eBook & Internet Publishing News
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One of the best features of Activ E-Book Compiler is to create eBooks with all the menus, dialogs, etc., translated into a language of your choice. While you can do these translations yourself, several of our users have created translations and been kind enough to share them with other users. These include translations into Danish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Spanish Castellano. Gábor Kisfaludi who created a Hungarian translated, has just updated it with an improved version, and this is now available for download.

July 2nd 2007 - Gábor Kisfaludi has been a busy bee - and provided a further update to the Hungarian translation. It’s now available at the usual place.

As you probably know, CoverFactory is our program for creating 3D-style eBook cover images (and images of software boxes, membership cards, CD-ROMs, floppy disks, zip disks, etc….). I’ve already written recently about some improvements that we’ve made to the CoverFactory.com web site so that site better reflects what the software can do. I have some additional news: today, we have released a new version, version 2.50 of CoverFactory.

If you’re an existing customer, you can upgrade to the new version free of charge: instructions are on the download page. And, if you’ve not purchased CoverFactory, why not download the free trial version and try the program out for yourself.

The most important changes in the new version are enhancements to usability. These changes are intended to make it easier for a novice user to produce a high quality cover image. The changes include enabling the Enhanced detail and Soften Edges functions by default (which both can help to produce a better final image). We’ve also made the default cover size larger, and we’ve started off the Background, Render and Layout tabs at 100% zoom.

Additionally, there are also improvements in the quality of the rendered images, the Help instructions, and in the user interface of the program. The user interface improvements include making the font preview larger and much easier to see.

Anyway, why not download it and you can see yourself. I think you’ll like the new version.

CoverFactory is our company’s software for making 3D images of eBook Covers, Software Boxes, Membership cards, etc. It’s evolved into very powerful software, and it’s way cheaper than the competition, but I recently realized that we were underselling it. And by "underselling it, I don’t mean that we want to raise the price!

The problem was that CoverFactory has improved with time, and got substantially better. However, despite several releases of the program, the example images on the web site, hadn’t been updated. As a result, the examples didn’t fairly reflect the capabilities of the program.

The CoverFactory home page and the gallery of sample eBook Covers on the site have now both been updated. I think that they now give a fairer reflection of what the program is capable of, even in an ordinary mortal’s hands (Sunil: all the images were created by me - and I am absolutely not a computer artist).

I thought it was worth describing the procedure that was used to improve the images, so here it is, step-by-step:

1. I had saved all the old cover projects made with a much earlier version of the program, so I could of course simply load them in using Open… on the File menu. Some of my projects were in fact so old (made using 2.00) that recreating the background (see this tip) helped. In my case, I couldn’t quite remember which projects these were, so I simply recreated the background on all my projects.
2. The default size that CoverFactory renders covers at, is 200X200 pixels. That is actually pretty small on modern screens (we may increase the default in a future version), and if you really want to see the detail of the final image, you’ll probably want to render the cover bigger than that. You can do this by going to the Background tab, double clicking where it says Image, and then changing the size on the second page of the wizard that is displayed. The examples at the top of the CoverFactory.com home page are 200X200 and 300X300 pixels. The bigger examples (halfway down and at the bottom of the home page) are 615X615 pixels.
3. This next point does not actually affect the quality of your final cover, but it is nevertheless important. The Render tab in CoverFactory, by default, displays the final cover zoomed in to fit the available screen area. As on most computers, the screen area is larger than the cover image that is being rendered, the image is zoomed in (enlarged), which can be deceptive - it can make it appear as if your final cover is going to be chunky and pixelated. On the Render tab click the 100% toolbar button (or View menu, then Zoom sub option, and finally 100%) to see your cover as it really is.
4. When we wrote CoverFactory, even though we put a lot of effort into optimizing the rendering process, it could still take a couple of minutes for larger more complex images. Therefore, we provided options to control the trade-off between quality and speed. Of course, since then, the average desktop computer has become substantially faster. which means that you’ll probably find CoverFactory’s rendering is fast enough even when set to its highest quality. To get the top quality do this:
   • On the Render tab under Rendering Options, double click on Detail and set it to Enhanced.
   • Also on the Render tab under Rendering Options, double click on Soften Edges and set it to Yes.
5. If you’ve read the tips on the CoverFactory web site, you’ll already know from this tip that enabling Folds Shown (under Object Properties in the Render tab) works best if Soften Edges is also enabled. In our sample images, we did indeed use this combination on some images - we found they they worked best for us when we choose a Folds Color that was subtlely different from the other colors around it in the cover, rather than something that stuck out like a sore thumb.

