Book Builder Training Materials Using Book Builder September 2014 Prepared by WDI, Inc.
Table of Contents Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 What is Book Builder? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Accessing Book Builder for the First Time --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Download for Windows --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Download for Mac ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Creating a Cover ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Inside Cover/Author Page ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 Save ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10 Page Tabs ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Adding/Deleting Pages ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Text Boxes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Editing Text ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 Deleting a Text Box ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14 Text Features ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Aligning Text Boxes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14 Images -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Create PDF -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 Review Process ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Recording Information -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Phrase Edit Mode ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Split a phrase ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Merge a phrase ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Recording Process --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Copying Companion Phrases ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Submit the Book ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Hold down the Ctrl key and click on any of the Table of Contents Headings to move to that section of the training materials. 2
Introduction Welcome to IBM s Reading Companion Book Builder. This is a brief guide to creating original content in the form of an "e-book" that will be used by all schools and nonprofit organizations currently participating in the IBM Reading Companion grant program. Reading Companion uses voice recognition technology over the Web to help children and adults learn how to read in English. What is Book Builder? Book Builder enables IBM volunteers, teachers and students to write original text, find or create pictures to illustrate the e-book, and record the text and phrases in the e-books that, once reviewed, may be published on the readingcompanion.org virtual library. E-book drafts are reviewed by a committee to determine whether the content is acceptable for use in Reading Companion. IBM does not guarantee that it will post submitted e-books in the Reading Companion Web site. More information about the review process is found on page 20. Once e-books are approved for publishing to the web site, the e-books become part of the Reading Companion virtual library that is available to all schools and not-for-profit organizations that are participating in this program around the world. IBM will use the e-books solely as part of this grant program and will not make the e-books commercially available at any time. By submitting an e- book for consideration, the user certifies that the content is original, that you are using original or freely available clip art or other images to illustrate your e-book, and that you understand that IBM owns all rights, including copyrights, in the e-books submitted to IBM. The following pages include complete instructions on creating an e-book, submitting a draft for review, recording the text and preparing your e-book for publishing to the web site. Accessing Book Builder for the First Time Follow these steps to access Book Builder the first time. 1. Go to www.readingcompanion.org 2. Sign in as a teacher, administrator or author 3. Click the Author tab from the green bar running across the top of the page. You will see a link providing information on Book Builder. 3
4. View and agree to the software license agreement. The agreement for the IBM Reading Companion Book Builder Software Program certifies that your e-book content is original, you are using original or freely available clip art to illustrate your e-book, and you understand that IBM owns all rights, including copyrights, in the e-books submitted to IBM. 5. Click the appropriate link (Download for Windows or Download for Mac) 6. Complete the download/installation instructions 4
Download for Windows You will be prompted to save the Book Builder executable file. Once you have saved the Book Builder executable file, locate it and double-click it to run it. If you see a security warning, click OK to launch the RCBookBuilder.exe file, or Run to start the software. When you download and save the Book Builder executable file, it will install the Book Builder software on your desktop. Once this has been done, you can access the Book Builder directly from the desktop shortcut. 5
Download for Mac After clicking on the download link, you will be prompted to save the rcbookbuilder.dmg file. By default, it will save in the Downloads folder, but you may change the save location. Once you have saved the Book Builder executable file, locate it and double-click it. A new window will open. Double-click on the box image. You may be asked if you are sure you want to open the file. Confirm this by clicking Open. 6
The location for the install window will be displayed. The default Applications is fine. Press Continue. NOTE: Book Builder will start automatically after the install if you leave the checkbox for Start application after installation selected. Otherwise, go to your application folder and double click Reading Companion - Book Builder to start the application. You might be asked again if you are sure you want to open the file. Confirm by clicking Open. 7
Once Book Builder has been installed, you can open it and sign in using your Reading Companion sign in name and password. NOTE: If you are a teacher or administrator who wants to give Author access to your students, please use the Register Students as Authors link under What s New on the Teacher Home Page of Reading Companion. In order to be sure you are using the most up-to-date version of Book Builder, click About, Check for Updates. If an updated version of Book Builder is available, you will automatically be prompted to install the latest version. If you are using the latest version, you see a message confirming that you are using the latest version. Creating a Cover When you first sign in to Book Builder, a blank e-book draft will open, ready for you to use, starting with the Cover. You need to create a Cover for your book. This cover will be displayed on the bookshelf and will be the first piece of your book seen by other students as they are clicking through the library. You will see a preview of the book cover change as you change the items on the Cover tab. The Book Title is the full title of the book. The Book Category includes a drop-menu of collections to choose from. The Book Keywords will allow users to search for related books and topics. This information is displayed in the Manage Books section of Reading Companion. You can choose a background color and add a graphic from this Cover screen. Please be sure to use a large font size (we recommend 30 points) to make your book title easy to read. NOTE: Please keep in mind that the cover you create in Book Builder is much larger than the cover that will be displayed on the bookshelf. Pay special attention to the size and clarity of your cover graphic to be sure it will work in the smaller display size. 8
Inside Cover/Author Page The very first page of every book is the Inside Cover/Author Page (IC/AP), which is displayed when the user first opens the book. Placeholders for the book title and author are shown on the left side. A placeholder for a graphic is shown on the right side. To add your own book title and name to the placeholders, click in the text box, then type new text. This works for every text box you create in the book. NOTE: For privacy, we recommend listing authors by first name, last initial. If children are creating e-books, only their first names should be listed, along with their school and the country where the book was created. Last initials may be included, but are not required. The school may also simply use the name of the school and country. 9
Once the book title, author s name, the date, or other identifying information and a graphic have been added to the Title page, you can click on the 1-2 button found across the top of the Book Builder window to move to the first set (pages 1 and 2) of the e-book. Each e-book draft includes a default number of page sets (1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8). However, authors may add page sets by clicking on the plus (+) button on the tab, to add additional page sets. Save You may save your work at any time. Save your file using the File Save Book Draft command, or the Save button in the lower right corner. Unfinished books are saved in a draft form using the Book Title from the Cover page. If you are using a book title that is already in use, you will be able to identify your draft by creation date or user ID. If you exit Book Builder and return later, open your draft by using the File Open Book Draft menu command. Book titles are listed in alphabetical order. 10
Page Tabs The page tabs are used to move between the pages. In the graphic below, page set 1 2 is active. The e-books must contain at least 5 page sets one Inside Cover/Author Page and four content pages. There are no limits to page sets, but it is recommended that authors try to limit the length of e-books to no more than 10 page sets (20 pages) so that readers are engaged and can complete reading the e-book at one sitting. Each content page must have at least one text box and should include at least one graphic. Text boxes may contain as little as one word, or as much text as will fit on the page, up to 3,000 characters. Every page has fixed margins. Book Builder will not let text or images be placed outside of the allowed margins. This allows the Reading Companion Tutor (the Panda bear or stick figure) enough room to "walk" around the page without obscuring words that are being read. Adding/Deleting Pages As stated earlier, Reading Companion requires a minimum of one title page and four sets of content pages. You may complete the pages in any order; simply click on a numbered page set across the top of the screen to move to that page. To add or delete a page set, you can use the + and buttons across the top of the screen. The - symbol deletes the active page. 11
The + symbol adds a page set following the last page. You will not be allowed to delete any pages unless you will have a minimum of four page sets remaining. Book Builder prompts you to make sure you want to delete the page, but once you click Yes, the page is permanently deleted. This feature is especially helpful as authors frequently have new ideas for the content of the e-book pages or the order of those pages. The order of pages cannot be changed automatically. (For example, you cannot move Page 1 to become Page 3.) Images from an existing page must be deleted and re-imported onto the new page. Text Boxes To add a text box to the page, press the Add Text button at the bottom of the page tab. A text box with a blinking cursor will appear on the left page, below any other text that may already be there. Use your mouse to click-and-drag the new text box to a different location on either the right or left page. Text boxes automatically adjust vertically as you type more text. Text will automatically wrap to fit the default horizontal width of the text box. Make text boxes wider or narrower by clicking and dragging the size box in the lower right corner of the text box. NOTE: To create separate lines of text, or leave blank lines/spaces between sentences, you have more control over the spacing if you use multiple text boxes instead of Enter. 12
Additional text boxes appear after the most recent text box. Text boxes may be moved by dragging the text box. Text boxes cannot span the center of the book. Text boxes can only be moved within the margins of each page. Text boxes are automatically aligned to the left or right margins. Tools that allow for the automatic alignment (horizontal and vertical) of text boxes are detailed in the Editing Text section found on page 15. As you can see from the many e-books currently available, text boxes may contain as little as one word or as much text as will fit on a page. Editing Text There are two modes for editing existing text. The default mode is the Text edit mode. This is the mode you use for adding, changing or removing text. To check the phrase borders (where the recordable phrase starts and ends), use the Show phrasing mode. You can switch between these two modes any time by pressing the Show/Hide phrasing button. More information on phrasing and recording can be found on pages 22-24. 13
