[duxuser] Re: Margin Bell in Word
- From: "George Bell" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 May 2008 13:57:38 +0100
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 Word
> Since several people have expressed wonder at my interest
in having a
> "margin bell" in word, I'll explain my reason. When
sighted people are
> entering text in a Word document, they are tracking their
formatting
> visually. They make decisions based upon how the text is
lining up. A
> person using jaws can do the same thing, but we have to
stop typing in
> the text and press some jaws commands to make jaws tell us
what column
> and what row we're on. I admit, it would be a luxury, but
the most
> likely reason Duxbury developers decided to put that
margin bell in
> Duxbury was for the blind users of the program, and I am
very happy to
> have 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 Word
but you can use
> Word to produce a text file with line breaks at the end of
each line as
> follows.
> I don't know how to do this in Jaws but it should be
possible.
>
> Set the font to Courier New or some other monospace font.
Set the left
> and right margins and/or font size so that a line will
just hold however
> many characters you want the maximum to be. Then type
normally. Word
> will automatically wrap to the next line after spaces
unless you hit
> Enter for a new paragraph. If you insert or delete any
words later, Word
> will re-wrap the lines in the changed paragraph as
necessary.
>
> Then, when you save the file, do a "Save As" and select
Plain Text from
> the Save As Type pull-down list This will bring up a File
Conversion
> box.
> Check the "Insert Line Breaks" option. This will put a
line break after
> every line in the file. Of course, once you've done this,
you can't
> edit the file so it's a good idea to also save the
original file as an
> ordinary Word document in case you want to edit it.
>
> HTH,
> SusanJ
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