Appendix: Using Pressbooks
Pressbooks is an online content management system based on WordPress and designed to create online books. VIVA provides Pressbooks as a part of the award for VIVA Open Course grant recipients, and some additional instances may be available to member institutions.
Pressbooks Resources
This Appendix contains some basic tips and tricks for using Pressbooks. It is not exhaustive. Please refer to the Pressbooks User Guide for more detailed guidance.
If you have any questions, please contact VIVA Publishing. Please note that support and technical requests must come from VIVA Publishing, not individual users.
Creating a VIVA Pressbook or Account
VIVA offers Pressbooks account and books free of charge. Make sure you are using viva.pressbooks.pub. We do not recommend using the generic pressbooks.pub site as this will require you to pay for access and editing your book. If you are asked to pay to use Pressbooks, please contact VIVA Publishing.
Accounts
Anyone can create an account on VIVA Pressbook. You may need an account if you are working on a book or are in a class using a book currently labeled as private. To create an account, click on the “Sign up” button on the top righthand corner of the Pressbooks homepage. This button will lead you to a form which will help you create an account.
Books
VIVA’s Pressbooks is a mediated platform, which means that users cannot create their own books. Rather, VIVA Publishing staff review all Requests for the creation of a VIVA Pressbook (via this form) and will create a Pressbook on your behalf. All VIVA Open Grant recipients are entitled to Pressbooks as a part of their grant. Other faculty from VIVA institutions are also eligible to receive a book, as long as enough instances are available. There is typically not an issue creating an instance for any requests, as long as the resource is being used in the classroom and being directed by a Virginia faculty.
VIVA Publishing staff typically review form submissions and create new books on Mondays. If you do not receive a response, feel free to follow-up with VIVA Publishing staff. Once a book is created for you, VIVA Publishing staff will send you an email notifying you of the creation and sending a link, which should match that which you have submitted on the form.
Emails from Pressbooks
Please note that creating an account or book, or being added to an existing book, often requires confirmation of your account via email. Sometimes emails from Pressbooks get sent to spam. If you do not see an email, please check spam. If you still do not receive the email from the Pressbook system, please follow-up with VIVA Publishing Staff.
Importing Content
Authors can easily import their content into Pressbooks from the following file types:
- EPUB
- Microsoft Word
- OpenOffice
- Another Pressbook
Pressbooks cannot import PDFs.
For information on importing content, visit Import in the Pressbooks user guide.
Media
You can upload and embed media into your Pressbook so that students have all relevant content in one place.
For information on how to upload or embed media, visit Display Embedded Media in the Pressbooks user guide.
Glossaries
Pressbooks has the capability to create a of terms. These terms can be highlighted in your text and made more interactive. Pressbooks will automatically create the glossary at the back of your text.
For information on how to create a glossary, visit Create and Display Glossary Terms in the Pressbooks user guide.
Footnotes vs. endnotes
In Pressbooks, you can format your citations as footnotes or endnotes.
Footnotes will appear at the bottom of the page and can be formatted in whichever style you prefer (MLA, APA, Chicago, or other). Footnotes are embedded in the text. When someone views the text, the footnote will appear at the bottom of the page with a superscript number in your text. VIVA recommends using footnotes in Pressbooks for ease of the reader.
In the text editor, you should click the footnote button
. This will then create a pop-up for you to enter the text of your footnote into. You can also wait until the footnote appears within the main text of the text editor to edit the contents of your footnote. This is recommended for footnotes which require text formatting (e.g. bold or italics) as these cannot be entered in the popup menu. Within the text editor, the word “footnote” in brackets ([ ]) will occur in the place of the number and the text of the footnote will be included between these bracketed terms. Pressbooks automatically numbers the footnotes, so you do not need to worry about that. On the front end, the footnote will appear as a hyperlinked superscript, with the footnote text at the bottom of the page. The number of the footnote will link back to the place in the text. Here is a sample footnote[1].
There is no function for endnotes in Pressbooks. If you want to use endnotes, you need to manually enter the superscript numbers and create the corresponding endnotes in a back matter section.
For information on footnotes, visit Add Footnotes or Chapter Endnotes in the Pressbooks user guide.
Interactive Content (h5p)
Adding interactivity makes learning materials more engaging. Pressbooks features a native integration with H5P, an open-source plugin which can be used to create interactive quizzes and other learning activities in your book. There are over 50 different H5P activity types, ranging from simple True/False questions to image matching exercises to quiz sets to interactive video quizzes and even complex branching scenarios. (Pressbooks User Guide)
*VIVA does not have an integration that allows for grading of these activities. As such, they can only be used for formative, self-assessment in VIVA Pressbooks*
For information on h5p, visit
You should create h5p activities directly within your Pressbook. Do not create on h5p.com.
- Sample footnote content here. ↵
