Introduction to Creating a Digital E-Book Using DeskTop Author This introductory tutorial will show you how to use Desktop Author to create a basic electronic publication or e-book. You can use this process, along with the more advanced functions of DTA presented in Writing Academy 5, to create an exciting and appealing e-book with multimedia and interactive features. As you will see, DTA is more "user friendly" than many software programs for electronic publishing, desktop publishing, and web site creation. While you review this tutorial, imagine the possibilities for your e-book in the variety of areas we have discussed: - academic textbooks, activity books, and workbooks in virtually any discipline
- children's books including fiction stories and non-fiction pre-reading and early reading
- how-to guides based on your profession, hobbies, or interests (photography, home improvements, gardening, wood crafts, to name a few)
- multimedia travelogues on your city, state, country or places you have traveled to and know about
- shorter fiction and non-fiction of any type that inspires your creativity to enhance these traditionally printed publication topics and turn them into a new and exciting type of book
To begin, click on the ‘New’ button on the tool bar which will bring up the ‘Book Properties’ window. This is where you can customize your e-book, such as size, paper color, background color, and page turn mode. Once you have entered your settings press OK. This will bring up the first blank page of your e-book. Click to view the properties window--the "Hi" version is recommended for greater legibility if you have broadband.  | |
DeskTop Author comes with a selection of built-in templates. To insert a template, select the drop down arrow next to the ‘Templates’ button on the tool bar. A list will drop down displaying the template categories available. Select the category. This will open a template selection window for that category where you can preview the template designs. Select the design of your choice then select ‘Use.' This will insert the template onto your page. Ensure that the size of your working area is the same size as the template. In this case the working area and the template page size are both 700 x 440 pixels. It is not necessary to use a template if you prefer not to. Take special note of the page size you choose or that is used by a template. After you view the finished test book on your computer screen, you may want to choose another size.  | |
Before you begin, make sure your images have been saved as a JPEG, bitmap, or non-interlaced gif since DeskTop Author only supports these file formats for images. To insert an image you can use the Image Browser to navigate your PC and locate the image you wish to insert. Simply select the desired image with your mouse then drag and drop it into your template or on your page. You can also click on the image button located in the tool bar and insert the image by using Windows Explorer. Should you need to change the size of the image so that it fits into the area provided on the template or page size you have chosen, you can do so by using DeskTop Author’s internal image editor. The image editor also allows you to optimize your image in order to achieve a smaller file size. To access the image editor select the image you wish to edit, right click with your mouse button and select ‘Edit Image’ from the menu.  | |
There are two types of text in DeskTop Author--regular text and editable text. Editable text allows your readers or "end users" to edit the text in your e-book. This is a useful feature for many types of fiction or non-fiction e-books and will be covered later. For the present, use regular text to create your test book. To insert regular text select the ‘Text’ button from the tool bar which will bring up the ‘Text Editor’ window. Here you can type in your text or copy and paste the text from other applications. You can also format regular text with a wide selection of font types, appearance, size and color. It is also possible to position your text on the page. In addition, text can be made into clickable links to web sites. This feature will be discussed further in Writing Academy 5. DeskTop Author allows you to create links for text and images. There are a number of different links you can create such as links to other pages within your e-book, links to web sites, email links, links for editable text, and more.
To link text, open the Text Editor by double clicking on the text you wish to link. In the Text Editor highlight the text you wish to link and press the ‘Link’ button. This will bring up the ‘Link Editor’ window. Select the type of link you would like to use from the drop down menu. In this example, we will link the text to the contents page of a photo album. From the Link Type drop down menu select ‘Page,’ then select the page number, which is page 2 in this case.
Linking images is similar to linking text. Select the image you wish to link then select the ‘Link button’ on the tool bar. This will bring up the ‘Link Editor’ window with the same choice of links as for linking text. In this example we are going to create a 'Send Mail' link. Creating a send mail link will allow the person viewing your e-book to send it to others via email simply by clicking on the linked image.  | |
To save your test e-book simply click on the ‘Save’ button on the tool bar. You will be prompted to specify a name for the file and save it in the location of your choice. It's best to always create a new folder for each new e-book you create. This saves the source (content) of the e-book for later editing/packaging. The file type created is .dml. Once you have saved your e-book you are ready to package it so you can view the page-turning feature, on-screen size of your book, and so forth. There are two different file formats to choose from when packaging your e-book. 1. Packaging EXE will create a stand-alone application that does not require the user to have a reader installed on their PC. 2. Packaging DNL will create a data only file that requires the end user to have the DNL Reader installed on their PC in order to be able to view the e-book. Packaging as a .dnl file typically produces a smaller file size that can be distributed more easily. The importance of this feature for you to become a published (and selling!) author is discussed further in Writing Academy 6 Sell Your E-Book. If you have not already done so, download the DNL Reader now from: http://www.digitalwebbooks.com/reader
Select either ‘Package EXE’ or ‘Package DNL’ from the tool bar. The packaging process will then begin. Once packaging is complete your test e-book will show up on the screen ready for viewing. As you have learned in previous courses of Writing Academy, simply click a page to turn or right click to view the e-book menu of features (page turn style and speed, save, close, etc.) This feature allows a DNL file to be displayed within a web browser. To initiate this process, first package your e-book as DNL. Then select Tools from the top menu and press Publish to web. The publish to web dialog box will pop up and you will be prompted to enter your server details. To learn more on how to publish to web click here or consult your user manual.
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