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3 Excellent Tools to Create Interactive Posters and Visuals for Your Class | Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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3 Excellent Tools to Create Interactive Posters and Visuals for Your Class | Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Interactive visuals are great learning and teaching materials to use with your students in the classroom. From explaining difficult processes to visual brainstorming, interactive graphics are a good way to consolidate students learning and promote their comprehension. Below are three of the web tools I would recommend for creating interactive visuals, I know there are several other titles to add to this list but the ones below are, in my view, more student-friendly and simpler to use.

I love this web tool. Thinglink allows you to bring life to your pictures and make them interactive through adding to them links, videos, music, and text. Your images can either be uploaded to your Thinglink account either from your hard drive or import them from the web, Flickr or Facebook. ThingLink images are also shareable, and embeddable, with a click to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and email.

This is another wonderful web tool to create interactive visuals and posters for your Class. PiktoChart provides you with a number of templates to choose from and allows you to customize them the way you want. It also lets you add links to images and text embedded in your templates. Your final image is shareable through popular social media networks or via download. However, the free version is limited in terms of how many templates you are offered and also in terms of the number of image uploads you are permitted.

Glogster is a social network that allows users to create free interactive posters, or Glogs. A "Glog", short for "graphics blog", is an interactive multimedia image.Glogster empowers educators and students with the technology to create online multimedia posters - with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more.

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3 Excellent Tools to Create Interactive Posters and Visuals for Your Class

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Interactive visuals are great learning and teaching materials to use with your students in the classroom. From explaining difficult processes to visual brainstorming, interactive graphics are a good way to consolidate students learning and promote their comprehension.

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Book Creator - the simple way to create beautiful ebooks - Book Creator app

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Book Creator - the simple way to create beautiful ebooks - Book Creator app

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Book Creator - Love Learning - Book Creator app

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Teachers love it. Students love it. Book Creator is the simplest, most inclusive way to create content in the classroom.

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How To Make A Digital Flipbook (Simple Step-By-Step Guide)

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How To Make A Digital Flipbook (Simple Step-By-Step Guide)

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In this blog post, you will learn how to make a digital flipbook, as these interactive documents are an incredibly useful tool for engaging your readers.

In addition to beautiful design, captivating images and useful snippets of text, interactive flipbooks include features such as links, animations, and videos to keep readers engaged and interested.

This is good.

Very good actually, as engaged readers are more likely to buy from you.

Furthermore, you can include forms and pop-ups to get in touch with your audience.

Use it for valuable communication long after they have left your catalog, brochure or magazine again.

Users enjoy the experience of flipping pages and exploring the interactive features. It helps to keep them engaged with the subject matter for longer and to give them a positive impression of your brand.

If you can't wait, feel free to try out our platform for free - no strings attached!

Learn how to make a digital flipbook yourself. (It's easy peasy, our system will guide you through. And if you're lost, our Customer Care team is ready to help you).

Rune is just as smiling on the phone, so don't hesitate to call.
How to Use Interactive Flipbooks

Interactive flipbooks can be used in numerous ways. For both B2C and B2B.

Use an interactive flipbook to

display your range of products in a catalog format

design a brochure that showcases your services

present your otherwise static and dull PDFs in a new and engaging way

accelerate sales for B2B with optimized search functionality

create customized proposals/brochures for potential and existing customers and partners with their exact logo, preferences and price list.

save time on search in long documents

easily and instantly update heavy product catalogs

create an educational flipbook that offers the reader an enriched learning experience

ensure responsiveness on all platforms and devices

capture the impatient online consumer

convert browsing into sales with direct e-commerce

drive conversions via user engagement

ensure fast load time

collect leads via forms and pop-ups for continuous communication with interested users - and potential customers

No matter your industry, you can benefit from engaged reader experiences in your online documents.

Use it to present your products or services to the end user or to save time internally with instantly updated content with high search functionality and responsiveness.

We mostly use the iPaper internally for our partners, which are B2B. It makes our work so much easier, as we no longer have to update various documents and PDF's. Now we only send out iPapers, and we just change the links in them and they are instantly up-to-date. This eases our work considerably.

States Marketing Manager; Viktorija Jasiuleviciute from Decoflame

However, you choose to use it, adding interactive features will help you boost engagement among your target audience.

Learn how this B2B company made the transition from print to digital "

Now, you might be wondering?

Which type of content can I create with a digital flipbook?

Tons!

You probably already have the basics at hand - if you - like most companies - save your documents as static PDF-files.

It can be anything from annual reports to fancy magazines to product heavy catalogs.

I'll show you more examples. Read this blog post with 16 different examples of how others, such as BESTSELLER, MUELLER Company, and Range Rover use digital flipbooks to engage their audience:

Quick overview: what can you create with digital flipbooks?

How to Make a DIGITAL Flipbook

So lets' get to it. How to make a digital flipbook in practice?

When you have the right software, making a digital flipbook is a relatively straightforward process that is within the reach of any online publisher, marketer or even your student worker can do it!

However, creating one that is as engaging as it can be, takes careful design and consideration.

Follow these simple steps on how to make a digital flipbook to make an interactive experience that will wow your audience.

Step 1: Create a PDF

The first step in creating a beautiful and fascinating interactive flipping book is to create a PDF that contains all the essential content of your publication.

WHAT TO keep IN MIND WHEN MAKING YOUR PDF

Designing and exporting for an online publication is different than for print.

It's essential that your work looks sharp and attractive across all screen sizes and devices while maintaining fast loading times.

Fortunately, a digital iPaper loads much faster than most PDF's.

Also, when designing for online, it's important to keep in mind that your publication will be displayed entirely on screens.

Therefore, size matters.

A4 size (210x297mm) pages or 210x280mm will yield good results across devices.

