What's new in iBooks Author 2.4
- ePub templates now support the Pop-Over widget
- Minor usability improvements to the ePub templates
What's new in iBooks Author 2.3
- iBooks for iPhone now supports books made with iBooks Author
- Create Multi-Touch books using new ePub templates
What's new in iBooks Author 2.2
- Moving existing ePub and InDesign content to iBooks Author is easier than ever.
- Create a new Multi-Touch book from your ePub file, and the text will automatically flow into a template of your choosing.
- Import your Adobe InDesign file, and iBooks Author will keep the layouts and styles that you set in InDesign.
New Blank templates for truly personalizing your book's design
- You can have complete control over the look and feel of your book, from start to finish.
More options for hyperlinks
- Link to a specific chapter, section, or page from anywhere in your book.
- Link from an image.
- Link to a specific part of your book from anywhere, even outside of iBooks Author.
- Learn more about links in iBooks Author.
Set your widgets to play directly on the page
- Media, Keynote, and HTML widgets can now play in place on the page of your book.
- Widgets can also be set to auto-play on the page when your readers reach that page in the book.
Additional Apple-designed templates
- iBooks Author includes new Landscape with Portrait and Portrait Only templates.
What's new in iBooks Author 2.0
Create new gorgeous portrait-only books
- iBooks Author now supports portrait-only books with complete control of layout.
- Starting with a Portrait Only template enables creation of books in fixed portrait orientation, and the orientation switching UI will be disabled in iBooks Author.
- Instead of using the text flow format of a landscape book in portrait orientation, portrait-only books provide the same navigation, table of contents, and interaction as would be available to a landscape book in landscape orientation.
Embed custom fonts into books for complete control over text appearance
- Support for TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf) fonts.
- Font files are obfuscated (protected) when they are written into the iBooks file on publish or export.
- The author or publisher must secure appropriate rights to the fonts used (in keeping with similar rights for use of images, text, and media).
- Learn more about using custom fonts in iBooks Author.
Add even more interactivity with new Scrolling Sidebar and Pop-Over widgets
- This release adds two new Multi-Touch widgets, the Scrolling Sidebar and the Pop-Over.
- Scrolling Sidebar provides a vertically scrolling region that may contain text and images larger than the initially defined area. Readers may scroll through this region to read the enclosed content.
- The Pop-Over widget provides a custom image that acts as a trigger to display a scrolling region similar to the Scrolling Sidebar. The Pop-Over may also contain text and graphics.
Support for mathematical expressions
- Authors can insert sophisticated mathematical expressions using LaTeX and MathML notation.
- Equations are beautifully rendered directly in iBooks Author.
- Invalid LaTeX and MathML expressions are flagged.
- Authors can also use MathType 6.7d (and later) as an external equation editor with round-trip editing support.
- Learn more about using LaTeX and MathML in iBooks Author.
Automatic optimization of media for iPad
- iBooks Author now supports all media formats supported by QuickTime.
- Media files are automatically optimized to meet the requirements for video and audio on iPad.
- Optimization is triggered when a media file or Keynote file containing a media file is added.
- Media files are optimized one at a time. If you add multiple files, they are queued while awaiting optimization. Book editing may continue while optimization progresses.
- Files are compressed to reduce file size without compromising quality.
- Movies are placed in .m4v containers, and audio files are placed in .m4p containers.
- Learn more about using media files in iBooks Author.
Improved support for embedded audio including custom play image
- iBooks Author now supports all audio formats supported by QuickTime.
- Audio file playback is possible through three interaction models:
- iBooks Author can provide a scrubber bar.
- iBooks Author can display a play/pause button.
- The author can supply a custom play/pause image. Only one image may be supplied (not different images for play and pause).
Improved publishing workflow
- iBooks Author leads the author through a series of screens to ensure a simpler publishing process.
- iBooks Author checks the book for errors before exporting it for iTunes Producer.
- Authors are presented with the option to automatically create a sample book based on a selected chapter.
Version numbering for books
- Authors must enter a new version number when publishing an update to a book already available on the iBooks Store.
- Authors must enter a version number when exporting a book.
- Authors may not enter a version number when exporting a book as a sample.
- About the Version Number:
- iBooks Author supplies a default version number of 1.0.
- The version number is displayed with the book on the iBooks Store.
- About the Version Number format:
- Use dot-separated integers, with a maximum of two dots, three components, and four integers per component. For example: 1111.1111.1111
- Initial zeros are ignored. 1.01 is read as 1.1
- 1.10 is considered larger than 1.9.
- Letters are not permitted.
- Readers upgrading to a new version of a book will have highlights, notes, and bookmarks preserved in the new version.
Enhanced to take advantage of the Retina display on the new MacBook Pro
- iBooks Author takes full advantage of the MacBook Pro with Retina display, providing a wonderful experience with vivid graphics and sharp text.
Additional Apple-designed templates
- iBooks Author includes new Landscape with Portrait and Portrait Only templates.