[Blindmath] Writing Math

Mon Oct 14 17:45:54 UTC 2013

Hello all, Several of you have asked about the new LEAN math.  I expect to
post the next beta version within a few days.  In answer to several of you,
yes, it does require that you have MS Word and a recent version of MathType.
LEAN has been tested with MS Word 2007 and 2010.  And with the last three
versions of MathType.  It probably works with earlier versions of both, but
it has not yet been tested with them.  MathType is available for around
US$50 at academic discount.  Check out www.dessci.com.  There is a 30-day
free trial, so if you are not sure you want to use LEAN, you can try it for
30 days free.  Note that one can convert equations written with the MS math
editor to MathType equations, so basically any Word document with equations
can be used with LEAN.

Let me give a little more detail on what LEAN will do.  If you have an
existing Word document, you can just put the cursor on the equation object,
open the LEAN editor, and it will display that equation as a LEAN string and
also as a braille string.  You can set a preference for the braille to be a
special LEAN Braille that I developed or as Nemeth.  Other official braille
codes will be available soon.  You may edit the LEAN equation if you wish
and set a preference for the format to be used for the alt text of that
equation in Word.  When you save the equation, it will appear as a perfectly
normal equation to a sighted person and to a screen reader as a MathType
object with alt text.  If you elect to use braille as the alt text, your
screen reader will show it on an on-line braille display.  The LEAN editor
works with any screen reader, but the alt text within the Word document is
presently not shown by Window-Eyes.  This is a bug that has already been
fixed so the next version of Window-Eyes should work fine, in fact better
than Jaws.  Right now, NVDA and Jaws both present the alt text, but Jaws has
a lot of extra verbage about the MathType object.

If you just want to read a Word document in braille, you do not need to
laboriously open each equation and re-save it.  There is a special LEAN app
that puts alt text into any selected region of the Word document.  If you
select the full document, all equations will have alt text added.  

But there are other ways to read MathType.  The real reason I wrote LEAN was
to permit authoring.  It should be quite intuitive for people using speech
screen readers or the LEAN Braille.  There are many shortcuts that are
helpful for manipulating equations.  Such things as ability to cut or copy
parts or a full equation and paste back in.  There are special routines for
fractions in addition to the copy, cut, paste possibilities.  You can paste
a fraction inverted, you can convert a string into a fraction or vice versa.
Very powerful and hopefully not a big learning curve either.  I do have a
good manual for it.

Let me emphasize that this is not an authoring system using Nemeth braille.
One can display the equation in Nemeth, but LEAN does not include a Nemeth
back-translator.  As various discussions on this list have emphasized,
back-translation is a difficult problem even if the Nemeth is absolutely
correct.  If one wants to help people with correcting errors, well, that's
way beyond my abilities.

John Gardner

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of I. C.
Bray
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 6:41 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Writing Math

John,

does becoming a beta tester require us to have MathType already?
What should we have before we inquire?  Got any hints / suggestions?

Ian

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Gardner" <gardnerj at onid.orst.edu>
To: "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2013 11:36 PM
Subject: [Blindmath] Writing Math

: This list has been amazingly fertile lately with information about new and
: ever better technologies for reading math.  Michael, do I understand that
: one can input Nemeth into Safari as well as output it?  That would be 
pretty
: amazing.
:
:
:
: This is a good time to bring you all up to date on LEAN Math.  I just 
posted
: a new beta version and hope to have a final release before end of 2013.
: LEAN is a general interface to math for use with audio or braille screen
: readers.  It was developed to provide a convenient way to write and
: manipulate math, not just read it.  In principle LEAN is useful for any
: authoring system that can input and output MathML. Version 1 is an 
interface
: to MS Word+MathType.  I went that route because it is the most popular
: scientific authoring application in the world.
:
:
:
: LEAN should be very intuitive.  Function keys act as pull-down menus for
: math symbols and expressions.  There are also hot keys for most popular
: items such as inserting a fraction or a square root, or a table, an
: integral, a differential, etc.  These are inserted from the Function Key
: menus or hot keys, and place markers indicate where you are to insert - ie
: the numerator and denominator of that fraction, etc.  LEAN was developed 
to
: be extremely convenient for people using speech, but it works in braille
: too.
:
:
:
: If you'd like to join the beta test, send me a note.
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
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