Why does NOOKstudy not work on my NOOK?

[Dagney]

I returned the digital book and bought a used text book.  The NOOKStudy application was cumbersome for reading a book to me compared to the NOOK or an actual book.

All the suggestions of downloading an etextbook directly from the publisher might have been an option but since I installed NOOKStudy and downloaded the digital book, I could not locate a .pdf of the book.

[RachaelF]

This is extremely dissapointing! I downloaded Nook Study and was SO EXCITED to be able to have my textbooks in an "e" format I bought the nook, that way I can take all my books to class without the weight of books or a laptop. When I went to open my etextbook on my new Nook (which it shows up on) I couldn't. I bought the Nook FOR textbooks. I don't care if they don't look like the book, just the text is FINE! I really hope that B&N figures out a way to solve this problem in the next few months. Also, having a NOOK study program suggests that it would be available via the Nook. Common sense, right? If it doesn't work with the product, then name the study program something else.

[daalisia]

I agree completely!!! I recently bought the nook so that I could read my e-textbook on a device that would be easier on my eyes, only to be deeply disappointed when I couldn't download my textbook.  I feel deceived that they would even name the textbook program after the nook, when it can't even be used on the nook!!!  What's the problem?  I read the description that it's hard to download the charts, columns, etc.  However, isn't that what the employees who are digitizing the books are for?  Can't they figure it out?  I don't need all of the bells and whistles of the full textbook on my nook, but it would be nice if I could at least read the basic text of the book on the nook, while I can still utilize the full functionality of the etextbook on my laptop.  Please take care of the grave error in judgement, not to mention deceptive advertising by calling it "Nook"study.

[EmkayB]

First of all, I have to say that I love getting my textbooks in a digital format. I hate having to buy clunky, large textbooks that are a pain to get around. I'm not the typical college student as I take most of my classes purely online. So even though I use my desktop a lot (I have no laptop), it's not easy to spend ALL my time in front of it. I would like to be able to lounge in a chair or read a chapter or section at work. I have a Nook and an iPad because I'm into techy gadgets.

If NookStudy could be made into an App available for the iPad that would be great. I can see that much of the same functionality found on a Mac could be present in this type of applicaiton. Notes, highlights, bookmarks, searchs, color pages and textbook format could be all kept intact on an iPad.

I think that having NookStudy compatible with the Nook is a must. The text can be broken down to sections. One of my textbooks frequently has little boxes of text that are side points. A simple link and name at the bottom could lead you to it (like how you can move around newspaper articles). The reason people would like it to be on the Nook would not be for the highlighting, the notes, or the interactive studying. Instead I think they would use it much like I want to: to read for the first time, quickly look up information (the bookmark feature on Nook is not that hard to use), and to take my textbook anywhere with ease. I don't have a laptop for portability, but I do have a nook. Not to mention I wouldn't want to lug around a laptop just to read a textbook. Instead, my nook fits in my purse and I could be getting pages read for the first time during my work breaks.

I know that there is this new Nook Color device out there that would also work with textbooks a little bit better, but I won't be buying it. I already have a eReader color touch device - my iPad. All I'm asking for is basic text functionality in the nook so I can truly read on the go.

Also, if I was still going in person to classes I would not be happy about having to carry around a laptop. I would prefer to go to classes with just my little purse that can easily hold my nook.

[ladytonya]

What about the new color nook? The screen is slightly larger and it is in color, so I would think that would eliminate the problems you list for having textbooks available on a portable device. No, I do not consider my laptop a portable device!

I have downloaded the NOOKstudy app on my laptop and personally it is too busy. I just want to read my textbook and highlight, that's all I need. All the extra bells and whistles just get in my way so I am reluctant to purchase an etextbook at this time.  I am starting an online master's program in January and was hoping to be able to get a Nook to use for my books, and I still might since I know most books can be manually loaded on to the device, but it would be much more convenient if things were just compatible.  Plus, as others here have said, calling your program the NOOKstudy is very misleading.  I feel bad for those who did not do their research and purchased a Nook only to find out that their NOOK and NOOKstudy weren't compatible! 

Please work on this before technology passes you by! :-)

Tonya

[HipHopSays]

Not buying B&Ns corp answer to this ... it's an epic fail on their part especially considering they are heavily invested in the college textbook game (how many college bookstores are now B&N). Last year Kindle started a pilot program at a couple of area colleges here in NYC (Pace University is one of the colleges)....grad students in select classes were able to buy Kindles pre-loaded with the course textbooks at the cost of the books (and were able to keep the Kindles upon finishing the course). Kindle/Amazon knows that textbooks on e-readers are a natural...so I suspect by the time B&N figures this out they will be 4 years behind the curve and will be wondering why they can't gain market share. Sadly the Nook has many of the features to compensate for the reasons against, which were posted by the OP (Moderator), including highlighting capabilities and bookmarking capabilities. While I wouldn't choose an e-reader for Organic Chem ... there are many (particularly for grad students like myself) books and selling points for one. Personally I picked up the NookColor as a way to manage class handouts which I can now just sideload on to the NookColor as PDFs.

