Book Image

Instant Apple iBooks How-to

Book Image

Instant Apple iBooks How-to

Overview of this book

"iBooks is a great tool for book lovers. This book is a guide for using iBooks for reading, managing, and creating books – everything that an avid reader (and the writer within you) would need. ""Instant Apple iBooks How-to"" is a practical guide that takes you on a reading and writing journey with iBooks for your iPad. Begin with getting familiar with iBooks and proceed to write your first interactive book with iBooks Author! This book begins with downloading the iBooks app from the iTunes store and adding books and PDF collections to it via iBookstore. The book then goes on to explain other technologies in the iBooks app and concludes by showing you how to write your own book with iBooks Author. Not only will you learn how to read and manage books effectively, but you will also learn how those books can be created with iBooks Author. You will also understand how iBooks Author templates can help you lay out a book easily; some third party templates are also available. You will learn everything to maximize your reading and writing experience for the iBooks platform."
Table of Contents (7 chapters)

Exploring iBooks Author templates (Should know)


iBooks Author comes loaded with some default templates to get you started with your book-writing adventure; from simple textbook templates to cookbooks and photo books. When you load iBooks Author, the first window that loads prompts you to select a default template from the available library.

Note

With Version 2.0 of iBooks Author, there is an option to select a Portrait Only mode that does not take the iPad orientation into consideration. This provides for better control of the layout.

How to do it...

  1. Open iBooks Author and select the Basic template from the Landscape with Portrait page. This is a sample book with the following pages:

    • Book Title page

    • Table of Contents page

    • Glossary page

    • Intro Media page—think of this as a splash screen for your book

    • A few pages of dummy content

  2. We can customize this book by adding or replacing text, widgets, and other media, as can be seen in the following screenshot:

  3. Similarly, to preview the book on your iPad, connect your iPad to your Mac and click on the Preview button to open your book on your iPad. Note that the iBooks app should be open on your iPad, otherwise you will see an error message such as the following:

    To preview your book, make sure iBooks is open on your iPad

The other templates provide a similar interface to your book, just with a different look and feel and layout based on the template's theme. Besides the default templates available in iBooks Author, the Internet is full of templates for various types of books—some free templates, others need to be paid for.

A good set of free templates is Templates for iBooks Author Free available on the Mac App Store, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/templates-for-ibooks-author/id527161787?mt=12, while there is a great number of paid templates, the most notable being iBooks Author Templates available at http://www.ibooksauthortemplates.com/templates/all and Book Palette from http://www.jumsoft.com/book-palette/.