How to Build a Website Book
Website books, also referred to as online books, digital books or e-books, are becoming increasingly popular. The Internet makes it easy to disseminate digital information cheaply and quickly, prompting many indie publishers to opt for the electronic manuscript. The format is also gaining ground because it offers convenience to readers---consumers no longer have to drive to the bookstore to purchase a hard-copy book, as digital books are delivered instantaneously via Internet download.
Sensing this consumer trend, larger publishers have also hopped on the bandwagon. According to an Associated Press article, Random House has digitized thousands of books and plans to digitize thousands more in the near future. Another benefit to e-books is how easy they are to create; in just a few steps you can tap into this growing electronic market.
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Instructions
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1
Create your book using Microsoft Word 2007. Type the text as you normally would, inserting any pictures as necessary by clicking on the "Insert" tab in Microsoft Word---just be sure you have legal rights to use all the images and that your text is original.
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2
Add "anchors" to key parts of the book, allowing the user to click for instant scrolling to the anchor page. This is a very important feature of website books. Make sure your table of contents and index material contain clickable titles linked to appropriate pages for the reader's convenience. You can insert these anchors by highlighting the linkable text, then clicking the "Insert" tab, then clicking "Hyperlink," and finally clicking on "Place in This Document" and selecting the place in the book that you want to link to.
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Add hyperlinks to outside URLs, allowing users to navigate seamlessly to other website documents from your website book. Highlight the text you want to link, then click "Insert," select "Hyperlink," and type the desired website in the blank field near the bottom of the window.
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Proofread your document. This means more than just hitting the spell-check button. MS Word's spell checker can miss certain errors, so always scan with your own two eyes in addition to electronic spell checking.
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Click the "Office Button," located at the top left-hand side of the Microsoft Word 2007 screen. Mouse over "Save As" and select "PDF or XPS." This will open a new window.
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Type in the desired file name for your e-book and hit "Save."
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Upload your newly created PDF website book to your personal web page or blog for easy viewing.
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