That’s it for now - do check out the new CoverFactory.com, and if you haven’t already purchased it, why not download the free trial version of CoverFactory.

As described in my previous article, OpenOffice.org is a free office suite (although you can buy a copy of OpenOffice.org if you prefer). I’ve found it very easy to create eBooks using OpenOffice.org - far easier than it is us the far more expensive Microsoft Office. In the last article, I wrote about Writer, the word processor in OpenOffice.org, in this one, I’ll talk about Impress, the presentation package in OpenOffice.org.

Before we start with the tutorial, let me just mention one of the biggest advantages of using Impress (in OpenOffice.org) as opposed to Microsoft PowerPoint (in Microsoft Office): when you convert to HTML in Impress - you can turn off the use of frames. This is a huge advantage, because it means that Activ E-Book Compiler’s Search and Table of Contents functions, just work, absolutely perfectly, without any fiddling around. This is such a big advantage that it means if you have a PowerPoint presentation, and want high-quality quick version into an eBook, possibly the best way to do it is to open the presentation in Impress, and convert from there (and yes Impress can read PowerPoint files).

As with the last article, before the tutorial I need to display a quick legal notice, which OpenOffice.org’s marketing people said I should include: OpenOffice.org is a registered trade mark used with permission of the OpenOffice.org Community, http://www.openoffice.org.

Anyway, here’s the tutorial (prepared using OpenOffice.org 2.1 - so if you have a different version of OpenOffice.org, there may be some differences):-

This page shows you how to create the the content that will go inside (the source files) your E-Book using OpenOffice.org Impress 2.1.

Before You Start

There are a few key points to understand before you start:

1. The best way to work with Impress is to create your entire presentation as normal, and then convert the entire presentation into HTML (so it can be used as the content for your E-Book). In other words, the whole presentation becames the content of the E-Book.
   • When you do this conversion, the 1 presentation file will be converted into a whole series of files in the your source folder.
   • This conversion process is done from within OpenOffice.org Impress (but don’t worry, we explain the steps below).
   • During the conversion process, Impress will automatically add navigation buttons (etc.) to the pages allowing the user to move through the slides.
   • Provided you follow our instructions below, your pictures and graphics will automatically be saved in the appropriate folder and linked correctly from the other files created. If you do not follow the instructions, then pictures may be saved incorrectly, and when you view the E-Book (or worse one of your customers views the E-Book) they will see missing images in your pages.

2. You can create hyperlinks from your slides to web sites (see instructions below). However, as Impress will link the slides to each other, there is no need to add links between the slides.
3. Please be aware that the OpenOffice.org Impress feature that converts from its own document format to HTML may have some limitations, so it is possible that you may lose some details of your formatting during the conversion process in Impress.

Preparing Your Impress Presentation

As mentioned previously, if you use a web editing program, or a program like OpenOffice.org Word, you would normally want to work directly with your source files. However with Impress it is easier to create your content as a native Impress presentation and then convert the content into sources files later.

1. Start OpenOffice.org Impress 2.1.
2. Create your Impress presentaton exactly as normal.
3. Save the presentation in the normal way (using the Save As menu option), with the Save as type field, set to OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) into the normal location that you use for your OpenOffice.org documents, for example C:\My Documents\.

Using Hyperlinks in Impress Presentations

As part of the normal process of creating Impress presentations, you can add hyperlinks to web sites.

1. Place the insertion point (the caret) where the text that will eventually become the hyperlink will go.
   
   

2. Click Hyperlink which is on the Insert menu.

   You will see this dialog box:
   
   

3. Make sure Internet is selected on the list of options on the left hand side.
   • In the text field labelled Target, enter the URL of the web page or web site that the hyperlink will lead to. Always include http://, at the beginning of the hyperlink. For example, even though we commonly say www.yahoo.com or yahoo.com, the full URL is really http://www.yahoo.com - and we must always enter the full URL when setting up hyperlinks.
   • In the text field labelled Text enter the text to use for the hyperlink.

