Working with Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most commonly used text editors world-wide. Features in Word can greatly facilitate your braille production, particularly if you use them to prepare your document in a systematic way.

We hope to show you some tips which will assist in preparing documents for import to DBT, minimizing the work to be done inside DBT itself, and saving you valuable time.

It may come as a surprise to learn that many of these tips equally apply to preparing Word documents for alternative formats such as large print, accessible PDF files, and e-books.

While we have tried to cover the main issues for using Word with the Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT), you may find many useful hints, tips, and advice about Word at http://wordribbon.tips.net/.

If you have an older version of Word which uses menus instead of a ribbon, try http://word.tips.net/.

The following are the main topics in this section:

Ten Tips for using Word

Things to Do First - to set the Word options to assist your work

First Things to Know - about shortcut keys, and styles, and more

Specific Features - useful for preparing Braille documents

Examples - of specific problem areas (like tables)

Mathematics - tools to help you with technical texts

SWIFT - a Word add-in for direct communication with DBT

The BANA Braille Template (for Word) - styles helpful for Braille

The Word Style Map (.mws file) - to coordinate styles from Word to DBT

Simple Braille Graphics - an example

Exporting a file from DBT to Word - how to go the other direction