Special Tabs

Also known as:

What you need to know first:

(See also: Absolute Tab)

Code Used: [lps] [taaN] [lpr]

Keystroke: (None at present)

What does it do?

It unconditionally tabs text to a specific tab position.

Where would it be used?

Suppose that we want to have a means of highlighting where every occurrence of a specific word appears in text in a very large document. In print, you might make that word bold, italic, underlined, a larger font size, or even all four. Easy for a sighted person to pick out at a glance.

We can emphasise the word in braille, but the braille reader would usually have to plough through the text of the whole document.

Alternatively, you might put a character, like an asterisk perhaps, in the right margin, and this is precisely what DBT's approach is. The braille reader can then quickly skim down the right hand side of the page, and locate the line a word appears on.

The example shows two methods of achieving much the same thing.

Usage in DBT:

[rm6]When you start to look more closely at how all the many Duxbury [lps][taa27]dxb[lpr] Codes work, they can sometimes be tricky to understand unless you have a good example.

When you start to look more closely at how all the many Duxbury
[lps][fr]
fr[lpr]Codes work, they can sometimes be tricky to understand unless you have a good example.

Produces in Braille:

,:5 y />t 6look m

closely at h[ all ! _m

,duxbury ,codes "w1 !y c   taa

"s"ts 2 tricky 6"u/&

un.s y h a gd example4

,:5 y />t 6look m           

closely at h[ all ! _m

,duxbury ,codes "w1 !y c    fr

"s"ts 2 tricky 6"u/&

un.s y h a gd example4

Let us explain!

The [lps] code effectively says "Store this line position while I do something". The [taa27] says, "Put the text that follows over to begin in cell 27". Finally the [lpr] code says go back to the line position you remembered and continue.

For the more technical: