There are sometimes difficulties in downloading e-books, especially with Internet Explorer. The following notes are based on my experience with various browsers running under Windows 7.
Each browser has a default downloads folder, which is where the browser will save downloaded files unless you specify a different folder.
See below for notes on changing the default downloads folder.
If you’ve never changed it, it’s likely to be C:\Users\your_user_name\Downloads
Method 1:Just left-click on the link to save the e-book in the browser’s default downloads folder.
Method 2:Right-click on the link. A menu appears. Choose the “Save as…” option (may be called “Save link as…” in Chrome or “Save linked content as…” in Opera). A dialog box appears which allows you to choose the folder where you want to save the e-book.
Method 1:Left-click on the link. A menu appears offering Open or Save. Click Save to save the e-book in the browser’s default downloads folder.
Method 2:Right-click on the link. A menu appears. Choose the “Save as…” option (may be called “Save link as…” in Firefox or “Download linked file as…” in Safari). A dialog box appears which allows you to choose the folder where you want to save the e-book.
Method 1:Left-click on the link. A menu appears offering Open or Save, but IE may have changed the file extension
from .epub to .zip. Click Save to save the e-book in IE’s default downloads folder. Then, if the file has been downloaded with extension .zip, do not unzip it but use the Windows rename-file function to change the extension back to .epub (click Yes if asked “Are you sure?”).
Method 2:Right-click on the link and choose “Save target as…”. A dialog box appears, but it may be set up to save the file as an HTML document. If so, change the file extension from .htm to .epub and change the dropdown “Save as type” from “HTML document” to “All files”. If desired, use the dialog box to change the folder where the e-book will be saved. Then click Save.
In my experience with IE 11, left-clicking the link does not work for AZW3 files. IE downloads the file but, instead of saving it, displays it as gibberish in the browser window.
The following method should work (essentially the same as Method 2 for EPUB files): Right-click on the link and choose “Save target as…”. A dialog box appears, but it may be set up to save the file as an HTML document. If so, change the file extension from .htm to .azw3 and change the dropdown “Save as type” from “HTML document” to “All files”. If desired, use the dialog box to change the folder where the e-book will be saved. Then click Save.
Chrome:Click “Customize and control” icon (three lines, top right) > Settings > Show advanced settings (bottom) > Download location
Firefox:Click “Open menu” icon (three lines, top right) > Options > General > Save files to (or select radio button to make Firefox prompt every time)
Internet Explorer 11:Click “Tools” icon (cogwheel, top right) > View downloads > Options (bottom left) > Default download location
Opera:Click “Customize and control” icon (logo, top left) > Settings > Download location (or check box to make Opera prompt every time)
Safari:Click “Settings” icon (cogwheel, top right) > Preferences > General > Save downloaded files to
Michael Behrend, September 2015