You don’t have to rely on iBooks Author to create eBooks for iPhone or iPad on Mac. There is an easier solution.
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The EPUB export feature in Pages can set up interactive eBooks for you, ready for viewing in iBooks and other EPUB readers. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a book in Pages on Mac.
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How to make (convert) an EPUB eBook in Pages on Mac
Setting up a book template
You can create an eBook from a blank document or from any of the free page templates that appear when you open the app.
This option helps you start with one of the templates designed specifically for ebooks. You will find them in the graph “Books” in the list of templates. (Already started with a regular blank document and want to switch to a new template? You can open the template selection at any time with the keyboard shortcut ⌥Option (Alt) + ⌘Cmd + N.)
In this tutorial, we will consider a template with a portrait orientation of the book. In particular, the pattern “Simple novel “ from section “Books”…
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Add text and media
Now it’s time to add content to your eBook. You can insert text, images, videos, tables, charts and shapes using the corresponding buttons on the toolbar. Since we are creating a responsive EPUB (more on this below), we need to take into account design nuances – images, shapes and other objects may slide out depending on the device’s diagonal.
Note. Be aware that if you are pasting images larger than 4 megapixels, the pages are resized to 4 megapixels during export.
If you’re comfortable with the drawing tools now included with iWork, you can also add drawings to your eBook.
Since we are going to create a responsive (floating layout) EPUB, we need to worry about losing elements like page numbers and tabs when exporting.
When creating an EPUB with a floating layout, you need to examine the list of Apple’s fixed layout features to find out which elements may be missing in the exported file (more on that below).
Regardless of which format you prefer, some elements will be lost, such as comments, shadows, and smart fields.
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How to insert new pages
Depending on your choice of template, you may need to click the button to add a new page. “Add page”… This option differs page layout templates from word processing templates. For example, in our case, pages are added automatically when the document is filled with content.
However, in page layout templates, you start with a bunch of pages with different content layouts (there is also a blank master page). When the button is pressed “Add page”, you need to select one of the pages for duplication.
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Insert a table of contents
Pages generate a table of contents based on the paragraph styles in the document.
If you want to customize your own table of contents, you can do so in the word processing column. Click on “Insert” → “Table of Contents” → “Document”…
After selecting the table of contents, switch to the tab “Format”located on the toolbar. Here you can customize fonts, enable / disable paragraph styles depending on whether you want the corresponding text to appear in the table of contents.
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Exporting a book to EPUB format
When your book is finished, go to the menu File -> Export to and select the item EPUB…
Do you want your eBook layout to adjust based on device size and orientation? Or do you want the layout to remain the same?
If you need a flexible (responsive) eBook layout, specify the Floating EPUB as the finished product. Otherwise, a fixed format will be specified.
If you want a floating EPUB layout, you’ll need to stick to the portrait (vertical) layout template. Landscape templates do not support this export format. If you are going to use a fixed layout, any orientation will work.
Make sure to select the correct format when setting up your document, as you won’t be able to switch to a different type of template when you export it.
Ideally, you should choose “Floating layout” for a book with a lot of text or an editable document. For a book filled with images or multi-column text, the fixed EPUB format is better.
If you are planning to convert EPUB to MOBI format use “Floating layout” for export, as this is likely to produce better results overall.
When exporting a document to EPUB, you can select a cover. To do this, click File → Export → EPUB… A dialog box will open “Export document”… Enter the title and name of the author.
The default cover for a book is the first page. You can add a custom image as a cover using the button “Select image”… Pages uses this image as a thumbnail for a book in iBooks and file managers.
In the advanced options section, you can choose the category and language for your book.
Check the box “Built-in Fonts”to make sure the book will display in the same font you have chosen. Then press the button “Farther” and choose where to save the exported EPUB. Now press “Export” and the book is ready!
Note. If you’re opening a Pages document from an iPhone, iPad, or iCloud.com, you can also export it to EPUB.
You can share your book or even put it up for sale on iBooks using your iTunes Connect account.
Note. You can import EPUB files into iBooks Author for editing, but you cannot open IBOOKS and IBA files in Pages.
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How to download your e-book to iPhone or iPad?
The whole process of downloading a book to an iOS device is about how the resulting EPUB file is transferred. You can send the book file via email, social media, AirDrop, upload to the cloud, etc.
After receiving the file on your iOS device, click on it and in the pop-up menu Share this select “Books “…
We talked in more detail about downloading books on the iPhone and iPad in this article.
In the process of writing this article, we have compiled an amateur autobiographical story into an electronic EPUB book “Frank”written by Dmitry Mikhnevich, an employee of the site yablyk.com back in 2000. You can download the book at this link.
See also: