Now including MegaMath and Beginner Braille for free!

MegaDots is a mature DOS, Windows and Mac braille translator with powerful features for the volume transcriber and producer. Its straightforward, style-based system and automated features let you create great braille with only a few keystrokes. Yet it is sophisticated enough to please the fussiest braille producers -- you can control each step MegaDots follows to format, translate and produce braille documents. The new version, incorporating a year and a half of improvements, is now delivered on CD-ROM instead of a stack of floppy disks.

• New version 2.2 MegaDots is shipped on CD-ROM for easy installation. All the documentation is available from a simple menu on your browser.
• MegaDots 2.2 runs under all Windows versions: 3.1x, 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP. MegaDots includes instructions on installing an icon for Windows.
• MegaDots 2.2 includes improved script files for JAWS for Windows
• MegaDots 2.2 includes improved ability to import publisher (SGML) files
• Since MegaDots recognizes many file formats, you can bring in virtually any document and set it up for braille. MegaDots supports all commercial braille embossers and all modern inkprint printers.
• Whenever you want to see how the braille looks, press the Translate key. Suddenly you're looking at the same words, but in braille! You can jump around, edit or enter more braille. Braille entry can be done using a six-key technique, or as "Inkprint in braille", where the words you type become braille as you type them. When you are done in braille, press the Translate key once more and you return to print.
• Users of voice and refreshable braille displays will appreciate interacting with software tailored for blind access. Screens are simple and free of clutter, and you don't have to fuss around to know where you are in the software. When you move into a new area, the name of the screen is spoken, such as "Editor", "Main menu" or "Save file help".
• For large print users, MegaDots supports popular screen enlargement programs, as well as a built-in large text mode. You'll never have to scroll around looking for text or information that's off the screen. All you need to see is right there in front of you.
• For sighted users, MegaDots has a familiar look and feel. Pull-down menus, point and click mouse interaction and colorful screens make working fun. The braille itself can be viewed in a variety of forms, depending on what is most readable for you.
• MegaDots gives you the features you expect from a modern word processor, such as macros, bookmarks, and find and replace.
  

Product Notes

• · The File Importer is smarter than ever: it identifies what kind of document you're importing (i.e., a letter, poetry, etc.) and automatically applies the appropriate styles to the imported document. This important and intuitive step minimizes the time and effort it used to take to make great braille.
• MegaDots imports Windows Help Screens, which are otherwise very difficult to access with speech or refreshable braille.
• For users who want total control, automatic features of the importer can be temporarily and selectively disabled.
  

• · MegaDots knows that optical scanners make visual mistakes and has a system for changing nonsense back into the right words. And now, optically scanned documents are automatically recognized and cleaned up - before you even edit your document! Just import your optically scanned document, and obviously misspelled text is corrected, i.e., quot;farnily" is changed to "family". Other common format errors are also fixed, such as split paragraphs and misnumbered list items.
  
• · Here's how it works. First, the scanned document's format is cleaned up. For example, optical scanners often break up paragraphs inappropriately or misnumber lists of items. MegaDots correctly formats these areas. It can even remove the garble that results from scanning pictures or graphics within the text. The text itself is then cleaned up, one word at a time. MegaDots will find and correct any obviously misspelled words before you even view your imported document. Running headers, footers and page numbers that occur on each page are removed and used for print page indicators in the document.

3. Improved Spell Checker

• We've added over 20,000 words to the dictionary. The Spell Checker now recognizes over 110,000 words.
  

4. Large Print Features!

• Create beautiful large print up to five times as tall and wide as standard fonts (up to 64 point).
• MegaDots supports your printer's scalable fonts for the most attractive possible large print.
• With new large print page indicators, you'll be able to follow page numbers from the original text.

5. Advanced Inkprint Printing Capabilities
We're proud to present these useful features designed specifically to make learning and proofreading braille easier. And while we were at it, we threw in quite a bit for users who need high quality, customizable inkprint, too.

