What was New in Previous Versions?

The following is a basic summary of additions or changes to earlier versions of DBT.

A detailed change history is available on the Internet at http://www.duxburysystems.com.

DBT 12.2 SR1

Template Improvements

• The BANA Template for Word, "2017.dot" has new features since its initial release, for example, the Line Continuation Indicator for controlling line breaks on long text, and many new controls for Nemeth math in UEB (& EBAE). This template synchronizes with SWIFT 5.2, also now available.

• The "English (UEB) - UK Formatting (UKAAF)" template is updated with new styles, and streamlined, with rarely used styles hidden and unused styles deleted. For a more detailed explanation of this template, please see Styles in the English (UEB) - UK Formatting (UKAAF) Template.

• The Exercise style in the "English (UEB) - BANA with Nemeth" template is fixed, removing a hidden right margin.

• The Australian UEB Template is improved, with several issues fixed.

• New styles in all UEB templates enable ALL CAPS passages to continue across multiple paragraphs (CapTgr), fine control of capitalized passages (CapBreak), and control over line breaks on long URLs, email addresses, etc, (Continuation). (We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the Australian Braille Authority.)

• The DBT templates, "English (BANA Pre-UEB Textbook DE) - BANA" and "English (BANA Pre-UEB Textbook DE) - BANA with Nemeth", now remove unwanted blank lines in several circumstances, such as between second and third level headings.

DBT Editor Improvements

• Substantial additions and updates to DBT Help.

• The DBT Find function now accepts braille fonts in a search string. Likewise, a hard hyphen can once again be part of a search string (restoring 12.1 functionality).

• DBT's automatic table of contents function now closely aligns with UKAAF guidelines when working in the "UK basic" TOC style. The TOC user interface has new controls to set Fill Codes and End Codes to facilitate this.

• Text from DBT may be copied and pasted into "CorelDRAW".

• A DBT file may be inserted into another file (restoring functionality).

• DBT can now reload images saved in .dxp and .dxb files even if the images have no labels.

Math Improvements

• In the LaTeX importer, math elements with text above arrows and text below arrows are now handled.

• Math imports now have improved automatic placement of the End-Nemeth code.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Performance of the Word Importer has been improved (8% overall) with dramatic speed-up for files with many links (URLs) in them such as Wikipedia articles.

• Per the new formatting rules, linear tables no longer have a period at the end of a line.

• DBT now allows braille entry of dots 456 (underscore) via a braille device linked using JAWS.

• Most, possibly all, of the circumstances that caused generating braille fonts to fail have been eliminated. Should any remain, the provisions for diagnosing and fixing the problem are much improved. (This issue affected only a few customers.)

Language Improvements
Country Improvements
Flag of Biblical Biblical Original Languages: updates are now based on the recent English UEB table.
Danish Flag Danish: a question mark as a word ending does not disrupt contractions in braille-to-print.
French Flag French: updated to ensure use of dots 36 in a contraction is not confused with a hyphen.
Flag of Israel
Flag of the United States of America
Hebrew (American): this table is now based on the latest UEB table. The translated line now respects the language context to display both English and Hebrew correctly.
Hungarian Flag Hungarian: improved translation in the braille-to-print direction.
International Phonetic Alphabet Flag IPA: fix one character on braille-to-print.
Mongolian Flag Mongolian: improved braille-to-print translation to recognize emphasis, as well as other changes.
Flag of Myanmar Myanmar: translation has been totally rebuilt and demonstrates high accuracy.
Norwegian Flag Norwegian: fix one serious contraction error in braille-to-print.
Flag of Poland Polish: improved grade one braille, plus improved punctuation both directions.
Flag of Slovenia Slovenian: improvements in print-to-braille translation.
Flag of Spain Spanish: fix more punctuation, add certain Guarani characters; support emphasis in braille-to-print.
Flag of Taiwan Taiwan-style Chinese Mandarin: improved print-to-braille and braille-to-print translators, uses Zhuyin characters intead of Pinyin. It is now possible to mix Chinese and English as long as English segments start with a capital letter. (Originally intended for DBT 12.2, and now available.)
Ethiopian Flag The Tigrinya language now has a functional back translator.

