DT Book Syntax

[_Ric_Wright_]

Adobe is pleased to announce the release of the second Beta version of Digital Editions 1.5.

You can find it here:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/install/

The Beta is an opportunity for customers to test and provide feedback to Adobe on new features and compatibility with their digital publications.

The key feature of this second Beta release is that we have enabled the "Setup Assistant". This walks the new user through the steps of authorizing their computer. With this assistant, you can also, optionally, decline to authorize your computer. Adobe very very strongly discourages this. We feel that you should *always* authorize your computer. More on this below.

The key feature of Digital Editions 1.5 is the addition of enhanced DRM support that provides content portability across computers and devices that you authorize with your Adobe ID. (Note that this portability is available ONLY if you authorize your computer).

Note: You should be aware that this beta release includes an enhanced version of DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection. If you plan on using Digital Editions for mission critical work, please consider using Digital Editions 1.0.

Key features of the enhanced DRM include:
- Ability to convert a users content to a Named Authorization license, enabling them to be backed up, copied and read on other computers or devices
- Authorization of end users DRM protected content with an Adobe ID (if authorized)
- Writing the secure license into the document
- Existing content is migrated to the new system and newly downloaded content is automatically converted when it is downloaded
- Content portability applies to both PDF and EPUB documents (again, only if the computer is authorized).
- Resulting documents can be copied just like any other file (if both computers are authorized)
- Documents can be opened on any computer or device which has been authorized by the owner
- The number of machines that can be authorized is controlled by the amount set by the Authorization server (up to 6 computers and 6 devices)
- We have added functionality within Digital Editions 1.5 to support mobile devices. At this time we are working hard on rolling out support for the actual devices which work with Digital Editions, which should become available later this year.
- The number of machines on which a document can be viewed is limited by the number of authorized machines, unless the document has been limited to a single machine by the publisher

Note that authorization with an Adobe ID is no longer required in 1.5, but is *strongly* recommended. If you do not authorize your computer, your content will, as in Digital Editions 1.0, be locked to the computer to which is was downloaded. Adobe feels very strongly that all users will be best served by authorizing their computers. Adobe Digital Editions does not use the ID for any purpose other than enabling portability by linking you and your books. The ID is not used for any other purpose, public or private. Please see Adobe's privacy policy here.

Publishers and vendors should note that this release does not alter the fulfillment of ebooks so existing ecommerce workflows are not affected.

In addition to the DRM enhancement, this release of Digital Editions also
Adds support for Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard)
- Fixes a bug in which double-byte (e.g. Asian, some European) users could not use Digital Editions
- Adds support for users whose My Documents folder is mapped to a network drive.
- Improved PDF support, including more complete support for the Adobe transparency model
- Support for named pages in PDF (e.g. i, ii, iii, etc.)
- Page map support in EPUB so that there is a mapping between the reflowed screens and the paper copy of a book
- Adds support for multiple books per ETD fulfillment
- Miscellaneous user interface improvements and bug fixes

[_Carm_Dalton_]

Reading through this, we can use it on up to 6 computers and 6 devices. Is the process for downloading a book from the computer to the handheld device similar to that used with the ebook format? Is there a separate download for handheld devices; and is there a list of compatible devices established yet?

[_Ric_Wright_]

This information will be released when Digital Editions 1.5 is released. In the meantime, I am legally restricted from saying what will be supported.

[_Justin_Brown_]

Ric said,
"[...]- Miscellaneous user interface improvements [...]"

Hi Ric,

I posted a thread a moment ago that could potentially relate to this particular detail. Is there a specific list of what user interface improvements have been made, and/or what is coming down the pike?

Thanks,
Justin Brown

[_mark_salmon_]

Hi,
I tried to download an ebook yesterday- from ebooks.com site.The book has two different fonts--one used to indicate computer code input and I guess a second for text however nothing appears-- no text just the computer code input-- this is a book on a computer package R. This is a problem but much more important to me is that Digitial Editins has completely taken over all my acrobat documents -- every pdf i try to open is now only available to me through digital editions--this is a disaster for me as an academic-- what do I need to do--this is really urgent. I do not have my original CD of Acrobat with me here - its in my office 160 miles away and I need to work this weekend-- I am running XP service pack 2 and my version of Acrobat is 8.1.2
This is critical to my work--I have deleted Digital editions from my machine but it is still there for some reason. I really urgently need some response please.

