IMPORTANT NOTE: Although BinderBabies can only be read with Navigator 4+ or Explorer 4+, they can be created with any HTML editor or by coding HTML from scratch. The instructions below assume you're using a wysiwyg HTML editor, but they shouldn't be too difficult to figure out if you're coding HTML directly.
First download and decompress the BinderBabyFiles folder, and make a backup copy for safekeeping.
In the BinderBabiesFiles folder you will find
You will never need to modify anything in the BBgears folder; just keep track of where it is. You'll use the files in the Templates folder to make your booklet; just remember always to work with copies of these files so you don't change the originals. You'll also work with copies of the other two items: duplicate both opener.html and the DummyBook folder and name the duplicates something appropriate - say "MyOpener.html" and "MyBooklet". (Leave them in the BinderBabiesFiles folder for now.)
Look at the opener page MyOpener.html page in your editor. To function correctly, an opener page needs to know where the BBgears folder is and the location of the booklet setup page for each booklet it opens. If you haven't moved anything, MyOpener.html already knows where the BBgears folder is. Find setup.html (the booklet setup file) in the MyBooklet folder, and add a new link to it from MyOpener.html following the pattern for the DummyBook link (see the MyOpener.html page for details). Save, open MyOpener.html in a browser, and test that the link you added opens MyBooklet properly. Once you have this link working correctly, you can modify MyBooklet with your own content and decor and test it as you develop it. (You can modify the look and content of MyOpener.html as well.)
There are three files in the MyBooklet folder that have to do with the booklet setup and appearance: setup.html, cover.html and initial.html. You can modify these at any time; for now, just open them in your editor and look at them.
The booklet setup file (setup.html) lets you choose the number of sections (up to 10), trim colour (around the spine and navigation bottons), and which pages you want for the cover, initial page and section header pages. (You may want to change the title and header of setup.html immediately to reflect the name of your new booklet, so you won't get it confused with DummyBook).
The cover (cover.html) can be any HTML file - decorate as you please. (You may want to change the title immediately so you don't get your new booklet mixed up with DummyBook.) Two tips: you may want to choose your cover background colour to be the same as the trim colour you choose on the setup page, to make the outside spine look like part of your cover. And to centre a title on the cover, put it into a 1-by-1 table, centre the title text and vertically align the table contents at "middle" (see the DummyBook cover).
The initial page (inital.html) can be any HTML file, and should tell the reader what he will find if he clicks the tabs for each section. The initial page is the page he will see if he clicks the page toggle at any time while reading the booklet. It can be a simple table of contents, or it can be something more informative.
Now the hard work - generate content for your booklet!
For each section, make a folder with a header page for the section, and make a link to this header page from the booklet setup page. The header page should give some information about the contents of the section and contain the initial links which branch to that content, as described below.
Content is organized in branching paths (starting on the header pages), so you'll need to learn how to create a path and how to put a branch to that path on a page.
To create a path: make a sequence of pages. You'll probably want to keep the pages of the path in their own folder (you don't have to). Page content can be anything that can go on a HTML page - text, GIFs, movies, sounds, . . .. Once you have all the pages ready, you link them into a path with a path setup page: save a copy of the PathSetupTemplate.html page (in the Templates folder) with a suitable name into your path folder and open it in your editor. Follow the instructions on it - make links to the pages of your path in the order you want them to appear, then save - and that's it.
To branch to a path: on the page you want to branch from, put in a link to the setup page of your path (not the first page) and make sure you target the link to the frame "brancher". Note that you can have only three levels of paths in your booklet - any more will generate an error.
To repeat: you always branch to a path setup page, never to a content page. If you would like to make a link to a page outside your booklet, you can do so if you make it open in a new window, by setting target = "_blank". This is more appropriate for your readers: material from outside your booklet should not appear inside it.
Once you have the content, cover and intitial page the way you want them, you're ready to publish.
To publish your booklet, upload MyOpener.html, the MyBooklet folder and the BBgears folder to your server. All three should be in the same folder/directory (otherwise, you must tell the opener page where the other two are). You can put as many booklets as you like in this folder; only one BBgears folder and opener page are necessary for all of them.