Duxbury News

For Immediate Release

Duxbury Braille Translator Adds Enhanced Math Support

New version streamlines braille math translation from Microsoft Word documents created with MathType

Westford, MA and Long Beach, CA — June 23rd, 2008 — Duxbury Systems, Inc. and Design Science, Inc. announce the availability of Duxbury Braille Translator™ version 10.7 with support for direct import of Microsoft Word documents containing mathematical equations created with MathType™. This improvement will allow users to author math with MathType in MS Word and then translate those materials to braille via DBT for Windows.

The creation of brailled math materials has historically been a very slow and complex process, but has been made easier in recent years thanks to automated tools like DBT. Access to brailled math materials is a critical factor for blind students and professionals in the science and engineering fields. DBT WIN 10.7 will significantly improve the speed and ease of math braille creation.

"This is huge! Through an intensive collaboration with Design Science, users of MathType versions 5 and 6, with Microsoft Word can now author their math and translate to braille using DBT WIN," said Neal Kuniansky, Director of Marketing & Sales at Duxbury Systems. "This will work with all braille math codes supported by DBT WIN. We are very proud to help make math braille available to an even wider number of DBT WIN users."

"We're thrilled to see companies like Duxbury make braille math creation easier for the end user. Since so many authors of math content are using MathType to write math materials these days, making it easy to translate these resources will be a great boon to students and professionals who need brailled math," said Steve Noble, Director of Accessibility Policy for Design Science.

To learn more about DBT 10.7, see http://www.duxburysystems.com/dbt.asp. For information on obtaining MathType, see http://www.dessci.com/mathtype.

About Duxbury Systems, Inc.
Duxbury Systems leads the world in software for braille. The Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) and MegaDots, are used by virtually all of the world's leading braille publishers. No one supports more languages than Duxbury Systems -- DBT supports grade 1 and grade 2 translation in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Malaysian, Swedish, and other languages. Our software can produce contracted and uncontracted braille, mathematics, and technical braille. For more information about Duxbury Systems see http://www.duxburysystems.com

About Design Science, Inc.
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Long Beach, California, Design Science develops software used by educators, scientists and publishing professionals, including MathType, Equation Editor in Microsoft Office, WebEQ, MathFlow, and MathPlayer, to communicate on the web and in print. For more information about Design Science see http://www.dessci.com

Contacts:

News Flash: Introducing MegaDots 2.3

• MegaDots 2.3 has a Windows install program. It installs all the icons, and shortcuts for you. No more installation headaches.
• The question "Does MegaDots works in Windows?" is obsolete. Now MegaDots requires Windows in order to be installed!
• The install program asks for your serial number and a password. No more floppy disks needed during installation.
• The install program also works as a demo if a valid serial number/password is not given.
• Beginner Braille and MegaMath are included at no additional charge! These two add-on features used to cost an additional $400. MegaMath includes support for chemistry symbols.
• MegaDots now includes and makes use of Embossit 2.0. This unique Duxbury Systems product allows MegaDots to emboss to any Embosser that DBT 10.7 can emboss to. If you happen to own DBT 10.7, you will notice that Embossit 2.0 has the same list of configured embossers as DBT 10.7. This means you can emboss to USB devices, to network embossers, or to embossers requiring exotic Windows drivers, such as the ViewPlus Tiger series.
• MegaDots 2.3 contains MegaPRN, a program that lets MegaDots 2.3 print to any Windows printer on your system. You can produce inkprint output to your network printers.
• MegaDots 2.3 supports the changes to the British rules, including changes to the translation to a significant number of words.
• MegaDots 2.3 eliminates the crashes that occurred on Windows XP Pro with some file importations and exporting.
• Dozens of other improvements.

DBT 10.7 Currently Shipping

Braille math made easy

DBT 10.7 Currently Shipping (continued from above)

Duxbury Braille Translator: The industry leading international braille translator for anyone from the casual user to the power user, just got a whole lot better!

• Internationalization The user interface is available is many languages
• New HELP system, use the EMBOSS button to braille out topics
• SWIFT - translate & emboss straight from MS WORD with a single click! It even includes style mapper, ACRONYM tables, marking for computer braille, & more
• NEW Create near perfect braille straight from MS WORD with new braille template.
• NEW translation tables, Arabic, Hebrew, and more
• NEW user friendly features, cursor locator, JFW macros, multiple embosser configurations, "sticky document info" your embosser settings etc. stay with your document, UNICODE display in the DBT editor (see accented characters), DBT templates can now store text, and much more.
• NEW integrate braille music using GOODFEEL® to produce your music textbooks.
• IMPROVED LaTeX import and translation.
• BRAILLE TABLE OF CONTENTS GENERATOR Saves Hours of Work!

