Recently Fly Tyer Magazine became available for electronic delivery.  While I love the feel of classic paper print for reading, especially my beloved Fly Tyer, my recent decision to move all media to the iPad made me bite the bullet and renew my subscription in electronic format.  The delivery mechanism is “o.k.” as provided by http://onlinedigitalpubs.com.  The e-reader is pretty standard and allows you flip through the pages on the computer with ease. However, you must be connected to internet since there is no ability to save the file (like with Zinio) for offline viewing. This creates a problem for iPad viewing during travel or when not connected to a wifi or 3G source.   Not to despair, there is a quick workaround.  Just choose to save the current edition as a .pdf file and you can easily view it on your computer anytime (each edition is about 120mb).  What’s even better is transferring the pdf to your iPad or iPhone or both for convenient viewing anywhere, anytime.  I’ll show you how below, but first let me tell you why it’s so cool.  Having your Fly Tyer available on your iPhone for example means you never have to be bored or frustrated waiting in line at the airport.

 

Step One. Access your online copy of Fly Tyer via the homepage or in your email inbox link, which is sent quarterly with each new edition.  Here is a screen shot of the online electronic magazine.

Step Two.  Click the top bar on the right to save as a .pdf and download it to your hard drive.  Make sure to rename the file (e.g. FlyTyer.year.season)

Step Three.  Drag the .pdf to iTunes under the “books” tab on the left pane.

Step Four.  Open the .pdf and right click and choose “info” and then change the category from unknown to Fly Tying and iTunes will make a new category.

Step Five.  Sync your iPad (or iPhone or both) and the Fly Tyer pdf will sync to iBooks.

Step Six.  Enjoy your Fly Tyer Magazine anytime, anywhere you like.  I particularly enjoy sitting the iPad on my fly tying desk and following the instructions for a particular pattern while I tie.  No longer do I have to run back-and-forth between my laptop and my tying desk during a detailed tutorial.  It is also a simple joy to read the magazine on the airplane or during lunch and dream of tying some flies instead of working.

Here are a few screen shots from iPad

Shots of the iPad in action on the tying desk.