DBT 12.2

Primary Areas of Improvement
English UEB
New Embossers and Embosser Fixes
JAWS Improvements
Math Improvements
User Interface
Miscellaneous Changes
Language Improvements
Language Improvements
Country Improvements
Flag of Biblical Biblical Languages: many improvements, including a practical braille-to-print translator.
Flag of Bosnia Bosnian: braille-to-print now uses the new Croatian braille-to-print translator.
Flag of China Cantonese (Yue): now uses space as a tone mark in restricted circumstances. Has an improved braille-to-print translator.
Flag of China Chinese Mandarin: improved file importer, improved print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation. It is now possible to mix Chinese and English. (English segments must start with a capital letter).
Flag of Croatia Croatian: now with a functional braille-to-print translator.
Flag of Denmark Danish: braille-to-print translation properly uses the exclamation mark (when the dropped 'f' is at the end of a word) and better handles a contraction before a period (full stop).
Flag of Bhutan Dzongkha: DBT supports the new braille rules.
Flag representing the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA: handles the UEB indicators for brackets and slash.
Flag of South Korea Korean: the braille-to-print translation has many improvements.
Flag of Portugal Portuguese: now handles four additional punctuation marks in braille-to-print translation.
Flag of Slovenia Slovenian: the braille-to-print direction now uses the new Croatian braille-to-print translator.
Flag of Spain Spanish: braille-to-print translation can produce a proper period in all contexts.
Flag of Thailand Thai: fixed two formerly incorrect characters in print-to-braille.
Flag of South Africa Venda: improvements in print-to-braille; now includes a functional braille-to-print translator.
Flag of Wales Welsh (Cymraeg): fixed some previously incorrect contractions.

What was New in DBT 12.1 SR1

Primary Improvements

This service release also features the following JAWS script improvements:

  1. The script files for DBT 12.1 changed the technique for SayWord to insure the whole word was gathered and spoken. This change compromised making a selection. The latest script insures that if a selection is in progress, all the words in the selection are retained.
  2. When using a braille display with JAWS 17, the script files manage the JAWS braille translation settings better (turning off input translation) to ensure that output translation is off when you are viewing a braille document.
  3. The save and restore of a Speech Profile is now limited to JAWS version17 and higher to prevent "unknown function" errors in earlier versions of JAWS.
  4. Repetitious announcements of "computer braille" when the window focus is shifted are now suppressed.

DBT 12.1

Primary Areas of Improvement
DBT Templates Streamlined
Embossers
Mathematics

Numerous additions to math functionality; here are the highlights:

JAWS Developments

Helpful additions in the JAWS script files for DBT, including:

UEB Updates
Restored Functionality
Misc Features
Language Improvements
(Listed in Alphabetical Order)
Flag Description
Andorra Flag Catalan: Fixed percent sign and capitalization issues.
Czech Flag Czech: Fixed ten punctuation characters.
United Kingdom Flag Many fixes for UEB English.
Hungarian Flag Hungarian: Supports the new fully contracted 2014 Hungarian rules, both print-to-braille and braille-to-print.
Japanese Flag Japanese: Fixed the ryu, and a few other translation items.
South Korean Flag Korean: Fixes to improve both print-to-braille and braille-to-print translators.
Flag of Spain Spanish: added a Puerto Rico variation for certain punctuation marks.
Flag of Spain Spanish: back translation can now produce a number sign (#) with the "forcer" of dots 3456, 13. Additional "forcer" sequences are: dots 45, 56, 26, which produces inverted question mark; dots 45, 45, 26 produces upright question mark; dots 45, 56, 235 produces inverted exclamation mark; and dots 45, 45, 235 produces upright exclamation mark, regardless of context.

What was New In DBT 11.2 SR4

DBT 11.2 SR4 fixes several minor bugs which are serious for a few users. We recommend all users update to 11.2 SR4 to prevent possible future frustration.

