What was New in Previous Versions?
The following is a summary of additions or changes to earlier versions of DBT whether on the Macintosh or Windows platform. DBT was reintroduced to the Mac as of version 12.1 and the first official release was 12.2.
There was no 12.4 release on the Macintosh, which went directly from 12.3 to 12.5. That version on the Mac includes all the improvements from 12.4 on the Windows OS.
A detailed change history is also available on the Internet at https://www.duxburysystems.com.
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 (TOC) dialog handle reference page numbering and improve the layout. ("Reference page number" generally means the page number in the original print document.)
- 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.
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. |
|
**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. |
|
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. |
|
** 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. |
|
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. |
|
** 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. |
DBT Win 12.4 SR1
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, possibly even newer than that included here, 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.
Primarily, this service release resolves issues reported with respect to specific embossers.
- For Columbia embossers, this release realigns the front to back registration, restoring the correct spacing.
- For the Interpoint Elekul 55 (Belgium), output has been updated to restore all functionality. (Reminder: It is important that the path to PRINT55.EXE be properly set in the Device Settings tab of the Global Embosser Setup. A newly created embosser setup will have this set correctly by default.)
- The TranSend SE embosser font list is restored.
In addition:
- We have modified DBT's .bru importer with respect to importing notetaker .brl files. (These braille files are typically formatted with each paragraph as one long line.) If you begin your .brl file with the four characters "_%_:", the DBT importer treats the file as Nemeth Code in UEB context, causing it to automatically assign the styles math and math-TextInMath where appropriate. This handling matches the .brf file importer handling for .brf files starting with those four characters.
- We have revised and updated the DBT Help files, 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.
The core of Duxbury DBT and its translators has not changed.
DBT Win 12.4
Major Improvements
- For lengthy file imports, DBT now displays a progress bar.
- DBT opens files faster, with quicker performance in general operations.
- In UEB templates, there is a new chemistry style. For any technical notation within the chemistry style, there is no use of word or passage capital indicators, as each capital letter is capitalized separately.
- The NEW Bristol Braille Canute Mk13 Braille eReader is supported as an embosser.
- Graphic images in centered headings are now well handled.
- The BANA Listed Tables format is restored.
- The insertion of [hl] codes is no longer restricted when importing DAISY or XML files, as it is for Word files.
- The biggest additions in languages are starter tables for the Arabic, German, Russian, and Spanish/Portuguese math (technical notation) braille systems. These braille math codes may 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 about 20 countries.
- You are invited to test the math braille translators and send suggested improvements to languages@duxsys.com.
- Sample files for over a hundred languages are incorporated into the DBT Help so that you can quickly test DBT in an unfamiliar language.
Mathematics Braille
- UTF-8 conversion is now built into our LaTeX importer. This allows non-ASCII characters in the text: unusual accented letters, non-Roman scripts such as Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, etc., to be imported directly into DBT as combined text and math in a single step.
- The LaTeX importer now 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 asked for a "thin space". These extra spaces caused unneeded braille indicators in some math translators.
- The LaTeX importer no longer ignores some absolute value signs.
- The LaTeX importer now handles Greek letter variant forms, the so-called blackboard characters, and some additional special characters.
- Handling of reference page (i.e., original print page) indicators in UEB with Nemeth is improved.
- The ending codes for the math style have been refined. We have moved the [i] code to the end, which prevents the insertion of the grade 1 indicator before certain punctuation marks, such as the question mark.
Embossers
- DBT can now generate interline print for Gemini embossers.
- DBT supports the ViewPlus "Tiger" registry key and enforces a 0.5 inch minimum top margin for the Columbia embosser.
- The Columbia model, with a top margin setting of 0 now has an effective 0.5" top margin. A top margin setting of 1 has an effective 0.65" top margin. For higher top margin settings in DBT, the effective margin is 0.4" times the number entered in DBT.
- 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.
- For entries in the printer queue, DBT no longer adds (ink) to the document name when not appropriate.
- DBT now prints TactileView (TV) Images to the Columbia embosser - and presumably other ViewPlus embossers - at the intended size. Note that 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. (Note: the size is determined by the image height, and images that are too wide for the page are likely to be clipped. For such images, direct output from TV may be the appropriate approach.)
More Language Updates
According to the 2013 UNESCO document World Braille Usage, Arabic Pre-2002 is the official Arabic translator for Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia. DBT now has a template for the Pre-2002 Arabic translator.
To assist those studying ancient languages, a new template and translator for the transcription of Semitic Languages have been added.
The English UEB translation table was changed to allow the functionality of the chemistry style, and also to refine the contraction use in a series of uncommon words.
Flag | Description |
---|---|
Arabic: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) | |
Dhivehi: newly added language, spoken in the Maldive Islands. | |
Estonian: the template now reserves the bottom line of each page for braille page numbers with no preceding text. | |
German: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) Also, German has improvements in both the print-to-braille and the braille-to-print translators, especially as regards the "ung" contraction. | |
Hindi: braille-to-print improves handling of single and double quote marks. | |
Portuguese: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) Also some improvements in the handling of punctuation. | |
Russian: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) The braille-to-print translator improves the translation of certain letter/number combinations. | |
Slovenian: the template now reserves the bottom line of each page for braille page numbers with no preceding text. | |
Spanish: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) | |
Ukrainian: the template now shows the capital letter sign in braille. | |
Uzbek: the translators reflect a minor change in the braille translation rules that removes an ambiguity about the braille 'e'. | |
Vietnamese: better handling of letter d and letter d with a stroke, (đ) U+0111. |
New Braille Embossers
- DBT adds support for two new Irie embossers, the BrailleSheet 120 and the BrailleTrac 120.
- Graphics on Index V5 embossers now output using the "floating dot" format. One benefit is that TactileView graphics output successfully when embedded in a DBT document sent to an Index V5 embosser.
Math Improvements
- MathType 7 is now supported.
- French mathematics braille is now supported in the French Unified braille-to-print translator.
- Users can now import braille formatted files (BRF's) containing UEB with Nemeth Code, as long as the file starts with a special 4-cell braille header: _%_: ( i.e., dots 4-5-6, 1-4-6, 4-5-6, 1-5-6; in ASCII braille this is: _%_: )
- The MAVIS module now correctly recognizes mixed numbers at the start of math mode.
- The arc sign is now recognized.
- The English/Unified (UEB) print-to-braille table accepts U+27C2 for the "perpendicular" symbol.
- DBT's LaTeX importer now allows a "pass through in math" section to be more flexible about characters appearing at the end of a paragraph.
- The LaTeX importer allows "pass through in math" with the math-TextInMath style, to be used in additional situations, such as when items are separated by LaTeX \vspace commands or sectioning commands (like \section and \subsection).
- The LaTeX importer and exporter now handle European accented letters.
- For Nemeth Code in UEB context, the end Nemeth Code indicator is now set up to be on the same line as the last item in Nemeth Code.
- For Nemeth Code in UEB context, the new styles RefPageUEBSwitch and RefPageUEBSwitch-Embed now allow for a new reference page number (i.e., original print page number) in UEB, without having to terminate and restart Nemeth Code.
General Improvements
- DBT initialization is now much faster.
- DBT has improved copying from a braille document into a target other than DBT, such as CorelDRAW.
- DBT's Excel importer handles dates in the default format when no format is specified.
- Enhanced "code page" selection; allowing greater freedom to import non-English, non-Unicode textfiles.
- The "F5" codes list no longer displays antiquated ampersand codes.
- In demo mode, DBT will not prompt to save documents on closure.
- The "UEB Pharmaceutical" template is now called "English (UEB) Pharmaceutical".
- The two pharmaceutical DBT templates now suppress braille page numbering.
- The JAWS script files no longer say "same spot" to alert the user that the cursor is remaining in place while repeatedly pressing the left or right arrow in formatted view. Instead JAWS makes a subtle click.
- When you have checked the Global View setting Use verbose labels for non-ANSI characters, JAWS speaks the Unicode value from the DBT status line when voicing a character or its Unicode number. This is very helpful when navigating a DBT print document containing Asian languages that use composite characters, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Hindi.
Language Updates
Flag | Description |
---|---|
Bulgarian: Now uses dots 46 as the capital sign. | |
Dutch: Many punctuation problems fixed; capitalization and emphasis modernized per the latest published rules. | |
French: Many significant changes; handling of new characters, improved forward and back translation. Notable features are support for emphasis and for mathematics in braille-to-print. | |
Hebrew-American: Now makes a proper transition from Hebrew to UEB in the print-to-braille direction. | |
Languages of India: Better support for punctuation and dependent / independent vowels in braille-to-print (all languages of India). | |
Irish: The print-to-braille now includes new shortforms defined in early 2018 and also corrects contraction usage in certain bridging situations. | |
Italian: Better handling of the period (full stop) and dots 34 in braille-to-print (distinguishing i grave from slash). | |
Norwegian: Better handling of the period (full stop) and some other punctuation characters in braille-to-print translation. | |
Russian: Now prevents use of the "ae", "ng", and "tc" combined characters, with improved comma handling in braille-to-print. | |
Spanish: Fixed two punctuation characters in braille-to-print translation. | |
Thai: Updated the braille-to-print translation direction to match recent work in print-to-braille. |
DBT 12.3
New Braille Embossers
- DBT adds support for two new Irie embossers, the BrailleSheet 120 and the BrailleTrac 120.
- Graphics on Index V5 embossers now output using the "floating dot" format. One benefit is that TactileView graphics output successfully when embedded in a DBT document sent to an Index V5 embosser.
Math Improvements
- MathType 7 is now supported.
- French mathematics braille is now supported in the French Unified braille-to-print translator.
- Users can now import braille formatted files (BRF's) containing UEB with Nemeth Code, as long as the file starts with a special 4-cell braille header: _%_: ( i.e., dots 4-5-6, 1-4-6, 4-5-6, 1-5-6; in ASCII braille this is: _%_: )
- The MAVIS module now correctly recognizes mixed numbers at the start of math mode.
- The arc sign is now recognized.
- The English/Unified (UEB) print-to-braille table accepts U+27C2 for the "perpendicular" symbol.
- DBT's LaTeX importer now allows a "pass through in math" section to be more flexible about characters appearing at the end of a paragraph.
- The LaTeX importer allows "pass through in math" with the math-TextInMath style, to be used in additional situations, such as when items are separated by LaTeX \vspace commands or sectioning commands (like \section and \subsection).
- The LaTeX importer and exporter now handle European accented letters.
- For Nemeth Code in UEB context, the end Nemeth Code indicator is now set up to be on the same line as the last item in Nemeth Code.
- For Nemeth Code in UEB context, the new styles RefPageUEBSwitch (and the RefPageUEBSwitch-Embed version) now allow for a new reference page number in UEB without having to terminate and restart Nemeth Code.
General Improvements
- DBT initialization is now much faster.
- DBT has improved copying from a braille document into a target other than DBT, such as CorelDRAW.
- DBT's Excel importer handles dates in the default format when no format is specified.
- Enhanced "code page" selection; allowing greater freedom to import non-English, non-Unicode textfiles.
- The "F5" codes list no longer displays antiquated ampersand codes.
- In demo mode, DBT will not prompt to save documents on closure.
- The "UEB Pharmaceutical" template is now called "English (UEB) Pharmaceutical".
- The two pharmaceutical DBT templates now suppress braille page numbering.
- The JAWS script files no longer say "same spot" to alert the user that the cursor is remaining in place while repeatedly pressing the left or right arrow in formatted view. Instead JAWS makes a subtle click.
- When you have checked the Global View setting Use verbose labels for non-ANSI characters, JAWS speaks the Unicode value from the DBT status line when voicing a character or its Unicode number. This is very helpful when navigating a DBT print document containing Asian languages that use composite characters, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Hindi.
Language Updates
Flag | Description |
---|---|
Bulgarian: Now uses dots 46 as the capital sign. | |
Dutch: Many punctuation problems fixed; capitalization and emphasis modernized per the latest published rules. | |
French: Many significant changes; handling of new characters, improved forward and back translation. Notable features are support for emphasis and for mathematics in braille-to-print. | |
Hebrew-American: Now makes a proper transition from Hebrew to UEB in the print-to-braille direction. | |
Languages of India: Better support for punctuation and dependent / independent vowels in braille-to-print (all languages of India). | |
Italian: Better handling of the period (full stop) and dots 34 in braille-to-print (distinguishing i grave from slash). | |
Norwegian: Better handling of the period (full stop) and some other punctuation characters in braille-to-print translation. | |
Russian: Now prevents use of the "ae", "ng", and "tc" combined characters, with improved comma handling in braille-to-print. | |
Spanish: Fixed two punctuation characters in braille-to-print translation. | |
Thai: Updated the braille-to-print translation direction to match recent work in print-to-braille. |
DBT for Mac 12.2 SR1
Duxbury Systems is pleased to offer this service release to our customers, which addresses the following issues.
The first issue concerns VoiceOver. Just prior to the DBT 12.2 release, change events to VoiceOver were inadvertently disabled, so that VoiceOver did not receive input regarding changes in the DBT editor. This has been fixed and full VoiceOver functionality restored.
The second issue concerns Word file imports to DBT. These files were importing without paying attention to the formatting information supplied in Word. That formatting information is now recognized and translated into the DBT equivalent formatting, mostly eliminating the need to format the document again.
DBT 12.2
Primary Areas of Improvement
- VoiceOver improvements for navigating DBT and its Help files.
- Translated Line is greatly improved and more responsive.
- Math improvements (see below)
- DBT templates are now readable text files. This allows skilled users to assemble their own templates much more easily.
- New template for users in the United Kingdom: English (UEB) - UK Formatting (UKAAF)
- New Table of Contents Style - UK Basic - which follows UKAAF formatting recommendations.
- Improvements to the UEB translator (Unified English Braille) (see below)
- New embossers and embosser improvements (see below)
- TactileView integration repaired.
- Many internal efficiency improvements.
- Language improvements (see below)
English UEB
- Now supports document-specific Typeform Indicators as defined in the RUEB Rules of Unified English Braille Section 9 for inkprint attributes that carry meanings the braille reader needs to know about . A range of such indicators can be defined such as the use of Script Font, Text Color or Highlight Color, as well as Drop Shadow and Outline Text. See the new user interface in the Global: Word-Importer dialogue. (See also a Word file example here DBT_Typeform_Indicators.docx)
- Certain currency expressions, when marked as "technical notation," no longer give rise to an unnecessary grade one word indicator.
- When a sequence of single capitalized letters is treated as a passage, the last such letter is included in the passage.
- If [ps]...[pe] (i.e. superscript) codes immediately surround a trademark symbol (U+2122), they are now discarded as redundant.
- Contractions of several uncommon medical terms have been improved.
New Embossers and Embosser Fixes
- Support for the Braillo 300 S2 has been added to DBT.
- TranSend SE is now supported on Romeo 60 and Juliet 120.
Math Improvements
- For translating into Nemeth Code in UEB context, we have solved a problem that caused intermittent errors at the start of math sections, such as a missing numeric indicator for a number at the start of a Nemeth Code section.
- When importing a LaTeX file (from Scientific Notebook or another source) to create Nemeth Code in a UEB context, DBT now correctly suppresses the terminating and starting Nemeth indicators where there should be a "pass through in math" section; it also puts in the "one-word switch" where appropriate.
- When importing math for Nemeth Code in UEB context, embedded text in a math expression that occurs inside a pass through in math section no longer causes problems.
- The translated line no longer drops spaces in certain locations. Specifically, use of the math style now does not cause a space to be dropped on the translated line.
- When importing a LaTeX file that uses the command \includegraphics, the DBT document now gives the filename of the graphics file.
User Interface
- The Global, Word-Importer dialogue has a new option for mapping font characteristics to transcriber-defined Typeform Indicators for English UEB. (See Global: Word Importer)
- Selecting the correct language for Han character import now happens automatically with the choice of a DBT template. (Previously this selection always had to be done manually from the Global, Import Options dialogue, and that option is still allowed if the user wishes to continue to specify the choice directly.)
- DBT updates documents immediately when certain global options are changed.
Miscellaneous Changes
- We have improved the display of the translated line in formatted print documents for languages that introduce discretionary hyphens.
- We have added two spaces to the formatted-view translated line at each place where a tab code is present in the markup.
- We have eliminated the introduction of a bullet and space at the start of some "numbered" paragraphs in .docx files, where Word itself does not show them.
- Treatment of blank cells in columnar tables has been amended to come more completely into compliance with BANA Guidelines.
- The BANA Listed Table format now conforms to BANA Formats 2011 (11.16.1.e), so that for each row, the first element is formatted as a cell-5 heading. (That first element is normally labeled with the column heading.)
- A Byte Order Mark, if present, is now stripped from the start of Unicode text imports, particularly when imported through DBT's formatted text importer.
- DBT now adds codes to control spacing within the Exact Translation style when importing Word .doc and .docx files.
Language Improvements
Country | Improvements |
---|---|
Biblical Languages: many improvements, including a practical braille-to-print translator. | |
Bosnian: braille-to-print now uses the new Croatian braille-to-print translator. | |
Cantonese (Yue): now uses space as a tone mark in restricted circumstances. Has an improved braille-to-print translator. | |
Chinese Mandarin: improved file importer, improved print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation. It is now possible to mix Chinese and English. (English segments must start with a capital letter). | |
Croatian: now with a functional braille-to-print translator. | |
Danish: braille-to-print translation properly uses the exclamation mark (when the dropped 'f' is at the end of a word) and better handles a contraction before a period (full stop). | |
Dzongkha: DBT supports the new braille rules. | |
IPA: handles the UEB indicators for brackets and slash. | |
Korean: the braille-to-print translation has many improvements. | |
Portuguese: now handles four additional punctuation marks in braille-to-print translation. | |
Slovenian: the braille-to-print direction now uses the new Croatian braille-to-print translator. | |
Spanish: braille-to-print translation can produce a proper period in all contexts. | |
Thai: fixed two formerly incorrect characters in print-to-braille. | |
Venda: improvements in print-to-braille; now includes a functional braille-to-print translator. | |
Welsh (Cymraeg): fixed some previously incorrect contractions. |
DBT 12.1 SR1
Primary Improvements
- In all UEB templates as well as those derived from UEB, the computer braille styles are updated to render accurate word breaking. Only those templates specifically for older (pre-UEB) documents still enforce the Pre-UEB word breaking rules.
- The four DBT BANA templates (both UEB and Pre-UEB) are once again updated to the most recent versions. This corrects some formatting errors in the 12.1 BANA templates and includes BB-BoxBegin and H1-HeadingCentered.
- In the English/American (pre-UEB) print-to-braille tables, the output of underline symbols is restored.
- In the English/Unified (UEB) print-to-braille table certain contractions that follow an apostrophe have been improved.
- The Afrikaans print-to-braille table and Sotho print-to-braille table have been updated with contraction changes received recently from South Africa.
- Refinements in the Welsh print-to-braille table restrict shortform usage within large words to the officially approved list and ensure that strings of letters that could be read as extended shortforms are appropriately marked with grade 1 indicators. Other improvements include automated generation of hyphenation points within long technical expressions such as URLs.
- For Myanmar text, DBT now handles some additional, critical Burmese characters for translating Burmese text to braille.
This service release also features the following JAWS script improvements:
- The script files for DBT 12.1 changed the technique for SayWord to insure the whole word was gathered and spoken. This change compromised making a selection. The latest script insures that if a selection is in progress, all the words in the selection are retained.
- When using a braille display with JAWS 17, the script files manage the JAWS braille translation settings better (turning off input translation) to ensure that output translation is off when you are viewing a braille document.
- The save and restore of a Speech Profile is now limited to JAWS version17 and higher to prevent "unknown function" errors in earlier versions of JAWS.
