As Tobi currently acts as a re-purposing tool, you will need some original content in the form of a text document or an existing book to republish it into a full-text, full-audio digital talking book. If, however, you are starting from scratch, you can create material in Microsoft Word or Open Office and then use the Save as DAISY add-in to convert it into an XML document in DTBook format.We recommend you create all the headings, pages and other skippable elements before saving the document as DAISY but you can take advantage of the text and structure editing features of Tobi to correct typos or modify the structure of the document later.The following formats can be imported in Tobi:

• DTBook.xml
• EPUB 3 text-only book
• Full-text, full-audio DAISY 3 book
• EPUB 3 audio media overlays

 To Import a Document or an Existing Book

1. Click File->Import in the menu bar or press Ctrl+I.  A dialog box will open to let you browse for the required file.
2. Look for .xml file in the case of a DTBook,  an .opf file for a DAISY book, and .epub file for an EPUB book.
3. Select the appropriate file and click on the Open button. A dialog lets you select the audio format for the project.
4. Choose the sampling rate to be used for audio files from the combo box; the higher the sampling rate, the better the audio quality and thus more disk space required.
5. If you wish to use stereo channels for audio, check the checkbox Stereo; leave it unchecked for a mono channel.
6. To preserve the audio format used by the source publication, check the checkbox Preserve source format.  Tobi will then override any selections made by the audio format of the imported publication.
7. Recheck your selections; once selected, the audio format can not be changed for the project.
8. Click on the OK button.

Tobi will now create a project directory in the _XUK folder in the same directory as your document file,  alongside other data and synchronization files. The document data will now be displayed in Tobi’s application window, which will be text and graphics in the case of a DTBook or an EPUB text-only book and audio if you are importing a DAISY book or EPUB media overlays.

You can also import a document in Tobi by dragging it from another resource, such as your Desktop, and dropping it into the application window. After you drop the file in Tobi, a dialog will open prompting you to select the audio format to be used in the project; you should follow the process from step number 4 listed above.

Once the project is opened, you will get full access to all its contents as well as settings. If you are a new user, it is advisable to first get acquainted with the components of the user interface, which are explained further in User Interface of Tobi.

Tobi maintains a record of recently opened projects, which are listed in the submenu File->Open recent in reverse chronological order. Each item in the submenu displays the full path of the project file and the last item, Clear, allows you to empty the list of recent projects. The same can also be achieved by using the Open Recent Dialog by clicking File->Open recent in the menu bar or by pressing Shift+Ctrl+O. The Open Recent Dialog will show if any of the recently opened projects are missing. It also facilitates some other actions like the deletion of missing shortcuts and searching for the required project.It is most likely that you will be able to find your project in the recent projects list. If not, you can browse for the project file (with .xuk extension) by clicking File->Open in the menu bar or by pressing Ctrl+O.  Alternatively, you can drag the project file from another resource and drop it in Tobi.

Saving

You can save an open project manually by clicking File->Save on the menu bar or by pressing Ctrl+S.

You can also instruct Tobi to save the project file (with .xuk extension) automatically each time it is modified. Select the checkbox Enable Auto Save Project in application preferences to activate this. Consequently, every command that updates the project file will also trigger auto-save for the file. Auto-save usually has a disadvantage that any wrong actions will also be saved automatically, but users can always revert to a previous state by using the Undo and Redo commands.

If you wish to save the file in a different location, follow the steps listed below:

1. Click File->Save as in the menu bar or press Shift+Ctrl+S
2. Tobi will confirm the removal of the redundant data before saving a copy of the project. Click Yes to confirm or No to continue without running the data cleanup command.
3. You will then be presented with a dialog box to browse for a location where the project should be saved. Choose the desired directory, enter an appropriate name for the new copy, and click Save. Tobi will copy all the contents of the project to the new location.
4. Finally, Tobi will ask if you wish to open the newly saved copy. Click Yes to open the newly created copy or No to keep working on the previous copy.

Closing

To close the project, click File->Close on the menu or press Ctrl+F4. If there are unsaved changes, Tobi will ask if you wish to save them. Click Yes to save or No to close the project without saving. You can also close the project by exiting Tobi using the shortcut Alt+F4.

Like all other applications, the cut, copy, and paste commands in Tobi let you copy data from one place to another.  You can execute these commands for audio content via three resources:

• the Edit menu,
• the Main toolbar
• by using keyboard shortcuts.

As text editing is enabled through a separate dialog box where you can not access the menu bar or main toolbars, it makes sense to use keyboard shortcuts for these commands. The menu items and shortcut keys for executing the commands are:

• Cut—Edit->Cut or Ctrl+X 
• Copy—Edit->Copy or Ctrl+C 
• Paste—Edit->Paste or Ctrl+V 

Tobi has a clipboard of its own to hold an item that is cut or copied until it is used by the paste command to insert it.  Tobi’s clipboard also interacts with other applications, so you can also copy and paste data to and from other applications.

Tobi maintains a stack of actions that have been executed in a current session allowing you to reverse particular actions. To undo the last executed action, click Edit->Undo in the menu bar or press Ctrl+Z. The Undo command will have two-fold effect:

• The modifications made by the last operation will be reversed.
• The undone action will be saved to the Undo stack of Tobi.

If you want to redo the undone operation, click Edit->Redo on the menu bar or press Ctrl+Y. The last undone operation will be executed again. You can redo all the operations undone in a row.

Note: you can use these commands even after saving the project.

When graphic or audio content is deleted, it is not removed from the disk but just de-linked from the project. This is done so that you can undo the delete command and reinstate the content if you wish to—the audio content may be a human voice recording and it might be difficult to arrange it again. Similarly, images may also be useful outside the scope of your project. Tobi therefore leaves deleted audio data in the project and provides the following two cleanup commands to remove it at a later time.

• Complete cleanup—Parses the entire audio data of the project for unreferenced audio. To perform complete cleanup, click Edit->Cleanup (complete) in the menu or press Ctrl+Alt+D
• Optimized cleanup—Parses only those audio files that were not cleaned earlier and thus increases the efficiency of the cleanup operation. It may ignore some minor changes in the previously cleaned files., however To perform optimized cleanup, click Edit->Cleanup (Optimized) on the menu or press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D

Tobi will compile the deleted data and store it in a folder named ___Deleted within the project directory. This folder is then opened letting you view the deleted files so that you can choose to remove all them at once or inspect each of them before removing.

The complete cleanup process arranges the audio data files in the order of the book and numbers them sequentially.  Also, it creates files to the size specified in the Clean Audio Max File Mega Bytes application preference, which can be altered using the Preferences dialog; fewer, larger files will help in reducing the load time when the project is fetched via a network. If you choose the value of the application preference as 0, Tobi will create one file per phrase.

Tobi also lets you reverse the last cleanup operation by clicking Edit->Cleanup Rollback. This command will reinstate the removed unreferenced audio back into the project. Note: for the rollback to execute successfully you must ensure that the physical data has not been removed from the folder containing the deleted files.

Tobi creates a backup of the project file with the execution of each command. The backup file bears the .autosave extension, and can be found under the project directory itself.  This backup file is very useful in scenarios when the system hangs or crashes abruptly. In such a case, work can be resumed by simply replacing the project file with the backup file.

Additional backup files are created each time you save the project.  These files carry the time stamp of the time when the project was saved.

Tobi enables you to browse the important directories from the application itself. This document will explain how these directories are organized. Click on any of the link below to understand the structure of a particular directory, or read on sequentially to gather information about all of them.

Menu

• Project Directory
• Application and Log
• User Settings
• Private Storage Space

Project Directory

When you import a document or an existing project in Tobi, a new directory is created under the _XUK folder which can be found at the same location as that of the document being imported. The project directory will be named as ImportedFileName_XUK. For example, if you import a document named “MyBook.xml”, the project directory will be named “MyBook.xml_XUK”.
Thereafter, Tobi will create a project file with .xuk extension with the same name as that of the document being imported. Continuing the same example as above, the project file will be named “MyBook.xml.xuk”. This project file is the repository for the entire text data of the document as well as the settings pertaining to the project. Additionally, it will contain links to the audio data for text and audio synchronization. In the case of an EPUB publication, an XUK file will be created for each XHTML document.

The audio and graphical data is copied in a separate directory, under the project directory, named ImportedFileName__Data. In the above example, this file will be named “MyBook.xml__Data”. Tobi preserves the formatting of the document being imported and stores the respective CSS file in the data folder. In the case of an EPUB publication, there will be one data folder for each XHTML document.

You can view the project directory by clicking Tools->Browse folder->Current project on the menu bar. During the course of book production, various files and directories are created.

Audio Files
Any data imported or recorded in Tobi is stored under the data folder as audio file in WAV format. Tobi follows its own naming conventions for audio files—the imported file will not bear the same name as before.

Deleted Data
When you give the delete command in Tobi to remove an audio selection, it is not removed physically but just delinked from the project. The actual deletion takes place when you perform project cleanup. During cleanup, all the delinked data is copied in the directory named “__DELETED” under the data folder. If you instruct Tobi not to delete the data permanently, it will remain in this folder, and you can inspect it any time.

Audio Data of Image Descriptions
Image description audio data is not stored with other audio data, but copied in a directory named ImportedFileName_IMAGE_DESCRIPTIONS_TEMP_AUDIO___DATA. In the above example, this directory would be named “MyBook.xml_IMAGE_DESCRIPTIONS_TEMP_AUDIO___DATA”.

Note: deletion of any image description audio data is copied to the “__DELETED” folder under this directory, and not to the deleted files folder mentioned above.

