Expanded Books
Encyclopedia
The Expanded Books Project was an undertaking at The Voyager Company
during 1991, that investigated ideas on how a book could be presented on a computer screen in a way that would be both familiar and useful to regular book readers. A lot of time was spent thinking about font choice, font size, line spacing, margin notes, book marks, and so on.
Much of the original impetus for the project, however, dated back a year earlier to a small meeting on digital books that Voyager sponsored on Bloomsday
, 1990, attended by various pioneering multimedia
and hypertext
experts. At this meeting, the consensus emerged that, to overcome the relative inconvenience of being tied to a low-resolution and cumbersome digital display, digital books would have to offer "added value." When Voyager developed the Expanded Books, it took this advice to heart.
The actual programming for the initial products happened over a relatively short period, between October and December 1991, with the first three book titles being released at MacWorld San Francisco, January 1992. Those first titles were The Complete Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
, The Complete Annotated Alice
, and Jurassic Park. These books and their successors relied upon a "book engine" that provided a simple but powerful feature set: various convenient and simple search methods, the ability to switch between large print and normal print versions, various unobtrusive navigation tools (such as, for example, a chapter menu that dropped down from the chapter heading on each "page"), a margin area on each page in which readers could write notes, and, of course, interactive annotations. For example, Jurassic Park featured dinosaur illustrations that included dinosaur sounds based upon descriptions in the text; The Annotated Alice
provided pop-up annotations derived from both editions of Martin Gardner's work.
The product range was not definitely to be called "Expanded Books". One other favored contender was "Power Books", but that idea died when Voyager was told that the about-to-be-released notebooks from Apple were to be called PowerBooks. Hence the original project name became the product name.
Between February 1992 and August 1992, Voyager created The Expanded Books Toolkit, which allowed authors to create their own Expanded Books. Voyager themselves went on to produce over 60 books as Expanded Books, and the underlying software was also used in CD-ROMs such as A Hard Day's Night
, Salt of the Earth, and Macbeth
.
All programming for the Expanded Books and Toolkit was in HyperCard
, with the exception of a few XCMDs and strings stored as resources.
Voyager Company
The Voyager Company was a pioneer in CD-ROM production in the 1980s and early 1990s, and published The Criterion Collection, a pioneering home video collection of classic and important contemporary films on Laserdisc. It was founded in 1984 by four partners: Jon Turell, Bill Becker, Aleen Stein and...
during 1991, that investigated ideas on how a book could be presented on a computer screen in a way that would be both familiar and useful to regular book readers. A lot of time was spent thinking about font choice, font size, line spacing, margin notes, book marks, and so on.
Much of the original impetus for the project, however, dated back a year earlier to a small meeting on digital books that Voyager sponsored on Bloomsday
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904...
, 1990, attended by various pioneering multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
and hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
experts. At this meeting, the consensus emerged that, to overcome the relative inconvenience of being tied to a low-resolution and cumbersome digital display, digital books would have to offer "added value." When Voyager developed the Expanded Books, it took this advice to heart.
The actual programming for the initial products happened over a relatively short period, between October and December 1991, with the first three book titles being released at MacWorld San Francisco, January 1992. Those first titles were The Complete Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
, The Complete Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice is a work by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel...
, and Jurassic Park. These books and their successors relied upon a "book engine" that provided a simple but powerful feature set: various convenient and simple search methods, the ability to switch between large print and normal print versions, various unobtrusive navigation tools (such as, for example, a chapter menu that dropped down from the chapter heading on each "page"), a margin area on each page in which readers could write notes, and, of course, interactive annotations. For example, Jurassic Park featured dinosaur illustrations that included dinosaur sounds based upon descriptions in the text; The Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice is a work by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel...
provided pop-up annotations derived from both editions of Martin Gardner's work.
The product range was not definitely to be called "Expanded Books". One other favored contender was "Power Books", but that idea died when Voyager was told that the about-to-be-released notebooks from Apple were to be called PowerBooks. Hence the original project name became the product name.
Between February 1992 and August 1992, Voyager created The Expanded Books Toolkit, which allowed authors to create their own Expanded Books. Voyager themselves went on to produce over 60 books as Expanded Books, and the underlying software was also used in CD-ROMs such as A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
, Salt of the Earth, and Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
.
All programming for the Expanded Books and Toolkit was in HyperCard
HyperCard
HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
, with the exception of a few XCMDs and strings stored as resources.