The Anatomy of a Template

To begin, you can think of a template as a skeleton for the document you are about to create. Templates contain a number of important settings and definitions 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 (configuration settings) of a template are:

• The name of the braille translation table, or tables, that it will use for braille translation. These are referenced in a setting called TranslationTables.
• Essential settings for document formatting:
  • the positions for braille & print page numbers
  • the first page number displayed
  • hyphenation (if any)
• Essential settings for a Table of Contents:
  • the name of the style used to format the table of contents
  • numbering controls
  • centering and indentation controls
  • guide dot usage
• A list of DBT Styles: each entry in this list holds the name of each style and its definition, i.e. the codes that are inserted at the beginning of the style, and the codes the are inserted at the end of the style.
• Finally, the name of 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.

For an inside view of a DBT template, you might look at the break-out done for the English UK Formatting template, here.