A square format (e.g. 280x280mm) will utilize more screen space on desktop/laptop monitors but might not provide an equal experience on mobile devices in portrait mode.

As a big plus, you are not limited by printing costs, and hence, can make your PDF soon to be flipbook, with as many pages as you like.

To optimize your results across all screen sizes we recommend exporting your PDF at 150 pixels per inch.

It has to be easy to read.

Hence, choose the font wisely.

Serif or sans-serif? Designers love to argue on this topic but fortunately, with today's screens, many fonts will do. Also Serif fonts, which were originally intended for print.

Just make sure that you choose the right size of the font, so it doesn't look smudged on the screen.

In below screenshot from Medium, you can see how a serif font works perfectly well on screen (and even better on their blog, where it bigger than here).

Links are important in your digital flipbooks. Today's online consumers expect to be able to click through documents.

If you've created bookmarks in InDesign they can be imported directly into your Flipbook as an index.

You can also create links (external links, internal page links & email links) in InDesign which can be imported directly into your Flipbook as active links (requires the Link Media module).

Don't worry.

If you haven't any links in your PDF, you can easily make them within the flipbook platform.

All underlined text in another color should be marked as a link, as it's universally understood as a link - especially if the text is blue.

In below example, the blue body text can't be clicked.

I would have expected it to be a link.

How about you?

The same applies if you for any reason has made part of the body text blue without underlining it. It is still perceived as a link.

Make sure to make links on:

1. all underlined text in another color

2. blue body text

3. website addresses

4. social media icons

5. referrals to other pages

6. referrals for "see more" or "visit xxx", or "click here", etc.

When making a digital flipbook, you should make room for engaging elements such as video and animation when making your PDF.

This means some white space, where you intend the enrichment to be.

Otherwise, you can end up with a publication that is too noisy to look at.

A good example is this from SKANSKA. Here the cup is inserted as an animation where the white space is.

Had there been text underneath, it wouldn't have worked.

As so visually captured by Semrush:

No need to expand on this in writing, as you probably won't remember it anyway...

Add images and use bullet lists to break up your text so that the reader is never overwhelmed with a dense wall of text.

Learn tricks of the trade with this free eBook about designing for digital "

Now with your PDF in place (size, readability, links, white space and images) let's move on to step 2.

Step 2: Convert PDF to Flipbook

You can use a digital publishing platform to convert your PDF to a flipbook.

This action turns a standard PDF document into a flipping book.

You can embed it into your website, allowing users to quickly flip forward and backward through the pages to find the information they need.

Some digital publishing platforms stop at this stage.

But you can mark yourself out as an expert flipbook creator by taking the time to add interactive features. Features that engage your readers and encourage them to keep reading.

Let's take a look at how to make a digital flipbook by adding interactive features that work together to enrich the reader's experience.

Step 3: Add Interactive Features

Consider adding these features to your basic flipping book to make it more interesting to interact with:

Links:

Add hyperlinks that your readers can click on to learn more about particular topics.

Or links that make you jump to another page.

For example, you can add links to pages on your site where readers can purchase the products they click on.

You can also choose to make your audience shop directly from your catalog.

Pop-ups:

Give your readers the option of reading extra information by including pop-ups with additional content or images on your pages.
These boxes can contain text, image galleries or web pages, allowing your readers to explore a broad range of information without ever leaving your flipbook.

Or create a pop-up for collecting leads. Make your readers sign-up to your newsletter, customer club or blog directly from your catalog.

See example here:

Forms:

Forms are great for:

Consumer surveys

Online competitions and drawings

Newsletter sign-ups

Or like in below example for ordering flyers to a campaign:

For detailed instructions on how to make a form within the iPaper platform, click here "

Animations:

Animate some of your pages, so they move, fade in or zoom in as your reader looks at them.

When users turn to a page and see that it is moving, they are likely to stop and pay attention.
See examples of animations here:

Videos:

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video must be worth even more.

Using iPaper, you can embed videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo or your server into your online publication.

eCommerce:

Catch your readers and turn them from browsers to customers directly from the flipbook by using eCommerce.

You can either link to your webshop or even better let them shop directly from your catalog.

Get to know more about shoppable content in this blog post "

i

Paper's eCommerce solution has taken our digital outreach to a new level, making our campaign leaflets more useful, fun and effective for our customers.

The combination of iPaper eCommerce and the 'click & collect' functionality enables the customer to get inspired, read about a certain product, check if the books are in stock at their local shop and reserve - all at the same time, in the same publication.

We are very happy with iPapers eCommerce solution, and with the flexibility iPaper has shown to adapt the solution to our needs.

Caroline Heitmann, M arket and eCommerce Manager, Norli Libris AS.

When you use iPaper, you can add any of these features without having any advanced technical skills.

Once you've uploaded your PDF, explore the range of functions that are available to add with just a few clicks.

STEP 4: PROMOTE IT

Now you're done with your engaging flipbook, and it's time to let the world know about it!

You can do the following:

Remember - sharing is caring!

See how Yves Rocher Italia has success with sharing their digital flipbook on their Facebook page. Every time they upload a new catalog, it goes viral.

It's the most shared content and within a few weeks, the digital flipbook became their no. 1. brand communication tool.

STEP 5: EVALUATE AND OPTIMIZE

Remember to evaluate on your publication.

Use the heat map to see where people click.

Do they click on unclickable items?

If yes, then make sure to make them clickable with links for your next catalog.

P.S. A little insider tip: people tend to zoom in on fact boxes.

You can also use the following tools to analyze your publications and optimize accordingly:

★ Google Tag Manager (GTM)

★ Google Analytics

★ Facebook Tracking Pixel

Conclusion on How to make a digital flipbook

Creating an interactive flipping book is an excellent way to engage audiences and keep them on your site.

