ABC Amber CHM Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html Embossit Welcome The EmbossIT software is a product of Duxbury Systems that allows you to emboss Braille Formatted Files to your braille embosser. What is a Braille Formatted File? A Braille Formatted File is a file containing characters designed to be sent to an embosser. A Braille Formatted File may be prepared by a program such as: Duxbury DBT MegaDots Microbraille ED-IT PC Pokadots These files may also be distributed as a web braille files. One frustration is that braille formatted files are not standardized. Some have spaces in them as a left margin. Some use form feeds (the control character that means end of a page), some do not. Various processing may change the end of line characters. These and other variations can be a problem for someone who just wants to produce braille. Embossit is carefully designed to work with these and other variations in file layout based on the broad experience of Duxbury Systems with many aspects of how braille is produced using computers. Another frustration about braille formatted files is that they are fixed in layout. They are not intented to be modified. If you have a file formatted for 41 characters across, there is no way to emboss that file with an embosser that can only produce 40 cells across. When you select a file, Embossit figures out what the page dimensions are. Embossit does not allow you to emboss a file that cannot be produced with the selected embosser configuration. To make braille formatted files work for Embossit, some file modifications may be necessary. We have found that quite a few files available from the Library of Congress web site are formatted to work directly on a PED plate embosser. These files use a left margin of 2 spaces after each carriage return, but only a left margin of 1 space after each form feed. If you do not modify these files, lines 2-25 will have an extra space at the beginning of each line (and Embossit reports a left margin of 1). The solution is to use a global replace program to change every use of a form feed character with a form feed and a space. When you do that, Embossit will report a left margin of 2, and every line gets embossed as the original transcriber intended. Some files from Bookshare insert the user's name in the file. The line with the name (usually around page 6) is quite long, usually around 60-70 characters long. Use a text editor to insert a single carriage return Page 1 ABC Amber CHM Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html to break the long line in two. Unmodified files are rejected by Embossit for having such a long line. The Pokadot program produces files with no form feeds. Pokadot files are formatted for 25 lines of braille on a page. If Embossit encounters a file with no form feeds, it treats it as having 25 lines per page. If you have a file with no form feeds but formatted for a different number of lines per page, you need to insert form feed characters so Embossit knows how many lines are on a page. This could be done manually or with a simple computer program. How do I tell Embossit to Select a File? Click on the Browse Button to Select a file. Use the standard Windows interface to select a file. How do I tell Embossit to Emboss several files at once? You cannot. You need to do them one at a time. What are Embosser Configurations? Embosser Configurations are simple descriptions of how to emboss. You can have many configurations at once. The configuration that is highlighed is the one that is currently used. Press New to create a new configuration, Press Edit to make a change to a configuration. Press Remove to delete a configuration. Click Here for information on understanding the prompts when you create or edit an embosser configuration. Tell Me How to Run Embossit Use Browse to select a Braille Formatted File. If the file you have specified is a braille formatted file, Embossit loads it into memory. There may be a few second delay.Salsa is a program to turn your braille lessons into interactive braille lessons for SAL. Salsa reads braille files created by many popular braille translators and editors, including our own DBT and MegaDots programs, as well as other programs such as Braille 2000, PokaDot, and others. Use Details to learn details about the file. Highlight the Embosser Configuration you want. Turn on your embosser and make sure it has the paper loaded. Click on the Embossit button to start embossing. The button changes labels during the time that the program is sending data to the embosser. If the label does not quickly return to Embossit, it means that your embosser is not correctly receiving data from the software. This could be an issue as simple as a cable that is not connected or a more complex problem. Be aware that just because Duxbury Systems is providing Embossit for free that you have access to our technical support staff. Please use all the information here to assist you to deal with any problems. Page 2 ABC Amber CHM Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html Duxbury Embosser Module Welcome The Duxbury Embosser Module is a unique resource that greatly simplifies the issues of sending braille text to an embosser. Right now, the Duxbury Embosser Module is used in DBT 10.6, Embossit, and Salsa. Duxbury Systems anticipates that it will be used in many other products. As we will see, the embosser configurations created for one Duxbury Embosser Module application works for all the others. Menu of Choices DBT 10.6 Embossit Creating and Editing Embosser Configurations Embosser Issues Duxbury Systems, Inc. 270 Littleton Road, Unit 6 Westford, MA 01886 USA +1-978-692-3000 voice, +1-978-692-7912 fax [email protected] or [email protected] For more information about DBT 10.6, click here. Page 3 ABC Amber CHM Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html Creating or Editing a Configuration The Embosser Configurations have three panes: General, Device Settings, and Advanced. Most users just specify the basic facts of their embosser in the General pane, then check the Device Settings pane to verify the settings. It is quite rare for any need to deal with the Advanced pane except if recommended by technical support. Menu of Choices General pane Device Settings pane Advanced pane Page 4 ABC Amber CHM Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html General Tab When you select "New" from the Embosser Setup dialog, you will be presented with the following dialog. This is a tri-pane" dialog containing three tabs. "General", "Device Settings" and "Advanced". Embosser Model: This is a drop-down list containing an alphabetic list of all supported makes and models of braille embosser. Note however that Generic embossers are at the top of the list. If your embosser is not listed, then select Generic if your embosser embosses on just one side of the page, or Generic Interpoint if it embosses on both sides of the page. Setup Name: You may leave this field blank, in which case, The Duxbury Embossing Module will simply use the name of the embosser you selected above. However, you may type in a free-format name of your own choice. Default Form: This is a selection list containing a range of forms suitable for your selected embosser. Your choice here determines the maximum characters per line and lines per page made available. Output Options - here you have one choice out of 3 Radio Buttons 1. Send to Printer: If you have installed your braille embosser as a Windows Device, or to use Windows drivers, you should normally find it listed here. (You can use this option only if your braille embosser shows up among the printers in Windows' Printers Control Panel.) 2. Write to Port: If your embosser is not listed above, you may select a Parallel Port or Serial Port from the list box. 3. Write to File: There are occasions when you may wish to braille embossing output direct to a Page 5 ABC Amber CHM Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html file. Normally you should leave this field blank, in which case you will be prompted for a file name each time you emboss using this Brailler Device. Otherwise you may enter a path and file name as appropriate. You should also be aware that if you specify a file name, the file will be overwritten without prompting, therefore you should only specify a file name in exceptional circumstances. Serial: This section will be grayed out unless you have selected a Serial (com#) device. Enter the parameters for Baud Rate, Parity, Data Bits and Stop Bits and Handshaking as required. If you are using a Serial Device, please consult you manual or supplier for appropriate details. Page 6 ABC Amber CHM Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html Device Settings When you select Device Settings from the Tri-pane window, the dialog may not appear as shown in the example below. There is a simple explanation for this. What appears is entirely dependent on which Brailler Device you have selected in the General tab. Use the controls in this panel to tell the Duxbury Embossing Module how you have configured your embosser. If you have a new embosser, and have not changed your embosser from it's factory default settings, you should not need to change anything here either.