- Repetitious announcements of "computer braille" when the window focus is shifted are now suppressed.
DBT 12.1
Primary Areas of Improvement
- Many updates to DBT code and translation tables, including UEB.
- DXP (print) and DXB (braille) files are now interchangeable between DBT for Windows and DBT for Mac version 12.1
- The Basic DBT templates have been streamlined
- New embossers and embosser fixes
- Math improvements
- 62 step UEB Mangold Method learning series now included in the Learning tables (Click here)
- Infrastructure changes to fix numerous issues with language switching and the translated line display in DBT
- Language improvements
DBT Templates Streamlined
- Historical DBT styles that no longer have effect have been removed
- Each Basic Template now has ten DBT styles that use language switching:
- Biblical_lang (Biblical original language studies)
- English_UEB1 (UEB grade 1)
- English_UEB2 (UEB grade 2)
- English_UK_old (British pre-UEB)
- French
- German
- IPA
- Italian
- Russian
- Spanish
- Italic, bold, and underline styles are now included in every basic language template
- Improved Russian formatting using a new Word style mapping file, rus.mws
- Better Australian formatting using a new Word style mapping file, aussie.mws, for UEB braille
Embossers
- New Embossers supported:
- ViewPlus Columbia
- Enabling Juliet 120
- Enabling Romeo 60
- Index V5 embossers
- Embosser fixes:
- TactileView improved graphics support
- Nippon Telesoft Gemini Super2 has been renamed as the Nippon Telesoft DOG-Pro
- Nippon Telesoft DOG-Pro carriage width calculations are more accurate
Mathematics
Numerous additions to math functionality; here are the highlights:
- Many more unusual mathematics characters are now handled
- Spacing and control of spacing around function names in UEB math and French math have been improved
- Better importing of aligned structures
- Better handling of the Unicode minus sign
- Nemeth translation has been updated to use dot 6 for the comma when outside of "technical notation" but still in "Nemeth mode." This means that in the English (UEB) - BANA with Nemeth template, a comma in the style math-TextInMath is brailled as dot 6, rather than dots 456,2 following Nemeth rules.
JAWS Developments
Helpful additions in the JAWS script files for DBT, including:
- A better way for JAWS to announce style markup; it now says "begin style" and "end style"
- Editing in print and braille documents with JAWS is now snappier
- When moving by word in a braille document, JAWS no longer speaks the word as braille dots if you are also using a braille device
- When you press Control+H for highlighting in DBT, JAWS keeps better track of when the highlighting is turned off
- The script supports the use of a DBT-specific voice profile, with return to the default voice profile on leaving DBT
- When arrowing left or right in a braille document in coded view with high contrast on, JAWS no longer says "space" for every character
- In coded view, you can now navigate onto a left brace character ( { )
UEB Updates
- When translating material into UEB, the translator is more selective about switching to a grade one passage for technical notation
- Improved auto-hyphenation, including grouping of braille numbers 16 cells or less in length
- Symbols that are not hyphens nor dashes, but contain dots 36, are no longer allowed as potential line break points
- The translation of certain unusual names has been fixed
- The translation of mixed alpha-numerics, such as AA.12, has been adjusted to be easier to read in braille
- Mid-line ellipsis (U+22EF), double or triple dots over a variable name, and other uncommon math symbols, are now treated correctly
- The Latin letter schwa (U+0259) and primary and secondary stress symbols, when entered as U+02C8 and U+02CC respectively, are now supported
- Braille-to-print support for Old/Middle English letters: yogh, thorn, eth and wynn
- Plus many other changes to improve the production of UEB braille
Misc Features
- Improved read only text controls and their acceptance of keyboard focus
- Improved identification and differentiation of single and double quotes
Language Improvements
Flag | Description |
---|---|
Catalan: Fixed percent sign and capitalization issues. | |
Czech: Fixed ten punctuation characters. | |
Many fixes for UEB English. | |
Hungarian: Supports the new fully contracted 2014 Hungarian rules, both print-to-braille and braille-to-print. | |
Japanese: Fixed the ryu, and a few other translation items. | |
Korean: Fixes to improve both print-to-braille and braille-to-print translators. | |
Spanish: added a Puerto Rico variation for certain punctuation marks. | |
Spanish: back translation can now produce a number sign (#) with the "forcer" of dots 3456, 13. Additional "forcer" sequences are: dots 45, 56, 26, which produces inverted question mark; dots 45, 45, 26 produces upright question mark; dots 45, 56, 235 produces inverted exclamation mark; and dots 45, 45, 235 produces upright exclamation mark, regardless of context. |
DBT 11.2 SR4
DBT 11.2 SR4 fixes several minor bugs which are serious for a few users. We recommend all users update to 11.2 SR4 to prevent possible future frustration.
DBT 11.2 SR3
This Service Release includes the following improvements, many of which are significant for some users:
DAISY/NISO Importer
- A flaw in the DAISY/NISO importer in DBT 11.2 SR2 causing the text of an imported document to be repeated has been fixed.
JAWS Scripts
- The JAWS script files have been updated to set refreshable braille to six dots whenever you are editing a braille document.
Word File Importer
- The importation of some space Unicode characters U+2000-200A has been improved. If a thin space (U+2009) is used between groups of digits, this becomes a dot 5 in UEB braille.
- The importation of some Arabic presentation characters has been improved.
- Alt Text for MathType objects is now imported in .docx files.
- DBT more reliably imports (single line) headers and footers from .docx files.
- When using Braille or Simbraille fonts, all spaces will be retained. This enables simple braille graphics to be produced in Word, which import faithfully in to DBT. (See Simple Braille Graphics for more information/).
- Whenever the .docx importer places text in a brlinline style, it will also mark that text to preserve all spacing. All spaces in the .docx file should be preserved in the DBT print file.
- DBT's .doc file importer now avoids cutting short Alt Text.
- Inserting [lng] codes (to revert to a document's base language) when importing .docx files now works correctly.
- Improvements have been made in the importing of matrices, determinants, systems of simultaneous equations, piecewise-defined functions, and the like via MathType.
BANA Template
- The BANA templates supplied with DBT have been updated by Susan Christensen to improve support for the listed table format and direct braille entry. This update includes the BANA Braille 2014 template for Word and the three DBT templates that have BANA in their name.
Unified English Braille (UEB) Literary
- The various English translators have been updated to treat a right single quote (U+2019) as an apostrophe when followed by a letter.
- The English/Unified print-to-braille table has been updated to correct the contraction usage in several unusual words, notably certain words commencing with be.
- The English/Unified print-to-braille translation table has been updated to correct the contraction of the word bein' in certain contexts.
- The English/Unified print-to-braille translation table has been updated to improve the passage/word choice logic for certain unusual sequences of fully capitalized words.
Unified English Braille (UEB) Mathematical and Technical
A great deal of work has been done (and is still on-going) in connection with "UEB Guidelines for Technical Material". A slightly revised 2014 version of this publication is due to be released soon, and will be available from http://www.iceb.org/ueb.html.
Use of MathType 7.4, rather than earlier versions, improves DBT MathType imports of Word documents with math that was entered with Equation Editor instead of MathType. With earlier versions of MathType, the expressions would come into DBT as displayed math on a separate line even when they are meant to be embedded in the text.
A trial copy of MathType 7.4 is included on the 12.6 CD. Please note that you may only upgrade an existing 6.9 at no charge. You may also obtain it from here [Download 6.9]
Please keep a look out for a newer version of MathType which, at the time of this release, was not available.
If you are running an earlier version of MathType and wish to upgrade, please contact Design Science.
We would also like to formally and sincerely thank Design Science, developers of MathType for their continued co-operation and support.
- The English/Unified print-to-braille translation table has been updated to support the code [big] for handling enlarged signs of enclosure, and also to support U+2257 (ring over equals).
- Work is on-going with Matrices, but there have been improvements in this area.
- The English/Unified translation tables have been updated to support several technical symbols.
- The English/Unified print-to-braille translation table has been updated to recognize codes [sqrtsN] and [sqrteN] as equivalent to [sqrts] and [sqrte] respectively, and to add support for certain uncommon Unicode symbols.
- The English/Unified print-to-braille translation table has been updated to correct the output for U+2197 (northeast arrow).
Nemeth Math
Tabular Material
- Shift-Tab and Tab key navigation through tables with incomplete rows is working more smoothly.
- Minimum guide dots for tabular material (related columns) has been set to two.
- There is an adjustment to the number of header rows and header columns presumed for a table when no header column or row count is declared in the htbs code, as is generally the case for any newly-imported table. With the change, tables of related columns will continue to presume one header row only if there are at least two rows in the table. They will continue to presume one header column only if each row contains at least two columns. In all other cases, zero header rows/columns are assumed.
DBT Styles and Codes
- DBT will more reliably reload the initial style if it is added, removed, or redefined.
- There is a new code implemented in DBT: [svpalS:N]. It is intended to allow for variations to BANA Braille. See the codes reference for the details.
- A problem with the [mfce] code has been fixed. The problem prevented resetting behaviors related to runovers.
Embossers and Embossing
- Interpoint 55 - DBT produces *.x55 files, and these files can be directed to the Interpoint 55 with the Wprint55 program. (Click here for more details)
- Cosmo embossing now uses a background thread. it is a convenience because it is possible to get back to editing sooner. However, it leaves no way to cancel embossing other than to exit DBT. Exiting DBT will cancel Cosmo embossing without warning.
- ViewPlus Tiger embossers are now capable of being switched between single and double-sided from within DBT. (See Embossers and Embossing Topic for more details)
- ViewPlus Premier with Ink Connect is now supported.
Language Improvements
Language development is an on-going process, and the introduction of Unified English Braille in some countries, South Africa for example, has resulted in changes being made to languages used within the country.
Country | Details |
---|---|
Armenian now supporting the U+055B Armenian emphasis character. In ink-print, this is a single character at the end of a word. | |
Azerbaijani: question mark and curling quotes have been fixed. |
|
Cantonese now handling English text mixed with Cantonese. |
|
Danish now handles lower quote marks. |
|
We now support the Dutch 2005 braille revision. | |
Italian braille-to-print now produces the at-sign correctly |
|
DBT now supports the Taiwan variation for Mandarin braille. |
|
Turkish letter sign and uncontracted Turkish now function properly. |
|
South Africa. The Venda table has been updated. A stub braille-to-print table now uses UEB instead of older forms of English braille. Also Swati and Ndebele each have a single contraction fixed. |
DBT 11.2 SR2
This web Service Release included the following improvements, a few of which are significant for some users:
Word 2007, 2010, 2013
- The importer for docx files has been improved to allow better recognition of character fonts. Superscript and subscripts are again properly recognized.
-
Braille fonts and Courier (and Consolas) fonts are recognized.
- Bold, Italic, and Underline recognized when applied through a character style, unless the character style is mapped into a DBT style.
- The latest BANA Template for Word has been included.
Unified English Braille (UEB)
UEB will begin being formally taught in UK schools in September this year (2014). Users are therefore advised to ensure that upgrades have been applied to older versions.
- There have been a number of very minor changes made to the UEB tables in this release due to clarification of some rules by ICEB.
- A new template, named "English (Unified) - UK formatting" has been added to simplify the production of UEB braille while using current UK formatting conventions. The template parallels the existing "English (British) - with capitals" template in that it contains all of the same style names. Most styles are identically defined, but where necessary style definitions have been adapted for UEB. In particular, the <acronym> style has been set to null since no special treatment is required for acronyms in UEB.
- A new template, named "English (Unified) - BANA" has been added to simplify the production of UEB braille while using BANA formatting conventions. The template parallels the existing "English (American Textbook DE) - BANA" template in that it contains all of the same style names, thus enabling production using Word in the same manner as now set up for production of pre-UEB American braille following BANA guidelines. Most styles are identically defined, but where necessary style definitions have been adapted for UEB. Styles have also been added for script, Maori, Hawaiian and Portuguese.
Mathematics
We continue to improve DBT's math braille capabilities, and are grateful to those who have helped us in this regard.
- In MathType imports, we fixed some issues which caused extra blank lines.
- Handling of over/under math characters has been enhanced.
- Additional characters and a few more tabular structures are now supported.
- In LaTeX imports we have added support for \widetilde.
- For UEB math (not used in the United States), there is an issue about inserting optional spaces around signs of comparison for beginners. Please see the following link for details: https://www.duxburysystems.com/documentation/ueb_math_spacing.htm
Embossers and Embossing
Support for A5 and A5 landscape has been added to the Everest (V3 and V4)
Languages
National Flag(s) | Improvements Made |
---|---|
The Croatian translator now meets all standards for contracted and uncontracted braille. | |
Danish: the braille-to-print translator has been fixed for four contractions, to match the print-to-braille Danish translator. | |
Updated Filipino and Tagalog to deal with a list of words which did not contract correctly. | |
Added automatic hyphenation for Italian. Also respecting emphasis on braille-to-print. | |
We have revised both translators for Japanese. We have also improved import of Japanese punctuation, and added a better screen display for Japanese transcribers. | |
Several tables for South African languages have been updated. They are: Nguni (Xhosa and Zulu), Ndebele, and Swati. Stub braille-to-print tables now use UEB instead of older forms of English braille. | |
The Swahilli table has been modified to incorporate handling grade one Arabic script. | |
We have corrected the Unicode character 04AF (y) in Tatar (a minority language in Russia). | |
Turkish: two modified tables and 4 new "Learning Level" tables: DBT now supports contracted Turkish (and 4 levels of partial contraction). |
DBT 11.2 SR1
This web Service Release included the following improvements, a few of which are significant for some users:
- The activation wizard has been updated to fix a problem when using a custom installation in a drive other than C.
