Special Tabs
What you need to know first: the basics of how an Absolute Tab works.
Code Used: [lps] [taaN] [lpr]
Keystroke: (None)
What does it do?
It unconditionally tabs text to a specific tab position. What is special here is saving the current line position beforehand, and then returning to it to continue the text flow.
Where would it be used?
Suppose that you want to have a means of highlighting where every occurrence of a specific word appears in text in a large document. In print, you might make that word bold, italic, underlined, a larger font , or even a combination, making it easy for a sighted person to pick out instances of that word at a glance.
We can emphasize a word in braille, but the braille reader would usually have to read through the text of the whole document to find each instance.
Alternatively, you might put a character, like an asterisk, or a short keyword in the right margin, and this is precisely what DBT's approach is. The braille reader can then quickly skim down the right hand side of the page, and locate the line a word appears on.
The example shows two methods of achieving this effect. The first method adjusts the right margin and uses the taa code. The second uses the flush-right [fr] code. But set the keyword at the right where it an be seen, and both save the current line position and return to it to continue the text.
Usage in DBT:
[rm6]When you start to look more closely at how all the many Duxbury [lps][taa27]taa[lpr] Codes work, they can sometimes be tricky to understand unless you have a good example.
When you start to look more closely at how all the many Duxbury
[lps][fr]fr[lpr]Codes work, they can sometimes be tricky to understand unless you have a good example.
Produces in Braille:
,:5 y />t 6look m
closely at h[ all ! _m
,duxbury ,codes "w1 !y c taa
"s"ts 2 tricky 6"u/&
un.s y h a gd example4
,:5 y />t 6look m
closely at h[ all ! _m
,duxbury ,codes "w1 !y c fr
"s"ts 2 tricky 6"u/&
un.s y h a gd example4
Let us explain!
The [lps] code effectively says "Store this line position while I do something". The [taa27] says, "Put the text that follows over to begin in cell 27". Finally the [lpr] code says go back to the line position you remembered and continue.