How to import photos from Google Photos

With Google Photos, you can now backup and store unlimited, high-quality photos and videos, for free. Please follow the steps below to connect Google Photos with Google Drive:

1. Please go to Google Drive via http://drive.google.com and select "Google Photos"

2. Please tap the button "Add Folder to Google Drive"

3. Finally you can access your photos through the folder "Google Photos".

Once the connection setup is completed, you can import your photos from the folder "Google Photos" in Google Drive into CBB app.

Import Posts From WordPress

WordPress is a popular blogging system in the world used on millions of sites every day. Do you want to import content from your WordPress blogs to your book ? Now, Creative Book Builder offers an easy way to import it.

First, you tap import button (down arrow) and then select WordPress. Import screen will be shown.

WordPress.com is the official hosting platform. By default, the host is "https://wordpress.com". If you have self-hosted WordPress platform or some other platforms based on WordPress (e.g. edublogs.org), you can change host accordingly. Please note that the specified WordPress Platform should enable XML-RPC.

Next step is to log on to your WordPress Platform by tapping Login button. After you log on successfully, you can select one of the blogs. Then you can change search criteria: tag, sorting order, and date range. Finally, you tap Start Import button. When import process is completed, new book is created.

Unleash the power of Creative Book Builder (3): Reuse your existing content

Everyone has already written a lot of content on blogging sites, online word processors and social network. Everyone may also have tons of word, powerpoint, pdf files, etc. You may imagine how to reuse those content with copy and paste all the time. CBB puts a lot of efforts on integration with different online services to make your life easier.

Evernote, Blogger, WordPress, RSS/Atom Feed
Many people write notes on Evernote and posts on Blogger or WordPress or other blogging sites daily. CBB provides a quick way to import all the notes or posts (filtered by date or tag) and generate a new book. The files stored outside the targeted sites will also be downloaded automatically. E.g. RSS feed may contain links to audio or video files, which are downloaded also.




Google Documents
Many people are using Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets or Google Drawing to write their documents because they are all browser based and free of charge. Google Drive API provides HTML as export format for Google Docs. CBB parses HTML and convert content into CBB's elements. Google Drive API also provides PDF as export format for all documents. CBB leverages this feature to download PDF format for Google Slides or Google Sheets.

TouchAppCreator
If you already have built web apps using TouchAppCreator, those content is highly compatible with CBB so that you can convert web apps into ebooks. On the other hand, you can convert ebooks into web apps using TouchAppCreator as well.

Dropbox, Google Drive & OneDrive
A lot of apps contain a function called "Open In..." to bring file from that app to another app. However, in this case, it supports one file at one time only. Therefore, CBB makes use of Dropbox API, Google Drive API and One Drive API  to let you import multiple files at one time.




Quizlet, Flickr, URL
CBB also integrates with Quizlet to download content from Quizlet and convert them into image or paragraph elements. If you prefer to use Creative Commons Images, CBB can download your favorite images from Flickr too. Besides, any URL of image, video or audio can also be downloaded using File From URL feature in CBB.

Unleash the power of Creative Book Builder (2): Powerful and flexible widget

We all know that interactive content is very important for ebooks. It helps people better understand the content and feel more interesting. CBB supports a lot of powerful and flexible widget to make your content more interactive.

Read Aloud
For any read aloud books (fixed layout only), iBooks can play audio and highlight the word at the same time. It can turn the page automatically. CBB allows you to add read aloud features to your book easier by taking 3 simple steps: add text, record audio, and finally mix text with audio.

Quiz & Question
CBB supports multiple choice questions. Quiz can contain a set of questions. Each question and answer can contain text and image. The readers choose their answer, and then they check if it is correct or not. It is useful for them to revise the content they have read before.

Slideshow
Slideshow can contain a set of slides. Each slide can contain image and audio. When you play slideshow, audio will be played at the same time for each slide. You can even record your voice for story telling purpose.

