January 24, 2012 | By: Nick Morris

Aa Aa Aa

eText Books: iBook Author - Apple changes the game?

No blog post last week as I was busy playjng with a new program from Apple called iBook Author, which is a free program for the creation of eText books, and it is a program that has the potential to be a game changer.

One of my tech predictions for 2011 was the arrival of the eText book (see 10 eLearning Predictions for 2011 (now with an extra 10% for free)), and it didn't really happen (see How did I do with my 10 eLearning predictions for 2011?). So, I made he prediction again for 2012 (see 10 eLearning Predictions for 2012), and now with the announcement of iBooks 2 and, more interestingly, iBook Author, it looks like 2012 could be the year of the eText book (see Apple's take on this at iBooks Textbooks for iPad). So, less than 1 month into 2012 and one of my predictions may already be correct.

What is iBook Author?

iBook Author is a seriously cool piece of software, and I can say that as over the last couple of years I have used pretty much every piece of software out there that could be used to produce an eBook (I have been trying to write one). All the software I have tried to date has got in the way of the writing process, and I really felt I had no control over the look and feel of the final product.

iBook Author is incredibly easy to use. If you are familiar with any of the Apple iWork programs then you'll be able to pick up iBook Author in a matter of minutes.

As I said the program is surprisingly easy to use. Just click on the icon to start it, select a format from a pre-definded set of templates, and start typing. Images can be added by simply dragging and dropping, and the text then flows around the image. It is just like using Pages, or any other word processor.

The application also comes with a number of widgets, which can be added to documents to provide interactivity. At present the program comes with 6 widgets: gallery (this allows for the creation of a gallery of photos in the book); media (movies and sound); review (easy to use widget for the creation of tests so students can gauge their level of understanding); Keynote (so slide shows can be included); interactive images; 3D images; and an HTML widget.

The HTML widget is particularly interesting as it has the potential of really extending the eText Book format by allowing authors to write small embedded programs using HTML and javascript (see Do you speak my language: J is for Javascript, Java and Do you speak my language: H is for htaccess, hacker, host, http, https, html, hardware) that can be embedded in the book.

There is even a function that will allow you to import previously constructed 'books' direct from pages documents and Word documents.

Other really useful features include the automatic creation of an index, the ability to construct a glossary and the fact that students can highlight text and automatically bring all their highlighted material together and also construct flashcards.

The Contoversy

There is, however, a certain amount of online controversy regarding the EULA (End User Licence Agreement - see iBooks Author: Apple doesn't want to own your book, Examining iBooks Author from the Publisher Perspective and Google Search etc.) with some groups claims the EULA is pure evil as it states that all work produced with iBook Author can only be sold via Apple, whilst others see no problem with this approach.

Not quite right

There are two areas where iBook Author is a little rough around the edges and may directly impact what I would like to do with the application.

First, the much-publicised 3-D images widget does not play particularly well with protein structures. The widget wants the structure file in the COLLADA format, and despite many hours of searching on the Internet, and playing with number of packages, I have been unable to find an easy and effective way to produce protein structure files in such a format. This is a real shame.

The closest I have come to getting the file in the correct COLLADA format is by using Chimera, exporting the protein as a X3D file, and then importing that in to MeshLab. From MeshLab I then export the protein structure file in the correct format, i.e. COLLADA, for iBooks Author. Unfortunately that file, although supposedly in the correct format, will not import directly into iBook Author. To resolve this issue MeshLab file has to be imported into Google SketchUp, and then reexported as a COLLADA file. The resulting file can then be imported into the iBooks Author 3-D image widget. Unfortunately somewhere along the line the colouring is lost, and the level of detail in the protein is degraded to a point as not to be really usable. This is a real shame.

The second problem is with the Review widget. It was nice to see this included, and it is very easy to set up, however, the lack of being able to provide feedback when a student gets a question right or wrong, other than just say it is right or wrong, is a serious drawback.

Summary

The arrival of iBook Author may mean I will be able to keep one of my new years resolutions and finish the eText book I started writing a couple of years ago.

Am I concerned that it is tied to the Apple platform and I will have to sell the book through iTunes? Well, yes. I would prefer the book to be available on as many platforms as possible, but Apple does currently offer what I consider to be the best possible combination of hardware and software available so I am willing to live with the tie-in. Plus, iBook Author has an export functions to PDF and plain text, so there is a way to recover the bulk of the work from the program at a later date.

I will be keeping a record of my progress in producing the eText book, which I will release as a series of blog posts once the book is finished.

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons

1 Comment

February 13, 2012 | 12:22 PM

Posted By: Nick Morris

Email from Paul Pillot: "Just to let you know, I've tried the ePMV plugin for Blender produced by the scripps institute. I am far from mastering blender yet, but I could easily produce a dae file. Unfortunately as I don't have Lion installed, the dae file didn't load in the eBook (a Snow leopard specific error exception was thrown) but i'm quite sure it works as the dae file is well displayed in the quick look. Colors are kept."

eText Books: iBook Author - Apple changes the game?

share

Email your Friend