Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Creative Book Builder v3.0

New features:

1. Set audio for cover image (used for audio and video generation)

2. Import app generated by TouchAppCreator

3. Option to use inline stylesheet

4. Skip words when mixing for Read Aloud element

5. Change page color for fixed layout book

6. Batch upload book to OneDrive and FTP Server

7. Change font for link element

8. Keep same horizontal margin of all elements in the page

9. Copy pages from Fixed Layout Book to Classic Book and vice versa

10. Import multiple books

11. Sort books by title or modified date

12. Revamp Book List

13. Fix bugs for flickr integration

14. iOS 8 ready

Monday, September 22, 2014

iOS 8 Issues

We have found some issues that happen in iOS 8.

There is a problem for getting image from photo library.

For workarounds, please use "Add Element -> Misc -> Clipboard" or "Add Element -> Files" to import photos.

We will update the app as soon as possible.

Stay tuned.

Monday, June 30, 2014

Write Once, Four Formats (Version 2.9 Highlights)

Do you have audio recording, song, music or read aloud on each page? Do you want to just generate audio or video format for your book?

For any books created on version 2.9, you can export your book into 4 formats: EPUB, PDF, Audio, and Video.

Convert Book Into Audio

Now you can get your audio format for your book! You just add your audio to each page, and then CBB will merge all of them into one audio file.
  • You can skip page if that page contains no audio
  • You can choose either audio recording, song, music, or read aloud element
  • Only the first audio file will be selected
  • You can include draft or glossary if necessary

Convert Book Into Video

Now you can get your video format for your book! You just add your audio to each page, and then CBB will generate video that each page is synchronized with the corresponding audio.
  • Fixed Layout Book is required
  • You can skip page if that page contains no audio
  • You can choose either audio recording, song, music, or read aloud element
  • Only the first audio file will be selected
  • You can include draft or glossary if necessary
  • You can choose transition between switching pages
  • You can choose to show or hide audio control

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Creative Book Builder v2.9

Creative Book Builder v2.9 is released.

Here are new features:

1. Export book into audio format

2. Export Fixed Layout Book into video format

3. Copy elements from Classic book to Fixed Layout book and vice versa

4. Copy glossary items from Classic book to Fixed Layout book and vice versa

5. Copy footnotes among books

6. Full screen table

7. Video can be launched by link

8. Add link to anchor bookmark

9. Import files from OneDrive

10. Upload book to OneDrive

11. Select image from OneDrive or Resource Library

12. Revamp cover image editor (just like fixed layout page editor)

13. Show or hide audio control for PDF output

14. Option to generate share link when upload

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Version 2.8 Highlights

Quiz

You can now create Quiz element that contains a set of questions. After answering all questions, users can view their score.


Points to note:
  • Quiz can be displayed in embedded or hidden & full screen mode.
  • Quiz can be displayed with or without paging.
  • For hidden & full screen mode, you can add new link element or link in paragraph and markdown to launch the quiz. It is very flexible.
  • You can copy existing question element into quiz.
  • You can control the size of quiz.

Features of quiz for different layout:
Quiz \ LayoutClassicFixed Layout
EmbeddedSupported
(Paging is not allowed)
Supported
(Paging is needed)
Hidden & Full ScreenSupported
(Size should be specified)
Supported
(Size should be specified)

Slideshow

You can now create Slideshow element that contains a set of images. Each image can contain caption with title and description. You can tap the image to show or hide the full screen button and play button. You can tap play or pause button to play or pause slideshow. You can even swipe right to left in order to go to next image.



Points to note:
  • Slideshow can be displayed in embedded or hidden mode.
  • You can control size, interval, caption, caption style, auto-start option of slideshow.
  • You can choose transition effect: Push & Fade.
  • For hidden & full screen mode, you can add new link element or link in paragraph and markdown to launch the slideshow. It is very flexible.

Features of slideshow for different layout:
Slideshow \ LayoutClassicFixed Layout
Embedded & Full ScreenNot SupportedSupported
(Size should be specified)
Hidden & Full ScreenSupportedSupported


Preparation of Publishing

If you intend to publish the book to online book store, CBB now will provide some advices in order to make the publishing process easier. CBB checks if the problems exist in the book, e.g. missing author, missing published date, etc. so that you can solve these problems before uploading book to online book store. It can greatly save your time to communicate with online book store.


Friday, April 18, 2014

Creative Book Builder v2.8

Creative Book Builder v2.8 is released.

Here are new features:

1. New Quiz Element

2. New Slideshow Element

3. Search elements by keywords

4. Add link in markdown element

5. Support inline equation and horizontal line for paragraph element

6. Book Information Preference

7. Show warning messages for those who would like to publish book to online book store

8. Search books by keywords

9. Page thumbnails for fixed layout books

10. Change audio element to button mode

11. Better support for EPUB generated by Pages app


Friday, March 7, 2014

Content Migration Between Devices

If you buy a new iPad/iPhone, you would like to transfer content from old device to new device. Here is the method:
  1. Update Creative Book Builder app in both old and new device to the latest version
  2. Plug old device into PC / Mac
  3. Use iTunes to connect to old device
  4. Go to File Sharing, and select Creative Book Builder
  5. Copy all the folders and files from old device to desktop
  6. On desktop, change all folders' name by adding suffix ".pkg", e.g. XXX to XXX.pkg (icon will be changed to package)
  7. Unplug old device from PC / Mac and plug new device into PC / Mac
  8. Use iTunes to connect to new device
  9. Go to File Sharing, and select Creative Book Builder
  10. Copy all the folders and files from new device if you need to backup
  11. Delete all the folders and files from new device
  12. Copy all the folders and files from desktop into new device
  13. On iTunes, change all folders' name by removing suffix ".pkg", e.g. XXX.pkg to XXX (icon will be changed to folder)
  14. Unplug new device from PC / Mac
  15. Finally, launch Creative Book Builder app in new device

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Creative Book Builder v2.7.1

Creative Book Builder v2.7.1 is released.

Here are new features:

1. Fix bug for footnotes

2. Fix bug for custom font

3. Fix bug for the viewport of fixed layout books

4. Fix bug for clipboard



Thursday, January 23, 2014

Version 2.7 Highlights

Improvement of PDF Generation for Classic Book

Long text is paged properly so that there is no more text splitting for generated PDF. You can also see the paged result in preview mode (it is not the same as the paged result in iBooks). In preview mode, you can simply swipe left or right to turn to next or previous page.

Different Layout Size

For fixed layout books, CBB now supports more types of fixed layout books: Landscape, Portrait and Square. Conversion between different types can be done by using copy book function:
  1. Tap "Edit" button in book list
  2. Select books
  3. Tap "Copy" button at the bottom
  4. Choose the conversion 
  5. Finally, the converted book will be appeared in the corresponding layout

MP3 format for Recorded Audio

All the recorded audio will be converted from CAF to MP3 so that general EPUB readers can play the audio properly.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Creative Book Builder v2.7

Creative Book Builder v2.7 is released.

Here are new features:

1. Improvement on PDF generation for Classic book

2. Support different sized books: Landscape, Portrait, Square

3. Open-to-spread option: show two pages or one page when opening book

4. Read Aloud: Import audio file from Dropbox, Google Drive or Music Library

5. All recorded audio files are changed to mp3 format

6. Group Page: contains links of sub chapters and sub groups

7. Option to show grid lines when editing fixed layout books

8. Add special pages: copyright, dedication, foreword, preface

9. Preview the paged result for Classic book

10. Import markdown files

11. Use book title as email attachment file name

12. Improvement on importation of books

13. Some bug fixes