Pressbooks Guide: The Dashboard

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Once an account and book have been created in Pressbooks, the Dashboard is where the account holder is automatically directed after logging in. The account holder is automatically assigned as the Administrator and has access to all functions listed on the Dashboard. Lesser roles, such as Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber do not see/access all of these tools.dashboard

On a book’s Dashboard, various tools are listed in the left-hand column Dashboard menu, the parts and chapters of the book are in the middle, and users who have access to the book are shown in a Users box on the far right. Most of the major Pressbooks features are found on the Dashboard menu. These are described below.

Navigation Links

My Catalogue

The My Catalogue link in the top red toolbar allows you to add a new book, clone a book, and see and select all books in your Pressbooks Catalogue. (See Add a New Book and Clone a Book.) So if you’ve got more than one book, you can rapidly switch between them right here. You can also locate the Dashboard for a specific book as follows:

  • Scroll over “My Catalogue.”
  • Select the arrow by a book.
  • Select “Dashboard” to access the edit view.
  • Select “Visit Book” to access the webbook or reader view.

For more information, see My Catalog in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Organize

Clicking on Organize reveals a drop-down list that provides links to these functions:

Notice too the Add | Organize options inside the table of contents in the middle of the Dashboard. “Organize” is the same as the Organize tab on the Dashboard menu and “Add” allows the addition of a chapter.

The Users box on the right side also has an Add | Organize option. This is where an Administrator can add new users or organize existing users, i.e., change their role or remove access. (See Users.)

Book Info

The Book Info page is where information is added or edited regarding your book, including book title, authors, editors, publisher, copyright owner/year/notice, licence type, descriptions of the book, keywords, and more. Much of the data entered on this page displays on the home page of the webbook and as part of the various exported file formats.

It is suggested that the author and/or publisher fills this page out as the book is being written and as information becomes available. This page can be updated as needed. For more information, see Book Info in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Appearance

For more information, see Appearance in the Pressbooks Userguide.

The Appearance tab provides access to the following:

  • Themes
  • Theme Options
  • Custom Styles

Themes

Pressbooks core has created 20 themes, each with different styles (font, headings, etc.) and features. These can be viewed and activated from navigating to the Appearance tab in the Dashboard menu and clicking “Themes.” Scrolling over a specific theme option reveals a Theme details box that, when clicked, describes the theme.

The BCcampus instance of Pressbooks provides eight of the 20 themes. They are:

  • Open Textbook
  • Austen Classic
  • Clarke
  • Donham
  • Fitzgerald
  • Jacobs
  • Luther
  • McLuhan

For more information, see Themes for Academic and Educational Texts and Theme Lock in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Theme Options

In Theme Options, you can customize the appearance and functionality of your entire book. There are four tabs on this page, with each affecting different parts of your book. It is suggested that Administrators “play” with these features during set up to understand how they work and to assist with decisions about which options to use. Options include the following (by tab):

Global Options

These will affect the entire book in all formats.

  • Parts and Chapters Numbers: Parts are numbered with Roman numerals and chapters are numbered with Arabic numbers.
  • Two-Level TOC: Enables a two-level table of contents (TOC). Headings marked as Heading 1 will display under chapter titles in the table of contents.
  • Language and Script Support (See Language and Script Support.)
  • Chapter Licenses: Offers choices about the display of copyright licences on export formats (none, at end of table of contents, at end of each chapter). The default is at end of table of contents.
  • Option to change the header, header background, and background colours of specialized textbooks (See Textboxes)
    • Examples
    • Exercises
    • Key Takeaways
    • Learning Objectives
Web Options
  • Enable Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+)
  • Webbook Width (narrow, standard, wide): Changes the width of text content in the webbook. The default setting for BCcampus Pressbooks instances is “standard.”
  • Paragraph Separation: Chose between “indent paragraphs” (which will have no spaces between paragraphs) and “skip lines between paragraphs” (which will have no indents).
  • Display Part Title: Have the part title displayed at the top of each chapter. This helps orients readers when they are reading a chapter.
  • Collapse Sections: Collapse all content under Heading 1 headings. See Collapsible Subsections for Webbook in the Pressbooks Userguide
  • Tabbed Content: When these features are turned on, tabs appear at the end of each chapter in the lower left-hand corner of each chapter.
    • Display revision history for each chapter with everyone.
    • Display book information for each chapter with everyone.revisionhist
  • Enable Image Lightbox. See Enabling and Using Lightboxes for Images in the Pressbooks Userguide.
PDF Options

These options apply to Digital and Print PDF exports.

  • Body Font Size: The default setting is 11 pt; heading sizes are proportional to the body font size and are affected by this setting.
  • Body Line Height: The default setting is 1.4 em.
  • Page Size: This drop-down list offers a variety of page sizes; the default setting is US Letter (8.5″ x 11″).
  • Margins: The settings for outside, inside, top, and bottom margins; default setting for each margin is 2 cm. Margins must be expressed in CSS-compatible units, e.g. ‘8.5in’ or ‘10cm’. IMPORTANT: If you plan to use a print-on-demand service, margins under 2cm on any side can cause your file to be rejected.
  • Hyphen: Enable hyphenation. See Typography: Hyphens in the Pressbooks Userguide.
Ebook Options

These options apply to EPUB and MOBI exports.

  • Ebook Start Point: Select that Ebook start point from a drop-down list of all chapters.
  • Paragraph Separation: Choose between “indent paragraphs,” which has no spaces between paragraphs (recommended for ebooks for more manageable reading on mobile devices), and “skip lines between paragraphs,” which does not use indents.
  • Compress Images: Reduce image size and quality (chosen by default) for more manageable reading on mobile devices.

For more information, see New Theme Options in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Custom Styles

Here is where you can customize the theme of your webbook, PDF files, and ebook files using CSS. See Customizing Your Exports with Custom Styles in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Export

Here is where you can export different files types for your book. See Export Files for details.

Plugins

Here is where you can enable different plugins:

  • H5P
  • Hypothesis
  • QuickLaTeX

Media

The Media tab is where all media for a book—images, videos, audio—are uploaded. Click “Add New” to upload media content or click “Library” to see and manage media you have uploaded previously. Media in the Library can be embedded or linked to in the content of your book. See Images and Files. And for more information, see Media and Image Editing in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Users

The Users tab is where a book Administrator can add other people to their book. (See Provide Access to Others.) It has the following options:

  • All Users
  • Add New
  • Your Profile

Tools

  • Import (See the Import heading below)
  • Search & Replace. This tool allows you to search for and replace text in your entire book. See Search and Replace in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Settings

The Settings tab contains numerous options for privacy and exporting and for displaying formulas with the LaTeX tool (used for rendering mathematical formulas).

  • Sharing & Privacy. See Privacy Settings: Making Parts of Book Private in the Pressbooks Userguide.
  • Export. Here is where you can manage your export settings.
  • Textbooks for PB (settings)
    • Search and Import settings
    • Settings for enabled plugins

Import

The Import tool pulls content into Pressbooks from various file types. (See Add Content.)

Textbooks for PB

The Textbook for PB (Pressbooks) panel contains tools for importing content from other open textbooks.

Textbooks for PB

This page defines open textbooks and other OER, lists their benefits, and describes the 5 Rs behind the CC or open-copyright licence. A link is provided to the Textbooks for Pressbooks settings page.

Search and Import

The Search and Import tool allows you to import content (whether it be an entire book or individual chapters) from books in the same or other instances of Pressbooks. (See Search and Import a Pressbooks File.)

Download Textbooks

The Download Textbooks tool allows Pressbooks users to download open textbooks directly from the B.C. Open Textbook Collection. This is a feature unique to the B.C. Faculty Pressbooks instance.

Learn more: