Hello Dane We have Dolphin Publisher for DAISY and it's the best publisher package in the world. It gives you absolute control over absolutely every function of your DAISY recording and it can synchronise human reading with on-screen text in real time. So what you finish up with is a book read by a person and on the screen the text is displayed and scrolls at the exact speed that the voice reads. I did that for Gordon with one of the Jennings books, and the results were spectacular. I'm trying to get hold of more of those books, but that's a matter for another time and another place.
As for the Braille, yes; I know about your embosser. But ours is a different system. Unfortunately it's somewhat older than yours, the label says it was made in April 2001. it doesn't have USB on it, nor does it have Ethernet. So it's kind of difficult to use on the Mac. I bought a Keyspan adapter, on the advice of members of our other group. But I never got it to work on the Mac at all; it's just not visible. Be that as it may, we now have to try and get it all set up on Windows. We have DBT for Windows, (version 11.1) and if we can get the adapter to play nice Gordon has a heap if things he needs to emboss. As for Office I think we are on the same page. I refuse to pay those extortionate prices for software. Microsoft is pricing itself out of the market, in my opinion. There are alternatives for both Mac and Windows which will do just about everything you can do with Office and buying the whole lot of them together for both platforms would still leave you paying less than you'd pay for Office. Lynne On 10 Oct 2011, at 01:26, Dane trethowan wrote: I'm not going to comment on Daisy production as its an area I'm not familiar with. I have Braille embossing going on my Mac with my Keyspan adaptor and my Mountbattin Braille Writer, have had it going for a number of years now, there was document explaining how it all worked published on the Internet. No intention of buying any Microsoft Office products either, we've discussed the reasons already but the other main reasons says volumes, all my substitute software was far cheaper than the Microsoft products were, in fact I doubt whehter the cost of the substitute software would even come to the price of one of Microsoft's "Stand-alone" Office applications. On 10/10/2011 11:13 AM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote: > Helo Dane > > Microsoft products are very bloated for the most part. There is a lot of junk > inside their self-extracting archives which a lot of people who know about > this kind of stuff say simply doesn't need to be there. > > As you might know, Windows itself is very messy as far as cleaning up > temporary files and old registry entries are concerned. We don't plan on > doing more than we have too with Windows; don't get me wrong. We migrated to > the Mac so that we could escape from all the dross that Windows brings with > it. But whether we like it or not there are certain tasks which you simply > cannot accomplish under OSX so we have little option where they are concerned. > > For instance, Braille transcription. We haven't been able to get any joy at > all on the mac with that. Our Keyspan adapter has never shown us any signs of > working on the Mac, and I doubt it ever will. Gordon is now getting pretty > irritated by the lack of functionality in that area so we are going to have > to use Windows. Our embosser has done absolutely nothing for almost 2 years > now and that situation is one which we find intolerable. > > DAISY publication is another area where we need Windows. There's absolutely > nothing which comes close to meeting our needs on the Mac and that stuff that > they did with Open Office is a bit of a joke. It's absolutely no use at all > for what we need. Gordon needs to be able to control the navigation points, > and all that thing does is very basic production with no level of user > control at all. > > As for Office, we have absolutely no intention whatsoever of installing > Microsoft Office. It's a very over-rated and grossly over-priced suite of > software which, although you can now buy it in separate components, is simply > not worth the money. > > Lynne > > On 10 Oct 2011, at 00:55, Dane trethowan wrote: > > Yes indeed<smiloe>. > > I've never relied or been tempted to use any Microsoft products much at all, > in the main they're very bulky for one thing. > > I've always had trouble getting Outlook Express to work so I gave up on that. > did try Outlook 2003 at one point though it appeared to be a mess when it > came to all its functions and integrating them hence I spent a lot more time > using that software and wasting that time if that makes any sense. > > The "Live" stuff I didn't enjoy at all and thus have found replacements for > many of the "Live" utilities and functions. for example Miranda is an > excellent multi protocol chat client in much the same way as Adium for the > Mac. I can write my blogs under Windows using something called Blogjet, not > the most accessible piece of software on the planet but it is usable. > > I don't use Microsoft Office utilities as I've found substitutes for them, > Jarte Plus for Word Processing, nothing for spreadsheet design yet and Ask > Sam for database management, could also use that for Word Processing too if i > wanted. > > and for email? Well i use the now tried and true Thunderbird, I use NVDA a > lot of the time so I'm insulated for the problems that users of Window-eyes > have with this software<smile>. > > > > On 10/10/2011 10:45 AM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote: >> Hello Dane >> >> On 10 Oct 2011, at 00:08, Dane Trethowan wrote: >> >> Thanks, I never thought of relying on it anyway<smile>. >> >> Just a figure of speech. >> >> Lynne >> >> >> ======================================= >> >> The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus >> and worm-free >> >> To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web >> pages located at >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat >> >> You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at >> either of the following websites: >> >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html >> >> Or: >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> >> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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