Dear Pressbooks User,
After much discussion and consideration, we have decided to retire the Open Textbooks theme available in Pressbooks. While this change won't occur for several weeks, we do ask that book administrators switch their open textbooks in pressbooks.bccampus.ca to one of the other available themes in preparation for this change. By switching in advance, you will have the opportunity to review how the new theme affects your book and fix/report any issues that you find. If you do not switch in advance of the change , your books will be switched automatically to the McLuhan theme when the Open Textbook theme is retired.
How to change your book's theme
To change your book's theme, click the Appearance tab in the Dashboard menu. Under "Themes," you will be able to select the theme you would like to switch to. We recommend switching to McLuhan, Clarke, or Jacobs . You will have to do this for each book that you are the Administrator for. If you need more assistance, watch this: Select a Theme video tutorial
What is a theme?
In Pressbooks, a theme is a set of styles that can be applied to the entirety of a book. A theme will determine things like font type and size, textbox colours, appearance of headings, and line spacing in all export formats. By default, when you create a new book in Pressbooks, that book will use the Open Textbooks theme, but there are a number of different themes to choose from.
What does this mean for my book(s)?
Changing the theme of your book will affect the style of your book (font, link colours, text size, textbox colours, etc) and possibly t he number of pages in the PDF, but the content and structure should remain as-is . Once you change the theme, the webbook will be updated with the new styles. Your exports will only reflect the change after you export a new copy of those files with the new theme applied.
If you do not want the new theme applied to your exported book files, do not re-export the files for your book.
Context for this decision
BCcampus built the Open Textbooks plugin at the beginning of the open textbook project to expand the Pressbooks authoring platform to include features that specifically support textbook authoring, such as the key takeaways and exercise textboxes . Over the last few years, as Pressbooks has been adopted by more and more institutions wanting to publish open textbooks, those features have been incorporated as features directly supported by Pressbooks. As such, the Open Textbook plugin (aka theme) currently acts more like a collection of styles, rather than a plugin that enables textbook-publishing functionalities that wouldn't exist otherwise. In addition, it requires a considerable amount of maintenance to be compatible with new Pressbooks updates that are happening all the time, which slows down our ability to keep our Pressbooks instance up to date.
Sincerely,
The BCcampus Open Education Team and IT Support
Dear Pressbooks User,
As a Pressbooks account holder in pressbooks.bccampus.ca, you have been placed on a mailing list to receive notifications about upgrades, service outages, and other events that affect your Pressbooks account. These outages will also affect open textbooks in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection that are hosted in BCcampus' internal instance of Pressbooks (opentextbc.ca).
We will be updating Pressbooks tomorrow . We apologize for the late notice, but there is a security issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. But there is good news! This surprise update means that we get to bring you a lot of great new features just before the holidays.
UPGRADE NOTICE
On December 21, 2018 , from TIME to TIME, Pressbooks (pressbooks.bccampus.ca) will be upgraded to version 5.6.3. Your account will be unavailable during this time.
New features:
* Glossary tool: Pressbooks now has a feature that allows you to mark words as glossary terms. In the webbook, the definition will pop up for these words when clicked. In the webbook and all export formats, you can generate a list of all glossary terms in your book's back matter organized alphabetically. See the Pressbooks User Guide for more information: Glossaries .
* Expanded webbook table of contents: The table of contents that appears on the webbook home page is now expanded by default so all chapters that are contained within parts will be displayed.
* Custom "Part" and "Chapter" labels: You can now customize "part" and "chapter" labels in exports. To do this, go to Appearance > Theme Options > Global Options. For more information, see the "Customizable Section Labels" heading in the Numberless Chapters, Invisible Parts, and Customizable Section Labels chapter in the Pressbooks User Guide .
* Descriptive "Next" and "Previous" arrows in the webbook: The "next" and "previous" arrows used to navigate in the webbook will now show the title of the next and previous part or chapter title.
* Add Digital Object Identifier (DOI) support at book and section level.
* CC0 vs. Public Domain: You can now differentiate between books and resources that are under CC0 licences and those that are in the public domain.
Bug fixes and changes:
* Issues with the cover generator have been fixed.
* Ensure that book language is used for part/chapter labels.
* Fix conflict between footnote and media shortcodes.
