downloaded to this device yet, Alcove offers to download it first.
To go back to a book you opened recently, use the Recent Books button (a clock) in the reader's toolbar. Choosing a book there opens it.
Mac Library → Open Recent Book and the Alcove icon's menu in the Dock list the books you opened recently on this Mac, in any library. If the book's library isn't open, Alcove opens it first. Clear Menu empties the list. The reader's Recent Books button lists the same books.
iPad The Recent Books button lists the books in this library that you opened most recently, here or on another device. Choosing one closes the book you're reading.
Alcove remembers where you stopped in each book and opens it there next time. In an iCloud library your place follows you between devices: put the book down on your Mac and it opens at the same page on your iPad.
If a newer place arrives from another device while the book is open, Alcove moves there only when the book has just opened and you haven't turned a page yet. Otherwise a banner at the top of the page tells you where you were on the other device; choose Go There to jump to it or Stay Here to keep reading where you are. Staying makes this page the place your other devices open the book at.
To keep each device's place separate in one book, for example a reference book you dip into, turn off Sync Reading Position for it: in the reader's appearance menu (on the Mac also View → Sync Reading Position), or in the book's details. The choice applies to that book on all your devices. To stop syncing places in every book on one device, turn off Sync reading positions in Settings → Reader on that device.
Turning Pages¶
Mac Press the → and ← arrow keys, click the arrows in the toolbar, or swipe left and right with two fingers on a trackpad. A mouse wheel turns one page per click. In a PDF, the trackpad and mouse wheel scroll the page instead, as they do in Preview.
iPad Swipe left or right, or use the arrow keys on a keyboard. In a PDF, swiping doesn't turn the page while you're zoomed in, so you can move around the enlarged page.
Comics and other books made of full-page pictures show each page whole, the way the book was drawn. Alcove recognizes these even when the book doesn't say it's a comic, as is common with books converted by Calibre. The page layout button doesn't apply to them.
The line under the page shows where you are: the page numbers printed in the book when it has them, otherwise a location number, with the percentage read.
Page Layout¶
Choose how pages are laid out from the layout button in the toolbar, or on the Mac from the View menu:
| Layout | What it does |
|---|---|
| Single Page | One page at a time |
| Two Pages | Two pages side by side, like an open book. When the window is taller than it is wide (an iPad held upright, or a narrow Mac window), it shows one page. |
| Continuous | The book scrolls as one long strip |
A layout you choose in the reader applies to that book only. In an iCloud library it follows the book to your other devices, as do its theme, text size and text options. To set the layout every other book uses, see Settings → Reader.
Contents and Go to Page¶
Tap or click Contents (the list button) to see the book's table of contents, then choose a chapter to go to it. The contents are whatever the book provides; a converted comic often has only one entry. A book with none opens the list on its bookmarks. The name of the chapter you're in appears under the book's title on the Mac, and in the line under the page on the iPad.
Go to Page (the arrow button, or ⌥⌘G) takes a page number, a location, or a percentage such as 50%. Page numbers are the ones printed in the book, so a preface page like xii works too.
Mac After following a link or a Contents entry, View → Back (⌘[) returns to where you were, and View → Forward (⌘]) goes ahead again.
Bookmarks¶
Tap or click the bookmark button at the top right, or press ⌘D, to bookmark the page you're on. The button fills in while a bookmarked page is showing; use it again to remove the bookmark. On the Mac this is also View → Add Bookmark.
To see a book's bookmarks, open Contents and switch to Bookmarks at the top, or press ⌥⌘B. Each one shows its chapter and how far through the book it is. Choose one to go there. To remove one, swipe it to the left, or use its context menu; on the Mac you can also select it and press Delete.
In a library that syncs with iCloud, bookmarks appear on your other devices too. A bookmark marks a place in the text, so it still finds the right spot after you change the text size or layout.
Highlights¶
Select some text, then choose Highlight to mark it in the color you used last. On the Mac, Control-click the selection or use Edit → Highlight (⇧⌘H); on the iPad, Highlight is in the menu that appears over the selection. Highlight Color picks another color: yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue or green, or Other… for any color you like. Colors you've picked yourself are offered again in the same book.
Click or tap a highlight to copy its text, change its color or remove it. On the Mac, Control-clicking it shows the same choices alongside the usual ones.
A selection that runs past the edge of a highlight, or joins two, offers Extend Highlight, which makes them one highlight, and Remove Highlights. A selection inside a highlight offers Remove Highlight instead. You can undo any of these; undoing a highlight selects the text again.
Notes¶
To add a note to a highlight, click or tap it and choose Add Note…. You can also select some text and choose Add Note… (⇧⌘N), which highlights it first. Type your note; it's saved when you click or tap outside it, choose Done (⌘↩), or turn the page. Delete Note removes the note and keeps the highlight.
A highlight with a note has a small note mark in the margin beside it. Click or tap the mark to read or change the note.
Your highlights¶
Your highlights are listed under Highlights in Contents, with their text, any note, and chapter. Choose one to go there; use its context menu to add or edit its note, or swipe it or use its context menu to remove it. In a library that syncs with iCloud, highlights appear on your other devices too. Highlights work in EPUB books and PDFs, as long as the PDF has text you can select; a PDF made from scanned page images has none.
Searching a Book¶
Tap or click Search (the magnifying glass), or press ⌘F, and type what you're looking for. Matches are listed with the chapter they're in and the text around them; choose one to go to it. ⌘G goes to the next match and ⇧⌘G to the previous one.
Search ignores capital letters and accents, so "cafe" finds "Café". It shows at most 1,000 matches. A PDF made from scanned page images has no text to search, so nothing is found.
Reading PDFs¶
PDFs keep their original pages; the reader doesn't reflow them the way it does an EPUB.
- Zoom: pinch to zoom in and out. With a keyboard, ⌘+ zooms in, ⌘− zooms out, and ⌘0 fits the page to the window again. On the Mac these are also in the View menu.
- Contents come from the PDF's own outline (what other PDF apps call its bookmarks). A PDF without one has no contents, but you can still add your own bookmarks.
- Links: a link to another page in the PDF goes there. A web or email link opens in your browser or mail app.
- Page numbers follow the PDF's own numbering when it has one, including roman numerals in the front matter.
Alcove doesn't import password-protected PDFs.
When a Book Won't Open¶
If Alcove can't display a book, the reader says so. You can still read it in another app: on the Mac choose Book → Open With, and on the iPad choose Open In….
Reading from AppleScript (Mac)¶
The read book command opens a book in the reader, optionally at a page, and search book searches its text. See Automation.