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What is New in DBT for Mac 12.5?

Duxbury Systems continually revises DBT to add new features, fix problems, and to respond to changes in braille rules, embosser and operating system updates, and third party changes.

Below you will find our latest advances since the prior release.

For more sources of information, please take advantage of "Check for Updates" from your DBT Help menu. Or, visit the Duxbury Website for both new information and historical information about DBT features and updates.

Faster Software Response

DBT operations have been considerably accelerated: translated line display, editing, pasting large blocks of text, etc., are significantly faster than any prior version of DBT.

Document Importing

DBT imports any Alt Text attached to images as paragraphs by themselves when imported from Word documents.
The Word (.docx) importer has corrections and improvements to: paragraph number handling, the handling of language switches, and text set in Duxbury's French braille fonts. It also more fully automates markup of table header rows, and its UEB Typeform mappings feature is improved.
DBT will center otherwise unstyled lines imported from Word documents.
A low-level defect that may have caused document corruption in the past during imports and editing has been eliminated.
The Word importer will correct problematic Listed Table markup introduced by SWIFT.
Import of certain Cantonese text has been corrected.
Import of Unicode markup with combining diacritics (including U+0300 and U+0301) has been improved.
Automated markup of hyperlinks that include parameters is improved.

Imports and exports of .brf and .prf (formatted braille and print) files allow for more flexibility in character encoding.
DBT's .bru importer is enhanced with respect to Notetaker .brl files, which typically format each paragraph as one long line. If the .brl file begins with the four characters "_%_:", the importer treats the file as Nemeth Code in UEB context, automatically assigning the styles math and math-TextInMath as appropriate. This matches the .brf file importer handling for files starting with those four characters.
UTF-8 conversion in the LaTeX importer allows unusual accented letters and non-Roman scripts such as Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Hindi, to be imported directly into DBT as combined text and math in a single step.
LaTeX Importer:
- The LaTeX importer treats the code $$, when adjacent to a tab character, as the start or end of displayed math.
- The LaTeX importer no longer generates a space when the LaTeX or MathType inserted a "thin space". These extra spaces caused excess braille indicators in some math translators.
- The LaTeX importer now handles absolute value signs.
- It also handles Greek letter variant forms, the so-called "blackboard characters", and additional special characters.

User Interface

New controls in the Table of Contents dialog handle reference page numbering and improve TOC layout.
New options are added to the Create Template dialog to include printer setups, embosser setups, and/or include text and codes in your custom templates. Adding these options will save the template in binary format. Without them the template is saved in text format.
A new menu item allows you to undo "Don't show me this again" dialog preferences.
The translated line display is cleaner in formatted view.
On-screen display of the hard hyphen character (D+EC41) is fixed. This character frequently appears in UEB when translating an underline or macron.
The Activation Wizard is newly localized to French and Korean. The Activation Wizard will run in your preferred interface language, when a translation is available.
The Activation Wizard has been improved to more readily allow switching licenses and to give better details in case of a failure to connect to a network license server.

In the File Open/ File New dialogs, the display of templates using the “Select Region” feature now clearly separates the templates for each global region.
The position of the caret and highlight reported to VoiceOver in formatted view are corrected.
The Global Embosser Setup dialog can no longer be permanently hidden.

Major Improvements

Improvements to forward and back translation for over 40 languages! ( See the Languages section for details.)
Support for 7 new embossers and improved support for 7 current embossers. (See Embosser Improvements below.)
The Listed Table and Stair step Table formatters are greatly improved.
Non-breaking spaces can be copied from DBT documents to other applications intact.
The Swell Braille font is included with DBT. This font is used when printing on swell paper: dots are 80% of normal to allow for swelling when passed through the fuser.

