[bksvol-discuss] Re: feedback on how to protect headings such as chapter titles and short story titles
- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:43:00 -0400
Dear Linda,
Thank you for taking time to let me know my post was helpful and reassuring.
When 7 out of the 7 books I checked had chapter heads in tact, I felt safe in
telling the list that simple little system was reliable.
You know, in the hard old days before January 2006, page numbers used to
disappear. I used to put a blank line 3 dashes and another blank line to
protect page numbers! When Gerald told me the engineers had fixed that bug,his
words, worked a miracle, my words, I just couldn't believe him! I had done so
many pages with those dashes, I didn't want to change my tried and true method.
It was silly of me, because Gerald was the expert and hadn't ever given me bad
advice. I was so nervous when I validated my first book without those dashes,
but true to his word, the page numbers came through the tools safe and sound.
Things do get better and better around here. The new volunteers naturally
notice things that need to be done, but I've seen so many upgrades since I
joined that I know from Bookshare's past record that we can expect more and
more improvements are ahead. For example, it used to take forever to renew
books on step two. I'd renew,, press the keys to go back to step 2, and then
read a few e-mails while waiting for Bookshare to get me back there. It saves
so much time for us to hop from screen to screen now.
It's a process and our suggestions to the staff are essential in helping them
prioritize what to do next. There is also some patience required on our part
because we don't know the whole picture and all of the factors which influence
what is done when. I also think some of the volunteers, like Gerald and Jake,
our monitors, and maybe some others, have some kinds of meetings where they
convey volunteer needs for upgrades to the techs.
Thank you, again, Linda.
Always with love,
Lissi
----- Original Message -----
From: Linda Adams
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 2:10 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: feedback on how to protect headings such as
chapter titles and short story titles
Hi, Lissi. That was an excellent note with clear instructions. It will help
me a lot, and I think I will save it and post it, with your name on it, of
course, whenever new people bring up stripper questions again. That way,
people on the list won't feel as if they must write the same advice over and
over. We can start saving those clear explanations of things and simply post
them when someone has a problem with something that we have addressed a lot
before. Thank you.
Linda Adams
----- Original Message -----
From: Estelnalissi
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 12:22 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: feedback on how to protect headings such as
chapter titles and short story titles
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
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