Setup guide

How to put a PDF planner or notebook on your Kobo

On a Kobo with a stylus, a PDF planner opens in the built-in reader like any book. You write on its pages with the Kobo Stylus and follow its links with a finger. This guide covers the Elipsa, Elipsa 2E, Sage and Libra Colour, the four Kobo models that take a stylus.

1. Pick the right file

No pen, so these can open the files but not write on them: Libra 2 · Clara 2E · Clara BW · Clara Colour.

The Elipsa and the Elipsa 2E have a 10.3 inch 3:4 screen, so they take the Large layout. The Sage, at 8 inches, and the Libra Colour, at 7 inches, take Compact, which has bigger text and wider rows for small screens. All four screens are 3:4, like both layouts, so the page fills the screen.

Then choose the edition and the hand:

These editions are for the planner. Notebook files are named by paper and hand instead, for example dot_right or meeting_left.

2. Copy it to your tablet

Kobo's help pages describe three ways to add a PDF that has no copy protection. Graphite files are plain PDFs with no DRM and no lock on notes, so all three work.

By USB

1. Download the file and unzip it if it came in a zip file.
2. Connect the Kobo to your computer with its cable and tap Connect when the Kobo shows Computer detected.
3. Drag the PDF into the drive called KOBOeReader.
4. Eject the drive, then unplug the cable. The planner appears in My Books.

By Dropbox or Google Drive

1. Link the service once: on the Kobo, open the Dropbox setting or My Google Drive and follow the code it shows.
2. Put the PDF in the Rakuten Kobo folder that the link creates in your Dropbox or Google Drive.
3. Sync the Kobo over Wi-Fi. The file appears in My Books.

Kobo says Dropbox needs software 4.18 or later and Google Drive 4.37 or later. Google Drive refuses file names with characters such as : or ?, which Graphite file names never use.

3. Open it and follow the links

1. Open My Books and tap the planner.
2. Tap links with a finger. The stylus writes, so a pen tap on a button leaves a mark instead of jumping.
3. Use a short, clean tap. Kobo keeps the corners of the screen for hold gestures, so a long press near a corner does something else.

The Elipsa PDF review by The eBook Reader confirms that links in a PDF are active on the Kobo, and planner sellers report the same finger-tap behaviour on the Elipsa 2E and the Libra Colour.

4. Write on the pages

1. Write anywhere on the page with the stylus tip.
2. Press the highlight button on the stylus to highlight instead of write.
3. To erase, press the eraser button on the first Kobo Stylus, or turn the Kobo Stylus 2 around and use its top end.
4. Tap the page once with a finger to open the reading menu and its pen tools. On the Libra Colour you can choose the ink colour there.

Two limits from Kobo's help pages: handwritten notes stay on the eReader and do not travel to the Kobo Books app, and a PDF without protection can be exported with its notes. Export now and then as a backup of your year.

Keep the original PDF on your computer as a clean backup. To start over, or to begin a fresh notebook, copy it again under a new name.

5. If something looks wrong

A link does nothing, or my stylus draws on the button.

Tap with a finger. The Kobo Stylus always writes, even on a link.

The stylus does not write at all.

Check the model: the Libra 2 and the Clara models have no stylus support. On a stylus model, make sure you opened the original PDF from the download and not a copy saved by another app with locked notes.

There are white bars around the page, or the text looks tiny.

Use Large 3:4 on the Elipsa and Elipsa 2E, and Compact 3:4 on the Sage and Libra Colour.

The file is not in My Books after I added it to Dropbox or Google Drive.

Sync the Kobo over Wi-Fi from the home screen, and check that the file sits inside the Rakuten Kobo folder.

The tabs are under my hand, or under the toolbar.

Switch between the _right and _left versions. The side opposite the tabs never has anything to tap.

I'd like Monday, or Sunday, as the first day of the week.

Use another planner edition: _intl_ and _intl12_ start on Monday, with a 24- or 12-hour clock; _us_ starts on Sunday.

6. How sure we are

Every model gets one of these labels, based on what owners, the maker and established reviewers have published. Nothing here is a guess dressed up as a test.

• Documented by the makerElipsa · Elipsa 2E · Libra ColourThe maker documents pen writing on PDFs, and following internal PDF links is documented by the maker or by established reviewers or planner sellers for this model or its software.
• Should work, not confirmedSageWe have not tested this tablet: open the free sample first.

This guide is based on:

• Kobo Help: Write notes in your book with Kobo Stylus
• Kobo Help: Add non-protected PDF and ePub files using your computer
• Kobo Help: Add books to your eReader using Dropbox
• Kobo Help: Add books to your eReader using Google Drive
• The eBook Reader: Kobo Elipsa PDF review
• Planned Pages: planner links not working

Guides for other tablets:

• reMarkable
• Supernote
• Boox
• Kindle Scribe
• viwoods
• iPad
• Bigme
• Meebook
• PocketBook
• Lenovo
• Huawei
• Xiaomi and Moaan
• TCL NXTPAPER
• Daylight
• Galaxy Tab