1.
Publish Digital Books and Open
Educational Resources with Pressbooks
Timothy Vollmer
Scholarly Communication + Copyright Librarian
tvollmer@berkeley.edu
Stacy Reardon
Literatures, Digital Humanities Librarian
sreardon@berkeley.edu

2.
Today’s workshop
● Intro to Pressbooks
● Use cases & examples
● How to get started
● 7 basic skills
● Practice / Q&A

3.
What is Pressbooks?

4.
Pressbooks at
a glance
● Publish immediately and often
● Export in multiple formats
● License work for reuse
● Choose professional templates
● Optimize texts for accessibility
● Easily migrate elsewhere
● Publish and host for free

5.
What can you do with Pressbooks?

6.
Use cases
● Digital textbooks
● Course modules
● Toolkits
● White papers
● And more

7.
Some examples
● Microbiology textbook
● Interactive language
learning
● Collaborative anthology
● Course module
● How-to guide

8.
Microbiology
textbook

9.
Interactive
language
learning

10.
Collaborative
literature
anthology

11.
UC Berkeley
course module

12.
Pressbooks
how-to guide

13.
Getting started

14.
openbooks.berkeley.edu
CLICK→ “Sign up”
● Username is permanent
● Use @berkeley.edu email
● Register book later
● Check email

15.
Add A New Book

16.
1. Webbook address
2. Book title
3. Privacy
Not changeable
Changeable
Enter book details

17.
Dashboard
view

18.
Getting oriented

19.
Dashboard
view

20.
Organize
mode

21.
Edit mode

22.
Preview and save
● Click book title or “visit
book” to view book
● “Preview” button opens
new tab
● Auto-save and versioning

23.
7 basic things
Sample content for testing:
ucblib.link/pressbooks-materials

24.
1. Add and format text

25.
Using the text editor
● Similar to Word and other
tools
● Visual and Text tab
● Auto-saves
● Mostly WYSIWG but always
preview online too

26.
Practice:
Add and format text
1. Copy-paste
2. Heading styles
3. Linking
4. Tables
5. Text boxes

27.
2. Upload media

28.
Tips for
uploading media
● Accepted file formats: JPEG,
PNG
● Consider copyright
● Include alt-text
● Use media library
● Videos: link instead of embed

29.
Practice:
uploading images
● Upload new image
● Insert image from media
library
● Resize image
● Adjust wrapping
● Add a caption

30.
3. Add and organize chapters

31.
Adding and
organizing chapters
● Preloaded sections
● Add/delete/move chapters
● Add new sections
● Review privacy and export
settings

32.
Practice: chapters
● Add new chapter
● Delete chapter
● Add a new part
● Move a chapter to a different
part
● Add front matter
● Add back matter

33.
4. Add metadata details

34.
Book metadata
● Title
● Author information
● Publisher information
● Copyright & license
● Remember to save!

35.
Licensing tool
● Choose license
● Book-level and
chaper-level
● License text generates
automatically

36.
Practice:
metadata
● Change book title
● Choose a license
● Change license

37.
5. Add a cover image

38.
Cover image
● Check sizing specs
● Cover generator available
● If you want title on the
cover, add it to file before
upload (or use generator)
● Remember to save

39.
Practice:
Cover image
● Add a cover image
● Try out the cover
generator

40.
6. Choose a theme

41.
Themes
● Preview before activating
● Change any time
● Affects chapter layout, so
always check how it
looks

42.
Practice: Themes
● Browse themes
● Pick a theme
● Change the theme

43.
7. Export and publish

44.
Exporting
● Go to Export tab
● Choose which file formats
you want to export
● Remember to re-export
after edits

45.
Exporting
● Enable downloads in
“Sharing & Privacy”
Settings
● Can customize within book
which content shows in
exports

46.
Go beyond the basics

47.
Plugins & Features
● H5P (interactive
elements)
● LaTeX
● Markdown
● Hypothes.is (Under
"Settings")

48.
Collaborate
● Add a new or existing
user to your book
● Different options for roles
and permissions

49.
Publish your work
● Berkeley Open Books catalog
● UCB Library catalog
● Open Textbook Library
● Directory of Open Access Books
● eScholarship

50.
Final notes
● Don’t get overwhelmed
● Keep it simple
● Follow best practices
● We’re here to help!

51.
Kick the tires
✔ Add a footnote
✔ Insert a table
✔ Insert a text box
✔ Insert a new part
✔ Add a collaborator
✔ Apply a section
license
✔ Practice exporting
Consult the workshop
materials in the folder for
more guidance:
ucblib.link/pressbooks-
materials

52.
Thank you!
Timothy Vollmer
Scholarly Communication + Copyright Librarian
tvollmer@berkeley.edu
Stacy Reardon
Literatures, Digital Humanities Librarian
sreardon@berkeley.edu