Preface
iBooks is an amazing application from Apple that makes a great reading experience for book lovers. All your books, be they PDF, EPUB, or Apple iBook format, can now be organized directly within iBooks. iBooks provides an intuitive way to organize, read, and annotate your book content. You as a reader have so many options to explore within iBooks; you can read, buy, and share what you are reading with your friends.
If you are too lazy to read, you can even listen to the book using Apple VoiceOver on your iPad. Synching your book collection across various iOS devices is now a breeze, and with support for iCloud, all your books can be available to all your iOS devices, all the time!
The Apple iBookstore that is neatly integrated in the iBooks application allows the user to buy free and paid books from thousands of authors worldwide, immediately—you don't have to wait for the shipment to arrive any longer!
With iBooks Author, Apple has also allowed publishers to create compelling storybooks, textbooks that not only include text, but also animations, graphics, 3D content, and music. In fact there are many books out there that have minima; text and more multimedia.
What this book covers
Downloading iBooks from the iTunes store (Must know) will get you started with iBooks by downloading the iBooks app on your iOS devices.
Browsing and shopping for books in the iBookstore (Should know) will teach you how to browse and shop for books in the iBookstore via the iBooks app.
Using reading tools (Should know) explains tagging, annotating, and sharing what you are reading with your social networks.
Making and managing Collections (Should know) explains the concept of the collections and shows you how to create one and add books to it.
Adding PDFs to the iBooks Library (Should know) explains importing PDFs from various sources (e-mail, web, other apps) into iBooks.
Publishing your own books with iBooks Author (Should know) explains the use of the iBooks Author tool to create a book, and explains its features.
Exploring iBooks Author templates (Should know)emphasis> explains the various templates available with iBooks Author that allows for the faster creation of a book's layout.
Building a London travel guide with iBooks Author (Become an expert) takes you on a journey to write a full Apple iBooks-supported London travel guide book using iBooks Author by utilizing the great encyclopedia of our modern times, www.Wikipedia.org, as well as www.WikiTravel.org.
Adding HTML widgets and 3D models to your books (Become an expert) makes your book interactive by showing you how to integrate HTML widgets in your books as well as visualizing a 3D model from within a book page.
What you need for this book
To buy and read the books from iBookstore, you will need an iPad and the iBooks application from the iTunes store.
To write and test books using iBooks Author, you will need an Apple MacBook or iMac and the iBooks Author program from the Mac App Store.
Who this book is for
This book is for book lovers as well as publishers, writers, and authors who want to understand the Apple iBooks ecosystem.
This book will help book lovers to organize their book collection. For publishers, the book provides a good opportunity to try out the iBookstore model of publishing.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Open the iBooks App and hit the Store button on the top-left corner of the screen."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <feedback@packtpub.com>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a book that you need and would like to see us publish, please send us a note in the SUGGEST A TITLE form on www.packtpub.com or e-mail <suggest@packtpub.com>.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Customer support
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Downloading the example code
You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.
Errata
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.
Piracy
Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <copyright@packtpub.com> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.
Questions
You can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.
