[JulBain]

Is there a proposed release date for Australia?

[WallyW]

As a writer of history books, a notable omission from the widgets is a map widget. I certainly hope that with all the work Apple appears to be putting in on maps some form of map widget appears in the next version.

[GordLaceypa7r]

sensel, on 19 January 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

A lot of independent and salaried designers still work in Snow Leopard so that they can keep using programs and utilities that only function in that version. (Nikon Scan and a few others in my case.)

I suggest checking out Vuescan to replace Nikon Scan. I have an old Coolscan Film scanner (SCSI) and Vuescan works flawlessly with it, and a Canon flatbed scanner. It's an excellent piece of software, and very reasonably priced.

[jettamesis]

I want to see more question formats for the Review Widget like fill-in-the blank questions and the ability to score quizzes for it to become really useful as a teaching tool. Will third party developers be able to make plug-ins that will provide such capabilities?

[GeorgePetri]

I also agree that there should be a way to view the iBooks on a Mac. Even during one of the videos in the presentation it shows a college lecture hall and the room is full of students with MacBooks. What do those students do? Also the idea is great for schools in the long run, but what about the school that have already made a large investment in Macs for the students?

[shockme]

It seems as if this would be a wonderful opportunity for in-app purchasing of additional features that are community created such as 3D models and interactive maps.

[Serenity]

zekegri, on 19 January 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

You it seems are not an interactive designer-so calling interactivity "pomp and circumstance" shows your lack of understanding.
A keynote transition only allows a jump to another slide not interactivity within the same slide or any kind of real button action.
Adding layers of interactivity, functions and 3D animations would enhance the readers experience.
So much more functionality can be attained-too bad you can't see that.

Keynote allows you to build animated actions in addition to slide transitions. (For fun, I just built a ball bouncing down some stairs.) It's not Flash-level animation, but it's good enough for most publishers. If you're looking for something more complicated, there are other platforms that offer more functionality, but this is, again, version 1.0 of a free program.

rksummers, on 20 January 2012 - 02:50 AM, said:

Amazon doesn't require ISBN numbers for its ebooks. I wonder why Apple does, since ebooks created with iBooks Author can only be sold within the closed iBookStore ecosystem.

Just the way the iBookstore was originally set up (presuming that the majority of folks selling there were professional authors) vs Amazon (equal opportunity for major publishers and independent authors). Hopefully this will change at some point in the future, but the iBookstore would need to change its contracts and adjust things somewhat.

[mellowJohnny]

Read the EULA *very* carefully before you get too excited...

[wardoggie]

mellowJohnny, on 20 January 2012 - 12:30 PM, said:

Read the EULA *very* carefully before you get too excited...

Care to elaborate? What should we be looking for?

[neutrino23]

jmbailey, on 19 January 2012 - 02:55 PM, said:

Can I make photo books for the family, and then send them off to Apple or Blurb or some other publisher to make a paper copy?

I don't think it will directly allow you to print a book. You can export the book as a PDF and then use Photoshop to change the PDF to individual TIFF images and import those into iPhoto and print a book from there. I layout small books in InDesign, export to PDF to Photoshop to iPhoto to print them. Make sure to add a 1/8" border around the pages for trim.

Presumably, once you get to TIFF images you can use any service to print a book.

[neutrino23]

wheat, on 19 January 2012 - 04:55 PM, said:

My biggest disappointment was when I discovered that you can't set up an iBooks Author book to enable the end user to select their own font size, font or theme when reading the book. iBook Author is best used only by designers who want to stipulate heavy and elaborate formatting which is fixed.

My guess is that this is restricted in order to keep the text on one page. In a simple epub the text simply flows to fill the screen. In a more complex layout you want the text to stay with the layout so it really can't change size. That is one of the reasons driving the development of epub 3 and iBooks Author.

[Serenity]

wardoggie, on 20 January 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

mellowJohnny, on 20 January 2012 - 12:30 PM, said:

Read the EULA *very* carefully before you get too excited...

Care to elaborate? What should we be looking for?

Books built in iBooks Author are iBookstore-exclusive. This does not mean that your *content* is iBookstore-exclusive, just that you can only sell your .ibooks file in the iBookstore, not elsewhere. (You can give this file away *for free* anywhere, though.)

[Aeio]

Nice early review. This is clearly a 1.0 product however. Even given the restrictions on output formats (which is somewhat understandable on Apples part), it's lack of Footnotes, Endnotes, Bibliography and Index will limit it's use to fairly simplistic textbooks, no?

[Aeio]

neutrino23, on 20 January 2012 - 02:49 PM, said:

wheat, on 19 January 2012 - 04:55 PM, said:

My biggest disappointment was when I discovered that you can't set up an iBooks Author book to enable the end user to select their own font size, font or theme when reading the book. iBook Author is best used only by designers who want to stipulate heavy and elaborate formatting which is fixed.

My guess is that this is restricted in order to keep the text on one page. In a simple epub the text simply flows to fill the screen. In a more complex layout you want the text to stay with the layout so it really can't change size. That is one of the reasons driving the development of epub 3 and iBooks Author.

You can't change Font or Theme, but if you turn the book to Portrait Mode you certainly can change the Font Size as the page is no longer using a fixed layout as it is in Landscape (like a paper textbook).