Unfortunately, the practice of encoding such formatting details into the original word processing file does not appear to yield the kind of results you might normally expect with rtf files sent to Bookshare. You might be right if either Duxbury were up-to-date, or it was getting a copy of the original rtf file that was submitted. I have yet to see a blank line in any brf file I have ever read from Bookshare in the two years that I have been downloading them. I used to see italics, with the italicized text on a separate line, if you can believe it; but since the braille translator was "upgraded", in quotes, italics are completely absent from brf files.
Back in the early to mid 1990s, I used a copy of Hot Dots, later Megadots, which could take a doc file from MS Word and retain blank lines, centering, bold and italic text, pretty much whatever was in the original file. But Bookshare brf files contain almost nothing of the original formatting or font attributes.
It is hard to believe that Duxbury, even if it were years out of date, would not be able to reproduce the kinds of things that at least one other braille translation program could do a dozen years ago. Which is why it seems more likely to me that Duxbury is not getting an unadulterated copy of the original submitted rtf file.
Evan----- Original Message ----- From: "John J. Boyer" <john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 10:40 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Another Question for Braille Readers
I used to run a braille transcribing operation. My instructions to my workers were to produce a good word-processing file. Inserting blank lines and Indentation is the business of the braille transcription software. If you try to do that on your own you are likely to produce undesirable effects in the braille output. So use your word poocessor's stylesheet for headings, etc. John On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 01:08:00PM -0700, Darrell Shandrow wrote:Hi Allison,I like blank lines before and after headings, even with a Braille display, as that's really the only way to know a heading exists. Though I like blanklines before and after bulleted and numbered lists, I do not like them between items; just list the items one per line. :-) Thanks.----- Original Message ----- From: "Allison Hilliker" <hillikera@xxxxxxxxx>To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 12:50 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Another Question for Braille Readers Hi Everyone,I do read Braille, but I don't always know if my own opinion reflects thatof the majority, so once in a while I ask questions here.I'm validating a book that has a lot of headings and almost no blank linesseparating them. I know that when I'm rereading hardcopy Braille, it's great to have the headings separated with blank lines, but the experience isn't the same with a Braille display. Do those of you reading with displaysstill like to have the headings separated by blank lines? I've been doingthat, but if it doesn't make a big difference then I won't. Also, what about numbered lists, do you like a blank line after each numbered item? How about bulleted lists? I've been changing the bullets into stars upon the suggestion of many of you on this list, but I hadn't asked about the blank lines before. All feedback is welcome. It won't lead to any official Bookshare policy, this is just for my own reference. Thanks, Allison To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list ofavailable commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput 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.-- John J. boyer; President, Chief Software Developer JJB Software, Inc. http://www.jjb-software.com Madison, WI USA Developing software for people with disabilities To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput 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.
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