   

   Click Apply and then Close, and you have now added the hyperlink.

   The text of the hyperlink may initially show up as selected like this:
   
   

   So click elsewhere on the slide to unselect the text, and you’re done. Your screen should look something like this:
   
   

Converting Impress to HTML

Only after your presentation is completed and saved in the normal OpenOffice.org Impress presentation format (known as OpenDocument Presentation (.odP)), should you think about converting your presentation into E-Book source files. You will want to store all the source files in their own folder, for example, a folder called. C:\MyBook\source\. If you used Activ Quick Project, you should already have an empty folder created and ready to work in.

Here is the procedure to use when you’re ready:

1. Start Impress and open your saved Presentation.
2. Click Export… on the File menu.

   You will want to save into the source folder, for example, C:\MyBook\source\.

   NOTE: When you do this, your presentation will actually be stored in several files in this folder. The main file of which will be index. Because there are a whole bunch of files for each presentation, it is best to always keep different projects separate from each other, by using a different source folder for each presentation that is being converted into an E-Book.

   One other thing of note, is that when you do Export in Impress 2.1, there are a lot of options about how the information is saved (we will go through these options in moment). To avoid having to re-enter these options each time, Impress 2.1 has a feature called designs. These are basically a saved set of the options, that specify how the program should save into HTML. We do not cover designs in this tutorial, but if you use Impress a lot, then you may want to learn about them later from the OpenOffice.org help or from a manual.

3. The Export… menu will first display a dialog which allows you to select which folder you want export the presentation to, under what file name, and in which file format.

   Navigate to your source folder (for example C:\MyBook\source\), enter the file name as index, and set the File format to HTML Document (OpenOffice.org Impress) (.html) as shown below - then click Save.
   
   

4. Impress will now display a "wizard" which guides you step-by-step through the export process. In this wizard, you should complete each screen, and then press Next>>.
5. The first screen of the wizard allows you to pick an existing design (if you have one or more set up) or start a new layout. We do not cover designs in this tutorial, so select the New design radio button, then press Next>>.
   
   

6. The next screen allows you to choose how to present your the presentation after conversion. You should select Standard HTML format as the Publication type, but you may check or uncheck Create title page and Show notes as you feel appropriate. When you are ready, press Next>>.
   
   

7. The next screen allows you to choose to allows you to how you would like your presentation converted into HTML. You can choose whatever options you prefer. When you are ready, press Next>>.
   
   

8. The next screen is only shown if you chose to Create a title page. If you did not chose to Create a title page, skip to the next step in this tutorial.

   You can fill out the text how you want. Then, when you are ready, press Next>>.
   
   

9. The next screen allows you to select the type of navigation buttons to be added to your presentation. Choose whatever options you want, then, press Next>>.
   
   

10. The final screen of the wizard allows you to choose the colors for your presentation. You can choose whatever options you want, then, allows you to select the type of navigation buttons to be added to your presentation. Choose whatever options you want, then, press Create to convert the presentation to HTML.
    
    

    You will be asked if you wish to save the Design (all the settings you just entered in the wizard). Since we are not covering Designs in this tutorial, for now you should just click Do Not Save.
    
    

11. The conversion to HTML is now complete!
12. If you want to make changes later, all your need to do is:
    • Modify your presentation in the normal way using Impress.
    • Save the changes in the OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) format.
    • Repeat the above procedure for saving your presentation as HTML. Before doing this, it’s a good idea to either clear all the files out of your source folder (do not delete the original Presentation file!), or save the Presentation as HTML in a brand new empty folder (in the latter case, you’ll also need to update the selected folder in Activ E-Book Compiler using Edit/Scan Folder…). This is so that you don’t get files left-over from the last iteration in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc., version of your E-Book.

We’ve been preparing some tutorials on how to create eBooks using various pieces of software. One of the revelations has been just how easy it is to make eBooks using OpenOffice.org (which is a free office suite, although you can buy a copy of OpenOffice.org if you prefer). In my opinion, it’s easier to create eBooks using OpenOffice.org than it is us the far more expensive Microsoft Office.

