HI Karen, There are no accent marks. Merv just tyed them in as, for lack of a better word, English characters; basically, a transliteration, so yes, I do believe the grade 1 braille is the best way to go here. Thanks for the detailed explanation of how to differentiate in Duxbury on where the grade 1 and grade 2 is. Thanks for that explanation because I was unclear on that one. Have a blessed day, Nicki We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Caryn Navy Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 11:26 AM To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [duxuser] Re: Translation nightmare Hi Nicki. I am guessing that the Yiddush and Hebrew lyrics were entered not characters but transliterated into the familiar Latin alphabet. If so, then you don't have to worry about using the Hebrew translation table in DBT. You can go ahead and mark those sections for uncontracted braille as Steve Dresser recommended. In the print document, press Alt+1 (for grade 1 translation) at the start of the foreign language material and Alt+2 at the end of the foreign language material.) If the German material contains accented letters, then applying the German style to it in DBT, as George described, gives different results from simply marking it for grade 1 translation as Steve described. With the German style applied, the accented letters come out in braille as you might remember them from German language textbooks in school. For example, the u umlaut comes out as dots 1256 (the o u sign). But with just the grade 1 marking, the u umlaut comes out as dot 4 followed by u. That's all irrelevant if the lyrics are typed without accent marks (for example using u e instead of u umlaut). Sincerely, Caryn ----- Original Message ----- From: George Bell <mailto:george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 6:00 AM Subject: [duxuser] Re: Translation nightmare Hi Nicki, Dealing with German should be relatively easy. Having typed in the German text, you need to apply DBT's German style to the text. Simply highlight the German text, then go to the Layout menu and select Apply Style (or simply press F8). Select "german" from the list, and click on O.K. Now Hebrew/Yiddish is another matter, and so I've copied this to one of Duxbury's Hebrew Braille experts for advice. Meantime, if you go to DBT's Help, select "Language Translation Tables", and then "Hebrew (American) Uncontracted", you'll get an initial idea of what it's all about. That said, unless you speak Hebrew, and know Hebrew braille, I would suggest the exercise is rather futile. If you are having to sing it, perhaps it would be better to try and write a phonetic version in your own way. George. _____ From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nicki keck Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:01 AM To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [duxuser] Translation nightmare HI all, Any suggestions on trying to do this would be really helpful. I am in a choir, and I have words to songs typed out for me. I translate them, generally, into grade 2 braille and either put them on my Braille Lite or emboss them. There is one song which I am just not sure if I can translate adequately, and any suggestions would be helpful. I am still very new to Duxbury. Granted, this was originally translated with openbook, but I think unless I do something differently, I will run into the same problem. This choir director is somewhat of a dope. I hate to say it, but he is. This one song is in English or alternatively, you could sing it with the first part being in German, the second part I believe Yiddish, and the third part in Hebrew. This choir director wants to do all these other languages, I don't know why, instead of the English. The translation into grade 2 with these other languages, which my husband painstakingly typed out for me, just was hard to follow. The German wasn't too bad, though when I took it in high school, I didn't exactly use grade 2 braille in German. And when you came to the Yiddish, since I don't know Yiddish at all, I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be the letter D or do (the contraction for do being D). how can I prepare these so they will look correct in braille, especially not knowing these languages? They are all part of the same song. I realize maybe I can separate the files and then put them together, but even so, though Duxbury may have a German template, I very much don't think Yiddish is one available nor Hebrew. I may have to just give up on this one.