[duxuser] Duxbury vs Megadots
- From: "Kathy Riessen" <kathy.riessen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:56:32 +0930
About a week ago, the question was asked on the benefits of Duxbury vs
Megadots. We have also had discussion on quotes and apostrophes etc. Quotes
and apostrophes are always a bugbear with translation, because a typist will
use the same key from a keyboard in a word processor to enter both a single
quote and an apostrophe and somehow the braille transcriber has to make sure
that the translation software can determine which is which.
We have just changed from Megadots to Duxbury - the reason being that
Megadots will not be supporting UEBC and this is the code which Australia
are now using - so there was no dissatisfaction with the product as such.
I have to say that I really miss the way that Megadots handles the
differences between quotes and apostrophe's.
The first time that you translate a file from print to braille, Megadots
assigns a different symbol according to whether or not it considers the
"single prime" as an apostrophe or a single quote. This makes it easy to
quickly search through a document for these symbols to double check whether
or not a single quote or apostrophe will be used - and make changes as
necessary - which in fact were very few.
As a sighted user I found these symbols easy to distinguish - the apostrophe
being a yellow triangle pointing downwards, and the single quote being a
yellow triangle pointing upwards.
I also miss the ability to run macros where you can make global changes -
such as swapping single quotes for double quotes and vice versa - a very
handy macro in Megadots.
Given all that - I am enjoying learning how to make the most of Duxbury
which has many features - and as I learn more about the way it interfaces
with Word - there are a many benefits to using Duxbury over Megadots.
Kathy Riessen
--------------------------------------------------------------
Kathy Riessen, Braille Production Coordinator
South Australian School for Vision Impaired
1B Duncan Avenue, Park Holme, SA 5043
Tel: 8277 5255, Fax: 8277 5051
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