The Duxbury Braille Translator produces braille for more than 200 world languages. For many languages, DBT has a customized template that follows the specific local formatting rules. For other languages of the world, DBT offers a basic template.
Each basic template has its own default braille translation table, but along with that comes a rich collection of formatting styles to meet most common needs. The template is called "basic" because it includes this core set of formatting styles. The collection of styles in a basic template is designed to import files from popular sources, for example:
In addition, the styles in a basic template handle many of the typical forms of character emphasis (bold, italics, underlining), as well as math-related styles from the math importer, and specific DBT styles needed for braille tasks not found in the inkprint world (such as computer braille).
Some basic format styles do more than others. You will find, for example, that some of the Daisy/NISO tags map to styles that take no action in DBT. By design, there is a DBT style for most of the tags in the Daisy/NISO system, but many of these tags actually have no impact in braille.
Happily, no matter whether the source of a document is Word, HTML, or some other source, using a basic template should produce translated braille in a reasonable format without much extra manipulation.
Basic templates are also a jumping-off point for those who want finer control over the braille format similar to that in the customized templates, and for those who wish for a more sophisticated approach to styles. Starting from your basic template, DBT provides functions for you to add new styles and to modify existing ones. This customizing can be extended to create your own custom DBT template for importing Word documents.
To use these styles in DBT, select the target text in the DBT editing window, press F8, and pick one of these styles:
To help locate the style quickly, you can press the first letter of the style name right after pressing F8. For example, to style a sentence as Russian, highlight the sentence, press F8 and then R. Then hold the down arrow until you can select Russian, by pressing <Enter>.
The IPA style invokes the IPA translator, which is an international braille standard. Passages in IPA are the phonetic encoding of how a word or phrase is pronounced - regardless of the meaning the word might have in a particular language. IPA is purely about pronunciation.
All of the other language styles cause the braille to be translated the way it would be done in the home country. For example, Spanish produces Spanish braille as it is done in Spain, French as it is done in France, etc. We recommend that you experiment with the language styles to make sure you understand what they do.
You can also create your own styles to make use of other braille translators or contraction modes. These styles are the ones included in all the Basic templates.
Here follows a list of the styles in the basic templates. Generally speaking, a style is a combination of underlying DBT codes that produce the desired stylistic effects.
This list shows the style name, its general category (marked with an asterisk: * ), and the DBT codes (shown in square brackets) that are triggered at the beginning and end of each style. A guide to DBT codes can be found here.
acronym
* MS Word
begin: [i]
end: (blank)
act
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: [sc1:0]
address
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][ptys]
end: [sc1:0][ptye]
Biblical-langs
* character
begin: [lnb~qbi][g1l]
end: [lnb]
blockquote
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][p]
end: [sc1:0]
bold
* character
begin: [fts~b]
end: [fte~b]
box
* DBT
begin: [ind1][kps][fr;f~7][d~7][l]
end: [ind1][fr;f~g][d~g][l][kpe]
box-h1.
* DBT
begin: [l][kps][rm6][hds]
end: [hde][rm0][sk1][kpe2:2]
br
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [<]
end: (blank)
brldisplay.
* DBT
begin: [sc1:0][cz]
end: [tx][sc1:0:0]
line
* DBT
begin: [cz]
end: [tx]
caption.
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [ind5][tab7]
end: [ind1]
citation.
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [ptys][l]
end: [ptye][l]
compdisplay.
* DBT
begin: [sc1:0][ptys1][cb][wb-cb]
end: [wb][ptye][tx][sc1:0:0]
compinline
* DBT
begin: [cbi][wb-cb]
end: [wb][txi]
conpn
* DBT
begin: [fr:p~"]
end: [l]
contents.
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][hi1:5:0:2:2][kps][ki1][rm6]
end: [ki0][kpe][sc1:0:0][hi][rm0]
dd
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [pm]
end: (blank)
div
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: [sc1:0]
dl
* Daisy/NISO
begin: (blank)
end: (blank)
dl0
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][ptys4]
end: [ind1][sc1:0][ptye]
drama
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: [sc1:0]
dt
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][ind1]
end: (blank)
dt2
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][ind3]
end: (blank)
dt3
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][ind5]
end: (blank)
dt4
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][ind7]
end: (blank)
English_UEB1
* character
begin: [lnb~xueb][g1l]
end: [lnb]
English_UEB2
* character
begin: [lnb~xueb][g2l]
end: [lnb]
English_UK_2005
* character
begin: [lnb~eng-xuk][g2l]
end: [lnb]
em
* character
begin: [fts~i]
end: [fte~i]
French
* character
begin: [lnb~fra-xuf][g1l]
end: [lnb]
German
* character
begin: [lnb~deu][g1.5l]
end: [lnb]
h1.
* MS Word and Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][kps][sc1:0][rm6][hds][rps1]
end: [rpe1][hde][rm0][sk1][kpe2:2]
h2.
* MS Word and Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][kps][sc1:0][rm6][hds][rps2]
end: [rpe2][hde][rm0][l][kpe2:2]
h3.
* MS Word and Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][kps][sc1:0][ind5][rps3]
end: [rpe3][ind1][kpe2:2]
h4.
* MS Word and Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][kps][sc1:0][ind1]
end: [ind1][kpe2:2]
h5.
* MS Word and Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][kps][ind1]
end: [ind1][kpe2:2]
h6.
* MS Word and Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][kps][ind1]
end: [ind1][kpe2:2]
hd.
