Introduction

When you start Bloom for the first time, it asks you to decide what kind of collection you want to create.  A collection is a group of books, shell books and templates. There are two kinds of collections:

1. Vernacular/Local Language Collection

A collection of books in a local language

Pick this one to:

• Make a new book, or several new books in a local language
• Copy and paste text from a book that you want to recreate in Bloom
• Translate a book or books into a local language using model books that are already in Bloom

2. Source Collection

A collection of shell or template books in one or more languages of wider communication. You will be able to upload these shells to BloomLibrary.org and optionally make a BloomPack to give to others so that they can make vernacular books with your shells.

Pick this one to:

• Create a model copy of a book that you want to make available in several languages
• Transform existing shell books in some other format into translatable books.

Prerequisites

• • You have installed Bloom.
• • The Bloom program is open.

Create a Bloom Collection

When Bloom is first opened, you see only the Collections tab. You see the standard toolbar.

It looks like this: 

Let’s make a vernacular collection.

1) Click the Other Collection button.

The Open/Create Collections dialog box opens.

2) Click Create New Collection.

The Create New Bloom Collection dialog box opens.

3) Click Vernacular/Local Language Collection.

4) Click Next.

The next page of the dialog box appears. It has a search box you can use find the language you want. The book looks like this: .

5) In the search box, type the name of the language that you want as the vernacular language for this collection.

One or more languages should appear below the search box. They are identified by language code, country and by other names.

For this exercise, do not type English.

6) Click the language that has the correct code and country.

Another box shows you how the name of the language will look in Bloom. You can edit that name if you want to. Usually, it is best to leave it alone.

7) Click Next.

The next page of the dialog box appears. It has boxes so you can tell Bloom more about the location where the language is spoken. There is a box for Country, Province and District.

8) If you want to, click any of the boxes and edit or enter location information.

9) Click Next.

The last page of the dialog box appears.

10) If you are ready to create the collection, click the Finish button. Otherwise, you can click the Back arrow to go back to previous page to make changes.

After you click the Finish button, Bloom opens to show you the Collections tab. The name of your new collection appears near the top left corner of this tab.

Now you are ready to add a book to your collection.