Compiling and testing an eBook

What an eBook compiler does is to pick up all the files in a particular folder / directory on your hard disk, and turn them into a single executable file (i.e. a program or "application"). When someone takes this file and installs it on their PC (via a download or from a CD ROM or floppy disk), when they run it, your eBook is displayed.

Compiling an eBook is the easy bit! If you've done your work properly in preparing your eBook documents, compiling them into an eBook is a 5 minute job with most eBook compilers. These brief guidelines are based on one of the two software packages that I recommend, Activ eBook, although eBook Paper, another of my recommendations does work in a similar way. Most eBook compilers have similar ways of operating.

Activ eBook opens with a single tabbed screen, from which you can set the various options. The first one, E-book Info, lets you enter details of yourself and the book. (Note, all these screenshots are about two thirds of the actual size).

On the Security screen, you can then set various security measures for your book, such as allowing or disallowing printing and copying. You can also set passwords for part of your eBook if you wish. This might be helpful if you are selling your eBook, and want to let people download and read certain parts, and then buy the password to read the full book.

The Expiry screen allows you to time the book out on a certain date (why??), and the Installation screen gives you the option of using a particular desktop icon for the eBook. The software includes a good selection of icons, or you can design your own. This screen also gives you the option of asking the user if they want a shortcut placing on the Desktop or on the Start Menu.

The Start Up screen lets you put your own "Splash Screen" graphic, displayed when your eBook is started, as well as a welcome message if you wish. Both of these are optional.

The User Interface screen allows you to control a lot more options for your book:

You can control features such as how search results are displayed (yes, your eBook can have its own search facility), what the tool bar looks like and how the Table of Contents is presented. See the screenshot above for other options.

The Files screen is really powerful. This is where you organise your files:

Not all of the display is shown in the screenshot above. You can put a Title and Description in for each file (shown in the Table of Contents and the Search Results in your eBook. You can decide which files should be excluded, which can be searched, password protected, copied, the order in which people see the pages if they use the eBook's built-in "Next" and "Previous" buttons.

You can change all these properties of a file by double clicking on the file name. This brings up a screen with all the parameters that you can change:

All of this may seem a lot of work. In practice, you can accept the defaults without making changes. It really is a swift process.

The next screen, Add-Ins, allow you to run other applications when your eBook either starts or finishes (I haven't found a use for it yet!, and finally, the Output screen is where you choose the file name under which the eBook will be created, and where on your hard disk it will be stored. And that's all there is to it. Activ eBook has a very useful manual (in eBook format, of course!), but the program is intuitive and easy to use, and I found I didn't need to refer much to the manual.

After you've gone through all the options, just click on the "Compile" button, and the job's done. And I strongly recommend that you save the eBook options, so that you can easily go back and recompile the eBook if you discover any errors - or when you produce a revised version.

Testing your eBook

If you prepared your documents correctly, testing your eBook will not be a long job. What you really need to test are:

All the navigation options, both any that you built in and those which your compiler provides.

Hypertext links, both within your eBook, and to any external websites.

If possible, get other people to test your eBook before you distribute it. What seems intuitive to you might not be as obvious to other people.

What will your eBook look like?

Here's an example of one I did earlier..

OK, this is a bit fancy, and you might not want to go to the trouble that I went to. But it does show the interface that a typical eBook presents to your readers. Do you want to really see an eBook? Help yourself to this one - a short eBook about "Targeted Marketing".

Apart from seeing in practice what an eBook really looks like, you might even find the content useful! Click here to download the Targeted Marketing eBook - "targeted-marketing.exe" is the file name. The file size is about 560k, so it should only take a couple of minutes to land on your hard disk. Save it on your hard disk where you can find it again. To run it, simply double-click on it from Windows Explorer. Sorry, this will only run on a PC, not a Mac.