What is New in DBT Win 12.4?

Duxbury Systems continually revises DBT to add new features, fix problems, and to respond to changes in braille rules, embosser and operating system updates, and 3rd party changes.

Below you will find our latest advances since the prior release.

For more sources of information, possibly even newer than that included here, please take advantage of "Check for Updates" from your DBT Help menu. Or, visit the Duxbury Website for both new information and historical information about DBT features and updates.

Major Improvements

• For lengthy file imports, DBT now displays a progress bar.
• DBT opens files faster, with quicker performance in general operations.
• In UEB templates, there is a new chemistry style. For any technical notation within the chemistry style, there is no use of word or passage capital indicators, as each capital letter is capitalized separately.
• The NEW Bristol Braille Canute Mk13 Braille eReader is supported as an embosser.
• Graphic images in centered headings are now well handled.
• The BANA Listed Tables format is restored.
• The insertion of [hl] codes is no longer restricted when importing DAISY or XML files, as it is for Word files.
• The biggest additions in languages are starter tables for the Arabic, German, Russian, and Spanish/Portuguese math (technical notation) braille systems. These braille math codes may impact braille production in over 80 countries.
  • Templates for these four languages all have a math style. For example, if you use the math style in a German template, you get German math braille. For ease of use, the math style is inserted automatically when you import a LaTeX file.
  • The Russian math translator affects technical braille for many languages: Armenian (Eastern), Azerbaijani, Belorussian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Chuvash, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Georgian, Hungarian, Ingush, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Tajik, Tatar, Turkmen, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Uzbek.
  • The Arabic language and unified Arabic braille rules are used in over 25 countries.
  • The Spanish/Portuguese braille math rules are used in about 20 countries.
  • You are invited to test the math braille translators and send suggested improvements to languages@duxsys.com.
• Sample files for over a hundred languages are incorporated into the DBT Help so that you can quickly test DBT in an unfamiliar language.

Mathematics Braille

• UTF-8 conversion is now built into our LaTeX importer. This allows non-ASCII characters in the text: unusual accented letters, non-Roman scripts such as Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, etc., to be imported directly into DBT as combined text and math in a single step.
• The LaTeX importer now treats the code $$, when adjacent to a tab character, as the start or end of displayed math.
• The LaTeX importer no longer generates a space when the LateX or MathType asked for a "thin space". These extra spaces caused unneeded braille indicators in some math translators.
• The LaTeX importer no longer ignores some absolute value signs.
• The LaTeX importer now handles Greek letter variant forms, the so-called blackboard characters, and some additional special characters.
• Handling of reference page indicators in UEB with Nemeth is improved.
• The ending codes for the math style have been refined. We have moved the [i] code to the end, which prevents the insertion of the grade 1 indicator before certain punctuation marks, such as the question mark.

Embossers

• DBT can now generate interline print for Gemini embossers.
• DBT supports the ViewPlus "Tiger" registry key and enforces a 0.5 inch minimum top margin for the Columbia embosser.
  • The Columbia model, with a top margin setting of 0 now has an effective 0.5" top margin. A top margin setting of 1 has an effective 0.65" top margin. For higher top margin settings in DBT, the effective margin is 0.4" times the number entered in DBT.
• For dual ink and braille embossers, DBT eliminates most inappropriate gaps in the inkprint text.
• DBT codes no longer appear in the interline print of embosser output.
• For entries in the printer queue, DBT no longer adds "(Ink)" to the document name when not appropriate.
• DBT now prints TactileView (TV) Images to the Columbia embosser - and presumably other ViewPlus embossers - at the intended size. Note that the image size is not set directly from DBT, but DBT ensures that the size should be the same in the output as on screen. (Note: the size is determined by the image height, and images that are too wide for the page are likely to be clipped. For such images, direct output from TV may be the appropriate approach.)

More Language Updates

According to the 2013 UNESCO document World Braille Usage, Arabic Pre-2002 is the official Arabic translator for Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia. DBT now has a template for the Pre-2002 Arabic translator.

To assist those studying ancient languages, a new template and translator for the transcription of Semitic Languages have been added.

The English UEB translation table was changed to allow the functionality of the chemistry style, and also to refine the contraction use in a series of uncommon words.