• MegaDots now supports all modern inkprint printers, including postscript printers.
• Choose from ten different kinds of inkprint braille.
• Make inkprint braille and text on the same page in three different formats: side by side, word by word, and line by line.
• Side by Side displays the braille page next to the print page on one sheet.
• Word by Word puts the print word directly over each braille word.
• Line by Line mode puts the print line above each braille line.
• Now you caour printer.
• Adjustable vertical and horizontal spacing makes inkprint layout to your most exacting specifications.

6. Get a detailed document overview with the Interpret Format feature.

• New Interpret Format screen shows you what's in your document: how many and which styles it uses; whether there are tabs, running headers, or print page indicators; and other useful information. This overview helps you check the "big picture"of your document.
• Make global changes to your document. For example, change all Poetry paragraphs to Body text.
• Within the overview, you can ask for greater detail. For example, you can view just the poetry in your document, or all of the print page indicators.
• Within one of these views, you can jump straight to that place in the text. Or, stay within the view, and make changes there.
• Use Interpret Format to adjust the importation of a document. When used right after import, you can adjust MegaDots' document cleanup, how MegaDots selects styles and what import features or styles to use while importing.

7. Easy Table Formatting!
We have worked with the pickiest braille transcribers to revamp our table formatting.

• MegaDots follows all of the new BANA and British table rules.
  
• MegaDots will automatically squeeze the table to fit on the braille page.
  
• If you braille table is too wide for the braille page, MegaDots can put it on two facing pages.
  
• Column Blocking lets you cut and paste entire columns.
  
• Format your word list in columns with Make Clipboard Columns. This feature now lets you choose the number of columns you want to generate.

8. MegaDots now handles diacritics.
MegaDots now supports all of the diacritical marks shown in the textbook format codebook. This speeds up another laborious aspect of making braille.

9. Better Voice Options
MegaDots Version 2 contains a good configuration for Jaws for Windows version 3. Now your Windows screen reader (if you have Jaws for Windows 3) can read your DOS application. Version 2 also includes the freeware speech program PROVOX and the shareware program Tiny Talk.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does MegaDots Do Windows?

  Yes, even though MegaDots 2.2 is still an MS-DOS application. MegaDots works with Windows 3.1x, 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, and XP. Most people using MegaDots today are using it from Windows.
  

• Can you call MegaDots from Windows, without going into a DOS box?

  Yes. When you install MegaDots, it guides you through installing a Windows icon for launching MegaDots.
  

• Can MegaDots bring in files from Microsoft Word?

  Yes.However, until recently MegaDots did not bring in files from recent versions of Word, specifically files from Word 97 and Word 8. Beginning with version 2.02, MegaDots imports these files very well, as long as you are working on a Windows 95 or higher system (and you are not running in MS-DOS mode)

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• If a blind person uses mainly Windows applications on their computer, can they use MegaDots with voice or refreshable Braille access? Yes.

  Many blind Windows-based computer users are using MegaDots successfully. These users have a number of options for speech or refreshable Braille access to MegaDots. JAWS for Windows version 3.0 or higher works in DOS applications. Because many people wanted to use MegaDots with JFW, we have included a set of MegaDots script files, for use with JFW 3.0 or higher. Since November 1998, MegaDots has been working well with JFW. We are also aware that two other Windows screen readers, Outspoken and Window Bridge, work in DOS applications, but we have not tested them with MegaDots. Other blind Windows users have been using MegaDots 2.0 with a DOS screen reader such as VocalEyes, ASAP, MasterTouch, ScreenPower, or one of the public domain or shareware programs such as JAWS for DOS, Provox, or TinyTalk. When the MegaDots installation software guides you through setting up a MegaDots icon, it offers the opportunity to have your DOS screen reader come up automatically as you launch MegaDots from Windows.
  

• Can MegaDots print through Windows?

  We have greatly simplified the process of printing braille from MegaDots through Windows.