[_Björn_Beyer_]

hmm...enhanced DRM support...the music-industry is just learning that DRM was a bad idea. Do you want to repeat this?

Adobe should better use its capacities to improve the interface. I want to use the reader with my touchscreen and flipping pages would be nice like some flash-prospectus.

[_Ric_Wright_]

Björn, I am a little like Steve Jobs (but poorer ;-). I hate DRM. But the publishers absolutely insist on it. Music MAY be able to get away from it (though it remains to be seen. But books are a different business. They don't sell for 99 cents. The cheapest ones sell for significantly more and the academic texts sell for far more. These publishers are not about to abandon DRM. I would far prefer to spend my team's cycles on great features (like touch-screen support, accessibility, etc. etc.) than on enhancing DRM. But the world is what it is and until it changes our job is to make the DRM as unobtrusive and bullet-proof as possible - both for the user and the publisher.

[_John_I_Clark_]

Well, all I can say is that I am THRILLED that they finally did something that made it possible for me to open the Peachpit Press ebooks I'd purchased... On BOTH my desktop AND my laptop!! FINALLY!!!

Obviously, I'm a happy camper...

If you're gonna do DRM, at least get it so that it works!

Thanks Adobe.

(as much as I twinge when I write that!)

;-}

[_Corkey_Smith_]

Second attempt to get a message into here....

Digital editions has simplified the organizing and reading of my ebooks. I do wish, however, that there was a way to move bookshelves up and down so that I could alphabetize their order. I installed the beta code with the hope that such was considered in the new version but it isn't. I believe the ability to alphabetically sequence bookshelves after creating them would be a wonderful feature that should be added to the new release.

[_Björn_Beyer_]

@Ric:

Of course I see your point. Your company wants to earn money and there are mechanisms to press as much money out of the market as possible.
On the other hand I see that books are free accessible for more than hundred years in libraries for a really small fee. Especially the expensive academic texts :-)
We can discuss this for long time without getting any result. You are right: The situation is as it is.

As customer I think egoistically. I want to have a nice and useful product and I'm willing to test it. But I don't want to think about DRM and all kinds of bugs it might produces.

[_amy_ruello_]

Is there any way to edit the item information? Several of my documents register as "author unknown" and I would like to add this information.

[_Ric_Wright_]

Thanks for the useful tips, folks. As for Amy's question, there is currently no way to edit that info. It is on our list, but did not make the 1.5 list. Hopefully we will get it in to the next release. However, do note that we pull the author info from the document itself, so it indicates that whoever authored the PDF did not put that info in.

[_Joerg_Schaum_]

After I click the install link, a Agreement screen appears, next, after I agree, a brown like and white dialog with 2 buttons is displayed, but there is no text in the window and on the buttons. After I click the button on the right, which I assumed as "NEXT"-button, again a blank dialog with black buttons and a blank option dialog is displayed. Don't know what is the problem here, but if someone can tell me what is written here, I would try to install it. My OS is WinXP jp SP3. Need to have the latest beta cause I had to do a full PC recovery and the actual DE release wont let my access my library anymore.
Thanks.

[_ArvinderSharma_]

Hi Ric,

I am looking for providing audio/video capability to my publishers through .EPUB standard, Can Nimas or XHTML standards gets supported by new ADE, if not when can i expect that.

Initially I heard that .EPUB supports Nimas and XHTML 1.1 standards, is their text to speech attributes enhanced in new beta released ADE.

kindly clarify with details if possible.

Thanks

[_mangal_]

Hi Ric,

I have an .epub ebook with DTBook Vocabularies. When I try to open this file in adobe digital edition this shows following errors.

The document appears to have minor errors that might cause it to be displayed incorrectly
--- errorListChange ---

does Adobe digital edition conform DTBook based .epub?

[_Ric_Wright_]

The newly release Digital Editions 1.5 supports a subset of the DTBook syntax. We would be very interested in seeing the content you are encountering as there is currently very little DTBook content available. Where did you get the content? Thanks.

[_mangal_]

Ric,
I got a sample .epub (DTBook) from IDPF site, I have converted this sample as .epub DTBook vocabularies specification. I added this .epub file in ADE library, it add successfully and shows toc in left hand but no contents are displaying.