What was New In DBT 11.2 SR3

This Service Release includes the following improvements, many of which are significant for some users:

DAISY/NISO Importer
JAWS Scripts
Word File Importer
BANA Template
Unified English Braille (UEB) Literary
Unified English Braille (UEB) Mathematical and Technical

A great deal of work has been done (and is still on-going) in connection with "UEB Guidelines for Technical Material". A slightly revised 2014 version of this publication is due to be released soon, and will be available from http://www.iceb.org/ueb.html.

Use of MathType 7.0, rather than earlier versions, improves DBT MathType imports of Word documents with math that was entered with Equation Editor instead of MathType. With earlier versions of MathType, the expressions would come into DBT as displayed math on a separate line even when they are meant to be embedded in the text.

A trial copy of MathType 7.0 is included on the 12.3 CD. Please note that you may only upgrade an existing 6.9 at no charge. You may also obtain it from here [Download 6.9]

Please keep a look out for a newer version of MathType which, at the time of this release, was not available.

If you are running an earlier version of MathType and wish to upgrade, please contact Design Science.

We would also like to formally and sincerely thank Design Science, developers of MathType for their continued co-operation and support.

Nemeth Math
Tabular Material
DBT Styles and Codes
Embossers and Embossing
Language Improvements

Language development is an on-going process, and the introduction of Unified English Braille in some countries, South Africa for example, has resulted in changes being made to languages used within the country.

List of main changes
Country Details
Armenian Flag Armenian now supporting the U+055B Armenian emphasis character. In ink-print, this is a single character at the end of a word.
Azerbaijani Flag

Azerbaijani: question mark and curling quotes have been fixed.

Flag of China

Cantonese now handling English text mixed with Cantonese.

Flag of Denmark

Danish now handles lower quote marks.

Dutch Flag We now support the Dutch 2005 braille revision.
Italian Flag

Italian braille-to-print now produces the at-sign correctly

Taiwanese Flag

DBT now supports the Taiwan variation for Mandarin braille.

Turkish Flag

Turkish letter sign and uncontracted Turkish now function properly.

Flag of South Africa South Africa. The Venda table has been updated. A stub braille-to-print table now uses UEB instead of older forms of English braille. Also Swati and Ndebele each have a single contraction fixed.

What was new in DBT 11.2 SR2

This web Service Release included the following improvements, a few of which are significant for some users:

Word 2007, 2010, 2013
Unified English Braille (UEB)

UEB will begin being formally taught in UK schools in September this year (2014). Users are therefore advised to ensure that upgrades have been applied to older versions.

Mathematics

We continue to improve DBT's math braille capabilities, and are grateful to those who have helped us in this regard.

Embossers and Embossing

Support for A5 and A5 landscape has been added to the Everest (V3 and V4)

Languages
Language Details
National Flag(s) Improvements Made
Flag of Croatia The Croatian translator now meets all standards for contracted and uncontracted braille.
Flag of Denmark Danish: the braille-to-print translator has been fixed for four contractions, to match the print-to-braille Danish translator.
Flag of The Philippines Updated Filipino and Tagalog to deal with a list of words which did not contract correctly.
Italian Flag Added automatic hyphenation for Italian. Also respecting emphasis on braille-to-print.
Flag of Japan We have revised both translators for Japanese. We have also improved import of Japanese punctuation, and added a better screen display for Japanese transcribers.
Flag of South Africa Several tables for South African languages have been updated. They are: Nguni (Xhosa and Zulu), Ndebele, and Swati. Stub braille-to-print tables now use UEB instead of older forms of English braille.
Flag of Kenya Flag of Tanzania The Swahilli table has been modified to incorporate handling grade one Arabic script.
Russian Flag We have corrected the Unicode character 04AF (y) in Tatar (a minority language in Russia).
Turkish Flag Flag of Cyprus Turkish: two modified tables and 4 new "Learning Level" tables: DBT now supports contracted Turkish (and 4 levels of partial contraction).

What was new in DBT 11.2 SR1

This web Service Release included the following improvements, a few of which are significant for some users:

Major New Features in 11.2
Installation, Activation, De-activation, and Network Installation
Mathematics Issues
Nemeth Braille-to-Print

1) You start with a pure Nemeth braille document in DBT (no contractions).

How is this created?

