Using eBooks on Perfection Next

This article will walk one through the various features of eBooks on Perfection Next®.

Students will launch their eBooks from the Class Dashboard. In the Products Panel, one selects the eBook to launch. The Class Dashboard is the default view for student's logging into their accounts in Perfection Next®.

Teachers can also launch their eBooks from the Class Dashboard. However, they can also select Products then select the product they wish to view.

Depending on the products licensed there maybe an additional submenu to select from the Products menu as materials are classified into Instructional Materials, Resource Library, and Digital Library.

Upon opening an eBook your screen should look similar to what is displayed below. The Navigation Bar, which contains the menu items Dashboard and Account for students and for teachers includes Products, Reports, and Manage options. If you have licenses to Interactive Editions, teachers will also have an Assignments menu item.
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The Information Bar (outlined with pink rectangle) will tell you the title of the book you are currently viewing. In the screenshot below, Connections: English Language Arts Student Edition is being displayed.

The eBook toolbar is where you will access a variety of features of the Perfection Next eBooks. We'll introduce the various tools on the toolbar then in the next section of this document explain them in more detail.

On the left side of the toolbar from left to right the tools are: Panel, View Controls, Size Controls, Pan, and Select tools.

The next section on the toolbar is the View Selector. This allows one to toggle between the default View which is View, Annotate, Shapes, and Insert.

The final section of the toolbar one will find the Search, Comments/Annotations, Settings, and Immersive Reader.

At the bottom of your browser window centered, you will find the Page Navigation. This is the pink colored rectangle area. The Page Navigation allows one to navigate to the Previous and Next Page with the arrows, or Jump to a Page by entering a page number in the field that has FC in it.
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There are additional page navigation features covered in the Panel section of this article.

When opening the Panel tool, your eBook content will shift to the right and the right Panel will be displayed. Selecting the Panel tool again will close the left panel window. It will open to showing a Thumbnail View of book pages that can be used to navigate to specific pages within the eBook.

The Outlines View will provide you with a table of contents for your book organized in the structure of the program. In the product image below the book is organized by unit and chapter. Selecting the text in the table of contents takes you to that section of your eBook.

You have the ability to add bookmarks to your eBook from the Bookmark View in the Panel View. This view will show you a list of bookmarks for your eBook that will allow you to jump to those pages from the Bookmark View.

You can select the New Bookmark button to add a bookmark. This will display the information about the page you are on and allow you to name your bookmark. To save your bookmark select the Save button.

The Page Settings tool has three different sections of options for adjusting the view of your eBook including Page Transition, Page Orientation, and Page Layout.

The Continuous Page option allows one to scroll to the previous and next page as a continuous stream of pages. As one scrolls the existing page will scroll off the screen and the next page becomes viewable. Page by Page which is the default view shows one page at a time as you scroll.

Rotate Clockwise or Rotate Counterclockwise options under Page Orientation allow you to change the orientation of your eBook pages. This feature is not likely to be used often, but some pages might have different orientation inside the book.

Most books will default to opening in Single Page mode for Page Layout which will show one page at a time. If you have a larger display you might prefer to show multiple pages at one time with the Double Page or Cover Facing Page options.

Double Page will show two pages at a time side by side starting from the front cover of the book. The Cover Facing Page option will allow display two pages at a time, but does it by offsetting for the front cover to behave exactly as if one was looking at the pages in the physical book.

The Zoom controls allow one to adjust the size of the pages of your eBook. This book is currently showing at 84% of the actual size.
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Selecting the Fit to width option will expand the display of the eBook page to take up the full width of the screen. You may not be able to see the full book page on your display in this view at once. You will potentially need to scroll up and down to see the contents of the page just like viewing web pages in your browser.

Selecting Fit to page will fit the book page to the vertical space in your browser window. For most displays this is going to make the size of the page smaller as the entirety of the page will be shown without needing to scroll. However, the size of the page may not be large enough to easily read the content of the book page.
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In addition to the Fit to width and Fit to page options one may select a specific zoom setting to increase or decrease the size of the book pages.

To the right of the size of the book page are Zoom Out (cmd -) and Zoom In (cmd +) options which will decrease or increase the size of the eBook page.

This tool can be accessed by selecting icon or the P key on your keyboard. When in this mode you are able to use your cursor to move around your book pages.

This tool can be accessed by selecting the icon or the Esc key on your keyboard. When in this mode you are able to select text within your eBook to initiate annotation tools.

After selecting the Select tool, selecting text on your eBook page will bring up a popup menu that will allow you to Highlight, Underline, Squiggly, Strikeout, or add a Link annotation to your eBook.

There are a variety of views for additional tools available in the eBook viewer. The default view is the View which does not contain an Annotation Toolbar. The other views are Annotate, Shapes, and Insert. The currently selected view will have blue text as shown below.

Selecting the Annotate View will display the Annotation Toolbar.

The tools from left to right are Highlight (H), Underline (U), Strikeout (K), Squiggly (G), Note (N), Free Text (T), Rectangle (R), Free Hand (F), Undo (Cmd Z), Redo (Cmd Shift Z), and Eraser (E).

One can select the tools by selecting the appropriate icon or they can use the Hot Key listed after each of the tools above in parentheses. For example, to access the Highlight tool one would select the letter H.

