taming the savage source file AHG November 2009 Presenters: Julie Balassa - Valencia Community College Jeff Bazer- Dolphin Computer Access

A hands-on demonstration of Alt Format at work - Julie –Publisher source files –Alt Format at work –Preparing for conversion –The conversion process –Using the finished product Not the total solution - Dolphin A solution not just for Higher/Further education - Dolphin What’s next - Dolphin Today’s Schedule

“In October of 2008 three altformat producers disappeared while converting a savage source file. A year later their footage was found.” Someone help me…it’s not tagged! Someone help me... it’s not accessible!

Dolphin alt format tools used at Valencia Production tools –Dolphin EasyConverter (today’s presentation) –Dolphin Publisher –Dolphin EasyProducer College-wide software DAISY player –Dolphin EasyReader

Publisher source files Usually in text-backed PDF format Usually untagged Often incorrectly paginated Often have incorrect reading order Often have supplementary text (margin text, footnotes, captions, etc.) Almost never meet OCR accessibility guidelines Never student-ready

Alt Format at Work Dolphin EasyConverter Converts one source file to multiple formats – Text (including MS Word document) – Compressed audio (mp3) – DAISY 2.02 or DAISY 3 digital talking book (dtb) – Large print (.docx,.doc file) – Braille Easy to use yet sophisticated –Wizard approach –Step-by-step guidance for alt format “newbies” –Customization options for alt format experts

Source Materials Microsoft Word Documents Portable Document Format files (.pdf) HTML (.html,.htm) Text (.txt) Scanned paper (via OCR using onboard OmniPage 16) NIMAS DAISY XML Rich Text Format (.txt) Kurzweil Project Files (.kes) Image Files (.jpg,.tif,.bmp) Open (unprotected) Publication Structure eBook file (EPUB) - first introduced in version 5

Preparing for Conversion Use EasyConverter wisely –EC is your essential altformat production partner –if you use it as magic, the results might be disappointing Prepare pre-production files according to alt format best practices –Edit prior to input to EC or mid-production –paginate correctly –apply styles/headings –punctuate appropriately –perform other mark-up as needed (e.g. math, foreign language)

Preparing for Conversion Store pre-and post-production files safely and efficiently –choose a secure storage location, permanent or removable

Preparing for Conversion Store pre-and post-production files safely and efficiently –name folders to be easily identifiable (title, author, edition, ISBN)

Preparing for Conversion Store pre-and post-production files safely and efficiently –name files to line up in order

The Conversion Process Step 1 Choose New Project or Quick Conversion (steps differ) - we’ll choose NP

The Conversion Process Step 2 Choose your project name and destination

The Conversion Process Step 3 Choose your input document

The Conversion Process Step 4 Choose your PDF and image settings

The Conversion Process Step 5 Choose your document settings

The Conversion Process Step 6 Choose your output format and preferences

The Conversion Process Step 7 Choose more preferences

The Conversion Process Step 8 Choose copy and save preferences

The Conversion Process Step 9 Start the conversion

The Conversion Process Step 10 Optional OCR editing stage

The Conversion Process Step 10 cont. OmniPage manual zone selection

The Conversion Process Step 10 cont. OmniPage OCR result when zones are selected manually

The Conversion Process Step 10 cont. OmniPage OCR result when zones are selected automatically

The Conversion Process Step 11 Save & return after optional OCR editing continues the conversion

The Conversion Process Step 12 Optional MS Word editing stage

The Conversion Process Step 13 Save & return after optional MS Word editing continues the conversion

The Conversion Process Step 14 The conversion completes

The Conversion Process Results Afterwards, EasyConverter displays resulting altformat information

The Conversion Process Results Resulting altformat projects & files are stored in the chosen output folder

The Conversion Process Results EasyConverter produces the usual DAISY files

Using the Finished Product Save to a folder Burn to CD Copy to MP3 player Send to removable hardware DAISY player Print (large print, Braille) Preview in the new format's associated application i.e. EasyReader, MS Word, Notepad or Win Media Player (MP3) Use your saved project to alter or repeat your conversion into a new altformat or with different user preferences

Presenters’ Contact Information Julie Balassa Assistant Director, Disability Services Valencia Community College, Orlando, FL Jeff Bazer Account Executive Dolphin Computer Access, Princeton Junction, NJ

Questions & Answers