[duxuser] Re: Reading and Preparing .brf files
- From: "Diane Scalzi" <dscalzi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 21:10:56 -0400
One thing I know about .brf files is that you can emboss them without
Duxbury. When I was working, I would emboss these files from the DOS prompt,
even on my Windows computer. I was using Windows XP then. I don't know how
you would do this from a computer running Windows 7 or Windows Vista. Gyuess
my point is that you don't need DBT to emboss these files.
-----Original Message-----
From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Bill Scherer
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 2:00 PM
To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [duxuser] Re: Reading and Preparing .brf files
Maybe this is a dumb question? If .BRF files are essentially text files what
purporse do they serve?
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Catherine Thomas" <braille@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 11:37 AM
Subject: [duxuser] Reading and Preparing .brf files
>
>
> A simple solution to many of the proble,s with .brf files is to open the
> file first in a word processor such as WordPerfect or MSWord. You can look
> at the file to determine: 1. How many characters per line? 2. How many
> lines per page? 3. Are there form-feeds to help separate the pages? 4. Are
> there hard returns at the end of each line? 5. Are there excess spaces at
> the beginnings of lines which might cause a person to try to emboss the
> file without enough characters per line? When you have looked at the file,
> close it. If you find that you will need to make changes, you can make
> them in the word processor provided that you save the file as a plain text
> file which is what .brf files are to begin with--just simple text files.
> Don't save the file in Word or WordPerfect. Saving it this way adds coding
> which the embosser cannot interpret. Also, always remember that a .brf
> file should never be translated by Duxbury--only embossed.
>
> After you have determined all these features, you can properly set your
> embosser. Try embossing a sample page, preferably not page one. If page 7
> for example comes out correctly, you know that you can proceed.
>
> Those who read .brf files on a 40-cell braille display should not
> encounter many problems. As to the 18-, 20-, and 32-cell notetakers, I've
> been told that all of these units have a way of allowing a person to read
> across the two halves of a line without changing the vertical layout of
> the page but this setting is not the default. Each user will have to learn
> how the particular notetaker accomplishes this. Notetakers are also often
> set to ignore hard returns, blank spaces etc. which gives a .brf file its
> planned layout. If lines and spaces are suppressed or compressed, this is
> often the problem. All of the screen-readers have ways of decompressing
> and unsuppressing. Again, users have to learn how each product and device
> actually works.
>
> I know I'll live to regret this, but if anyone has questions about a
> particular .brf file they can write to me off-list and I'll do my best to
> straighten out whatever mess they happen to be in.
>
> If any sighted reader of .brf files needs to know whcich keyboard key
> stands for which braille dot combination, I'll be glad to send them the
> list. Duxbury used to distribute this as a .txt file they called
> asciibraille. Maybe it's time to start doing that again.
>
> To those preparing .brf files, I cannot over-emphasize that .brf files
> contain ONLY ordinary computer characters, spaces, line-feeds and
> form-feeds. No escape codes or other codes should be present.
>
> I hope this is helpful to somebody. I know it's heresy to some but I love
> .brf files. I work with them all the time in preparing books for
> web-braille via Optical Braille Recognition.
> Catherine
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> -Catherine Thomas
> braille@xxxxxxxxx /
>
>
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