A concise guide to producing electronic books

This website aims to show you what you need to produce electronic books - "eBooks".

An eBook can be defined simply as "digital reading material that you view on a desktop or notebook personal computer". That's how the software company, Adobe, defines the word.

To be a bit more specific, I would add that an eBook should also be "a single file, containing a number of documents, which can be quickly and easily installed and opened for viewing".

eBooks are rapidly becoming a popular medium for distributing easy-to-read documents. The techniques are not difficult, and the necessary software is affordable. Producing eBooks is going to be a necessary skill to acquire.

The information on this website is based on personal experience. I can't claim that it is a comprehensive guide to eBooks. But if you are wanting to get up to speed rapidly, all the information is here for you to be able to produce your first eBook today!

The sections in this site are:

• Why use eBooks? The benefits and the pitfalls, and a quick summary of exactly what an eBook is.
• How to prepare an eBook The steps you need to take, the type of documents you should use, preparing the documents for compiling, testing before compiling and the software you need to prepare the documents.
• How to compile an eBook Creating the eBook and testing after compiling.
• How to use eBooks to prepare evidence portfolios This is what prompted this site! In many technical and professional accreditation processes, producing a portfolio demonstrating your competence is often a requirement. An eBook is a very good medium for such portfolios, but it requires a slightly different approach to a "normal" eBook. I'll show you how to do it.
• eBook software What are the various types? Which one should you use? What are the costs? How can you buy the software?
• Links to other eBook web resources If you want to explore the subject further, here are some useful resources.

I hope that you find this information useful. If you want to contact me on any point, please