* DBT
begin: [l][kps][sc1:0][rm6][hds]
end: [hde][rm0][sk1][kpe2:2]
head
* Daisy/NISO
begin: (blank)
end: (blank)
hr
* HTML
begin: [ind1][hds][q~------------][l]
end: [l]
initial
* DBT
begin: [g2u][caplv3]
end: (blank)
IPA
* character
begin: [lnb~qip]
end: [lnb]
Italian
* character
begin: [lnb~ita][g1l]
end: [lnb]
italic
* character
begin: [fts~i]
end: [fte~i]
level
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: (blank)
level1
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: (blank)
level2
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: (blank)
level3
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: (blank)
level4
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: (blank)
level5
* Daisy/NISO
begin: (blank)
end: (blank)
level6
* Daisy/NISO
begin: (blank)
end: (blank)
li.
* MS Word and HTML
begin: [l][ind1]
end: (blank)
li2.
* MS Word
begin: [l][ind3]
end: [ind1]
li3.
* MS Word
begin: [l][ind5]
end: [ind1]
li4.
* MS Word
begin: [l][ind7]
end: [ind1]
li5.
* MS Word
begin: [l][ind9]
end: [ind1]
li6.
* MS Word
begin: [l][ind11]
end: [ind1]
lic
* Daisy/NISO
begin: (blank)
end: (blank)
lic.pn
* DBT
begin: [fr;p~".][:]
end: [;]
lin
* DBT
begin: [kps][ptys]
end: [ptye][kpe][l]
linegroup
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][ptys]
end: [sc1:0][ptye]
linenum
* DBT
begin: [kpe2:2][kps][st2][rm5][l][lps][ons][fr]
end: [one][lpr]
list.
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][hi1:3:0:2:2][ki1]
end: [ki0][hi][sc1:0:0]
list0
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][ptys4]
end: [sc1:0][ptye]
math
* Mavis
begin: [lnb~eng-xueb][g1l]
end: [lnb]
math-TextInMath
* Mavis
begin: [lnb]
end: [lnb~eng-xueb][g1l]
noscript
* Daisy/NISO
begin: (blank)
end: (blank)
note.
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [ind5][tab7]
end: [ind1]
noteref
* DBT
begin: [d]
end: (blank)
notice
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [ind1][kps][fr;f~7][d~7][l]
end: [ind1][fr;f~g][d~g][l][kpe]
object
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [d]
end: [d]
ol0
* HTML
begin: [sc1:0][ptys4]
end: [ind1][sc1:0][ptye]
out
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][hi1:5:0:2:2][kps][ki1]
end: [ki0][kpe][hi][sc1:0:0]
pagenum
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [kps][lea]
end: [l][kpe2:2]
para.
* MS Word and Daisy/NISO
begin: [p]
end: [l]
para.continue.
* DBT
begin: [l]
end: [l]
poem-sep
* DBT
begin: [d][q~>][d]
end: (blank)
poem.
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0][hi1:3:0:2:2][kps][ki1]
end: [ki0][kpe][hi][sc1:0:0]
poem.2
* DBT
begin: [sc1:0][hi1:4:0:2:0][kps][ki1]
end: [ki0][kpe][hi][sc1:0:0]
Portuguese
* character
begin: [lnb~por][g1l]
end: [lnb]
prodnote
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][ind5][tab7][q~,']
end: [q~,'][ind1][l]
q
* DBT
begin: [d]
end: [d]
ref.pg.no
* DBT
begin: [kps][lea]
end: [l][kpe2:2]
ref.pg.no-in-math
* DBT
begin: [kps][tce][lea]
end: [tcs][l][kpe2:2]
Russian
* character
begin: [lnb~rus]
end: [lnb]
samp
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: [sc1:0]
scene
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [sc1:0]
end: [sc1:0]
script
* character
begin: [fts~s]
end: [fte~s]
sidebar
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [ind1][kps][fr;f~7][d~7][l]
end: [ind1][fr;f~g][d~g][l][kpe]
Spanish
* character
begin: [lnb~spa][g1l]
end: [lnb]
speaker
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [l][ptys]
end: (blank)
speech
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [pm]
end: [ptye]
stage
* Daisy/NISO
begin: [ind5][tab7]
end: [ind1]
strong
* character
begin: [fts~b]
end: [fte~b]
sub
* character
begin: [bs]
end: [be]
sup
* character
begin: [ps]
end: [pe]
table
* MS Word, Daisy/NISO and HTML
begin: [sc1:0]
end: [sc1:0][ptye]
tbody
* HTML
begin: [ptys]
end: [ptye]
td
* HTML
begin: [d]
end: (blank)
td1
* HTML
begin: (blank)
end: [d]
TextWithinMath
* Mavis
begin: [lnb]
end: [lnb~eng-xueb][g1l]
tfoot
* HTML
begin: [ptys]
end: [ptye]
th
* HTML
begin: [d]
end: (blank)
th1
* HTML
begin: (blank)
end: [d]
thead
* HTML
begin: [ptys]
end: [ptye]
TOC:left
* DBT
begin: Chapter
end: ,
*apt]
TOC:right
* DBT
begin: Page
end: ,page
TOC:title
* DBT
begin: Contents
end: ,3t5ts
tp.author.
* MS Word
begin: [l][kps][sc1:0][rm6][hds]
end: [hde][rm0][sk1][kpe2:2]
tp.general.
* MS Word
begin: [sc1:0][hds]
end: [hde]
tp.title.
* MS Word
begin: [l][kps][sc1:0][rm6][hds]
end: [hde][rm0][sk1][kpe2:2]
tr.
* HTML
begin: [l][ptys]
end: [l]
ul
* HTML
begin: (blank)
end: (blank)
ul0
* HTML
begin: [sc1:0][ptys4]
end: [ind1][sc1:0][ptye]
underlined
* character
begin: [fts~u]
end: [fte~u]