Power Book

Hi smartwave, thanks for your interest in my software.

There are some customizations you can do directly from the XML configuration, but if you have Flash you can easily change the interface graphic (so even the buttons icons, or whatever you want), just editing the corresponding movieclips (everything in the fla library is well organized so it should be easy for you to find what you want to change).

About the pages slide:
no, sorry… that behaviour at the moment is not possible (and it’s a bit diifficult to achieve, since it would require major changes in the code).
But you always have the “zoom mode” (accessible just by clicking on a page when the magnify icon appears), which can show the pages one after the other like a slideshow (so no flipping there).

Hi garynaito, thanks for your purchase!

Do you mean the browser scrollbar?
That depends on the html page itself, and actually it should NEVER appear, since the Flash application area in the demo has been set to 100% height and width (and the Power Book has a fluid layout, so it will adapt to every dimension without the need of a scrollbar).
I am trying the demo here on Firefox and Safari, and I can see no differences (no scrollbar in both).

Can you please give me more details on this (or send me a screenshot)?

Hi sjbmedia, thanks for your purchase!

The XML MALFORMED error means that there is just a syntax error in your XML , which is usually something related with a node which is not closed, or the quotation marks (so it should be nothing releated with videos or other features of the Power Book).

From your text above I can see these quotation marks: ”
which are different from the standard ASCII : “
Please have a try changing them and let me know if it worked.

Hi iluukinha, you can insert any swf file as the content of a page. This interactive content will appear WITHIN a page, and it will automatically resize to “fit” your page or to “fill” it, depending on what you have set in the book options (by default the content will fill the page).

I don’t know exactly what you mean by “object”, but anything you put in the Power Book must be contained inside a page (or it will not be a book after all… ).
But a page can be much more than a simple “page”, so it can have interactive elements like buttons, windows, animations, etc…
A game, like any other interactive element, can be used as a page content, but complex interactive swfs (like a game) can become unpredictable in how they will work (for example if the overall frame rate or performance is not compromised, if it uses some particular libraries that can interfere with the main application, etc…).

Do you have a link I can check?
Which OS and Firefox version do you have? Are you testing your page online or offline?

It seems to be just a matter of paths (in this case the pages content folder you have set in the book XML ).
There should not be anything significantly different in Firefox… so in your case it’s difficult for me to help you better without being able to check your page.
I think that the error is nothing related with the application itself (since the Flash player is the same after all). You can check the uppercases/lowercases characters of your paths, javascript errors (if any script has been used in your page), html validation, etc…

Do you mean the size of the Power Book application area inside the web page, or the book dimensions inside the Power Book application area?

To set the application size in the web page it’s just a matter of html and css code (so, where and how you embed the swf, like any other normal Flash application).
Instead, the book size inside the Power Book area can be set through the book XML .
By default the book (and the application area as well) has a fluid layout, which mean that it will adapt to every dimension, but you can set the minimum width and height to match the maximum ones, so to have it fixed.
Please refer also to the help manual for more info about the various options.

Hi, thanks for your purchase!

The standalone version you can find in the package has been made with an “swf to exe” covertor (Zinc 3) and does exactly what you need, but the only way you can hide your data files is to set them as “hidden” files in your CD (not the best protection anyway, I understand).
Or you can try using your own “swf to exe” convertor and then try to include the data files inside the package (Zinc can do that for example).
I haven’t tried this yet but it should work (just remeber that in that case the XML files must be in the same path as the swf, and must be called with their original names). And, if you are doing this, don’t use the standard swf… you need to recompile a new one starting from the “PowerBook_CS5(ZINC).fla” you can find in the “source” folder. That fla compiles the Power Book specifically for an “swf to exe” convertor, resolving the error you have seen.

Hope this helps you!

Hi meilenstein, thanks for your purchase!

Sorry, my fault… I forgot to include the CS4 fla in the 1.25 package. Already sent an update some days ago to ActiveDen but it’s still in the queue.
Please write me an email through my profile or website so I will send you a download link right now.

Hi again, the update has been approved right now on ActiveDen, so if you download again the package you should find the CS4 fla as well.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi johnmg, thanks for your interest in my software,

yes, you can easily add custom buttons to the toolbar (just thorugh XML ), which means buttons with your own custom symbol (loaded from a jpg, png or swf) that can: open an external link, open a book page, or call a javascript callback.

So, using them you have at least two choices:
create a sort of “about us” page in the book and then send to that page when the user clicks that button. Or, through a javascript callback for example, open a popup/lightbox with your content. There are plenty of js scripts you can use (i.e: shadowbox, prettyPhoto, etc..) to create a nice lightbox popup that goes temporarily over your application. Its content in that case will just be an html+css normal page (so you can also load images inside of it, or whatever you want).

Hi John,
unfortunately, as every other Flash application, you cannot see it within the iOS default browser Safari, because there is no Flash plugin for that browser (and it never will I fear).
So, if you plan to use a Flash flip book in your webpage, and the iOS compatibiliy is important to you, you need to give the users a no-Flash alternative version of your book (maybe simpler, maybe just a pdf… it’s up to you).

Hi InrDmons, thanks for your interest in my application.

