[Perform-Talk] Sao Mai Braille 24.1.4 Release Announcement

[David Andrews]

>
>
>From: SM Support Team <support at saomaicenter.org>
>
>
>
>New Year Greetings from Sao Mai Center for the Blind (SMCB)!
>We trust that you enjoyed wonderful moments with 
>your loved ones during the Christmas and New 
>Year holidays! Wishing you a joyous, healthy, and prosperous 2024!
>We are delighted to share the first news of the 
>year 2024 – the release of Sao Mai Braille 
>software versionn 24.1.4. We hope you find it 
>valuable and would highly appreciate your help 
>in spreading the word. Kindly find the release 
>announcement below, or click here to read it on our website.
>Warm regards,
>Dang Hoai Phúc/Executive Director
>Sao Mai Center for the Blind
>
>
>Sao Mai Braille 24.1.4 Release Announcement
>
>
>
>To celebrate World Braille Day on January 4th, 
>the birthday of Louis Braille, a blind person 
>who invented the Braille writing system, we are 
>pleased to announce the release of 
><https://saomaicenter.org/en/smsoft/smb>Sao Mai 
>Braille (SMB) software version 24.1.4. SMB is 
>created to provide a unified solution in the 
>Braille conversion process for text, images, mathematics, and music.
>
>The "SM Music Braille" translation software 
>library has been renamed to 
>"<https://saomaicenter.org/en/smsoft/sm-music-braille>SM-BungSang", 
>with our gratitude expression to commemorate the 
>contributions of the Teachers, Colleagues, and 
>Friends who paved the way from the Bung Sang 
>Club and the Bung Sang Computer Project back to 
>the years before 2002. These were the solid 
>foundation stones for the Sao Mai Center for the 
>Blind to be established, developed, and to have 
>served the visually impaired community for over 20 years.
>
>Some notable new features and improvements in 
>this Sao Mai Braille version include: full 
>support for the process of drawing, editing and 
>converting images to tactile graphics; reading 
>mathematical expressions in Traditional Chinese 
>and significant improvements for UEB and 
>Vietnamese Braille math; upgrading to the 
>SM-BungSang 24.1 music translation library with 
>new features supporting advanced music scores 
>and complex musical notations, applying separate 
>music settings profile for scores; several 
>updates to Braille translation tables for 
>English and Hungarian; new find and replace 
>dialogues with 6-key Braille input; and numerous 
>improvements and important bug fixes.
>
><https://saomaicenter.org/en/smsoft/smb>Visit 
>Sao Mai Braille’s main page to download.
>
>Below is detailed information about the changes in the SMB 24.1 release.
>
>
>Tactile Graphics
>
>
>
>Besides the function of inserting and displaying 
>images in the print document, now, SMB 24.1 
>fully supports the process of drawing, editing 
>and converting images into tactile graphics. SMB 
>integrates the Sao Mai Graphics (SMG), a tool 
>for drawing and editing images. The 
><https://saomaicenter.org/en/smsoft/smg>SMG tool 
>can be also downloaded, installed, and run as a standalone application.
>
>By default, SMB will ignore all images when 
>converting from print to Braille. To change 
>relevant settings, go to the Tools menu, open 
>the Options dialogue, and choose the Tactile Graphics page.
>
>When an image is inserted directly into a 
>Braille document or translated into Braille from 
>a print document, the image will be converted to black and white.
>
>To insert a picture:
>    * Open the Insert menu and select Picture, or press Alt+F10.
>    * Choose an image and add it to the 
> document. If inserting an image into a Braille 
> document, a dialog box will appear to adjust brightness and darkness.
>
>After completing the insertion, as in the print 
>document, press Alt+Enter on the image to open 
>the Image Properties dialogue, allowing 
>customization of some basic settings and providing alternate text.
>
>If the focus is in the Braille document, press 
>Alt+Enter on the image to open the SMG tool, allowing you to edit the image.
>
>The interface of the tool is fully accessible 
>for screen reading users and entirely intuitive 
>for all users. Please refer to the User Guide for more detailed instructions.
>
>
>Mathematics
>
>
>
>    * Initial support of CMU - the braille code 
> used in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.
>    * UEB Braille: added auxiliary parenthesis 
> in some cases, added new characters for UEB, and fixed some bugs.
>    * Significant improvements to Vietnamese math and chemistry braille.
>    * Fixed bug with navigating into the base of 
> a scripted expression that has parenthesis.
>    * Significantly changed the way whitespace 
> is handled. This mainly affects braille output 
> (spaces and "omission" detection).
>    * Improved recognition of chemistry.
>    * Added Traditional Chinese translation for speech.
>    * Improvements to Vietnamese speech.