2) Go to the Document menu, then Translation Table. Choose Math Notation (Nemeth 1972 math mode only).

3) Press Control-T to Translate to ink print

4) Press F3 to Save As.

5) On the bottom selection (for file type), choose LaTeX (Experimental) *.tex Feel free to choose a file name and a directory that suits your needs

At this point, your work happens outside of Duxbury DBT. The output of the translation process is a LaTeX text file. You need some additional software that can take LaTeX and render it into math for viewing or printing. With Scientific Viewer (which is free) you can view or print the math. With Scientific Notebook (which is not free) you can also convert the file into PDF form.

We hope our users will help us identify other third party products which make use of LaTeX math files. To give you a head start, here is the Wikipedia entry on LaTeX.

Embosser Support
Miscellaneous Changes
DBT 11.2: Languages and Braille
Language Highlights

Better Font Support for most languages. For many languages of the world, the DBT print screen is readable, and editing is possible.

New User Interfaces: now supporting a Czech and a Chinese User interface.

New Languages: Bengali for Bangladesh (supporting the braille rules of Feb. 1996), Croatian contracted braille supported, Montenegrin, Tatar, and Udmurt. Contracted Turkish braille and Taiwan braille supported with a supplemental download from Duxbury Systems.

New Braille-to-print for existing languages: Amharic, Mandarin Chinese, Hausa, Somali, Swahili, and Yoruba.

We have added a new feature to the Serbian braille-to-print: while this usually uses the Cyrillic alphabet, the use of a variation code [vrn~ar] changes the braille-to-print translator to use the Roman alphabet. Another variation code [vrn~ac] reverts back to using the Cyrillic alphabet. These codes also work on other languages closely tied to Serbian.

Modest adjustments have been made in the handling of punctuation in the translators for the following European languages: Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgian, Maltese, Portuguese, Serbian, and Turkish.

Modest adjustments have been made in the handling of punctuation in the translators for Georgian and Mandarin Chinese as well.

Arabic and Hebrew are still not supported by the DBT editor. While the display may be improved, DBT is still not able to entirely figure out what is right-to-left, and what is left-to-right, so editing a line is absolutely not recommended until this issue is resolved.

Inspired by new braille entry devices, Duxbury Systems has made an effort to improve braille-to-print in almost every language. We welcome your suggestions on how we can further make progress in this area. The languages of India, plus Lao, Thai, Hebrew, Vietnamese, have been especially improved.

Language Details
Language Details
National Flag(s) Improvements Made
Ethiopian Flag DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Amharic.
Armenian Flag The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Armenian translators have been improved.
Flag of Bangladesh DBT now supports the Bangladesh braille rules of Feb. 1996 (Bengali language).
DBT also supports the SutonnyMJ font, widely used in Bangladesh for writing Bengali.
Flag of China Singapore Flag DBT now has a Chinese User Interface.
Flag of China Singapore Flag DBT's import of Chinese script into Pinyin has also been substantially improved. DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for Mandarin Chinese (into Pinyin Romanization, not into Chinese script).
Flag of China Taiwanese Flag DBT now supports the braille code of Taiwan through a supplemental download from Duxbury Systems.
Flag of China DBT has a modest improvement in the Cantonese braille translator.
Flag of Croatia DBT now supports contracted Croatian print-to-braille and braille-to-print.
Czech Flag DBT now has a Czech a User Interface.
Czech Flag The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print tables have also been improved.
United Kingdom Flag Flag of the United States of America DBT has made improvements for the English translators used in the US, the United Kingdom, and other nations.
Flag of Bhutan The braille-to-print Dzongkha translator has been improved.
Flag of Esperanto The print-to-braille Esperanto translator has been fixed (for the question mark).
Flag of Ghana The print-to-braille Ewe translator has been fixed.
Flag of Iran The braille-to-print Farsi translator has been substantially improved.
French Flag The French translator has been improved, based on feedback from a user.
German Flag The German translator has been improved, based on feedback from a user.
Flag of the United States of America Flag of Cyprus The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print translator for Greek has been substantially improved.
Nigerian Flag Flag of Niger DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Hausa language.
Flag of old Hawaii Flag of the United States of America DBT now has support for the Hawaiian Language in the following templates:
English/Unified (UEB), English/American (Standard Literary), and English/American (Textbook)through the use of the language tag [lng~haw]
Flag of Israel The braille-to-print translator for Hebrew has been substantially improved.
Lao Flag The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print translator for Lao has been substantially improved. Third party software can improve the Lao braille output.
Norwegian Flag The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Norwegian translators have been improved.
Flag of Montenegro DBT now supports Montenegrin (supported the same as Serbian).
Flag of Poland The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Polish translators have been improved.
Serbian Flag DBT now has improved the handling of punctuation in the Serbian translator. DBT now both the Cyrillic and the Roman alphabet in the braille-to-print translation
Somalian Flag DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Somali language.
Swedish Flag The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Swedish translators have been improved.
Flag of Kenya Flag of Tanzania DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Swahili language.
Russian Flag DBT now supports Tatar (a minority language in Russia).
Flag of Thailand The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Thai translators have been improved.Third party software can improve the Thai braille output.
Flag of China The print-to-braille and the braille-to-print Tibetan translators have been improved.
Turkish Flag Flag of Cyprus DBT now supports contracted Turkish (and 4 levels of partial contraction) through a supplemental download from Duxbury Systems.
Russian Flag DBT now supports Udmurt (a minority language in Russia).
Ukranian flag. The print-to-braille Ukrainian translator now supports automatic hyphenation.
Pakistan Flag The braille-to-print translator for Urdu has been substantially improved.
Vietname Flag The braille-to-print translator for Vietnamese has been substantially improved.
Nigerian Flag DBT now has a braille-to-print translator for the Yoruba language.

