eDocker CREATE!

The term "publication" has changed forever over the last few years. These days, anyone can publish material in electronic format. Of course this also creates challenges in choosing what sorts of publications to produce and how they are to be made. It has become very clear that readers are no longer content with facsimiles of printed publications. Much more is desired. Richer user experiences are required. These can be difficult and costly to provide, if you do not have the right kind of tools and work-flows.

Transparency is of the essence

From the outset, we at eDocker have emphasized that we want to offer easy ways to provide such experiences. The new eDocker CREATE! is a good example. We have collected information from publishers and readers, over a number of years, about how they understand digital publishing. Based on this information, we have designed and produced new tools.

eDocker CREATE! like its predecessor Tablet Publisher relies heavily on open technologies. The release is based on HTML5/JavaScript/CSS technologies. We do not want to package the final result of the work in a format that cannot be easily used in the way the publisher wants. Now and in the future publishers can also export the finished file package to their own servers and publish it for everyone they want to see it, by releasing the web address. In this way the publisher can easily produce a web publication. Alongside this, the eDocker PUBLISH! service provides a new and more versatile option for the distribution of a publication.

eDocker CREATE! documentation

What´s New (for eDocker Tablet Publisher users)

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Users Manual

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eDocker CREATE! key features

There are countless features in eDocker CREATE!, but here are the most important ones, in our opinion.. 

1) Rapid work-flow
If you are a professional user, you can produce an interactive publication almost ready to deliver using Adobe InDesign. If you do not own InDesign, or your material is not in the right format, you can also start from a PDF file and produce interactive features using eDocker CREATE!'s page editor. Either way, you can get interactive features and a richer user experience for your readers with unprecedented ease.

2) Hyperlinks
One of the main forms of interactivity in a digital document is a hyperlink. They can direct a user to a web page, where there may be additional information on a subject. Hyperlinks can be implemented in many ways in eDocker publications. The target hyperlink may open a user's web browser, or a pop-up window may appear on top of the page, which when closed again will return the reader to the publication. A hyperlink may also be set to another page in the publication or to an email address.

3) Videos  
Video is set to become an ever more important form of communication in the future. You can add MP4 or YouTube format videos to eDocker publications. Video can be placed on the page, amongst the text and images, or it can be set to open in a pop-up window.

4) Pop-up windows
Digital publishers across the world are slowly beginning to realize that not all information needs to be displayed on the page in the same way as has been necessary with printed media. In a digital publication, information can be hidden in a variety of user opened windows. If the user wants more information, he presses a dedicated button, and gets the information in a window that appears on top of the publication. The window can be closed at any time with the close button, and the user returns to the page being browsed.

5) Slideshows
In printed publications we are used to seeing all of the images displayed on the page at once. In a digital publication one image can be displayed and the rest hidden in a slideshow. The reader can browse through an image carousel using the mouse or a finger swipe. A slideshow can also be located amongst the other elements on the page, or it can be set to open in its own window.

6) HTML windows
Sometimes there is a need to display some sort of html material on a document page, such as a Google map, etc. In this case, a so called iframe window can be drawn on the page and inside it any target that you want to display can be defined.

7) Text reading mode
If you base a publication on a printed format, the size of the text can be quite small. Of course the reader can zoom in on a point to enlarge it, but reading can be tricky if the text rows do not fit on the screen at one time. For this purpose, in an eDocker publication, any text can be read in reading mode. In this mode the text is displayed in its own window and the reader can increase/decrease the font size. Once the user has finished reading, the text the window can be closed. Readable text can also be placed directly on the page, in scrollable form.

8) HTML code
Slightly more advanced users may want to add HTML snippets to their pages. For example, it is possible to get code generated from social media sites, so that you can add a Facebook Like button or MP3 player to an eDocker publication page. These small "snippets" can be added using a copy/paste method.

9) Content panel
eDocker CREATE! automatically creates a contents panel for the publication, which includes thumbnail images of the pages, as well as optional related text, such as article names. These texts can be entered in InDesign, or written in eDocker CREATE! 

10) Publishing
When everything is ready the only thing remaining is publishing. The eDocker publication can be saved as a web publication and exported to your own web server, e.g. by using an FTP application. Alternatively it can be exported as an edlib package, which can be published on the eDocker PUBLISH! service.

In addition to these features eDocker CREATE! offers a great deal more as well. Whatever your needs, we provide you the easiest and fastest way on the market to produce a digital user experience for your own readers. 

You can try eDocker Create! by creating a free eDocker PUBLISH! account at https://publish.edocker.com. After registration, you can download our free 7-day trial version. If you want to use the program permanently, you can subscribe the free trial version to a full version for 99 €/month. Contract period is one month, so you can unsubscribe anytime you like.