- Embossing on all Braillo non-sideways embossers is improved. (That is all Braillo embosser models without "sw" or "stitch and fold" in their model names.)
- The JAWS script has been updated.
- Corrected the handling of the symbol right harpoon over left harpoon (used in Chemical equations) in file imports.
- Languages: Cantonese (Yue) print-to-braille has been significantly improved, and we have added a new braille-to print translator for Cantonese.
Major New Features in 11.2
- DBT has always been at the forefront in implementing Unified English Braille. 11.2 contains further enhancements. DBT now has a UEB Learning Series for the UK (these are series of translators that allow learning of contractions in graduated steps).
- You can now use variable width fonts on the "print side" of DBT. For many languages, this is a substantial improvement.
- Easier support for the new BANA 2011 Formats (used in the United States)
- New SWIFT 4.0 gives greater power and flexibility from Microsoft Word
- Nemeth Code, Braille to Print support added. (see below)
- Export from DBT to Microsoft Word via HTML.
- DBT has new software to handle installation and activation issues (see below)
- DBT now contains a Czech and a Chinese User Interface (see Global Menu, Internationalization).
- Formatted Braille Files with non-US encodings can now be imported by DBT (requires *.bff extension and the use of another encoding in the Global, Internationalization Menu).
- Smart Phone Integration with DBT.
- More languages and better support of existing languages (see very end of this page).
- Better Embosser support (see below)
- Math file importation and braille math translation have been improved substantially.
- Numerous Miscellaneous Changes (see below)
Installation, Activation, De-activation, and Network Installation
- DBT now contains an Activation Wizard to guide a user through the activation process.
- The Activation Wizards contains a diagnostic screen to help the user understand the activation status on a given computer.
- The Activation Wizard is very aware of subtle traps made by some versions of Microsoft: the Wizard knows about variations in UAC controls and only requests elevated credentials when they are truly needed.
- It is now possible to fix many activation problems without having to uninstall DBT (and then re-install DBT).
- The software to manage a network installation is available as a separate download. This program is helpful in situation where another product uses a similar activation system.
- The Network installation no longer requires writing text files.
Mathematics Issues
- Now students or teachers can six key in Nemeth and get print math to their printer for the print reader! (See next two items)
- DBT now has a translation table to translate Nemeth Code technical notation into DBT print math in a .dxp file.
- DBT now has an experimental option to save a .dxp file as LaTeX. This allows DBT print math, which may have come from braille-to-print translation of UEB or Nemeth Code, to be brought into a program, like Scientific Viewer, where a sighted teacher or colleague can view the math.
- In a matrix or determinant, DBT now uses the proper one space between columns instead of two.
- In Nemeth Code, bold items in technical notation, such as vectors and bold numbers, are now translated with the proper Nemeth Code typeform indicator.
- DBT now imports a kind of matrix from Scientific Notebook and other LaTeX files that it did not recognize before. (Previously a matrix in a LaTeX file had to use \begin{array} and \end{array} commands; now \begin{matrix} and \end{matrix} work as well.)
- A large number of problems with conversion from MathType that gave the message "MathType Conversion Error: mtTRANSLATOR" have been fixed.
- A large number of problems with conversion from MathType that gave the message "MathType Conversion Error: mtNOT_FOUND" have been fixed.
- A problem with converting very large expressions from MathType that gave the error message "MathType Conversion Error: mtMEMORY" has been fixed.
- Some problems with converting from MathType that gave extra text like "0.5em" in the document have been fixed.
- In UEB print-to-braille translation, a hyphen within technical notation is now treated as a minus sign (dots 5, 36) unless that is overridden with a new [ammh] code.
- When importing a hard space from MathType or LaTeX, DBT now preserves it as a hard space. This is useful for handling numbers with separated groups of digits in UEB.
- Some symbols that weren't included in the MathType importer and would come up missing in the DBT file have been added. These include the expanding integral sign (a character for the integral sign which takes care of changing its size for typesetting needs).
- The handling of various commands and structures in the LaTeX importer has been improved. For example, the use of \[ and \] now causes the math item to be on a line of its own in DBT; the importing of LaTeX tables has been improved.
Nemeth Braille-to-Print
1) You start with a pure Nemeth braille document in DBT (no contractions).
How is this created?
- You could start a blank, braille document in DBT and key it in.
- You could start a blank, braille document in DBT and clipboard something you write in notepad.
- You could write on a refreshable braille device and bring the file into DBT.
2) Go to the Document menu, then Translation Table. Choose Math Notation (Nemeth 1972 math mode only).
3) Press Control-T to Translate to ink print
4) Press F3 to Save As.
5) On the bottom selection (for file type), choose LaTeX (Experimental) *.tex Feel free to choose a file name and a directory that suits your needs
At this point, your work happens outside of Duxbury DBT. The output of the translation process is a LaTeX text file. You need some additional software that can take LaTeX and render it into math for viewing or printing. With Scientific Viewer (which is free) you can view or print the math. With Scientific Notebook (which is not free) you can also convert the file into PDF form.
We hope our users will help us identify other third party products which make use of LaTeX math files. To give you a head start, here is the Wikipedia entry on LaTeX.
Embosser Support
- Support for the new Enabling Cyclone and Enabling Trident embossers.
- Support for the ViewPlus EmBraille
- Support for new Braillo embossers: Braillo 300, Braillo 600SR, Braillo 650 6&F, and Braillo 650 SW
- Support for the new Cosmo Brailler from EBrailler.
- Improved support for the Index V4 embossers
- Support for A4 paper and extended A4 paper on several embossers
- Embosser form (paper) size name has been changed for some Index and ONCE Impacto embossers to more closely match choices offered by the manufacturer.
Miscellaneous Changes
- DBT can now import files whose names contain unusual characters.
- The JAWS scripts now verbalize the spaces and new lines on the braille side, verbalize DBT codes and style codes when you use backspace or delete, and also verbalize the context for replacing text.
- You can now use a Moon font with DBT on the "braille side".
- In "Verbose Mode", DBT shows the Unicode number of the current character at the cursor position on the status line.
- As always, many improvements have been made to make DBT a more stable environment.
- As always, many fixes have been done to improve the importation of Word and Open Office files.
- As always, math importation and math translation has improved as we work to handle challenging files.
