File export is just the opposite of File Import. File Export means taking a MegaDots document and storing its contents in a form that other software can read. MegaDots normally saves documents on disk in a special format that only MegaDots understands. Exporting a MegaDots document means writing a document to disk in such a way that another word processor can read it. Perhaps you have a MegaDots document that you or someone else needs to use in another program, such as Microsoft Word. MegaDots can export to over 100 different file formats, so whatever your requirements, MegaDots can accommodate.
Warning: Unless you know what you are doing, set MegaDots to WYSIWYG mode before you export a file. Failure to do this will result in extra material (called markup) showing up in the exported file. Type Control-Z M N to put MegaDots in WYSIWYG mode. If, however, you want to export a file in order to manipulate it on another system with the eventual goal of reimporting it back into MegaDots, then exporting with markup is a good idea.
You can export files from MegaDots to other systems very easily. Just press Control-F4 to export a file. First MegaDots wants to know the name of the file you are creating, and then MegaDots needs to know what kind of file you want. You are presented with a list of file types.
MegaDots offers as the default the file type that was used to create the MegaDots document. In other words, if you imported a file from WordPerfect into MegaDots, then when you export, MegaDots remembers that and offers WordPerfect as the default. Of course, you can select any file type you want.
If you want to export a braille file for use with PokaDot or Microbraille, see Chapter 10 on printing.
You can include any MegaDots formatting or status
information that you want in a word processor file you intend to import
into MegaDots. This eliminates the usual guesswork of the MegaDots file
importer. If you start your paragraph with
#[style=Body text"]# then MegaDots puts that paragraph in
the Body text style. You can do that with any style. The markup has to
start with #[ (number sign, open bracket) and end with
]# (close bracket,
You can mark up a file to be imported with things other than style names. To get a vocabulary of markup sequences, view a document with visible markup set at Format markup. Press Control-Z M F to set Markup view to format markup.
When you export a file with markup visible, then the exported file contains MegaDots markup. When you reimport the file back into MegaDots, the original markup is retained. This allows you to modify the file with other software and still retain all the MegaDots-specific information. Of course, only MegaDots will be able to correctly interpret these explicit MegaDots formatting commands. See Supplement 3 for additional information.