Apple updates iAd Producer with support for iBooks Author widgets, iTunes LPs, iTunes Extras, more

Apple’s iAd Producer tool for creating HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript ads for its iAd platform gets updated to version 4.0 today and adds a number of notable new features on top of some performance enhancements that Apple outlined in a knowledge base article. The updated app now allows users to create iBooks Author widgets, iTunes LPs, and iTunes Extras. Apple provides more information on the new features, such as creating an iBooks Author Widget for iBooks Author projects on the iAd Producer support page:

You can create an iBooks Author widget for use in your iBooks Author projects. For example, you can create a widget that allows users to stream video from the Internet, draw using their finger, or interact with a timeline.

A full list of what’s new in iAd Producer 4.0 including: folder-based organization support, new HTML, Stack, Drawing, and Panorama objects, in-app quick previews, CSS filter support for objects, and much more below:

New in iAd Producer 4.0

This release contains a number of new features and improvements

• Improved Object library interface
• Improved Actions library interface
• Support for folder-based organization in the asset library
• New HTML, Stack, Drawing, and Panorama objects
• New actions for adding and removing CSS classes, animating background position, animating image masks, and text slide-in animation
• Support for applying CSS filters as well as image and gradient masks to objects.
• In-app quick preview
• Project-wide search in the Code Editor
• Better export performance
• Improved menu layout
• Improved font support, including support for OpenType fonts
• Improved rulers and alignment guides
• Enhanced inspectors, with pop-up color pickers, and gradient sliders that now represent opacity
• Support for QuickLook previews in iAd Producer project files
• Support for iTunes LP, iTunes Extras, and iBook Author widget project types
• Other fixes and improvements

(via MacStories)