Download this textbook

This textbook is available in multiple formats to make it easy for students to access and read. All downloads are free. Look for the “Download this book” drop-down menu on the book’s home page to select the file type you want.

Order a print copy

You can also order a print edition of this textbook at this link: xxxxxxx. The cost is $$$$ (including shipping) for a perfect-bound [black-and-white/color] book. The authors and the publisher receive no financial benefit from print sales.

This book links to a number of external websites. For those using a print copy of this resource, the link text is underlined, and you can find the web addresses for all links in the back matter of the book.

Reading and taking notes in a PDF reader

If you prefer to make notes directly on an e-textbook (like highlights and comments), you may need to use a PDF reader beyond what is offered in your web browser. Readers like Adobe Acrobat or Foxit Reader will allow you to place comments in PDFs.

If the links inside your PDF do not work, you are using the print PDF instead of the web PDF. The print PDF should only be used to print the book.

We would like to highlight two options for PDF readers, in particular. The beta edition of Zotero includes a PDF annotation tool, and researchers can use tags, notes, highlights, and other features to mark up the textbook and take notes. We have included a tutorial below. Unfortunately, you cannot perform group annotation in Zotero in shared PDFs, so this is for individual note-taking only.

If you would like to share notes with other students in your class, consider sharing the same PDF copy of the textbook in a Google Drive folder. Comments and highlights made in a shared PDF are visible to everyone with access to that document, and it’s a nice way to build a social reading and learning space.

Printing this textbook yourself

You can print out any number of pages of this textbook yourself. You can print out the entire book if you want to (though it may be more cost-effective to order a print copy if you need the whole book printed).

You might have access to these options for accessing a printer:

• Personal printer
• Printers at your college or university. Often the library has printers that students can use. At some institutions, students get a set number of free pages printed per term.
• Print shop at your college or university
• Off-campus copy shop

Copy shops and print vendors are permitted under the copyright license to charge you to print a copy.

Listening to your Textbook

Unfortunately, Pressbook does not have a text-to-speech feature. However, Read Aloud is a free Google Chrome extension that allows students to hear web content read aloud. Try this out with the Pressbook open in a Chrome browser. This app is open source and will not charge a subscription fee or service fee at any time. Additional options that require a little more practice and orientation than Read Aloud:

• NVDA is a free screen reader software that will allow PC students to access web content in text-to-speech format.
• VoiceOver is a built-in screen reading feature on Mac products that provides text-to-speech functionality.

Enjoy!

Licenses and Attributions for How to Read this Book Offline

“How to Read this Book Offline” was adapted from “Downloads and resources for students” by Matthew DeCarlo, Cory Cummings, and Kate Agnelli, Graduate research methods in social work, which is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.