iPad Edition "Tips and Tricks"

[MichaelMartin]

Now that a number of you have had some time to test out the iPad edition of our book, I thought I’d throw out a few “tips and tricks” to let you take full advantage of the iBook’s capability. As with all Apple based applications, most things are relatively intuitive, but Apple allowed some real gems that might not be so readily apparent.

- If you’ve used an Apple iBook before, navigation through the book should be very easy, but if not, here’s how you navigate quickly around the book. When the book first launches, it will bring you into the introduction video. You can skip through this by swiping to the left, which brings you into the chapter table of content layout (or when the video finishes, it will drop you into this view). You’ll notice thumbnails of the pages on the bottom which can we swipped through to find a good place to start, or, you can swipe through the chapter introductions themselves (you’ll see each chapter’s pages racing along at the bottom when you do that). You can open any page by tapping the thumbnail at the bottom, or, by picking a section title from the chapter introduction page.

- At any point when reading, you can “pinch” the page to move back into the chapter table of content view.

- Nearly every photo, photo gallery, and illustration can be expanded to full screen by “pinching and zooming” (putting two fingers on the object, and then spreading your fingers apart). You can then reduce the size of the object back to its original size by “pinching” it back into place.

- On any photo that has “gallery dots” below it, there is more than one photo available. You can access the additional images by swipping left or right on the image itself. Other galleries have small thumbnails beneath the initial image.

- All of the interactive “widgets” should be expanded by pinching and zooming to open them up. Most widgets have interactivity which is explained at the top of the object, others are just informational. Widgets can be reduced back to their original size by tapping the X in the upper left, or pinching them back into place. You can identify these widgets a couple ways—the most obvious way is that the text and images on the widget are reduced in size, and need to be expanded to be read; the second way is a little less intuitive, and that’s that Apple adds a “play” button surrounded by a rectangular box to the widget. Tapping on this play button won’t do anything, it just identifies the object as being expandable. Actual “playable” video is identified by the play button in a circle. I have a request into Apple to allow the play button to be dropped from the widgets to avoid confusion.

- All videos can also be expanded to full screen by pinching and zooming.

- Bold text indicates that the term is in the glossary. Tap once on the text to open up the glossary definition, and once you’re in the glossary definition, you can tap on “Glossary Index” to see the full glossary, or, tap on “Dictionary” to get a web definition of the term. Once you’re in the dictionary pop-up, you can do a further search on the term on the web, or in Wikipedia.

- Text in red indicates a hyperlink, which if tapped, will leave the iBook, and open Safari to the linked page.

- If you’d like to highlight text, you simply drag your finger across the text, and it is magically highlighted in yellow. Tap on that text again, and you can remove the highlighting, change the color, or add your own notes.

Hope those tips and tricks help!

Michael

[FTBoomer]

Sure do help. Thanks

[kapt_krunch]

I figured out most of these, very user friendly! You really did a nice job on this. For me, you have set the standard for what an eBook or an iBook should be. I feel kind of guilty getting it for free! This book shows that a tremendous amount of effort and thought went into it. For those of you on the fence, get it. You will not be disappointed!!!

[JayBo1001]

I agree. I'm on chapter 3 and the content is good, and the format and media is excellent. I've already recommended it to a couple folks who are planning to carry.

[OneNineZero]

Micheal,

By chance do you know if your gonna bring any literature about concealed carrying for the iPhone or Macbook Pro?

[MichaelMartin]

OneNineZero, other platforms are definitely in the works, and I'm hoping that Apple makes iBooks available on other Apple platforms soon, but so far, it's iPad only. Since most apps are available both on the iPad and other Mac/OSX platforms, it would be natural for them to allow books (especially textbooks) to be downloaded to laptops or desktops. Porting over to the iPhone would be a little more complex, since so much of the iBook depends upon a particular layout, but if Apple allows iPhone sized books to be developed on their iBook development platform, I'd definitely make an iPhone sized book.

Originally Posted by OneNineZero

Micheal,

By chance do you know if your gonna bring any literature about concealed carrying for the iPhone or Macbook Pro?

[Happypuppy]

A really excellent book, one of the best I have seen. I did a review on the iBook store. The video and 360 degree views add a lot. I seldom buy dead tree books anymore as between my kindle and iPad it is much easier to read books as well as to store them.


Sent from my 300 baud modem

[kapt_krunch]

I left a review as well but I do not see it. Is there a delay in posting?


Sent from my iPad3 using Tapatalk

[MichaelMartin]

There is some sort of delay, but I'm not sure for how long. I suppose Apple scans them to make sure that they're appropriate...

Thank you very much to everyone who has rated it and posted comments in the iBookstore. They are very much appreciated!

Michael

Originally Posted by kapt_krunch

I left a review as well but I do not see it. Is there a delay in posting?


Sent from my iPad3 using Tapatalk

[MichaelMartin]

Thanks also for the comments below - I couldn't ask for a greater compliment than this! This project was by far my favorite so far - but like all of my books, it took about twice the effort (and twice the cost) than I originally planned on, but I just kept pushing the limits until I was satisfied. Of course, the great thing about an iBook is that I can continue to update it as often as I'd like, without worrying about how many books remain in inventory!

Michael

Originally Posted by kapt_krunch

I figured out most of these, very user friendly! You really did a nice job on this. For me, you have set the standard for what an eBook or an iBook should be. I feel kind of guilty getting it for free! This book shows that a tremendous amount of effort and thought went into it. For those of you on the fence, get it. You will not be disappointed!!!