Exported Files
When you choose to export the project to a DAISY DTB, a new directory is created under the project directory named ImportedFileName.xuk__EXPORT by default. In the above example, this file would be “MyBook.xml.xuk__EXPORT”. The contents of this directory are:

• OPF file: The manifest file serving as the entry point and storehouse of settings and metadata of the publication.
• XML file: The file containing the textual data of the publication.
• CSS file: The cascading style sheet containing the formatting information of the document.
• Audio files: The files containing the audio content of the publication. They may be in WAV or MP3 format, as chosen at the time of export.
• SMIL files: Synchronization files to map text with audio.
• Image files: The images of the publication. Tobi will not alter their format while importing, processing, or exporting.
• NCX file: The navigation control file to be used by DAISY players.
• DTD file: If the imported document or book contained a data definition file, it will be preserved.

Application and Log

The application directory is where the executables, DLLs, and all the supporting files of Tobi reside. This directory is automatically updated by Tobi’s installer, and users may not need to visit this directory. You can view this directory by clicking Tools->Application executable on the menu.

User Settings

The user settings directory contains a file named “User.config”, which is an XML document listing the application preferences. As Tobi provides a dedicated dialog box for viewing or modifying application preferences, this file is rarely needed. Moreover, it is not advisable to alter this file manually as it may result in improper functioning of some of the components of Tobi. To view the user settings directory, click Tools->Browse folder->User settings on the menu.

Private Storage Space

This directory is primarily used by the Tobi application to store its data, such as recently opened files, temporary or cached data, etc. Therefore, it is termed as private storage space. To open this directory, click Tools->Browse folder->Private storage space on the menu. This folder also contains the application log which is constantly updated and is very useful in identifying or correcting any problems with the application. To see the application log, open the file “Tobi.log” which will open in your default text editor—“Notepad” on most of the Windows systems.

The elements of a document are not treated differently in Tobi, except for images which can have corresponding descriptions. However, understanding their elements will not only give a clear picture of the structure of your publication, but will also help you to formulate a set of rules for creating their audio equivalent. For example, you might want to change the pitch slightly for the audio of the headings, use a different synthetic voice for a skippable element such as a side bar, or supply an extra voice tag to linked elements.

Typically, there will be the following types of elements in a document:

• Book/Body—The root element of the document which is basically used for editing purposes
• Doctitle—Title of the publication
• Heading—Heading of a section, chapter, etc
• Plain text—Textual content corresponding to preceding heading or title
• Image—Graphical elements of the document
• Page—Page break including the page number
• Other skippable elements—The elements that can be skipped in DTB such as side bars, foot notes, etc. The skippable elements that are referenced from another element (anchor) will be linked to the respective anchors through a hyperlink

There are numerous methods to navigate to an item in the Document pane.

Menu

• Navigating to a Specific Item
• Navigating Sequentially through a Document
• Navigating via the Structure of a Document

Navigating to a Specific Item

The most useful resource is the Navigation pane that enables users to move directly to particular elements: headings, pages, images, or marks. It also eases navigation to a plain text portion of a document if you know the location of the text.

For example, to move to text on the14th page, you can do the following:

1. Go to the Navigation pane by pressing F8
2. Switch to the Pages tab by pressing Ctrl+Tab repeatedly till you reach there
3. Mouse users can simply double-click on number 14 in the list, and keyboard users can use the Down Arrow and press Enter when number 14 is encountered. Tobi will display page item numbered 14 in the Document pane.
4. To move the focus there, press F6. 
5. You can then move sequentially up and down to arrive at desired text.

Navigating Sequentially through a Document

The commands to move sequentially in the Document pane are presented in the Document toolbar and the Text menu. You may also use keyboard shortcuts for the same.

• To move to the next item, click Text->Select next phrase in the menu bar or press Ctrl+Period. Alternatively, you can use the Select next phrase button of the Document toolbar.
• To move to a previous item, click Text->Select previous phrase on the menu bar or press Ctrl+Comma. You can also use the Select previous phrase button of the Document toolbar for the same.

Navigating via the Structure of the Document

Another way of moving to an item is by taking the advantage of the hierarchy of the XML document using the Document Structure Trail. Each element of the trail is succeeded by a small triangle that envelopes a list of its children. To navigate to any of them, press Enter on the appropriate triangle to open the list and select the desired item from the sub-list. For example, if you are currently on a sub-element of front matter of the document and you wish to move to body matter, click on the triangle immediately after the Book button. Tobi will open a list showing the child elements of the Book element. Select bodymatter from the list and the focus will move there directly. Please note that if you click on any button representing an XML element, such as frontmatter, Tobi will only make a higher selection and not navigate to it.

You can also move the focus to linked elements, such as foot note, annotation, etc., by using the following commands:

• To move to the associated skippable element, click Text->Follow link on the menu or press Ctrl+L.
• To move back to anchor, click Text->Go back to link on the menu or press Shift+Ctrl+L.

