Hi all, Almost since the day I got my Apex, which is also my first BrailleNote unit by the way, I obsessed over the best way to set things for viewing different types of braille and text documents on the 32-cell display. I'm pretty happy with how Keysoft reflows lines of paragraphs for reading of prose, but I have very mixed feelings about the handling of files where line breaks are important, especially poetry where the original text or braille file may already contain indented line continuations. If I tell the Apex to use line format when opening a file, I can then choose to see $p indicators for each line or have new lines appear on a new display with one or more characters of indentation. I know there are a few other variations on these options, but none of them really help much in my opinion. If I display the $p indicators, it can be hard to tell whether a line following a $p is actually indented or not since there is always one space shown after the $p and, sometimes, the $p appears at the end of the display so that I can't actually see how many spaces there are between the $p and the start of the next line. On the other hand, if I make the Apex show new lines on a new display, then I have the problem that, as I pan the display along, I can't really tell whether the new display I'm viewing is a new line of text from the original file or just a wrapping of the text because the original ine in the file was too long to fit on my display. I hope I'm being clear. I know it can be easy for me to be thinking one thing but perhaps not get it across in writing.
I was thinking that what I would really like would be a way to have the existing feature of new lines starting on a new display but also be able to have line continuations indented by a number of characters of my choosing. This would sort of mimic the way a line of poetry is handled in braille when it's too long to fit on the braille line. We can show the start of lines in an indented fashion on the BrailleNote, but there's no method for forcing an indent specifically when a line is continued. Alternatively, I thought a line continuation indicator might be displayed either at the end of the first line or at the beginning of subsequent lines when a line has to be split by the Apex due to insufficient space on the display. In some respects, I think I like the line continuation indicator idea best of all since it doesn't introduce any ambiguous artificial formatting into the document. As well as the above, I sure wish there were a way to quickly switch between paragraph format and line format while in the middle of a document. There is a lot of literature where prose may have interspersed snatches of poetry, and the paragraph-style formatting really messes up the rendering of poetry lines. Does anybody find these ideas of interest? I guess I do a lot of NLS web braille reading, so I put a high priority on being able to read braille volumes with a clear sense of what the original was trying to convey. Regards, Jerry Nothing in this message is intended to constitute an electronic signature unless a specific statement to the contrary is included in this message. Confidentiality Note: This message is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed. It may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, transmission, dissemination or other use, or taking of any action in reliance upon this message by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete it from your computer. ___ Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a copy to the list as well. To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [email protected] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
