iBooks Author - tips & tricks

[superluminal23]

I have some real basic questions about how to format an iBook.* You’ll have to excuse my naivety. I’ve never actually seen an iBook before, other than a few free public domain works I downloaded from the iTunes store for reference, and they look a LOT different than my finished product.* I’m wondering why.* Maybe the answer is “those books were made in a different program and iBooks Author doesn’t do that.”* That’s perfectly acceptable, but I’d just like to know that’s the answer as opposed to some formatting problem.
*
Also, I am working with a plain plain simple text only book.* No photos or hyperlinks or interactivity.* Just plain words.* None of the help files seem to address my issues because they are all concerned with advanced topics like how to add 3-D images. I don’t care about any of that.* I’m stuck on super simple formatting issues.
*
Ok, the first issue I have is that the free iBooks I downloaded all look like real paper.* You flip page by page and it even makes it look like you are physically flipping a page.* But in the iBook I’m designing, all of the text for the chapter is in one long continuous scrolling textblock.* There don’t seem to be any pages, just a long pile of paragraphs that you scroll through like a website.* So my first question is: how do I give my book pages that you flip through instead of one long section of text you scroll through?* Right now, instead having 200 individual, it’s more like 10 gigantic pages.
*
The second issue has to do with chapters.* In the free iBooks I downloaded, when you get to the end of a chapter and you flip to the next page, it just flips you to the first page of the next chapter.* But for my book, the only way to get from one chapter to the next is to go back to the table of contents and click the next chapter.* So my second question is: how do you get the entire book to be more continuous so you can read it easily, as opposed to requiring the reader to keep going back to the table of contents?
*
Third, what the heck is the difference between a ‘Chapter’ and a ‘Section’* For the life of me I can’t understand what the difference is or which one I should be using.* Right now my book is made up of 10 ‘Sections’ each containing a chapter of the text.* Should I be using ‘Chapters’ instead of ‘Sections’?* Is that why I’m having these problems?* The Apple help is very very unclear about all of this.
*
Finally, and this is more of an observation than anything else: Why isn’t one of the templates just “Plain Plain Text with Nothing Fancy”?* I’d imagine that most of the people using iBooks are novelists, not textbook writers.* Why isn’t there a template for just a plain novel with no fancy photos or any of that stuff?* That would make it much easier to use, in my opinion.
*
Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you can give.

PS, I don't know why all those asterisks have appeared in my post. I hate computers with the fury of 10,000 burning suns.

[jacg]

It sounds like you're using the wrong tool - iBA seems to be for creating media-rich textbooks rather than novels. I'm not sure what people usually use for text-based projects - have you been to the Apple site to see what tools they recommend for novels?

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[CherieHere]

Let's say I am creating a cookbook. One thing I would like to do is create a shopping list (I add a widget with checkbox items), they check off what they already have and then I want a way to print what they need to get at the store. Any ideas how I can do this from the IPad? If printing is not an option, is there a way for me to mail them the shopping list?

Appreciate any ideas.

[daniele m]

Hello forum,
i'm looking for guidelines, to pass "content review for quality assurance" on ibook Store.

can anyone help me?

Tnx to all, and sorry for my bad english

[eddyc]

Originally Posted by JacquesM

Hi everyone. Maybe a stupid question, but how do you add the new widget to IBA ?

Not a stupid question. You have to insert an html 5 widget and then drag it in. It took me a while to figure it out.

[dier02]

I can's seem to work out why iBook pages that I delete return? Anyone know what to do to get around this?

[asnook]

I would like to be able to have text pop out when clicked to reveal information when clicked. any ideas how to do it?

[immaculate]

Originally Posted by superluminal23

I have some real basic questions about how to format an iBook.
*
Ok, the first issue I have is that the free iBooks I downloaded all look like real paper.* You flip page by page and it even makes it look like you are physically flipping a page.* But in the iBook I’m designing, all of the text for the chapter is in one long continuous scrolling textblock.* There don’t seem to be any pages, just a long pile of paragraphs that you scroll through like a website.* So my first question is: how do I give my book pages that you flip through instead of one long section of text you scroll through?* Right now, instead having 200 individual, it’s more like 10 gigantic pages.
*
Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you can give.