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT What's New in DBT 10.7?

Enhanced Installation:

• Install for Current or All users.
• Install JAWS Scripts/Macros.
• Install SWIFT.
• Install Word Braille Template.

User Interface:

• Cursor Locator - Pressing the shift key will cause an array of concentric circles to show the position of the cursor.
• Cursor Location retained on translation - When you translate a document into braille, your cursor is now positioned at the beginning of the word in the braille file.
• JAWS Scripts - Scripts have been included as an option for JAWS Screen Reader users.
• All dialogs have been re-designed to conform the Windows standards. Among other things, this means that users of High Contrast Accessibility Settings can work to those.
• Improved Coded View - When viewing Codes, they appear very similar to XML/HTML tags.
• Braille fonts may be used in coded view.
• Modify Codes & Styles in Coded View - You may now highlight any code or Style you wish to edit, and press Ctrl+[ Ctrl+< to edit it.
• Unicode - Many Unicode characters can now be displayed in DBT's editor.
• Search & Replace - You can now search for a Style and/or Code in addition to text, and replace it. This can be done on an all or selective basis.
• Copy & Paste - This facility has been improved.
• File Name Handling - When importing files, DBT now suggests the default name of the imported file. For example, myfile.doc will become myfile.dxp in text, and myfile.dxb in  braille.  You may over-ride the name if you wish.

Updates:

• A "Check for Updates" option as been added to the Help menu.  Provided you have Internet access, this will access the Duxbury Systems web site, and check to see if you are eligible for any updates.

Embossing:

• Emboss (Help Topic) - As well as a "Print" Help topic button, there is now an "Emboss" Help Topic button which will output any selected Help Topic to your selected default braille embosser.
• As well as embossing Topics, you may also import them into DBT.
• "Sticky Document Information" - Information about how a document is set up, such as Page and Line length, and embosser, is now stored with each file.
• Support has been added for many more makes and models of braille embosser.
• Multiple embossers and embosser setups can be installed and selected as required.
• Enhanced Embosser Setup - Set up your embosser and let DBT control it.
• Index Printers - USB & Network Support for Version 3 embossers has been added.
• We have added a number of embossers to the list of embossers. In some cases, we have changed the names on our menus to more closely agree with manufacturer's names.
• We now support the Tiger Advantage Embosser
• We include a new driver for the ELEKUL embossers.

File Import:

• Import Music Braille - Music Braille files from GOODFEEL® can be imported into documents. (This requires GOODFEEL version 2.8.)
• Scientific Notebook - Various improvements have been made to the Scientific NoteBook importer.
• Word Importer + Text Boxes - Further improvements have been made to the Word Importer. For example, Word Text Boxes are now imported.

Internationalization:

• Change Program Language - Support has been added to enable DBT to display its menus in other languages. What is available may be subject to licensing conditions. These languages are:
  • Danish
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Korean
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Russian
  • Spanish
• Languages - The list of languages has been extended. Arabic and Hebrew are now part of the list. Click here for the full list

Folding:

• A new Code enables Title pages and such like to be centered vertically on the page.

Templates:

• You can now store text in Templates.  For example, you could set up a letter heading for yourself to save constantly re-typing your name and address details.
• Hide unused Templates.
• Set a Default Template.
• Associate Template with a Word - DBT Customized Style mapping file.

Customized Word - DBT Mapping Files:

• You may now create custom .mws Mapping Files and link them to selected Templates.

Table of Contents Generator:

• A bug in the UK Templates which caused page numbers to be one out has been fixed.

Mouse Wheel:

• Sighted users will find the scroll facility offered by a wheel mouse useful.

File Import Issues:

• Better control of hard page/soft page markings in scanned Word files imported into DBT. There is a new item "Document scanned" in the Global/Word Importer dialog. Checking this box deletes soft page breaks and makes use of the hard page breaks in the file.
• There is better control of skipped lines in Word files imported into DBT. There is a new item "Preserve skipped Lines" in the Global/Word Importer dialog.
• Better BRF file import, now able to import ED-IT PC braille files
• Now able to import hard hyphen.
• Improved LaTeX importer. the newline command and some operations were preventing LaTeX files from importing. These issues have been resolved.

File Export Issues:

• Now able to Export to Windows ANSI .PRF format. This is a file format similar to a standard ASCII text file. It differs by using a Windows standard for high bit characters (mostly accented letters).

