Uploading your book to Dropbox’s free cloud storage is a really quick way to share your book with your friends, family or students. To get started first install the free Dropbox app onto your iPad, and create an account with Dropbox. Once the app is installed you’ll see “Open in Dropbox” appear next to “Open in iBooks” in Book Creator.
Opening your book in Dropbox will upload it to your cloud storage and from there you can email or copy a link to your book for sharing.
And the best bit about it – the people you share with don’t need to be Dropbox users. They can just tap on the link and open your book straight into their iBooks app.
Troubleshooting
If “Open in Dropbox” doesn’t appear in Book Creator after installing the Dropbox app then check if there are already 10 apps listed in the “Open in…” section. The iPad will only display up to 10 apps in this list, so you may need to uninstall some of the other apps listed before Dropbox appears.
Using Dropbox to store unfinished versions of our student’s Book Creator work has solved the problem of loosing someone’s work. I also like the ability in Dropbox to set up folders for different classrooms. Note: When transferring unfinished books to Dropbox, there is a screen message indicating this file cannot be read. That message made me think that the work was not being saved. However it was being saved and when the file is uploaded to Book Creator any changes made sirnce the previous version have been saved and students can resume their work. Thanks Dan!
I’ve been really enjoying the app. I downloaded it earlier this week and am working on an enhanced photo book. I have been exporting to Dropbox and iBooks with all my test copies, but now that I have replaced the original audio files with ones recorded on my voice recorder and added video content, it will no longer export. It crashes during export. The project is now about 380MB. Could that be the problem or is it possible that the video files or audio are causing problems?
Hi Tony,
The iPad seems to have a built in limit of about 350MB for the largest size it can transfer between apps. It looks like you have hit this limit. Try exporting to iTunes on your computer, dragging the book into your iTunes Book library, and re-synching your iPad. That should work around the limit and put larger books into your iBooks app for previewing.
If that works ok, then in Book Creator you could split your book into multiple books of a smaller size, test them like normal, and then once you’re ready ‘combine’ them into your final large book, and export via iTunes for a final test.
Hope that makes sense!
Dan
Hi!
I’ve been trying to open my book in both Bluefire reader and Dropbox. I can open it in Bluefire but the pages doesn’t look like they should. I can’t open it at all in Dropbox but it has been saved… I only have two apps listed in “Open in…” section. Can you please help me?
Hi Annelie,
For Bluefire reader I suspect that app isn’t supporting fixed layout epub files yet. That would explain why the layout isn’t the same. For now I recommend opening your book in iBooks.
For Dropbox if you tap on the download icon for your epub file (this is a downward arrow into a box) you should see at least “Open in Book Creator” and “Open in iBooks”. If “Open in iBooks” isn’t showing just ensure you have this installed from the App Store.
Hope that helps,
Dan
The iBooks limit is something that we all need to be wary of when we are creating our books.
Use a photo editor like Photoshop elements to save you pic for the web (use “save for web” function) and cut down considerably on the image size.
An example would be 10 photos at 2 mb reduced to 10 photos at 247kb a massive difference especially when you have loads of photos. Video should always be as short as possible.
No fun getting an iBook that your iPad will not even attempt to open. I know.
I have several iBooks sent to me via dropbox and other storage clouds but I am unable to open them because I have so many great apps on it there is no room.
Maybe Apple ought to focus on storage expansion cos even 64gb is not big enough for me working in lots of schools as an independent.
Or perhaps we had better stop inventing such great apps and ibooks and go back to paper – doh! I jest of course.
Do you plan on adding the capability to open and save a book to Google Drive? This is deal breaker for us as we decide on a book making platform.
Jon,
Full support for Google Drive is there right now. With the Google Drive app installed you will see “Open in Google Drive” in Book Creator, and you can also import your books back from Google Drive into Book Creator on any iPad.
Hope that helps,
Dan
I’ve uploaded my book (via book creator) to Dropbox but once it’s downloaded it then informs me it’s unable to open the book.
Help?
Paul
Hi Paul,
It is a slightly misleading message, which just means Dropbox isn’t able to preview it. Instead tap on the download icon on the Dropbox app’s toolbar (which is an arrow going into a tray) and then you should see options to “Open in iBooks” to read your book and “Open in Book Creator” for further editing, provided you have these apps installed.