DBT supports macOS Catalina. (Note that macOS Yosemite or newer is now required.)
DBT can import the new Pages file format if Pages is installed and AppleScript operation is enabled. The Pages importer can use Word Style maps.
Key dialog text controls support 6-key entry, just as for Windows users.
New “Sample Files” menu item appears in the Help menu.
A blank document is created at application launch, if no other document will be displayed.
Saving Preferences is improved.
DBT/Mac users can now customize DBT's built-in understanding of an embosser model, to create a user-defined configuration.
- To do this, you create a file based on a copy of "emb.elt" from the Resources folder of the app bundle. (Name the new file: "com.duxburysystems.myemb.elt".) You edit it with a normal text editor, and save it to either your own $HOME/Library/Preferences folder or the general /Library/Preferences folder.
VoiceOver is more responsive and compatibility is improved. DBT support for VoiceOver tracking of the cursor and selection on a braille display is improved.
VoiceOver now reports encoding of braille documents as specified in the Internationalization dialog, rather than using the current font.
Zoom compatibility issues are resolved. Support for magnification with Zoom is improved; Zoom is able to follow DBT's cursor when typing or navigating through a document.
The Margin Bell feature is now available.
Tab order in dialogs is handled in a more regular fashion.
Both interline print and output of multiple copies are supported, as on Windows.
A condition has been eliminated that could cause the Global Embosser Setup dialog to fail to appear.
The selected user interface language for DBT persists even after quitting and restarting DBT.
DBT may be installed onto a filesystem that is case-sensitive.
The name given to files that result from translation is now in line with the naming used by DBT for Windows.
A failure that could occur when closing a document window has been eliminated.
It is now possible to open .dxp and .dxb files directly from the Finder.
The DBT Help files are revised and updated, focusing on the topics that describe the different braille translators. We hope that customers gain a better understanding of the Duxbury DBT translators through our efforts to improve our documentation.
For lengthy file imports, DBT now displays a progress bar.
Graphic images in centered headings are now well handled.
The insertion of [hl] codes is no longer restricted when importing DAISY or XML files, as it is for Word files.

Braille Mathematics

Significant improvements in print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation for many braille math codes. As one example, UEB documents with Nemeth mathematics have seen a large number of updates.
The LaTeX importer supports the UTF-8 character set, files generated on non-Windows platforms, and the \vspace command.
Nemeth math-only print-to-braille translation is updated to improve spacing, and supports use of the Unicode minus sign (U+2212) in enclosed lists. (Note: Nemeth is referenced from many templates through the "math" style.)
Nemeth math-only translation in both print-to-braille and braille-to-print supports the math "perpendicular" and "not perpendicular" symbols, and "bar under" mathematical expressions.
The English (UEB) - BANA with Nemeth template includes a "DirectionsNemeth." style, correcting a problem when transcribing through SWIFT. The template also updates other styles.

Note: Design Science does not currently support MathType on macOS Catalina. DBT for Mac does not read MathType objects embedded in .doc files. However, it can read them in .docx files, on macOS's earlier than Catalina. DBT for Mac may offer to install MathType customizations, but it appears that the installation silently fails. So, MathType imports on macOS are not optimized fully, as they are on Windows.

Embosser Improvements

ViewPlus Columbia support is improved. Note: Updated drivers are strongly recommended for macOS.
ViewPlus Delta embossers support booklet printing on 11 x 17 paper.
Braillo: DBT offers more direct support for variable line spacing on Braillo embossers. A separator sheet can now be placed between copies when writing to Braillo 600 SR embossers.
DBT supports all Braillo’s new “Series 2” (S2) embossers (the 300, 450, and 600).
Interpoint 55 output can be sent in reverse order.
Irie embosser support is improved. Front/back page alignment of interpoint output on the Irie BrailleTrac 120 is corrected.
DBT supports the TactPlus™ EasyTactix embosser,
the ViewPlus SpotDot,
the APH PageBlaster, and APH PixBlaster.
TranSend SE support now includes the EPSON FX-2190II ESC/P model now sold by Humanware.

DBT can now generate interline print for Gemini embossers.
For dual ink and braille embossers, DBT eliminates most inappropriate gaps in the inkprint text. DBT codes no longer appear in the interline print of embosser output.
DBT now prints TactileView Images to the Columbia embosser (and presumably other ViewPlus embossers) at the intended size. Note: The image size is not set directly from DBT, but DBT ensures that the size should be the same in the output as on screen. The size is determined by the image height, and images that are too wide for the page are likely to be clipped.

Language Updates

The biggest additions in languages on DBT for the Mac are tables for the Arabic, German, Russian, and Spanish/Portuguese math braille systems. These braille math codes impact braille production in over 80 countries.

Templates for these four languages all have a "math" style. For example, if you use the math style in a German template, you get German math braille. For ease of use, the math style is inserted automatically when you import a LaTeX file.
The Russian math translator affects technical braille for many languages: Armenian (Eastern), Azerbaijani, Belorussian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Chuvash, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Georgian, Hungarian, Ingush, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Tajik, Tatar, Turkmen, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Uzbek.
The Arabic language and unified Arabic braille rules are used in over 25 countries.
The Spanish/Portuguese braille math rules are used in 20 countries.

UEB templates provide a new chemistry style. Within the chemistry style, there is no use of word or passage capital indicators, as each capital letter is capitalized separately.

The official Arabic translator for Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia is Arabic Pre-2002 (World Braille Usage 2013, UNESCO). DBT now has a template for the Pre-2002 Arabic translator.

To assist those studying ancient languages, a template and translator have been added for the transcription of Semitic Languages.