Deleting a Text Box To delete a text box, click the Text Editor Options icon in the upper right corner of a text box and select "Delete this text box." (See the following two graphics for an example.) Text Features Reading Companion requires that all of the book text be in the same font. To change the font of the text, select the text, then click the down arrow on the right of the Font Box and choose a different font. A message confirms the change to all of the text within the draft, except the cover. To change the size of the text in a text box, select the text, then click the down arrow on the right of the Size Box and choose a text size. The text in that box will redisplay in the newly selected font. You may need to resize the text boxes and/or graphics if you change either the font or the size. You will receive a message confirming the change to all of the text within your draft, except the cover. The Bold, Italics, or Underlining icons are currently unavailable. Aligning Text Boxes 14
To horizontally or vertically align a text box to another text box on the same page set, click the Text Editor Options icon in the upper right corner of a text box and select either Horiz align to next text box clicked on or Vert align to next text box clicked on. (See the following two graphics for an example.) NOTE: Don't forget to save your work frequently! Images Images can be imported in JPG, GIF or PNG formats. Any drawing or painting program may be used to create, adjust, and resize images prior to importing them into Book Builder. In considering graphic illustrations, keep in mind that no web images of popular cartoon characters or any other copyrighted stories, characters, or other materials will be accepted. Free clip art websites are listed in the Tips and Guidelines for Creating e-books document. If children have created original artwork that will be scanned and included in the book, schools should make sure that parents are aware of the writing project and have given the school written authorization for their children to participate. Follow these steps to add an image to the page: 1) Click the Add Image button at the bottom of the page tab. A new dialog box will open. 2) Click Browse to search a directory and locate the image you want. 3) Select (click on) the image, then click Upload. You may see a message indicating that the graphic has been resized for a faster upload. 4) Click OK and you will be returned to the book page. 15
NOTE: If you use Flikr or any other web-based graphics search tool, you must browse through the images you want to use for your e-book and save the image(s) in a folder on your computer. You will then upload the graphic(s) directly from your computer. Images are controlled just like text boxes. You can resize an image by clicking and dragging the size box in the lower right corner of the text box. You can move an image by using the mouse to drag the image to any location on the page within the margins. Images may span the centerfold of the book, but may not be placed in the margins. Images may appear behind text. If you add an image and then don't see it, move the text boxes (temporarily) to reveal the image you just imported. Move the image to its desired location, and then return the text boxes to their original location. The maximum size for a graphic across both sides of a page set is 510 x 298 pixels. Create PDF The Create PDF button in the upper right corner of the Book Builder screen allows you to save a pdf version of the e-book to your desktop for easy printing. 16
When you click the Create PDF button, the book draft automatically converts into a pdf file and saves to your desktop. Your book will be displayed as a pdf file using Adobe Reader. Use File, Print to print a copy of your book. Once the cover has been created and all of the text and graphics are in place, you will click the Save button in the bottom right corner of the Book Builder window (or use File Save Book Draft). You will receive a confirmation message; click Yes to continue. A message confirms a successful save. 17
Submit the draft for review and approval by clicking File Submit for Review. Review Process After you have created a cover, written the e-book, and added the graphics, you must submit the book for review and approval by clicking File Submit Draft for Review. E-books will be reviewed by a Reading Companion committee that determines whether the content is acceptable for use in Reading Companion. Each reviewer will provide comments and/or suggested changes which you will receive via email following the reviews. Once you receive the review comments, you will need to reopen your draft in Book Builder in order to make the necessary changes. When you try to reopen your submitted draft, you will see a popup message asking if you want to revoke the submission and return it to draft mode. Click Yes in order to reopen your draft within Book Builder and continue working on it. Once your draft has been approved, you will receive an email advising you to add the audio of the words and phrases contained in the e-book. When that process is complete, you can preview the completed e-book and submit it for final review and publishing. The review process is intended to confirm that all the pieces are in place like placement of graphics, good quality text recordings, etc. before the e-books can be posted on the readingcompanion.org web site. Only e-books that have been approved and reviewed by the Reading Companion review committee will be posted on the web site for use by all participating Reading Companion grant sites. All of the words, phrases, companion phrases and any overviews contained in the e-book can be recorded by following the directions below. 18
Recording Information Any time an e-book is created, the following must be recorded: Words (individual words found in the e-book) Phrases (combinations of words in the e-book, visible by clicking the Show Phrasing button) Companion Phrases (these are the phrases that the Companion/Tutor speaks to the student, such as You sound great! or Would you like to try that word again? ) Overviews/Book Jacket Summary (the book title) You can access the words and phrases to record by double-clicking within the Words/Phrases list box, below the Refresh Word and Phrase Lists button, or you can access the complete list of items to record by clicking the Recordings button across the top of the Book Builder window. To switch between each list of required recordings, click on a different tab. In either listing, items which need to be recorded are indicated by a red circle. When recorded, the red circle becomes a blue speaker. NOTE: Before recording, please SAVE YOUR DRAFT, even if you haven t made any recent changes. Also, be sure that your headset/microphone is plugged in and working properly. Please try to record the text using an animated tone of voice. 19
