I am currently finishing up a fairly large iBook textbook. It would be useful to be able to go between different parts of the document directly, especially as there is checking and cross-linking going on. I do this when working in Word. Is it possible to open more than one window into a book, or multiple books simultaneously?
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)
Actually, I may have found the solution to this. You can open multiple books simultaneously in different windows. So if a copy was made of a book, it could be opened in one window while the 'working' copy is in another. Not ideal, but a work-around.
The primary need for me is after I add a figure, I go to the section which has all the credits to add those details, so it's back and forth through the book. It would be easier if I had another window with that part of the book in it.
Take care not to duplicate *.iba files. If you do, the *.ibooks files created with them will all have the same internal IDs. These IDs are neither visible nor changable. This causes identity problems in the iBooks app. Opening book A might actually result in book B opening because they have the same ID. Always create *.iBA files from a template.
So your tactic is effective but dangerous. This problem is easily solved by using File > Save as template ... to create another copy of your *.iba file. It's an extra step but it insures that you will not accidentally create two or more *.ibooks files with the same internal ID.
I discovered this the hard way when I taught a private iTunes U course containing six *.ibooks files created with duplicated *.iba files. The books were issued sequentially so by the third book, we were all totally confused as to what was happening and why. Once I got the answer (from Apple), I created new templates for each book and exported new *.ibooks files. That solved the problem.
Thank you Frank. I was not aware of this potential trap. So far I have just used a copy as a means of looking at one part of the book while typing related material into another part of the book. But I will be paying more attention to setting up the exact template on the next book!
Can you open multiple windows into one or more books?
