Creation of electronic books. How to create an e-book using SunRav BookOffice PagePlus Starter Edition - an excellent product for start-up publishing houses and small organizations
How to learn how to create e-books, in what formats, and using what programs.
The eternal storehouse of human wisdom. Since ancient times, people, having barely created writing, began to create books in order to leave descendants at least some news about themselves.
How many evolutions has the book gone through... Clay tablets, birch bark, papyrus, parchment and, ultimately, paper - all this was used to transmit written language by our ancestors (and even by our contemporaries).
Nowadays, the book is experiencing another round of development and transformation. This is due to the latest information technology, which have recently been gaining momentum and development.
Today you don’t have to be Gutenberg and have a huge printing press. All you need is a computer, a scanner (although not required) and the appropriate software. It’s the latter that we’ll be talking about.
First, we need to decide: do we want to make an electronic copy of an existing book or create our own “from scratch”. To create a copy, we cannot do without an auxiliary device (scanner or powerful digital camera).
The first stage is direct text scanning
What options might there be? And by and large there are two options: with or without text recognition. If we do not plan to recognize text, then we scan all pages of the book as pictures (JPG format).
However, in this case, you lose the opportunity to edit the resulting text (unless only with Photoshop :)). Therefore, I suggest using the option with recognition.
Today it is not necessary to shell out a lot of money to purchase such software package like Fine Reader, because there is its free analogue (and Open Source) - CuneiForm.
We scan the source text using this program, and at the end of the scanning process, we launch recognition. We save the result in one of the text formats (DOC or RTF is best, but TXT is also possible if there are no pictures).
The second stage is processing the text and preparing it for turning into a book.
At this stage, the most difficult thing is to decide on the choice of e-book format (are there two of them? :)). In fact, there are a great many of them, and what we will do next depends on which one you choose for yourself. For greater clarity, let's look at the table of the most popular book formats.
| Format | Purpose | Cross-platform | How to create a book | Flaws |
| format suitable for creating books, booklets, etc. with high quality images | Yes | virtual printer | size too big | |
| DJVU | open format is suitable for storing scans of press and books where it is not required high quality images or where text is difficult to recognize | yes, with special software | converter | not always high quality results |
| DOC | suitable both for creating text from scratch and for posting ready-made information (graphic or text) | No. Windows only. Unix and JAVA (if software (converter) is available) | text editor MS Word | large size, not very convenient to view |
| RTF | displays marked-up text and graphic information (up to 256 colors) | Yes | text editor (Word, OpenOffice...) | Not very high-quality graphics display |
| HTML | hypertext markup language, which is suitable for displaying any text and graphics | Yes | text editor or HTML editor | Requires operational skills, small formatting capabilities |
| FB2 | based on XML, serves to display any text or graphics, easily created from DJVU and HTML format | yes, with software | Some symbols and tables are not always displayed correctly | |
| EXE | compiles based on HTML and allows you to create books with a wide variety of content | no, only Windows | special compiler application | |
| CHM | most often used to create help files for the program, compiled based on HTML | yes, for Windows, others - with special software | special application or converter | Format support only in the Windows family |
| JAVA | used for reading books on mobile phones, PDA, etc. devices | No | converter | Some symbols and images are not always displayed correctly |
As you can see, one way or another, all the work revolves around two main tools: a text editor and a converter. This is the minimum software that we need to create a book. At the second stage, we usually create a text document and place all the pages of our future book in it.
Then, if necessary, we make some adjustments (we create a cover, check errors, create a table of contents, or format the document in HTML) and convert the finished document into a book.
This general scheme actions to create a book, and now specifically for each of the formats. So…
This format is famous for its cross-platform, that is, readability on all (or almost all) platforms (Windows, UNIX, Mac, PDA, etc.). Therefore, many people prefer to create e-books in PDF.
In order to make a book in this format, we need a scanner (if we are going to make a copy of an existing book) and a text editor (MS Word 2007 or OpenOffice 2 and higher).
All modern editors support the function of converting a document to PDF, so there is no need to resort to using additional tools. All you need is to arrange the pages in the text document in order and click the appropriate button.