d up to avoid “double translation”.

2. Swedish encoding of braille documents has been added. A new French encoding for braille documents, “French Chiffres”, has been added. The standard “French” braille encoding for braille documents has been modified to match updated standards; the older encoding is now called “French 6 points”. (These changes are in display.cpt.)

3. Revised French documentation, and revised French DBT and Word templates. These changes should affect only those who use adaptations to DBT developed at AVH for use in producing French braille.

4. Translation improvements have been made to the following tables:

a. English/American (literary)

b. English/American (textbook)

Both American tables have been updated to conform to new rules regarding partially-emphasized words, and for improved handling of Greek letters within English context. A new "variation" code has been added to permit entering fractions more conveniently using a simple slash, e.g. 1/2 for one-half, when appropriate (as in cookbooks).

c. Arabic

Additional Unicode characters are now supported, as well as the standard "Arabic" page.

d. Bulgarian

(Minor update only.)

e. Modern Greek

Additional Unicode characters, as well as the standard basic "Greek" page, are now supported. The Nemeth Code is now supported for mathematics

f. English/British

Corrections and improvements were made to the logic for inserting clarifying parentheses into algebraic fractions. The handling of mixed numbers imported from LaTeX documents was corrected. Other corrections affected the handling of certain apostrophe-letter endings in grade 1, embedded German, and other miscellaneous situations.

g. English/Unified

These tables were extensively updated to conform more closely to the latest transcriber rules for capitalization, shortform usage, lower-sign contraction usage, and other miscellaneous matters. A new pair of commands, [ucs] ... [uce], have been provided to allow manual control of capital passage extent when desired.

h. French/Unified

The treatment of apostrophe (') has been corrected in [cz;f] mode. Certain capital passage and double-sign issues have also been addressed.

i. Croatian

(Internal update only -- no functional change.)

j. Kazakh

Arabic script (as well as Cyrillic script) is now accepted as input.

k. Malay

The logic for contraction usage has been extensively updated.

l. Norwegian

The logic for contraction usage has been improved, and the treatment of comma within numbers corrected. Support for contracted English embedded within Norwegian has been removed, as such text is normally uncontracted.

m. Russian

Arabic script (as well as Cyrillic script) is now accepted as input.

n. Ukrainian

Arabic script (as well as Cyrillic script) is now accepted as input.

