Electronic Book
User’s Manual
1.5.3
25, May, 2001
Electronic Book enables you to read and write electronic books. An electronic book is a special database edited and opened by Electronic Book program. For optimum use of Electronic Book reader and writer read this manual carefully.
1.
System requirements
2.
Installation
3. Working with Electronic Book reader
4.
Releases history
Double click at Ebook.exe program which you will find in a diskette, CD-ROM or you have downloaded from the web. If Electronic Book reader does not installed in your computer or you have an older version of program, Electronic Book reader will prompt you to install this new version of program, and it displays old version and date if any. Edit box displays directory name in which you want Electronic Book reader to be installed in. You can change it to any directory, but it is recommended that you keep the default directory: "c:\Program Files\Ebook". After clicking Setup the program will be installed and two icons will be appeared, one at desktop and another one at start menu. Double clicking or clicking - respectively – on one of these icons will start Electronic Book reader and writer.
3. Working with Electronic Book Reader and writer
1. File
2. Edit
3. View
4. Book
5. Test
6. Dictionary
7. Config
8. Help
Note:
There are two modes of program: reading mode - default mode - in which you can read Electronic books, and editing mode in which you can write your own Electronic books. There are some menu commands that work only in editing mode and there are few menu commands that work only in reading mode. These commands are enabled and disabled according to Ebook mode. The caption of main form always tells you in which mode your are in.
Here is a brief description of each menu item:
File menu contains:
3.1.1 Open book
When you select Open book item, a list box will appear to let you choose already installed E-Books. If you want to open a book that does not exists in EBooks Library, for example exists in CD-ROM or network drive, click Browse button and select desired book directory.
3.1.2 Save Book As HTML
This feature of Electronic Book enables you to convert current opened EBook or part of it to HTML format. Select the range of pages you want to convert, select background color of pages or a background image then click save. Selected articles will be saved in HTML pages and an Index page will be generated, it's name is "Index.html". All articles attachments will be copied withen the HTML pages.
3.1.3 Install new EBook
Installs a new Electronic Book in your hard disk. Select the book you want to install and click Open button, wait a few minutes and the new book will be installed. Some books contains key as a copy protection, in such cases you must get the key from author. New Ebook comes as a single compressed file and it’s extension is .CEB (CEB means: Compressed Electronic Book and you can not read the book until you install it).
3.1.4 Print page
Prints current text. Associated image does not printed with the text. This facility will be introduced in later versions of Electronic Book reader.
Edit menu contains common editing items such as copy, paste, and cut. I think it needs no description. The other important items are:
3.2.1 Find
As any normal text editor you can search for any word at current text that displayed in the editor.
3.2.2 Filter (Reading mode only)
The most important feature that distinguishes traditional books and electronic books is searching. Clicking search / filter brings searching form in which you can type any word or sub-word to search for. If you want to narrow search results you must select some of group items and level items. All match results will be displayed at main form.
3.2.3 Font set (Edit mode only)
Font set helps you save your most 10 favorite fonts that you use in your electronic book which has been edited. Simply click at one of empty items to set a font. When you want to use this font at rich editor, select text you want to set it’s font and press CTRL + number of font you have set. Number can be any value in the range from 0 to 9.
If you have interest in a topic or you want to complete topic reading next time, simply click Add to book mark item to store your position to help you return to this position or topic quickly using view book mark, see (3.3.3 View Bookmark)
View menu contains:
3.3.1 Full screen
Click Full screen when you want to edit or read in a full screen editor. You may need that feature when the article contains pictures and that pictures make the ditor narrow.
3.3.2 Attachment
One of Ebook program features is
that you can attach any kind of files with the article. Attached
files can be opened by double clicking and can be saved as an
external file. Right click mouse button at attachment list to see
other attachment commands.
You can not attach more than two files with one article, so if
you have more that two files to be attached, compress it in one
file then attach it as a single file.
If the attachment is BMP, JPEG, or JPG file it will be displayed
at left side of text. Double clicking in picture will display the
full size of picture in a separate window.
Bookmark is a tool helping you remember certain articles. You can double click at any bookmark to jump to. Right clicks the list of bookmark and tries these items: Go, Rename, and Delete. See also 3.2.4 Add to Bookmark.
Most of Book menu commands related to book editing. Here is a brief description of them:
3.4.1 Create new book
Click on Create new book to get a new and blank Electronic Book. Write a name for your new book. This name will be a subdirectory in EBooks directory (See 3.8.3 EBooks Library), so that makes sure that this directory does not exist. After you enter book name, a paged form will be displayed which contains:
3.4.2 Edit book
Edit book enables you to edit electronic books you have created. If you protect your book with a password, a password dialog box will appear asking you for the password. Asking for password before editing is a method to prevent others from corrupting your book. (See 3.7.2 Change password).
Edit book brings you to editing mode, in which you can add new articles to your book, change book configuration, changing font, attach external files to articles, and more.
3.4.3 Add new [Key word] (Edit mode only)
Click on Add new key word or press CTRL+W to add a new article.
3.4.4 Apply changes (Edit mode only)
Click Apply change or press CTRL+L to save text editor contents without saving entire book index.
3.4.5 Delete item (Edit mode only)
Deletes current article. Article will be deleted permanently, so be careful on using deletion.
3.4.6 Save book (Edit mode only)
Save the entire book if any change occurs. Saving book called automatically in many cases such as closing program, opening another books, and so on.
Observe to save button that exists in tool bar. If it is enabled that mean you have made changes and you can to save it. If it is disabled, the book is saved and there are no changes. You may only have to press CTRL+L to apply changes without re-saving entire index of key words.
3.4.7 Book Configuration (Edit mode only)
Enables you configure book, such as: EBook name, version, groups, levels, author, and justify.
3.4.8 Pack Ebook (Edit mode only)
If you write a book you can not open it in reading mode and you can not distribute it to others until you pack it in a single file. When you finish editing new book go to the Pack Ebook command and select a name and directory in which the book will be packed. A password dialog box will prompt you to enter a key for your E-Book. If you keep it blank, E-Book will not be protected from others and any one can install it. A file name end with CEB will be ready to distribute and install.
3.4.9 Split packed Ebook
Packing book may produce large size file, and you may want to copy it in a multiple volumes, for example diskettes. Split packed Ebook splits your book in separate volumes according to the single volume size you specify.
3.4.10 Backup edited Ebook (Edit mode only)
When you write your own book you always need to backup your work in a safe directory. Select a directory to copy your book.
Unfortunately there is no restore command to recover corrupted files in this version of Electronic Book. You have to do that manually, or you can copy the entire book from backup directory to editing directory.
3.4.11 About Book
Display information about Electronic Book: book name, version, date, and the age of book.
3.4.12 About Author
It displays information about author of current opened electronic book like his name, e-mail, URL, and others if the author likes.
Test is a game edited by Electronic Book author to check readers understands.
3.5.1 Test
When you click test a small dialog box appear asking you to enter players number which can be from 1 to 9 competitors. After that you must enter players name. After that you are ready to play the game.
Game idea is very simple. There are a question and 4 answers. Time decreased from 70 down to 0. The fast answering question the high mark players earn.
You can change question and answers font and color by right clicking mouse at question or answer and selecting font.
3.5.2 Edit test (Edit mode only)
Enable book’s author to write and edit questions for his readers. Editing test is a very simple task. You have 5 fields in edit test form: first one for question and the rest are for answer choices. If you want to add new question press CTRL+N keys.
See test editing menu in which you can:
3.5.3 Display correct answer
If it is checked, correct answer will be marked if player select wrong answer.
3.5.4 Winner Gift
You can select any document or application to be run for winner in the test. This file can be any mulltimedia files, any Windows application or any other file. This file will be used only with currently opened Electronic Book.
Dictionary is an optional tool that helps books reader to understand mystery words and terminologies or can be used for local languages transformation. Using dictionary is very simple for book readers, they only must double click on mystery word or select that word and right click mouse then choose Meaning.