I have answered just now to the previous comment about iOS compatibility
Short answer: unfortunately not, it cannot work on iOS devices.

Anyway, Power Book comes also in a standalone (exe and app) version, so that you can use it offline (on a CD/DVD as well). It can run on Windows and Mac OS X .
The standalone version is basically the same, except for some functionalities that cannot work offline, like email sending, share and file download.

Just purchased your product because it looks amazing and appears to have many features I will want to use. After purchasing, I have downloaded and extracted all files to my USB stick (also tried on my Desktop). I am currently on a Mac so I have tried loading the Standalone Mac Power Book App file; however, I keep getting this error message: ERROR PARSING THE XML FILE : ‘file:////User…(directory stuff)...Mac/global.xml’ XML MALFORMED

Is there something within the files that I have to change or should it just work right out of the box? Also, now that I have purchased your product, will I be able to download newer versions as they come or will I have to purchase the latest?

Hi, thanks for your purchase

The 2 XMLs contained in the deploy folder are just empty (with just the basic options and no data to load), so you need to edit them and put some pages to your book to see something.
To have a try with a working book please copy the “app” to the DEMO folder (inside “demos and extras”). If you launch the application there you will see the demo book running in standalone.

<Music url="yourFile.mp3" volume="50" auto_play="false"/>

Hi smartwave,
when compiling the swf from the fla have you moved it or is the “com” folder (containing all the AS code) still in the same path as the fla?

If this is not the case maybe you have changed something wrong in the fla, removing for example an instance name to a movieclip or similar, something that the AS code cannot find anymore (it seems to be something releated to the toolbar, so the toolbar itself or a button).

Please have a check comparing your fla with the original one, looking also for instance names changes (the name set in the properties panel of a movieclip, when you click on it).
If you still cannot sort this out please send me your modified fla so I can check it. The final swf size should be similar… maybe just slightly different if you have removed or added some graphic.

Hi ebrana,

1) You have to wait so much because your book loads all the pages sequentially starting from page 1, so if you skip to the last pages you have to wait for the other 200 and more pages to be fully loaded.
You should try the new Pages option preload (added in v.1.25) which will let you decide how many pages to preload at start. By default its value is “all”, which loads all the pages at start as it is now. But, if you set this value for example to “10”, only 10 pages will be actually loaded at start… so if you then skip to page 200, that page will be loaded immediately, since no other pages are in the loading queue.
Please have a look at the help manual for more details on this.

If you still experience that the pages took much time to load plase try reducing your pages source files dimensions as much as possible (especially the “normal” version files, if you are using different versions for the zoom and the normal mode, which I suggest you to do I you haven’t done yet).

2) I need to check this, so I can modify it in the next release.
I would like also to add a scrollbar mode for the Summary, so that the user can scroll it also with a normal scrollbar, instead of mouse movement.
In the meanwhile please try to reduce the length of your summary as much as possible, especially at start, organizing all the content in subchapters if possible, and closing them, so that the users will only open what they need.

ok, this seems just a bug of the zoom mode movement… I will fix this as soon as possible.
Besides, I was not able to replicate the “blue screen” problem (and your dropbox link does not work) ...I will try anyway to make more tests on this too.

In the meanwhile please send me an email, so I can send you a modified swf as soon as it is ready!

Hi yassinenet, thanks for your purchase!
Please send me an email through my profile here or my website, so I can send you a download link for the swf with Arabic characters.

Hi LordCemOnur, thanks for your interest in my software.

The answer to all of your questions is always “yes”
You can configure or disable almost all the interface elements thorugh the XML config files (global.xml and book.xml).
And for the zoom you can disable it globally or just for each page individually.

Hi truptipawar, sorry for the delay of my answer… I am currently working on v.1.3, so I was waiting to complete some of the new features to be able to answer you more precisely.

1.3 will have for sure the multiple books support within the same Power Book instance (so with a book selection gallery as well), which is almost complete. And then some other minor but nice new options for the background and the slideshow.
I will try to include also the multuple text modules in the same page as well, but I still have to work on that.
I think I will postpone the Images Gallery module until v.1.35 or 1.4, so to be able to release 1.3 this week or the next one.

Anyway.. if you purchase the software now you will be always able to download it again from here, so to download newer versions when they are released (in the end you are buying an usage license, so untill you are not using it or using it in the same project, you do not need to buy it again).

Hello and thanks for the reply CyberLeaf.

Glad to tell you that we have purchased your component with my senior’s account. User name is ‘witsinteractive’.

Hope to see more great feature of this component soon. Good luck!

Hi Helios06fr, thanks for your purchase!

Creating “tutorial videos” would be a very nice idea, but since they require a bit of time to be created, I think I will be able to work on them only when Power Book reaches at least v.1.4 (so when almost all of the features I would like to include are implemented).

What are the topics anyway where you have more doubts, or where you need assistance the most? Topics maybe not covered in the help manual or in the FAQ here.

To localize the application in French you just need to edit all the “english texts” in the XMLs (especially the global.xml where the interface is defined).
For the windows for example (i.e: Share, Contacts, Info, etc…) you can set their title, button tooltip and even the form labels just though the global XML (Interface node), which you can edit with any text editor.