iBooks Author - tips & tricks

UncleheFTy said:

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

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Did you find that you can import Chapters from Pages or MSWord...its in the drop down menus.
Sometimes, its actually easier and better results to copy your text and paste into s section or the first page in a section. Add graphics and settle your own formatting.

Edit: Must be getting old....did not notice the post was 12 months ago.......oooops

Hi Guys

I am brand new to the forum and I was wondering if you experienced ladies and gentlemen might be able to help me.

I have a few questions you might be able to help me with

1. Can I make a copy of my Ibook before publishing so that I can make changes to it further down the line?

2. Some of my section titles are missing from the table of contents and if I am being honest I may have deleted them unwittingly when I first started out, how do I reintroduce them?

Any help would be really appreciated
Ian

Digging up an oldie here! iBooks Author has been around for a while but I finally have a need for it, to compile travelogues of past trips. Question though: I'm trying to create an initial page, before chapter 1, for a quote. I don't want it to appear in the table of contents. So what I did is duplicate the "dedication" section template, reformatted it the way I want, applied the changes, created a section using my new custom section template, and in the TOC inspector I removed the new page from the list of what's included in the TOC. But...it still is in the TOC. Any tips?

Doubt anyone will reply at this point, but does anyone know if iBooks Author still works in Monterey? Can I just drag my application file over to a new computer when upgrading and have it work? And if said computer is an ARM Mac, will it still run properly through Rosetta?

Honestly, it's better to create eBooks with Pages these days. It's easier than iBooks ever was and very customisable. Give it a shot.

FilthyMuppetInnuendo said:

Doubt anyone will reply at this point, but does anyone know if iBooks Author still works in Monterey? Can I just drag my application file over to a new computer when upgrading and have it work? And if said computer is an ARM Mac, will it still run properly through Rosetta?

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I have an M1 MacBook Air running Monterey, iBooks Author just opened for me, no problems, with this message (attachment). I agree with Spacetime Anomaly, you might as well begin using Pages, although you actually can still use iBooks Author.

I used Migration Assistant to import all my previous files & apps to this laptop, iBooks Author migrated too.

CrickettGrrrl said:

I have an M1 MacBook Air running Monterey, iBooks Author just opened for me, no problems, with this message (attachment). I agree with Spacetime Anomaly, you might as well begin using Pages, although you actually can still use iBooks Author.

I used Migration Assistant to import all my previous files & apps to this laptop, iBooks Author migrated too.

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Wonderful. Thank you for checking! That was my last concern before knowing that I can buy an ARM machine.

Spacetime Anomaly said:

Honestly, it's better to create eBooks with Pages these days. It's easier than iBooks ever was and very customisable. Give it a shot.

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Pages just isn’t there. It refuses to let me make fixed-layout books and still, after years, lacks some of the features of iBooks Author, never mind some of the features iBooks Author should have had years ago itself. I really don’t want to have to learn XML to build my book from scratch on the back end. I taught myself HTML and CSS when iWeb was discontinued, and as much as I enjoy building websites now, I don’t want to have to go through that again. Thanks, though.

FilthyMuppetInnuendo said:

Pages just isn’t there. It refuses to let me make fixed-layout books

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I appreciate it might not have everything you need, but Pages does make fixed layout ebooks. You can choose one as a template, or select it later as an option on export.

WOW. When did they finally add that? Oh boy, now I have an entire book to reformat in Pages! What fun! But at least it’ll be a “supported” software. Thanks for letting me know! It’s something new to do, I guess.

EDIT: Okay. Oooooooookay. Now I remember the rest of the reasons I don’t use Pages.

No in-document templates. I can’t drop in a pre-formatted chapter section, or a pre-formatted individual page, like in iBooks Author. I apparently have to do all of that formatting manually, inline in the main document field, and then set all of the text boxes to be a “chapter” or “section” designation by hand, otherwise the generated table of contents won’t know where or what they are.
No parity of page size. iBooks Author sizes its documents at 10.5”x14”, which I’m reading counts as “A4 Wide.” Pages won’t let me use this document size, so if I use Pages I’ll have to not only copy in all my main text, text boxes, and graphics, I’ll have to go through page by page and place them where they belong contextually, all over again, rereading the text to know where they’re supposed to be. Also resizing elements to fit the different page size.
Typeface restrictions. I’m apparently not allowed to use Iowan Old in my book? Why? I’m sure there are other fonts I’m not allowed to use. At first glance the list seems shorter than in regular Pages documents, or in other applications.
No justified text. What. ****ing what. What’s the point of even publishing a book, then? What self-respecting author doesn’t justify his text? It’s unusable.

Fixed layout was a big deal, sure, but this is utterly unacceptable.

I never said Pages was perfect or on par with iBooks Author. I just think its worth revisiting. Admittedly, your needs seem to be more extensive than the average writer of fiction or straight forward non-fiction. It sounds like you are creating something more complex.

I might be able to help you on one other thing though. Page sizes in Pages can be whatever you want them to be.
File > Page Setup > Paper Size > Manage Custom Sizes.
You can make your document 10.5”x14”, then save it as a template.

Good luck with your project, whatever you choose to use.