HTML in iBooks Author

01/12/2012

With the announcement of iBooks Author and the ability to embed HTML content, we immediately started to imagine different ways to enhance otherwise static content. But what exactly was supported when embedding HTML? There’s some interesting examples of animation, but what about interactivity?

I threw together a quick example of embedding HTML content using some previous proof-of-sample code. The result is a drag and drop paper doll that renders right in an iBook.

The process of getting the HTML into the iBook was relatively easy. Dashcode was used to create an HTML widget and then the widget was added to the iBook via iBooks Author. Once the book was created, I just connected my iPad and synced the book to iBooks for testing.

All-in-all I think iBooks Author is pretty powerful and presents a great opportunity for content creators to put together great interactive content that can be distributed to iPad owners. Educational materials, manuals, children’s books, catalogs and other printed materials may never be the same.