Putting Apple’s iBooks Author Through its Paces
by Rose Rossello
In January 2012 Apple announced iBooks for the iPad, an initiative the
company hopes will spur the creation of textbooks for use on the iPad.
To help facilitate development of such material, the company also announced a free tool, iBooks Author. According to the press release about
the announcements, iBooks Author would enable “anyone with a Mac”
to “create stunning iBooks textbooks.” So, we decided to download the
tool and put it through its paces.
Getting Started: Template and Text
Apple iBooks Author (or IBA for the purposes of this article) is very similar to Apple’s other desktop applications Pages and Keynote. To begin
in IBA, a user selects from one of six templates: basic, contemporary,
modern type, classic, editorial, or craft. The process must start from one
of the templates provided. There is no blank template, but the Basic
template is almost as good as a blank slate. For our first test we selected
the Editorial template.
Each template opens with sample text and images inserted into three
page layouts: Chapter, Section, and Page. For each layout there are alternate layout choices. For example, under Page layout there are choices
for one-, two-, and three-column layouts plus a blank page. All templates and elements on a layout are customizable.
IBA can import text from only two sources: Apple Pages or Microsoft
Word. Upon import, the user can specify how IBA should treat the incoming text—as a chapter, preface, section, section text, copyright, dedication, or forward. The original Pages or Word document must have
section breaks in order for text to separate correctly when imported.
Once text has been imported, pages cannot be rearranged or moved
between chapters or sections. To change the page order in the document, changes must be made to the original document and the file
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IBA is the first visual tool for creating iBooks for the iPad. Designed primarily
for the creation of textbooks, the WYSIWYG interface makes it easy to create
interactive books.
reimported, which is essentially starting the entire process again. The
inability to accommodate page order changes is a real shortcoming and
one Apple should address in the next version of IBA.
If only page breaks are present in the source material, IBA will treat the
text as a single chapter or section. To prevent this from happening, users
can save each chapter in a Word or Pages document into separate files,
and thus force IBA to import the text as separate chapters.
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IBA includes six templates, and each includes pre-designed text and layout
styles as well as decorative elements such as chapter introductory images and
background colors. All elements can be changed or removed, and changes
can be save as a custom template.
Styles applied in Pages or Word can be preserved upon import. However, not all fonts are supported, and unsupported fonts will be substituted on import. IBA comes with 20 fonts: Arial, Arial Rounded MT Bold,
Chalkduster, Courier, Courier New, Futura, Georgia, Gill Sans, Heiti SC,
Heiti TC, Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, Hoelfer Text, Palatino, Times New
Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Zapf Dingbags, and AppleGothic. Apple
limited fonts in IBA to those preinstalled on the iPad to preserve the
formatting as seen in IBA when the finished file is rendered as an iBook.
Our iBook
For our review we exported text from InDesign to an RTF file using an
article published in Volume 12, Number 1. Next, we opened the RTF file
in Microsoft Word and reapplied bullets to some of the text (the bullets
were removed in the export to RTF) and saved the file as .doc. Note: if
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We began our book using the Earth Science template. The template opens
with a predesigned chapter, section, and page layout. We removed the default
chapter before importing our RTF file. IBA created a new chapter, inserted
pages, and auto-flowed the text.
a Word or Pages document contains manual page breaks, links and images, IBA will preserve these, but the images may not appear in precisely
the same place in the IBA version as in the original document. IBA does
not support importing or editing EPUB files.
We chose to import the text as a Chapter. IBA uses the default layouts
for the chapter opening page and subsequent pages. We then used IBA’s
tools to customize our layout. A Table of Contents is automatically updated as chapters are added to the document. Users can also create a
glossary by searching for words in the document they want to include in
the glossary and adding them to the glossary list.