Whenever you navigate to an item in the Document pane, it is automatically selected. However, there are two types of selections in Tobi:

• Lower Selection—considered as actual selection in Tobi as almost all the commands operate on this type of selection. Lower selections are highlighted by a green background and all the navigation commands listed in previous sections make lower selections. Note: unless stated explicitly, the term selection will signify lower selection in the manual.
• Higher Selection—denoted by a white smoke background, is made by clicking on the buttons of the Document Structure Trail. In this case, the lower selection is not disturbed and thus most of the operations will still be executed on earlier items. But some operations, such as expanding/narrowing sub-items and generating text for the entire document, are executed using higher selection.

These commands are specifically designed for the Document Structure Trail and are executed on the higher selection. To execute these commands:

• make a higher selection by clicking the appropriate button in the Document Structure Trail.  Keyboard users can use Tab and then press Enter.

Then, use either of the following:

• To expand or display the sub-items of the higher selection in the Document Structure Trail, click Text->Expand selection on the menu or press Shift+Ctrl+Comma. Alternatively, you can use the Expand selection button of the Document toolbar.
• To narrow or hide the sub-items of the higher selection, click Text->Narrow selection on the menu or press Shift+Ctrl+period. You may also use the Narrow selection button of the Document toolbar to achieve the same.

Tobi provides a find function that enables you to locate any item containing a particular word or phrase. You can activate the find function by clicking Tools->Find on the menu bar or by pressing Ctrl+F.  The find command opens:

• Dialog box displaying an edit box to type the search term
• Find next button to find the first entry matching the search term after the current position
• Find previous button to look for an item containing the search term before the current position.

You may also use the same search term to find another matching item by using the following commands:

• To find next item containing the same search term, click Tools->Find next on the menu bar or press F3.
• To find a matching item prior to the current item, click Tools->Find previous on the menu bar or press Shift+F3.

Tobi allows you to edit the textual content of a node within the document. Using this feature, you can correct spellings, add missing words, or remove redundant words.

The Edit Text dialog will open to display text from the selected node. If the selected node contains children, each one of them will be opened one by one, starting with the first child node. For example, if you select a paragraph node p, Tobi will display the contents of the first sent element, then second, and so on.

To edit the contents of a node:

1. Go to the item that you wish to edit. You can use the navigation commands or search function for the purpose.
2. Click Text->Edit text on the menu bar or press F2. Mouse users can use the shortcut Alt+Click on the item to be edited. A dialog box will open displaying the contents of the current item.
3. Make the corrections and click on the OK button.
4. If the selected node has more than one child, Tobi will open the Edit Text dialog again with the contents of the second child. This process will continue till the contents of the last child of the selected node have been displayed.

For instance, consider the following XML node:

<sent id="n10">Visit us at: <w>daisy.org</w></sent> 

If you press F2 on this node, Tobi will first display the text fragment: Visit us at: in the Edit Text dialog, and thereafter, the fragment daisy.org.

Note: you can cancel text editing by clicking on the Cancel button in the Edit Text dialog.

This feature is for advanced users who are familiar with DTBook and HTML mark-up. You should make a copy of your project before performing structure editing, as incorrect mark-up may render the project invalid.

Tobi allows you to edit the structure of your document. This can be very useful if you find some discrepancies within the actual document during production, as you may not wish to change the original document and start again.

The commands for structure editing can be found in the submenu of Text->Edit structure and they enable you to perform the following actions:

• Delete fragment—Delete the selected text fragment from the document
• Copy fragment—Copy the selected text fragment to the application clipboard
• Cut fragment—Delete the selected text fragment and store it in the application clipboard
• Paste fragment—Paste the text fragment from the application clipboard at the desired location: as the first child, as the last child, before the current location at the same depth, or after the current location at the same depth. To better understand how the fragment will be pasted, see the examples given in the description of Insert custom XML dialog below
• Insert page break—Insert a numbered page break at the current location
• Insert custom XML—Insert a new XML element and the corresponding content, such as a sentence, paragraph, etc.

All the above commands work on higher selection; so you must use the nodes (buttons) on the Document Structure Trail to select an item.  Also note that the structure editing commands can be executed on only those items that do not have audio corresponding to them.

The Insert custom XML and Insert page break commands open a dialog box which lets you enter the content to be inserted and to position it with respect to the current location. The following list analyses the fields of this dialog box:

• First inside—Insert the XML element as the first child of the selected item. For example, if you select a paragraph, by clicking on the p node in the Document Structure Trail, and try to insert a sentence, it will appear at the beginning of the paragraph in the Document Pane. The newly inserted sentence will thus become the first sentence of the paragraph.
• Last inside—Insert the XML element as the last child of the selected item. For example, if you select a paragraph and you try to insert a sentence, it will appear at the end of the paragraph in the Document Pane. The newly inserted sentence will thus become the last sentence of the paragraph.
• Before—Insert the XML element before the current element as its sibling. For example, if you select a paragraph and try to insert another paragraph, it will be inserted prior to the selected paragraph at the same depth. In the Document Pane, the newly inserted paragraph will appear above the selected paragraph.
• After—Insert the XML element after the current element as its sibling. For example, if you select a paragraph and try to insert another paragraph, it will be inserted subsequent to the selected paragraph at the same depth. In the Document Pane, the newly inserted paragraph will appear below the selected paragraph.
• Element name—The XML tag to be inserted; such as, sent etc.
• Text content—The actual content of the element
• Page label (number)—When you choose to insert a Page number, this field will be displayed instead of Element name and Text content fields. Enter the page number for the new page break.
• Advanced XML—Lets you insert a fragment with XML mark-up. If you provide a value to this field, the Element name and Text content fields will be ignored.

