Hi,
Here at the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, we are currently scanning
over 150 books (over 50,000 pages) and course packets (including
Arabic). Some of which will be brailled, but the most are put on the web
as an e-file for hte student to download and read with their
screenreader. Whether the item is being used as an e-file for a
screenreader or for braille, I have found that editing is necessary for
almost all files. And I agree, an hour for 100 pages is a really good
time. We sometimes spend a couple of hours on a chapter depending on the
format of the original and the format that the student needs.
If you are scanning a document from hard copy, the scanning software has
zoning options that will allow you to place page numbers, margin text, etc.
in the correct place for later use. I have received files from publishers
in doc, pdf and rtf, and very few do not need some kind of editing, with
pdf being the worst once you convert it to text.
Just my two cents' worth.
Angie
At 11:06 AM 9/12/2002 -0400, Blair, Tom wrote:
Hi George,
Yes I think you are getting it although I'm not aware of any conversion software companies here in the US. One hour for a plain text publication of 100 pages with few tables is not bad, however textbooks are not plain text by any means. Just open a new textbook to any page and what do you see? Every page is what I call "busy". It has it all, graphics, pictures, various fonts, tables, footnotes, URLs, two and three column text layouts, various size headings, text in margins, bullets, text in boxes and circles, etc, etc. I've tried cleaning various files by opening the file in Word, using the textbook as a guide and page by page deleting and moving text here and there. It can take half an hour to do one page sometimes. Then I save the file as a .doc, .txt, .rtf, etc, to see which format gives the best results.
Duxbury does a good job in translating the text but the formatting is the hard part and the most time consuming. It's actually more efficient to contract it out to an agency or independent braillist to transcribe. If you could send me, either privately or to the list, some names of 3rd Party conversion software companies, I would appreciate it.
Thanks, Tom
-----Original Message----- From: George Bell To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: 9/12/2002 5:04 AM Subject: [duxuser] Re: E-files
Hi Tom,
Now that I'm getting a better picture of things, I believe there could be a possible (part) solution.
I should perhaps explain first that as a Braille producer, (probably the UK's largest commercial braille producer) we see files coming in in all manner of formats. And obviously, we need to get these files into a condition where they can be imported into DBT, preferable with as little DBT editing as possible.
In our case, he secret is to establish what software (and ideally the version number) these files were originally produced in.
For example, Quark and Adobe PageMaker are two very popular publishing packages here in the UK. Both can save in various "mark-up" formats, and naturally both have their nuances as to how the mark-up code ends up.
However, there is a wealth of 3rd Party conversion software available, which doesn't cost and arm and a leg, and which is capable of converting hundreds of different file formats to another format.
As a general rule, we now aim to convert these files into Word format, which in turn are relatively easy to import into DBT.
I can't give you any hard and fast rules about the time it takes to convert, but generally speaking, something like a Quark file of a 100 page publication, comprising mostly of plain text and very few tables, is in a clean condition in Word in less than one hour.
George Bell Techno-Vision Systems Ltd
> -----Original Message----- > From: Blair, Tom [mailto:Tom.Blair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > Sent: 11 September 2002 18:46 > To: 'duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' > Subject: [duxuser] Re: E-files > > > Hi George, > > Actually, I think they do classify to a point. For example, > PF at the end of > the title means Publisher's File, TX means text file and so > on. One of the > problems is that they receive these files not only from > publishers but from > others, i.e. braille producing agencies, volunteers. > > Ideally they would have the personnel, which they don't, to > somehow clean up > these files for automatic translation. The tasks involved are > overwhelming > for any organization. Along with a standard there is supposed to be a > central agency that will distribute the files so publishers > will not have to > contend with many different agencies and school districts. > > Tom > > > -----Original Message----- > From: George Bell > To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Sent: 9/11/2002 10:54 AM > Subject: [duxuser] Re: E-files > > Hi Tom, > > > They told me that they were not responsible for the format of the > file. > > I do not wish to disparage APH in any way, but I do feel this is a > remark which perhaps was made by a member of staff not in full command > of the facts. > > If these files are produced by volunteer transcribers, surely it would > not be unreasonable for APH to politely request that some standards be > adhered to for the common good? > > Alternatively, could APH not simply "categorise" or > "classify" the file > type of markup? > > It really sounds a pretty poor show that we have to wait for > legislation > to come into effect which forces a standard. > > George Bell > Techno-Vision Systems Ltd > * * * > * 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 > * * * > * * * * 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 * * *
* * * * 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 * * *
