Adding Textbooks to the Guide
First, you will add a Division Name Box (if necessary). You will then add a box for each title. Please add titles in the order they appear on the spreadsheet. If a Division has more than one department, you'll need to add a box to head each department's titles. For example, the Social Science Division has 7 departments while other lists have only 1 department.
Please reference Social Sciences Free Online Textbooks. if you would like an example.
Prequel - The Department Name
Access the Google Sheet you are working from. If there are multiple departments on the Google Sheet you will ultimately create a header-type box for each department. If there are not multiple departments, skip these steps. For each header needed, do the following.
- Add a box.
- Make the Box Name the same as the department name.
- Do not check any boxes, so that this header box remains visible.
- Save. That is all that is done with this box. It will not have content.
Part 1 - The textbook.
- Access the Google Sheet and copy the ISBN number.
- Add a Box and make the Box Name the title of the textbook. This box should not be visible so click the "Floating Box" option. Save.
- You should now have a gray box with the Book Title. Below the Book Title is a dropdown menu where you will select "Book from the Catalog" which brings up a window for book data.
- Enter the ISBN copied in Step 1 into the ISBN field. Click "Get Book Info."
- This should bring up the necessary information. If it doesn't, see Challenges below. Most titles will work. If the only error is a lack of Cover Art, use the Cover Art dropdown menu to select a Default book cover. You can update the Cover Art later, using the instructions in the Challenges section.
- "Get Book Info" will populate some of the fields. Confirm the title and author fields. Truncate the date field to just the year. Delete the description.
- Go back to the Google Sheet and click through to the Textbook supply source. Please make sure you get to an address that is for the actual textbook title. You may need to login to some sources to get that far. Copy the destination URL.
- Go back to the CampusGuide and paste the destination URL into the "Get Book Info" URL field.
- Change the cover art graphic to the "Medium - 140 pixels wide" option.
- Save
Part 2: The "Available Through" link.
Our students are accessing textbooks through numerous sources: VitalSearch, RedShelf, OpenStax, Internet Archive, and GCC's e-resources. Each title needs a link to the directions for creating an account and accessing the title from each resource. The link is a button located below the Cover Art image. Please use the following process to add these linked buttons. The images and links for each resource are located below. The VitalSource button is the example, but the process works for any image.
To add the "Available through Vital Source" button and link.
- From the dropdown menu located below the newly-added title book jacket image, open the Rich Text/HTML editor.
- In the editor, click on the image icon then "Browse Server."
- Use the green button labeled "Upload New Image" to upload the appropriate button image from where you previously downloaded it. (See Organize Your Resources above.) You only have to upload the image one time.
- To reuse an image, after clicking "Browse Server," get the image from your library. It is not intuitive, but make sure to click on the image icon below the image rather than the image itself. This will bring it up in the Image Properties Preview window.
- The "Available through Vital Source" button should now appear in the Image Properties preview window.
- Set the Width to 150 (the proportions are locked, so the height should follow. If not, set Height to 86.)
- Set the HSpace to 15.
- Within the Image Properties box where you are, there is a second tab labeled "Link" which you can use to add a link to the image.
- Select the "Link" tab. Enter the VitalSource information link from below. This will link to GCC directions, not to VitalSource itself.
- Below the URL field is a dropdown menu labeled Target. Select the "New Window" option. Click OK.
- You should be back in the Rich Text editor and able to see the VitalSource button. Click shift+return to make a hard return.
- Add a horizontal line by clicking on the hamburger-looking icon in the same box as the image icon.
- Click Save & Close
- You should now see your title cover with the title information next to it and the "Available through" information below it. The title, book jacket and "available through" button should all be clickable.
Congratulations! You have added a title and the "available through" information.
- View your CampusGuide with the Preview Tool after adding the first title to see what the user will see. Make adjustments as necessary. Check the preview every few titles.
- Sometimes when you hit the back button to return to the Editing Guide view, it's an old version of your Edited Guide. This can be alarming because it looks like your work is lost. It is not lost. Refresh the page and your work should be there.
- Follow these same steps for RedShelf, OpenStax, or the Internet Archive. For our own OneSearch, copy the actual link used for the specific title.
- It is tedious, but every time you add an "Available through" image, you have to format it and create the link again.
- Peggy has worked out a more elegant method. (Thank you!). If you're comfortable with basic HTML editing, please try the following
- Since we do these same steps each time, it follows that the HTML that is created for each image/link will be the same each time. Therefore, once we have done the steps one time we can retrieve that HTML, save it for later, and paste it in when we need it.
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Here's how. For each source (VitalSource, RedShelf, etc.): do the steps above, creating the image/link
- open the image/link in edit mode
- click on the 'source' button to the right of the dialog box. This displays the HTML source code.
- copy this code
- paste it somewhere (word processor, notes app) and label it for the publisher and save it
You only have to do the two sets of steps above one time. Then once you have the HTML for each source, when you need to insert the image
- click on add/reorder box
- select image/HTML
- click on the source button
- paste in the appropriate HTML for VitalSource, RedShelf or whatever is appropriate
- save
Do this only if you feel comfortable with what you are up to. And test it.
- To add the next title, repeat the above steps, starting at Part 1. If you need to start a new department, repeat the above steps, starting at the Prequel.