Here are the latest updates to Book Creator - new fonts, a language picker, the ability to group items, and more...
Over the past few months we've been quietly dropping feature updates to Book Creator - and we thought it was time to bring you up to speed on any you might have missed. Let's go!
1. Multi-select items in Book Creator
It's now possible to select multiple items on the page and move them around together. Either drag your mouse over the items you want to select, or use CTRL + Click (or CMD + Click) to select or deselect as many items as you want. We hope this makes it even easier to layout your books exactly the way you want.
2. New fonts added
We've added 12 new fonts to the app. These are a mixture of fonts that teachers requested directly for legibility and tracing, and fonts which we know are great for accessibility, as well as some typefaces that work specifically for languages such as Chinese and Arabic.
Check out the book above to see them in action!
3. Language picker
By default Book Creator displays in whatever language your browser is set to, but we've added a new language picker which allows you to change the language that Book Creator displays in with just a few clicks.
This will be really useful for English language learner students who don't have English as their first language, or for high school students who want to practice in another language without having to change the settings in their browser or computer.
Click on your account avatar in the top right of the screen then choose Edit account. Choose from one of the 11 languages available and then click the Save changes button.
4. Book notifications
You'll remember that when we released the commenting update in September 2022, we added a notifications button to the toolbar so you'd know when students had left a comment in their book.
Well now, we've added more notifications. Any time one of your published books reaches a new milestone - you'll get a notification. So if it has been read 100 times, or read in a new country, look out for a notification letting you know. This will be incredibly exciting for any student books you have published and shared.
5. Turn off student commenting for a whole library
Speaking of commenting, we've also added a setting which allows you to disable commenting for all students in a library. This was in response to teachers who didn't want this feature for certain classes or projects.
6. Open hyperlinks when editing a book
Hyperlinks can now be clicked on when editing a book as well as when reading. Great for writing choose your own adventure stories, adding a table of contents, or linking out to external websites.
7. Image search controls
With our built-in image search, we pull images from Pixabay, and then if you can't find what you're looking for, we offer results from Google's Safe Search. This Google search engine is the same one used in all Google's education tools, but for teachers who want even more control you can now limit results to just Pixabay - where every image is human moderated to be safe for all ages. Or... you can turn the image search off all together!
Click on the library settings cog and change this on a per-library basis.
That's all for now! What do you think? Anything here that you've been particularly waiting for? What else would you like to see in the future?
Let us know in the comments below.
Dan is the founder of Tools for Schools and the Chief Product Officer of Book Creator. He is married to the children’s author Ally Kennen, and they have 4 great kids.
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16 Comments on “A bundle of feature updates!”
Book Creator: you’re the best tool!
Very anxious to be able to upload our own transparent gifs to Book Creator. That will be a game-changer for our projects.
Is there a way to make the turn page arrow more of a button with visual contrast for students with visual and motor issues and those using eye gaze technology ?
Could there be a way that we can make a QR code of a students book where others can scan and read it? This would be great for others to learn from others and even during parent teacher conferences.
Please make it readable on my Iphone
I would love to have the option to turn off video and/or audio. It can be a real distractor especially when my classes are beginning to learn how to use the program.
I love book creator for for my year 1 students as we publish photos on a topic or something we do in the class and add text to it as a class. It’s a exciting way to share the kids learning in the form of a book…I usually print it out for our library too. i love the new fonts…I’ll be using Legend. Just the k in our school No font seem to do a curl followed by a straight line. Different language..fabulous for our ESOL students. Thanks
Great and useful features!
Dear Dan.
Thank you very much! Thanks to you Book Creator became my favourite IC tool!
Can I print a book?
Yes you can export as a PDF: https://intercom.help/bookcreator/en/articles/2398647-export-your-book-as-a-pdf-file
Thanks for these great resources! I saw you added Noto- can you add Noto rashi.
All the new ideas sound excellent! Thank you.
I love Book Creator and all of its awesome features, thank you. As an English as a Second Language Teacher, I would love to see a dual language feature so students can create dual language books (e.g. if they write or speak in their first language, it will translate it into English and have both scripts on the page.
Thanks!
Love the change the language and limit images to safe search as we use this tool mostly with our youngest elementary students. Would love to have a QR code print out for every book in the library as a faster way to share books with families. Having to generate a link for each one and then send that home in individual emails is very complex!
Thank you thank you thank you especially for the select multiple items!