So without further ado, here a tutorial on creating an eBook using Writer - the word processor in the OpenOffice.org suite.

Before the text, a quick legal notice, which OpenOffice.org’s marketing people said I should include: OpenOffice.org is a registered trade mark used with permission of the OpenOffice.org Community, http://www.openoffice.org.

Anyway, here’s the tutorial for OpenOffice.org Writer - it’s equivalent to "Step 2" in the Getting Started section of the Activ E-Book Compiler Help. For the record, these instructions were prepared using OpenOffice.org version 2.1 - so it is possible if you have an older version, some details of the screens may differ.

This page shows you how to create the the content that will go inside (the source files) your E-Book using OpenOffice.org Writer 2.1.

Before You Start

There are a few key points to understand before you start:

1. Each document in OpenOffice.org Writer will be converted into 1 HTML file. Each HTML file becames one scrolling "page" in the E-Book (although if printed the HTML file may actually come out longer than one printed page).

   You will probably find it easiest to logically subdivide your work between HTML files, rather than trying to make each HTML file correspond to one printed page (which would probably virtually impossible anyway). For example, you could make each HTML file contain 1 chapter or section of your E-Book. It does not matter if some HTML files contain more text than others, because when the user views the E-Book, the scrollbars will appear and adjust automatically to the length of the page. Or to put it in other words, we recommend that you create separate documents (in Microsoft Word which are then converted to HTML) for each chapter or section of your E-Book.

   • The conversion from a OpenOffice.org Writer document into an HTML file is done from within Writer (but don’t worry, we explain the steps below).
   • As you will probably want more than 1 scrolling "page" in your E-Book, you will need to create a series of HTML files from OpenOffice.org Writer (in the example below we create 2 HTML files).
   • You must save the main file (the first one that will be displayed when your E-Book opens) into HTML format, with the file name index into your source folder. OpenOffice.org Writer will automatically add .htm to the file name, thus giving index.htm (again don’t worry the instructions below show you what to do).
   • You can save your other files with any name you like (although we recommend sticking to letters and numbers, and avoiding spaces and special characters), but again they must be saved in the source folder.
   • If any of your Writer documents contains pictures, then provided you follow our instructions below, they will be saved automatically as separate files in the source folder. Writer 2.1 will do this completely automatically, provided of course you follow the procedures below.

2. You can create hyperlinks between your HTML files, or from your HTML files to web sites (we show some examples of this below).
3. Please be aware that OpenOffice.org Writer’s feature that converts from its own document format to HTML may have some limitations, so it is possible that you may lose some details of your formatting during the conversion process in Writer. If you have some information that absolutely can not be reformatted, the best idea is to create that information as a picture (e.g. in PNG format) using a graphics program and then insert the picture into your OpenOffice.org Writer docuent.

Let’s Get Started…

We are not going to prepare some content for your E-Book. You should store all the source files in their own folder, for example, a folder called. C:\MyBook\source\. If you used Activ Quick Project, you should already have an empty folder created and ready to work in.

1. Start OpenOffice.org Writer 2.1. settings you will be presented with a blank word processor document and be ready to start typing. Do not do enter anything yet.

   Instead click Close on the File menu

   OpenOffice.org Writer should now appear as a blank screen containing no documents, as follows:
   
   

2. Now select HTML Document under New on the File menu.
   
   

3. Before you start typing, let’s pick the file name, and save to HTML (the web page file format that you need to use for Activ E-Book source files).

   Click Save As… on the File menu.

4. You will want to save this file as index (as it will become the main page of your E-Book) in the HTML Document format, into the source folder, for example, C:\MyBook\source\.
   
   

   Here are the exact steps, if you have never done this before:

   • Drop down the Save in dropdown combination box, and find the source folder (you may need to do this more than once if your source folder is a folder inside a folder).
   • Click inside the File name text entry field, and type index. Do NOT press Return!
   • Drop down the Save as type dropdown combination box. Make sure that HTML Document (.html) is selected - this item should in fact be already selected.
   • Click Save

5. Now start entering the text of the first page of your E-Book into Writer.
   
   

   Don’t forget, if you like, you may use text formatting as in this example:
   
   

6. When you are done with your first page, click Save on the File menu.
7. Next, we’ll create a second page. Do not close Writer yet, we want to keep using it for a while…
8. Click HTML Document under New on the File menu. This will create a second HTML document.
9. Before you start typing, let’s pick the file name, and save to HTML (the web page file format that you need to use for Activ E-Book source files).

   Click Save As… on the File menu.

10. You will want to save this file under another file name as it will be a different page of your E-Book (do not use spaces in the file name), for example, as page2. Whatever name you pick, you need to save in the HTML Document format, into the source folder, for example, C:\MyBook\source\.

    Here are the exact steps, if you have never done this before:

    • Drop down the Save in dropdown combination box, and find the source folder (you may need to do this more than once if your source folder is a folder inside a folder).
    • Click inside the File name text entry field, and type page2 (or whatever name you want to use). Do NOT press Return!
    • Drop down the Save as type dropdown combination box. Make sure that HTML Document (.html) is selected - this item should in fact be already selected.
    • Click Save

11. Now start entering the text of the second page of your E-Book into Writer.
    
    

12. If you click the Window menu in Writer, at the bottom of this menu, you will see menu items to switch between the various documents that you have open.
13. Next, we’ll create a hyperlink between the main page and the second page. This will allow a person to read the first half of our poem, and then click on a link to continue reading.
14. Select the page you want to link from (for example index - it should be listed on the Window menu).
15. At the bottom of the page, add some text that will eventually become the hyperlink.
    
    

16. Select the text that you just added using the mouse.
    
    

17. Click Hyperlink which is on the Insert menu.

    You will see this dialog box:
    
    

18. Select the Document option (on the left hand side) as we wish to link to another page within the E-Book:
    
    

    Also remember, that for links between files that will make up the pages of you your E-Book, both files must be located in the same folder.

19. In the text field labelled Path, we should enter the file name of the page that the hyperlink will lead to.

    For example, since you want to link to page2.html (the second page of your E-Book that you created and named earlier in this tutorial), you should enter page2.html:
    
    

    You may, if you wish, use the little folder icon to the right of the Path field to browse a file name (do not change folder if you do this), but if you do so, the Path field will display something like C:\MyBook\source\page2.html which is incorrect. You must then edit the path, to just contain the file name (in this example page.html), or otherwise you E-Book will not work correctly when compiled (because it would depend on specific folders and files on your own PC that your readers would not have).

    Click the Apply button to place the hyperlink, then click Close.

20. The hyperlink has been made, and will show up as blue underlined text.
    
    

    To see the text clearly, you may wish to move the text insertion point using the mouse (and clicking elsewhere in the document) or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
    
    

21. The hyperlink that we just added one page, leads to a different page within the E-Book. We will now learn how to add a hyperlink that goes to a web site.
22. Select the page you want to link from (for example page2 - it should be listed on the Window menu).
23. At the bottom of the page, add some text that will eventually become the hyperlink.
    
    

24. Select the text that you just added using the mouse.
    
    

25. Click Hyperlink which is on the Insert menu.

    You will see this dialog box:
    
    

    Select Internet option (on the left hand side):
    
    

26. In the text field labelled Target, we should enter the URL of the web page or web site that the hyperlink will lead to. Always include the http:// at the beginning of the hyperlink.

    For example - even though we commonly say www.yahoo.com or just yahoo.com, the full URL is really http://www.yahoo.com - and we must always use the full URL when setting up hyperlinks.
    
    

    Click Apply thenClose on dialog, and you have added your hyperlink which will show up as blue underlined text.
    
    

    To see the text clearly, you may wish to move the text insertion point using the mouse (and clicking elsewhere in the document) or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
    
    

27. Before we finish, let’s see how to add an image to a page.

    Start your favorite graphics program, clip art program, your copy of CoverFactory, or if you have none of these, the Windows Paint accessory. Then use it to place a graphic of your choice, in JPEG, PNG or GIF format, in the source folder (the same folder as your HTML files), in this example, C:\MyBook\source\.

    • If using Windows Paint, use Save As… on the File menu to do this - make sure you set Save as type to an appropriate format in the Save As dialog box.
    • In most graphics programs, you also would use Save As… on the File menu to do this - make sure you set Save as type to an appropriate format in the Save As dialog box.
    • In clip art programs, you would generally use an option called something like Save As or Export to do this - again make sure that you save/export in an appropriate format.
    • If using CoverFactory, you should use the Render To File… option on the Render menu to do this - CoverFactory will give you the option to render into JPEG, PNG or BMP format. We recomend that you choose PNG as this will produce the best quality results while retaining a small file size.

    Now switch back to the OpenOffice.org window contaiing the file in which you wish to insert your picture. Then move the insertion point to where you want to insert the picture - in my example, under the Yahoo! hyperlink (then hit Return a couple of times to add a couple of blank lines), then click From File… which you’ll find under Insert top level menu (note: you must use From File… and not File…).

    A dialog will displayed - use this to choose the graphics file that you created earlier:
    
    

28. You have now finished writing the text of your first E-Book, so now you want to save your work and exit Writer.

    Click Exit on the File menu.

    • Writer will ask you: Do you want to save the changes made to each file (Save, Discard or Cancel) - select Save.
    • You will be asked these questions for each file in your E-Book: just remember to always say Yes when asked if you want to save, and Yes HTML is a satisfactory format.

29. Eventually, Writer will close itself, and you are now ready to compile an E-Book from the pages that you have created.

Courtesy of Gábor Kisfaludi, we now have a Hungarian translation of Activ E-Book Compiler, allowing you to create eBooks with Hungarian menus, dialogs, etc. For more information, and download instructions (yes it’s free), please click here.

Here is the full list of translations now available: Danish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish Castellano.

Update: I accidentally had Gábor’s first and last names reversed - sorry Gábor - just updated this article.

We have released version 2.11 of CoverFactory, our software for making 3D images for eBook covers and virtual software boxes. The new version improves the quality at which text added to your cover is displayed.

Existing customers can download and upgrade to the new version free of charge through our download page.

If you’ve haven’t purchased CoverFactory, or have never even tried it, you can download a free trial of the latest version also from the download page.

Enjoy!

Version 5.05 of Activ E-Book Compiler is now available for beta download. Details, as usual, in the discussion thread. Unfortunately we had made a couple of small but crucial last minute mistakes in the 5.04 beta, which is why I had to rush this one out. Anyway, 5.05 should hopefully be a lot better than 5.04.

Version 5.04 of Activ E-Book Compiler is now available for beta testing. For details, please see the discussion thread.

The beta release of version 5.03 of Activ E-Book Compiler is now available. For details Click here.

Version 5.03 adds a number of important security fixes, and we believe it is by far the best of the 5.0x beta series so far. That said, it is still a beta release, so bear that in mind if testing the software. (And as mentioned on the download page, please do not distribute eBooks made using the beta version).

One related topic that I thought would also be commenting on is the general security of installing eBooks or other files on your computer.

There are really two relationships which we need to consider:

1. Does the eBook/file do what the author intended (or at least programmed - there’s no accounting for bugs)?
2. Does the user of the eBook/file trust the author and distributor of the eBook/file?

The improvements in version 5.03 are really intended to address the first point.

As regards the second point, it is not really something that we are able to address. This is because the EXE files created by Activ E-Book Compiler are programs, and as such can do whatever the author/distributor wrote into them (particularly by using the scripting features and APIs in Activ E-Book Compiler) . This places a great deal of power in the hands of authors and distributors - and with great power, comes great responsibility.

A long time ago, we considered carefully this issue, and came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t attempt to artificially limit authors’ power, because we wanted to allow authors to produce better and more sophisticated products. Moreover, being EXE files, any attempt to artificially limit authors’ power would be doomed to failure - because they could either “patch” the EXEcutable (there are tools a sufficiently skilled person can use to patch any executable), or they could simply use another tool (such as a programming language like C++, Delphi or Visual Basic), to produce EXE programs to do whatever they wanted.

In case you are wondering why I am considering both the author and the distributor - the fact is that a sufficiently skilled distributor, with the right tools, could alter/patch an eBook EXE (or in fact any EXE) to do something other than the original author intended. While it may not be particularly likely (a malicious distributor would probably find it considerably easier to simply create their own malicious program rather than subvert somebody else’s existing program), it certainly isn’t impossible either.

