The Anatomy of a Template

Note: This discussion is in its early stages. It is intended to be an orientation to what makes up a DBT template.

To begin, you can think of a template as a skeleton for the document you are starting to create. Templates contain a number of important elements which combine to produce the correct braille for a given language, braille authority, and often for a specific purpose, such as producing math.

The essential elements of a template are:

• A reference to the braille translation table, or tables, that it will use for braille translation. These are referenced in a setting called TranslationTables.
• Some essential settings for document formatting:
  • the positions for braille & print page numbers
  • the first page number displayed
  • hyphenation (if any)
• Some essential settings for a Table of Contents:
  • a reference to the overall "style" to use
  • numbering controls
  • centering and indentation controls
  • guide dot usage
• A large set of DBT Styles: this list gives the name of each style, lists the codes that are inserted at the beginning of the style, and likewise, the codes the are inserted at the end of the style.
• Finally, a reference to the control file for importing MS Word files into DBT (the .mws file). This file links specific Word styles to their companion styles in DBT. The reference is in the setting word:mws after the Styles list.

In addition, customized templates can contain initial standard blocks of text ("boiler plate text") that regularly should appear in the documents that it is used for.

Also, when a template is opened and used for a document, the selected output device (braille embosser) and its configuration settings are copied into the document and saved along with the template and the document text.

As an initial example of "what goes on" in a DBT template, you might look at the break-out done for the English UK Formatting template, here.