NewDeal Technical Support Document 241

BINDERY


Simple, step-by-step instructions for using Bindery to make a Book Reader file

Here are short, direct instructions about how to create a Book Reader file using Bindery.
  1. First, create your manuscript file by typing or importing the data.
  2. Next, name each page. To name a page, position the insertion point at the beginning of the page before you click on Page, Name Current Page. It helps a lot if you Show Invisibles in Options, Other Settings. Each page must have a name, or else the page won't show up in Book Reader. A page's name can be anything: a word, a number, a single character, etc. Make sure each page name is unique. If two pages in your book have the same name, the search feature will not function correctly in Book Reader.
  3. Then select each hot spot and set its destination.
  4. Save or backup your file often, as you would with any important document.
  5. Okay, now one time ever, you need to Define the book. Click on the File menu, Setup Book, Define Book.
  6. Once the book has been defined, you can Add and Commit the manuscript, or manuscripts if you have more than one. You can also set your Book Options. Subsequently, when you open a manuscript for further editing, you will just Load Book, instead of Define Book.
  7. When the manuscript is done, or if you just want to check the results of your work so far in Book Reader, you will Generate Content File for each manuscript, and then run Book Reader to see the final result.
    Subsequently, you need only Generate Content File for those manuscripts that you've modified. Unmodified manuscripts need not be Generated again.
    Another way of saying it: Each time you sit down at your computer for another session of work on a book, you
    1. first Open a manuscript
    2. then Load its Book
    3. then work on your composition, editing, links, or whatever
    4. then Save your file
    5. then Generate Content File
    6. and finally, view the results in Book Reader.
    Remember, you can open more than one manuscript in Bindery and switch among them with the various options in the Window menu. This helps a lot if you plan to create links between manuscripts.
For best performance, keep your manuscripts under 700k if possible, and with fewer than 1000 hot spots. Break your book up into logical chapters or divisions and put each section in its own manuscript.

Two more details:

  1. Each book should have a TOC (Table of Contents) page, named TOC. There should be only one TOC per book. That's where the Begin button in Book Reader takes you.
  2. A book must also have a First page, which can have any name. This is set in the Book Options dialog and it's the page to which Book Reader will open first. It might be the same as the TOC page, but it might instead be the Cover page or copyright notice.
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Last Modified 17 Feb 1999