Creating+Ebooks

=Multiple Platform= > This article explains terminology regarding ebook format and provides several student-friendly programs for students to create their own ebooks.
 * **realewriter.com ** Lets children (and adults) of all ages create cool, educational picture books called RealeBooks (“Really Books”). Gives children of all ages access to thousands of free RealeBooks created by children, parents, and educators. Lets you print RealeBooks, share them with friends and family via email, and share them with the world through RealeLibraries (“Really Libraries”).
 * **storybird.com** Storybird allows users to select a group of illustrations by various artists and make a story to go with the illustrations. There are lots of finished products to look at. Nice selection of illustrations.
 * **@Zooburst.com** Create pop up story books. Once constructed, books can be inspected from any angle from within a 3D space, and rotating around a book is as easy as dragging and dropping a mouse. In addition, authors can choose to make items "clickable," allowing readers to learn more about individual characters within a story. Each character can have its own 'chat bubble' that pops up when that character is clicked. In addition, authors can also record their own voices using the ZooBurst audio recorder to have their characters really 'speak' when clicked! Readers can choose to experience and participate in a ZooBurst book in a number of ways. Authors can share books with readers using a simple hyperlink, and books can easily be 'embedded' in any website or blog, allowing authors to provide their own contextual framework to their stories. Authors can also maintain a moderated discussion forum for each book, providing a virtual space in which readers can interact with one another. Readers who have a webcam installed on their computer can also experience any ZooBurst book in Augmented Reality. Once a book has been loaded, readers can click on the 'Webcam Mode' button at the top of the screen. This button will turn on their webcam and allow them to see themselves as though they were looking in a mirror. From here, visitors can hold up a special symbol to the webcam to watch as the book 'flys' out of the paper and into the room around them! In addition, Augmented Reality mode also allows readers the ability to interact with a book using simple gestures. For example, simply waving your hand in front of a book will allow you to turn its pages back and forth.
 * Digital Storytelling Tools Great apps for elementary students to use to create books. All apps are annotated. *
 * Tom Daccord had loads of information on ebook creators http://thwt.org/index.php/presentations-multimedia/ebooks
 * Cool Tool:Easy-to-Use Applications for Creating Your Own Ebooks **
 * Digital Shift May 2012 Good synopsis of many tools for creating ebooks.

Epub Formatting

 * **@http://calibre-ebook.com/** can convert anything into epub or so they say
 * **@http://www.wix.com/** epub that focuses on Flash
 * **@http://issuu.com/** can save document as PDF and then using this can convert to epub. Bookshelf widget available for embedding, allows teachers to display multiple documents. Recommended by Bob Stegner as very easy to use. Here is a link to an ebook he created using issuu. Bob's ebookLibrary Issuu
 * Inkling Habitat** Professional authors can easily self publish.
 * Yudu Free service to upload PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files to create online magazines. Page turning effect and zoom options built in.
 * Simple Booklet Allows you to create multimedia books. Can combine text, images, videos, and audio files. Education option available free of charge.
 * DotEPUB Allows you to convert the contents of a webpage into Mobi (KIndle) or ePub format. Free service.

QR codes to link to Ebooks
You can create QR codes for books that are published as PDFs or WORD documents. Put the document into DropBox, create a link for it, then create a QR code with the link to the document. Note: the WORD document is much slower than the PDR. With these documents/short books, you can see text, images, and links.

ereader for PC
@http://www.bluefirereader.com/

The Future
epub3 universal ebook formatting coming soon.

=iPad= You can put pdfs into itunes and then upload them to ipad or other apple devices as ebooks.

ereader for iPad
Good Reader