1. To locate your eBook in Halo, start by clicking the Class Resources button on the left-side navigation menu. 

   

2. From the Class Resources page, locate the title of your eBook. Click the GCU media link associated with the eBook.
   

   

   NOTE There may be multiple resources listed under the Course Materials heading. If you aren’t sure which resource is your eBook, check the Canyon Connect Website.

Once at the Digital Resources page, click on the PDF icon. The icon will allow you to download and save your eBook. If you have a different icon, such as one that looks like a globe, check out Reading your eBooks Through the Web Viewer.

Make sure to open your eBook in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC! For assistance with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, refer to our article on Adobe Reader Installation and Setup.

Safari Reader

If you have Safari’s Reader View enabled, it will not allow you to view the download options for your eBook. Instead, your page will appear in a reader view format:

Please see the Frequently Asked Questions section of this article for steps on disabling your Safari’s Reader View.

Once you have Adobe Reader installed, you will need to follow a few more steps to successfully unlock it:

1. When you have opened the eBook with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, you will see a sign-in page as pictured below. Sign in with your GCU username (without the @my.gcu.edu) and password. Then, click Login. If you press Enter on the keyboard, it will not log you in.

   

   NOTE If you receive an error message that says “Your credentials appear to be incorrect. Please try again or contact customer support (bw5)”, you may have entered the wrong username or password or your account may be locked out. If your account is locked, you will need to contact Technical Support to get it unlocked.
2. Occasionally, after clicking login, you may receive a Security Warning that says "The Document is trying to connect to: https://ppdf.gcu.edu. Do you trust gcu.edu?" Select Allow to continue. This error message does not always appear when downloading your eBooks.

   
   
   

   NOTE If you select block, you may receive one of the following errors: “Your security settings don’t allow access to the protectedpdf server. You must allow access to the server in order to open the document.” Or “Adobe Acrobat does not allow connection to: ppdf.gcu.edu” For information on how to resolve this, refer to the Frequently Asked Questions section of this article.
3. After you click on Log In, a yellow message will appear near the top of the screen that says "Some features have been disabled to avoid potential security risks. Only enable these features if you trust this document". Click on Options and select Trust this document always.
4. After making that selection, the sign in page will reload. Enter your GCU username (without the @my.gcu.edu) and password. Then, click Log In. If you press Enter on the keyboard, it will not log you in. Once your credentials are entered correctly, a message will pop up stating the eBook has been unlocked and asking if you want to be automatically signed into the eBook without needing to log in. If you are on a public computer, select No; otherwise, you can select Yes to bypass logging in.

We recommend saving a copy of the eBook to an accessible area, such as your Desktop.

The use of digital content in the classroom provides a few advantages:

• To make all course materials available to students and faculty through the online learning management system. Everything that you need to be successful will be available immediately when you log into your classroom.
• To reduce the cost of course materials to students. At current pricing levels, digital content will reduce the overall cost of course materials by approximately 25% over the course of your program. This may vary slightly, depending on the program in which you are enrolled.
• To continue to provide a high-quality, contemporary education at an affordable price. We live and work in an increasingly electronic world.

The complete citation for the textbook can be found in your syllabus. If you wish to purchase a hard copy of the textbook, use the citation to order the correct edition. The purchase of a hard copy textbook will be at your own expense.

Digitally enabled courses will have materials fees applied to the course and students will be charged for the digital content.

Canyon Connect (canyonconnect.gcu.edu) will tell you whether your course materials are found in your class as eBooks or if your class requires a print textbook. Please see our article Canyon Connect for instructions on how to use the website.

If you are unable to move past the downloading step for an eBook that’s provided as a PDF, you may be experiencing an issue with your browser. We recommend:

• Disabling your browser’s PDF viewer
• Checking the Downloads section in your browser
• Trying a different browser

If none of the steps above worked for you, we recommend checking out our article on the Adobe Reader Installation and Setup process.

This issue occurs may be caused by Microsoft Edge’s Immersive Reader or Safari’s Reader View mode being enabled. Reader View will change the formatting of websites to remove any clutter and better suit your reading needs. Unfortunately, it also removes the download button for your PDF eBook.

In Microsoft Edge, make sure that you have exited Reader mode. You can do this by selecting Exit Immersive Reader from the address bar or by using the keyboard shortcut F9.

In Safari, to disable to the Reader View follow these steps:

With Safari open, click on Safari from the menu bar. Then, select Preferences from the drop-down menu.

Once in the Preferences window, select Websites. Then, click on Reader.

Next to When visiting other websites, select Off.

Once completed, close the browser and open a new window to ensure the changes take effect.

Yes, in order to log into your eBook, you must be connected to the internet. After it has been unlocked for the first time, you may select Automatically sign me into this document in the future. This will allow it to remain unlocked without an internet connection when you reopen the eBook. The latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is recommended in order to utilize this feature; for further assistance with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, please refer to the Adobe Reader Installation and Setup article.

If you see the letters and numbers in your password instead of asterisks (*), your eBook is not opening in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. To set your eBooks to always open in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, check out our article on setting your default applications!

Like Chrome, Firefox also has a built-in PDF viewer which can prevent eBooks from opening in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. This can cause two issues: (1) the user is unable to type in the Username and Password boxes, or (2) the user can type, but clicking the Log In button will not unlock the eBook. For more information on how to fix this issue check out our article on Disabling your Browser's PDF Viewer.

The following error message occurs when the username or password is entered incorrectly on the login page of a PDF eBook:

“Your credentials appear to be incorrect. Please try again or contact customer support. (bw5)

 Would you like to navigate to the support site?”

If you are unsure that you are using the correct login credentials, try resetting your password or recovering a saved password. If you are still unable to unlock the eBook after resetting your password, try downloading the eBook again and log in with the new password.

The following error message occurs when the username or password is entered incorrectly on the login page of a PDF eBook.

“An error occurred during the submit process. Cannot process content of type application/json; charset=utf-8.”

If you are unsure if you are using the correct login credentials, make sure that you are using your GCU username (not including the “@my.gcu.edu”), and try resetting your password or recovering a saved password. If you are still unable to unlock the eBook after resetting your password, try downloading the eBook again and log in with the new password.

The following error message occurs when the default Chrome PDF Viewer or the Firefox PDF Viewer prevents the eBook from opening in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. "There is a problem with this protected pdf document. It may be damaged or has been tampered with. Please contact the publisher for a clean file. Message Code: 013". For more information on how to fix this error check out our article on Disabling your Browser's PDF Viewer!

The following error message appears due to an unsuccessful decryption of your eBook. To resolve it, first we recommend disabling the Global Object Security Policy in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Follow the instructions provided in the error, or select one of the following links for a visual guide: PC Instructions / Mac Instructions

If you continue to receive the vitrium security error afterwards, we recommend resetting your password. For a step by step guide, see Password Reset Process.

When logging into your eBook, you may receive the following error:

Warning: Javascript Window – Vitrium Security – Error

Request timed out. Please try again later.

If you receive this error, you may not be using the correct username. Please make sure you are logging in with your GCU username (without @my.gcu.edu). If you are using the correct username, please try to reset your password.

If you are receiving this error, you can try unchecking the option to automatically be signed into your eBook. Once you uncheck this option, close the book and then try to open and sign in one more time. After unchecking this option, you will need to sign in each time you access it.

If Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is blocking access to gcu.edu, you may receive one of the following errors when attempting to access your eBook.

“Your security settings don’t allow access to the protectedpdf server. You must allow access to the server in order to open the document.”

Or

“Adobe Acrobat does not allow connection to: ppdf.gcu.edu”

In which case you will need to allow Adobe to access *.gcu.edu by navigating to Preferences from the Edit menu or hold Ctrl and press K.

In the Preferences window, locate the Trust Manager category from the navigation pane on the left and select Change Settings.

If gcu.edu is listed under “Web Sites”, remove it by selecting it and clicking Delete. Then enter *.gcu.edu in the text box below Specify Web Sites to Allow or Block and click Allow.

Then click the OK button located at the bottom right corner of the window, do this again on the Preferences window.

As a doctoral student you can access your textbooks through the Learner Dissertation Page (LDP). We recommend bookmarking your textbooks as they are only accessible through your internet browser and not downloadable.

If you are an inactive student for 90 days (3 months), meaning you are not participating or taking classes, you may lose access to all your eBooks, as well as other features of the LDP. If you are missing information from your LDP, please contact the College of Doctoral Studies directly.

To access the Learner Dissertation Page, you must first locate the My Dashboard option on the upper right corner.

Under the My Spaces header, select your Committee.

Once you are on the Leaner Dissertation Page, locate Important Links in the column on the left side of the page.

Your textbooks will be available under, GCU Doctoral Textbooks.

If you keep a PDF copy of the eBook on your computer, you will typically have access indefinitely. If there is no PDF eBook available and only a Web Viewer option is available, you can bookmark the Digital Resources page to be able to access the eBook in the future.

Our licensing agreement with the eBook publishers allows students to print one (1) copy of the eBook for personal use. Other printing problems can have various causes.

• If you receive an error saying, THIS PAGE IS PROTECTED, enter your username and password before attempting to print the document.
• Some eBooks have publisher restrictions that prevent you from printing, editing, or copying content in the document.

To verify that the issue isn’t with your printer, try printing a test page from another document. If you can't, follow these steps to check your connection to the printer:

• Ensure the cable connecting your printer to your computer is securely plugged in.
• If your printer is plugged into a USB hub, unplug the printer cable from the hub. Then, plug the printer cable directly into a USB port on your computer.

Turn off your printer. Wait 30 seconds, and then turn it on again.

If you are encountering this issue, make sure that the Save ink/toner option on the print screen is unchecked. View Printing eBooks for more information.

By default, Sticky Note and Highlighter tools are available in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. These annotation and markup tools can only be used in an eBook if the publisher has enabled them. In Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, choose Add Sticky Note or Highlight text from the Toolbar. The ability to highlight or comment in your eBook requires Adobe Acrobat Reader DC or later. To keep these changes, you must save the PDF file to your computer. If you close the document without saving, all changes made will be lost.

You may copy content in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, unless the eBook publisher has applied security settings that disallow copying, which is common for most eBooks.

Confirm that content copying is allowed

1. Right-click the document and choose Document Properties.
2. Click the Security tab and review the Document Restrictions Summary.

Copy specific content from a PDF

1. Right-click the document and choose Select Tool from the pop-up menu.
2. Drag to select text or click to select an image.
3. Right-click the selected item and choose Copy.

Our licensing agreement with the eBook publishers allows students to use eBooks for reading and annotating. Depending on the licensing agreement of your eBook, it may or may not be interactive.

BibliU, Web Viewer, W.W. Norton, Webbooks, and Pageburst/Evolve eBooks are available on mobile devices including Kindle, iPad, and Android. However, PDF and ePub eBooks are not supported on mobile devices.

You can use screen reader software with the PDF eBooks within Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Check out our article Adobe Reader Accessibility Features for more information.