DTBook XML to DAISY 3 Conversion Guide

The DAISY Pipeline App is a multi-format converter, and it includes a script that transforms a DTBook XML file into the DAISY 3 format book with or without audio in text-to-speech voices. Note that a Microsoft Word document can be converted to a DTBook XML file using Save as DAISY available free of cost from the DAISY Consortium website.

If you have any book/document in DTBook XML format follow the steps given below to convert it to DAISY 3.

1. Start the Pipeline App and wait for the Pipeline engine to start (this could take 15-30 seconds).
2. Click on File in the menu at the top and then click on Settings.
3. In the TTS engines tab make sure your preferred TTS engine such as Azure is connected. You can check the article Using Azure and Google TTS in DAISY Pipeline for more information.
4. In the Voices tab of the Settings window, make sure to select voices that support languages contained in the DTBook file you are going to convert. Generally you will select one voice unless the XML file has multiple languages, in which case you should be selecting one voice for each language. Click on Save and Close button to save your preferences.
5. Now in the Pipeline app main screen, click on New Job in File menu or click the + shaped button.
6. In “Select a script” click on DTBook to DAISY 3 (TTS enhanced). The following screen will be displayed.



7. Click on Browse button and select the DTBook file. Note that this file has “.xml” extension.
8. Enabling TTS log is optional.
9. It is recommended that you provide the Publisher name
10. Select the checkbox under “Enable Text to Speech” if you want to add audio files recorded in TTS voice to the resulting DAISY 3 book.
11. You can also browse and select a custom CSS to modify the visual presentation of the DAISY book.
12. You can also Browse and select a Lexicon file if available. Lexicon file for TTS narration contains rules for pronunciation of certain words, acronyms and abbreviations. The Lexicon file will need to be created and edited externally. When Lexicon is not selected, the text is narrated by the TTS engine using its default rules.
13. The “Speak Alt Text” checkbox should generally be checked unless you do not want TTS to record the image descriptions provided in the document.
14. You can also select the “With text” checkbox to keep the document text in the resulting DAISY 3 book.
15. “Detect Words” is optional and most DAISY 3 books are not synched to this level.
16. Now click on “Run” button.
17. The conversion status will be displayed at the top. It will be either Running, Completed or Error. Under the “Messages” heading, various conversion steps, warnings and error messages are shown on screen.
18. When the status says Complete or Error, you can click on the Results folder and review the output.
19. The output folder will have the DAISY 3 book typically with numerous SMIL, xml and audio files.

This book can now be opened and read using any software or hardware DAISY player such as Dolphin Easy Reader, Thorium, Victor reader stream, Evo E10, etc.

You also have the option to convert this DAISY 3 book to MP3 file folder compatible with low cost MP3 players such as mega Voice or the Vine player, Basic MP3 player, Basic feature mobile phone, USB/SD card speakers, etc. DAISY pipeline app can be used for such conversion.

Tags: Pipeline App