Language Improvements
Flag	Description (** = New Language)
	Arabic: new math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style.
	Afrikaans: Translation is improved in both directions, especially in the braille-to-print direction.
	** Basque: newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Spain.
	Biblical original language study print-to-braille translation, supports Ethiopic script and fixes Greek language tagging and other minor problems.
	** Chewa (a.k.a., Nyanja): newly added language, spoken in Malawi.
	Danish translation uses German math, when using the math style of the Danish template.
	Dutch print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation has been updated to support more recent standard representations of braces. Dutch localization is now supported.
	**Dhivehi: newly added language, spoken in the Maldive Islands.
	English BANA Formatting: spurious skipped lines are eliminated when headings precede a set of directions and likewise between directions and a following list.
	English/UEB translation is updated to support section 7.6 of Rules of Unified English Braille (October 2019) regarding quotation marks. Several other language tables, which use UEB conventions for quotation marks, contain this same update. Print-to-braille translation of a number of uncommon words has been corrected. In UEB transcription, a word that breaks across more than two lines will include a continuation indicator at all appropriate places.
	The English (UEB) - UK formatting (UKAAF) template and corresponding style map are updated.
	Estonian print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation has been improved through feedback from an Estonian user. The Estonian template now reserves the bottom line of each page for braille page numbers with no preceding text.
	** Faroese: newly added language, spoken in Faroese Islands.
	Filipino, Tagalog, and the regional languages of the Philippines (Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Iloko): The basic templates for all of the Philippine languages are now set to use the Nemeth code for mathematics and technical notation as their standard choice.
	French (Unified) braille translation is updated to correct the treatment of Greek letters and currency symbols. The French tables improve print-to-braille handling of ligatures preceded by a hyphen, they perform better capitalization of combined letters, better handling of certain spaced numeral expressions, and improved braille-to-print translation of math and text. Along with these, the handling of French footnote and endnote reference numbers has been fixed.
	** Fulah (a.k.a, Fula): newly added language (print to braille), spoken in Guinea.
	** Galician: newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Spain.
	German: new math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. Also, improvements in both print-to-braille and braille-to-print translators, especially as regards the "ung" contraction.
	** Greenlandic (Kalaallisut): newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Greenland.
	** Guarani: newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Paraguay and other nations.
	Hebrew (American) print-to-braille translation corrects certain combinations involving shuruq.
	Hindi: braille-to-print improves handling of single and double quote marks.
	** Hmong (RPA): newly added language, spoken in Southeast Asia and the United States.
	Icelandic: braille-to-print translation handles emphasis indicators.
	Ingush (a Russian minority language): print-to-braille translation of a characteristic letter has been corrected.
	Japanese: Japanese documents are imported using the On’yomi system of Han characters rather than the Kun’yomi. Handling of embedded Latin script text is improved.
	** Kalanga: newly added language, spoken in Botswana and Zimbabwe.
	** Kikongo (Kongo): newly added language, spoken in Angola.
	** Kinyarwanda: newly added language, spoken in Rwanda.
	** Kirundi (Rundi): newly added language, spoken in Burundi.
	** Kituba: newly added language, spoken in Congo.
	Korean: braille-to-print translation has minor corrections. Korean localization is markedly improved.
	** Leb-Lango: newly added language, spoken in Uganda.
	** Lisu: newly added language (print to braille), spoken in China, Myanmar and Thailand.
	** Luba-Kasai (Luba-Lulua): newly added language, spoken in Congo.
	** Madurese: newly added language, spoken in Indonesia.
	** Malagasy: newly added language, spoken in Madagascar.
	Norwegian translation uses German math, when using the math style of the Norwegian template.
	** Oromo: newly added language, spoken in Ethiopia.
	Portuguese: new math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. Also some improvements in the handling of punctuation.
	** Quechua: newly added language, spoken in Bolivia and other nations.
	Russian: new math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. The braille-to-print translator improves the translation of certain letter/number combinations. The Russian template supports the formatting of running headers as appropriate within the Russian Federation.
	Slovenian: the template now reserves the bottom line of each page for braille page numbers with no preceding text.
	Spanish: new math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style.
	** Sundanese: newly added language, spoken in Indonesia.
	Swedish translation (both directions) has been updated to correct several issues with punctuation signs and emphasis indication, and to align better with published standards.
	** Tonga (a.k.a., Chitonga, Zambezi): newly added language, spoken in Zimbabwe.
	Ukrainian braille-to-print translation has been corrected. The Ukrainian template now shows the capital letter sign in braille.
	** Umbundu: newly added language, spoken in Angola.
	Uzbek: the translators reflect a minor change in the braille translation rules that removes an ambiguity about the braille 'e'.
	Vietnamese: improved handling of letters: d, and d with a stroke, (đ) U+0111.