"unauthorized media"

Well Pages IS a great publishing tool. And it works the same as iBooks Author. The UIs are very similar.

Maybe Apple is going to update Pages to accommodate some functionalities we could find in iBooks Author. I actually hope so because I’m not that good with sections and chapters in Pages.

My two opinions are, keep my older iMac with iBooks Author on it and try to work with pages on my MacBook. I appreciate not everyone can do this. I also currently export as a pdf convert that to jpgs and use indesign to make eBooks for google play. You could also publish that to iBooks.

I try to be optimistic, interested in the possibilities of Pages. So I experimented a little with Pages, created a first book with a gallery and a short movie in it and exported the file. It shows up in Books on the Mac all right, but guess what: the problem with the cover of the book synced on iPad is still there! Again this generic ugly cover, and not my artwork.

So I'll have to use the workaround that was developed in the dedicated cover thread (Cover page cannot be displayed). I am worrying about the future of Books on iPad and the 25 books I created with Author.

Hadrien Morand wrote:

Well Pages IS a great publishing tool. And it works the same as iBooks Author. The UIs are very similar.

Really??? Are you familiar with iBooks Author?

… because I’m not that good with sections and chapters in Pages.

May be this is a cause you think so? ;-)

GrahamPadP wrote:

I don't know why any of us should think that Pages would be a reliable publishing platform.

Completely agree.

I even would say – "why any of us should think that Pages would be a … publishing platform at all???"

Publishing platform like MS Word? ;-)

I recently explained to a Windows user how much work was put into the development of Pages.

Besides an inherent freedom of design, this software is even empowered to import/export something crazy like Microsoft xml data (docx). My respect goes out to Apple's developers; I would not have had the desire to do this.

Now I would love an additional import function for the iBook-Author format to continue my projects with all tools I loves to have. This is a tremendous challenge, I hope Apple has enough good programmers and also an internal appreciation for the high quality of their iBooks-Author.

Therefore all animations and trigger elements from iBooks should be integrated into Pages. A Pages export of such extended format into Microsoft's dreary docx-world would of course be a castration of creativity. But creativity can't be carried over into every environment, and Apple should boldly go its own way.

However, if Apple does promote Pages more actively, hopefully more people would use this software in their private lives to eg. design very stylish diaries with embedded films etc.

I wanted to do that with iBooks-Author; a wonderfully illustrated, creative diary for the family...

What used to be the photo album.

Hopefully Apple will stick to its creative DNA and complement Pages with the full functionality of the superior iBooks-Author software.

In my opinion, iBooks author was a direct expression of Apple's creative DNA.

If someone opens a new thread to express wishes to Apple, I would appreciate it and post my comment there again.

I'm new to iBooks Author. I ended up here because I found the same issue. And get the same warning.

When I preview my book though, with my own video, it all works fine.

Does anyone know if what you see in the preview is the same as when published? How reliable a measure is the preview to the final product?

The preview isn't always a reliable measure. It's 99% right but sometimes things don't quite work. Other times things don't work in the preview but work when published. Try previewing on both Mac OS and IOS devices. But most importantly, read the news announcements about iBooks Author before you decide to invest a lot of time in this platform.

Thanks both.

I guess Pages will take over from iBooks Author eventually and we're in a transition. I quite like the widgets and presentation in iBooks though, especially the 3d models. I don't suppose there's any news on when they'll get added to pages? I'm still waiting for 'outline' view in Pages, which was dropped with Pages 4. So, I'm not too hopeful.

Hi Kurt, you're right to keep separate copies of your .iba files, but don't get too hung up about it. It should be SOP to back up everything.

I wrote a post similar to yours a while back but it got taken down because it was deemed 'unhelpful'. The fact is the writing has been on the wall for iBooksAuthor for quite some time.

You're right also about the issue of trust and I'm sure you're not the only one whole will migrate away from Apple 'solutions'.

I always have automatic backup of everything. At least for the last 35-40 years (and I actually have been in several scrapes, where I blessed my own insight, when hardware failed or encrypted data/machines were stolen ;-)

I referred to a specific “salvage everything” backup, but may not have formulated things completely clear. The additional “salvage everything” is on separate media, just in case (better safe, than sorry, when many years of hard work is involved ;-)

The overshadowing problem - besides trust or lack thereof - is, that Apple is the only publishing site accepting iBooks. The iBooks Author is the only tool producing iBooks. And the Apple viewer is the only viewer of said iBooks format. Outside the Apple sphere, the format has always been a lame duck!

Now the Author is history for all practical intends and purposes. There is no clear message on the future of the iBooks format as such, only an official statement, that Pages will be equipped with an option to read and edit iba-files (for conversion to...?)

I assume, that any outlet, viewer or material in iBooks format will have the format “phased out” in any practical sense within a foreseeable future. It’s just not clearly spelled out - yet!

Regards

I forgot to mention, that the content of iba-files is NOT organized in the same way, that the backup folders representing each iBook. The difference is quite dramatic, and the folder content is organized far more like a standard ePub book. Do yourself a favor, and create the copy described.

Karl, I think the most important thing to do is not to back up .iba files but to source a new way of producing e-books ;)

Igcebuk. I'm sorry I don't share your enthusiasm for Pages. For all but the very simplest books it is completely inadequate.

I have roughly 100 iBooks to move out of the “claws and death throes of iBooks”. Lots of text. Lots of fonts. Lots of images. Lots of animations. Lots of widgets. Lots of videos. Gigabytes and gigabytes of content.

The iba-content is unusable for my purpose (even un-packed), but the “folder-content” is probably fairly easy to convert in a meaningful automated way. It’s not that far from ePub-native, and probably just another representations of actual iBooks-internal-content. Haven’t tested in detail - yet - since the “folder representation” is usable (especially if it saves me from unpacking loads of ibooks files ;-)

But you’re right. No - as in none, ever - Apple formats for me in the future.

I’m also sending my FCPX projects out to pasture (luckily I had already begun using DaVinci Resolve 16 - actually dabbled with the “kit” since version 12). I will not in any way or form risk future dependence on Apple programs/Apps be it FCPX or simple things like Pages. The transition to ARM will also take place without me. I’m not again entering into a situation, where Apple may - just the off chance is enough - at some time close the system more or less off from the outside world with little or no warning.

Now is the time to stop for me ;-)

Regards

Hi! I’m not enthusiastic bout Pages. I think my post showed the drawbacks of Pages compared to IBA and the decrease in video quality. For me the confusion in Apple’s error messages about size and false estimate of file reduction wasted a lot of time and energy - to use an Apple phrase IBA “just worked” and Pages doesn’t yet!