In other words, all EXE files (whether made using our compiler or some other tool), always carry the possibility of security risks.

But the other side of the coin, not to be forgotten, is that the EXE format offers great power. A skilled author can develop products in EXE format that are simply not possible in other formats, for example:

• Want to write an eBook that processes forms locally? You can do that with Activ E-Book Compiler.
• Want to write an eBook that remembers information (like the user’s settings) in a file? You can do that with with Activ E-Book Compiler.
• Want to write an eBook that allows users to pick the graphics they want, and save them to their hard-disk for later use? You can do that with with Activ E-Book Compiler.
• Want to write an eBook that can launch external applications? You can do that with Activ E-Book Compiler
• Want to write an eBook that can play full-screen videos? You can do that too with Activ E-Book Compiler (it doesn’t include a built-in feature for this last one, but you could use the Multimedia Extension to incorporate this function.

Changing subject slightly, does this mean users would be safe, as far as eBooks/content are concerned, if the files delivered in some other format? Unfortunately not necessarily…

The first thing to remember is that there would be a lot less content (and much of would offer much less) without the EXE format. Aside from eBooks, have you thought about all the programs, utilities, and so on we use in our every day work? What would you do without them?

Additionally many files that a non-technical user might think are purely "content" (as opposed to programs), can in fact contain executable content of one sort or another (often scripted content). Often, the viewing applications for these formats do contain restrictions, designed to prevent the content performing potentially malicious actions, but even then, "exploits" (which may allow such executable content to break free of these restrictions) have been found from time-to-time in many applications. Sometimes these exploits are the result of bugs in the viewing software, and sometimes as the result of simply tricking users to accept actions (for example in security warning dialog boxes) that they shouldn’t have.

For example:

• This and this news report from 2001 describe a virus that apparently can travel in PDF files.
• Another news report from 2004, describes an exploit for Java applets, which allows them to escape from their "sand boxed" (protected and restricted) environment, and potentially get access to other files on users’ PCs.
• And another news report also from 2004, describes how malicious code was placed on various web servers, and was able to exploit a security flaw in the JavaScript implementation in certain versions of Internet Explorer, to install malicious code on some users’ PCs when they simply browsed those sites.
• There has even been a virus which spread through Microsoft Word macros.

Now, the particular exploits that are described in those news stories have probably been fixed by now (you’d need to check with the vendors to be sure). And, if you use anti-virus software (such as Norton Internet Security) and keep it up to date, it would help protect you from known viruses. But, the stories also illustrate my point - there could be potential security vulnerabilities in many different file formats.

So, to sum up:

• For authors:

  EXE files are programs, which as I said gives you a lot of power, but also a lot of responsibility.

• For users:

  Remember EXE files are programs, and as such, if incorrectly or maliciously programmed (or modified by somebody after they were programmed), could do something you don’t want. You need to bear that in mind when deciding what to download or install on your computer. The other side of the coin is, that if you want an eBook or application with feature X, or do Y, then often EXE is the only choice - because the features you want may not be available in any other format.

  And although EXE files may hit your hot buttons as being a particular security issue, I think that you’d be unwise to simply assume that other file types are automatically safe. As already explained, all you need to be potentially at risk are:

  1. A file of any sort that can contain executable content of any sort (and I have no idea how to list all the file types this might apply to - because there are so many that it could potentially apply too)

     AND

  2. A bug in the viewing software that a malicious file can "exploit" (more likely, of course, if you don’t keep up to date with the latest patches and security advice from each application’s vendor).

  So, you’ll need to bear that in mind too, when deciding what to download or install on your computer.

  If you were to take this to its logical extreme, and if you were truly paranoid about security, you’d never install any files on your computer, and you’d disconnect from the Internet right now (because viruses and worms and malicious programs have all been known to spread via email, or in some cases by simply browsing websites using a browser with a security weakness)…. but then how would you get any work done?

  And my final advice? Take regular backups of any data that you can not afford to lose - and keep that at a separate geographic location away from your computer (preferably in a fire-proof safe). This will help protect you not only from computer security threats, but from most other disasters too.