[bksvol-discuss] Re: feedback on how to protect headings such as chapter titles and short story titles
- From: Grandma Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:13:26 -0700 (PDT)
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
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