CTEBVI 2016
Session 202: DBT 11.3
In this presentation, we'll be looking at four pieces of software, running within Windows 10:
•Microsoft Word 2010,
•SWIFT 4.0,
•The BANA Braille 2015 template for Word,
•DBT 11.3 SR1.
The precise versions of Windows and Word (Office) are not particularly important, thought Word 2007 or newer are strongly recommended.
The versions of SWIFT, BANA Braille, and DBT are quite important. These three are designed to work together. SWIFT 4.0, in particular, absolutely requires DBT 11.3 SR1.
The point of this presentation is to help those of you who use DBT for transcription and who have access to an installation of Word, to get your work done quickly.
The Goal: Publication-Quality Braille
- Start with a clean copy;
- Focus on the source document markup:
⁃teach DBT about the markup *or*
⁃revise the markup to match DBT's expectations;
- Revise the markup in DBT;
- Revise the transcription in DBT;
- Redo the transcription as direct braille.
This session focuses principally on step 2, specifically the second alternative. We will use Word as a powerful editor, with many front-ends, and add-ons, but not as a producer of "great-looking documents". We only want "DBT-ready" documents.
All of our editing will be in Word. In practice, some revisions in DBT are going to be necessary, but it is best to "stick it out" in Word for a time to get all possible markup done in the Word file. Revisions closer to the original source, i.e. in the Word file, are easier to maintain when revisions *to* the original source are made.
Word
Word front-ends include:
•Importers/converters within Word
•Importers/converters in other text editors
•Third-party importers/converters
•Scanning software
Word add-ins include:
•MathType
•Save as DAISY
•SWIFT
BANA Braille 2015
This template comes with DBT. Generally, you would install and run DBT to make it available for use in Word.
The template should be attached to documents that you intend for transcription of braille. It defines:
•Styles, with hotkeys for the most frequently-applied;
•Autotext Entries for frequently-inserted text, including:
⁃boilerplate page headers,
⁃transcription symbols not always automated otherwise
⁃DBT codes, and
⁃blends of the above; and
•Toolbars for applying Styles and inserting Autotext Entries.
SWIFT
SWIFT is an add-in for Word that makes it easy to work with BANA Braille 2015 and DBT.
The ribbon interface in SWIFT provides a slightly more organized approach to operation of BANA Braille 2015 functionalities than do the original toolbars.
SWIFT is free. Download it from
While SWIFT is not necessary to use Word with BANA Braille 2015 and DBT, we will use it because it makes the process far simpler, allowing us to focus on the nitty-gritty of getting the document markup right.
DBT
DBT can import documents from Word. Most of the import is based upon markup and not appearance. Exceptions are:
•Courier fonts
•Braille fonts
•Skipped lines
•Page breaks
•URLs
•Centering
•Emphasis
Proper use of the template involves first disabling optional appearance-based DBT importing, then marking up the document in a way that will create a DBT document ready for transcription. It will not generally leave the document looking proper in a printout. Your document will look somewhat like one formatted by braille rules and may contain DBT-specific markup. If the original print form is also of interest, keep a copy after you've finished cleaning up scanner/importer errors and after you've finished regularizing the style markup, but before proceeding to add any DBT-specific markup.
DBT has two dialogs accessible through the Global menu which affect imports of Word documents. We set the Word Importer dialog this way:
image001.png ¬
An image shows a dialog box screen capture with the title "Global: Word Importer...". A "Transcribe Courier to CBC" check box is unchecked. A "Preserve hard page breaks" check box is unchecked. a "Preserve Skipped Lines" check box is checked. A "Print Page Breaks" combo box has the value "Ignore". A "Treat braille and simbraille fonts as braille" check box is unchecked. Finally, of four check boxes within a group labelled "Ignore", "bold", "italics", and "underline" are unchecked while "language switches" is checked. There are OK and Cancel buttons at the bottom of the dialog.
And we set the Import Options dialog this way:
image002.png ¬
An image shows a dialog box screen capture with the title "Global: Import Options…". An "Import from Hyperlinks" combo box has the value "Both Text and URLs". A "Remove duplicates" check box is checked. Within a group labelled "Hyperlink Sample 1" are two lines of text. The first is Original HTML: <a href=" site</a>. The second line is Imported as: our site ( Within a group labelled "Hyperlink Sample 2" are two more lines of text. The first is Original HTML: <a href=" The second is Imported as: An "Auto-Tag URLs as Computer Notation" check box is unchecked. An "Add spaces around math signs of comparison" check box is unchecked. A "Remove spaces surrounding dashes" check box is unchecked. An "Unknown characters" combo box has the value "Output Unicode value" Finally, within a group labelled "Default language for Han (Chinese) script", a "Mandarin" radio button is selected, while "Cantonese (Yue)", "Japanese", and "Korean" radio buttons are unchecked. There are OK and Cancel buttons at the bottom of the dialog.
Workshop Structure
To illustrate use of SWIFT, I've put together three brief examples, each of which illustrates a different important point. None of the examples is a full textbook.
Example documents can be found online at The download package contains the Word files as marked up using BANA Braille 2015.
Example 1: Simple Markup
Example1.docx shows a fairly simple Table of Contents. Markup is principally done using application of Paragraph styles within the Word document, but some use of Character styles is important also, to be sure that DBT will not contract foreign language material.
Example 2: Table Manipulations
Example2.docx shows a table that has been divided to allow the transcription to fit across a forty cell page in braille. Manipulation of tabular material is much easier in Word than in DBT. As with Example 1, there are foreign words, so we have used Word to apply a Character style to contents of a column, which cannot be done directly within DBT.
Example 3: More Complex Markup
Example3.docx is intended to show you what to do for a few special cases:
•Markup of bullets where distinction between primary and secondary is important,
•Simple inline mathematics, and
•Text that is emphasized and special in some other way, e.g. foreign language.
The third special case illustrates one way that BANA Braille 2015 helps to make up for a limitation of Word: application of more than one Character style to a piece of text is not possible. When you are not sure how to mark up such case, use of SWIFT's feature to transcribe a selection can be helpful.
Known Issues
If there is time in the session, we'll cover some problems with DBT"s Word document importer:
•DBT has trouble with AltText has trouble in .doc files; big trouble in .docx. Direct text should be used for Transcriber Notes.
•The .doc importer is difficult to maintain and may begin falling functionally behind the .docx importer
•DBT will count levels within certain Aggregated Styles, but can be confused by centered headings within the aggregation.
•RTF files are still not compatible with DBT.
(If we run out of time, just drop by the booth or contact me for a fuller explanation.)