PS, I don't know why all those asterisks have appeared in my post. I hate computers with the fury of 10,000 burning suns.

I think you are working in Portrait view (= a vertical page layout). Try switching to Landscape view (= a horizontal page layout) and see if that helps. You can set this in the tool bar at the top of the screen.

[tracyevans]

I would like to add an accordion menu to my iBook that will reveal a list of web links when clicked. Here is a link to an example with example code. I'm just not sure how to get this code and it's required external javascript file into iBook author.

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamici...m?expandable=3

Any help would be appreciated

[cmaupin]

"Ok, the first issue I have is that the free iBooks I downloaded all look like real paper.* You flip page by page and it even makes it look like you are physically flipping a page.* But in the iBook I’m designing, all of the text for the chapter is in one long continuous scrolling textblock.* There don’t seem to be any pages, just a long pile of paragraphs that you scroll through like a website.* So my first question is: how do I give my book pages that you flip through instead of one long section of text you scroll through?* Right now, instead having 200 individual, it’s more like 10 gigantic pages."

Position your cursor where you want a page change to occur and click on Insert - Page Break

Hope this is what you were looking for.

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"Third, what the heck is the difference between a ‘Chapter’ and a ‘Section’* For the life of me I can’t understand what the difference is or which one I should be using.* Right now my book is made up of 10 ‘Sections’ each containing a chapter of the text.* Should I be using ‘Chapters’ instead of ‘Sections’?* Is that why I’m having these problems?* The Apple help is very very unclear about all of this."

From my limited understanding, I believe Section means the parts of your book that aren't the body such as: Intro, Acknowledgement, Copyright, About the Author, etc., pages. Chapters are the body of your work.

[cmaupin]

"Finally, and this is more of an observation than anything else: Why isn’t one of the templates just “Plain Plain Text with Nothing Fancy”?* I’d imagine that most of the people using iBooks are novelists, not textbook writers.* Why isn’t there a template for just a plain novel with no fancy photos or any of that stuff?*"

I empathize. What I did was opened one of the templates, and proceeded to delete all the graphics, etc., then set up my own text boxes, font formats, etc. and then saved as a new template under File - Save as New Template in My Templates. Assign an appropriate file name and then open that template to start your book being sure to name it with a different file name and thereby keeping your template clear except for any standard formats you want to retain.

When you delete objects from the original template, they aren't permanently deleted as long as you assign a new file name to the template.

[jacg]

Originally Posted by cmaupin

"Finally, and this is more of an observation than anything else: Why isn’t one of the templates just “Plain Plain Text with Nothing Fancy”?* I’d imagine that most of the people using iBooks are novelists, not textbook writers.* Why isn’t there a template for just a plain novel with no fancy photos or any of that stuff?*"

I empathize. What I did was opened one of the templates, and proceeded to delete all the graphics, etc., then set up my own text boxes, font formats, etc. and then saved as a new template under File - Save as New Template in My Templates. Assign an appropriate file name and then open that template to start your book being sure to name it with a different file name and thereby keeping your template clear except for any standard formats you want to retain.

When you delete objects from the original template, they aren't permanently deleted as long as you assign a new file name to the template.

iBooks Author was built for media-rich ebooks which only work on an iOS device, which is presumably why it's free, in order to push adoption rate. Mainly text-based books can be more easily made in an application like Pages. Obviously Pages is not free but then ePub files are not limited to iOS. Perhaps there are other editors out there that make and export simple ePub files?

Making and saving a basic template in iBA is a good idea though.

[cmaupin]

I had the same issue. There may be an easier way but what I did to fix it was start a new file where I copied and pasted the book - only the portion your want - into the portrait view. (Like you I have no idea how I got a second copy of my book with ~ 100 pages between it and the first one.) So far the problem hasn't returned so I'm hoping everything works out.