Note: If no text content was entered for the newly inserted element, it will not be shown in the Document Pane. However, it will appear in the Document Structure Trail.

Tobi’s in-built validator warns you if you insert incorrect mark-up. For example, if you insert an h1 XML element under a p element, Tobi will open the Validation dialog showing the mark-up error. See the topic valid structure of DTBook

Tobi enables you to place any number of document marks within your document. All your document marks are listed under the Marks tab of the Navigation pane, which can be used to move the focus on the marked item directly. To include the current item in the list of document marks , either click Text->Document marks->Toggle document mark in the menu or press Ctrl+K.

Note: This command is used both for marking as well as removing the document mark; therefore, if used twice it will remove the mark.

You can toggle the granularity at which the commands for working with document elements are executed. This feature enables users to work at both the higher levels such as a paragraph, or lower levels such as a sentence or a word. The application preference Enable Text Sync GranularityFALSEText Audio Sync Granularity. A quick method to switch between both the levels of granularity is to use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+T.

This command is very beneficial in improving the recording flow while narrating the contents, as you can narrate the whole paragraph before giving the Stop Recording and Continue command.

Note: To record at the paragraph level, the preference Enable Text Sync Granularity should be set to TRUE.

You can generate a synthetic voice equivalent for the text of your document in the following ways:

• To generate audio for the entire document, click Audio->TTS audio (Entire document) in the menu or press Shift+Ctrl+G.
• To generate audio for a selected item (section, paragraph, sentence, etc), click Audio->TTS audio (Selected text) on the menu, press Ctrl+G, or use the Generate TTS button in the Audio toolbar.

Tobi will generate the audio for these selections using synthetic voices that have been selected in the Audio Settings. If you have mapped different XML elements to different synthetic voices using the configuration file, the audio content for each XML element will be generated using the respective voice.

Tobi’s playback command lets you hear audio corresponding to your selection as well as the entire audio content of your project. To listen to the audio content of your selected item, click Audio->Playback->Playin the menu or press the space bar. Alternatively, you can click on the Play button in the Audio toolbar.

By default, the audio cursor moves to the beginning of the waveform once the entire content contained in the selection is played. You can instruct Tobi to keep the audio cursor at the end of the waveform by turning on the application preference Audio_Disable Auto Jump To Begin_ At End Of Playback.

To play the audio of the project continually, click Audio->Playback->Play auto advance on the menu, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Space or use the Play auto advance button in the Audio toolbar. Tobi will the keep on moving to the next item automatically while playing its audio. The Play auto advance command can be very useful for inspecting book contents in this way.

You can pause the playback by pressing the space bar.

Altering the Playback Speed

To increase or decrease the speed of the playback by use the following commands:

• To increase playback speed—click Audio->Playback->Increase playback rate on the menu or press Ctrl+Up Arrow
• To decrease playback speed—click Audio->Playback->Decrease playback rate on the menu or press Ctrl+Down Arrow
• To bring the playback speed to its default setting—click Audio->Playback->Reset playback rate on the menu or press Ctrl+0

Auto Play

The Auto play option plays the audio for the item that you have navigated to. This option can be turned off or on using the Status bar. To toggle the state of the Auto play option, simply click on the Auto play segment of the Status bar.

Keyboard users should do the following:

1. Go to the Status bar using F4
2. Navigate to the Auto play segment using Tab repeatedly
3. Press Enter to activate or deactivate it

Audio can be inserted into a Tobi project by two methods:

• Import an audio file and split it into smaller chunks that map to their text equivalent.
• Record audio directly in Tobi

Menu

• Importing Audio Files
• Recording Audio

• Audio Monitoring
• Basic Recording
• Recording with Warm-Up Playback
• Continuous Recording
• Recording in Overwrite Mode
• Tape-like Recording
• Narrator View
• Session Counter

Note: you may find some text in your document which was not intended to be synchronized directly with the audio. If you want to link some audio content with this text you should navigate to the parent element (by mouse-click or using the shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Comma) and place the relevant audio there. Commands such as, Navigation, Split, Stop recording and Continue will automatically skip these elements and select the next element to which audio can be associated.

