I’ve been saying for awhile now that percent codes and a word processor like Microsoft Word or Google Docs can help the blind person in putting together a very nice braille file.
During the transcription course which is run by the NFB we learn various types of formatting.
Right now, I’m working on assignment 18 which covers lists, outlines, menus, and poetry just to name a few. Poetry and outline work are very interesting to say the least, and with the aid of Braille2000, you can take a section you’ve done, and check it to make sure it is relevant.
For example, you can use the percent codes to be able to write paragraph formatting, list formatting, transcribers notes, cell positioning based on other formatting rules that take content to several cells after the previous line, and more.
During the current assignment, I’m learning how to do paragraph styles in conjunction with list and poetry work.
In Braille2000’s mode, you can change the paragraphing style through adjust, paragraph. New paragraphs can be set to anything you need, or changed afterword just by putting your cursor to the first line of the paragraph and making it whatever you want, such as a list format, centered heading, or a sub-heading which is indent 5 runover 5.
Using the talking edition of Braille2000 in conjunction with Jaws or NVDA reading menus works well. If you want to review the document and you use NVDA, the talking edition can tell you everything you need to know. This is because the NVDA screen reader doesn’t read the window, but B2K’s talking edition can act as your screen reader by reading the document, formatting information, and a whole lot more.
With the way that assignment 18 is designed, Jaws will tell you when the page is broken, and it can also tell you page numbering and the like. The read to end doesn’t tell you about page changes, but it can tell you about where you are through quick commands and even through the menus.
I believe this is the first piece of technology that can truly help a blind person format their braille document, if thats what they need to do. This can be used for pleasure, or for full-time work.
This is how this would look using a file I used for myself.
%pbl %pn=1
Sophia Marie
bad ass bass with soaring femme fatale vocals
Tagged as:
%list
Alt Rock,
Electro Rock,
Hard Rock,
Pop,
Rock,
Grungy Rock,
Woman Singing Electro Pop.
%indent
A few years ago Sophia Marie aka Wicked Wench was an obese single mother living on welfare in California. With a history of drugs and promiscuity, her
future did not look bright.
The early death of her mother in 2004 from obesity complications could have added to Sophia’s problems, but instead she used the event as a wake up call
and decided to change her life.
Today, Sophia Marie is 50kg (110lbs) lighter and setting her new home of Sydney Australia on fire with her ballsy hard rock music.
Sophia Marie grew up in a musical family, playing flute and piccolo in school bands. She switched to playing bass guitar when her dentist made her wear
braces but soon gave that up too when a jealous boyfriend objected. It was over a decade later before she picked up the bass again.
Completely self taught on the bass, once Sophia picked up the instrument again she found herself making up her own riffs and soon after, adding melodies
and lyrics to her compositions. She then recruited a band, started performing gigs and a new rock star was born. Her new partner was so impressed by the
quality of Sophia’s music that he decided to sell his house and invest the money into making Sophia’s debut album!
Sophia Marie’s debut album “Twisted” pulls no punches. Describing herself as a cross between Madonna and Metallica, Sophia seamlessly blends soft and hard
into an exotic mix of musical emotion. Unashamedly sexual in nature Sophia says she sees the hard rock music as a male stimulant to her powerful, soaring
vocals, which she says, are a natural female reaction to good loving done right!
%tnl Sophia’s music video for Voodoo from her album “Twisted” %tnr
%pn=2
…
There are several aspects of this segment that I used for this illustration.
- %pbl will preserve blank lines
- %pn=1 tells the program to insert a print page number in text format
- %list tells the system to use a standard list format cell 1 runover 3
- %indent tells the system to use cell 3 runover 1 paragraphing
- %pn=2 tells the system to give me the next page as numbered
- %tnl and %tnr left and right specific transcriber note symbols
Afterword, we got next page %np to work which increments the page numbering automatically. The lesson will cover textbook format when we get to lesson 19.
There are plenty of percent codes that can be used, but as you can see, we’ve got a lot to work with and I had a braille file I can use on my note taker as a BRF, or even have it as a hardcopy.
B2k’s talking edition through the speak menu could verify to me what it was looking like so I can verify if thats how I wanted it.
Does this sound intriguing? Please give Braille2000 a shot. Its free to try, and I’m hoping my insight in to how I’m working on assignment 18 and a sample of something personal will inspire you in to trying this very powerful software.
The Braille Transcribing as a blind person web site has audio in regards to how I took the early lessons and the difficulties so you can hear both. In future audio, I’ll demo percent codes, how they can be used, and more.
Have questions? Bob and I are phone calls away. Send email or call anytime. Thanks for reading!