* Increase max_execution_time from 5 to 10 minutes for import, export, and clone operations.
* Move the Contributors page under the Book Info menu.
* Allow a new title to be entered when cloning a book.
* Fix issue where a numberless chapter at the beginning of a book can cause chapter numbering errors in subsequent chapters.
* Resize webbook contents when Hypothesis annotation pane is expended
* Add Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, and Telugu languages
* Differentiate link styles between print and digital PDF
* Fix issue where people using Firefox could not open parts from the webbook table of contents
Sincerely,
The Open Education Team and BCcampus Helpdesk
Hello pressbooks.bccampus.ca users,
BCcampus Open Education, in consultation with OpenStax, is conducting a survey of faculty and others at B.C. post-secondary institutions regarding the demand for Pressbooks files of OpenStax textbooks for adaptation purposes.
Currently, OpenStax hosts its open textbooks in a platform called CNX. Pressbooks is a widely used authoring and adaptation system. (See the Pressbooks Guide for more information.)
If you are interested in participating, please fill out this anonymous survey form: https://open.bccampus.ca/openstax-pressbooks-survey/
This survey will close on November 30 , 2018. Feel free to share this survey with your B.C. post-secondary colleagues.
Regards,
The BCcampus Open Ed team
( apologies for cross posting )
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
Hello pressbooks.bccampus.ca users,
Over the next two weeks, BCcampus will be tackling bugs in our BCcampus Pressbooks-related plugins, and we are looking for bug reports! If you have noticed issues or inconsistencies while working in the pressbooks.bccampus.ca instance of Pressbooks, please send them to Josie Gray ( jgray(a)bccampus.ca ). Specifically, we are looking for issues related to the OpenStax import option, the Open Textbook theme, and the Common Cartridge export option.
Note that some areas of Pressbooks are the responsibility of the Pressbooks Core development team and beyond the control of BCcampus developers. While you can still send Josie these types of issues, they will be reported to and fixed by the Pressbooks development team, and thereby out of BCcampus' control. And don't worry if you don't know the difference, Josie can troubleshoot and report to the appropriate place.
If reporting a bug, please provide as much information as you can so we can get to the source of the problem. This may include things like:
* A description of the issue
* The steps needed to reproduce the issue
* A link to an example of the issue
* The theme you are using (Open Textbooks, McLuhan, etc.)
* Anything else that may be relevant
If you have Pressbooks ideas, feedback, or questions that are not related to issues in Pressbooks, please fill out the Pressbooks Feedback form .
Thank you,
BCcampus Open Education Team and BCcampus Helpdesk
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
Dear BCcampus Pressbooks user,
Great news! Pressbooks has been making changes to its interface and functionality based on your feedback. There are a number of new features, updates, and bug fixes that we'd like you to be aware of. Resources providing assistance and more information about the new features will be made available in the Pressbooks Guide closer to the upgrade date.
New features:
* Attributions tool: You can now add attribution and licence information to image files in your Media Library. To make this information display publicly in all formats, check the Media Attributions setting under Theme Options (Global). With this box checked, the information will display at the end of each chapter after your body text and before your footnotes. More information to come. (Thanks to Brad Payne and Alex Paredes at BCcampus for building this feature!)
* TablePress: TablePress makes it much easier to create larger, more complex tables, with more interactive functionality, such as the ability to sort by column. (See TablePress.)
* Improved Book Cloning:
* When cloning, all of the media files from the original book’s media will also import with the book. Previously, cloned books would only retain images. Now, videos, audio files and other media files will also come over.
* Internal links in cloned books will now be automatically converted to point to the newly-cloned book. URLs will undergo this action as part of the cloning process, so that manual conversion isn’t necessary.
* The source comparison tool has been improved so that readers can more easily see the differences between the original source book and a cloned book when the user has enabled source comparison on their cloned webbook. Word counts on source books will now be more accurate too.
* Plugins: Book Administrators now have the ability to activate three different plugins inside their books: H5P, Hypothesis, and WP Quick LaTeX. For more information on these plugins and how to activate them, see the Plugins Features chapter in the Pressbooks Guide . (Note that this feature has been enabled since August.)
* Cover Generator tool: More information to come.
