Pre-processing

In 2002, we observed that 25 different formats had been gathered on the Helen Server, provided by publishers or special print houses. Thus it appeared necessary to harmonize these formats in order to build a coherent publishing chain allowing the production of customized output formats on demand, automation, and portability. The NISO Z39.86-2002 standard, i.e DAISY 3.0. XML and the DTBook Document Type Definition (DTD), were chosen as a pivotal format for encoding the documents [6]. In order to make the production of DTBook document easy for people who are not familiar with XML techniques BrailleNet has created a processing chain based on well known word processing software, like MS Word or Open Office. Particularly, we have developed MS Word macros that help people produce well structured RTF respecting some simple requirements. Such documents may contain information about the hierarchical structure, as well as original page numbers, MathML formulas and metadata. These RTF files are uploaded on the Hélène Server which converts them automatically into XML files, using the upCast software by Infinity Loop . The XML file is then converted into XML DTBook using a XSL stylesheet developed by BrailleNet.