DBT 11.2: Languages and Braille
Language Highlights
Better Font Support for most languages. For many languages of the world, the DBT print screen is readable, and editing is possible.
New User Interfaces: now supporting a Czech and a Chinese User interface.
New Languages: Bengali for Bangladesh (supporting the braille rules of Feb. 1996), Croatian contracted braille supported, Montenegrin, Tatar, and Udmurt. Contracted Turkish braille and Taiwan braille supported with a supplemental download from Duxbury Systems.
New Braille-to-print for existing languages: Amharic, Mandarin Chinese, Hausa, Somali, Swahili, and Yoruba.
We have added a new feature to the Serbian braille-to-print: while this usually uses the Cyrillic alphabet, the use of a variation code [vrn~ar] changes the braille-to-print translator to use the Roman alphabet. Another variation code [vrn~ac] reverts back to using the Cyrillic alphabet. These codes also work on other languages closely tied to Serbian.
Modest adjustments have been made in the handling of punctuation in the translators for the following European languages: Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgian, Maltese, Portuguese, Serbian, and Turkish.
Modest adjustments have been made in the handling of punctuation in the translators for Georgian and Mandarin Chinese as well.
Arabic and Hebrew are still not supported by the DBT editor. While the display may be improved, DBT is still not able to entirely figure out what is right-to-left, and what is left-to-right, so editing a line is absolutely not recommended until this issue is resolved.
Inspired by new braille entry devices, Duxbury Systems has made an effort to improve braille-to-print in almost every language. We welcome your suggestions on how we can further make progress in this area. The languages of India, plus Lao, Thai, Hebrew, Vietnamese, have been especially improved.
Language Details
National Flag(s) | Improvements Made |
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DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Amharic. | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Armenian translators have been improved. | |
DBT now supports the Bangladesh braille rules of Feb. 1996 (Bengali language). DBT also supports the SutonnyMJ font, widely used in Bangladesh for writing Bengali. |
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DBT now has a Chinese User Interface. | |
DBT's import of Chinese script into Pinyin has also been substantially improved. DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for Mandarin Chinese (into Pinyin Romanization, not into Chinese script). | |
DBT now supports the braille code of Taiwan through a supplemental download from Duxbury Systems. | |
DBT has a modest improvement in the Cantonese braille translator. | |
DBT now supports contracted Croatian print-to-braille and braille-to-print. | |
DBT now has a Czech a User Interface. | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print tables have also been improved. | |
DBT has made improvements for the English translators used in the US, the United Kingdom, and other nations. | |
The braille-to-print Dzongkha translator has been improved. | |
The print-to-braille Esperanto translator has been fixed (for the question mark). | |
The print-to-braille Ewe translator has been fixed. | |
The braille-to-print Farsi translator has been substantially improved. | |
The French translator has been improved, based on feedback from a user. | |
The German translator has been improved, based on feedback from a user. | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print translator for Greek has been substantially improved. | |
DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Hausa language. | |
DBT now has support for the Hawaiian Language in the following templates: English/Unified (UEB), English/American (Standard Literary), and English/American (Textbook)through the use of the language tag [lng~haw] |
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The braille-to-print translator for Hebrew has been substantially improved. | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print translator for Lao has been substantially improved. Third party software can improve the Lao braille output. | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Norwegian translators have been improved. | |
DBT now supports Montenegrin (supported the same as Serbian). | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Polish translators have been improved. | |
DBT now has improved the handling of punctuation in the Serbian translator. DBT now both the Cyrillic and the Roman alphabet in the braille-to-print translation | |
DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Somali language. | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Swedish translators have been improved. | |
DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Swahili language. | |
DBT now supports Tatar (a minority language in Russia). | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Thai translators have been improved.Third party software can improve the Thai braille output. | |
The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Tibetan translators have been improved. | |
DBT now supports contracted Turkish (and 4 levels of partial contraction) through a supplemental download from Duxbury Systems. | |
DBT now supports Udmurt (a minority language in Russia). | |
The print-to-braille Ukrainian translator now supports automatic hyphenation. | |
The braille-to-print translator for Urdu has been substantially improved. | |
The braille-to-print translator for Vietnamese has been substantially improved. | |
DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Yoruba language. |
d up to avoid “double translation”.
2. Swedish encoding of braille documents has been added. A new French encoding for braille documents, “French Chiffres”, has been added. The standard “French” braille encoding for braille documents has been modified to match updated standards; the older encoding is now called “French 6 points”. (These changes are in display.cpt.)
3. Revised French documentation, and revised French DBT and Word templates. These changes should affect only those who use adaptations to DBT developed at AVH for use in producing French braille.
4. Translation improvements have been made to the following tables:
a. English/American (literary)
b. English/American (textbook)
Both American tables have been updated to conform to new rules regarding partially-emphasized words, and for improved handling of Greek letters within English context. A new "variation" code has been added to permit entering fractions more conveniently using a simple slash, e.g. 1/2 for one-half, when appropriate (as in cookbooks).
c. Arabic
Additional Unicode characters are now supported, as well as the standard "Arabic" page.
d. Bulgarian
(Minor update only.)
e. Modern Greek
Additional Unicode characters, as well as the standard basic "Greek" page, are now supported. The Nemeth Code is now supported for mathematics
Corrections and improvements were made to the logic for inserting clarifying parentheses into algebraic fractions. The handling of mixed numbers imported from LaTeX documents was corrected. Other corrections affected the handling of certain apostrophe-letter endings in grade 1, embedded German, and other miscellaneous situations.
These tables were extensively updated to conform more closely to the latest transcriber rules for capitalization, shortform usage, lower-sign contraction usage, and other miscellaneous matters. A new pair of commands, [ucs] ... [uce], have been provided to allow manual control of capital passage extent when desired.
The treatment of apostrophe (') has been corrected in [cz;f] mode. Certain capital passage and double-sign issues have also been addressed.
i. Croatian
(Internal update only -- no functional change.)
j. Kazakh
Arabic script (as well as Cyrillic script) is now accepted as input.
k. Malay
The logic for contraction usage has been extensively updated.
l. Norwegian
The logic for contraction usage has been improved, and the treatment of comma within numbers corrected. Support for contracted English embedded within Norwegian has been removed, as such text is normally uncontracted.
m. Russian
Arabic script (as well as Cyrillic script) is now accepted as input.
n. Ukrainian
Arabic script (as well as Cyrillic script) is now accepted as input.
