Pressbooks Common Questions

A: Styles are built-in word formats in a text editor. For example, in Microsoft Word, some styles include Heading 1, Heading 2, and Body text. These aid in screen reader navigation and graphic organization of text.

In Pressbooks, the styles (and fonts) are embedded within the Theme you choose. Each theme includes Paragraph (similar to Body font in Word), Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. By default, the title of the chapter (which appears in the red box at the top of the chapter in Edit mode) will appear in the Table of Contents and is a Heading 1 style.

Ideally, you want to set your headings in a hierarchical manner (Chapter title is Heading 1, Major section titles of the page are Heading 2, subsections of each section are Heading 3, etc.). This supports screen reader accessibility.

A: Check your Spam, Junk, Promotions, or Other folder. If you still cannot find the invitation email, contact your Pressbooks administrator or local support team and ask them to resend the invitation.

A: This depends on your institution, project, or publishing workflow. In many OER projects, authors are responsible for creating and revising the content, while instructional designers, librarians, educational technologists, accessibility specialists, or student assistants may help with formatting, accessibility, media, copyright, H5P, and troubleshooting.

Suggestion: Discuss roles early. Some team members may prefer to focus on writing content, while others may help with formatting the Pressbook, creating media, uploading images, checking accessibility, or building H5P activities. If students or assistants contribute meaningful work, consider how their labor will be compensated, credited, or acknowledged.

A: Not necessarily. Both Word and Google docs can include formatting that will not copy/paste neatly into Pressbooks. Word docs can be imported/uploaded directly into Pressbooks, but Google docs cannot. However, you can copy/paste from either.

Suggestion: A best practice for bringing in text-based content is to select all of the content in the Word or Google doc and remove the formatting. This will get rid of any formatting in the HTML (backside) of the document that might get messy once brought into Pressbooks. Once pasted into Pressbooks, the formatting (headings, tables, etc.) can be added using Pressbooks’ text editor.

A: This usually has to do with your user role. In Pressbooks, Editors and Administrators have different permissions. If you need to change the theme or other appearance settings, ask your Pressbooks administrator whether you need Administrator access.

View the different roles and their abilities 

A: Yes, if your role allows, the color schemes and other Themes or Theme Options can be changed at any time. Changing these should not alter your content.

Read more about Appearance – Pressbooks User Guide

A: You can change what is being referred to by default as “Parts” and “Chapters” for your students. Keep in mind, this will only show to your students once the Pressbook is published. While you are building your Pressbook, you will still see “Parts” and “Chapters”. View the video below for steps on how to change the names.

For more information, see the Pressbooks User Guide under Global Options < Parts and Chapter Labels.

A. More than one person can edit within a Pressbook at a time. However, within a chapter, only one person can edit at a time. If you try to edit a chapter in which another person is currently editing, you will see the message “[Team member’s name] is currently editing this chapter. Do you wish to take over?” If you choose to take over, the other person’s work may be lost.

Suggestion: To mitigate the risk of losing your work, you can create your text on a Word document or Google doc saved to your desktop or team’s Google folder.

Pro tip from one OERFSJ team: Type your content in a Google Doc and link the Google Doc into your team’s Table of Contents or OER Content and Assessment map in your Deliverables spreadsheet.

A: Pressbooks is supposed to autosave every 60 seconds. However, it is always a good practice to save your page often. The red Save button is located at the bottom of the page. You can also see all of the different saved and autosaved versions in a list at the bottom of the page and can choose to revert to one of those at any time. If you try to navigate away from a page without saving, Pressbooks will pop up a message asking you if you want to leave without saving.

A:  While both support accessibility for users, typically the Alt Text is a very brief description that describes the purpose of the image, while the image description deeply describes (paints a picture of) the image for blind/low vision folks.

More on the difference between alt text and image description

Suggestion: Arizona State University offers an AI-supported tool that can help generate alt text, image descriptions, and captions. After uploading an image and selecting Create Image Details, review the AI-generated text carefully for accuracy, accessibility, bias, and context. AI-generated descriptions should be treated as drafts, not final accessibility text.

More on adding images to your Pressbook

A: The figure number, figure title, and attribution serve different purposes. A figure number helps readers locate and reference the image, such as Figure 1.1 or Figure A1 if the image appears in an appendix. A figure title briefly names or describes the figure. The attribution provides the title, author, source, and license information when required.