The good news:

It isn't difficult at all.

Use a digital publishing platform, like iPaper, to make your first flipping book and explore the range of interactive features that help you to communicate more effectively with your readers.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Make a PDF

2. Convert PDF to Flipbook (easy upload)

3. Add interactive features

4. Promote it on all platforms

5. Evaluate and optimize

For more info on how to make a digital flipbook, SEO-optimization, lead generation etc. please visit our resource page.

Or click here if you can't wait to make your own flipbook.

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How To Make A Digital Flipbook (Simple Step-By-Step Guide)

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In this blog post, you will learn how to make a digital flipbook, as these interactive documents are an incredibly useful tool for engaging your readers. In addition to beautiful design, captivating images and useful snippets of text, interactive flipbooks include features such as links, animations, and videos to keep readers engaged and interested.

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How to create an interactive ebook: A step-by-step guide

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How to create an interactive ebook: A step-by-step guide

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Ebooks are the current expanding trend in education and publishing. Add interactivity on top of that, and you've got yourself a top-notch product that won't be going away anytime soon; one that is sure to put you ahead of the game. This comprehensive guide will lead you on the journey to learn how to create an interactive ebook, as well as publish the ebook to different platforms. We will start together from defining what you want to create, to choosing your preferred online and offline tool, with the occasional suggestions and warnings.

Learning how to create an interactive ebook is simple, but let us start first by defining the concept of "interactive ebooks". Clearly this term has been over used in past years by publishers who think that inserting a moving picture in their ebook would deem it "interactive". Well, they are not at fault here but it just sounds quite silly given that they didn't even scratch the tip of the interactive iceberg. With current technologies like HTML5 and EPUB 3.0 you can go way beyond a digital moving picture - provide experiences rich with videos, audio and even touch-based games if you like. All inside the same ebook.

And that's how we would rather define interactivity. This guide is divided into 5 steps:

1) Setting your target

2) Preparing interactive ebook content and material

3) Online services and websites to prepare your interactive ebook

4) Ebook creators and editors to build your interactive ebook

5) Publishing and distributing your interactive ebook

So want to learn how to create an interactive ebook? Let's jump right in then!

Defining the Platform

As a company in the ebook creator business, we receive many requests from customers wanting to create interactive ebooks. They have a clear plan of their ebook, and most times the content is ready. However, when we ask what platform/devices they are targeting for publishing, all that can be heard is the chirping of crickets. Wanting an ebook is not enough. Since your ebook will be targeting a certain audience, its important to know how to reach them. The end-product should be clear and well-defined. Here is some options for defining the platform/device to put in consideration.

As a web app on your personal website. Your readers will simply visit a certain URL in their web browser to start reading

Mobile app, to publish on the respective app stores. The ebook will have its own dedicated icon and name, in the app menu

Desktop app, to distribute by email or on hard media. The ebook will run independently without requiring a certain reader software

A component to publish on your school or university's LMS (learning management system). Interactive ebooks are a serious added value when it comes to education

An EPUB file to give away independently, or publish to popular ebook stores (Apple iBooks, Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, etc.)

Updates

Since most people are aware that usually no content is final or absolute. You may decide to make edits after publishing. You need to understand how updates are reflected on the platform you chose. For instance, if you publish your ebook on your personal website, updating that ebook is a straight forward approach. Unlike if you have chosen to publish on mobile or LMS.

Paid or Free

It's not a must, but deciding early on whether your ebook will be available for free or through purchasing will give you different ideas for promoting and marketing your ebook.

Why is this essential?

If you think this will affect the ebook in terms of quality, you're wrong - you should always aim for a higher quality nonetheless. Free ebook get the highest downloads on any ebook store. As for sales, a credible study done by Smashwords showed that ebook prices falling within the range of $.299 to $3.99 get the highest sales. Sounds like peanuts? Never compare prices of ebooks with printed books. There is no overhead when it comes to publishing ebooks - they can be reproduced infinitely. If the purpose of your ebook is to promote an idea, it may be better to offer it for free, otherwise choose a reasonable price. A popular marketing strategy when it comes to selling ebooks is to publish a free excerpt of one of your chapters. This is something to have in mind in the early stages.

Marketing budgets and resources

Your ebook will not be sold off shelves in dozens (metaphorically speaking) as soon as you publish it. Without a good marketing budget paired with patience and effort, chances are people will not get to read it. You can't sell your ebook if no one knows it exists. Unfortunately, there isn't a recipe for successful ebook marketing. You need to create awareness however and whenever you can.

Reader Interface Branding

If you decide to publish your ebook on platform with a ready built reader, like iBooks or Kindle, you won't be able to change anything in the reader's interface. But, if you choose to publish the ebook in the form of a mobile app, web app or desktop app then you'll have full access to even build your reader from the ground up if you deem fit.

Why care about a Reader interface?

The upside of going through the trouble of creating your own reader within your platform of choice is the ability to brand it and theme it for your audience. This would be perfect for companies that have their trademark that need to be in tune with the look and feel of the interface. On the other hand, if you are creating an ebook for the mass public without strictly sticking to a target audience, then accepting an external reader is okay for you.

There are a number of gotchas to watch out for here. The majority of ebook users rely on mobile devices, so you must optimize content for that. It's simple to just convert your ready-made PDF into an ebook, but is that the best option there is? Let's take a close look at the two ebook layouts: fixed layout and reflowable layout.

Fixed Layout

Simply speaking, this means that every aspect of your layout will remain the same no matter which device it's viewed on. Think of websites that are not optimized for mobile viewing (a rare currency these days), do you see how they extend beyond the boundaries of the screen and you have to either zoom out to see the whole thing or scroll vertically and horizontally, yes? Well, that is basically how a fixed layout in ebooks would behave, it will not optimize the content based on the viewing device.

When to choose the fixed layout?

And although this may sound like an outdated technology, it's actually more practical for desktop usage or even some LMSs that deny mobile access. Also it would produce more accurate results if you're creating magazines, comics, or storybooks.

Reflowable Layout

The second type of layout optimizes the content for the viewing screen's dimensions. It makes a strong distinction between content and design allowing content freedom with text-wrapping and rescaling.

When to choose reflowable layout?

This is the more popular form of layouts and for a reason of course, that is viewing versatility. It's preferable to use this at all times unless of course it's crucial to preserve the layout.

Ebook Assets

Once you choose your layout. Have your media content ready: images, MP4 video, MP3 audio, widgets, etc. Optimize images as much as you can, since many ebook publishing platforms have limitations with media. Apple iBooks Store for instance does not accept images greater than 5MB in size, or 4 megapixels in area. If your ebook is an online app (relying on internet bandwidth), large sized images taken straight from a digital camera without optimizing, can really lag down performance and cost you visitors. In the next section we'll take a closer loo at some helpful sites that can make this task a breeze.

There are services that can do a lot of the manual work for you for a fee. They can handle the heavy work such as scanning a hardcopy book, designing your ebook cover, formatting your document for ebook readers, and creating custom interactivity. Just watch out: as many websites (not on this list) claim to offer interactive ebook conversion services, where they actually mean digital, not interactive. There are literally hundreds of online services in this industry, but here is a list of the most popular and useful ones to keep handy.

By mailing a hard-copy book to 1dollarscan, you can get your book converted into a PDF for as low as 1 dollar. This will be extremely useful in case you don't have a soft-copy of your book.

Sketchfab is a good resource site if you want to add interactive 3D elements to your ebook. Easily embed any model into your page using their HTML embed viewer. And it requires no additional plugins.

Download or buy interactive ebook widgets from BookWidgets.com to use inside your ebook. These widgets are designed for iBooks Author, but can work in other ebook creators if they support them. By clicking on the widget button inside your ebook, a popup window will display showing the mini-app, such as a game, puzzle, or quiz.

Similar to above, you can download and buy interactive ebook widgets from Bookry. The widgets are customizable. And it also supports drag & drop with iBooksAuthor.

Kotobee (our company) provides customized widgets and components for interactive ebooks. If you need a specialized animation, or interactive behaviour inside your page, this is the company to contact.

Stock photo websites

Imagery is extremely important for interactive ebooks. There are many professional stock photo websites such as Dreamstime, Depositphotos (the one we use), and istockphoto that you can purchase professional images for as low as $1.
But in case you want to cut down your costs, you may rely on those free stock photo websites, such as or freeimages. Dreamstime has a free images section that you can also check out. You may also find free icons to use from websites such as iconfinder or thenounproject. For an extensive well-organized list of free stock photo resources (compiled by Canva), check out the following post: Free Stock Photos: 73 Best Sites To Find Awesome Free Images.

Some of those websites would request you to credit the owner of the graphic, so play nice.

Video websites

It would be difficult finding video or audio fitting exactly what you need, unless you can find it on YouTube or Vimeo. If you need something custom made, hire someone from a freelancer site like freelancer or fiverr.

Audio websites

Similarly to video, possibly even more difficult finding something off the shelf. Before hiring someone, try your luck in soundsnap or soundcloud.

There is a number of tools you can use to create/edit your interactive ebook. Of course we are referring to interactive ebooks, so these applications will provide you with the tools you need to add interactivity inside your ebook.

Kotobee Author is our freely provided software for Windows and Mac, allowing you to create interactive ebooks based on EPUB format. The ebooks can be exported freely as EPUB files, web apps, desktop apps, with full customization enabled. Other export formats (such as native mobile apps), as well as SCORM integration, come at a price.

iBooks Author is Apple's popular ebook creation software, exclusively for Mac. This easy software allows you to create interactive EPUB-based ebooks that would run exclusively on Apple iBooks (on Mac and iPad), but not on other EPUB readers. Ebooks created by this tool would strictly have a fixed-layout.

Aquafadas provides a free plugin for to Adobe InDesign which allows you to add interactive components to your existing InDesign projects, and export them in multiple formats. You will need to pay only once you publish your ebook.

Inkling is one of the first companies to show an iBooks Author alternative for Android. They offer Inkling Habitat, a cloud web-based app that allows you to create interactive ebooks for all devices, in EPUB format. They allow import from various file formats.

Interact Builder allows you to create ebooks with advanced responses to events, like taps and touches. The application is not focused on just ebooks, but you can create games or any kind of apps using it. At the time of this writing, they only publish native mobile apps.

A friendly ebook creator for iPad. It is more targeted toward children story books. The resulting ebook will only be accessible through the App Store or their dedicated ebook store: Demibook Storytime. The ebooks created are of fixed-layout.

Atavist is a web-based tool more focused on creating interactive ebooks for web, but also have the option of exporting EPUB in their Pro plans. They do provide excellent controls for reflowable layout content.

Talespring is a web-based tool for creating children story books to be published as a native mobile app for iOS, although in their FAQ they say that Android support is coming soon. They do not EPUB format.

Kwik allows you to create interactive storybooks directly from Photoshop. With this plugin, you can add animations, interactivity, even entire physics simulations. Obviously the resulting ebooks are fixed-layout. They can be published only as native mobile apps (iOS and Android).

Tigercreate uses layers and time-frames for animations, and hence provide flexibility with whatever you want to achieve. Again, this software is targeted towards interactive children storybook. They can be exported as mobile apps (Android and iOS).

Italy-based Pubcoder provides a software for Windows and Mac, and allows various interactive components in the ebook. Ebooks are fixed-layout and can be exported as native mobile apps (iOS and Android), as EPUB files, or kindle format.

When it comes to distribution, it's important to understand how it works. There are service providers known as aggregators that can distribute your ebook to international online retailers, as well as their own book stores for a fixed fee and/or commission out of your sales. They handle all the hard work of submissions, and ensure that your ebook gets the right exposure.

But if you have the time and the effort to distribute the ebook yourself, then you'll have the freedom to choose which platforms you want to sell your ebook on. This does not mean that you will keep 100% royalties since all major retailers will still take royalties, but there will be no aggregator commissions eaten away from you.

Distributing to individual platforms

Those are your choices if you decide not to go with an ebook aggregator and rather publish your ebook yourself. Of course, depending on the software you have used from the previous list, you may only publish to platforms that are supported in the software. The platform categories are: mobile apps, desktop apps, web apps, EPUB ebooks.

Ebook mobile apps

1) Google Play App Store $25 one-time fee. They take 30% royalties.

2) Apple's App Store $99/year annual store fees. They take 30% royalties.

Ebook desktop apps

Set-up online-selling functionality on your website to sell ebook downloads, using any one of the following services:

Ebook web apps

If you want to distribute your ebook for free, you can simply upload the web app to your server. If you want to sell it, this one's a bit tricky. You will need to develop custom functionality for your website. Or you can use our Kotobee Cloud solution to encrypt the ebook on the server, and have customers pay you using different payment gateways.

EPUB ebooks

This is a must-have format if you're going serious into the ebook selling business. Let's breakdown the different available options.
Google Play Book Store
Not very popular. Just like the case with app publishing, registration costs $25 one-time fee, and they take 30% royalties for each book sold. But given its lack of popularity it would be better to only distribute here through an aggregator (more on aggregators later).
Apple's iBookstore
Unlike the app store, registration to Apple's iBookstore is free. They take 30% royalties for each book sold.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Amazon giants, who owns roughly half of the ebook market, provide you with two royalty options: 35% or 70%, with different requirements for each. Read more about this here.
Nook Press (by Barnes & Noble)
You royalty options are either 40% or 65% depending on your list pricing.

Distributing through ebook aggregators

Ebook aggregators will help you distribute to all the different retailers in return for a fee and/or commission. The common practice we've seen in ebook publishing is to manually publish to Amazon (KDP) and then publish to all other retailers using an aggregator. This is because authors experience over 50% of their sales through Amazon - they own roughly half the ebook market. Since they are the dominant retailer, it's best to avoid giving away part of your Amazon revenue to an aggregator.

Beside the support provided by an aggregator, there is usually other optional paid services such as cover design, copy editing, etc.

Probably the most popular automated aggregation service and value. Don't be let down by their website's humble design. Smashwords has been in business for a long time, and distribute to tens of ebook retailers across the world, including their own Smashwords store. Registration is free, and your royalties are 60% when selling through major retailers, or 80% when selling through their own store.

BookBaby is also extremely popular, but following a different model. Instead of giving away royalties, you make a fixed payment of $299 instead, to have your ebook handled from start to finish. BookBaby takes 0% royalties. Your ebook is distributed to major retailers, including Amazon's Kindle.

BookTango offers an impressive package. Free registration, and no commission whatsoever, which is a really good deal. Distribute to B&N Nook, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Google Books, and Amazon Kindlestore. They make money by selling optional complimentary services, like design and formatting.

Lulu, a large name in the self-publishing industry, entered the ebook publishing market, and offers distribution to the Lulu store, B&N's Nook store, and Apple's iBookstore. Your sales royalties are 90%.

In this article, we looked at steps and resources need to create an interactive ebook. While there are many other tools and services for creating ebooks, the resources mentioned here are focused on interactive ebooks. In a highly competitive and expanding field, it's your content that defines you. And this guide is here to help you showcase it to its full potential. If you're new to ebooks, things may get messy at first, but the experience you yield will sure come in handy in your following attempts.

Too much to take in? I agree. So feel free to bookmark this page, and use the resources mentioned whenever you need to. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to drop us a comment below.
You might also like: Alice in EPUB-Land: Understanding the EPUB format Book Widgets: Everything you need to know Adding Google Fonts to your EPUB Animation techniques for ebooks Ebook DRM & Security: What is it and How it Works

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How to create an interactive ebook: A step-by-step guide

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Ebooks are the current expanding trend in education and publishing. Add interactivity on top of that, and you've got yourself a top-notch product that won't be going away anytime soon; one that is sure to put you ahead of the game.

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Game Making Tools for kids help them become creators of their content

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Game Making Tools for kids help them become creators of their content

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Kids get excited about designing their own digital games. And so do we! Teachers are assisting children to transition from content consumers to content creators by introducing them to the latest digital and gaming productivity tools. Game design in particular offers many opportunities to develop higher order thinking skills like understanding and applying systems thinking, creative problem solving, storytelling, programming and collaborating with others.

Check out these student created games, and inspire your students to design their own!

These games were made by students using Flash as part of the Globaloria Curriculum.

These games were made by students using Gamestar Mechanic.

When teaching game design, we recommend beginning with the following game making tools.

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Game Making Tools for kids help them become creators of their content

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Kids get excited about designing their own digital games. And so do we! Teachers are assisting children to transition from content consumers to content creators by introducing them to the latest digital and gaming productivity tools. Game design in particular offers many opportunities to develop higher order thinking skills like understanding and applying systems thinking, creative problem solving, storytelling, programming and collaborating with others.

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How to Build a Website | You Don't Have To Be A Tech Geek (Feb 18)

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How to Build a Website | You Don't Have To Be A Tech Geek (Feb 18)

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How to Build a Website | You Don't Have To Be A Tech Geek (Feb 18)

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Not sure how to build a website? It actually is not that hard. You don't have to be technical at all. See these 4 website builders to get started today.

