To produce a Braille calendar, I would begin with the following steps:
First I would decide what size paper I planned to use to produce the
finished product. Next I would decide by what method the calendar was to
be held together. If I planned to use it as a wall-hanging, I would have
to leave room at the top of each page for at least one hole to be punched.
If I planned a desk-top calendar, I would have to leave room for binding
on the side. If I planned a flip calendar, where the current page for the
current month is faced up and other pages are folded under, I would leave
room for binding across the top.
Next I would decide what information the calendar would include on each
page. If a weekly planner is the purpose of the calendar, then 52 tiny
pages including days and dates with room for information on the bottom
might work best. If I needed something just to look up a given date, then
a simple 12-page format would be best.
Next I would determine what other information is to be included. Example:
"dates on which the office will be closed", "major holidays", etc.
Depending on the frequency of this information, it might be best to
isolate it in text on a separate page at the front or back to the
calendar. If the information for a given month is brief, then perhaps it
could appear on the same page as the days and dates.
After all that finally comes the preparation. It;'s best to use the form
of duxbury with which you are most familiar. If you like working in Word,
then use it and the various duxbury codes to produce the desired result.
If you prefer to edit the actual Braille in DBT, then do it that way.
CAUTION: To prevent major formatting issues, the data fields you create
for a given type of information should be the same size. Example: If you
are using two letters to symbolize each day of the week, then use two
letters for every day--not just Thursday. Remember to include the relevant
year on every page.
To find the dates and days for a given year, probably that Calendar wizard
in Word might do the trick. I think there is also a calendar program in
Windows under Accessories. Once you have the data, you can save it any way
you want and edit it as you please.
COUNTING SPACES: Don't forget that the number signs in Braille take up
extra room. Capital signs also take up room and serve no useful purpose in
a calendar. It is also advisable to count in advance how many spaces some
of the data take up in Braille. Example: Line containing days of the week:
If each day is represented by one letter followed by one space, then the
seven days would take up thirteen spaces. However, The line underneath
which would contain dates would require at least 27 spaces. To make the
data line up properly, the first line also would need 27 spaces.
I hope that these thoughts inspire some folks to try producing calendars.
Catherine
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -Catherine Thomas braille@xxxxxxxxx /
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