Why use it?

A Moodle book is useful for displaying lengthy information. It is a multi-page resource organised into chapters and sub-chapters, which can contain text as well as embedded images and videos.

A book within a Moodle space is much more accessible for students (compared to a series of PDFs or links), and easier for editors to update.

Students can page through information or use the table of contents which opens automatically in the Blocks Drawer area on the right.

A Moodle Book titled 'Course Structure' with three chapters. The current chapter is titled '1. How to use this book'.

A sample Moodle Book

Step 1: Add a book

EDIT MODE ON. Scroll to the section where you want your book to be displayed, click Add an activity or resource and pick Book.

The Moodle 'Add an activity or resource' picker, with Book highlighted and an arrow pointing to it.

Select ‘Book’ from Resources menu

Step 2: Settings

Tip: Click on the question mark icon next to any setting to display extra help or click on Moodle Docs for this page link at the bottom of each page in Moodle for accessing context-specific documentation.

General

Give the book a meaningful Name and, optionally, a Description.

Appearance

Choose how you want the chapters and sub-chapters of the book to be displayed in the Table of Contents.

Chapter Formatting

None – Titles only, useful if you want to define your own numbering.
Numbers (default) – formatted as 1, 1.1, 1.2, 2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.
Bullets – Titles and sub-chapters appear with bullets and indented.
Indented – Sub-chapters appear indented.

Custom titles

Tick the box if you do not want to use the same title in the table of contents and on the main chapter page. For example, you might use ‘Lecture One’ in the contents list, but give the page itself a longer title, such as ‘Chapter One: Introduction to Economics’.

Moodle 'Add new chapter' form. Chapter title is set to 'Chapter One' and content is set to 'Chapter One - An Introduction to Economics'.

When the ‘Custom titles’ box is ticked, the ‘Chapter title’ only appears in the Table of Contents. The custom title can be entered in the ‘Content’ field.

Page showing the Book titled 'Week 1'. The current chapter is 'Chapter One - An Introduction to Economics'. On the right side, there is a Table of Contents where the chapter title shows '1. Chapter One'.

The finished look at a Book chapter with a custom title.

Click Save and display.

Step 3: Add chapters

Add the first chapter

Enter a Chapter Title and populate the Content area.

Note: Use the Moodle Text Editor tools to style your text. Should you wish to copy text that has already been written somewhere else, make sure that you use plain text. Copied formatted text types will often cause layout issues.

Click Save changes.

Add more chapters

From the Table of contents add further chapters or sub-chapters by clicking on the plus sign icon＋. Repeat as above.

Table of contents showing 1. Chapter One with four icons next to it, edit, bin, show or hide, and add. The add chapter icon is circled.

Add a new chapter by clicking on the plus sign icon in the Table of Contents.

Step 4: Manage your chapters

Edit a chapter

From the Table of contents edit a chapter or a sub-chapters by clicking on the pencil icon next to it.

Delete a chapter

From the Table of contents delete a chapter or a sub-chapter by clicking on the bin icon next to it.

Hide a chapter

From the Table of contents hide a chapter or a sub-chapter by clicking on the eye iconnext to it.

Reorder chapters

From the Table of contents reorder chapters or a sub-chapter using the up/down arrows up and down arrow icons .

Export and Import chapters

From the quick navigation menu at the top, you can choose to import and export chapters. This option is only available to editors and managers. It is not visible to students.

Import chapter tool

The ‘Import from Microsoft Word’ option allows editors to upload a document as a book chapter. However, it is only possible to add one chapter at a time, and the uploaded file must be in '.docx' format.

If you wish to download a whole book for easy reuse in other modules, you should use the IMS content package option instead. See the section below on [#Reusing book content] for details.

Step 5: Using the book

Navigation

Navigation is possible via:

the table of contents on the right (the blocks drawer opens automatically when book is opened)
the next and previous buttons.

Printing

The whole book or selected chapters can be printed by anyone who can read the book. Check the MORE link of the top course menu. PRINT BOOK or PRINT THIS CHAPTER.

Under the 'Week 1' Book, the 'More' menu is open, with the 'Print book' and 'Print this chapter' options circled in red.

Step 6: Reusing book content

Exporting a book from one course and importing it into another

Export from one module

To export an entire book from one course, open the book. Click on the MORE link of the top course menu

Under the 'Week 1' Book, the 'More' menu is open, with the 'Download IMS CP' option circled in red.

Click ‘DOWNLOAD IMS CP’. Moodle will create a .zip file, which will be automatically downloaded to your device.

Import to another module

Navigate to the module to which you wish to add the book and create a new book into which to import your content (see Step 1 above).

Inside the new book choose IMPORT CHAPTER at the top.

Upload the .zip file of your book.

Make sure that the ‘Type’ drop down is set to ‘Each HTML file represents one chapter’.

The 'Import chapter' tool is shown. 'Each HTML file represents one chapter' type is selected in a dropdown menu. Users can drag and drop a file to add the chapter, with a highlighted 'Import' button below the file.

Click ‘Import’.

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