Getting ePub output into iBooks on iPhone/iPad
August 27th, 2010 by jwilesIn a recent Study Hall, someone asked how one can deploy the ePub output generated by ePublisher to an iPad. This path has been a little unclear to me and so I promised to research and blog what I found.
Use JScript .NET instead
August 15th, 2010 by jwilesThe ePublisher platform rests on top of the .NET platform. Even though the bulk of the ePublisher processing is done with XSL, you can opt to process items with any of the .NET CLR languages rather than XSL. I published a wiki article which includes an ePublisher project that demonstrates processing content paragraphs with JScript .NET. I am curious if the barrier to customization in ePublisher is the XSL. Since Javascript is ubiquitous, this sample provides an alternative to XSL.
iBooks thoughts
August 13th, 2010 by jwilesSince the launch of ePublisher 2010.2, which included the new ePub format, I have been spending time with the iBooks app to see how I like it. That’s what I want to talk about in this article. What are my impressions, prejudices, likes, dislikes and so on.
New Look Videos
July 13th, 2010 by aporterBack in early 2009 we experimented a bit with producing our own low-cost videos to provide answers for some of the most common questions we get asked at trade-shows and speaking engagements.
To be honest, the results weren’t quite what we had hoped for in terms of quality, after all we are a small software company, not video producers; but the four short videos proved to be fairly popular, and we still see them popping up on other sites and being linked to on a fairly frequent basis.
“We’ve Got You Covered”
June 11th, 2010 by aporter“We’ve Got You Covered” is a phrase we’ve being using around the WebWorks offices a lot recently. It was first used as a way to talk about how ePublisher has more input and output options than any other publishing engine.
As we looked back at out history we realized that each time a new input format was needed, or if a new output format was becoming a significant player in the market place, we would just add it to the ePublisher platform. Throughout the product’s history, users and subscribers to ePublisher were automatically covered, and able to meet changing demands of publishing a variety of content online in a format that their customers were asking for.
But the more we used the phrase, we came to realize that it meant far more than a simple statement about formats…
Parcel Publishing in an Agile World – New white paper available.
May 21st, 2010 by aporterTraditional publishing tools have a single pipeline that moves the source content to the deliverable format. In most cases this means that once a system has been defined, it becomes locked and can only be used for that specific route. Adding new output formats or making adjustments to meet new requirements means starting from scratch and developing parallel processes. This effect is magnified in tools and processes that combine the content authoring and publishing in one environment.
Study Hall Makeup
May 12th, 2010 by jwilesToday I completely spaced on a Study Hall session that was to occur at 3:00pm CDT. To make amends, I have scheduled a make-up session for Thursday, May 13 at 1:00PM.
Building a better AutoMap
April 27th, 2010 by allumsePublisher includes tools to create designs (Pro), stamp them out (Express), and automate builds (AutoMap). The thing is, AutoMap, as it exists today, is not always the right fit for our users. It offers more capability than some folks will ever leverage. For them, AutoMap is simply too expensive. Others make extensive use of AutoMap’s command-line capabilities to maximize their use of the product. In their eyes, AutoMap is huge bargain.
I’d like to figure out how we can better address both types of customers in the future. Doing so might mean splitting AutoMap into distinct products. Let’s see if we can define some product offerings that better fit everyone’s needs.
Which Version Am I Using?
April 20th, 2010 by aporterWith the recent release of 2010.1 we now have 8 supported versions of ePublisher in the market, plus there are still a few customers who have yet to upgrade from unsupported versions.
When you log a support call, or are chatting with either Customer Service or your Account Manager, it helps us help you if we know what version of ePublisher you are running.
Is anybody out there there?
April 2nd, 2010 by allumsMarket research is tricky business. Knowing how to help your current customers is an easy affair (Focus, Focus, Focus). Keep your ears open and they will tell you what they need. Finding something new that both your current customers and potential customers find exciting is quite a bit more difficult. I can’t ask a customer focus group from 2011 what I should be working on today. So, like everyone else, we just do our best by gathering market data and reading the tea leaves.
Recently, I blogged on our approach for validate market directions with sketches (Sketching the Future). Now I’ll show you how we are working to locate those potential directions. Our goal for each market is to simply understand: Is anybody out there there?