Choose a template, add interactive content and publish your work. Then watch your Multi-Touch books bring every subject to life for every student.
Whether you’re creating an entire lab manual or just a unit to support a lesson, here are some simple steps to start making your materials more engaging using the free iBooks Author app for Mac.
Organise ideas.
A great way to get started with iBooks Author is to look at the materials you’re already using — worksheets, presentations, photos and more — and organise them into chapter or section folders on your desktop.
Beautiful design.
Next, choose from a variety of built-in templates with predefined layouts to make your project look professional from the start. When you have a lot of media along with your text, choose a landscape layout and enable the portrait view to give two experiences in one.
Drag-and-drop simplicity.
Drag and drop content from Pages or Microsoft Word documents directly into iBooks Author — all the formatting for headings, outline levels, paragraph structure and styles are automatically recognised. Next you’ll be ready to add interactive elements.
The magic of Multi-Touch books is the way ideas jump off the page, enabling students of all learning styles to see, hear, touch and engage in the concepts you’re teaching. And the widgets in iBooks Author help you do just that.
Widgets overview
Let students who learn more visually swipe through Photo Galleries with captions, or zoom and pan into details of an image.
Use the Media widget to include video, narrations, speeches, music and sound effects for students who learn better with audio.
Interactive objects, 3D images and HTML widgets let students be actively immersed in what they are learning.
There are lots of apps you can use to create your own multimedia content for iBooks Author projects, and sites that offer free media resources for educational use.
Here are some great resources to help create and add media to your projects.
Make sure to double-check the usage rights when you use third-party content in your book.
Discover a treasure trove of images from leading cultural institutions and photographs from Flickr users worldwide.
Customise maps for specific lessons that you can include in books for your class for free.
Explore a large repository of public domain and freely licensed media from a wide range of professional and amateur sources.
Access thousands of free teaching resources aligned with common learning standards that you can download and reuse.
Create your own 3D illustrations with SketchUp or choose from millions of 3D models in SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse.
Choose from the library of interactive HTML5 widgets and customise them with your own content.
Apple offers easy-to-use apps to create professional-looking content on your own.
Write and style your text in Pages. Then drag the finished file into the book navigator in iBooks Author to let your text automatically flow.
Create gorgeous spreadsheets, use interactive charts and share them effortlessly across Apple devices.
Embed a new or existing Keynote presentation to emphasise an idea with powerful animations and effects.
Videos created in iMovie can play automatically when they’re embedded using the Media widget.
Record podcasts, music and more in GarageBand, and add them to your project using the Media widget.
When you’re ready to distribute your book, iBooks Author takes the guesswork out of publishing, so you can focus on getting the word out.
Get your book discovered in the iBooks Store by having a high-quality cover image (at least 72 dpi and 1400 pixels), an accurate description and short title, and screenshots taken directly from your iPad. And don’t forget to share the published link on your social media networks.
Get started with the iBooks Author Starter Kit — a step-by-step guide, plus all of the multi-media materials you need to get started.
Download for free in iBooks
Learn more about using iBooks Author, or download it from the Mac App Store for free and start creating Multi-Touch learning materials.
iBooks Author Overview (PDF)
Download iBooks Author