The image below shows different text annotations of Underline, Highlight, Strikeout, and Squiggly. You can add as many annotations as necessary when using the materials. One can select a single word or multiple words and extend their annotation beyond a single line on the page.

Continuing on with the other tools in the Annotation Toolbar the image below shows a Rectangle around the Essential Question, Free Text inserted below that, a Free Hand arrow pointing to the essential question and a Note above the Goals box on the page.

You will also notice that on the Toolbar has the Comments tool highlighted. When this is highlighted your annotations will show in the Right Panel on the screen. There are options to Search through your annotations, Filter the annotations by type, and Sort by a variety of different settings.

After adding annotations you have the option to select that annotation on the page and alter the annotation. You will see a Context Menu popup like the one shown below. This one contains an option to Comment, Style, Delete (Del), or Link to a URL or page.
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The Comment tool allows one to comment on the selected annotation. In the screenshot below the Text annotation is selected with the Comment tool highlighted as well as the Comment Block in the Right Panel where the comment was added to the selected.

The Style tool for an annotation will allow one to change style characteristics of the selected annotation. With the Free Text annotation one can change Text, Stroke, and Fill characteristics of the annotation. This includes, changing the Color, Opacity, and Text Size.

The Style options for the different annotations will vary, but some like color will be common across annotations. The Context Menu options will also vary depending on the object selected.

The Delete tool for an annotation will allow one to delete the selected annotation. Selecting the Delete icon will delete the annotation from the eBook. There is no prompt to confirm before deleting the annotation. If one mistakenly deletes an annotation you can use the Redo tool to add it back to your eBook annotations.

The Link tool for an annotation will allow one to create a link to another resource for the annotation. This can be either a website via a URL or another page within your eBook.

Selecting the Shapes View will display the Shapes Toolbar.

The tools from left to right are Free Hand (F), Rectangle (R), Ellipse (O), Polygon, Cloud, Line (L), Polyline, Arrow (A), Undo (Cmd Z), Redo (Cmd Shift Z), and Eraser (E).

One can select the tools by selecting the appropriate icon or they can use the Hot Key listed after each of the tools above in parentheses. For example, to access the Ellipse tool one would select the letter O.

Each of the Shape annotations will also display a Context Menu popup when selecting that annotation on the page and alter the annotation. The Context Menu will have options to Comment, Style, Delete (Del), or Link to a URL or page.

Selecting the Insert View will display the Insert Toolbar.

The tools from left to right are Stamp (I), Callout (C), Undo (Cmd Z), Redo (Cmd Shift Z), and Eraser (E).

One can select the tools by selecting the appropriate icon or they can use the Hot Key listed after each of the tools above in parentheses. For example, to access the Callout tool one would select the letter C.

The Stamp tool allows you to insert an image on the page of the eBook.
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The Callout tool allows you to insert a callout as shown below.
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On the right side of the Toolbar is the Search icon. Selecting the Search icon will open the search panel on the right side of the screen.

Here you can enter word(s) that you want to search for in your eBook. You have options to match on Case sensitive as well as Whole word.

Case sensitive will only find matches when the casing of the term to search matches that of the text within the book.

Whole word when checked will only return search results that are 100% match of the text you entered to search in the text entry field.

After select the Search button to the right of the text you entered, you will get a list of search results that indicate where in the book the search term(s) were found. Selecting any of these results will take you directly to that spot in the book.

The search term(s) will also be highlighted on the page when you are viewing it.
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The Comments icon will open the Comments Panel on the right side of your screen. Here you will be able to see all of the various annotations and comments you have made in your eBook.
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You can Search through your annotations/comments, Filter by Annotation Type, and Sort by: Position, Time, Status, Author, or Type.

The Settings icon will allow you to change some display settings of your eBook.
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Full screen mode (see image below) will allow you to focus on your eBook by hiding the Navigation Bar and Information Bar providing you more vertical screen space for displaying your eBook.

Upon entering Full screen mode the menu option under the Settings icon will change to Exit full screen to return the Navigation Bar and Information Bar to your screen.

Selecting Dark mode menu item will change the eBook Reader to be in Dark mode instead of the default which is Light mode. When in Dark mode, the menu item will change to Light mode which will return you to Light mode.

For students there is no option to print your eBook pages.

For teachers teacher materials that contain reproducible pages will have a Print option available for you to print. This will be found under the Settings icon and be labeled Print. It will only appear if the book allows for printing.

All eBooks have Microsoft Immersive Reader functionality available to them. Simply select the Immersive Reader icon from the eBook Toolbar.
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You can use Immersive Reader on the entire page of your eBook or select specific text, such as the reading selection.

At the bottom center of the Immersive Reader screen is the Play button as well as Voice Settings option.

The Play button will enable the text-to-speech in the selected language.

The Voice Settings will allow you to the Voice Speed as well as change the Voice Selection between Female or Male voices.

There are Text Preferences, Grammar Options, and Reading Preference options available in the upper right corner of the Immersive Reader view.

The Text Preferences allow you to adjust the Text Size, Increase Spacing, change the Font, as well as select different Themes.

The themes will adjust the background and text color.

The Grammar Options will allow you to break words in to Syllables as well as identify the Parts of Speech for the words when in Immersive Reader.

The Reading Preferences will allow you to set the Line Focus to 1 line, 3 lines, or 5 lines as well as enable the Picture Dictionary and Translate the page into one of 120+ languages. Most of these languages can also be spoken with the text-to-speech feature.