If you use an older version of a text editor (for example, MS Word 2003), then you need another tool - a virtual printer. This is a special program, after installing it, you will have another printer in your system, and by printing a document on which you will receive a book in PDF format.
You can use the DoPDF program as a virtual printer.
DJVU
Due to the large size of PDF, books are often packaged in this format. DJVU allows, with a slight loss of quality, to significantly reduce the file size, which is convenient when downloading a book from the Internet.
To create a DJVU book we need a special converter. I bring to your attention a small program DjVu Small. Despite its small size, it has a very significant range of functions. In addition to creating a DJVU book, it can also reverse decode a DJVU file.
The program, although in English, is intuitive. Its only drawback is that it does not support converting text formats (only raster), but it is possible to create a book from a TIFF scan file directly.
All you have to do is scan the book into TIFF and put all its pages into one folder. Then launch DjVu Small and, by clicking "Open folder", select the desired folder. When all the pages appear, click the "Convert" button - you're done!
DOC and RTF
These are the two most common types of text books. With only a text editor at hand, you can create pretty good books in these formats. In essence, this is the same text document, with the only difference that it is designed in the form of a book (there is a cover, content, and pages can be linked to it by script).
If you want to create a book from scratch, then this may be the ideal option for you. Moreover, such a book can easily be turned into books of other formats (PDF, HTML...).
HTML
As you know, this format is used to create Internet sites. However, there are quite a few books written in this language or its modifications. As in the previous version, HTML is suitable for creating your own e-books, and not for scanning ready-made ones (although you can place separately scanned sheets as drawings).
To create a book in this format, you need to have at least basic knowledge of hypertext markup language. However, today it is possible to convert the same DOC or RTF file to HTML using a text editor. Let's go to the "File" - "Save As..." menu and set the outgoing format to HTML.
It is worth noting that in HTML format you can create not only ordinary books, but also interactive game books with forking plots. This is quite easy to do in a special editor AXMA Story Maker.
This program allows you to add not only plot branches to the book, but also videos and even mini-games.
FB2
Quite a new and promising format. It's also best suited for creating your own books (or remaking existing books in other formats).
To create books in this format you will need a converter and a special editor. We use the Any2FB program as a converter.
It allows you to turn any text or HTML file into an FB2 book (the latter is preferable). After you have converted the text, you can leave it as is, or you can edit it a little using the FB Editor program.
EXE
One of the most interesting e-book formats. You are creating not just a book, but a full-fledged Windows application.
To create it, we will need a special compiler program and prepared HTML pages for the future book. You can use the SbookBuilder program as a compiler.
In just a minute you can become the owner of an EXE book. You just need to point the program to a folder with HTML pages, enter the title of the book and, if necessary, a password if you want to restrict access to it or use the book for sale.
CHM
This format is also somewhat reminiscent of the previous one. If you use Windows, you have come across it more than once when viewing help for using programs.
You can create a CHM book if you have a converter-compiler at hand. Like an EXE book, CHM help is created from HTML pages. To compile CHM, you can use the development of our compatriots Chm4You.
It can easily both assemble and parse CHM files. All you need is to indicate the page for conversion (for the whole site - the index.html page).
JAVA
Everyone wants to have more possibilities, while spending less cash :). Recently, electronic books have begun to appear, ported for reading on mobile phones with JAVA support. A JAVA MIDlet is compiled from the book in text format and installed on the phone.
To create such JAVA applications, there is a Shasoft eBook converter program.
Shasoft eBook allows you to create a JAVA version of a text file at your discretion in a few clicks, and some tools are available for editing it, as well as displaying graphics.
conclusions
This is how I hope to briefly introduce you to the basics of creating e-books and their types. In the future, I will dwell in more detail on each of the programs for creating them. In the meantime, all that remains is to wish you success in your work. And let it bring you only joy and satisfaction (and maybe even money :)).
P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.
A program for creating e-books - I provide a list of such programs, I hope you choose something suitable for yourself.