Chart
Sometimes, you may need a simple chart to illustrate the figures for convincing or reporting purpose. CBB supports bar chart, line chart, pie chart, etc. You can input the data and customize the look and feel of the charts.

Equations (LaTeX)
If you know LaTeX syntax, you will find that it is one of great feature to input mathematical formula or equations to build math or science book easier.

Table, Drawing & QR Code
You can present summary and figures as table format. You can draw using finger. You can insert QR Code that represents any link.

Not enough ? We will continue to explore and add more widgets. Stay tuned.

You can also submit your request to our support anytime.

Unleash the power of Creative Book Builder (1): Different types of books

CBB allows you to create different types of books in terms of layout, page turning, and even vertical text.

There are 5 types of layout: Classic (Reflowable), Fixed Layout, Landscape, Portrait and Square. Classic book can adapt its presentation to output device. Elements in Classic books are displayed linearly. Other types of books have fixed size. Elements in other types of books are displayed at the fixed position. You can convert Fixed Layout books into Classic books by using Copy To function.

There are 4 types of direction: Left-to-right, Right-to-left, Vertical Text with Left-to-right, Vertical Text with Right-to-left. Most of the books with English language's text are using Left-to-right direction. The traditional books with Chinese and Japanese language are usually using Vertical Text with Right-to-left direction. You can change direction by the following steps:

1. Open book
2. Tap Settings icon at the bottom toolbar
3. Tap Book Style
4. Tap Direction

Also, in the book generation interface, you can use older EPUB version, i.e. 2.0 for older EPUB readers. Some EPUB readers do not support separate CSS file. In this case, you can enable Inline Stylesheet.

By default, all the books are opened to spread two pages when you are using iBooks to view book. When you view Landscape book, you need to scroll the page horizontally until you see another page because the screen is not enough to display two pages in this case. We are aware of this and we add an option called "Open to Spread" in book generation interface. You just turn it off. Then only one page will be shown to fit the screen. You can swipe left or right to turn the page.

Display Width of Image

Previously, the width of image in terms of HTML image tag <img> is 100%. It is not flexible enough to display on the page, especially on Classic Book.

From version 3.2, CBB introduces the display width option for image. The display width can be changed to any value in terms of percentage or pixel. The display height will be adapted to maintain aspect ratio. As a result, the image is not too large or too wide to take up the whole screen. No matter the actual size of image is, the image will be displayed using display size if it is specified.

Version 3.2 Highlights

Evernote, WordPress, Blogger, RSS/Atom Feed Support

For those who have already great content on Evernote, WordPress, Blogger, or other blogging platform, CBB makes use of that content to create your own book easier now.

1. Tap Import button (down arrow)
2. Select Evernote, Blogger, WordPress, or RSS/Atom Feed
3. Type the required information
4. Tap Start Import button

Better support for Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawing

There is a specific item called "Google Documents" in Import and Add Element popover screen. It will download the specified Google Documents from your Google Drive account.

CBB extracts text from Google Docs and turn it to paragraph, turns each slides of Google Slides presentation into images, turns spreadsheets of Google Sheets into images, turns drawing in Google Drawing into images as well. It separates the function from "Files From Google Drive" which treats presentation and spreadsheet as embedded files.

Edit cover image and book information without leaving publish screen

Previously, in publish screen, if you found that some information is missing or want to modify cover image, you need to close publish screen, editing and then tap Publish button again to generate the book.

Now you do not need to close publish screen, you can change book information by tapping book title and description, and change cover image by tapping cover image's thumbnail directly.

Creative Book Builder v3.2

New features:

1. Import posts from Evernote

2. Import posts from Blogger

3. Import posts from WordPress

4. Import content from RSS feed

5. Convert PDF to slideshow

6. Thumbnail view for books

7. Thumbnail view for pages

8. Copy and paste pages (tap and hold)

9. Access shared folder of Google Drive

10. Set display width of image

11. Edit cover image and book information without leaving publish screen

12. Better support for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawing

13. Revamp Add Element Interface

14. Support online image