5. Improvements have been made for these embossers:
a. All supported Tiger models: DBT has been updated to meet the requirements of the latest drivers from ViewPlus. (However, we are not adding to DBT 10.7 SR1 support for any Tiger embosser models not supported by DBT 10.7.)
b. Tiger Pro Ink: ink placement has been corrected; ink placement, font choice and font size can also be adjusted, though this presently requires registry “tinkering”.
c. VersaPoint Duo: graphics support improved.
d. PED-30 plate embossers: more “handshaking” options have been added, and the inclusion of a blank “last side” when there are an odd number of sides to emboss has been suppressed, saving the operator loading a plate at the end of a job only to see it come through without any embossing.
e. Thiel Beta X-3: additional paper sizes are now supported.
f. A defect in interline print output on Gemini embossers has been corrected.
These changes are in dxemb.dll and emb.elt, which always “travel as a pair”. Additional changes in emb.elt are to support future development of “TranSend SE”. Because these have no functional effect for DBT 10.7 SR1, they do not merit mention in the documentation.
6. Internal improvements have been made to chitab.txt.
7. DBT’s Word importer will support use of the Math12 font.
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Updated BANA translation
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Updated BANA templates for DBT and Word, now include a Quotation style. Word Template (BANA Braille 2008)
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Updated French templates and fonts
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Updated French braille encoding (for display)
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Improved communications to PED-30
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Fixed ELEKUL 03 support
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Allow disabling of serial port initialization, which can improve compatibility with some serial ports.
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Fix to a rare crash when importing Word documents
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Fix to a rare lockup during search and replace
Direct imports of math in Word documents with MathType 5 or 6 installed
The importer supports importation of mathematical expressions created with either MathType or Equation Editor. It does *not* support math typed directly into the text. That will still come in as it always has.
The importer requires that either MathType 6 or MathType 5 be installed and activated. They can be installed anywhere.
Updated BANA translation
English/American: The BANA 2007 updates have been implemented (see http://www.brailleauthority.org/update07.html), notably including the two-cell slash, the use of the termination sign instead of hyphen to signal the end of the effect of the double capital sign, and other updated rules and added symbols. A control ("[big]") was added to provide for enlarged enclosure symbols in Nemeth Code.
Updated BAUK translation
A facility has been added to enable "locking" of the grade of translation, primarily to facilitate production of texts entirely in grade 1 despite the presence of [g2] in the text or within styles. See LOCK Grade 1 or 2 for more details.
Updated UEB (Unified English Braille) Translation
English/UEB: Transcription rule decisions of the UEB Committee through January 2008 have been implemented, including those affecting the treatment of shortform words and lower signs, and the extent of grade 1 word mode when initiated by a number. The braille-to-print UEB tables have been revised to construct appropriate print (.dxp) file encoding for most math structures and certain symbols, thereby replacing some of the "double-brace" notation typically used for indicators, etc. when translating from braille to print.
NEW Pharma EBU/EC translation and template -EBU Pharma
At the time of writing (March 2008) the European Braille Union (EBU) have been discussing a proposed common/standard Pharmaceutical Braille code with European Braille Authorities to be used exclusively on medicinal packaging throughout Europe. See https://www.pharmabraille.com/pharmaceutical-braille/introduction-to-pharmaceutical-braille for more details.
For more up to date information concerning the production of Pharma Braille labels, etc., you may wish to contact our U.K. distributor http://www.techno-vision.co.uk.
NEW Esperanto translation and template.
"Esperanto is a language, but not of any country or ethnic group: it is a neutral, international language." For more details about the Esperanto language please see http://www.esperanto.net
Details of DBT's new Esperanto table are described more fully here.Esperanto
Updated French translation
French/Unified: The print-to-braille tables have been updated to conform more closely to the new French mathematics code. The braille-to-print tables have been updated to include common computer and currency symbols.
Support added for Enabling Technologies new Romeo Pro 50LE
At the time of writing (March 2008) Enabling Technologies Inc were in the process of manufacturing a dedicated labelling embosser. Limited to 24 cells maximum width, the output is approximately 40% faster than a standard Romeo Pro.
DBT 10.7 includes additional form depths for this embosser from 0.5 inches to 4 inches in depth in increments of 0.25 of an inch.
What was New in DBT 10.6?
- Undo and Redo.
- Autosave.
- Change Case - accessible using Shift-F3.
- A Margin Bell can be enabled for braille entry.
- Enhanced JAWS scripts add support for braille document input and review.
- Templates included for every supported language.
- Enhanced Installation and activation process.
- Enhanced - Support for custom embosser definitions.
- Use DBT Codes in Word for Windows.
- New Word Template (BANA Braille 2006).
- DBT can now optionally read publishers' page numbers.
- New [linenum] code for line-numbered poetry or prose.
- Enhanced [folds] code supports more sophisticated fold lines.
- Customizable behavior of Alt-3 ("CBC"), CTRL-Enter ("New page"), and Enter.
- Vertical page centering.
- Enhanced - Braille-Build can build fonts with California spacing.Customizable for thermal paper, thermoform and other processes. Marburg spacing primarily for EU pharmaceutical artwork use.
- Graphics supported for the Romeo Attaché.
- A /template command line option allows desired template to be specified for imported files.
- NEW - /brf and /prf command line options make it possible to use DBT as a file-to-file translation tool.
- Text in HTML Help file topics now follows the settings in Internet Explorer's View: Text Size menu. They will also print a hard copy with appropriately select text size. Users with a wheel mouse can adjust the font size by focusing on any topic, hold down the Ctrl key, and scroll the mouse wheel to adjust the font size.
Updated Translations
The following language translation tables have been added or substantially updated:
- American English - The support for NLS' "Instruction Manual for Braille Transcribers" partially-contracted braille series has been revised to reflect the fourth edition.
- British English - The Fingerprint series has been added. Support for the new rules has been added.
- Croatian
- Farsi
- French (unified)
- German (contracted)
- Hausa
- Igbo
- Indonesian
- Irish Gaelic
- Kazakh
- Lithuanian
- Norwegian
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Somali
- Turkish
- Unified English (UEB)
- Welsh - Support for new rules Support for math and computer notation within Welsh.
- Yoruba
(Some of these have been included in service packs for DBT 10.5.)
Additional Interfaces
- Korean
- Polish
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Russian
- Documentation developed at AVH for French users is now included also.
Still More Improvements
- New BANA templates have been introduced. The Word template file is now called "BANA Braille 2006". When importing to DBT, two templates are available; one is specifically for Nemeth documents.
- Enhanced - WordPerfect imports.
- Enhanced - French template translation table settings.
- Enhanced - Operation of Workstations that Share an Activation.
- NEW Undo when typing over selected text.
- Enhanced - Redesigned and uniform Emboss and Print.
- NEW Hard spaces can now be entered when searching and replacing.
- Enhanced - PED plate maker support.
Installation:
Installation is now performed using the MSI (Microsoft Installer) interface, resulting in many improvements all round.
Many Settings are now retained for individual users rather than entire system.
Network installations now support licensing on systems running RAID or Mirrored drives.