The genre of computer literacy requires clarity about the term “electronic book”. There are physical devices for reading books (one might also say “gadgets”), which are called electronic books, I wrote about them.
And then there are files for reading, which are also called e-books.
As an example of such a file, I’ll give you one about the Internet.
So, below we will talk about e-books, which are files, not devices. You can read files such as e-books on a computer, tablet, e-reader, smartphone, etc.
The e-book as a format for disseminating information is gradually displacing traditional “paper” options from the market - and this is quite understandable. Diversity makes learning necessary materials accessible, regardless of the place and time of reading, and the volume of electronic teaching aids and useful books in electronic format are incomparably more compact.
But in addition to the practical side of the matter, there is also a material one. Namely, the audience, the volume of which in the web space is practically unlimited, and the willingness of this audience to pay for high-quality and useful information. Agree, there is a difference between a long search for the right book in traditional store(which still needs to be reached) and almost instantly receiving what you want in electronic format - just pay for the purchase and download the selected book.
E-book: from applied to artistic
Almost all e-books found on the Internet can be divided into two categories:
- works of art;
- applied literature.
That is, there are books that are very difficult to sell without having a certain reputation in the literary world. These are works of art in any genre - from detective novels to science fiction.
And there are books that are not published in millions of copies, but are sold quite successfully, while at the same time being an object of advertising for their author. This is applied literature that makes it possible to obtain practical advice and recommendations in a particular area of knowledge/skills.
The very concept of “electronic book”, in general, does not provide for any restrictions on the volume of the work - a book can be two or three pages and hundreds of pages with illustrations. It all depends on exactly what goals its creator pursues. For example, you can attract an interested audience to your pages by creating a thematic e-book of ten to twenty pages and choosing the option of free distribution.
If the material presented in the book is truly original and unique, you can think about commercial distribution. Of course, both the volume and content of such a book must meet the highest level of expectations of the audience for which it is intended.
E-book: technical side
Creating an e-book is a process that requires certain skills. After all, most of these books are created in .pdf, .txt, .exe, .epub, etc., and not at all in .doc/.docx, in which most editors work.
In fact, there is no big problem in the fact that the draft version of the book will be created in any convenient format. You can also write it in the standard Word editor, using available formats for working with text. And then reformat (or they also say “convert”) the file into a “book” version using one of the available programs. By the way, in the editor itself Microsoft Word There is a function that converts .docx format to .pdf format.
How to create a pdf ebook using Word 2007
Below in the screenshot (Fig. 1) the numbers indicate the step-by-step sequence of steps to obtain a pdf document in the Microsoft Word 2007 editor:
Rice. 1 V Word program create a file in .pdf format
- Number 1 in Fig. 1 – click on the “Acrobat” tab.
- Number 2 in Fig. 1 – click on the “Create PDF” option.
- Number 3 in Fig. 1 – pay attention to the folder in which the file in .pdf format will be saved.
- Number 4 in Fig. 1 – if necessary, select another folder on your PC by clicking on the small triangle to search for the folder.
- Number 5 in Fig. 1 – enter the file name.
- Number 6 in Fig. 1 – file type must be .pdf only. If you have a different type in this column, click on the small triangle opposite the number 6 and select the “PDF files” option.
- Number 7 in Fig. 1 – click on the “Options” button and, if necessary, set the necessary parameters for the PDF file.
- Number 8 in Fig. 1 – final chord – click on the “Save” button.
Since in Fig. 1 there is a checkmark next to the “View result” button, then after clicking on the “Save” button, we will see our file in .PDF format.
An alternative to paid Word is LibreOffice Writer
The Microsoft Word program described above is a paid program. There is an alternative - this is a free LibreOffice license package, which includes the LibreOffice Writer text editor.
The official website of the program is http://ru.libreoffice.org/. In the File menu of the LibreOffice Writer editor there is an option to export to .pdf format, which contains a very large set of options for configuring the formatting and security of the file.