Each element on the chapter layout—chapter number, title, photo and
introductory text—are separate elements. Clicking on an element allows
it to be edited. Since our text imported in a small type size and in two
columns, we decided to reformat the text to one column and increase
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IBA includes several widgets for inserting
image galleries, interactive images (for
example, a map with points of interest), music,
videos, Apple Keynote presentations, 3-D
images, and review questions (useful for study
guides and textbooks). Using the HTML widget,
developers can insert their own widgets;
working knowledge of Apple’s Dashcode is
required.
the point size. Just as in InDesign, a user can format one paragraph,
update the style and all paragraphs assigned that style will update. But,
in IBA the style updating is not as automatic. From the style palette, the
user must choose “Select all uses of [the selected style]” and then choose
“Revert to Defined Style.” Doing so will update occurrences of the style.
However, this procedure does not work if a character style was applied
to any text. In our tests, we found it easier to remove the character style
first, update the paragraph styles and then manually reapply the character styles. Our test file was short, but we could see this task of changing
styles easily becoming time-consuming labor on longer documents. The
easier solution is to select all the text of the same style, make size adjustments, but do not but alter the style itself. This approach preserves the
character style.
IBA includes several widgets for inserting image galleries, interactive images (for example, a map with points of interest), music, videos, Apple
Keynote presentations, 3-D images, HTML, and review questions (useful for study guides and textbooks). Developers can create their own
widgets using Apple’s Dashcode, which is available as part of the Xcode
developer tools. However, creating widgets requires more sophisticated
development skills. Charts, tables, shapes, text boxes, and static images
can also be inserted anywhere on a page.
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(Inset) Selecting the interactive widget from the toolbar inserts an image
placeholder with two editable views (callouts). You drag and drop an image
from your computer to replace the placeholder image. The inspector panel
allows you to add additional views. Clicking on a view allows you to edit it
and optionally set the point in the image you want to zoom in to when a user
clicks on it. You can adjust the length of the view handle and reposition it by
clicking and dragging the end point. Clicking on the border of the view box
allows you to reposition it.
Selecting the Review
widget from the toolbar
inserts a default question,
caption, and four
answers. Clicking on any
one allows you to edit
it. Additional questions
can be added using the
Inspector palette.
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To preview the iBook, connect an iPad to the computer and open the
iBookstore app. This is the only way to preview an iBook. Since our
preview successfully matched the desktop display, no further changes
were necessary. We did notice at this point, though, it is not possible
to remove chapter notation. Our book only has one chapter, so chapter
numbering is not useful, but, by default, the iBook will display “Chapter
1” regardless. We suppose Apple’s assumption is most books will have
multiple chapters. But, IBA could be used for other types of publications
as well, such as white papers. For documents with a single chapter, having a chapter number is a nuisance.
We ran IBA on a Mac with Snow Leopard, which IBA does not officially
support. (Click here for instructions to run IBA under Snow Leopard.)
Since we were only testing the application, we opted not to officially
submit our book to Apple. However, readers may download the completed book by clicking here. Note: IBA books can also be saved as PDF;
doing so, however, means all interactive elements become static. Files
can also be exported as text files, but all formatting is lost when an file
is exported in text format.
iBookstore Updated
The second version of iBookstore supports interactive textbooks and
adds note taking capabilities to create a more complete textbook experience. Interactive textbooks have built-in tools, such as Study Cards—a
set of digital index cards to quiz students on glossary terms and important chapter information. A glossary term is on one side with the defini-
When we attached our iPad to our computer to test our iBook, it loaded in
our iBookstore library so we could preview it.
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(Top) Our Chapter intro with page thumbnails. (Bottom) An inside page.
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tion on the other. Notes taken throughout the chapter are automatically
turned into Study Cards, with highlighted text on one side and the student’s customized notes on the other. When reviewing flashcards, users
can shuffle them, choose to only study the glossary terms, or choose to
only study their own notes.
To see a demo of the new interactive features, click here.
Notes and Caveats
To entice publishers to create iBooks, Apple recently began offering up
to 50 promotional codes for each book, so readers can download copies
of books for free. For pre-orders, Apple has begun accepting submissions without covers or book assets, but only up until two weeks before
the book’s publication date. At that point, a title must have a cover, assets, and a custom preview.
