Jeff Reeves

Q: Navigation in iBooks

I have recently completed an illustrated biography of 152 pages in iBooks Author.  Every page contains images and text and the text in each page refers to the images and must not stray onto neighbouring pages.  I chose the Blank Portrait Template which provides a Chapter, a Section, and a Default Page.  I did not require a Section so I deleted it leaving only the Chapter.  I added an image and several lines of text to the Chapter page to act as the book Title.

 

I then inserted a Default Page by ctrl/click on the Chapter and I could see that it contained a linked text box.  I found by experiment that this limits my access to the page.  For example, images become anchored to the edge of the text box and can not be repositioned or rescaled and lines of text are moved onto the new page from other pages.  I decided to deleted the linked text box to give myself complete control of the placement of images and text, and to prevent text flowing from one page to another.  I continued adding pages without linked text boxes one by one.

 

Version 2.4.1 of iBooks Author has a new feature to insert Hyperlinks from any highlighted word in the text to navigate from the current page either to a nominated page number within the book, or to an external webpage.  The feature is easy to use and I created an Index page placed immediately after the Title page to allow navigation to all parts of the book.  I used the name Index to avoid confusion with the Table of Contents provided by iBooks.

 

Despite 40 years of professional IT experience and another 15 years doing my own thing with OSX, I have been unable to find a way of configuring Table of Contents to do what I want.

 

Navigation by Hyperlink works perfectly on the OSX version of iBooks on my iMac, but the IOS version for the iPad fails to distinguish between finger taps on the screen to execute a Hyperlink and taps to access the command bar or to turn the page forwards or backwards. 

 

I respectfully suggest that finger taps should be reserved exclusively for Hyperlinks and that other actions should use single finger swipe gestures - upwards for command bar access and sideways for page turning.

 

I have alleviated the problem in my book by increasing the size of the Hyperlink words but that looks clunky and the link activation remains intermittent which would be puzzling for book readers.  Another problem is that the Back to page facility in iBooks does not work on pages without a linked text box.  I have included a message on my Index page to warn readers to ignore the Back to page link, and to use my Hyperlinks instead.  That also looks too clunky for my liking.

 

I am reluctant to publish the book on the iBookstore in this condition and I am hoping that the iBooks developers will be able to deal with these issues in a future release.

 

Any comments would be welcome

Jeff

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Aug 7, 2016 10:00 AM

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Q: Navigation in iBooks

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Tom Gewecke,Solvedanswer

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Aug 7, 2016 12:40 PM in response to Jeff Reeves
    Level 9 (78,991 points)
    Aug 7, 2016 12:40 PM in response to Jeff Reeves

    Jeff Reeves wrote:

     

    I am hoping that the iBooks developers will be able to deal with these issues in a future release.

    For Apple to see these comments, you need to post them at

     

    http://www.apple.com/feedback

     

    if you have not done so already.

  • by Jeff Reeves,

    Jeff Reeves Jeff Reeves Aug 9, 2016 4:47 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 1 (48 points)
    Publishing
    Aug 9, 2016 4:47 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Thanks Tom

    I have sent the gist of my comment to iBooks Feedback as you suggested.  Obviously there is nothing more I can do on this issue so I am waiting and hoping for a favourable reply from the iBooks developers.  My feeling is that Hyperlinks are going to be at the heart of electronic publishing, just as the are in website design.

    Jeff Reeves

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Aug 9, 2016 5:35 AM in response to Jeff Reeves
    Level 9 (78,991 points)
    Aug 9, 2016 5:35 AM in response to Jeff Reeves

    Jeff Reeves wrote:

     

    hoping for a favourable reply from the iBooks developers. 

     

    Unfortunately they don't normally ever reply, but hopefully they will take some action to fix the app.

  • by Jeff Reeves,

    Jeff Reeves Jeff Reeves Aug 10, 2016 5:40 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 1 (48 points)
    Publishing
    Aug 10, 2016 5:40 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Of course, I think I knew that.  I keep finding things about iBooks I had not seen before.  I discovered by accident that a finger swipe down brings up the thumbnails which is useful and a step towards what I am saying about keeping finger taps exclusively for Hyperlinks. 

     

    I also found in the iBook Settings that the Margin Advance feature (ie. page turning by tapping the edge of the screen)  can be switched off but I don't think many book readers would know to look there.  I have just upgraded my iPhone and iPad to IOS 9.3.4 which includes iBooks 4.3 and I was surprised to find that switching off Margin Advance works on the iPhone but not on the iPad.  That is hard to explain logically.