Other changes:
* Fixing the icon size on collapsible chapter subsections
* Generating a smaller cover image for the book homepage
* Improving the design of the navigation links on the webbook for more logical navigation through front matter and back matter
* Improving navigation links for visual clarity and accessibility by moving the cues to the bottom of the screen
* Additions of French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese translations for subject matter categories
For more information, see Pressbooks Change log .
We will be 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 helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca .
Thank you,
BCcampus Open Education Team and BCcampus Helpdesk
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
Good morning!
Great news! Pressbooks has been making changes to the interface and functionality based on your feedback. While these are minor issues, we want you to be aware of what is changing.
Changes:
* Improved admin bar: The admin bar has been reworked to make Network Admin tools easier to find. This update only affects network administrators (super admins).
* Updated markup for all educational textboxes: This change may slightly affect the formatting of educational textboxes currently in Pressbooks. Textboxes added after this update will have headings that are default left-justified without a specific heading level assigned.
* Add textboxes as sidebars: There is now an option to have any textbox appear as a sidebar.
* Support for PDF exports via DocRaptor
*
Lightbox feature for images: Linked images in the web book can now appear in a Lightbox when selected. This feature can be turned on and off in Appearance > Theme Options > Web Options.
* Fix: A fix for broken internal links in digital PDF exports.
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 helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca.
Thank you,
BCcampus OpenEd Resources
and
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
Great news! Pressbooks has been making changes to the interface and functionality based on your feedback. While these are minor issues, we want you to be aware of what is changing.
We are thoroughly testing the updated Pressbooks prior to the release on June 22, 2018 and these improvements should not cause any issues with your existing books. But, if anything does come up, let us know right away at helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca.
Changes:
1. Collapsible Content in the Web View. You can now create collapsible content sections in the Web View. Theme Options -> Web-> Collapsible Content. When this is selected when you create content with an h1 tag, the content below it will be collapsed. This will be really useful for including activities, reducing page scroll etc.
2. Customizable Textbox Colours. You will be able to customize the header colour and the background for textbook. Theme Options ->Global->Information box.
3. The Creative Commons API which produced the licensing has been replaced by a custom string. This means that the CC licenses at the bottom of the textbook look a little different. No longer a CC box instead icons.
4. Additions to Tiny MCE Tables plugin including support for % setting on tables (important for responsive design).
Thank you
BCcampus Open Education
and
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
Pressbooks Major Release Scheduled: March 15-16
Great news! Pressbooks has been making changes to the interface and functionality based on your feedback. The major release 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 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 helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca
Other changes include:
* 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.
* 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.
* Organize Page Improvements: Pressbooks revamped the Organize page, improving the display on mobile devices, and improving accessibility for keyboard navigation and screen reader users.
* 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.)
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.)
* 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 helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca
Want to see how it looks?
Our team put together a screencast of the new interface and the changes that you will see when the release happens mid March.
https://youtu.be/rBJ7pU-xddE
Stay up to date
Interested in staying in the know on Pressbooks updates?
* Check https://open.bccampus.ca/pressbooks-updates/
* Attend one of the webinars we will be hosting reviewing the changes to the Pressbooks UI-
*
Friday, March 9 from 10-11 am: https://bluejeans.com/738380109
*
Tuesday March 13 from 10-11 am: https://bluejeans.com/654165437
*
Thursday March 15 from 10-11 am: https://bluejeans.com/575149958
*
Friday March 16 from 10-11 am: https://bluejeans.com/510447482
* Make sure to stay updated via our Blog and on Twitter
* Sign up for the BCcampus Newsletter
Sincerely,
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
Service Outage Notice : On Thursday , January 25, 2018 , from approximately 4:30 AM to 9 AM , Pacific Time, ALL BCcampus services hosted at SFU will be offline due to maintenance.
These websites and services will not be available during this time:
* Open E ducation website ( open.bccampus.ca )
* PressBooks ( pressbooks.bccampus.ca & https://opentextbc.ca/ )
* SOL*R - Shareable Online Learning Resources ( solr.bccampus.ca )
* BCcampus website ( bccampus.ca )
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Sincerely,
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
Please be advised that on Thursday, October 19, 2017 from approximately 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM, Pacific Time, BCcampus Opentextbooks and Pressbooks websites will be unavailable due to scheduled system maintenance.
After 8:00 AM, report any website issues to opentext(a)bccampus.ca
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