Every word is recorded individually. These individual recordings are used for the Repeat a Word command or when the student is asked by the Tutor to repeat an individual word. Phrases are the pieces of text that the Tutor models and asks students to read. Every phrase is recorded completely, and then without the last two words. Companion Phrases are the phrases spoken by the Tutor. NOTE: Before beginning to record phrases, please check the phrase splitting to be sure that sentences or phrases are split correctly. Phrase splitting is displayed by clicking either the Refresh Word and Phrase Lists button, or the Show Phrasing button. By default, end punctuation will split the text into Phrases. After you add text to a text box and click either the Refresh Word and Phrase Lists button or the Show Phrasing button, the phrase separations are displayed. You can display the phrase separations either in color or in grayscale. 20
Phrase Edit Mode As stated earlier, the Phrase Edit Mode allows you to see how text has been separated into recordable phrases. Within this mode, you can also select a phrase (by clicking on the text) and then perform three different actions: 1) Split a phrase (at the location of the cursor) 2) Merge the current phrase with the previous one 3) Merge the current phrase with the next one Split a phrase If you want to break a particularly long recordable phrase into shorter phrases, you can split it. Click the mouse pointer in the location where you want to divide the phrase. Then choose any one of the three methods below to split the phrase. Right-click somewhere inside the current textbox and then select Split phrase Press Ctrl+K (the keyboard shortcut for the previous option) Insert a vertical bar character ( ) in the text. Book Builder automatically replaces the vertical bar with the real phrase dividing character. Merge a phrase If you want to join two recordable phrases into one, you can merge them. Click the mouse pointer in the location where you want to merge two phrases and do either of the following: Use a right click with your mouse and choose Merge with previous or Merge with next Click the mouse pointer at the exact location where the colors change, and use the Backspace key on your keyboard to merge the two phrases. NOTE: The mouse pointer must be in the exact location between phrases in order for the Backspace key to correctly merge phrases. You may need to adjust text spacing after using this option. If an author deletes at least one default phrase divider in a text box, no default phrase partitioning will occur in that textbox when new text is added. NOTE: Anytime there are multiple sentences within one text box, typical sentenceending punctuation will split (or end) a phrase. If you include a word list or other text without punctuation in one textbox within your draft, you will need to split each word or non-punctuated phrase into a separate recordable phrase, or use individual text boxes for each word/non-punctuated phrase. 21
Recording Process 1. Using the tabs, select which category you are going to record: Words, Phrases, Companion Phrases or Overviews. 2. Click on the first item on the list. A recording window opens. 3. Press the Record button. 4. Say the word(s) slowly and clearly. 5. Press the Stop button. 6. Press the Play button to listen to what you just recorded. Listen carefully for breath sounds, background noise or mouse clicks at the beginning and end of the recording. You may find it helpful to allow a second or two of silence before you start speaking, and again after you have finished speaking before you click the STOP button. 7. Re-record if necessary. 8. Once satisfied with the recording, click Save. A successful save will be confirmed. You will receive confirmation that the sound file was saved. The red circle will change to a blue speaker, indicating that it was recorded and saved successfully. 9. Click Next at the bottom right corner of the Recording window to move to the next word or phrase to be recorded. 10. Repeat steps 3 through 9 until all items are recorded. Recording of all four lists must be completed before submitting for final review. 22
NOTE: Watch your word/phrase lists carefully to be sure no words or phrases are missed during the recording process. NOTE: Any time you add text or change phrases on a page after you have finished the initial recording, you will need to be sure that the new words/phrases for the e- book are recorded. Save your draft or click the Refresh Words and Phrase Lists button to update the recording lists. 23
Copying Companion Phrases The very first time an author records a book with the newest version of Book Builder, all companion phrases will need to be recorded. The subsequent times an author records a book, the companion phrases can be copied in from the previous draft instead. Click the Recordings tab of the draft you are working in. You will see the option to Load Companion Phrases from previous draft When you click Load Companion Phrases from previous draft a draft menu opens. You will need to select the draft in which you already have recorded the companion phrases, and then click, Load Companion Phrases. You will receive a confirmation message when the companion phrases have been copied from the previous draft to the current draft. You will also see the recording icons change from a red circle to a blue speaker, indicating that the phrases have been recorded/saved. 24
Submit the Book Once you have completed the cover and all of the recordings, please double-check to be sure that all required components have been completed. If all of the items have been completed, you are now ready to submit your book for a final review and publishing! After you have previewed and checked the book, click File, Submit for Review with Recordings to submit your book for a secondary review. The review team will confirm that all the pieces are in place, including correct placement of graphics, good quality audio of the recordings, etc., and will prepare to publish it on the readingcompanion.org web site. Only e-books that have been reviewed and approved by the Reading Companion review committee will be published to the web site for use by all Reading Companion grant sites. You will receive a message letting you know that your e-book has been successfully submitted for final review and publishing. You will be notified by email when the review process has been completed and your e-book has been published on Reading Companion. 25