iBooks Author - Learning More

At our last ePublishing meeting a couple of weeks ago, JW recommended reviewing Lynda.com for the video tutorials on iBooks Author.  After reviewing about half of the 5+ hour tutorials - I completely agree.  The tutorials provide a visual approach to creating eBooks with iBooks Author.  I clearly see now how to keep the approach simple. Basically, the "easy" approach is to create a folder with all of the files used for the book:

• Chapter titles and subtitles
• Section titles and subtitles
• Chapter pages text
• Photos/screenshots
• Videos
• Other

You can use text from:

• Text files
• Pages word processing files
• Word word processing files

I do not see any advantage of using Pages or Word file types if you have already created chapters using iBooks Author because when you import the documents, they are imported as a chapter and you have to clean the information up.  Of course, you could create all of your chapters in either Pages or Word.  That said, using text (.txt) files is easy because when you slide over or copy/paste the .txt info, iBooks Author defaults to the text file type used for the book.

If you don't have access to Lynda.com or want to purchase access to the video tutorials - there is a free solution.  Learn iBooks Author by DIY Journo  has created many (25 as of this writing) short tutorials. To view a menu of the tutorials, go to http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F5025728444BBA5&feature=plcp

Remember that iBooks Author is available only for the Mac.  I realize that less than 10% of my readers are Mac users.  If you are a Windows PC user, consider using a word processor to create your eBook.  There are applications available to save the file to an ePub file type where it can be distributed to eBook stores such as Amazon and Apple iBooks.

The book I am writing is entitled Data Analysis for Healthcare Professionals: Spreadsheet and Database Applications. It will address the many types of spreadsheet applications, but focus on Excel.  It will also demonstrate use of FileMaker Pro and Excel, but focus on FileMaker Pro because it works on a Windows PC, the Mac, and the iPad.  I plan to incorporate video tutorials and lots of screenshots. Hopefully, a working draft will be available for a course I am teaching spring semester.  Of course, the final eBook will be free and hopefully available from the Apple iBooks Store.  A couple ePublishing team members are writing eBooks on statistics.  Perhaps my eBook will complement their works.

If readers of this blog have suggestions about content they envision for the eBook - please share!