I love how you can look up a word in iBooks. The problem I am having is if I import my own books, via PDF to epub the dictionary does not recognize anything, and I get that it does not support this language. Does anyone have a solution? All books purchased from the iBooks store work fine, it's the books I bring in. Is there a setting or something I am missing?
Sorry for the long post.... Any help will be appreciated.

The dictionary is supported for ePubs only. No dictionary for PDF files.

No, I am importing an ePub book, but it still does not work.... ePub was made via Calibre or from a torrent.

My guess is these books have Adobe's DRM.

...and we all know what happens when we combine Apple and Adobe

Well, ummmm.... you could always download a separate dictionary. There are several dictionary apps (many are free) and Barnes & Noble includes one for free when you download their app.

Originally Posted by 1991-C4

Well, ummmm.... you could always download a separate dictionary. There are several dictionary apps (many are free) and Barnes & Noble includes one for free when you download their app.

This won't function the way it works in iBooks right? Sorta defeats the purpose. I would have to copy word, exit iBooks, open dictionary app, paste word, "oh, that's what it means..." close dictionary app, re-launch iBooks to get back to reading. I would rather highlight word, click dictionary, then get back to reading.
So I guess I should just buy the books from iBooks right?

Originally Posted by iamfudge

I would have to copy word, exit iBooks, open dictionary app, paste word, "oh, that's what it means..." close dictionary app, re-launch iBooks to get back to reading.

That's the way we used to do it before computers were invented, except we didn't have the copy & paste part! You could also use an old fashioned ink on paper dictionary when you are reading and that way you don't have to exit your reading app. Oh that's right, copy & paste won't work with that either. Sorry.

Originally Posted by iamfudge

I would rather highlight word, click dictionary, then get back to reading.
So I guess I should just buy the books from iBooks right?

Life isn't always fair. Actually, it rarely is. Everything doesn't always work the way you want it. Maybe someone will come up with an app for that one day. Who knows? Until
then, you're out of luck!

EDIT: But seriously, I do applaud your efforts to improve yourself by at least wanting to look up words you don't know.

What I don't understand is that iTunes sees the imported ePub file as a book. I can turn pages, change fonts, do everything else except use the dictionary. I don't see any difference in a book I purchase vrs. a book I import into iTunes. That's the part that bugs me.

Got this from an apple discussion forum. Incase anyone else was bothered by this....
Made a folder on desktop called epubcopies-put the epubs in. Ran terminal on Mac...

"I've saved the script into a file: http://files.me.com/dniq/rn5dqj - just download the file, save it in your "epubcopies" folder and execute it like this:

cd ~/Desktop/epubcopies
sh fix-epub-language.sh

The script iterates through every .epub file in the current subdirectory. Every epub file is basically a specially formatted zip file. The script extracts "content.opf" file from every .epub file, replaces <dc:language>UND</dc:language> string with <dc:language xsi:type="dcterms:RFC4646">en</dc:language> one, then zips this file back into the epub file, overwriting the old one inside. "

I think someone mentioned in a thread at the Mobileread forums that this has meanwhile been fixed in the latest release of iBooks.