>    * Fix Roman numeral detection.
>    * Fixed some navigation bugs when AutoZoomOut is False (not the default).
>    * Fix whitespace bug in HTML inside of tokens.
>    * Several improvements for cleaning up poor MathML code.
>
>
>Music
>
>
>
>    * Added an option to indicate the start and 
> stop of a slur on the same note. The option is 
> in the Transcription page in Options dialogue -> Music Braille.
>    * Added option to convert line breaks of 
> direction text to spaces. This will interpret 
> multiline text into a single-line text. The 
> option is in the Text Direction page, in Options dialogue -> Music Braille.
>    * Supported to translate each score in a 
> document with a different music settings 
> profile. This is helpful for cases like 
> translating a music textbook in which scores 
> might prefer to have different formats or 
> translation rules. To apply, open Score info 
> dialogue, select a score from the Score list 
> and choose a profile in the "Music profile" list next to it.
>    * Added Description field in Music 
> Braille’s Profile page in Options dialogue. 
>  From the profile list, use arrow keys to a profile and press Enter to select.
>    * Increased to 20 Braille characters allowed 
> to input for the Braille part abbreviation, 
> staff name and instrument abbreviation in Score Info dialogue.
>    * Part tab is selected by default when navigating in Score Info dialogue.
>    * The breve note will be indicated by dot 
> 45-14 connecting between two normal whole 
> notes. For example, C breve will be: ⠽⠘⠉⠽.
>    * Improved some rules for indicating the value signs.
>    * Fixed an issue of not correctly indicating 
> the accidentals for the degree and bass notes in chord symbols.
>    * Upgraded the doubling function, allowing 
> for doubling multiple signs at the same time.
>    * Fixed the error of indicating an 
> unnecessary octave sign after a single trill line.
>    * Fixed several issues of not doubling 
> intervals and unnecessarily re-indicating the 
> octave sign when enabling the backward-numeral or measure-number repeats.
>    * Upgraded the repeating function in all 
> four modes: part-measure, full-measure, 
> backward-numeral, and measure-number repeats. 
> Additionally, the performance of 
> backward-numeral and measure-number repeats has been significantly improved.
>    * Supported repeating and doubling functions 
> simultaneously. Optimized the algorithm to save 
> Braille cells when both repeating and doubling cases happen.
>    * Handled the combination of multiple 
> measure rests in all transcription modes. 
> Combining multiple measure rests is no longer a 
> feature of the full-measure repeat option. 
> Fixed alignment bugs of bar-over-bar format for 
> some cases of combining measure rests.
>    * Fixed an error of missing notes when the 
> first staff is hidden, and tempo text is on staff 2.
>
>
>Other Changes
>
>
>
>    * New Find and Replace dialogues: support to 
> find next, find previous, replace one by one 
> and replace all. Screen readers announce the 
> status of results. Additionally, it supports to 
> input text in 6-key Braille input method with either Ascii or Unicode Braille.
>    * Added an option to automatically remove 
> blank lines at the beginning of the braille 
> pages when embossing or saving as BRF, BRL, BRA, and PEF files.
>    * Updated to LibLouis 3.28.
>    * Fixed an issue of an extra blank page when 
> the page break character coincides with the 
> translation point to a new braille page.
>    * Fixed a bug that added dot 3 in the 
> Braille window when pressing Ctrl+S to save.
>    * In the braille window, pressing F4 will 
> read the translation table filename of the 
> current content if different from the default table.
>    * The screen reader no longer reads "delete" when typing in Vietnamese.
>    * In the Options dialog, pressing F6 will 
> move between the left pane for selecting 
> configuration page and the right pane for 
> settings of the selected configuration page. If 
> the right pane is divided into multiple 
> configuration option groups, pressing F6 will 
> move to the groups before switching to the left pane.
>    * In the braille window, the status bar 
> displays additional information indicating 
> whether the braille code is Unicode or ASCII.
>    * Fixed an issue when translating some data tables from MS Word files.
>    * Added support for translating MS Word 
> table of contents in the style of SMB.
>    * Numerous improvements for translating 
> content in the header and footer of an MS Word document.
>    * Removed the option "as LibLouis" in the 
> Display Braille Code combo box in the 
> Translation Tables page in the Options dialog.
>    * Audible notification while waiting for the 
> program to perform translation tasks.
>    * Fixed error when activating the Customize 
> button in Bullets and Numbering dialogue. 
> Screen readers should speak hex value of the selected bullet symbol.
>    * Announced link when navigating with up and down arrow keys.
>
>
>
>--
>Support Team
>Visit our website at: 
><https://saomaicenter.org>Sao Mai Center for the Blind (SMCB)
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