Importing Audio Files

To import pre-recorded audio content into Tobi:

1. Click Audio->Import audio file(s) in the menu bar, and press Shift+Ctrl+I, or click the Import audio file button of the Audio toolbar.
2. A dialog box lets you browse for WAV/MP3/MP4/AAC files.
3. Choose the required file(s) and click Open.
4. Tobi will import the file(s) into your project. If an audio selection has been marked, it will be replaced with the audio content from the file. Otherwise, the imported content will be inserted at the position of the audio cursor.

Recording Audio

Tobi provides extensive functionality for recording audio content directly. The following sections explain the various methods and their related functions and supporting tools.

Audio Monitoring
Before recording for the first time in a session, it is a good idea to monitor the audio to check microphone sound levels: too low and the audio is inaudible, too high and there will be clipping and distortion. To perform audio monitoring, click Audio->Recording->Start monitoring in the menu or press Ctrl+M. If the focus is already on waveforms or the Status bar, you can press a single key M to start monitoring.

The peak meter in the extreme right hand side of the Audio Editor pane enables you to monitor audio graphically and check for overloads. As soon as you give the command to monitor or record a piece of audio, it will start displaying the sound levels. If the sound level reaches the red section of the bar, the volume should be reduced.

Basic Recording
You can initiate recording by any of the following methods:

• Click Audio->Recording->Start recording in the menu.
• Press Ctrl+R.
• Use the Start Recording button in the Audio toolbar.

Tobi will start recording from the input device. If you have marked an audio selection, it will be replaced. If you have not marked a selection, the audio will be recorded at the current play head position, which can be the beginning of the waveform, at the end of the waveform, or anywhere in between. In this case, the audio content prior and subsequent to the cursor position will still surround the newly recorded content. Note: you can also initiate the Record command during playback—in this instance the audio will be inserted at the position where this was initiated.

To stop recording, do any of the following:

• Press Ctrl+R again.
• Press Ctrl+Space, or Esc.
• If the focus is on waveforms or the Status bar, press a single key shortcut Space.

Recording with Warm-up Playback
This is an alternative to the basic recording option which can be used by narrators to tune their voice to match previous content so that there is no irregularity in the recorded audio. To make use of this feature, click on the Preview before recording segment of the Status bar which will activate or deactivate this feature.

If activated, Tobi will play a small portion of audio immediately preceding the marked cursor position or beginning of audio selection each time you hit the Record command. A time counter will be displayed over the waveform notifying the time remaining before recording starts. As soon as the playback reaches the cursor position or the time counter starts showing 0, the Record command will be activated.

In this way, Tobi supports punch recording; whereby you can select audio to be replaced with a new recording.

Continuous Recording
The fastest way to record the contents of a book in Tobi is to keep narrating the contents and moving to the next item by just a push of a button. The white round button in the Audio toolbar, called Stop recording and Continue, lets you move to the next item after you have narrated the contents for the current item; thereafter, you can continue recording audio for each next item and so on. You can also use the shortcut key combination, Shift+Ctrl+R.

If the focus is on waveforms or the Status bar, you can use a single key R. Another alternative is to use the menu item Audio->Recording->Stop recording and Continue.

If you need to break you can place a document mark where you stopped and restart from there at another time, directly moving to the bookmarked item via the Marks tab in the Navigation pane.

The only time that Tobi will interrupt this workflow is if some audio content already exists in the next item. It might be undesirable to remove or alter already recorded content, so the choice is left with the users.

The recording flow can be further improved by toggling the granularity of the document from fine to coarse. Since giving the Stop recording and continue command for every sentence or word may hinder the document narration, Tobi lets you re-organize the document’s text so that it can be synchronized with a coarse granularity that would bundle the entire paragraph into one item of the Document pane. Thereafter, you can record the contents of one paragraph at a time. But in this case, you should use the split command afterwards for mapping the recorded audio to its text equivalent.

Recording in Overwrite Mode
Tobi will let you overwrite audio content with the audio being recorded. To use this recording mode, click Record overwrite button on the Status Bar or check the checkbox Audio_Record_Overwrite Following Audio in application preferences.

Tobi will replace the content from the audio cursor at the end of the waveform with the audio being recorded. If only a portion of the waveform had been selected, Tobi will replace that selection only.

Tape-like recording
Tobi enables tape-like recording behaviour for narrators which can be activated by turning on two application preferences:

• Audio_Disable After Record Selection, placing the audio cursor at the end of newly recorded audio instead of selecting it allowing you to record in overwrite mode
• Audio_Record_Overwrite Following Audio.

When both preferences are active, Tobi replicates fluent tape-like recording. Both the preferences can be turned on or off using the Status Bar or application preferences.

Narrator View
Tobi helps the recording process further with a special view for users to concentrate on the text that is being narrated. This view is called Narrator View and can be opened by clicking the View->Narratorwindow or by pressing Ctrl+N. It displays the contents of document on your entire screen with a list of relevant controls at the bottom of the window, hiding other components of Tobi like the Audio Editor pane and the Toolbars. It can also be switched to Single phrase mode where only the highlighted item is shown.

