UPDATE: MAY 11, 2022: ONLINE VIDEOS ARE NOW LINKED IN THE PDF FILE. IF YOU PURCHASED THIS BOOK PREVIOUSLY, WE’RE HAPPY TO SEND YOU A LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION FOR FREE. VISIT THIS PAGE FOR DETAILS.
There are times when a good idea generates a ton of work, but it might be years before the need to do the work appears. Way back in 2010 (which is equivalent to about a century in “internet years”) I created the “Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp”, a digital book about using SketchUp to design, plan and manage woodworking projects. The digital PDF format allowed the placement of videos within the text and it was successful enough that it spawned a bunch of conventional books with similar titles. Embedded videos in a PDF has been a challenge, and never caught on in the publishing world. It isn’t easy either technically or creatively. Adobe, the company who created the software for creating and reading PDFs, made some improvements over the years, but killed the software that made for a good user experience.
One of my mantras is that the quality of the content is the most important thing about any book. Thousands of woodworkers have used this book to learn 3D modeling. The content is still relevant and useful. The PDF format still functions, but the controller for the videos is now kaput. I have hoped for more than a year that Adobe would develop a replacement for the Flash based controller, but that hasn’t happened and likely won’t. So, it’s on to plan “B” for the embedded videos.
I have uploaded all of the videos from the latest version of the “New Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp” to this website and they will be available to purchasers of the book in the next few days.The videos will be available on this page.
There are a couple of technical hurdles that remain:
- The videos will not be publicly visible, purchasers of the book will need a password to view them online.
- After all the videos are live online, I will add a link to each one in the PDF so that a reader can view the videos in their browser while reading the book in Adobe Reader. (not as seamless as it was, but you will be able to pause and rewind without losing your place in the book).
- Adding those links is a tedious process and will take some time, but the videos need to be online first to create the links.
- Those who purchase the book after this is accomplished will get the password in the new version.
- THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED:
- Send me an email to get the password to view the videos.
- When the PDF is ready, I will send you a link to download the new version at no charge, if you have requested the password for the videos.
- APOLOGY TO THOSE WHO HAVE “SUBSCRIBED” TO SITE CONTENT:
- There are hundreds of good folks who have signed up to be notified by email when new content appears, if you are one of those you might receive a bunch of emails as the videos go live.
- I have temporarily disabled “subscriptions” and put a filter in place to exclude the videos from email notices but I am not confident that those will work as expected.
- If you receive numerous emails regarding videos please forgive me. My intention is to improve the content in my book and not be a spammer. This won’t last long.