[Athen] text-only DAISY conversion

[Ron Stewart]

Evening John, just getting home.

 

The only one that I am aware of is the TAMC tool that Kris Von See created.  I am not aware of the licensing associated with it but would be more than happy to look into it. If there is an interest.  It was really valuable in the early NIMAS days and actually something I still use when nothing else will work.

 

Ron Stewart

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of John Gardner
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 5:04 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] text-only DAISY conversion

 

Ron, are there any open source scripts that convert MS Word XML to something more straightforward?  Or even just algorithms. It would be nice to have something we could all standardize on.

 

John

 

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Ron Stewart
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 11:12 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] text-only DAISY conversion

 

Afternoon all, it was my understanding that they were using components of the DAISY Pipeline, which while close is not exactly the same thing.  All the major converters that are using either have for the most part added custom scripting to standardize the output and avoid issues such as those caused in the proprietary markup that you will find in specific XML implementations such as that is found in Docx.

 

Not sure if it makes any real difference to most of you but this has been one of the challenges that we have faced over the years as we have tried to move forward with a robust, standardized and easily implemented solution in the AIM space.  XML is a specification but it can be implemented in a huge variety of ways and forms.

 

Ron Stewart

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Heidi Scher
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 11:07 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] text-only DAISY conversion

 

Hey there, Sean,

According to the tech at Bookshare, they use the Save As DAISY plug-in. So not sure why we can't get it to work but they can. For GoRead, it doesn't want all the SMIL files either. But since we're swamped right now, I've moved on since my MacGyver solution has worked!  But, if things ever slow down, I'll revisit the issue - unless someone else can figure out what we haven't.

Wink, I SOOOO wish we had an easy button for conversion!  

Heidi




+++++++++++++++
Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC
Associate Director
Center for Educational Access
University of Arkansas
ARKU 104
Fayetteville, AR 72701
479.575.3104
479.575.7445 fax
479.575.3646 tdd
+++++++++++++++

 

On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Sean Keegan <skeegan at stanford.edu> wrote:

Hi Heidi,

 


>From what I understand about the DAISY XML file produced by the Save As DAISY plugin is that it is not exactly a text-only DAISY DTB as it is lacking  the NCX or SMIL files. It is, essentially, a precursor to producing a DTB. That said, most DAISY reading apps can handle a DAISY XML file. Perhaps the issue is that the Go Read app will only support a complete DAISY 3 DTB and not the DAISY XML file? 


 

Glad you were able to get it to work with the ePub conversion with Calibre. It's probably what MacGyver would use instead of his swiss army knife if he did alt media production...

 

Take care,

Sean

 

 

On Sep 4, 2014, at 10:49 AM, Heidi Scher <hascherdss at gmail.com> wrote:

 

Thank you everyone for the feedback!  I'm passing every little tidbit along to our lab coordinator.

I need to clarify a couple of points. We are not converting Bookshare books, but are converting the student's course materials. We already do full DAISY as most all of our students love using full DAISY.  I'm not having trouble converting to text-only DAISY. The files are converting and work fine with AMIS. BUT, for students who want to use the GoRead DAISY app for Android, the text-only DAISY that works in AMIS does not work in GoRead.  

Yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to go a different route. I combined all the Word Docx files that we use for DAISY conversion into one large file. Then ran it through Calibre for ePub. AND...drumroll....it now reads out loud in GoRead!

Just more information to put into our arsenal for future reference!  

Thank you again one and all!

Heidi




+++++++++++++++
Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC
Associate Director
Center for Educational Access
University of Arkansas
ARKU 104
Fayetteville, AR 72701
479.575.3104
479.575.7445 fax
479.575.3646 tdd
+++++++++++++++

 

On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 2:48 PM, Ron Stewart <ron at ahead.org> wrote:

That may be an option, and it still works. Unfortunately Kris is no longer supporting it as far as I am aware.

 

Ron Stewart

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Gaeir Dietrich
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2014 2:29 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'


Subject: Re: [Athen] text-only DAISY conversion

 

 

You can also use Tech Adapt’s free TAMC program: 

 

http://accessiblemediacenter.techadapt.com/ 

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
408-996-6047 or 408-996-4636

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Neal Sorensen
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2014 12:19 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Athen] text-only DAISY conversion

 

Hello Heidi,

 

Bookshare books are surprisingly easy to convert to Text Only.  Here’s a quick how-to…

 

1.       Unzip the file downloaded from Bookshare, and open the extracted folder.

2.       Look for the file ending in .XML and open it in an internet browser (I recommend Firefox)

3.       Copy the full text from the browser and paste it into a word processor.

4.       Breathe easy

 

XML file contains the full text, often with Images, with some rich text formatting and pages indicated.  XML usually contains styles too, but I don’t think that is included in the Bookshare XML.

 

I have noticed that newer versions of Mac OS X have had compatibility issues with Bookshare software.  Read:OutLoud hasn’t run successfully for me in almost a year on Macs.  This is the best method I have discovered for working around that issue, and still using Bookshare content with those students.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Neal Sorensen

Specialist of Assistive Technology

Office of Disability Resources

Naropa University: Boulder, CO

nsorensen at naropa.edu

Phone: 303-546-3560

 

The Machine is Us/ing Us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

"A wonderful exploration of how new types of text are changing the world…"

 

 

Hi all,

 

This semester we've had several students who are needing text-only DAISY so that they can access DAISY on their Android devices.  Is anyone out there converting to text-only DAISY? We've been in contact with Bookshare and they use the Save As DAISY plug-in for Word. But we aren't having any luck getting that to work.

 

Anyone have any ideas??

 

Thanks in advance!!

 

Heidi

 


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