Programs - virtual printers for converting to PDF
A virtual printer is an imaginary printer, or rather, it is the name of a program that is very similar to a printer, but in fact this program does not control any device. It works with files, in particular, it converts (converts, formats - this is the same thing in this context) a file opened in this program into the .PDF format.
PDF Factory Pro
PDF Factory Pro - simple and convenient program, which allows you to convert Word files to pdf format (via the menu File/Print/Printer/Program name and Run), after which the file will be converted and appear in the program window in the pdf version.
After conversion, you can configure various parameters of the document (electronic book), including book protection. So, you can password-protect access to viewing, prohibit copying of the e-book or making edits to it. In the process of making and saving changes, the program will display a creeping line displaying the current parameters. After the line stops, the document can be saved in the selected folder by giving it a name.
doPDF program
doPDF - this program is installed on your computer, and is installed as a virtual printer. It is a file converter that allows you to convert Word formats to .pdf.
Online PDF converter – end24
In addition to programs for creating e-books, online services for converting files into .pdf format have recently become very popular. The online service means that the file will be converted to pdf in real time (before your amazed eyes).
Let's consider one of these online services. The proposed service is in English, so it is better to open it in the Google Chrome browser, which has a built-in translator. The translator is not perfect, but it allows you to grasp the meaning.
Step-by-step instruction For online service and on converting the .doc/.docx file into .pdf format
1) Go to the Google Chrome browser.
Rice. 2 Online service for converting files to .pdf format
3) Number 1 in Fig. 2 – Click the mouse in the window that says “Select file”. “Open” will open, in which you need to find the document (more precisely, the file to be converted to .PDF format) on the hard drive of your PC. In Fig. 2 you can see that I selected a file called Polls.docx.
4) Number 2 in Fig. 2 – Enter your email address without errors. This is necessary in order to receive a file at the specified address, which will be converted by the online service into PDF format.
5) Number 3 in Fig. 2 – Click on the button that says “Recalculate and send” (the English phrase “Convert and send” is not accurately translated - Convert and send ... by e-mail).
6) While the online file conversion is in progress, go to your email. There we find a letter from the en.pdf24.org service with the following content (by the way, check your Spam or Junk mail folder, because that’s where I found the letter):
Thank you for using the 100% virus-free and secure PDF conversion service. That none other can abuse this service to send you SPAM messages and that we have the confirmation to send you emails and attachments to your email address, please click on the following link to activate your email address and to get your converted document.
Activate email address now and get PDF
This intermediate step is required only once. In the future you will get your converted documents directly a few seconds after the conversion.
Sincerely
www.pdf24.org
8) Repeat steps 3 to 5 again. We see in Fig. 3, that our file has finally been converted to PDF (as the cat Matroskin said, “it worked!”):
Rice. 3 Message from the pdf24.org online service about the completion of the conversion process.
9) Go back to your mail, find the letter (now I had it in my Inbox, not in Spam, Fig. 4)
Rice. 4 Message from the pdf24 service by e-mail, which contains a file converted to pdf
10) Right-click on the file attached to the letter. A window will open in which we click on “Save As” and save it on your PC.
By the way, the benefit of converting a file to pdf format is that it will be practically impossible for the people who are the recipients of these files to make changes to such a file.
For this reason, many accountants send accounting documents to their clients in pdf format, so that cunning clients do not make their own changes to these documents.
3 more programs for creating e-books
1. SBookBuilder– converts .txt files into .exe format and has many other features. A convenient program aimed at creating electronic books yourself.
2. Natata eBook Compiler is another useful program for those who want to create an e-book. Converting files to various formats is available, but the free version has significantly reduced functionality.
3. MacromediaDreamweaver– allows you to create e-books in html format. To obtain the required result, you will need a ready-made file in Word format (book). After this, a new HTML document is created in the program. It needs to be saved (it will be displayed as a blank page with no entries).
The number of documents must equal the number of pages in the book being created. It is better to save pages (for convenience) in one folder, giving them names with numbering corresponding to their subsequent location in the book. Next, for each page you will need to set the layout (by selecting the icon in the form of a table in the graphical menu of the program). For example, rows, columns, text placement, etc., and then insert text and images.
