TSBVI Technology Institute

MegaDots Workshop

October 5, 2002

Presenter
1. Gloria Bennett, Presenter
  1. email: gloriabennett@tsbvi (best method)
  2. phone: 512-206-9234
2. MegaDots Software Information:
  1. Version 2.2, dated 2/13/02
3. Contacting the company (information found the same as #1 above)
  1. Duxbury Systems, Inc. (978-692-3000) http://www.duxburysystems.com
  2. email help: general – info@duxsys.com
  3. technical support – megadots@duxsys.com
The MegaDots environment
1. Is it DOS or is it Windows? Although written in DOS, it works from the Windows desktop with all current software. However, remember these conventions:
  1. Keep file names short – no longer than 8 characters
  2. Learn the F key shortcuts for faster working
  3. Learn how to find and where to save your files
2. What’s on the screen? How does it compare to other word processors?
  1. The Main Menu: Use F10 with arrow or first letter. Use Escape key or Control E key to get back to the Editor.
3. The status line tells a lot! – location of cursor, page, style, emphasis and character. Don’t forget to look down!
4. WYSIWYG and Show Mark-up – Alt W toggles between views
  1. What You See Is What You Get shows printable view
  2. Show Mark-up shows the hidden codes. Look for marks for carriage return (£), page breaks, and emphasis marks. You must see these codes to remove them!
  3. Customize you workplace with Preferences (F10 P Editor, Advanced, New Document, Braille Device <enter>)
  4. After making preference choice, Save Preferences (F10 P S <enter>)
5. Help!!!! (F10 H) all topics, F1 when you want to know about highlighted item, F12 Reference Guide, and F11 complete manual.
Getting to work! Two ways to get text into Braille:
1. Type right in the Editor; format as needed (using Alt commands), translate (F5), save (F4), emboss (F7 – F10) and exit (Alt X)
2. Open the file from another source (a scanned file, another program such as Word, etc.)
  1. F3 to open. In the box, type in drive name (a: or c:) file name (or use F2 to get a list of files to choose from)
  2. format (Alt commands)
  3. translate (F5)
  4. save as a MegaDots file (F4) (filename.meg)
  5. emboss (F7 – F10), close the file (F6) or exit the program (Alt X).
3. Choose a style sheet, which controls how the page is set up (number placement, print indicators). Press F10 D S <enter>
  1. Literary – normal document with page numbers in upper right corner
  2. Textbk – follows the print, with page numbers in lower right and print page numbers in the upper right, set with Control <Enter>.
  3. Nemeth or Babynem – used to put material into math or science context
  4. Exam – used with Exercise style to format a multiple-choice test. It insures that the question and the answers will not appear on different pages.
Formatting styles that follow the BANA rules just takes a few strokes.

First select your text by using the mouse or keyboard shortcut (Control X, which is a toggle that highlights and un-highlights)
Alt key formatting commands apply to whole paragraphs at a time, which is the text found between carriage returns (£)
1. Alt key plus a H for Heading styles
2. Alt key plus B for Body styles (body text, list, exercise, directions, left flush)

Editing the text
1. Moving the cursor around the Editor (Home and End, Control Home and End, Control arrows)
2. Moving text around the Editor - Copy (Control C), cut (Control K), (Control P) paste and (Control D) delete (be careful, it’s permanent!)
  1. Highlight text first (Control X)
  2. Don’t highlight – use the “What” menu: choose character, word, line, sentence, paragraph, etc.
3. Translating for special circumstances (Control T)
  1. Grade One – Select text (Control X) and press Control T O
  2. Double spaced (select if only a part of the document, go to the top if for entire document (Control Home), then press F10 D Braille Section Layout, arrow to “Linespacing” and put in 2)
  3. Foreign language (F10 D T, set Braille Standard to language (use F2 for a list) and Default Translation Method to O)
4. Formatting for special circumstances (Control F) - bold, italics and underline
  1. Highlight text first (Control X)
  2. Don’t highlight – use the “What” menu: choose character, word, line, sentence, paragraph, etc.
  3. Transcriber’s note (Control F T)
Spell Check (F10 T R)
1. Choose to run with or without special scanner dictionary
2. Looks for Braille specific mistakes in patterns of punctuation use (a space before a period, mismatched parenthesis, etc.)
3. Choices
  1. Accept, choose correct spelling, delete word, enter a new word to replace an incorrect word – escape to continue, global change, revise the dictionary, translate as Grade One, change case, or visit the text and type right in it – escape to return
  2. Have the original to check against
Find and Replace (F9) and enter text to find
1. To change text, type Control Y and type the changed text
  1. At the next find, either type Control Y to change it again, or Control N (for Next Occurrence) to skip
  2. After typing Control Y once, at the next find type Control G to change all occurrences at one time.
  3. Shortcut, but be careful because it’s so fast and powerful: F9 enter word\\newword
  4. Case sensitive or insensitive
    1. Type all lower care for case insensitive (violet as a flower and a person)
    2. Type at least one capital for case sensitive (Violet as a person only)
2. Built-in Rules files
  1. Alt F9 F2 will show some “find and replace files” that are built in that will do common tasks for you, such as changing case to all upper or lower, taking out tabs, fixing sentence case, or counting characters or words.
3. Leaving MegaDots and coming back to finish a document with an automatic bookmark
  1. Save the file (F4)
  2. Upon opening it again, press Alt J to go to the last spot where the cursor was.
Scanning Tips
1. Scanners are only as good as their software. You could be using the software that came with the scanner or some other that you bought, such as Omnipage or OpenBook. Consult with your technical advisor for choosing and setting up.
2. Spend some time setting up the scanner software just the way you want it. Consider what format you want to save in, whether you will set up as multiple page documents, columns or single. These can all be changed but you should set it for the most usable configuration for you.
3. Figure out what needs scanning and in what order to be most efficient
  1. Fold the copy into scan-able pieces and scan in order
  2. Save to a word processing file (such as Microsoft Word)
  3. Open in MegaDots and save as a MegaDots file (F4)
4. Clean and edit – always have your print copy in front of you to check
  1. Check your text to see that you got it all and in the right order; rearrange if needed using cut (Control K) and paste (Control P)
  2. Check spelling (F10 T R)
  3. Use Alt W to see the hidden codes on the screen and make sure carriage returns occur at the end of each paragraph (not line)
  4. Check to see italics, bold and underline are marked correctly
  5. Format the text using the formatting commands (Alt B, Alt H)
  6. Save (F4), translate (F5) and emboss (F7-F10)
GOOD LUCK

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Last Revision: October 22, 2002