HELP FOR TRANSLATORS

Thank you for your interest in translating books into braille for the International Electronic Braille Book Library. Please read the following information, and feel free to contact us with any questions.

What is needed

What You Will Need In Order To Make High-Quality Braille Translations

ù Excellent knowledge of braille and braille formatting

ù Braille translation software (MegaDots, Duxbury, NFBtrans, Turbo-Braille, etc), or a braille note-taker with translation software (many people use a Blazie note-taker like a Braille Lite along with Quick Braille)

ù Thorough knowledge of how to operate the translation software, including the word processing features

ù Archiving software (such as WinZip or PkZip) and knowledge of how to use it.

- If you use A Braille notetaker such as the Blazie products you can perchase an archiving programme called Book-em from Blazie Engineering for this perpose. This programme was designed specifically to be used in the Blazie line of Braille notetaking devices.

(Note: If using a braille note-taker, you'll also need a disk drive for transferring files).)

Overview of the Braille Translation process:

(See the following sections for more details on the steps in this process).

Check to be sure the book you wish to translate has not already been posted to the International Electronic Braille Book Library. <http://www.braille.org/braille_books/index.html>

Obtain an electronic copy of a book.

Prepare the file for translation (proofreading and correcting)

Divide the book into sections (in some situations, the book can be divided up after translation)

Translate the files (Many people using note-takers translate the file first before making corrections. People using PC-based translation software often do most or all of the work before translating. In most software, translating can be as simple as a keystroke. )

Print the translated volumes and chapters of the book to braille files (See below for how to accomplish this using various braille translation software packages).

Rename the files (This step is often necessary in order to ensure that the filenames are in all lowercase letters).

Create an archive of the files

Send the archives to Peter Donahue

Obtaining a book

Many books are available from various sites on the internet. You can also scan a book. Before you begin work on a book, it's a good idea to check with Peter Donahue at the above address to be sure the book isn't already in progress or in the depository.

Many types of books are welcome, especially historical documents, great works of literature, newsletters, and any work from a public domain site. In addition you may want to scan a printed text that is not in the public domain for translation, or you can supply us with a copy of a favorite book you would like to see added to the library. Contact Peter Donahue with any questions.

Proofreading The Book

Our goal is to build a collection of high-quality braille translations of a variety of works. Although braille translation software provides a number of advantages over manual transcription, no software can guarantee perfectly formatted and translated braille without some human intervention. It is vital that you proofread your files thoroughly - not only to correct errors in text, but also to ensure proper braille formatting - before submitting them to the International Electronic Braille Book Library. Proofreading is the most time-consuming part of this process, but we cannot stress enough how important it is for raising the quality of the books in the depository. We strongly urge that if at all possible, you check the copy by either embossing it on paper or by using a braille display. Sometimes, as in the case of scanned files, it may be necessary to check your work against a print copy of the text.

Following are JUST A FEW of the things you should make sure of as a part of proofreading the file. This is not a complete list, so check your file thoroughly.

Chapter headings etc, are appropriately centered and spaced; all paragraphs in the main body are formatted appropriately.

All dashes and hyphens are spaced correctly.

Any type of variations within the main body (poetry, song, letter) are formatted appropriately. One way to pick out such variations fairly quickly is to search the file for tabs or for three or more consecutive spaces; these are often indicators of some kind of format variation in the print.

Any e-mail addresses and web addresses in the document are in Computer Braille Code (CBC).

Non-English passages are in italics and grade 1.

Any print page headers or print page numbers are removed.

Quotation marks are correct. (in print versions of many British books, outer quotes are represented with single quotes instead of double quotes; Outer quotation marks must be double quotes for correct brailling. Some translation packages provide a very convenient method of reversing quotation marks).

There are no extraneous paragraph breaks (in the middle of sentences, for example).

Appropriate accent marks are in place. Search for and, if necessary, correct words that should contain accented letters (resume, tete-a-tete, protege, etc).

Dividing the book

After all correction is done, create a separate file for each section of the book. Depending on the type of software you used, you may divide the book up before or after translating. Dividing the book involves cutting and pasting each section of the book into a new file and then giving the new file a name that indicates what section is in the file. See the documentation for your particular program to learn about cutting and pasting.

Make two versions of the book - one divided into volumes (may be one volume if the book is short), and one divided into chapters/parts. If a book is a collection of short stories, divide it by story. Also, make separate files for the contents and the title page. It's a big help if you can also include an ASCII version of the contents page so it can be used to create the access page for the web site.

Occasionally a book does not lend itself easily to division; if you are unsure about how a particular book should be split up, contact Peter Donahue <pdonahue@texas.net>.

Making Braille-Formatted Files

This section explains how to create a formatted grade 2 braille file that is usable both by embossers and braille displays. Although we describe the process for users of MegaDots, Duxbury for Windows, and the Blazie note-takers, braille formatted files can be created using other translation software as well.

Note that this process must be done for EACH PART of the book. Be careful to make sure that all parts of the book are translated.

ù MegaDots: Be aware that in MegaDots, it does not work to simply translate the file and then save it; you must print" the document to another file as follows:

Before you translate the file, turn off page numbering by choosing the "Nonums" style for this document. After all proofreading and correcting are finished, translate the file. Then bring up the "Braille A Document" screen by pressing f7; this screen presents a number of options you can change. Make sure that the line length is set at 40 cells and the page length is 25 lines. At the prompt which says "Name of File/Port," replace the port name with the name of the file you wish to create (example: bookvol1.brf). Then press f10 to print the braille document into the new file. You now have a file with a .brf extension containing part of the book in formatted grade 2 braille.

Note: Unfortunately, MegaDots capitalizes the first letter of any filenames it creates, so you'll need to exit MegaDots and rename the file so that the name is in all lowercase letters.

ù Duxbury For Windows: Before creating a braille-formatted file, make sure that your default embosser settings are set to 40 cells per line and 25 lines per page. Also turn off page numbering (select page numbering from the Document menu and check the Off boxes for even and odd pages. After all proofreading and correcting are finished and the file is translated, choose "save as" from the file menu. Type in the name you wish to give the file (without typing the .brf extension). Under "Save as type", choose formatted braille. Save the file. You now have a file with a .brf extension containing part of the book in formatted braille.

Blazie note-takers:

In order to be sure that people who do not have note-takers may emboss your files if they wish, you should set up parameters for braille page formatting (40-cell line, 25-line page) before saving your files to disk. Users of Blazie note-takers should consult section 4.9 of the Braille 'n Speak manual or section 4.10 of the Braille Lite manual for a discussion of how to set brailling parameters in the status menu or formatting command strings in your file.

When the parameters are set, your files are translated and corrected, and your disk drive is hooked up to your note-taker, you are ready to create the braille-formatted file.

From anywhere in the file, press an S-chord, then write b. At the "Enter Filename," write the name of your file (with the .brf extension. Press an e-chord, and the file will be transferred to the disk. Copy the file from the floppy disk to the PC. Note: Unfortunately, the Blazie note-takers capitalize the first letter of any filenames they create - even if you entered the filename without capitalization. You'll need to rename the file on the PC so that the name is in all lowercase letters).

Renaming Files

All files and archives submitted for posting to the International Electronic Braille Book Library must have names containing only lowercase letters. Some software, like MegaDots and Blazie note-takers, capitalize the first letter of every file they generate - even if you entered the name in all lowercase letters. Therefore, it is important to rename such files before submitting them. If you are using a note-taker, rename the file AFTER uploading it to a PC. Renaming should be the very last change you make to a file before archiving it. All archive names must be in lowercase as well.

- Finally it is also requested that you not use silent charracters in your file names. While this is not a problem for Braille users it can cause difficulty for speech users as the synthesizer may not always pronounce all charracters in a file name. For example a file for the book: litmgirl.brf for The Little Match Girl the M may not get pronounced by the synthesizer. This can cause eror messages to be generated if one of the charracters in a file name are pronounce so that the person creating the hyper links will make the proper file association using the corect file name and it can slow down the process of uploading books to the server and makes for unnecessary debugging. Please make every effort to ensure that you use file names in which all charracters get pronounced in some fashion. Even if the speech synthesizer makes a little squeek at least it is letting us know of the presence of a charracter in a file name and we can then examine it closer to ensure that we are using the corect file name when linking pages.

Archiving and Sending Files

Zip the files using archiving software before sending them.

Send two zip files for each book. One zip file should contain all the chapter or story files of the book plus the title and contents pages. The other zip file should consist of the volume files.

If the author of the book has divided it into sections such as Part One or Part Two, it is helpful if you create separate zip files for each part, then zip together these zip files to make one archive.

Archives should be submitted as an attachment to an e-mail or on a diskette via U.S. mail. Please do not UUencode files; if sending as an attachment to the e-mail is a problem, then send a disk with the files to: peter Donahue, 100 Lorenz Road Apt. 1205, San Antonio, Texas 78209

A Few Reminders ...

25 line page, 40 cell line

no page numbering

Remove any long promotional headers from books obtained from public domain sites and include a simple heading telling the name and URL of the site from which the ASCII text was obtained.

All file names must be in all lowercase letters. Files generated by a Blazie note-taker or by MegaDots contain a capitalized first letter even if you entered the name in lowercase; rename such files before submitting them.

Create a separate file for the title page and the table of contents.

Include an ASCII version of the contents page.

Filenames may contain up to eight characters plus the .brf extension.

Chapter files should be named <chapxx.brf> (example: chap07.brf, chap15.brf)

Volume files should be called volx.brf (example: vol1.brf)

If the author has divided the book into multiple parts, and if the chapter numbering for each part begins with chapter one, then use the following example to help you assign names to the files: Part I Chapter One is named <p1chap1.brf>; Part II Chapter One is named <p2chap1.brf>.

Zip the files using archiving software before sending them.

Archives should be submitted as an attachment to an e-mail or on a diskette via U.S. mail. Do not UUencode files or paste them into e-mail messages.

- If you have any questions please contact Peter Donahue, Webmaster and Project Coordinator at the address listed above or use the Send-mail link given below:

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