Help:Books/FAQ

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The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Printed PediaPress books of Wikipedia content.

General questions regarding the book tool

Where can I find stored books?

All stored books on LIMSwiki can be found via LIMSWiki:Books.

How do the exports comply with license requirements?

PDF export

  • link to each article and its version
  • all contributors are mentioned
  • images are linked to their image page on the wiki
    Warning: Authors and licenses of images are not part of the PDF. So these PDFs can not be distributed without further manipulation if they contain images.
  • inclusion of the GFDL (English)

In printed books

  • URL of each article and its version
  • all contributors are mentioned
  • URL of each image
  • all contributors of an image are mentioned
  • license name of the image is mentioned
  • inclusion of the GFDL (English)

Can I use the book tool with my MediaWiki?

Yes, the book tool is based on the open source project mwlib. The MediaWiki Collection extension works out of the box with most MediaWiki installations as well as the PediaPress service.

How do I delete my book?

If you're not an administrator and need your book deleted, you can simply request deletion by placing {{Db-speedy}} on top of the book's page. You MUST include a reason, however, for the deletion using the |rationale= parameter.

How can I hide the "Create a book" portlet on my wiki?

The ID of the <div> element is p-coll-create_a_book (in all languages). To hide the box, insert the following text into MediaWiki:MonoBook.css:

#p-coll-create_a_book { display: none; }

Questions about PDF exports

Why are articles displayed differently than in the browser?

Books have no scroll bars, while a browser does, so printed content needs to be split up on several pages. To get an acceptable typesetting result, some page elements need to be displayed differently. This may result in some unexpected layouts, especially for tables and parts of wiki articles that use HTML instead of MediaWiki markup.

How can I improve the appearance?

You can edit the wiki articles themselves to make them print better. See the advanced help section for some ideas.

Questions about printed books

How do I order a book?

Pediapress book ordering step 1.png Pediapress book ordering step 2.png Pediapress book ordering step 3.png
 1) Click on "Order as a printed book"  2) Book gets loaded by PediaPress  3) Choose country, get price
PediaPress book ordering step 4.png Pediapress book ordering step 5.png Pediapress book ordering step 6.png
 4) View preview  5) Add to cart  6) Enter shipping and billing information

Printed books can be ordered through PediaPress.

Simply click on "Preview with PediaPress" on the Special:Book page. This uploads your book to the PediaPress website.

After choosing the destination country, an approximate number of pages and the price are shown. Title, subtitle, and editor can be set or changed here. There is a preview which shows how your selected articles (only the first N pages) will look like in a printed book. (Note: The typesetting of printed books differs from downloadable PDFs, since the page size is A5, not A4, and it includes additional features like a table of contents, index, etc.)

At this point, your book can be ordered by adding it to the cart and checking out. Available payment methods are MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal. Books are printed within two to three business days.

How are books manufactured?

PediaPress uses the TeX typesetting system to generate a digital pre-press reproduction. Books are printed on demand either in the U.K. or the U.S. Books produced by this technique look just like conventional paperback books.

Book specification:

  • Content
    • Table of contents
    • The selected articles
    • Licensing information
    • Index
  • Paper size: A5 (approx. 5.8 in × 8.3 in)
  • Images are printed in greyscale using the highest available resolution
  • Books can contain 50 to 800 pages

There is an example book (PDF) which shows how printed books are typeset.

How much do printed books cost?

number of pages price
100 €8
200 €11
300 €14
400 €17
500 €20
600 €23
700 €26
NOTE: Exact cost varies from country to country and may fluctuate daily based on currency exchange rates.

Pricing for printed books depends on the number of included pages (see table) as well as type of binding and colors chosen. To get a detailed quote, simply upload your book to PediaPress and select your country and currency.

The Wikimedia Foundation receives 10% of the sale price of each book.

Which shipping options are available?

Books are shipped using a standard shipping option to most countries in the world. Shipping takes one to fourteen days depending on the shipping option you select. Consult the PediaPress Shipping FAQ for more information.

What is PediaPress?

pediapress.com is an online service which offers customized printed books from wiki content. The web-to-print service works on any MediaWiki which has deployed the open source Collection extension. The company actively supports the MediaWiki community and established a long-term partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation. The company was founded in 2007 and is located in Mainz, Germany. For more information see http://pediapress.com/about/.

What are the known limitations?

Skin support

The tool currently only works with the "Monobook" and "Modern" skins. There is a simple workaround: switch to Monobook when creating books.

Book size

Currently books can not contain more than 500 articles. Please keep in mind that generation of large PDFs can take a long time and results in high server load. Dividing article collections into multiple volumes might be a solution.

Printed books currently support no more than 800 pages.

Rule of thumb: Printed books (A5) have approximately twice the number of pages than the PDFs (A4) have.

Infoboxes and large table

Infoboxes and other large tables are printed at full page size, not "floated" to the side as on the wiki. This is a result of the limited size of A5 paper: if the infobox were shrunk to fit, the text within would be illegible.

CSS & HTML

CSS and HTML used in the wiki markup are only partially evaluated when generating PDFs. Templates can be adjusted for print to avoid some of the problems, see the advanced help section for details.

TeX formulas

Due to technical limitations Math tags are rendered as raster images and not in print-quality.

Where to report bugs and give general feedback?

Bugs, feature requests, and questions are best reported at the Help:Books/Feedback page.

External links
https://www.limswiki.org/index.php?title=Help:Books/FAQ&printable=yes
www.limswiki.org
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