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Using Pressbooks for Digital Publishing

This is a short introductory guide to using the Pressbooks publishing platform.

Pressbooks Plug-Ins

Plugins are software components that can be added to an existing computer program, such as Pressbooks, in order to provide additional features.

Only the Administrator for a book has the ability to do this. If you are the Administrator of more than one book, you will have to activate the plugins in each book you want them turned on in.

To activate these plugins:

  • Go to the book’s Dashboard and select the Plugins tab from the Dashboard menu. This will reveal the plugins available for activation.
  • To activate any of the plugins, click on the Activate link under its name.
  • To learn more about each plugin, click “Visit plugin site.”

Hypothes.is

Hypothesis is an open source web annotation tool that allows authors, editors, and readers to highlight, annotate, and discuss content on the web.

When you enable Hypothesis in Pressbooks under Settings, readers can both create and read annotations without installing the Hypothes.is extension as long as they have a user account. These public comments will be visible to anyone who views the book. 

You can control where Hypothesis is visible in your book--front matter, chapters, or only specific chapters--toggle whether highlights are on or off, and choose whether the sidebar is open by default.

Uses

  • Author Annotations: The author(s) can annotate the text before making the book public. If the annotations are then set to "Public," students and other readers can view them.
  • Collaborative editing: Enable Hypothesis as part of your editorial workflow. Create a private group, leave comments, editing suggestions, and discuss changes to be made on chapter pages prior to the book going public.
  • Reader feedback: Use Hypothesis as part of the peer-review process or leave the option open for anyone who is engaging with your books. 
  • Student Engagement: Provide a space for students to interact with course materials and one another. 

H5P

H5P makes it easy to create, share and reuse HTML5 content and applications.

Authors can select from different H5P elements to create interactive content. Examples include:

Essay H5P Element: Allow students to receive instant feedback on their written work.
Sort the Paragraphs H5P Element:  Sort elements into a sequence (text)

Attribution

Pressbooks Guide by Lauri M. Aesoph is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.