[bksvol-discuss] Re: Stripper, get outa town!

  • From: "Pratik Patel" <pratikp1@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 07:51:15 -0500

Hello all,

I have also just downloaded several of my recent submissions.  After careful
consideration, I am not certain whether the fault only lies with the
stripper.  The DAISY converter has something to do with the difficulties as
well.  Some of the formatting differences are purely the DAISY converter's
fault.  In fact, I found nothing wrong with my chapter headings.  They were
preserved perfectly.  Perhaps its also a matter of methodology.

For example:  I just looked at Celtika (Book One of the Merlin Codex) by
Robert Holdstock.  Those of you who wish can take a look at the book to
understand what I am referring to.  When I compare the Table of Contents
page with my original submission, I find that the formatting has been
altered.  The DAISY converter seems to have put spaces between letters and
changed CAPS for some of them.

However, when it comes to   chapter headings, I find no difficulty with
them.  Here is the method I use to ensure that at least all the chapter
headings are preserved correctly.  My method does bring some issues to the
forefront.  One of these issues is that there is definitely a problem if the
book does not have any page numbers.

1.  Despite all information to the contrary, all page numbers should be at
the top of the page.  If they appear at the bottom, they should be moved to
the top.  This will ensure that the stripper  looks at nothing more  than
that top line.

2.  The page number should appear at the very top without any blank lines
prior to the line on which it appears.

3.  There should be a blank line immediately following the line on which the
page number appears.

4.  The chapter number or chapter titles should be placed on a line after
this blank line.  This will ensure  that the line is not removed.

5.  A blank line between the chapter heading and the body appears to make no
difference as the DAISY converter seems to strip extra blank lines.  When we
look at DAISY files, we have to be careful to distinguish the DAISY file as
it is created by the  converter and the DAISY file that is displayed by the
program that we use to view the file.  For example, if we look at a DAISY
file in K1K, it might appear differently than it might appear in the  Victor
Reader.  Each rendition has a slight variation based on the way the file is
processed by the viewer.  The same analysis applies to braille files.  

6.  It appears that leaving page numbers on top of blank pages does nothing
to that page numbers.  The stripper appears to ignore these page numbers and
leaves them as they are.  From my perspective, it makes no difference
whether we label blank pages or not.  Then, however, the question is whether
those blank pages will be removed in final processing.  In recent
submissions these blank pages seem to have been kept.

I hope this provides some direction to our confusion and allows us to
continue our work without having to worry about formatting issues and to
worry about whether or not your chapter headings will be kept

Please let me know if I've managed to add to the confusion or if I've made
things clearer to all of you.  I'd be happy to answer questions if you have.

Pratik


Pratik Patel
Interim Director
Office of Special Services
Queens College
Director
CUNY Assistive Technology Services
The City University of New York
     ppatel@xxxxxx
 
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lisa Leonardi
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 11:29 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Stripper, get outa town!

Also keep in mind that it is possible that the validator may have changed
some formatting of the way you had the chapter headings laid out... maybe
they were meaning well and it just didn't work out.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pam Quinn" <quinns@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 9:07 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Stripper, get outa town!


> Yes, that could happen. So if anybody feels the need to rescan a book
> because of OCR errors, that's fine, but if it's because of missing
> chapter headings or problems with formatting, best that they mention
> it on the list before rescanning. I have the original copies of all of
> my scans.
> The reason I've been checking my books is that I'm trying to defeat
> the stripper and want to find out when it works. The most recent books
> I checked, what I had done was put Chapter on one line, the number of
> the chapter on the next line. I'm not sure why in one book the word
> chapter was gone and in the next the numbers were.
> That was in the braille copies. Think I'll take a look at the daisy
> formats.
>
>
> Pam
>
> On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 17:18:13 -0800 (PST), you wrote:
>
> >What you say about the changes in the books is scary.
> >It would be a shame to have books we have worked so
> >hard on made inferior rather than excellent. And it
> >sounds as if someone downloading the book might go to
> >extra work to re-scan and submit.
>
>
>



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