Hi Cindy,
I had no idea that was the m-dash, learn somethimg new every day! Thanks
Tom Hawkins
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 1:10 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: submitting books as text files
Not Sarah, but I'm here, so I might as well answer.
A hyphen is a short dash--the bottom one of the key on your keyboard (I assume you're using a standard compuer keyboard but if you're using something special like a Braille keyboard I don't know where it is). It is used, as you know, to divide words at the ends of lines (but we eliminate them here) and also in some compound words, like ages, e.g., "he's twenty-six years old."
And em dash is a long dash--so named because it is the width of a printer's letter m (in the old days when type was set by printers). It's above the short dash on the keyboard and can be created, at least in Word on my keyboard, but hitting simultaneously Option, Shift and the hyphen key. Many people hit the hyphen key twice when an em-dash is needed.
Which brings us to its use. It's used in a sentence when a comment or thought interrupts the main thought. Here's an example from the book I'm validating now: "My attention was probably drawn to them--Mr. Hartshorn and Miss Zarinka--because they didn't dance." It's also used at the end of an incomplete sentence to show the thought,, or sentence, is incomplete, e.g., "He thought the man looked familiar. That might check with Hewitt--" A different speaker interrupts: "Or with any other of five hundred people." Or at the end, or near the end, of a sentence when the rest of it is a little different thought from the first part, e.g., "That's why I called in ourside help--meaning you."
I tend to use em dashes a lot when I wrote. They're subtly different from parenthetical remarks, which I also use a lot. If you listen rather than read or use Braille, you might you might notice a slight change in tone or a pause. I don't know how braille indicates an em dash.
I hope this explanation isn't too pedantic or confusing. I may have gotten into my "teacher" mode. Sorry. (smile)
Cindy
--- tom hawkins <tjhawk1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Sarah,
You mentioned the m-dash, in your message, can you
tell me what it stands
for. I find them in my word docs.
Thanks Tom Hawkins
----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah Van Oosterwijck"
<curiousentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 7:16 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: submitting books as
text files
> Saving as RTF is the best thing you can do for
potential validators.
> Saving as a TXT file is likely to get page breaks
lost or messed up, so it
> is best not to risk it.
>
> If you wouldn't mind fixing the problem of strange
quotes and apostrophes
> it would be nice. Save your book in RTF directly
from Open Book. An Open
> Book user will have to supply direction for doing
that if you have
> problems. Once you have the RTF file you can Open
that in Word and
> replace the strange punctuation. Your screen read
may not tell you that
> the quotes are close quotes and that the
apostrophes are single quotes,
> but I guarantee they are. Find the first
quotation mark in your file and
> select it. Hit Control-H and paste it in the find
box. Tab once and type
> a quotation mark in the replace box. I believe
Alt-A is replace all.
> Next repeat the procedure, but this time find,
select, and copy an
> apostrophe or single quote from your file and
replace with a typed
> apostrophe.
>
> You could also replace em-dashes with two of the
dashes you can type from
> your keyboard. All the replacing is to make your
file bookshare
> conversion tool friendly. To be nice to braille
readers I replace all
> elipsies with spaces between the dots with three
periods in a row without
> spaces, which is supposedly a technical error, but
that is what works for
> braille translation. The changes you make are
really up to you. I am
> only saying what makes both the DAISY and braille
files made by bookshare
> come out very readable.
>
> Sarah Van Oosterwijck
> Assistive Technology Trainer
> http://home.earthlink.net/~netentity
>
> ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Scott Blanks" <scottsjb@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 8:50 PM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: submitting books as
text files
>
>
>> Hi there,
>>
>> Thanks for the advice. Actually, I generally had
been validating my own
>> submissions, so the need to change format wasn't
there.
>>
>> Well then, here's the next question, if I submit
as rtf instead, should I
>> use the same format from openbook? Or would it be
better to save as text,
>> then open the text file in ms word, and save that
as an rtf file?
>>
>> Scott
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Jana Jackson" <jana@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2005 12:44 AM
>> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: submitting books as
text files
>>
>>
>>> Hi, Scott! Have you been submitting your books
in the RTF format? If
>>> so, you may want to continue with that, rather
than switching to text,
>>> especially since RTF is the format of choice for
Bookshare. Since
>>> WordPad comes with Windows, RTF is also widely
available for validating.
>>> However, to answer your original question, your
idea of the process is
>>> correct. <Smile> Thanks for your work!
>>>
>>> Jana
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "Scott Blanks" <scottsjb@xxxxxxxxx>
>>> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 8:38 PM
>>> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] submitting books as
text files
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi folks,
>>>>
>>>> I scan books using Openbook, and I would like
to submit them as text
>>>> files, so that they will be available to a
larger group of people for
>>>> validation. So, what I want to confirm is the
procedure I should take.
>>>> What I plan to do is:
>>>> 1. Scan the book in openbook.
>>>> 2. Keep a copy in the openbook .ark format.
>>>> 3. Save an additional copy as a text file to be
submitted to Bookshare.
>>>>
>>>> It seems simple enough, but I wanted to check
with the people in the
>>>> know to find out if there is anything else I
need to do to ensure the
>>>> best transfer of the book from myself to the
validator.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Scott
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> To unsubscribe from this list send a blank
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
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