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Symbols & Abbreviations

Symbols

Symbols will need to be replaced using Advance Symbol in Word. Simply go to the top menu bar in word, select the dropdown menu for Insert and select Advanced Symbol.

This will open up a new window.

Then you just have to select the appropriate symbol and click Insert.

For any symbols that aren’t in Word, you will need to insert the symbol using Unicode. First, you will need to set up your keyboard for Unicode input.

Mac Instructions

Windows Instructions

List of Control Characters for Unicode

Graphemica - Find the unicode for all characters

You can use the search bar at the top of the control page to search for what symbol you want.

Once your keyboard is set up you can insert the symbol.

For a Mac press and hold the Option key as you enter the appropriate code. For Windows it is the same process but with the Alt key.

Make sure you have the Unicode Hex Input selected on you keyboard for this to work.

Abbreviations & Acronyms

We keep abbreviations as they appear in the text.

If the book has the abbreviation St. for 'Saint' you will need to change it to the full word. The reader will read St. as 'street'.
When you are going through your book, be sure to make note of abbreviations which should be pronounced as words (e.g., NATO, AIDS, AWOL, etc.). When you are finished with the book, include this information in the notes when you transfer the ticket back to the Project Coordinator via RT. In the XML, instructions regarding pronunciation can be included. (I like to have a separate document on the go called "Book_Title_Notes" for anything that might be important to share with the Project Coordinator.)

Q&A

Q: How should I format 'æ'? The book I have uses a lot of older medical terms (e.g. Bullæ , Squamæ,Papulæ , æther, etc.)

A: You can insert these letters using Insert > Advanced Symbol in Word. It may appear as all caps after insertion, but you can change that to lowercase using the appropriate button in the toolbar.

Q: If we have Ampersands in the text, or simlar symbols such as # or %, should we replace them with the proper word?

If the symbols are actually part of the original text then we keep them. If it’s a result of a messed up conversion, we can fix them. Text-to-speech is smart!

Q: My book discusses the "common soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)", and "RNA interference (RNAi)". Should these abbreviations remain as Bt and RNAi? Or should I change it to BT and RNAI?

Good question! Please keep as-is. Abbreviations can be marked as such in the XML, so that they'll be read properly by devices.

Q: Should abbreviations like "A.M." and "A.D." retain their periods, or be changed to "AM" and "AD"? I am just wondering if the periods would make it sound awkward as a DAISY talking book.

A: We can keep abbreviations as they are written. TTS will read "A.M." and "A.D." as intended. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that many people with print impairments read the e-text, so it's best to keep it as true to the original writing as possible. Any abbreviations that need explanation can be marked up in the XML.

public/nnels/etext/symbols.1562700143.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/07/09 12:22 by rachel.osolen