Suggestion: Keep a shared image or figure tracker that includes the file name, figure number, figure title, alt text, caption, source, creator, license, and attribution statement.

A:  Images in your Pressbook chapters can be enlarged when users select them if they are linked through a URL either in your Pressbook (if the image is uploaded to the Pressbook) or to the URL of the image (if it is hosted on the internet or in another Pressbook).

In the Edit mode of your Pressbook chapter, select the image. Then, select the editing pencil.

If the image is uploaded in the Pressbook’s Media Library already:

Under Display Settings, select Link To: Media File [1]. The URL for the image will appear in the URL text box [2]. Select Update [3].

Your image will now enlarge when selected.

If the image is hosted elsewhere on the internet or in another Pressbook:

Under Display Settings, select Link To: Custom URL [1]. In the URL text box, paste in the image’s URL from its hosting site [2]. Select Update [3].

Your image will now enlarge when selected.

A:  In your Pressbook Dashboard, select Media from the left-side panel [1]. Find and select the image to which you wish to add a TASL [2].

Add or change the title [1], add the author’s name [2], the URL to the original source of the image [3], and select the image’s license from the drop-down menu [4]. Then, select Update to save the changes [5].

A: If the H5P plugin is enabled in your Pressbook, and since you’ll likely want to keep all of this in one place, we would recommend using H5P to create your QR code. You can make QR codes with an H5P type called KewAr. This will also allow you to maintain/sustain the QR code link. Once you create it in your H5P Library, you can place it on any page of your Pressbook as an H5P. Alternatively, you can also take a screenshot of it and bring in the image in your Media library. You can also print it off and use it digitally wherever you want, either as a screenshot image or an H5P.

Note: Before using a QR code in print materials, test it on multiple devices and make sure the destination link is stable and accessible.

To create a KewAr H5P, you’ll need to give it a Title. You can add optional Introductory Text, if you like, to guide users as to its purpose.

Next, you’ll choose the type of content to which the QR code will be tied from the drop-down menu. As you can see from the image above, KewAr allows you to tie it to many different types of content. In the above example, I chose URL, as this QR code will be tied to the OERFSJ Faculty Handbook.

For whichever content you choose, you’ll be given a field to place information. For this example, I pasted in the URL to the OERFSJ Faculty Handbook.

Finally, you can alter the Behavioral Settings, if you like, for things like the color, size, and alignment of the QR code.

A: Yes, you can set anchors on a page in Pressbooks to enable your viewers to jump to or from a particular place on the page or to any other spot in your Pressbook. The Pressbooks User Guide offers guidance for setting up Internal Hyperlinks (under Create Custom Internal Links Using Anchors).

A: Here is a short video showing how to alter one piece of HTML in your Text editor to fix this:

More on Formatting Ordered Lists from the Pressbooks User Guide

A: In most cases, avoid adding extra blank lines manually, since extra spacing can create inconsistent formatting and accessibility issues. Instead, use paragraph breaks, headings, lists, or theme settings to create meaningful structure. If you need additional spacing for a specific design reason, check whether your Pressbooks theme options or custom styles can handle the spacing consistently.

Here is a short video showing two ways to add space between lines of text in your Pressbook page:

A: Yes, with a few changes to the HTML in the Text editor, you can alter the way a list and its subpoints appear in your page. The Pressbooks User Guide offers guidance on formatting ordered lists.

A: Pressbooks enables easy embedding of some common elements that require an iframe:

• • • • PhET Interactive Simulations
      • Brightcove
      • Google Forms
      • Google Maps

Typically, you could add the embed code to the Text (HTML) editor (the tab next to Visual on the top right of your editing screen).
If you want to embed interactive elements but notice the provided embed code is not working, we suggest using the H5P Iframe Embedder. Within Pressbooks, select H5P Content from the navigation menu on the left. Select Add New at the top of the H5P Library. Then, find and select the Iframe Embedder type. There you can add the URL for your interactive figure and the display dimensions. The only restriction: the max width must be 720 px or less. The figure below has a width of 670 px with a max width of 720 px and a height of 525 px.

A: This is known as a Two-Level Table of Contents. When enabled, Pressbooks can display chapter subsections in the table of contents. This usually involves turning on the two-level table of contents setting and using consistent heading levels within the chapter.

Here is a short video for step-by-step guidance.