[HipHopSays]

---

jsfiller wrote:

HP is rumored to be coming out soon with a tablet PC that runs Windows 7. If it happens, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to use NookStudy on it, since it's a Windows environment.

A lot of cool things seem to be happening right now with e-readers and tablet PCs.

---

....You know PC based tablets have been available for close to 7 years now. While apple is new to the tablet game (if that's what the iPad is suppose to constitute) ... various PC based companies have produced mid to high price point tablets. So HP having a tablet isn't really anything noteworthy..... FYI: my first tablet in '02 was running XP and used pen capabilities and I think I saw the first PC touchscreen dominant version tablet 3 years ago around the same time that HP introduced the touchscreen desktop.

[yoshipumkin]

Why is this called NOOKstudy if you can't use it on your Nook?  The name in and of itself is misleading.  Furthermore, isn't it our prerogative whether we want to read our textbooks on a small screen or not?  I'm not sure why other people feel the need to make the decision for us.  Many mobile devices have PDF support.  The Nook and Nook Color have PDF support.  So why can't we read our PDFs, even if they are textbooks, on our PDF-supporting Nooks?  Clearly we're deemed capable of reading other PDFs on them.  It defeats the whole purpose of having this in digital format.  Nobody wants to be tied to their computer to study.  We want to relax on the couch with our textbook.  We want to get a few quick paragraphs read while on the train to work or waiting at the doctor's office.  We don't want to pull out our laptop for that every time.  Honestly, this really baffles me.

You guys are B&N.  So don't worry about other devices.  Worry about your own.  Rather than limiting us in our ability to use the books we purchase, why not add annotating and highlighting to the PDF capabilities on your devices??  From the way eTextbooks are touted, they're supposed to be a convenience, not an inconvenience.  As it stands, a paper textbook has more versatility and offers more because we can actually read it wherever and however we want without somebody inappropriately dictating what we can do with it.

[ejpl]

I whole-heartedly agree.  In fact, I purchased the NookColor specifically to use to help me organize and write my doctoral dissertation.  Although I can appreciate that formatting e-textbooks can be a challenge (although I don't see a major difference between that and a magazine), the fact that the different color highlights and the ability to attach categories to notes is a missing feature on the Nook is a huge gap in truly utilizing NookStudy for major research.

Like other users, I am on the go and being able to make notes and highlights on the Nook with the same options that exist in NookStudy would be a huge time saver.  Most of the books that I am using for my research are not heavily laden with pictures and are a perfect read on the Nook.  Additionally, I specifically purchased this product over the Kindle because it has the ablility to read Office documents and PDFs. 

A suggeston for a feature enhancement would be to be able to export the notes in the form of a table (as they are displayed in NookStudy before export).  This would allow a user to combine note tables from different sources and then sort by the different categories.  Again this is important to large research projects.  Another enhancement would be to be able to include the highlighted passage (even if it had to be limited by the number of characters) into the notes on export. 

[Dagney]

I agree.  I am a non-traditional student an only read books via my nook and find it perplexing that we can not read the "text" of textbooks via the nook.  I would probably buy all my textbooks via barnes and noble and put on my nook it if was available.

[EJenkins]

Please let us read textbooks on our Nooks!

I recieved a NookColor for christmas for the main reason of being able to combine all of my 10 pound text books into one lightweight device. I guess I should have done my homework beforehand but calling it NOOK study is rather misleading.

Along with several of the posts already made many of my professors do not like laptops out in class or flat out do not allow them and a laptop is so much more cumbersome than a Nook, plus they take considerable time to boot!

Even if the graphics or print are illegible to read at times I want to be able to use the versatility of my Nook.

[sundoll]

While we're all waiting for the NC to support NOOKstudy (or for a NOOKstudy app for Android to come out for those of us that have ::cough:: rooted our Nooks) I have a work around that might help some people.

It's not perfect by any means, but here goes: almost all of my textbooks for this upcoming semester are available through coursesmart.com, and only one of those has a print limitation of fewer pages than the book is long.  I printed all of the pages out to PDF and then sideloaded that onto my NC - of course no bookmarking or highlighting, but it's a start.  Right now I'm messing around with Calibre to get them into epub format for hopefully improved functionality, so we'll see how that works.  Alternatively, a lot of textbook sites (like coursesmart) have online versions of textbooks, so you could use the browser on the NC to access the content.

