Dear Lissi, Thanks for your informative post. From your checking I gather that it's not necessary to write an extra word to save the chapter as long as the page number is at the top. Useful info. And I had no idea that the skipped lines before a chapter title would slow down braille readers. I'll stop doing that. And I suppose I might as well stop centering chapter titles and leave them flush left. As a sighted person, I never notice page numbers when I read, whether they are at the top or the bottom, unless I don't have a decent bookmark and want to remember where I left off reading. Of course if I were writing a paper on a book I'd need to cite the pages, possibly. Cindy --- Estelnalissi <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Dear Kellie, Lori, E. and Booksharian Friends, > > Kellie, you are so right. As long as we are lucky > enough to get new volunteers, and until the thing is > dismantled, the question about what is a stripper > and how can we outsmart it will be asked. But, E, > with all of your success and vast experience as a > validator, I can't figure out why this issue upsets > you. > > Protecting chapter numbers and names is easy. Jamie, > Gerald, and others have explained it and we'll keep > explaining it whenever it's a new volunteer's turn > to learn it. Lori, you'll be relieved at how easy it > is to make sure your chapter names stay put and its > so easy it's no trouble at all and takes mere > seconds per chapter. > > here is the formula > > page break > blank line > page number > blank line > chapter name > blank line > Text. > > When I started out, volunteers taught me this simple > sequence, and I've enjoyed becoming expert enough to > pass it on now and then as new volunteers subscribe > to our list. > > When I read E was going to stop validating rather > than risk her chapter names disappearing, I decided > I must be misunderstanding her or she was having a > bad day, as we all have bad days now and then > including me. > > I haven't worried about the stripper for a year and > a half except to think what a funny name it has when > I feel like letting my thoughts stray on the raunchy > side. > > I've been wanting to come clean about something for > several months. and now is a good time to do it. > Since it protects chapter names to put page numbers > at the tops of the pages where they are, I decided > about 50 books ago to move all of the page numbers > in the books I validate to the top of the pages so > the numbers will be in a consistent location. I > don't play fast and loose with the book format. I'm > doing this for good reasons. Having all of the page > numbers at the top of the pages is so helpful to > people reading with braille displays and it doesn't > confuse listeners or print readers either. > > When a sighted person glances at a page, they can > see the page number before they begin reading no > matter where it is located because their eye takes > in all of the page in the fraction of a second. I > think a braille reader shouldn't have to wait until > the end of a page to know what page they are > reading. > > When we search a page, like page 87, we shouldn't > land at the end of the page we want but at its > start. Page numbers at the bottoms of pages are > especially confusing to more than half of the young > children reading braille books. If the teacher says > to start on page 45, if the number is at the bottom, > the child finds page 45, then has to tediously check > backwards, up, to find where the page starts. > Telling kids that when they want page 45 they should > look for page 44 is terribly confusing and more > confusing when the teacher says, "but sometimes you > should look for 45 when you want 45. It depends on > the book. > > I feel proud that all of the books I've validated in > the past several months are standardized with all > page numbers at the tops of the pages and I don't > mind the extra time it has taken for me to move them > there. > > Anyway, I did something that to me is extremely > boring to make sure my advice about protecting > chapter names is sound. I downloaded 7 of my own > validations to my flash card and checked them on my > braille note. When I validate, I read every word of > the book making corrections as I go. Then I do a > spell check, because by then I know which words may > be spelled oddly because of dialect and ignore them > when the computer says they are wrong when I know > they are right. Last I go through and check that all > page numbers are present. I should stop being > astonished that on occasion I've found that I > actually skipped a page number or repeated it. Shoo. > Then I'm glad I took time to double check. > > Honestly, I never give chapter names or the stripper > a single thought. I systematically do the blank, > number, blank, chapter name, blank, text, thing or > on regular pages blank, page number, blank, text, > and leave a blank line at the bottom of every single > page between the last line of text and the page > break. I trust that all will be fine and it is! > > Anyway, after all of that care, by the time I upload > a book after validating it I'm tired of it and don't > want to read it again and I don't want to see where > I may have overlooked a boo boo so I rarely download > my own work. > > As I said, tonight was the exception. I downloaded > the following books which I've validated. > > Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Sequel > Green Lake > The Black Cauldron > Marvin Redpost Why Pick On Me > The Prince in the Heather > Terror On Tuesday > Why Cats Do That > > All of the chapter heads were there! I thought they > would be, but to be sure, I've been heating up my > braille note checking and checking and checking. In > one book the chapters were just indicated by roman > numerals. All of them were where they belonged. In a > couple other they were Arabic numerals. In one or > two others they were numbers spelled out. In one > they were words, like, "Why Do Cats Scratch The > Furniture?" Not a single chapter number or name was > missing. > > Don't sweat the stripper. Don't sweat the small > stuff. > > Oh, and don't worry about putting in tons of extra > consecutive blank lines like 7 in a row because a > chapter starts in the middle of a page. Having that > blank space doesn't change the meaning of the > content of the text. It slows down braille readers > and bookshare tools eliminate big white spaces. A > single blank line above and below the page number > makes everything clear and readable. > > Get back to work, E. That stripper can't get the > best of us. including you. In fact, the poor > stripper is just a flop, a white elephant which > we've outsmarted almost from the day it tried and > failed to do its job. The engineers are so busy > making improvements to the site, the silly white > elephant stripping is in some dusty electronic > corner being ignored. 'We have bigger, more > important fish for the staff to fry, don't we? > > Oh, and, Lucy and Charlie, I validated Why do Cats > Do That from an Excellent scan from Jamie Yates just > for you. Would you please write me off list and let > me know if the cat loving author knows what she's > talking about? I loved the book. It has 40 short, > light hearted, but factual chapters about the ways > of cats, but since I've only had one cat in my > lifetime, I would love to have your expert opinions. > Did you laugh, scoff, agree or file a suit against > the author for misrepresenting cats? > > Always with love, > > Lissi > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Kellie Hartmann > To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 10:42 AM > Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: feedback on how to > protect headings such as chapter titles and short > story titles > > > Hi Lori, > Please don't feel bad about asking--it's not new > volunteers who are causing my frustration. The > easiest way to protect chapter headers is to put the > page number above them. The stripper will recognize > and incorporate the number and leave the chapter > header in peace. > Hope this helps, > Kellie ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.