Highlighting and
Note-Taking. Swiping
over text automatically
highlights it. Tapping
a highlighted
section reveals a
palette for changing
colors, switching to
underlining, or adding
a note. Users can then
switch to the Notes
view to see all their
notes and highlights.
Publishers should be aware books created in IBA are exclusively for use
on the iPad via iBookstore 2. The proprietary EPUB format IBA creates
is not supported on other devices. Additionally, books created with IBA
can only be sold in Apple’s iBookstore, with Apple taking its customary
30% cut. Publishers are not allowed to sell their books anywhere else,
but can give them away for free elsewhere. And, like Apple’s regular
iApp store, Apple still must approve books before they can be sold and
can pull books from the iBookstore at its discretion.
Our Take
While working in IBA is very straightforward, we found the main page
display annoying. The pages display hierarchically in a vertical thumbnail display on the left side of the interface. However, pages move left to
right in the editing area…presumably to simulate how the pages move
when the e-book is completed. In nearly every other document creation
application, pages move top to bottom. We think the IBA interface is a
bit harder to get used to since it deviates from the customary presentation. Also, for those who like to use the mouse’s scroll wheel to navigate
page to page, the left to right paradigm is annoying.
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Study Cards. All notes and highlights automatically appear
on study cards. Flipping them over reveals the definition of a
glossary term or the note attached to the highlighted passage.
Users can shuffle the cards.
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IBA allows you to view a book-in-progress in vertical mode, in which
the pages do transition from top to bottom. While layout adjustments
can be made in this orientation, they are limited and any changes are
reflected in both orientations. Users can also check a box to force the
book to stay in portrait orientation when exported.
Still, many publishing houses use Adobe InDesign or QuarkXpress. Converting to include IBA in a workflow would require significant work. The
process of converting InDesign files to EPUB format is tedious. Users
must map InDesign styles to CSS styles and tweak the resulting XML
and CSS files. Of course, publishers can choose to use Adobe’s Digital
Publishing System and simply create their own interactive textbooks via
a custom app. However, the resulting product would be an iApp rather
than an iBook, and therefore not eligible for the iBookstore.
Publishers should take a look at IBA and try the same kind of conversion
as we did for this article on a title or two from their list of most popular
e-books to see how easy the process would be for their organization.
Although Apple is unlikely to do so, we hope Apple sees the potential
of IBA for the larger publishing market and will create a professional
version with support for multiple tablet and e-reader devices, such the
Amazon Kindle Fire. TSR
How to Publish an iBook to the
iBookstore
To publish an iBook, select the Publish button from the toolbar in IBA. However, before the book will appear in the iBookstore, there are a few more steps. From Apple’s Help section
for iBooks Author, here is the procedure to follow to release
books on iBookstore:
„„ Create an iBookstore seller account.
„„ Download iTunes Producer, the application needed
to submit books to the iBookstore. After creating an
iBookstore seller account, users can sign in to iTunes
Connect and download iTunes Producer.
„„ Have an active contract. For more information, sign
in to iTunes Connect and go to Contracts, Tax, and
Banking.
„„ Create a sample book. Customers can view the
sample book for free before deciding to purchase the
book. The publisher can decide how much of a book
and which content to include in the sample, and then
submit the sample along with the book.
„„ Make sure the finished book is, at most, two gigabytes (the iBookstore file size limit). Also consider
these two size considerations:
–– Readers with a 3G network cannot download books
larger than 20 megabytes (a limit Apple set for all
its 3G-capable devices).
–– The larger the file size, the longer it takes for a
book to download. To optimize download time,
keep your book file smaller than one gigabyte.
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More Templates
An additional ten customizable templates are available from Jumsoft: biology, cooking, decision making, dental hygiene, environmental
design, interior design, IT strategy, managing change, and team building. The set of templates is available for $2.99 in the Mac App Store.
Biology
Cooking
Environmental Design
Managing Change
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