Good point, George. Sometimes there's really no alternative to working in six-key mode in a braille file, and the bell is a handy feature. Trouble is, these days it's more difficult to find a keyboard that will let you do six-key braille.
Steve----- Original Message ----- From: "George Bell" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 08:57 Subject: [duxuser] Re: Margin Bell in Word
To put this Margin Bell feature a little more in perspective, put yourself in the position of a transcriber who has used a Perkins for many a long year, and is now presented with six-key entry into a DBT Braille file. This is not dissimilar to how I felt when I graduated from a typewriter to a word processor with word-wrap. I was waiting for that all important bell to tell me I was nearly at the end of the line and ready to haul the carriage back to a new line. I don't know about the States, but here in the U.K. we still have literally hundreds of transcribers, sighted and blind, who still prepare subjects like math and music in a Perkins. Migrating them to a means whereby their hard work can be stored electronically is a hard task. That was one of my main considerations when I designed the "Galatee" braille keyboard. It is laid out just like a Perkins, and has about the same level of intelligence as a Perkins. George. -----Original Message----- From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Dresser Sent: 09 May 2008 21:27 To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [duxuser] Re: Margin Bell in Word Ann, Unfortunately, some of those formatting decisions (like putting hard returns at the end of a line) cause more problems than they solve. It's counter-intuitive to most people, but the last thing you want to do is use a word processor as if it were a typewriter. When you do that, the document seems to be properly formatted until you resize it, at which point everything goes to hell in a hurry. And while we're at it, let's not forget the nightmare that unwanted line breaks cause for braille transcribers. Steve----- Original Message ----- From: "Foxworth, Ann" <Ann.Foxworth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 15:52 Subject: [duxuser] Re: Margin Bell in WordSince several people have expressed wonder at my interestin having a"margin bell" in word, I'll explain my reason. Whensighted people areentering text in a Word document, they are tracking theirformattingvisually. They make decisions based upon how the text islining up. Aperson using jaws can do the same thing, but we have tostop typing inthe text and press some jaws commands to make jaws tell uswhat columnand what row we're on. I admit, it would be a luxury, butthe mostlikely reason Duxbury developers decided to put thatmargin bell inDuxbury was for the blind users of the program, and I amvery happy tohave it. ANN FOXWORTH, BRAILLE CONSULTANT DARS DIVISION FOR BLIND SERVICES CRISS COLE REHABILITATION CENTER 4800 N LAMAR BLVD AUSTIN, TX 78757 PH: 512-377-0471 -----Original Message----- From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx[mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Susan Jolly Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 2:34 PM To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [duxuser] Margin Bell in Word I'm not quite sure why you'd want a margin bell in Wordbut you can useWord to produce a text file with line breaks at the end ofeach line asfollows. I don't know how to do this in Jaws but it should bepossible.Set the font to Courier New or some other monospace font.Set the leftand right margins and/or font size so that a line willjust hold howevermany characters you want the maximum to be. Then typenormally. Wordwill automatically wrap to the next line after spacesunless you hitEnter for a new paragraph. If you insert or delete anywords later, Wordwill re-wrap the lines in the changed paragraph asnecessary.Then, when you save the file, do a "Save As" and selectPlain Text fromthe Save As Type pull-down list This will bring up a FileConversionbox. Check the "Insert Line Breaks" option. This will put aline break afterevery line in the file. Of course, once you've done this,you can'tedit the file so it's a good idea to also save theoriginal file as anordinary Word document in case you want to edit it. HTH, SusanJ* * * * This message is via list duxuser at freelists.org. * To unsubscribe, send a blank message with * unsubscribe * as the subject to <duxuser-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>. You may also * subscribe, unsubscribe, and set vacation mode and other subscription * options by visiting //www.freelists.org. The list archive * is also located there. * Duxbury Systems' web site is http://www.duxburysystems.com * * *
* * * * This message is via list duxuser at freelists.org. * To unsubscribe, send a blank message with * unsubscribe * as the subject to <duxuser-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>. You may also * subscribe, unsubscribe, and set vacation mode and other subscription * options by visiting //www.freelists.org. The list archive * is also located there. * Duxbury Systems' web site is http://www.duxburysystems.com * * *