Save As Template

Question

As far as I can tell, all this command did was duplicate my file.
By template, I thought they meant a file with certain elements on all pages, like a master page in InDesign with perhaps the header, footer and layout the same for all chapter and section pages. They have a handful to choose from when you start a new file, and I thought that is where it would be saved as well.
Am I missing something here?

Answer 1

When you save a file, the file type (or file extension) is ".iba". With a template, it is ".ibatemplate". When you save an .iba file, you normally will choose what ever directory you want to save it in. With a .ibatemplate file, there is a preferred default destimantion which is the directory that your iBooks Author templates are saved. Typically that is on the path:
~/Library/Application Support/iBooks Author/Templates/My Templates
Any .ibatemplate files that are in that directory are displayed in the list of available templates when you tell iBooks Author to create a new iBook document. Although I have not done a detailed comparison, if you saved to an .iba file, and then immediatly saved as a template from that same document, the actual contents of an .iba and and .ibatemplate appear be the same as you observed.
You can make a text field be a placeholder text field by using the "Define as Placeholder Text" command when the desired text field is selected. That makes the content text uneditable. As soon as you try to edit the text, the entire contents of the field is replaced with the new text. You can do the same thing with a media object with "Define as Media Placeholder". So you have to take some deliberate steps to setup the placeholder objects.
Hope this helps.
Don Parsons