How do I load a PDF onto the Nexus 7 and read it?

BudgetWesty · Jan 11, 2013

I have a bunch of docs in PDF that I need to start reviewing and the Nexus 7 sure seems like the right device, since I own one.

1) How do I transfer the files to the device? I have them on a thumb drive. Do I connect the thumb drive to the USB port and use a file manager? I tried emailing a file to myself, but didn't see any way to download the email attachment.

2) When I transfer the files to the Nexus 7, what directory do I put them in?

3) When I connect the Nexus 7 to my Win7 PC, I only see a "music" directory. Can I load the PDF there, then use a 'droid file manager to move it to where it needs to be?

Thanks!

NexusNoob, aka BudgetWesty

Harry2 · Jan 11, 2013

You'd use your WiFi, connected via ES File Explorer (free in Play Store) to your PC.
With ES you could also create a folder for your PDFs.
For to work with the PDFs you'd need a PDF reader like RepliGo Reader or ezPDF Reader or Mantano Reader.

Harry

BudgetWesty · Jan 11, 2013

I don't understand. How do I use my WiFi to connect to my PC? I have ES explorer, am I supposed to somehow see my PC with it?

Thanks for the help, and sorry for being so slow at this.

Harry2 · Jan 11, 2013

You have to create a network share on the PC, this share you'll see on ES.
Go in ES's Settings, tap on 'Show Tabs' and you can choose the tab LAN.

Harry

BudgetWesty · Jan 11, 2013

Harry2 said:
You have to create a network share on the PC, this share you'll see on ES.
Go in ES's Settings, tap on 'Show Tabs' and you can choose the tab LAN.

Harry

OK, I found the right parts of ES, thank you for the details.

Is there any way to do this via the USB port? The reason for asking is this: my PC is both home and work. At work, I deal with gov't docs and there are very strict rules about wireless connectivity. I'm not sure I could make a network share available via WiFi and not have our IT organization breathing down my neck. If WiFi is the only way, then I'll probably go resurrect one of my old XP machines and buy a WiFi adapter for it.

DustinLuck · Jan 11, 2013

BudgetWesty said:
I have a bunch of docs in PDF that I need to start reviewing and the Nexus 7 sure seems like the right device, since I own one.

1) How do I transfer the files to the device? I have them on a thumb drive. Do I connect the thumb drive to the USB port and use a file manager? I tried emailing a file to myself, but didn't see any way to download the email attachment.

2) When I transfer the files to the Nexus 7, what directory do I put them in?

3) When I connect the Nexus 7 to my Win7 PC, I only see a "music" directory. Can I load the PDF there, then use a 'droid file manager to move it to where it needs to be?

Thanks!

NexusNoob, aka BudgetWesty

I'm not sure why you're only seeing the music directory, but if that's all you can see, go ahead and try putting it in that directory & then see if you can find it on your Nexus. If so, use ES (since you mentioned you have that) to move it to any folder you'd like.

If worse comes to worst and transferring via USB isn't working for you, you can try emailing the file to yourself until you figure out what the bigger issue is here. Another options is to use file syncing software like SugarSync or DropBox.

Harry2 · Jan 11, 2013

With an USB connection to the PC, I don't know if you can use this in media mode or if you can switch the PC to see it in mass storage mode. You might try it.

With an USB OTG cable you could mount your USB thumb drive directly. With a rooted N7 and the app StickMount it seems to work perfectly.

Edit:
Another option might 'MyPhone Explorer', connects to the PC via USB, WiFi and Bluetooth.
But you'll need an app on your PC for the host part of the connection.

Harry

whs37 · Jan 11, 2013

If you are connected to your PC via USB cable, just open the N7 storage and go from there. You can create a 'New Folder' - e.g. in Documents and copy/paste your PDFs into there. This is by far the easiest way to do it.

Then you can open and manage the folders on the N7 with ES File Explorer. But you still need one of the PDF readers.

dan330 · Jan 11, 2013

1 option:
just plug your Nexus to your laptop.. using a usb cable.. the one that came with the Nexus charger.
once plugged in.. the pc will ask to open it up as a drive. select "folders."
then just treat the hole thing like a flash drive.
make a folder for your work files.. call it anything you want.
drag-and-drop the file over to that folder.

2nd option:
use a cloud service to help move files..
example Dropbox.. you can find a link to that free service in my signature.
load the dropbox software on your pc.. and load app onto your nexus7.. and load it on any device you want.. phones.. even apple products.
when you put/copy/paste/create any file/folder in any of these locations.. it is automatically reproduced across all other devices. and keeps them synced 100%.

to read the files.. you will have to download a reader.. that can do pdf. there are many and most are free. but to edit the files, you will have to pay for the app.
i like "officesuite Pro".

Teknologic · Jan 12, 2013

I always thought the N7 came with a pdf reader installed, at least there were two on there when I downloaded Adobe reader to view pdfs. There are many ways to get files on there, email should be one of them, at the bottom of your mails you should have the option to download attachments, they'll be in your downloads folder. Uploading them to cloud storage like Dropbox is another of many options.

Netcat · Jan 24, 2013

Teknologic said:
I always thought the N7 came with a pdf reader installed,....

I haven't installed any reader programs yet. I sent my N7 some pdf files I have at work and I could read them with no problem. It can also read Word and Excel files. I haven't tested it with any other file types yet.

Claghorn · Jan 24, 2013

I like Radaee PDF Reader to view PDF files. It renders many PDFs more accurately than acrobat does.

kidcarter93 · Jan 24, 2013

As DustinLuck suggested, you could always email them to yourself. You can then use Adobe Reader to read and edit the pdf's as you wish.

VeRawr · Oct 16, 2013

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to stop by and say thank you.

I was experiencing a similar problem and this helped me out a ton.

I had connected my Nexus 7 to my computer via USB and was originally just trying to use Windows to drag and drop my PDF files into my Nexus Downloads folder. When I went back to my Nexus and tried to open the folder the files didn't show up. I then found this thread and created a new folder in my Nexus through Windows and downloaded the ES Explorer app. I was able to view all of the PDFs quickly and easily.

{I honestly didn't even consider using WiFi because my connection is already slow and I'm just used to using USB on all of my devices.}

Thanks for the help and I hope this continues to help people down the road.

superflybribri · Nov 19, 2013

I upload my PDF files to Google Books. I have plenty of reference manuals and I can upload them to Google Books from any computer. Then I can pin the file on my tablet to keep it available offline.

How do I load a PDF onto the Nexus 7 and read it?

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