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Create & Make Augmented Reality Using Blippbuilder Tools | BlipparWebsite

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Create & Make Augmented Reality Using Blippbuilder Tools | BlipparWebsite

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Create & Make Augmented Reality Using Blippbuilder Tools | BlipparWebsite

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Create and make best in class augmented reality experiences in just a few clicks using our AR creation cloud-based tools for Android and iOS.

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ZapWorks - Create Amazing Augmented Reality Experiences

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ZapWorks - Create Amazing Augmented Reality Experiences

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Meet the Zapworks creative suite

No-code, low-code or custom code, Zapworks empowers your designers, developers and marketers to create immersive WebAR experiences, no matter their skill set or business objectives.

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Zapworks: The Most Powerful All-In-One WebAR platform

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Create impactful WebAR experiences with award-winning drag and drop tools or developer SDKs including custom hosting and branding. Start your free 14-day trial.

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Behind the scenes of virtual reality: how to create 360-degree video - Primacy | Blog Primacy | Blog

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Behind the scenes of virtual reality: how to create 360-degree video - Primacy | Blog Primacy | Blog

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The latest buzzword in the tech world is virtual reality (VR). If you haven't experienced VR, you're probably wondering how it works. The short answer is, using Oculus technology and wearing a VR headset, you're thrust into another environment with little more than tapping a button.

One of Primacy's technology developers, Justin Lutz, wrote a post that introduces the different VR headsets and technology. Give that a read if you're interested in learning more about the technology side.

In this post, I'm going to cover how to plan for and film the immersive video that's fed into the VR experience. Realistic 3D computer-generated worlds are nothing new, video games have been doing it for years. But capturing 360° video of real life locations is a whole new ball-game-with new rules and equipment.

The Equipment

At Primacy, we have a couple of specially 3D-printed camera rigs that hold 6 or 10 GoPro Hero4 cameras in a spherical shape. Each camera is mounted at a specific angle so the camera's field of view will overlap portions of the surrounding cameras' field of view. That overlap will eliminate any gaps in the footage and allow for flexibility at the seams. When all the GoPros are recording, they capture video at the same time, and it covers the entire 360° by 180° area.

There are various ways to hold the camera rig. It all depends on the needs of the shot. A tripod or monopod are the most common, but you can hang it, hold it, drone it, and more.

Field of Vision

Shooting video in 360° is not like shooting regular video. It has its own set of rules and considerations.

To keep things simple I'm going to use the term "camera" to describe the rig of GoPro cameras pictured above. Now, the first thing to remember is that 360° means EVERY THING is in the view of the camera and will be in the shot. This includes you, your crew, any lights, microphones, equipment, every crack on the ceiling, and dirty footprints on the floor. This type of shot limits and gives freedom to the director at the same time. You may have to be in the shot, so be creative, don't make it obvious-blend into the scene-or hide behind/under/in objects on location. When scouting locations, take the entire space into consideration. Envision the action that will take place, how should that action interact with the camera? And make sure the available lighting is suitable or get creative with camera placement.

Camera Location

Placement of the camera in the scene is key and important to storytelling. To capture the action of the scene, you need to consider what role the person wearing the VR headset will take. Are they participants or observers? Meaning, should the camera be placed at an odd position, like hung from the ceiling or low to the ground? Or mounted six feet from the floor to equal to an average person's height? In either case, the camera should be placed in or around the center of the activity. That way the viewer can explore the scene as they wish, and will have something of interest in all directions.

Camera Movement

The last item to consider is camera movement. In order to achieve action, there needs to be an impetus of movement, like a drone, a car, a track, or a person. Bear in mind, whatever is controlling the motion will be in the video. For example, if you hang the camera from a drone or helicopter those vehicles will be visible in the final result. There are ways to remove or hide smaller objects in post-production, but that is a lengthy process. Because the video will become an immersive experience, motion of any kind needs to be calculated and intentional, otherwise it can cause nausea or it can disconnect the viewer from the experience.

Capturing video is only half the 360° battle. All that footage (per camera, per location) will have to be downloaded, synchronized, stitched together, and processed before it gets put into a VR headset. And that's an entirely separate blog post!

360° video has endless possibilities. Just imagine the places and experiences you can go and have without leaving your desk chair!

Interested in how Primacy can help with your VR project? Check out more of our work on on our Virtual Reality page and contact us.

View in Google Chrome for 360° experience and controls

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Behind the scenes of virtual reality: how to create 360-degree video

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The latest buzzword in the tech world is virtual reality (VR). If you haven't experienced VR, you're probably wondering how it works. The short answer is, using Oculus technology and wearing a VR headset, you're thrust into another environment with little more than tapping a button.

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How to Create Virtual Reality Content – Masters blog – Medium

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How to Create Virtual Reality Content – Masters blog – Medium

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The popularity of virtual reality (VR) is constantly growing and continues to push the boundaries of our imagination. People grew tired of ordinary 2D media content, so virtual reality is being called to deliver information in a new way to engage them. Some businesses use the extending VR trend already and adopted the technology to engage and interact with their target audiences. Business owners and marketing directors constantly google 'What is VR', 'How to create virtual reality content' and 'How much does it cost to make a VR app'.

The VR adventure starts with a stereoscopic Head Mounted Display (HMD) which is a is a display gadget you wear on your head. According to PC Magazine, the TOP VR headsets of 2017 are Sony PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Google Daydream.

There are several more affordable HMD options including Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear and Zeiss's VR One, which use a VR compatible smartphone as a display. Samsung Gear is also included in PCMag's TOP.

With a VR headset you can experience the whole new world of a computer-simulated reality that mimics physical presence in the real world.

