EText Authoring Resources

Tutorials

• A college student's take on iBooks Author: Moving Widgets — This blog post provides a student's perspective on using iBooks Author, as well as tips on how to move widgets and content to new pages.

• Greg Laden's Blog — This blog provides basic tips about publishing with iBooks Author.

• Digital Book Maestro — This blog explains how to add text to iBooks Author deal with styles.

• Tips and Tricks in iBooks Author — This article shows how to use iBooks Author along side with InDesign to transfer effects not available in iBooks Author.

• Creating an Interactive Widget for iBooks without Dashcode — This instructional blog by Jim McKeeth provides useful tips on creating custom widgets for iBook Author without using Dashcode.

• Persisting data in your iBooks Author widgets with local storage — This blog post provides developers familiar with creating widgets through programs such as Dashcode the coding tips needed to allow widgets local storage of input so the data isn't lost after leaving a widget. The tutorial is written by a Bookry developer that creates widgets for iBooks Author.

• How to Create a Blank Book in iBooks Author — This tutorial demonstrates how to remove the table of contents and other elements for a blank book in iBooks Author.

• iBook Author [sic] — This webpage features video and text tutorials of journalism students from Emerson College. Content covers basics for beginners, template tools, insertion and modification of content/widgets, and distribution.

• Apple's iBooks Author — This is Apple's official iBooks Author introductory page featuring interactive short step-by-step videos.

• How to use iBooks Author for Mac OS X — A basic introduction for first-time iBooks Author users, showcasing basic drag and drop functionality.

• Embedding a YouTube Video in iBooks Author — This tutorial shows how to use MacOS X's Dashcode to create a YouTube widget for your iBooks project. It's very straightforward and easy to implement. Dashcode requires the installation of Apple's Xcode, part of the developer's package. Sign up for free.

• Previewing in iBooks Author — This tutorial shows how to use the preview function in iBooks Author, including how to preview only certain sections or chapters of the iBook.

• How to Write Your First Book in iBooks Author — A blog post with an initial walk-through of iBooks Author and examples of features.

• iBooks Author Widgets and Layout — This YouTube video follows the creation of an iBook with a focus on widgets and layout.

• How to format video for iBooks — This YouTube video discusses how to format videos for inclusion in an iBook. This can be tricky to get to work right just through experimentation.

• eBooks: From Adobe® InDesign® to the Apple iBookstore — This is an Adobe tutorial on creating EPUB files using Adobe InDesign, including submission to the iBookstore.

• How to Design Your Own Book With iBooks Author — This blog post from Lifehacker details the possibilities and potential flaws in iBooks Author.

Presentations

• iBooks Author keynote Jan 2012 — This is an in-depth presentation about iBooks Author by Roger Rosner (Vice President, Productivity Applications) at Apple Education Event Jan. 19, 2012.

Resources

• iBooks Generator — This webpage provides simple embedding links for video and maps to use in iBooks Author.

• Bookry: Widget Library — This webpage contains various free customized widgets for iBooks Author.

• 7 Tips for Beginning iBooks Author — This blog post shares a basic perspective on starting out with iBooks Author.

• Publishing With iBooks Author — An aggregate website with many articles/resources about iBooks Author, from using the program to news in general.

• Templates — An introduction to templates in iBooks Author.

• Making a Comic — This blog post addresses a creative workaround for the lack of full-page support. It also makes a point to discuss what did and did not work for this user.

• iBooks Author - Image compression — This page provides a discussion of the image compression used by iBooks Author when creating an iBook, including a suggestion and a potential hack to get the desired image into the iBook.

• 5 creative ways to use the new iBooks author — This blog examines alternate uses of the iBooks Author platform to create content for individual use.

• iBooks Author Training — This webpage is designed for iBooks Author training; it includes videos and webinars.

• 10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any E-Publishing Service — This webpage provides 10 questions that an author should ask himself before committing to a publishing service. It covers specifics of Amazon, Smashwords, and Apple publishing.