[optacon-l] Re: Print Surprises
- From: "George Bell" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:36:10 +0100
Hi Catherine,
A common reason for unexpected characters is the choice of keyboard
layout. Quite often for example, I will see a British user using an
American keyboard layout.
One sure fire clue there is that the shifted keys on the number row in
the U.K. are
1 = Exclamation Mark
2 = Double Quotes
3 = Pound Currency Sign
4 = American Dollar
5 = Per Cent
Also, a British keyboard has the backslash to the left of the z key.
Added to that, on European keyboard layouts generally, the Alt keys
are different. For example, right hand Alt plus number row 4 will
generate a Euro currency symbol.
George.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Catherine Thomas
Sent: 20 August 2009 12:21
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Print Surprises
I need some help and information from any Optacon users who might be
interested in making a few small experiments.
Recently, it's come to my attention that different fonts and/or word
processing programs sometimes produce different print characters when
some
keys on the keyboard are pressed than one would expect. As you can
imagine, this could create particular hazards for those of us who have
no
sight who could be merrily typing along and producing something other
than
what we were planning. This also accounts for many of the odities
which we
find in recent braille publications particularly those produced
privately
for example by a phone company or electrical utility.
What I need from those who might be willing to try it, is for you to
type
the same characters such as the apostrophe, single quote
(accent-grave)
and various other random keyboard characters, print them and ehcek
with
the Optacon to see if any unusual symbols appear.
Ultimately, this will lead to recommendations of what fonts totally
blind
people should stay away from, and what features, such as Smart Quotes
in
MSWord should be turned off to produce accurate print and accurate
braille.
If anyone has had experience with this kind of thing happening to
them,
please let us know.
Thanks in advance.
Catherine
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
-Catherine Thomas
braille@xxxxxxxxx /
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