The menu also allows you to customize other parameters, from page color to adding frames and other elements. Upon completion of the work, you can put everything together using any convenient exe file compiler.
Computer Literacy Exercise:
1 If you have a file in the .doc/.docx format, find it on your PC.
2 Use the online service described in the article (title “Online PDF Converter”) and convert the file to .pdf format.
3 If everything worked out, don’t forget the main thing: praise yourself for this small success: “I’m smart! I managed to convert the file, it turns out it’s easy!”
4 If it doesn’t work, it means you don’t have a file in the .doc/.docx format on your PC, or write in detail in the comments what you did and what came out of it (step by step). Together we figure it out and find a solution.
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Hello, dear readers of the “Webmaster’s World” blog. Today we will take a break from a topic that is commonplace for us – SEO – and let’s talk about no less interesting things.
For example, about how to write your own book, or rather, its electronic version.
Admit it, as a child you probably dreamed of becoming a writer/writer so that you could create new worlds full of adventure, intricate plots and unusual twists. Nowadays this is possible, because no publishing house is needed for your book to be seen by millions of people - that’s what the Internet is for. Thanks to the Internet, you can share your thoughts in the form of an e-book. In the last post we were talking about, let's consider this a continuation of it.
How to create an e-book, where to start, how to choose a topic, where to get ideas for your future creation and much more you will learn from this article. Read carefully.
1. Why create your own e-book
It is unlikely that people will write e-books for the soul - this is the lot of a few. Most authors write books for some reason. Let's talk about this and try to figure out these reasons.
Firstly, the desire to make money from their work prevails over the authors. This is a natural and not shameful reason - everyone makes a living in their own way, and there is no point in reproaching authors for their desire to make a profit. An e-book can be sold if the topic finds its readers. The books that sell best, of course, are those that are master classes. Those. these are those creations that teach people something (playing chess, growing cucumbers, writing texts, etc.) - anything. If you are not an author by profession and are trying to write a book for the first time, then start with a master class. You shouldn’t write detective stories, science fiction, novels and everything else, because... Without experience, you are unlikely to be able to come up with an interesting plot and present it in a sufficiently accessible way. The writing style must be developed, and this requires experience. Therefore, making money on a regular e-book is not so easy if your last name is not Lukyanenko or Strugatsky.
Secondly, writing an e-book can be used as free way site promotion. And indeed, you write an interesting master class (of course, on a topic related to your site), and people start reading it. Gradually, you are gathering an audience of regular readers who will definitely look at your site and become regular visitors. It is enough to put a link to your resource at the beginning of the book, and success will come to you. After all free book It’s much easier to promote than your own website.
2. Where to start and where to get ideas
Firstly, at this stage you must decide what kind of book it will be, how many pages it will be designed for, what type of book it will have the target audience etc. Choosing a topic is also a very important decision.
In general, you will first need to think a little about the questions described above. If you are writing a book for the first time, then it is better to write a master class, as I mentioned earlier. Without a well-known name and author's skills, you shouldn't even try to write a bestseller.
Having identified all the questions described above, proceed to the preparatory stage. Now you need to make a plan for your future creation. Don't neglect this! A well-drafted plan will help you avoid a number of problems that arise for those who try to write a book without preliminary preparations.
But where do you get ideas for a book? How to choose suitable phrases? How can you be sure that the information in the book will be correct?
1. Use your own experience, your knowledge in the area you are writing a book about.
2. Consult with experts, interview specialists, interview professionals.
3. Read other people's books on the same topic, get ideas from other authors.
4. Chat with friends, colleagues, and acquaintances about the topic of your book. Perhaps they will give you some interesting and fresh thoughts.
3. Necessary programs for writing a book
But, of course, you won’t be able to write a book if you have nowhere to write. First you need to choose a text program, the most common of which is Microsoft Word. Almost all computers have Word, so there should be no problems with this. But if for some unknown reason you don’t have Word, then use a regular notepad that creates files with the .txt extension. Many books are written in documents with this extension, there is nothing wrong with that.
"Word" creates files with the extension .doc or .docx (newer versions of the program), but for an e-book these types of files are not the most successful. It is better, of course, to use other options, for example, the .exe extension. I will now tell you how to convert a “.txt” file into “.exe”.
SBookBuilder10– a program that will help you convert the file format to EXE. The functionality of this software is very simple, so you will not have any problems working with it. A very convenient program for creating free e-books.
Natata eBook Compiler– another compiler that allows you to convert text file formats. But this program paid (there are shareware versions with reduced functionality), so it is not suitable for everyone.
You can also convert a text file to the extension " PDF", very popular and convenient for many people. You can go to acrobat.com and convert your file online. The only drawback of the service is that it is English-language. By the way, when preparing this article, I first learned that in the Word editor itself there is the ability to save a file in PDF format, here is a video demonstration, you can scroll towards the end.
In order to convert a Word file to PDF, you can use the free program doPDF, after installing it, simply select “print” in the Word menu among the printers, the name of the program will appear there, by selecting it you will start the conversion process and the file will be saved in the location of your choice.
5. How to create a book cover
Of course, don't forget about the book cover. A beautifully designed cover is a guarantee successful sales book and its speedy distribution among readers. Therefore, do not neglect creating a beautiful cover, even though the book is electronic and not paper.
To create beautiful covers, you can use Photoshop or use special online graphic services or programs. This topic deserves a separate article, but I’ll still tell you briefly about a cool online service for creating a cover.
- http://3d-pack.com
Here, you need to upload three images, the main image for the cover, the image for the back and a narrow side “bar”. Next you will see a 3D visualization; you can rotate the book from any angle and save it in the desired form. By the way, above there is a “Choose type” item where you can specify what the 3D cover is for; in addition to the book, there are options for other information products: CDs, DVDs, “box”.
Now you know that creating an e-book is not difficult. And it may take quite a bit of time, because the volume of the book can be 3-4 pages. I hope that the information presented in the article will help you in your author endeavors.
D. V. Averin, graduate student of the North-Western Institute of Printing Arts of St. Petersburg state university technology and design
Starting a conversation about programs for creating electronic publications, it should be said that you can create an electronic publication without using any special programs at all. You can use the Microsoft Word editor, create a certain number of pages in HTML format, link them with links and get an electronic publication suitable both for viewing on a local computer and for posting on the Internet. Moreover, there are programs for combining such pages into one executable file, which, when created, you do not have to worry about whether you forgot to copy one or another file from your set to a floppy disk.
If you are not satisfied with the capabilities provided by the HTML language, you can try to master one or more programs specifically designed for creating electronic publications.
ePublisher 3000
(www.hypermethod.ru)
Let's start with the simplest program ePublisher 3000. The program is really a fairly easy-to-learn editor that can either automatically create a book based on existing sections, or allow you to make its own layout. The product supports most of the functions necessary for layout.
To create a book, you must have text in an RTF or PDF file. It is desirable that the headings in this file be numbered in accordance with the hierarchy (i.e. 1; 1.1; 1.1.1, etc.) this will allow the program to accurately form the book structure and table of contents. After selecting a file, you must choose one of 40 e-book design templates. Templates include external decoration text of the book. The program allows you to save the finished book in two formats:
in the form of an executable exe file that can be run on any computer running Windows;
in html format for further publication on the Internet.
If you are not satisfied with the existing templates, you can create your own template. You can also change the layout of the book, supplement the book with video fragments (avi, mpeg4), sound (wav, mp3), graphics (gif, jpg, bmp), web objects (html, JavaScript, Java, etc.), external (on sites on the Internet) and internal (to book pages) hypertext links. You can also enrich the book's capabilities using a search system and a dictionary of terms. You can also protect your creation from pirated copying by setting the book to open as read-only.
This package is most suitable for creating lecture courses for schoolchildren and students, since it does not require large expenditures of either time or material nature (the licensed version of the program costs $49).
