Missing Books Issues

If you found the books are missing suddenly, database file may be corrupted.

Please send database file to support via email.

Please follow the steps to get database file:
1. Plug the device into PC / Mac
2. Use iTunes to connect to the device
3. Select "Apps"
4. Go to "File Sharing"
5. Select "Creative Book Builder"
6. Find and select the file "CreativeBookBuilderDB.sqlite"
7. Tap "Save to.."

We will try to recover data.

We will delete database file after fixing the issues.

If you have full backup on iTunes recently, you can also try to restore from it.

Creative Book Builder for Mac v1.4

New features:

1. Create fixed layout book with customized page size

2. Navigate whole book while recording audio

3. Bug fix

Smart Merge - increase your productivity

From version 4.2, Creative Book Builder introduces a great new feature called Smart Merge.

Smart Merge is a new way to merge the placeholders of the content with different values so that the book can be used as template. Instead of copying and pasting contents, different books are generated automatically according to the template.

First, you need to define placeholders using {{ and }}, e.g. {{place_holder_name}}.

For example, the content is defined as below:

This book "{{place_holder_title}}" is created by {{place_holder_author}}

The above content can be merged with values:

This book "Creative Book Builder Getting Started" is created by CBB Support

This book "English Lesson" is created by Teacher A

This book "Training Manual" is created by Peter

Placeholders can be defined anywhere, including cover image and book information.

For example, the placeholders, e.g. {{cover_title}}, {{author}} are added to cover image as below:

Those placeholders' values are defined as "Smart Merge" and "CBB Support", after smart merging, the cover image will become:

How to use Smart Merge to generate new book:

1. Tap Publish button to bring the action menu, and then select "Smart Merge".

2. CBB can scan all the pages, cover image, and book information to discover placeholders. Placeholder list is shown after searching.

3. Fill in the values for placeholders.

4. Tap Merge button to start merging.

5. Finally, you can preview the resulted book, upload the result book to cloud services, or add the resulted book as a new book.

Fixed Layout Book Enhancement

From version 4.2, we have improved Fixed Layout book creation for better user experience.

1. New interface for adding new book is allowed to choose layout type and customize the size:

2. After selecting layout type, corresponding default size is shown below. Tap the size to change size. The customized size will be saved and you do not need to set again. Moreover, you can tap "Use Default" to use the default size at any time. The Classic books (i.e. reflow-able books) do not have size settings.

3. Next and previous icons are moved to the middle right and middle left edges for navigation. If current page is last page, next icon will be changed to add icon that can be used to add new page.

4. There are icons in the bottom of the page. Text icon is used to add new title, paragraph, etc. Image icon is used to add new image from photo library and cloud services. Microphone icon is used to add new audio recording. Tool icon is used to add other elements. More icon contains other commands, e.g. set as draft, share page, delete page, etc.

5. Glossary and footnotes can be accessed via More icon in the top bar.

Creative Book Builder v4.2

New features:

1. Revamp Fixed Layout Editing Interface

2. Create fixed layout book with customized page size

3. Smart Merge: define place holder and merge with different values

4. Today Widget: show recent books on the today view

5. Navigate whole book while recording audio

6. Bug fix

Creative Book Builder for Mac v1.3

New features:

1. Cover Editor: set background image and background color

2. Import audio file for Read Aloud Element

3. Support custom language for language field of the book information

4. Bug fix

Creative Book Builder v4.1

New features

1. Expandable Content: tap expand icon to show hidden text

2. Rich Table supports full screen mode

3. Add custom language for language field of the book information

4. Cover Editor: add background image

5. Import files from WebDAV server

6. Share text and image from Notes app into CBB

7. Update Dropbox SDK

8. Make use of beautiful and high-resolution Unsplash photos

9. Fix WebDAV problems

10. Bug fix

Creative Book Builder for Mac v1.2

New features:

1. More style option for paragraph element: quick style, padding, border style, background color

2. Bug fix

Creative Book Builder v4.0

New features:

1. Redundant images are not kept

2. More style option for paragraph element: quick style, padding, border style, background color

3. Streamline book generation flow

4. Bug fix

Creative Book Builder for Mac v1.1

New features:

1. Support iCloud Synchronization

2. Cover Image Editor: rotate text and image

3. Support Fixed Layout, Landscape, Portrait & Square

4. Fixed Layout & Cover Editor: Double click to edit element

5. Audio Recording

6. Read Aloud (for fixed layout only)

7. Background (for fixed layout only)

8. Soundtrack (for fixed layout only)

9. Auto page title

10. Search book by keywords

11. Filter book by layout type & storage option

12. Export book as PDF

13. Redundant images are not kept

14. Bug fix

Creative Book Builder v3.9

New features:

1. Compliant to EPUB: file extension is changed from html to xhtml.

2. Bug fix for custom font and large content

App Language Problem

Sometimes some users complain that language of CBB app is changed to Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese. The reason is related to preferred language settings on your device.

For example, your order of preferred language is Italian, Simplified Chinese, English, Traditional Chinese.

Creative Book Builder currently supports English, French, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. No Italian is provided. However, your second language is Simplified Chinese, and then iOS chooses Simplified Chinese. Therefore, language of CBB app is changed to Simplified Chinese. For more information, check this out: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/qa/qa1828/_index.html.

The solution is to change ordering of preferred language. You can just move English to be second language or move English before French, Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.

Creative Book Builder v3.8

New features:

1. Delete multiple footnotes

2. Rich Text Editor: add Paste As HTML option.

3. UI improvement

4. Bug fix

Here are some UI changes when editing chapter:

Text and image shortcut icons are added to the top navigation bar to make it easier to complete common tasks: add paragraph and images. Tool icon is used to add other elements.

Chapter heading is moved above element list. It can show more characters for long heading.

Publish button is moved next to preview icon. It becomes consistent with fixed layout editor. The flow is much more clear now: after previewing, the next task is publishing.

Paste As HTML option:

By default, content which is pasted to rich text editor becomes plain text in order to avoid invalid characters. From 3.8, tap action icon and then select "Paste As HTML" action. It can keep style of content.

Creative Book Builder for Mac

We are excited that we bring Creative Book Builder to Mac now.

You may spend more time on mobile devices than desktop. However, you still need to work on desktop because desktop has more power and bigger screen. It makes book writing more convenient. For example, you can write a book and browse websites for research at the same time, copy text from your documents and paste text on the book, etc.

We bring most of basic features from iOS version to Mac version. Most of the interface is redesigned and optimized for desktop experiences. It is the first version of CBB for Mac. Some of advanced features will be coming soon.

Here is demonstration video:



Advantages of Creative Book Builder for Mac:

1. CBB for Mac is fully compatible with CBB for iOS.

2. Work on desktop and mobile devices seamlessly.

3. Increase your productivity for your familiar desktop environment.

Tips for Mac version:

1. Use mouse to right click items. You can find many actions when contextual menu is shown.

2. Hold Shift or Command key and use mouse to select multiple items.

3. Use mouse to drag and drop chapters / groups and elements to change ordering.

4. In paragraph editor, you can paste text by Command + V key and plain text is inserted by default because complex HTML code may make the content invalid. If you want to paste HTML content, click "More" icon on the toolbar and then click "Paste HTML".

5. In paragraph editor, you can use the following hot keys:

• Command + b:  make the selected text bold
• Command + i: make the selected text italic
• Command + u: make the selected text underline
• Command + z: undo
• Command + y: redo
• Command + a: select all text

The following advanced features will be released in next version:

1. iCloud Integration

2. Fixed Layout book support

3. Built-in advanced widgets, like slideshow, rich table, quiz, etc.

Get EPUB files from iBooks

If you have EPUB files stored in iBooks app for iOS, you can get EPUB files according to the following steps:

1. Sign in your iCloud account to both iBooks app for iOS and iBooks app for macOS.

2. Wait for the synchronization. Restart apps or re-sign in apps to try until all the books are synchronized in both apps.

3. After the synchronization is completed, you can find EPUB files via 

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books