I really hope B&N is working on this and will remedy it VERY soon with a software update - they lost about $300 in revenue from me since I bought my textbooks elsewhere.

[Monkeyspikes]

I'm in the same boat as many of these folks on here. I purchased a NookColor for Christmas, so I could have my textbooks on a lightweight device that's easy to pull out. NOOKstudy should be preloaded into these devices, etextbooks should be available in the Nook Color shop, or something. B&N better be on this and fast. This could be a HUGE selling point for their Nook devices, and their missing it BIGTIME! I'm about to return this stupid thing because it can't do the one thing I was told by a sales rep in Lubbock that it could do. DOWNLOAD TEXTBOOKS! GAH! I'm sure I speak for tons of students and parents when I say, "What the heck Barnes&Noble?!"

[Cold_Realms]

I must add my voice to those DEMANDING that etextbooks be made availiable on the NookColor (And other devices like the ipad too). You want to please the masses and beat Kindle? Want to see NookColors in the hands of every student in america? You NEED to do this. Limiting etextbooks to a laptop or PC is usless and really archiac.

Spending $250 is nothing compared to the convinence of having your books in your pocket or the future cost of back surgery!

There is no real reason not to do it.

[MattMath]

This are all valid reason why a textbook is very different then a traditional novel.  But, magazine have very similar content - large page size, extensive graphics, multiple columns, references to other pages, table of contents etc...and yet these are offered for my nookcolor.  The ArticleView feature makes it easy to focus on the text on the article, and pan and zoom features make it easy to read charts and graphs. 

Instead of trying to address the issue like a traditional book, why not publish with the format that you are using for magazines, and has been proven to work nicely on nookcolor, ipad, and other similar devices.

The only reason that the laptop and desktop computer is the most utilized device by college students and faculty  is because the content providers for there most needed resources have not delivered in a convienient portable form.   Change the paradigm, don't go with the heard towards a broken one.

[jeanetteg]

Ok I think I am understanding now why my textbook won't download onto my phone after reading all the posts here. I am so mad and I guess I may as well delete the Nook app because it is now useless to me. I specifically bought an e-textbook through Nookstudy because the bookstore person said sure it will work with Nook. And why wouldn't your products be integrated. Yes, I would have GLADLY paid for an app so that I don't have to lug around 100 pounds of books to class. I am a science major...do you have any clue how heavy my chemistry book is? And no, I don't normally take my laptop to school because the weight of that combined with books is too much.

 And guess what, I am also a non-traditional student. I have a life, kids, etc....I want to be able to use those wasted moments to study...how nice it would be to pull out my phone while waiting for an appointment and pick up reading where I left off.

I don't know where your market research is taking place, but consider this, I am the one with the buying power, not some little 18 year old. I have children in college also....and you can be sure 'mom' is going to to tell them why they shouldn't buy the textbooks through Nookstudy.

I really hope you people are working on a fix for this because B&N is dropping the ball.

Excuse me...gotta go post on facebook about this one and educate my friends.

[dest1n]

I am a college student at a university known for its diverse student body (last time I checked, 3rd the third most diverse in the country). Yes, nearly every student has a laptop, but there is a growing number of students with Ipads, Nooks, and Kindles, too, because the fact is this: laptops (even those teeny little netbooks) are heavy, and we don't want to carry them on our backs all day!

I have serious spinal problems from all these backpacking school years. 1 pound of weight can be the difference between being just fine and having muscle spasms and other spinal alignment-related issues. I don't care about features - highlighting, annotating, bookmarking, searching, all of that. They're nice, but not important. I just want to be able to view my textbooks on a lightweight device I could take anywhere (like my NookColor).

I would also agree with others who have mentioned that NookStudy is poor branding for something that is not actually compatible with Nook devices or apps. It's confusing, deceiving, inaccurate, etc.

[cyberorange]

If eTextbooks aren't compatible with the Nook then there should be a sign that says textbooks are not for the nook. 

I purchased my nook just for this purpose and now I can't read my textbook via my nook.  I don't want to read the textbook on the computer, as one of the selling points of the nook is that it uses Eink. 

This should be made very clear for customers.

[PhoenixRequiem]

I have to agree I was looking at getting an e-reader for textbook purposes and found that I can't use textbooks on it which somewhat defeats the point of getting one. Though it still saves me a little trouble with textbooks, because, for example, I can get three of my textbooks for the NOOKstudy software and pay a fraction of the cost and just carry my laptop instead of the 15ish pounds of books. However, my eyes get to hurting a lot after reading on an LCD screen for long periods of time, so it doesn't really fix my problem as much as I'd hoped. I did find a competitor has two of my textbooks available for their e-reader, and considered getting one from them... but I can't justify buying it if I won't be able to get enough of my books to make it worthwhile.