iBooks Author 1.0

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

About iBooks Author 1.0

Create and publish amazing Multi-Touch books for iPad.

Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps. And before you know it, you?re a published author.

Apple-designed templates

? Give your book a great beginning with templates that include a choice of page designs with matching fonts, colors, and textures

? Easily customize your book with text and images, create new layouts, and even save a custom template

? Use the Book Navigator to organize your book and add a cover and table of contents

Beautiful text and layouts

? Use a variety of text styles in each template to give your book a rich yet consistent look

? Add text, shapes, charts, tables, and media anywhere on the page

? Import a chapter written in Pages or Microsoft Word and apply a great-looking layout from your current template

? Add any word to the glossary with a single click and easily include photos, images, charts, tables, and shapes next to any definition

? Automatically create a portrait view of your book, which allows readers to focus on the text

Multi-Touch widgets

? Choose from a variety of widgets that add Multi-Touch interactivity to your book

? Add a photo gallery, chapter review, movie, Keynote presentation, interactive image with callouts, 3D object, or custom HTML anywhere in your book

? Widgets include placeholders for titles and captions and are automatically numbered so you can reference them in your main text

? Add accessibility descriptions to any widget so that it can be used by sight-impaired readers easily with VoiceOver

Export for iBookstore or iTunes U

? Preview your book in iBooks on an iPad to see how it looks and works

? Easily add a cover, video introduction, copyright page, dedication, and foreword

? Submit your book to the iBookstore for sale or free download with a few simple steps*

? Export your book in iBooks format to share on iTunes U or to give to others

? Create a version of your book as a PDF file

Keynote ?09 (v5.1.1 or later) is required for Keynote widgets

iBooks 2 is required for previewing

iTunes 10.5.3 is required for syncing

* Books may only be sold through the iBookstore; additional terms and conditions apply.

Download: via Mac App Store. (Free app)

[tiagosilva29]

As a LaTeX user, the presentation video (iBooks Textbooks) made in the website made me horny.

But a good arousal, not related to the copious amounts of good looking teen girls in there.

[Rudy]

The only problem I see with this is the "exclusivity" part :/ Kinda lame to lock people in like that. It's the equivalent of Apple saying if you put an app on the app store you can't have the same one available to Android or WP :/

[tiagosilva29]

The only problem I see with this is the "exclusivity" part :/

And all that jazz... but hey!: it's ****ing Apple. That **** looks good. Take a bite, bro'.

[PyX]

As a LaTeX user, the presentation video (iBooks Textbooks) made in the website made me horny.

Nothing to jump at the ceiling, the only way I?ve found is to embed MathType equations or copy them from Grapher. Is there any native way that I missed ?

[Elliott]

Nothing to jump at the ceiling, the only way I?ve found is to embed MathType equations or copy them from Grapher. Is there any native way that I missed ?

LaTeX isn't just for setting mathematical expressions. A lot of people use it to set documents/books, which I guess is what he's talking about.

[Stetson]

The only problem I see with this is the "exclusivity" part :/ Kinda lame to lock people in like that. It's the equivalent of Apple saying if you put an app on the app store you can't have the same one available to Android or WP :/

I guess the idea is that they don't want to give Amazon etc. free ebook creation tools to profit from. It's kinda weird, I guess the alternative is they could charge for the app. The exclusivity doesn't apply if you give the book away, it's only if you try to make money from it in another store.

[The_Observer]

this could be really interesting to see! i think ill boot up my vmware osx lion and have a look.

[Unrealistic]

Great program. I'm five chapters in. :)

[pack34]

ZDNet write up on the EULA

http://www.zdnet.com...nt;feature-roto

And then the next paragraph is bold-faced, just so you don?t miss it:

Apple will not be responsible for any costs, expenses, damages, losses (including

without limitation lost business opportunities or lost profits) or other liabilities you may incur as a result of your use of this Apple Software, including without limitation the fact that your Work may not be selected for distribution by Apple.[/indent]

The nightmare scenario under this agreement? You create a great work of staggering literary genius that you think you can sell for 5 or 10 bucks per copy. You craft it carefully in iBooks Author. You submit it to Apple. They reject it. Under this license agreement, you are out of luck. They won?t sell it, and you can?t legally sell it elsewhere. You can give it away, but you can?t sell it.

[.Neo]

I honestly wonder if that EULA will hold up in court. Especially the "can't sell it elsewhere" part and especially in courts outside of the US.

[Elliott]

It's not terribly unreasonable for them to restrict what you can do with what iBooks Author, a freely provided application, exports. Just for clarification, Apple is not restricting what you can do with the content of your book. They're only restricting what you export for distribution out of their application. If you were to take the plain text and sell that in the Kindle Store, that's fine.

[.Neo]

I wonder if this is why we still haven't seen an update to iWork.

[PyX]

LaTeX isn't just for setting mathematical expressions. A lot of people use it to set documents/books, which I guess is what he's talking about.

Yes, I am aware about that, I was just stating the fact that LaTeX is nowhere to be found in iBooks Author. You have to copy-paste LaTeX content in PDF from another application. This is an incredible lack about this application and it shows once more that Apple is not serious regarding science. They were already not serious about iWork, I can see that it?s not ready to change in 2012.

Also, what about still having an inspector in a separate window ? Nearly every application on Windows and Mac OS X have a single-window nowadays. Even standard apps designed by Apple like the native apps that come with Lion, the whole Final Cut Suite, iLife and iTunes. Plus the inspector makes it incredibly hard to see what you?re doing. At least they made the toolbar icons bigger than in iWork, just forgot the inspector.

Other than that, don?t get me wrong, it?s an incredible application, and I can?t wait to see how it changes the world of education. But please be serious about making a breakthrough in the gigantic world of science, and please make the user interface less cluttered and clearer by having a single-window app. Oh, and submitting a book, having it rejected and not being able to publish it anywhere else? EULA troll much ?

I wonder if this is why we still haven't seen an update to iWork.

I was expecting iWork ?12 to be released at this event, because it does have a lot to do with education. I can?t count how many times I opened Word in high school, Excel at college and Powerpoint at university. They better be serious about the next suite. Single-window apps (drawers don?t count), pivot tables, cell styles, superior spelling tools and better, more intuitive styling options, and a dozen other things in my head right now. iWork already looks ridiculous next to Office, with the next Office version coming at the end of the year or at the end of next year, they can?t be more out of the competition than this. I don?t want them to miss the boat this time, as this can be a serious game-changer for businesses who think about switching to Macs.

[tiagosilva29]

They better be serious about the next suite.

They must add support for OpenDocument.