Controls presented by the Narrator View include:

• Start recording—Begin recording from the input device.
• Stop recording and continue—Wind up the audio recorded and start recording for the next item.
• Play/Pause—A toggle button to start or pause the playback.
• Expand selection—Show the sub-items of the higher selection in the Document Structure Trail.
• Narrow selection—Hide the sub-items of the higher selection in the Document Structure Trail.
• Select previous phrase—Select previous item of the document.
• Select next phrase—Select next item of the document.
• Single phrase mode—Show only the highlighted item in the Narrator View.
• Select font—A combo box enabling users to change the font of the text. This change is reflected in the Document pane also.
• Zoom—A slider to magnify or shrink the contents of the document.

Session Counter
The main purpose of the session counter is to keep a record of all of the audio that has veeb inserted in the current session. This tool becomes handy when payments have to be made based on the amount of audio narration or insertion. The last item in the Status bar tells you the duration of audio content added in the current session. Any deletions made from the project will be subtracted from this amount automatically.

To reset the session counter, click Audio->Reset session counter on the menu bar or press Ctrl+H. Tobi will reset the session counter to 0.

Audio editing features are a vital part of the DAISY book authoring software and Tobi takes the utmost care to provide the same rich functionality.

Menu

• Marking the Cursor Position
• Audio Selection
• Previewing Audio
• Step Back or Forward
• Commands for Navigating within or Among Waveforms 
• Cut, Copy and Paste
• Splitting Audio
• Deleting Audio
• Editing Audio Externally

Marking the Cursor Position

To mark the cursor position on a waveform:

• Mouse users can simply click on a location on the waveform.
• Keyboard users should play the audio of the item by pressing Space and press Space again at the desired location.

You can then use the Preview command to check the accuracy of the cursor’s position or use Step back and Step forward commands to move back or ahead respectively by a very small amount of time.

Audio Selection

There are various methods for selecting audio in Tobi. You can select the entire audio or a portion of it. Use any of the commands listed below to make your selection:

• To select the entire audio of the item selected in the Document pane, click Audio->Selection->Select all in the menu, press Ctrl+A or use the Select all button of the Audio toolbar. Mouse users can double-click on the waveform to select the contained audio.
• To select the audio content on the left of the marked cursor position, click Audio->Selection->Select left on the menu or press Shift+Home. You may also use the Select left button of the Audio toolbar.
• To select the audio content on the right of the marked cursor position, click Audio->Selection->Select right on the menu or press Shift+End. You may also use the Select right button of the Audio toolbar.
• To select audio corresponding to the previous item, click Audio->Selection->Select previous chunk in the menu bar or press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Left arrow. You can also use the Select previous chunk button of the Audio toolbar.
• To select the audio content of next item, click Audio->Selection->Select next chunk on the menu or press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Right arrow. You can also use the Select next chunk button of the Audio toolbar.

If you wish to select any portion of audio within the waveform, use Begin selection and End selection commands from the submenu of Audio->Selection.

Faster methods are:

• Keyboard users—Start playback by pressing Space. Press Ctrl+[ to mark the beginning of your selection at the desired location. Press Ctrl+] to mark the end of the selection.
• Mouse users—Click at a desired location on the waveform to begin the selection and use Shift+Clickto end the selection. You can also make the selection by pressing the left mouse button and holding it while dragging to a position where the selection should end.

Tobi will display any selected audio in a different color in the Audio Editor pane.

To hear the contents of your audio selection, press Space. Note: if an audio selection is marked, the Play command will play the audio contents of the selection only. To hear the entire audio corresponding to an item, you should clear the selection first. Audio selection can be deselected by clicking Audio->Selection->Clear selection on the menu, by pressing Ctrl+D, or by using the Clear selection button of the Audio toolbar. Note: if you execute a command to navigate to another item, audio selection will also be cleared automatically.

Previewing Audio

• To preview audio just before the cursor position, click Audio->Playback->Preview before in the menu or press Shift+Ctrl+P. You can also use the Preview before button of the Audio toolbar.
• To preview audio just after the cursor position, click Audio->Playback->Preview after in the menu or press Ctrl+P. You can also use the Preview after button of the Audio toolbar

Step Back and Forward

To move the marked cursor position forward or backward by a very small amount of time use the Step forward and Step back commands.

To Step back:

1. Click Audio->Navigation->Step back.
2. Press Ctrl+Left arrow.
3. Use the Step back button of the Audio toolbar.

To Step forward:

1. Click Audio->Navigation->Step forward.
2. Press Ctrl+Right arrow.
3. Use the Step forward button of the Audio toolbar.

The above commands move the cursor by the time specified in the preference Audio Waveform_Jump Time Step. You can move the cursor by a larger amount of time by using the following commands which will move the cursor by the time specified in the preference Audio Waveform_Jump Time Step X:

• To step back by a larger interval, click Audio->Navigation->Step back (more) or press Shift+Ctrl+Left Arrow.
• To step forward by a larger interval, click Audio->Navigation->Step forward (more) or press Shift+Ctrl+Right Arrow.

