10 a.m.
Great news! Pressbooks has been making changes to the interface and functionality based on
your feedback. The major release for the BCcampus Open Education Pressbooks instances is
scheduled for later this month. Here’s a heads up of the changes that are on the way.
Most of the improvements are under the hood. However, there are a few big changes we would
like to call to your attention.
First, a new look and feel is available for the network home page and catalog. The new
standalone catalog page is sortable and filterable, for improved discovery.
Pressbooks has also given the webbook a much-needed makeover, with some added
functionality. A wider book layout, better scrolling and navigation are just some of the
enhancements. We have also updated the Open Textbook theme at BCcampus. A big thanks to
Ryerson University for supporting the development of these changes.
The Luther theme will be retiring on the same day as the new release. In their place,
Pressbooks is releasing two new themes, McLuhan and Jacobs. These two themes both offer
expanded theme options, and both are designed with textbooks in mind. Their development
has been generously funded by [ https://www.ecampusontario.ca/ | eCampus Ontario ] . We
will be continuing to use the Open Textbooks as our default theme and the theme for the
BCcampus open textbook collection.
We are thoroughly testing the updated Pressbooks prior to the release and these
improvements should not cause any issues with your existing books. But, if anything does
come up, let us know right away at [ mailto:helpdesk@bccampus.ca | helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca ]
Other changes include:
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Save Button: Pressbooks heard your pleas for a clearer way to save your chapters. It’s
here! (In the past, the “save” button was named Update, Publish, or other variations based
on the status of your post.) Note that when you create a new chapter, front or back matter
section, you will first see a “Create” button, but subsequent changes can be saved by
clicking on the new “Save” button.
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Contributor Management: Pressbooks added a centralized contributor management tool where
you can add contributors who can then be reused throughout your book as authors, editors,
translators, reviewers, illustrators, and generic contributors.
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Organize Page Improvements: Pressbooks revamped the Organize page, improving the display
on mobile devices, and improving accessibility for keyboard navigation and screen reader
users.
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Chapter Importing: Now, you can import individual chapters from public, openly licensed
Pressbooks webbooks using the Import tool. All you need to drop is drop in the URL to a
book, begin the import process, then select the chapters you wish to add to your book.
(Content that is private, All Rights Reserved or that carries any of the Creative Commons
Non-Derivative licenses cannot be imported.)
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Content Visibility: Pressbooks has made it more intuitive to manage the visibility of your
content across web and exports. Now you can simply designate content visibility in web and
exports on both the Organize page and the edit screen for individual front matter,
chapters and back matter.
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Import Files from URL: You can now import supported file formats hosted on remote (web
based) sources via URL. If you have files hosted elsewhere (with the right permissions),
you no longer need to download and upload files, but can import them directly with just
the URL.
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Ebook Start Point: Pressbooks has moved the ebook start point setting to the ebook Theme
Options page to ensure that only one front matter, chapter, or back matter can be set as
the ebook start point. (Note that Pressbooks tries to enforce the ebook start point you
select. However, ereader devices may still override the start point you designate.)
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Language Support Changes: Pressbooks has renamed the Language Support section in Theme
Options to Language & Script Support to better reflect its functionality; we’ve also
re-labelled Hindi support to Devanagari, to clarify that the Devanagari script supports
Hindi, Sanskrit, and over 120 other languages.
As always, please let us know if you have any questions or problems navigating the new
features. You can contact us at [ mailto:helpdesk@bccampus.ca | helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca ]
Want to see how it looks?
Our team put together a [ https://youtu.be/rBJ7pU-xddE | screencast ] of the new
interface and the changes that you will see when the release happens mid March.
[ https://youtu.be/rBJ7pU-xddE | https://youtu.be/rBJ7pU-xddE ]
Stay up to date
Interested in staying in the know on Pressbooks updates?
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Check [ https://open.bccampus.ca/pressbooks-updates/ |
https://open.bccampus.ca/pressbooks-updates/ ]
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Attend one of the webinars we will be hosting reviewing the changes to the Pressbooks UI-
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Friday, March 9 from 10-11 am
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Tuesday March 13 from 10-11 am
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Thursday March 15 from 10-11 am
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Friday March 16 from 10-11 am
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Make sure to stay updated via our [ https://bccampus.ca/bccampus-news/ | Blog ] and on [
https://twitter.com/bccampus | Twitter ]
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Sign up for the [ https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/97F887551C7932F2 | BCcampus
Newsletter ]
Regards,
Lauri Aesoph, on behalf of the BCcampus Open Education team
Lauri Aesoph, Manager, Open Education
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovat e .
250-893-0258 | laesoph(a)bccampus.ca | Skype lauri.aesoph
120-645 Fort Street | Coast & Straits Salish Territory | Victoria, BC | V8W1G2
[ https://mail.bccampus.ca/zimbra/bccampus.ca | BCcampus.ca ] | @BCcampus | #BCcampus
Sign up for [ https://bccampus.ca/bccampus-around-the-web/ | BCcampus news ]