5. Improvements have been made for these embossers:

a. All supported Tiger models: DBT has been updated to meet the requirements of the latest drivers from ViewPlus. (However, we are not adding to DBT 10.7 SR1 support for any Tiger embosser models not supported by DBT 10.7.)

b. Tiger Pro Ink: ink placement has been corrected; ink placement, font choice and font size can also be adjusted, though this presently requires registry “tinkering”.

c. VersaPoint Duo: graphics support improved.

d. PED-30 plate embossers: more “handshaking” options have been added, and the inclusion of a blank “last side” when there are an odd number of sides to emboss has been suppressed, saving the operator loading a plate at the end of a job only to see it come through without any embossing.

e. Thiel Beta X-3: additional paper sizes are now supported.

f. A defect in interline print output on Gemini embossers has been corrected.

These changes are in dxemb.dll and emb.elt, which always “travel as a pair”. Additional changes in emb.elt are to support future development of “TranSend SE”. Because these have no functional effect for DBT 10.7 SR1, they do not merit mention in the documentation.

6. Internal improvements have been made to chitab.txt.

7. DBT’s Word importer will support use of the Math12 font.

Direct imports of math in Word documents with MathType 5 or 6 installed

The importer supports importation of mathematical expressions created with either MathType or Equation Editor. It does *not* support math typed directly into the text. That will still come in as it always has.

The importer requires that either MathType 6 or MathType 5 be installed and activated. They can be installed anywhere.

Updated BANA translation

English/American: The BANA 2007 updates have been implemented (see http://www.brailleauthority.org/update07.html), notably including the two-cell slash, the use of the termination sign instead of hyphen to signal the end of the effect of the double capital sign, and other updated rules and added symbols. A control ("[big]") was added to provide for enlarged enclosure symbols in Nemeth Code.

Updated BAUK translation

A facility has been added to enable "locking" of the grade of translation, primarily to facilitate production of texts entirely in grade 1 despite the presence of [g2] in the text or within styles. See LOCK Grade 1 or 2 for more details.

Updated UEB (Unified English Braille) Translation

English/UEB: Transcription rule decisions of the UEB Committee through January 2008 have been implemented, including those affecting the treatment of shortform words and lower signs, and the extent of grade 1 word mode when initiated by a number. The braille-to-print UEB tables have been revised to construct appropriate print (.dxp) file encoding for most math structures and certain symbols, thereby replacing some of the "double-brace" notation typically used for indicators, etc. when translating from braille to print.

NEW Pharma EBU/EC translation and template -EBU Pharma

At the time of writing (March 2008) the European Braille Union (EBU) have been discussing a proposed common/standard Pharmaceutical Braille code with European Braille Authorities to be used exclusively on medicinal packaging throughout Europe. See https://www.pharmabraille.com/pharmaceutical-braille/ for more details.

For more up to date information concerning the production of Pharma Braille labels, etc., you may wish to contact our U.K. distributor http://www.techno-vision.co.uk.

NEW Esperanto translation and template.

"Esperanto is a language, but not of any country or ethnic group: it is a neutral, international language." For more details about the Esperanto language please see http://www.esperanto.net/info/index_en.html

Details of DBT's new Esperanto table are described more fully here.Esperanto

Updated French translation

French/Unified: The print-to-braille tables have been updated to conform more closely to the new French mathematics code. The braille-to-print tables have been updated to include common computer and currency symbols.

Support added for Enabling Technologies new Romeo Pro 50LE

At the time of writing (March 2008) Enabling Technologies Inc were in the process of manufacturing a dedicated labelling embosser. Limited to 24 cells maximum width, the output is approximately 40% faster than a standard Romeo Pro.

DBT 10.7 includes additional form depths for this embosser from 0.5 inches to 4 inches in depth in increments of 0.25 of an inch.

What was New in DBT 10.6?

Updated Translations

The following language translation tables have been added or substantially updated:

(Some of these have been included in service packs for DBT 10.5.)

Additional Interfaces
Still More Improvements
Installation:

Installation is now performed using the MSI (Microsoft Installer) interface, resulting in many improvements all round.

Many Settings are now retained for individual users rather than entire system.

Network installations now support licensing on systems running RAID or Mirrored drives.