HyperMethod 3.5
(www.hypermethod.ru)
Unlike the previous product, intended primarily for creating text books, this product HyperMethod company allows you to create full-fledged multimedia electronic publications, where text can be only one of many components. At the same time, the product is quite easy to learn, does not require special programming skills and has an intuitive Russian-language interface.
The package allows you to work with a large number of formats:
text formats (HTML, RTF, TXT, PDF);
graphic formats (GIF, JPG, BMP, WMF, EMF);
audio formats (WAV, MIDI, MP3).
Using this program you can create publications of almost any nature. When creating reference publications, it will be extremely useful to be able to operate with any amount of information, as well as organize a powerful information search system. Thanks to the built-in programming language, you can create systems with feedback, i.e. systems that allow testing the user’s knowledge (which is absolutely necessary when creating educational publications). In addition, the package has other advantages that are useful when creating large electronic publications:
allows you to create structures of any complexity containing tens of thousands of hyperlinks;
allows you to create an individual design;
easily integrates with databases and the Internet;
has developed means of expanding the capabilities of the package due to the built-in script language (scripts);
allows you to automatically create hyperlinks using word form search.
Here is the opinion of one of the observers software products: “HyperMethod commercial program created by domestic programmers, and in their own way functionality approaches the leader Macromedia Director program, but costs significantly less.”
It is worth adding that with the help of the HyperMetod package such well-known multimedia CDs as the encyclopedia "Russian Museum. Painting", the encyclopedia musical instruments"Terra Musicalis", as well as various presentation discs and electronic catalogs products. The cheapest version of the program costs $150 and will allow you to create a full-fledged publication, which can contain not only text, but also animation, graphics, video, sound and be a full-fledged multimedia publication.
Formula Graphics
(www.formulagraphics.com)
This authoring system has an easy-to-use graphical interface and can also be used for almost any type of electronic publication. The program has no restrictions on the images, sound and animation that you can implement in your publication. Information is displayed on the screen using hypertext and graphical hyperlinks. In the program itself, you can work both using programming (the program has a powerful object-oriented language with more than 500 operators, functions and commands) and without any programming.
Formula Graphics allows you to:
create publications using two- and three-dimensional graphics;
introduce animation and create small games with its help (which is especially useful when creating children's publications);
create projectors (i.e., a window in which your publication will be displayed) of any shape that will fit on the desktop.
How additional features The program can be called the ability to create installation utilities and screen savers (screensav-ers) with its help. Developed applications can be played from a floppy disk or CD, directly over the Internet, or embedded in a Web page.
The program has shareware status and is distributed via the Internet. Registration costs $50 for six months and removes all developer restrictions for the free version, however, these restrictions are not that serious.
Multimedia Builder 4.8
(www.compactdraw.com)
Publications created in this program can contain graphics, text, sound, MP3 and video. The program has a huge number of different tools, its capabilities are limited only by your imagination. There are several templates that you can customize to your liking. You can apply many effects to your images.
When you create an application, the program creates either an executable exe file or a file in its own format, which is executed using a small player. Since data compression occurs in this case, the applications are very compact, which allows us to solve the problem of transmitting them over the Internet.
The program, as already mentioned, works with sound files, and there is a developed system of commands for them (Play, Stop, Pause, Next, etc.). Thanks to the built-in capabilities of the program, you can easily create simple music players of any shape and type, which will add originality to your publication.
MMB builds multi-page (multi-screen) applications. This means that, having created the first form, you can add a second, third to it and insert transition buttons between them. The program can create applications without the standard Windows header, as well as applications of any non-rectangular shape, which makes it similar to the previous program described.
The program is distributed as shareware, but the unregistered version is only fully functional for 30 days.
These are the main programs for creating electronic publications. There are a number of other equally (and often even more) powerful authoring systems, but most of them require the user to know at least the basics of programming. In the Russian-language part of the Internet, there is a fairly large number of sites where both the above programs and those that were not mentioned here are described in more or less detail. In addition, some manufacturers often conduct training seminars on how to use their products, so any reader interested in this area of software creation can be sure that he will not be left without information.
Below is a list of the most interesting sites dedicated to the development of electronic publications and multimedia applications:
