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
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Tuesday March 13 from 10-11 am: https://bluejeans.com/654165437
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Thursday March 15 from 10-11 am: https://bluejeans.com/575149958
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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
BCcampus OpedEd
Dear Pressbooks User,
UPGRADE NOTICE
Pressbooks (pressbooks.bccampus.ca), and the BCcampus internal instance of Pressbooks that houses the B.C. Open Textbook Collection (opentextbc.ca), was upgraded to Pressbooks 4.0 this past summer and has recently been upgraded to Pressbooks 4.1. We apologize for not advising you of this update until now. Our goal is to advise you of updates and changes before they occur.
Pressbooks updates that will be noticeable to users are included below. For a complete list of changes,
see https://github.com/BCcampus/pressbooks-mpdf/commits/master .
Features
4.0
* LaTeX outputs are now at a sufficient resolution for print applications (see #819 ).
* You can now change statuses in bulk on the Organize page (see #249 and #822 ).
* Deleted content can now be restored from Text → Trash (see 9283c26 ).
4.1
* Cloning! Clone any public, properly-licensed book from any Pressbooks 4.1 network including your own (super admins can clone any book from their own network, regardless of license) (see #841 , #857 , #881 , #885 ).
* Word count for the entire book and for content marked for export is now displayed on the Organize page (see #842 , #878 , #880 ).
* Users can now delete their own books from the book menu (see #845 , #864 ).
* Punjabi Gurmukhi support (props to @alexpflores ) (see #877 ).
Fixes
4.0
* DOCX and ODT files exported from Google Docs (which lack standard metadata) can now be imported without issue via the import module (see #837 and #838 ).
* Images are now set to a prince-image-resolution of auto, normal rather than 300dpi for more reliably high-quality print PDF output (see #744 and #776 ).
* Text suggesting that we offer printing services has been removed from the Publish page (see #784 ).
* Current privacy settings are now displayed properly when updating book privacy from the Organize page (see #711 and #801 ).
* The Search and Replace module no longer searches items in the trash (see 6978734 ).
* Fix: Miscellaneous improvements to improve performance and reduce unnecessary error output.
4.1
* The TOC endpoint in the Pressbooks REST API v2 now uses chapters and parts for consistency with the endpoints for these post types.
* The EPUB importer now properly detects and handles optional whitespaces (see #554 , #874 ).
* Image URLs with #fixme on the end will now be properly copied into EPUBs during export (see #887 )
Enhancements
4.0
* Expanded metadata is now hidden on the Book Information page unless needed (see #804 and #832 )
4.1
* Book editors can now modify theme options and custom CSS (see #862 , #863 ).
If you have any questions, please visit to our OpenEd FAQs or contact the BCcampus Helpdesk .
Sincerely,
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca
BCcampus OpedEd
Dear Pressbooks User,
UPGRADE NOTICE
On Thursday , May 18, 2017 at 6:30am Pacific time, Pressbooks ( pressbooks.bccampus.ca ) and open textbooks in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection that are hosted in BCcampus' internal instance of Pressbooks ( opentextbc.ca ) will be upgraded from version 3.9.6 to version 3.9.8.
You may experience a temporary or intermittent outage during this time.
Pressbooks updates that will be noticeable to users are listed below. For a complete list of changes, see https://github.com/pressbooks/pressbooks/releases .
Features
* Added support for Canadian Indigenous syllabics, which are used for the Chipewyan, Inuktitut, Plains Cree, Cree, Moose Cree, Slave, Northern Cree, Naskapi, Swampy Cree, Southern East Cree, and Ojibwa languages.
* The paragraph separation option is now available for webbooks.
* The section openings PDF theme option now supports additional options.
* Part numbers are now displayed consistently across all formats.
Fixes
* Fixed an issue where hyphenation would be enabled in Prince exports even if it was disabled in theme options.
* Added between section numbers and titles in the mPDF TOC.
* Images on custom title pages are now exported as expected in EPUB and Kindle.
* Print PDF exports are now available for download when export sharing is enabled.
* Numberless chapters no longer display a lonely period in PDF outputs from SCSS v2 themes.
* Importing as a draft now works for EPUB imports.
Enhancements
* Bold, italic, superscript, and subscript text is now properly imported from Word documents.
* Inline language attributes are now properly imported from Word documents.
* Those with a licensed copy of the BISAC subject headers can now display a multiple select instead of Pressbooks' default text input.
* Can now set a book's target audience on the Book Information page.
* The book language will now be set to the language selected when the book is registered.
* The Comments column on the Organize page will now be hidden if comments are disabled.
* Imported content can optionally be set to published status instead of draft.
* Front matter, chapter, and back matter types will now be imported from Pressbooks WXR files.
* Empty front matter, chapters, and back matter will now be imported from Pressbooks WXR files.
* Completing an import from a Pressbooks WXR file will now correctly enumerate different content types instead of labelling all as chapters.
* Pressbooks now supports third-party export formats.
For questions, contact the BCcampus Helpdesk .
Sincerely,
BCcampus Helpdesk
BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate.
helpdesk(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca