Section: outputFormat

This section specifies the format of the output file (or string, if no file name is given).

Setting: cellsPerLine 40

The number of cells in a braille line.

Setting: LinesPerPage 25

The number of lines on a braille page

Setting: interpoint no

Whether or not the output will be used to produce interpoint braille. This affects the placement of page numbers and may affect other things in the future. The only two values recognized are yes and no.

Setting: lineEnd \r\n

This specifies the control characters to be placed at the end of each output line. These characters vary from one intended use of the output to another. Most embossers require the carriage-return and line-feed combination specified above. However, a braille display may work best with just one or the other. Any valid control characters can be specified.

Setting: pageEnd \f

The control Character to be given at the end of a page. Here it is a forms-feed character, but it can be something else if deeded.

Setting: fileEnd ^z

The control character to be placed at the end of the file, here a control-z.

Setting: printPages yes

Whether or not to show print page numbers if they are given in the xml input. The two valid values are yes and no.

Setting: braillePages yes

Whether or not to format the output into pages. Here the value is yes, for use with an embosser. However the user of a braille display may wish to specify no, so as not to be bothered with page numbers and forms feed characters. If no is specified the lines will still be of the length given in callsPerLine, but the value of linesPerPage will be ignored.

Setting: paragraphs yes

Whether or not to format the output into paragraphs, using appropriate styles. If no is specified, what would be a paragraph is output simply as one long line. Applications that wish to do their own formatting may specify no.

Setting: BeginingPageNumber 1

This is the number to be placed on the first Braille page if braillePages is yes. This is useful when producing multiple Braille volumes.

Setting: printPageNumberAt top

If print page numbers are given in the xml input file they will be placed at the top of each braille page in the right-hand cerner. A page separator line will also be produced on the braille page where the print page break actually occurs. You may also specify ``bottom'' for this setting.

Setting: braillePageNumberAt bottom

The braille page number will be placed in the bottom right-hand corner of each page. If interpoint yes has been specified only odd pages will receive page numbers. If you specify top for this setting then bottom must be specified for printPageNumberAt .

Setting: hyphenate no

If yes is specified words will be hyphenated at the ends of lines if a hyphenation table is available. In contracted English Braille hyphenation is not required and saves little if any space.

Setting: encoding ascii8

This specifies that the output is to be in the form of 8-bit ASCII characters. This is generally used if the output is intended directly for a braille embosser or display. The other values of encoding are utf8 and utf16. These are useful if the application will process the output further, such as for generating displays of braille dots on a screen.

Greg Kearney 2007-05-30