[pchlorenzo]

From Barcelona...This is the first Ibook2 wine catalogue ever made on that format and will soon be in English and Spanish.

http://bit.ly/IbookIpad

The author sets out the virtues of organic vitiviniculture, the health benefits of drinking wines produced in this way and offers the first analysis the present day market, including a complete catalogue of the quality-price relationship and the main characteristics of each wine. The guide addresses the specialist forums and prizes associated with the sector, plus other information never before discussed in a single publication in the genre of organic products.

Importantly, in its paper edition also available in www.vinumnature.com, Ecomundis has made ​​an effort to reduce CARBON FOOTPRINT publication to 0.43 kg by using fully recycled paper (new practice in the business of wine guides) and by the use of vegetable-based inks with less impact.

----------

From Barcelona...This is the first Ibook2 wine catalogue ever made on that format and will soon be in English and Spanish.

http://bit.ly/IbookIpad

The author sets out the virtues of organic vitiviniculture, the health benefits of drinking wines produced in this way and offers the first analysis the present day market, including a complete catalogue of the quality-price relationship and the main characteristics of each wine. The guide addresses the specialist forums and prizes associated with the sector, plus other information never before discussed in a single publication in the genre of organic products.

Importantly, in its paper edition also available in www.vinumnature.com, Ecomundis has made ​​an effort to reduce CARBON FOOTPRINT publication to 0.43 kg by using fully recycled paper (new practice in the business of wine guides) and by the use of vegetable-based inks with less impact.

[Mudbug]

Anyone know if you can add additional locations of images to be used in the media browser, or is that hard-linked to iLife apps only?

[jacg]

Originally Posted by Mudbug

Anyone know if you can add additional locations of images to be used in the media browser, or is that hard-linked to iLife apps only?

I guess you need to import photos with the GPS-data (or tag them with locations yourself) in iPhoto or Aperture.

[UncleheFTy]

I have been writing an authorised biography for a number of years (it seems like decades) and have created a document in word that looks pretty good when migrated into iBooks Author and will allow me to do what I want with the book rather than the fairly static kindle format. However, I have an issue that I need your help with.

I fully intend to publish the book via iTunes and will be offering this as the first option, but also want to be able to distribute it via the physical medium of a USB drive whilst on tour with my subject (he's a singer) as part of a merchandise package. I realise that the process of getting the book from usb into an iPad isn't the easiest in the world, but it is doable and my issue lies in the aspect of copy protection - there are some unscrupulous people out there who might sell unauthorised copies.. Are there any ways in which I can copy protect the downloaded copy (does that make sense) and does IBA contain DRM?

As I am almost at the end of my journey here, and want to have this thing ready to take on tour in April I'd like some help please. I have looked on 'Giggle' and other forums but not yet stumbled upon that 'Eureka' moment.

Ta

Uncle H

[UncleheFTy]

I am on the cusp of publishing a biography and have struggled with Ibooksauthor and learned some new words along the way - most of them filled with asterisks

My need is urgent in that I want to convert a word document into an ibook and retain the cover and contents in the same format but I have to try and navigate the formats that are proscribed in the bible of IBA.

I live in the UK and would be grateful for any help that can be given into a simple conversion

UncleH

[katyarr]

Originally Posted by jacg

[*]The level of control provided by the iWork toolset is comprehensive but for some parts of the widgets, the controls are ghosted out (for example the line and fill of the labels in the Interactive Image widget).

[/LIST]

Hi! Has anyone figured out how to edit / modify interactive widget transport controls? I'm having an issue with readability and would like to make the controls opaque not transparent.

Thanks all!

[katyarr]

Originally Posted by katyarr

Hi! Has anyone figured out how to edit / modify interactive widget transport controls? I'm having an issue with readability and would like to make the controls opaque not transparent.

Thanks all!

FIGURED IT OUT!

You have to edit the label style and apply it