Chapter 2: Best practices

Accessibility is important to think about even before you start a project. Before writing your book, think through some basic content and design options. By doing this, you can start to infuse accessibility throughout the book from the beginning.

As you plan your book, we recommend deciding how you’ll get your content into Pressbooks. Choose an option now and stay consistent as you write.

Stage 1. Choose an import option

• Option 1: Import your file. Recommended! Pressbooks allows you to import your content from several different file format options, including a Word document (.docx), EPUB (.epub), or web page (HTML or URL). If your content is in a Google Doc, we recommend converting it to a .docx file first. Pressbooks will then process your file and give you the opportunity to label the different sections appropriately.
  • Good when… You already have most of your content in an accepted format.
  • Note: In order to use this feature to its fullest purpose, you’ll need to ensure that document is formatted correctly with headings and other styles.
  • Read more about the import process in Pressbooks.
  • Coming soon! Download our Word document template to use when writing.
• Option 2: Write directly in Pressbooks. When using this option, you’ll use Pressbook tools to organize and format your content as you write it rather than doing it in a different program.
  • Good when… You are familiar and comfortable with Pressbooks tools.
  • Review the options for “Add & Organize Book Content” in the Pressbooks User Guide for more information.
• Option 3: Copy into Pressbooks. Using this option, you can write and format your content in another program and then copy and paste into your Pressbooks sections.
  • Good when… Your book will have different authors for individual chapters.
  • Pros: Use a program you’re familiar with, and your formatting should follow over.
  • Cons: You’ll need to review the results to ensure everything copied over appropriately — so it may be a time-intensive process.
  • Read the instructions for Copy & Paste from Another Source.

By deciding how you’ll bring your content into Pressbooks now, the hope is that you’ll spend less time remediating your book and getting it ready to be published, and more time working on the content itself.

Next, we recommend reviewing your options available in Pressbooks and make a plan before starting to write or remediate your content.

Stage 2. Content organization

• Review Pressbook options — read through the Pressbooks User Guide to understand the different options available
  • Front matter (like About This Book, Acknowledgements, or Preface)
  • Back matter (like appendices, Versioning History, or Contact Us)
  • Footnote options
  • Glossary options
• Think about book organization
  • Decide on naming conventions (e.g., Figure 1.1 vs. Image 1.1)
  • Parts vs. Chapters
  • Chapter labels
• Sitename (URL) cannot be changed later – be sure of your choice!
• Decide on including any interactive features
  • Using Hypothesis
  • Using H5P content
• Keep your book private until fully complete

Stage 3. Plan for accessibility

Instead of remediating your book after the fact, we recommend implementing accessibility from the start. Read ahead to learn more about what you can do while creating your book.

Read through the U of A’s Pressbooks author guide for more general/introductory information.