For more information, see the Pressbooks User Guide under Global Options < Two-Level TOC.

A: Yes, using a little HTML, you can add these show/hide collapsible boxes to your page. This show/hide feature is a native HTML5 element called <details>, and it offers a simple, powerful way to make expanding text boxes in your Pressbooks web book.

The details element is very simple and starts and ends with the standard HTML tags: <details> and </details>. Whatever you type within the <summary>will be used as the label for the show/hide box. Here’s some sample code for a very minimal show/hide disclosure widget:

Want to make these accordions stand out a bit more?

Consider adding Alex’s Accordion CSS to your Pressbook. If you decide to change the font or background color in the CSS, use the color contrast tool to choose and adjust colors to ensure they meet accessibility requirements.

View the video to see how to add the Alex’s Accordion to your Pressbook. The CSS code is below the video.

Alex’s Accordion CSS

/* Alex’s Accordion */

details > summary {

padding: 6px 10px;

font-size: 1em;

text-indent: 0.5em;

background-color: #000;

color: #fff;

border: none;

cursor: pointer;

margin-bottom: 2px;

border-radius: 20px 20px 20px 20px;

}

details[open] > summary {

background-color: #000;

color: #fff;

}

.collapsed {

border-radius: 0 0 10px 10px;

background-color: #e8eff4;

padding: 10px 10px;

margin-bottom: 10px;

border-radius: 15px 15px 20px 20px;

}

/* # The Sliding Summary # */

@keyframes details-show {

from {

opacity: 0;

transform: var(–details-translate, translateY(-0.5em));

}

}

details[open] > *:not(summary) {

animation: details-show 750ms ease-in-out;

}

/* End of Accordion */

Pressbooks allows you to edit whether or not a link opens in a new tab. Here is how:

Step 1: Select the link and then select the pencil icon.

Step 2: Select the gear icon.

Step 3: Check the Open link in a new tab box. Then select Update.

Note: If a link must open in a new window or tab, the best practice is to include a textual reference.

Example: OER for Social Justice [New Tab] is available online.

A. You can ask adopters to notify you of their use of your OER through a simple form. Gathering this information will demonstrate the impact of your OER.  To do so, you may create and link a simple form (such as a Google Form) to your Pressbooks landing page with a button for maximum visibility. You could also link to the form in the front matter of your textbook. Follow the simple process below to create an OER adoption tracking form and create a button for your Pressbooks cover page.

1. Create a Feedback Form
   • Using Google Forms (or an alternative platform), create a feedback form using this Google Form template [New Tab].
   • Modify the form as desired. Publish the form and copy the responder link.
2. Insert Code for Button
   Replace the text in [brackets] with the URL to your form. You may modify the color HEX codes to your preferred color schemes or branding for the background and color of the button. The below color schemes are compatible with Pressbooks color branding. 
   • Place Button HTML (what you paste into Pressbooks): Paste this exact HTML (with highlighted specifications) into the Book Info → Short/Long Description field. Place in the long description to display in the footer of the Pressbooks cover page or in the Short Description to display to the left of the OER cover. (The Short Description text box does not have a code tab. It is okay to paste the HTML into the visual editor. Pressbooks will convert it to display.) Paste the following: 

<div class=”pb-adoption-button”>

<a href=”[Insert Respondent Link to Your Form Here]”

target=”_blank”

rel=”noopener”>

Assigning or Adopting? Tell us About it.

</a>

</div>

1. • Click “Save” on the Pressbooks page
2. Place Button CSS (what makes it look like a button and not just hyperlinked text)

   • Go to:

     Appearance → Custom Styles → Web (drop down selection) -→ Your Web Styles

     Paste this in:

.pb-adoption-button {

margin: 1.5em 0;

}

.pb-adoption-button a {

display: inline-block;

background-color: #005ea2; /* Pressbooks-friendly blue */

color: #ffffff;

padding: 0.85em 1.4em;

font-size: 1rem;

font-weight: 600;

text-decoration: none;

border-radius: 4px;

line-height: 1.3;

transition: background-color 0.2s ease-in-out;

}

.pb-adoption-button a:hover,

.pb-adoption-button a:focus {

background-color: #003d6b;

color: #ffffff;

text-decoration: none;

}

• Click “Save” on the Pressbooks page

You should now have an OER use and adoption form linked to your Pressbooks cover page as a button.