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Is Bloom right for my project?

Bloom is an excellent tool for creating books, but Bloom is not the right tool for every situation.

When using Bloom is a good choice

Bloom is a good tool to use under the following circumstances:

  • The people writing books have limited computer skills.
  • The books people want to create are relatively simple in design.
  • People want to adapt existing books to new languages and cultures.
  • People want to create decodable and leveled books.
  • People want to create “talking books” with a synchronized audio recording of the text.
  • People want to create sign language books or books for the visually impaired.
  • You want to provide writers with reader templates to help them write books that meet certain specifications.

When Bloom may not be a good choice

Bloom is not good for every purpose. Here are a number of needs that Bloom does not accommodate:

  • Text does not flow from one page to the next. Rather, Bloom is page-oriented. If authors have more text than will fit on one page, they must stop typing, insert a new page with a text box, and start typing again.
  • There are limitations to Bloom's page layout capability: for example, you cannot create a page where text wraps around a picture. You cannot easily create tables with rows and columns. If authors need complex page layouts, Bloom may not be the right tool.
  • There are limitations to Bloom's text formatting capabilities: for example, bulleted and numbered lists are not possible.

Other limitations of Bloom

  • Bloom does not have built-in tools for editing images, audio, or video. Bloom lets you crop an image, but cannot make any other changes to it.

When you may need Bloom Enterprise

Bloom Enterprise is a set of publishing tools for institutional users. Bloom Enterprise subscribers have the following additional tools available to them:

  • HTML5 widgets, for interactive pages
  • Quiz pages, for testing readers’ comprehension
  • The Overlay Tool, for creating more complex layouts and comic books
  • Team Collections, to allow multiple team members to work together on books
  • Custom branding and book designs
  • A dedicated collection on the Bloom Library website

To learn more about Bloom Enterprise, see Bloom Enterprise Service Overview.