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Books are here to stay, but paper is an endangered species. While libraries full of actual books won't be disappearing any time soon, electronic books like Amazon's Kindle have established a firm toehold in the market, a trend that will continue as more titles are published as e-books. That's where Visual Vision's eBookWriter Lite enters the story. It's a free tool for creating and publishing e-books, but it's not a compiler. It's a complete visual environment that requires no knowledge of coding to use, yet it creates single-source-file e-books that can be opened in any reader and distributed online. Built-in copy prevention, expiration dates, and password capabilities help protect your intellectual property from misuse and theft and give you more control over its distribution.
The program's quick-start tutorial includes links to online documentation and a PDF-based manual. We closed the dialog and pressed F1, per instructions, and the program's skinnable interface and tutorial opened. The interface resembles a typical word processor, with basic control icons and a ruler-defined field, though you can also customize the look and layout. This program works differently from most word processors in that it's based on HTML and uses browserlike functionality to search for, insert, and modify text. Since it creates a single eBook file that you can load and use in portable devices, you can't just string a bunch of individual pages together like with typical word processors, so it's important to follow the program's guidance. We started by clicking New eBook on the File menu and typing in some brief text, following the tutorial's recommendation for getting comfortable with the way eBook Writer creates pages. We saved our "book" and then reopened it for editing, which involves familiar procedures like insert, format, and spell-checking. The program offers unique and helpful features at every turn; for instance, right-clicking the main view calls up a menu with a useful "Quick special link" to regularly used items. You can import and export e-books in .ebw and other file formats, too.
This is a fascinating and unique tool that you can use to create whole electronic books or convert existing text into an e-book-compatible format, and we recommend it.
Publisher's Description
From Visual Vision:
With EBooksWriter you can create e-books with ease. It's a professional all-in-one visual environment, not just a compiler. All visual, no compilation, no code or HTML, no complications; - no royalties: you're free to redistribute your ebook / ebrochure over the Internet and on CD. You can create unlimited number of e-books. It features built-in browser, you can prohibit print or copy, you can set an expiration date, you can password protect all or part of the e-book, you can assign different passwords for different users, and you can include hot spots, frames, animations, audio, video, popup windows, you can link to PDF, DOC, PowerPoint, AutoCAD and any kind of files.
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All versions:
2.8 starsout of 12 votes
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Current version:
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My rating:
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"Tracking cookies"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2010.24.271.256
Pros
NADA NIX NIEGH NORPHEN NAY NOTHIN
Cons
Superantispyware found 5 tracking cookies in this program and after checking them it was not a false positive
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"Useless Product for what I needed"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2007.19.250.242
Pros
None. Utterly useless if I can't create a sample ebook to see what it does.
Cons
First time loading the program froze, and I had to restart it.
The second time, I received an error message. It told me that the file was too large for the FREE VERSION to create the ebook.. My document was 4 pages. To me, this program is useless. -
"Higher stars if it was unlimited like they claim"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2007.19.240.238
Pros
It is somewhat straight forward and usable.
Cons
I was limited to 20 pages when creating an ebook. Really annoying considering that I had invested a fair amount of time in trying to put a book together that was important to me. I would like the Unlimited Free version please.
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"it seems limited"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2007.19.240.238
Pros
it didn't work as well as I hoped. I am busy right now and the Cute PDF worked better for my purposes. It might just be me.
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"Does have limitations !!"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2007.19.240.238
Pros
This product downloads ok, installs ok,
Cons
BUT you cannot password protect your ebooks without purchasing the full product. That's all I wanted so did not bother to check out the rest of it.
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"Most user UNFRIENDLY ever!"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2004.14.176
Cons
This is the most unfriendly user software I've ever encountered. I expected a step by step guide to create ebooks. I've never created an ebook and needed GOOD software to walk me through it to produce a professional, high quality ebook. I've worked hours on an ebook using both templates and blank and cannot make it work properly. VERY, VERY disappointed. I was on a budget and chose a less expensive software. I think this was my first mistake.
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"Awesome and impressive! Makes me feel savvy!"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2004.14.176
Pros
Was impressed with everything about this program and its publisher. It works with many functions I am already familiar with and there are flash cards and tutorials in the program as well as a PDF doc tutorial on the website PLUS technical support is available if you get stuck.
Never having used an ebook tool before I stumbled along yet did so well that I have to say it's very user friendly. The tool bar is my saving grace.
And the results are so professional looking. I was truly astonished.
I can't say enough good things about this program and its publisher.
Cons
None, really.
Stumbling around meant there were a few files that I had to clean out to continue. There is an option on the tool bar, under file (?), that allows you to see the pages in a list alongside the document you're on. It was a big help.
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"Has Spyware"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2004.14.176
Pros
It worked good for me.
Cons
Then i updated my anti-spyware definitions and it deteced spyware in it's files.
(Webroot Spy sweeper)
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"Very good, the lite is ok for small ebooks"
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2004.14.176
Pros
It's all in one so you don't have to use multiple tools
Creating links between pages is easy as you always see previews, you never get lost
No files to manage, no names to remember
You can mix text images popup windows hot spots a lot of stuff and no programming never
Cons
The lite edition has no password protection and the size of the ebook is limited (so you can't insert video and audio in hte final ebook, you can just try them and say errr what a pity) but oh well I suppose they must earn some money with the pro in order to feed the family :)
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"Lots of capabilities but not very intuitive, has some limitations...."
Version: eBooksWriter Lite 2004.14.176
Pros
This program obviously brings a lot of things to the table, and it appears that, within the limitations of the "free version," a user could produce SOME types of e-books.
Cons
Trying to get a handle on this software doesn't seem easy. The interface is cluttered and nothing seems to give a novice user a comfortable starting point. I spent an hour or two with an HTML tutor and was able to start generating workable code immediately. So far, I'm still trying to figure out the differences between the programming for this and what would be involved in structuring a webpage. Appears I'll need to gather a better frame of reference on the whole e-book concept before I'll be able to do much with this one. Also, just experimenting, I've already encountered a couple of limitations this version has that get resolved when you buy and complete package ("image too large"). For me, the jury will be out on this for a while longer....
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