What Businesses Can Benefit from Using VR

Real Estate

VR has started to revolutionize the Real Estate industry by solving some agents' struggles. Realtors have to manage and spend a lot of time visiting properties, coping with traffic and dealing with clients' claims like, "It doesn't look like the pictures." Virtual reality allows people to get a feel for the inside of a home even without visiting a real estate property in person.

Property managing company Turnberry Ocean Club from South Florida implemented VR for pre-selling luxury residences that range from $4 - $35 million. As it was said by Sales Director Daniel Riordan, thanks to VR the luxury residences have no trouble moving the sales forward. The technology decreases the selling period dramatically.

If a selling project is not yet built, a 360-degree video can be made as a construction model.

Another case called EDGE 28 has been developed by Star VR company for Laing + Simmons agency from Sydney.

The company created a virtual reality app for Android and iOS that combines the live action 360 drone footage with computer graphics. To take a tour of their future home, visitors use Google Cardboard VR viewer.

Travel Companies

Thomas Cook was the first travel company to deliver in-store VR to customers. In a partnership with Visualise, they rolled out the "Try Before You Fly" campaign in ten of their stores to oﬀer travelers the chance to experience trips to Greece, Singapore, and New York with using Samsung's Gear VR headset.

The visualization of New York City was most effective - the group saw a 180% increase in conversions. With flight and hotel bookings generating £12 million as a result, they saw a 40% return on investment.

Discover our project Tagible for Travel that helps travel companies increase bookings by inspiring potential customers to take action

Education

In current educational reality, virtual technologies have a place of value as they make it easier for students to understand, percept and assimilate the information they are given. VR-based learning is centered on such disciplines as history, biology, literature, economics and astronomy. It's much more exciting to have a virtual trip to the Moon than reading about it, don't you think? Experience this exciting learning tool with the Apollo 11 VR project to discover the history of people landing on Moon.

Google made a huge contribution to VR education with its Expeditions project. A teacher can take a class on a field trip without leaving the classroom. There are three things needed to get started: a VR headset, an Expeditions kit (you can build your own) and the Expeditions app (for iOS or Android). There are close to 500 expeditions available and more in development.

Creating Content for Virtual Reality App Development

You can go two ways: immersive real-life 360-degree videos and 3D animation or construction that goes beyond real life limits.

Taking a 360-degree video

If you need to create a VR experience of any real-world environment, a 360-degree video is a perfect solution for you. It is a lot cheaper than making a 3D animation but still requires certain equipment.

For the shooting, you will need a spherical camera with 360-degree lens, tripods or Steadicams for its stable position. As for the camera, the price range starts with $499 for Giroptic 360cam and goes up to $15,000 for professional GoPro Odyssey camera. Also, at the F8 developer conference, Facebook presented its own 360-degree camera that captures in VR video -  Surround360. You can use a drone for filming as well.

Read also: Technology Updates From F8 Day 2: Connectivity, VR Video and Brain-controlled Devices

When you are done with the shooting part and have tons of footage, you have to stitch that together to ensure high quality of the video. This is called post-production and there is no way to make it happen without special software like Videostitch.

In the case you need to visualize something that doesn't exist is the real world, 3D animation comes in handy.
Three-dimensional Animation
Three-dimensional animation provides better immersion and gives an app a more real feel: users can move wherever they want, take a closer look at objects and interact with objects as they would in real life.

One of the easiest ways to construct rooms, furniture, and even people in 3D is Structure Sensor. This 3D scanner catches real world projects and transforms them into virtual 3D models. It can be attached to Android tablets and Apple's iPad.

If you want to play big, you can use the game engines of your choice that also work well with creating interior designs and other non-gaming 3D constructions:

Virtual reality technology is still pretty new and immature, so its experience is not perfect yet. But it is evolving and growing so rapidly that we have no doubt - VR is our future for daily entertainment and business perspectives for sure.

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How to Create Virtual Reality Content - Masters blog - Medium

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The popularity of virtual reality (VR) is constantly growing and continues to push the boundaries of our imagination. People grew tired of ordinary 2D media content, so virtual reality is being called to deliver information in a new way to engage them.

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Multi-Touch Interfaces | Interactive Touchscreen Solutions | Digital Signage Platform | IntuiLab

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Multi-Touch Interfaces | Interactive Touchscreen Solutions | Digital Signage Platform | IntuiLab

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IntuiLab | Multi-Touch Interfaces | Interactive Touchscreen Solutions | Presentation Software

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IntuiLab is the world's leading interactive digital experience creation platform. Use IntuiFace to create interactive presentations, digital signs, information kiosks, point-of-sale installations and more..

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15 Tools to Create Interactive Content | Zembula

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15 Tools to Create Interactive Content | Zembula

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The future of content has slowly been pointing more and more towards interactive content. Consumers today are looking for more personalized and memorable experiences.

It's those brands that have embraced interactive content who have seen more engagement from their consumers, and that engagement often leads to more sales.

So, how do you jump on the interactive content bandwagon?

Don't worry, we've got you covered.

Here, you'll find 15 software tools you can use to create interactive content to engage your consumers and build brand loyalty.

Zembula

Zembula is an interactive content creation platform for email, SMS, and social media. Our first interactive content type, Scratch-it, is a digital scratch-off that reveals a hidden image and call-to-action. It is incredibly effective and uses several principles of psychology that influence human behavior like curiosity, FOMO, and the Near Miss Theory.

Qzzr

SnapApp

WIREWAX

Guides.co

WebyClip

Brackify

RooJoom

ContentTools

ContentTools is a platform that was specifically designed to "help companies generate leads and engage customers through the use of interactive content." They employ a number of different features for brands to use like a content grader, business assessments, quizzes, and even micro-sites that help collect valuable data.

