Duxbury 11.1 Braille
Translation Software
Gaeir Dietrich
Director
High Tech Center Training Unit of the
California Community Colleges
Software Specifics
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DBT Win 11.1; currently on SR 4
– Always check for latest service release
– http://www.duxburysystems.com/
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Buy on version, next upgrade free
During install load the Word template
– Nice information in help on using it
Braille Expert? NOT!
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Braille knowledge not required
Some knowledge very helpful
90% of work done in MS Word
– Use Word styles
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“Braille Boot Camp” will teach you to
read braille as a sighted user
– www.htctutraining.net/trainingspublic.php
Word Styles?
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Paragraph styles
– Paragraph attributes
– Font type & size, line spacing, indent
– Affects entire paragraph
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Attribute Styles
– Applies only to selected characters
– Font type, size, style
Word Styles for DBT
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Use Word paragraph styles
– Normal, Body Text
– Headings One, Two, Three
– List, Bulleted List, Numbered List
– Index levels one-nine
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Can also use attribute styles
– Strong (for bold)
– Emphasis (for italic)
Applying Styles
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Paragraph styles
– Click in text, click on style name
– Use format painter
– Use keyboard shortcut
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Attribute styles
– Select text, click on style name
Handy Style Shortcuts
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Heading One
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– Ctrl + Alt + 1
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Heading Two
– Ctrl + Alt + 2
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Heading Three
– Ctrl + Alt + 3
List Bullet
– Ctrl + Shift + L
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Change case
– Shift + F3
Seeing Styles
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Work in Draft Mode
– View Draft
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Turn on “Area Pane”
– Button > Word Options
– Advanced > Display
– Set area pane over 1 inch
Area Pane
Selecting Text in Word
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Shift click
– Click mouse once where selection begins
– Move to end of selection
– Hold down shift key and click mouse once
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Select a single word
– Double click on word
– Use arrow keys with shift key down
Selecting Continued
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Select a paragraph
– Triple click
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Select one line
– With cursor at beginning of line
Hold down shift key and tap down arrow once
 Hold down shift key and tap end key
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Moving
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Ctrl + down arrow
– Moves you to beginning of next
paragraph
– Very handy for inserting “bullet” asterisks
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Ctrl + home
– Moves to top of document
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Ctrl + end
– Moves to bottom of document
Templates
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Word template
– Allows you to format more easily
– Allows more precise formatting
– Makes advanced formatting much simpler
With Word Template
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Preset styles for
– Foreign languages
– Computer Braille Code (CBC)
– Stairstep indents
– Headings
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Also, styles based on Braille indents
When to Use the
Template
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For complex formatting
For foreign language
For computer code
To see how the document will look in
Braille
When Not to Use
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Do not use the template when you
have a lot of tables
Duxbury will automatically create a
stair-step indent
– The template requires that you apply the
stair-step styles
Transcriber Speak
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Standard Braille page
– 40 cells
– 25 lines
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Formats
– Begin in a particular cell
– Runovers (i.e., following lines) go in
particular cells
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Might begin in cell 3 with runovers in cell 1
Taming Word
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Hardest part is knowing what Word is
up to…
Go to Button > Word Options
– Choose Proofing
– Turn off auto bullets and numbering
Autoformat As You Type
Note
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Autoformat as you type is automatic.
Autoformat is manual.
Go figure…
Settings
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We now want
– “smart quotes” okay
– Em dashes and en dashes okay
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We still do not want
–
–
–
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Superscripted ordinals
Special characters (e.g., ©)
Ellipses character
Curly quote apostrophe at front (unless it goes
right direction)
– Symbols for inch (") or foot (')
Smart Tags
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To completely disable “smart tags”
Deselect under Button > Word Options
> Proofing > Smart Tags
AND
Deselect under Button > Word Options
> Advanced > Cut, Copy, Paste
Options
Basic Smart Tags
Cut and Paste Smart Tags
Format Files
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Use styles
Unknown styles are brought through
as “none”
– Flush left, no indent
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Use search and replace (Ctrl + H) to
change publisher styles to standard
styles
File Clean Up
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The good news is…there hardly is
any!!
Duxbury 11.1 can handle most Word
formats
The bad news is that what’s needed is
a bit tricky…
Opening Apostrophe
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11.1 still confuses an opening apostrophe
with a single quote when curly quotes are
used—unless it goes the correct direction
– NO ‘tis
– YES ’tis
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You can turn off the smart quotes entirely!
– But you don’t have to: turn off just while
searching; search for space apostrophe
– YES 'tis
Fixing Opening
Apostrophes
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Search for single quotes, but do not auto
replace
Change to straight quote
– Select the apostrophe
– Retype
– Immediately Ctrl + Z if smart quotes
are turned on
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OR turn off “smart quotes” just during
search and replace
From Scratch
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If you are entering open apostrophes
from scratch
– Use Ctrl+' followed by '
– You will get a curly quote going the
correct direction!
– Duxbury handles these correctly!
Auto Page Numbering
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Text on Word page must match book
Use hard page breaks
– Ctrl + Enter
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Adjust margins or font sizes as
necessary
Set Page Numbers
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Insert > Page Numbers
Not page one?
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If the document does not begin with
Arabic number one (1)
– Choose Format
Done in Word
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Formatting and clean up complete
Save document
Close Word
– Important for running macro
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Open Duxbury
Duxbury Settings
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First set-up Dux
Global > Embosser Setup
Global > Word Importer
Please Note
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If you are using the BANA template,
do not select Duxbury’s courier to CBC
setting.
That will undo to template settings.
Two Embosser Settings
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For individual documents not following
defaults
Document > Embosser Setup
– Changes will be made only for that
document
– Make changes before translate
document!
Opening File in Dux
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File > Open
Select template
Templates
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If using BANA template in Word, use
BANA template in Dux
– Includes textbook page numbers
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If not using Word template
– Can use standard if no page numbers
needed
– Use textbook template for page numbers
– Can use textbook all the time
In Duxbury
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Translate
– Ctrl + T
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Emboss
– Ctrl + E
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You’re done!
Binding
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Standard Braille paper is 11 x 11.5 in.
Buy it 19-hole punched
Get a comb binding machine
Use Duxbury to create a title page
Can use Braille paper for front/back cover
– For larger volumes, cut light poster board paper
to size
– Plastic covers available from APH
Braille Sources
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American Printing House (APH)
– www.aph.org
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National Library Services (NLS)
– Good source of Braille music
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Alternate Text Production Center
(ATPC)
– www.atpc.net
– Sells Braille outside CCCs—many
textbooks
References
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BANA site
– www.brailleauthority.org
– Great resource for formatting questions
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Duxbury Systems
– www.duxburysystems.com/support.asp
– Good information on using Duxbury
– Online help files