Getting Started
Activate your account
To access Pressbooks, visit: pressbooks.senecacollege.ca.
Sign in with your Seneca username and password and that’s it, you’ve activated your account!
Create a Book
You will be prompted to create a book.
Enter a website address for your book.
only letters and numbers, no spaces, punctuation, or special characters
must be unique and cannot be changed
Enter a title (does not have to be unique and can be changed)
Set your book to private or public
NOTE: you can create as many additional books as you like or you can Clone a book, see below for instructions.
Cloning a Book
The “clone” feature allows you copy exactly an openly licensed textbook that has been published using Pressbooks software. To clone a book:
Locate a pressbooks book you would like to clone in open textbook collections, such as Open Textbook Library, eCampus Ontario Open Textbook Library, BCcampus Open Textbook Collection
Copy the URL
In Pressbooks, go to My Catalog -> Clone a book
Enter the source URL from the original book
Enter a new URL for your copy
only letters and numbers, no spaces, punctuation, or special characters
must be unique and cannot be changed
Enter a new title for your book if you'd like
It will take a minute or two to clone
Once cloned you can edit any of the text. All of the attributions should automatically appear, citing the previous authors and editors.
Importing Content Into a Book
Importing allows you to import various file types into Pressbooks. This is less exact than the cloning function but allows you to copy content from non-pressbooks formats, such as EPUB or Word.
First create a new empty book
Go to Tools -> Import
Select your filetype
Either upload your file or input the URL of the file and click Begin Import.
Get to Know the Admin Menu
Accessibility
For a full guide to accessibility in Pressbooks, consult the Accessibility Toolkit created by BCcampus.
NOTE: there are two accessible themes in Pressbooks - McLuhan and Jacobs, please choose one of these when creating a book.
Determine Privacy Settings
You can control privacy settings for the entire book:
Settings -> Sharing & Privacy
Next to Book Visibility, select “Public” or “Private”
Click Save Changes
You can also choose to hide individual chapters or sections of your book:
Go to Organize
Find the Show in Web and/or Show in Exports column for a specific chapter or section
Check or uncheck the boxes to determine what you would like to display
Organize Your Book
You can organize your content to make accessing the content easier. To add content to each area, click on the Add button on the left side.
Front Matter
-> Dedication, Acknowledgements, Preface, etc.
Parts
-> Chapters
Back Matter
-> Appendices, Glossary, etc.
For Front Matter and Back Matter there are many types of content to add, look for the Type drop down on the bottom right-hand side of the page