Language Improvements

Flag	Description
	Arabic: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.)
	Dhivehi: newly added language, spoken in the Maldive Islands.
	Estonian: the template now reserves the bottom line of each page for braille page numbers with no preceding text.
	German: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) Also, German has improvements in both the print-to-braille and the braille-to-print translators, especially as regards the "ung" contraction.
	Hindi: braille-to-print improves handling of single and double quote marks.
	Portuguese: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) Also some improvements in the handling of punctuation.
	Russian: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.) The braille-to-print translator improves the translation of certain letter/number combinations.
	Slovenian: the template now reserves the bottom line of each page for braille page numbers with no preceding text.
	Spanish: adds a math-only print-to-braille translator invoked by using the math style. (Note: preliminary.)
	Ukrainian: the template now shows the capital letter sign in braille.
	Uzbek: the translators reflect a minor change in the braille translation rules that removes an ambiguity about the braille 'e'.
	Vietnamese: better handling of letter d and letter d with a stroke, (đ) U+0111.

New Items in the Previous Release

For reference, these items were new as of DBT 12.3 SR1.

New Braille Embossers

• DBT adds support for two new Irie embossers, the BrailleSheet 120 and the BrailleTrac 120.
• Graphics on Index V5 embossers now output using the "floating dot" format. One benefit is that TactileView graphics output successfully when embedded in a DBT document sent to an Index V5 embosser.

Math Improvements

• MathType 7 is now supported.
• French mathematics braille is now supported in the French Unified braille-to-print translator.
• Users can now import braille formatted files (BRF's) containing UEB with Nemeth Code, as long as the file starts with a special 4-cell braille header: _%_: ( i.e., dots 4-5-6, 1-4-6, 4-5-6, 1-5-6; in ASCII braille this is: _%_: )
• The MAVIS module now correctly recognizes mixed numbers at the start of math mode.
• The arc sign is now recognized.
• The English/Unified (UEB) print-to-braille table accepts U+27C2 for the "perpendicular" symbol.
• DBT's LaTeX importer now allows a "pass through in math" section to be more flexible about characters appearing at the end of a paragraph.
• The LaTeX importer allows "pass through in math" with the math-TextInMath style, to be used in additional situations, such as when items are separated by LaTeX \vspace commands or sectioning commands (like \section and \subsection).
• The LaTeX importer and exporter now handle European accented letters.
• For Nemeth Code in UEB context, the end Nemeth Code indicator is now set up to be on the same line as the last item in Nemeth Code.
• For Nemeth Code in UEB context, the new styles RefPageUEBSwitch (and the RefPageUEBSwitch-Embed version) now allow for a new reference page number in UEB without having to terminate and restart Nemeth Code.

General Improvements

• DBT initialization is now much faster.
• DBT has improved copying from a braille document into a target other than DBT, such as CorelDRAW.
• DBT's Excel importer handles dates in the default format when no format is specified.
• Enhanced "code page" selection; allowing greater freedom to import non-English, non-Unicode textfiles.
• The "F5" codes list no longer displays antiquated ampersand codes.
• In demo mode, DBT will not prompt to save documents on closure.
• The "UEB Pharmaceutical" template is now called "English (UEB) Pharmaceutical".
• The two pharmaceutical DBT templates now suppress braille page numbering.
• The JAWS script files no longer say "same spot" to alert the user that the cursor is remaining in place while repeatedly pressing the left or right arrow in formatted view. Instead JAWS makes a subtle click.
• When you have checked the Global View setting Use verbose labels for non-ANSI characters, JAWS speaks the Unicode value from the DBT status line when voicing a character or its Unicode number. This is very helpful when navigating a DBT print document containing Asian languages that use composite characters, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Hindi.

Language Updates

Language Improvements

Flag	Description
	Bulgarian: Now uses dots 46 as the capital sign.
	Dutch: Many punctuation problems fixed; capitalization and emphasis modernized per the latest published rules.
	French: Many significant changes; handling of new characters, improved forward and back translation. Notable features are support for emphasis and for mathematics in braille-to-print.
	Hebrew-American: Now makes a proper transition from Hebrew to UEB in the print-to-braille direction.
	Languages of India: Better support for punctuation and dependent / independent vowels in braille-to-print (all languages of India).
	Irish: The print-to-braille now includes new shortforms defined in early 2018 and also corrects contraction usage in certain bridging situations.
	Italian: Better handling of the period (full stop) and dots 34 in braille-to-print (distinguishing i grave from slash).
	Norwegian: Better handling of the period (full stop) and some other punctuation characters in braille-to-print translation.
	Russian: Now prevents use of the "ae", "ng", and "tc" combined characters, with improved comma handling in braille-to-print.
	Spanish: Fixed two punctuation characters in braille-to-print translation.
	Thai: Updated the braille-to-print translation direction to match recent work in print-to-braille.