ThingLink

Infogr.Am

Mapme

Ceros

PlayBuzz

Votion

There you have it, 15 tools to create interactive content. Start bringing some of these into your marketing mix and there's little doubt you'll start seeing an increase in engagement. Which of these are the most compelling to you?

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15 Tools to Create Interactive Content | Zembula

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The future of content has slowly been pointing more and more towards interactive content. Consumers today are looking for more personalized and memorable experiences. It's those brands that have embraced interactive content who have seen more engagement from their consumers, and that engagement often leads to more sales.

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Hour of Code

This year, we're taking Hour of Code to new heights by offering coding opportunities that encompass both artificial intelligence (AI) and non-AI components.

Want to keep learning? Go beyond an hour

Teachers: Host an hour or read the How-To Guide

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Use computer science to explore and learn about AI!

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How to Get Started Writing Code - Code School Blog

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How to Get Started Writing Code - Code School Blog

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So, you've decided you want to start programming - you're excited and ready to learn, and then you ask yourself, "Where do I begin, and which language do I start with?" The answer to that question is a little tough, and it's certainly something I struggled with when I was starting out. That's why today I want to dig into straightforward, useful advice you can work off immediately. And by the end of this, you'll be wiser, braver, and hopefully a few steps closer to some cold, hard programming.

What is the best language?

This has got to be the number one thing I hear people worrying about when deciding to start programming. You might be concerned the language won't be right for your chosen industry, that it won't suit your projects, that it's not fast enough, that it's not powerful enough. And yes, some languages are powerful, some are fast, and some are industry standards, but the honest truth is none of this matters to you right now. What does matter is starting to think like a programmer. Programmers are problem solvers, and the language itself is simply the tool you use to solve the problem. There really is no right or wrong language to pick when you're starting - what's much more important is getting used to thinking differently, being open, and being ready to learn from your mistakes.

My main advice for anyone wanting to start is to do exactly that - just start. As soon as you get your hands dirty and actually write some code and get it running, you will already have gained an enormous amount of knowledge. Don't be afraid to make mistakes - some of the most important things I've learned have come from breaking my own code. It can actually be an extremely fun experience changing numbers and deleting lines to see what explodes and why. One piece of advice I'll offer here is to keep your first few programs relatively simple. That way you don't get overwhelmed when you're debugging your code.

In the next section I will show you some example snippets from a few common languages, which will clearly illustrate why the choice between languages really isn't important when you are starting out.

Where to begin?

There are a few types of programming languages, including functional languages, that are more suited to manipulating large amounts of data and procedural languages. They're better used to perform low-level system tasks, but for now I'm going to focus on the more commonly used object-oriented programming (OOP) languages. While all languages have their best uses, I'm going to make the bold statement that, for now, I think object-oriented languages are kinder to beginners. Why? Because the basic principle of almost all object-oriented languages are the same - you're making objects and doing stuff with those objects.

Here's a basic program written in a few different OOP languages - this example is the most basic program to write, called "Hello, World," and it's something programmers often use to get an idea of a language's most basic features.

First, create a string and give it the value: "Hello, World"

Now, let's do something with this value by writing it out onto the screen somewhere ( note: this isn't about understanding all of the code, it's just to take notice of their similarity).

ActionScript 3:

var myString:String = "Hello, World"; trace(myString);

C#:

string myString = "Hello, World"; Debug.Log( myString );

C++:

string myString = "Hello, World"; cout << myString;

Python:

myString = "Hello, World"; print( myString );

Java:

String myString = "Hello, World"; System.out.println( myString );

While they all have their own way of expressing the same thing, we can quite clearly see they all use very similar patterns. The main benefit to this is if you know one of these languages, looking at another one shouldn't (normally) be too hard to figure out. With a little reading, you can probably figure out what's happening, even in a language you haven't seen or used before.

The first language you learn might not be the one you stick with forever, but it's important to just choose something and begin your journey into programming. Thanks to their similarities, you'll find it easier to transition between languages, where you will be free to explore and enjoy all the perks and quirks of each. Let me know which language you started with when beginning to code and why in the discussion section below!

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How to Get Started Writing Code - Code School Blog

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So, you've decided you want to start programming - you're excited and ready to learn, and then you ask yourself, "Where do I begin, and which language do I start with?" The answer to that question is a little tough, and it's certainly something I struggled...

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How To Create An App: Make Your Own App, Android Maker Builder Develop

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How To Create An App: Make Your Own App, Android Maker Builder Develop

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Everything You Need to Make Your Mobile App

1000+ design templates, powerful features, 24/5 full support and more - in one app builder from mobile platform application developers.

Do It Yourself with Easy Drag and Drop

Creating your mobile app for Android and iPhone for free is easier than ever.
iBuildApp app maker software allows building apps in a matter of minutes, no coding required!
Just pick a template, change anything you want, add your images, videos, text and more to get mobile instantly.

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How To Create An App: Make Your Own App, Android Maker Builder Develop

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1000+ design templates, powerful features, 24/5 full support and more - in one app builder from mobile platform application developers. Creating your mobile app for Android and iPhone for free is easier than ever.iBuildApp app maker software allows building apps in a matter of minutes, no coding required!Just pick a template, change anything you want, add your images, videos, text and more to get mobile instantly.

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How to create an app for free with App Builder Appy Pie, best app maker

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How to create an app for free with App Builder Appy Pie, best app maker

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No-code development & workflow automation platform | Appy Pie

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Create applications & automate workflows with Appy Pie’s workflow automation & no-code development platform.

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How to make an app for iPhone & Android - DIY Free Mobile AppMakr

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How to make an app for iPhone & Android - DIY Free Mobile AppMakr

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How to make an app for iPhone & Android - DIY Free Mobile AppMakr

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Build your own apps for iPhone and Android with our drag and drop mobile app creator. Our video guides help you publish them to Google Play and Apple Appstore