Tell me moreIf you click on these buttons, you will be (hopefully) taken to additional explanation.We strongly suggest you read this section at least once, all the way through!
"The DBT Help files must be accessible to all users." This may sound simple, but when that includes adaptive technology users with speech synthesizers and Braille displays, it becomes a real challenge.
We have tried to make these files as user friendly and accessible as possible, but if we have failed in some areas, please drop us a line and let us know. We will do our best to improve matters. (See the Getting Help section for contact details.)
In the meantime, please acquaint yourself with some of the conventions used throughout these files, which we hope will help to make reading and understanding a little easier.
Thank you.
To avoid possible confusion with other Duxbury Products, we refer to the Duxbury Braille Translation program as "DBT" (Duxbury Braille Translator). Any references to "Duxbury" refer to the company, Duxbury Systems Inc., as a whole.
You may notice a button at the top of the help screens called "Emboss". All being well, this button allows you to output the Topic you are focused on to your braille embosser. You may notice some extraneous text in the output which is caused by non-standard HTML codes. If you notice any problems like this, we would be most grateful if you could advise us at the e-mail address at the end of this page.
Unfortunately it is not possible to produce a version of these Help files where the many illustrations are guaranteed to look exactly as they do on your own computer. For these screen images, we have mostly used DBT Version 11.3 on Windows and DBT12.1 on the Macintosh. It is therefore possible that you may notice small differences in the appearance of these examples when compared to your own system.
Throughout DBT, use is made of the standard dialogs that you also find in many other applications on your computer system, such as Microsoft Office or your email program. Therefore, if you are already familiar with tasks such as opening, closing, and saving files, you will find these processes are the same in DBT - albeit there may be some slight differences which we will explain where appropriate.
Throughout these Help files you will come across terms that may be unfamiliar to you, such as "Radio Button", "Combo Box", "List Box", etc.. You will find the Glossary section useful because it includes many official Microsoft definitions.
Important Note:
Differences may also occur as a result of user customization. For example, you may have altered your Open File dialog to show File Details such as size and date, instead of icons.
Sighted users should also refer to the Setting Up Your Screen Topic, which follows this one.
Although many DBT users may be new to Windows, it is unfortunately not our purpose here to explain the use of the Windows Operating System or other non-DBT application software which usually contain their own Help system(s).
(Screen reader users may wish to alter some of their speech and/or braille display settings accordingly.)
Normal text which you type into DBT, is displayed using the Courier New Font, which is black in color. This sentence is what such text looks like. (This, incidentally, is the default screen font used in DBT which you can change if you wish in View: Print Font.)
DBT Codes are also displayed in the Courier Font, but are shown in red and surrounded by square brackets. For example, the code, [hds] is used at the start of a centered heading.
You may also see some codes such as [hds] above, which are hyperlinks and appear blue and underlined like [hds]. These appear mainly in the DBT Codes Quick Reference section where Codes may make reference to other codes elsewhere in the document.
Where braille is displayed, we have used DBT's, own Simbraille Font. This Font displays Braille dots which would appear when embossed, and also displays "shadow dots" which will help less experienced, sighted readers identify which dots are being embossed. For example:
,? is a translat$ l9e ( brl4
(Which says, "This is a translated line of braille.")
Keystrokes are displayed using a bold Arial font, e.g., a b c 1 2 3 F8 Alt Ctrl
Standard abbreviations are used where applicable, e.g., Ctrl for Control.
Where two keys are shown in combination, such as Alt + F3, normally the first key should be held down, whilst tapping the second key.
Links to other topics, web sites, or e-mail addresses are conventionally shown in a blue underlined font. Screen reader users normally hear something like "Link", or "Link to" spoken for these, for example:
In some places, particularly the Codes Quick Reference, you may see buttons labeled "Tell me more" - Tell me moreIf you click on these buttons, you will be (hopefully) taken to additional explanation.
As you progress through DBT's menus, you may notice that some items are "grayed out" and inactive. There is logic behind this. For example, unless you have a file open in DBT, the Edit menu is not available. This is a common feature in many computer applications.
Although the term "braille printer" is commonly used, within these Help files we refer to this output device as an "embosser". When mention is made of the word "printer" it refers to an ink printer. (You will note that the File menu in DBT refers to "Print" and "Emboss" as two separate functions.)
Note: Within the Help system, the Search function follows much the same rules as searching in a modern web browser. If you type a single word, it normally finds all topics containing that word. For example if you typed the word font, it would find many topics containing that word. However, if you type braille font, do not be surprised to find even more topics, as this search would find all occurrences of the word braille or the word font. To narrow the search, type the expression inside double quotes, i.e., "braille font". This search only finds topics where the words, "braille font" appear together as you have typed them.
This nag may seem out of place, but it never hurts to be reminded that a virus can destroy hours of hard work. Many DBT users receive files from outside sources for conversion to Braille, which opens up the potential for receiving viruses transmitted with the file or media. In addition to having a virus checker, we recommend you keep up to date with the latest virus definition files from your anti-malware vendor.
If we have not got it right, please tell us. Click here for our contact details.
Thank you again.