Hi Terri,
I feel your pain, because I too hate dealing with footnotes and footnote
indicators.
It isn't always possible to make footnote indicators (which are often
numbers in a book, too) superscripted. It depends on which software you
are using, and which operating system.
For example, Kurzweil 1000 does not correctly create superscripted
numbers. It instead decreases the font size of the character and raises
the character by a few points. It's not clear if always does this in a
standard way, either. Add to that the problem that occurs when Kurzweil
or other scanning packages decide to randomly raise text in a line a few
points, and decrease font size randomly, and it becomes very difficult
to write a conversion program that can pick out what is supposed to be a
footnote indicator and what isn't.
Some blind proofreaders use Kurzweil, not Word, to proofread, and many
blind volunteers scanning use Kurzweil. They can't create what Word
recognizes, and what the Bookshare software recognizes, as superscripted
numbers.
That's just the problem with Kurzweil. LibreOffice and OpenOffice each
do superscripts differently, and so do the various scanning packages
like Finereader and OpenBook.
The line with three asterisks before a footnote helps members like
myself who are disabled but have vision to distinguish the footnote from
the rest of the text on the page.
I would love if you would share your techniques to help with indices. I
always feel like I'm working with a jigsaw puzzle with an index.
Judy s.
Follow me on Twitter at QuackersNCheese
<https://twitter.com/QuackersNCheese>
On 10/7/2017 6:07 PM, Terry A Gorman (Redacted sender t.gorman for
DMARC) wrote:
Hi all,
I'd like to observe that some requirements relating to footnotes cause
considerable drudgery. I always do the work but wonder for what benefit. If
it's software, isn't software designed for us rather that we designed for
the software? Or, can software be changed so it produces desired results?
Two cases in point:
1. Footnote indicators (asterisks) must be in superscript "if possible." Of
course it's always possible. I recently proofed two books with a total of
1400 footnotes and all the asterisks were in normal type and had to be
changed to superscript. I faithfully did this but it added hours onto
proofing the book. I could not figure an automated way to do this so had to
do each one manually. I do use initial stars before the numbers as a way of
double-checking whether I got all the footnotes. Sometimes I use an abacus
to keep count but having a removal symbol before each asterisk helps me
double-check the book at the end to see that I got all the note numbers.
2. When footnotes appear at the bottom of the page, a line with * space *
space * must appear above the notes. Why is this so? I find that I sometimes
forget to do this and so to be sure the book is submitted perfectly I must
recheck the book to see that all these are done as required. Why is this
extra line needed?
Just curious.
By the way I do books with indicies and notes and I do the index first, then
the notes so that when I'm finished with the book I don't have that to end
with.
I'm sure there are well-thought-out reasons for these requirements but I'm
someone who likes to know what the reasons are.
I'm enjoying reading the more technical details on how shortcuts can help. I
have some relating to indicies. If there's interest, I'll describe my
technique in a separate message.
I love doing proofing. It keeps me sane, feeling useful and gives me
purpose. I'm grateful Bookshare is here to be a vehicle for maintaing
excellent mental health!
Terry Gorman
Tandem bicyclist & Bookshare volunteer
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