Other Changes:

DBT never stays still. We are always making changes. Here are examples of areas addressed and improved:

• translation tables
• formatter
• handling of italics and other emphasized text
• Importing and exporting of special characters
• warning given when attempting to translate a file which has already been translated
• numerous improvements to SWIFT
• and many more!

MegaDots 2.3 on CD (continued from above)

MegaDots 2.3 has all of these brand new features:

News Flash: Introducing MegaDots 2.3

• MegaDots 2.3 has a Windows install program. It installs all the icons, and shortcuts for you. No more installation headaches.
• The question "Does MegaDots works in Windows?" is obsolete. Now MegaDots requires Windows in order to be installed!
• The install program asks for your serial number and a password. No more floppy disks needed during installation.
• The install program also works as a demo if a valid serial number/password is not given.
• Beginner Braille and MegaMath are included at no additional charge! These two add-on features used to cost an additional $400. MegaMath includes support for chemistry symbols.
• MegaDots now includes and makes use of Embossit 2.0. This unique Duxbury Systems product allows MegaDots to emboss to any Embosser that DBT 10.7 can emboss to. If you happen to own DBT 10.7, you will notice that Embossit 2.0 has the same list of configured embossers as DBT 10.7. This means you can emboss to USB devices, to network embossers, or to embossers requiring exotic Windows drivers, such as the ViewPlus Tiger series.
• MegaDots 2.3 contains MegaPRN, a program that lets MegaDots 2.3 print to any Windows printer on your system. You can produce inkprint output to your network printers.
• MegaDots 2.3 supports the changes to the British rules, including changes to the translation to a significant number of words.
• MegaDots 2.3 eliminates the crashes that occurred on Windows XP Pro with some file importations and exporting.
• Dozens of other improvements.

Plus all these previous features:

• Works under all versions of Microsoft Windows including XP
• Import eBook, Daisy/NISO, XML, HTML, and SGML files. Turn those eBooks into braille easily.
• New and improved installer - complete documentation and installation notes on the opening menu.
• New JAWS script files available to make your work even more efficient.
• The Word import truncating problem has been resolved.
• Better importing of DBT coded text files.
• Import brf files formatted exactly as they were made.
• Improved importing of embosser graphics files

Duxbury Systems is proud to have MegaDots as part of its product line. It supports the 1997 BANA textbook transcription rules including the formatting of tabular material.

Some of MegaDots' strengths are:

• tools for easily creating a variety of braille constructs, including tables, footnotes, line numbered poetry or prose, dictionary diacritics, and more according to BANA textbook format requirements
• tools for easily moving around in your document
• tools for changing your document efficiently
• ability to bring in material from a variety of sources, and to produce it in a variety of formats.

While MegaDots is a DOS application, most current MegaDots users work with MegaDots from their Windows desktop. MegaDots works with MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. Some inkprint printers are "Windows only," requiring the machinery of Windows to perform basic operations. These inkprint printers do not work with MegaDots. MegaDots works with all commercially available braille embossers. MegaDots speaks with screen readers that work with MS-DOS applications, including JAWS for Windows.

Pricing Information

Download Demo

For technical support on MegaDots, call +1-978-692-3000, or send email to: megadots@duxsys.com

Braille math made easy (continued from above)

DBT WIN prints advanced MATH TO BRAILLE!

If you are doing mathematics, you will want to use Scientific Notebook (SN) and take advantage of our LaTeX importer. Create and print your print or large print math. Save the file. Then open your Scientific Notebook LaTeX file and go to braille. Here are some examples of math equations followed by the associated Nemeth (American math) braille:

x^2"+y^3 .k z^=

#2(x)+3(y+12) .k #3?x/y#(y-6)^2

!;a^b"f(x)dx

"SPATIAL MATH " is out of this world with DBT.

In summary, you will create a blank print document and enter everything but your math. Then translate to braille and enter your math information directly utilizing the number pad!

1. CTRL+N to open a new print document
2. Choose print document and press enter. You should now be in a blank print file.
3. ALT+L to open the layout menu
4. M to open the math code menu
5. enter key, this will put you in "technical context". In English this means you are working on a Nemeth document.
6. Type in all your text etc leaving some blank space for your math problems. When finished…
7. CTRL+T to translate your print file into braille.
8. Put your NUM LOCK on. Then use the number keys, space bar, and function keys to enter your math.

Hint #1 you will want to use the "3" key to get your dot 2,5 lines

Hint #2 if you go to VIEW and choose full page you get a better idea of the layout of the math on the full page while you are keying it in.

Hint #3 you can use search and replace to replace multiplication and division signs with dot product, cross product, line between dots division sign as you please.