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Level 1

5 points

After updating to iBooks 2.1 all the text in my book is gone?

I have a book on the iBookstore <http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/some-secrets-should-never/id502402365?mt=11&uo=4>. All was fine till the iBooks 2.1 update. After updating all the text has disappeared in landscape mode. Working fine in portrait.

It was authored in IBA 1.0 but I just updated to 1.1 to see if the text returned after updating and previewing it. No go still broken. Not sure where to start.

To be clear:

Worked fine with IBA1.0 and iBooks 2.0. Updated iBooks to 2.1 and it broke. My customers will be experiencing the same issue. Those that update will get their books broken... :-(

Posted on Mar 8, 2012 5:58 PM

29 replies

Mar 8, 2012 11:12 PM in response to boltthecolt1

Sorry,

But I can't tell what is going on,

I thought it may have something to do with the background images having blank captions etc.

but it seems to work for me.

I can't seem to duplicate the problem.

I do get it so the text does not appear on the master template page but does appear on the regular page and the ipad. which is funky.

Have you tried re-doing a page to see if you still get the problem.

I also noticed another book that had missing title on the TOC page.

There may be some bug in ibooks 2.1

Good luck.

boltthecolt1 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 8, 2012 11:17 PM in response to boltthecolt1

This is both weird and scary!

I have fixed it but not solved the issue. I found that if I went to the template of any page and added one text box using the text box tool (not part of the single text chain) and added any text to any page all text would now appear in iBooks.

I have just added a folio on the first page (9 pt white on a white background to make this bit of redundant text invisible) and all is well. The scary thing is I don't know how many updates this hack will survive. Obviously there is some weird bug in there but I doubt I will ever figure out what it is.

Thanks for your help Fabe and KT. It really helped me to settle down and approach it logically by ruling out things that it was not.

cheers

Mark

Mar 8, 2012 11:39 PM in response to boltthecolt1

Did you try making one of the background images 50% opacity to see if the text is behind it? Just wondering if something is making the image pop to the front.

But it sounds more like some sort of font/type bug thing.

There were lots of complaints about the 2.1 upgrade(crashes etc)

Hopefully Apple will fix soon.

Cheers,

boltthecolt1 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 8, 2012 11:50 PM in response to Barnheisel

I actually deleted the image entirely. The text still pops off. Go figure! 😕

I tried highlighting the entire text chain and then typing something new. It still pops off? Suspect something related to the text frames themselves.

thanks

Mark

Fabe

Level 3

622 points

Mar 9, 2012 4:42 AM in response to boltthecolt1

On each page, make sure both the graphic (in the background) and the text (in the foreground) has their respective settings as anchored. Also, make each piece of text on each page, a separate text box. Do not flow text from one page to another. - Fabe

boltthecolt1 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 9, 2012 2:33 PM in response to Fabe

Thanks Fabe. I can use individual text boxes but unless there is some thing I don't know (suspect there is much) I loose functionality. ie no text appears to the user when the iPad is in portrait mode. I want the text to appear in portrait mode as well. This is becuase the text is a little small in landscape mode and I want to give the user the opion to read text only at a size they choose.

In my original testing I could not find a way to get text to appear in portrait mode unless I used a text box from one of the original templates and then spawned new ones from that.

Fabe

Level 3

622 points

Mar 9, 2012 2:37 PM in response to boltthecolt1

It is my opinion (and this is opinion) that you cannot have it both ways. Design in landscape only. - Fabe

boltthecolt1 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 9, 2012 2:50 PM in response to Fabe

Point is I did have it both ways till 2.1 arrived and admittedly with another hack it is working again. 🙂

The problem is certainly the result of a bug, though I have to admit that my non-orthodox approach breeds bugs. However the use of a text chain should not cause issues. It is fundamental to laying out complex books esp textbooks. Also having the text of user created text boxes not appearing in portrait mode is baffling to me. I understand your suggestions are aimed at getting my issue to go away but I hope this is not how Apple envisage the product working.

Thanks for perservereing with this. Your suggestions helped me work it through. 🙂

cheers

Mark

Mar 9, 2012 2:56 PM in response to boltthecolt1

there are a few ways you could do it.

in landscape

drag your flowing text boxs off the page(on to grey paste board)

Now you have no "body" flow text on your landscape (visible)

this text still shows in portrait.

no add your text boxes for landscape (the ones that don't show in Portrait.)

If you want art behind text in portrait, that is another way.

I have to go and will be offline for a while (commute)

can explain that method.

Cheers,

Mar 9, 2012 5:07 PM in response to boltthecolt1

Yes, the way you set it up originally should work, it worked in ibooks2.0

though I think it could have been set up simpler (single template etc.)

anyway, I see 2 approches

1) use flowing text for portrait and added text for landscape

the method i posted before would do this, also you could just hide the flowing text behind the full screen image.

2) use added text for both landscape and portrait. and no flowing text at all.

for a book like yours I think this makes the most sense.

I few problems, the illustrations are formatted for landscape

you could crop in on them for portrait, but then you have the issue with the tinted area used for text.

The tint should really be done separately in IBA

that way the illustration could be used in different sizes etc.

For the tint you could scan a watercolor swash thingy with transparent background and control its opacity in IBA. etc.

Anyway

You should just build a landscape version with added text boxes and a portrait version with added text boxes, No flowing text.

You could set it to share text and images between landscape and portrait, but you don't need to.

I'm trying to add screen shots but they don't upload.

I'm off to a meeting in a few minutes so this is rushed, then to a school play, back online late tonight.

will try to upload screen shots then

Cheers,

Mar 9, 2012 5:54 PM in response to Barnheisel

Screen shots...

a few portrait versions

with image and added text

and a lanscape version

ratzfatz

Level 1

19 points

Oct 24, 2013 2:48 AM in response to Barnheisel

Same problem here. Seems that version 2.1 cannot embed fonts correctly anymore. Another problem is on discussion here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5474492

I need to go back to version 2.0 but cannot find a download link. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,148 points

Oct 24, 2013 6:29 AM in response to ratzfatz

You are referring to a discussion from over a year ago where they used the wrong version number. It's not the same.

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Oct 24, 2013 7:36 AM in response to ratzfatz

ratzfatz wrote:

Same problem here. Seems that version 2.1 cannot embed fonts correctly anymore.

This thread is about iBooks 2.1 not iBooks Author 2.1.

Please stay in your other/own thread with your different topic and stop adding your different issue to so many other threads, thanks.

After updating to iBooks 2.1 all the text in my book is gone?