When meaning comes in a yellow background that means a tipical match was found, but if it appears with bright red color it means there is no tipical match for current search and closest match has been obtained.
3.6.1 Edit words
User Edit words to edit and enter new words to your dictionary. This dictionary will be used only with your book.
3.6.2 Browse
Browse enables you to view all dictionary words associated with current electronic book.
Config menu contains:
3.7.1 Color
You have 5 set of colors: gray with white, brown, blue, green, and red.
3.7.2 Change password (Edit mode only)
Used to protect your own Electronic Book which has been edited from others. If you want to set a new password leave Old password empty and write your password twice. If you set the password before, and you want to change it write your old password and write new one twice. Be careful on using password protection. If you set a password to book NEVER forget it.
3.7.3 EBooks Library
You can change the default EBook Library directory, for example you can make it a network drive or CD-ROM drive. In spite of you can change EBooks library, it is recommended that you keep the default folder: (C:\My Documents\EBooks\).
Help menu contains:
3.8.1 User's Manual
When you are new on using Electronic Book program you can go to help/User's Manual to get the main idea of Electronic Book reader.
3.8.2 About
As a usual about box, it contains product name, version, author name, author’s e-mail, and homepage. By the way there is an Easter eggs in about book. Try to write some words without pressing neither CTRL nor ALT keys.
1.0.0 Friday, 15, October, 1999, 13:41
First release of Electronic Book
1.0.1 Thursday, 21, October, 1999, 7:32 am
- Electronic Books library bug has been corrected.
- Warning befor installing older version of an electronic book on newer one.
1.0.2 Friday, 29, October, 1999, 10:03 am
- Adding BID number (Book IDentification) to an Electronic Books.
- Updating header information while editing bug has been corrected.
- Add new bookmark and view bookmark buttons bug in editing mode corrected.
- None-tipical match in dictionary appear on Red color to warn user that meaning result is for closest match.
1.0.3 Tuesday, 9, November, 1999, 9:29 pm
- Looking only for underlined words at index. Double-clicking at none-underlined word have no effect.
1.0.4 Thursday, 18, November, 1999, 6:07 pm
- My home page URL was changed, and other small modification.
1.0.6 Wednesday, 8, December, 1999, 4:42 pm
- Image list bug has been fixed (Delphi programs that contains images some times didn't work in some computers).
- Some user interface bugs has been fixed.
1.1.0 Saturday, 1, January, 2000, 12:51 pm
- Winner gift file.
- Find (Search in current text that displayed in the editor).
- Hilight filtered words.
1.1.1 Saturday, 12, February, 2000, 11:33 am
- Moving from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to HKEY_CURRENT_USER to prevent (Unable to read from registry error) that occure in Windows NT.
1.1.5 Friday, 7, April, 2000, 9:27 pm
- Extracting rich text in memory stream instead of temporary file.
1.2.0 Friday, 21, April, 2000, 9:45 pm
- Removing Discussion Area from Electronic Book.
- Enable changing topics order, instead of alphabatical oerdering.
1.2.3 Friday, 9, June, 2000, 4:00 pm
- Missing CloseFile in opening article procedure was added.
1.2.4 Saturday, 1, July, 2000, 12:00 pm
- Bug removed in opening hidden and read only books.
1.3.0 Friday, 24, November, 2000, 5:30 pm
- Save pages to an HTML format.
1.4.0 Saturday, 2, December, 2000, 7:00 pm
- Save attachments and pictures withen HTML pages .
- Enable saving entire book or part of it in HTML format (File/Save Book As HTML).
1.5.0 Friday, 8, December, 2000, 12:22 pm
- Changing default library path to "c:\program files\EBook\EBooks"
- Additions in HTML Save as form
- Some interface bugs has been removed
1.5.3 Friday, 25, May, 2001, 4:06 pm
- Adding EBook User Information form for analytical purposes.
Motaz Abdel Azeem Altahir.
Sudan university, Collage of science, Computer department
Phone (+249) - (11) (474418)
Copyright (C) 1999- 2001
Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/motaz1
E-Mail: