iOS Authoring tools for Ipad?

[ericc22]

Greetings,

Hope this is the right place for this post!

I want to develop a book for the ipad. The book is for use in middle school science class. I want to of course include the text and illustrations, but mostly want to incorporate some basic simulations that illustrate the text.

For example, if the story is dealing with gravity I want to include a mini-gravity simulator next to that part of the story.

I am assuming there are no good authoring tools for this at this stage? I understand that Adobe has a product (InDesign) that will author text and illustration books, but not the interactivity.

Any suggestions for the best tools for developing this kind of book?

All guidance is most appreciated. I am not technical - I am an educator - but want to be able to offer some guidance to my team.

Thanks!

Eric

 

[balamw]

I am assuming there are no good authoring tools for this at this stage? I understand that Adobe has a product (InDesign) that will author text and illustration books, but not the interactivity.

Are you planning to self-publish or go through a traditional textbook publisher? Something tells me they have authoring tools

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2010/09/houghton_miffli_18.html?comments=all#readerComm

Their target audience seems to overlap yours. HMH is calling their engine "Fuse".

B

 

[ericc22]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I do want to self publish. So I want to author this myself.

Let me know if anyone has any suggestions for tools. Thanks!

Eric

 

[chown33]

Gravity is physics. So you could probably use a physics engine.

A web view can contain JavaScript, so I don't see why a book page shouldn't be allowed the same thing.

So maybe look for a JavaScript physics engine. It might be overkill, since you're probably animating only a few things.

Just a random thought.

 

[balamw]

The folks behind the awesome Alice for iPad, apparently used a physics engine called Chipmunk along with cocos2d for their book.

http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/5665

A link on adding interactivity to ePub books via javascript is found here: http://blog.threepress.org/2010/06/...vascript-html5-and-css3-beaidpf-video-posted/ dunno if/how it works on iOS ePub readers.


B