Commands for Navigating Within or Among Waveforms

Apart from the Step back and Step forward commands that enable the movement of the audio cursor within the waveform, the following commands can be used to navigate within and among waveforms:

• To move to the beginning of the current waveform, click Audio->Navigation->Go to Start in the menu or press Home. Alternatively, you can use the Go to Start button of the Audio toolbar.
• To move the cursor to the end of the current waveform, click Audio->Navigation->Go to End in the menu or press End. You may also use the Go to End button of the Audio toolbar.
• To go to the waveform prior to the current waveform, click Audio->Navigation->Previous chunk in the menu bar or press Ctrl+Alt+Left arrow. You can also use the Previous chunk button of the Audio toolbar.
• To go to the waveform following the current waveform, click Audio->Navigation->Next chunk on the menu bar or press Ctrl+Alt+Right arrow.You can also use the Next chunk button of the Audio toolbar.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

The following commands can be performed on selected audio:

• To copy the audio selection to the clipboard, click Edit->Copy on the menu, press Ctrl+C, or use the Copy button in the Main toolbar.
• To cut the audio selection and copy it to the clipboard, click Edit->Cut in the menu, press Ctrl+X, or use the Cut button of the Main toolbar.
• To paste the item from the clipboard to your current location, click Edit->Paste in the menu, press Ctrl+V, or use the Paste button in the Main toolbar.

Tobi will paste the audio content from the clipboard according to the following rules:

• If an audio selection is marked, the audio content from the clipboard will replace the audio selection.
• If you have marked the cursor position, the audio content from the clipboard will be inserted there.
• If you are at the beginning of the waveform, the audio will be pasted before any audio content that may be present already.
• If you are at the end of the waveform, the audio content will be pasted after the end of any audio content.
• If the selected item does not have audio corresponding to it, the audio content from the clipboard will be mapped to it.

Splitting Audio

You can split audio content by either marking the cursor position or on-the-fly during playback. The split command can be actioned by clicking Audio->Split audio in the menu or by pressing Ctrl+Enter. This command is very useful when you have imported pre-recorded audio content into your project and have to map it to its text equivalent. The process is described below:

1. Import the audio file.
2. Start playback by pressing Space.
3. As soon as you reach the end of the audio corresponding to the current text, press Ctrl+Enter. Tobi will split the audio content at the position of the audio cursor, and will copy the audio content after the split position to the next phrase. Now the keyboard focus will be at the next item, where the audio has been pasted. If the next phrase had some audio content already, it will not be deleted but will follow the copied audio.

Perform steps 2 and 3 repeatedly till you have mapped the imported audio to the respective items of the document.

Deleting Audio

You can only delete a selected piece of audio in Tobi, so you should select that audio by any of the methods described in the section Audio Selection before using the Delete command. After selecting the audio, you can delete it by clicking Audio->Delete selected audio in the menu, by pressing Del, or by using the Delete selected audio button of the Audio toolbar.

The audio that you delete will not be removed from the file physically but just de-linked from the project. Actual deletion will take place when you run the Clean up command. This is done to reduce disk I/O operations that would otherwise affect the efficiency of the application.

Editing Audio Externally

You might want to edit your recorded audio externally with other tools for amplification, normalization, etc.

To edit audio externally:

1. Select the audio you want to export to an external file.
2. Click Audio->Edit audio externally on the menu or press Ctrl+J. Tobi will export the audio to a WAV file and display its name in a dialog box. Do not close the dialog box till the process is finished.
3. Click on the Open file externally button and this will open the Windows File Browser displaying the exported WAV file.
4. Now, you can make the modifications in this file using other tools like Audacity, etc.
5. After you have done the modifications, go back to the application window of Tobi.
6. Click on the OK button to import the modified audio in place of the exported audio.

Note: it is important to keep the dialog box opened till the process of external editing is complete; otherwise, Tobi will not make an automatic replacement.

Tobi can integrate audio processing libraries. Currently, there is preliminary support for the functions listed below, which will be replaced by third-party libraries in future to provide high-quality audio processing.

• Edit audio externally—Helps you to perform audio processing using an external tool as described in Audio Editing.
• Slow down—Expands the audio content so that audio is produced at slower rate.
• Speed up—Contracts the audio content so that audio is produced at faster rate.
• Normalize—Performs audio normalization on selected audio.
• Amplify—Intensifies the audio content to make it more audible.

You can access these commands from the Audio preferences submenu under the Audio menu. Tobi uses a specific rate for the Amplify, Speed up, and Slow down commands, which can be modified to suit your requirements using the Preferences dialog.

You can modify Tobi’s audio settings by clicking Audio->Audio settings. This will display the Audio Settings dialog, The following settings can be modified using this dialog box:

• Playback—The output sound device (primary sound driver)
• Recording—The input sound device (primary sound capture driver)
• TTS—The default voice used for text to speech conversion.
• Synthetic voice mapping—This opens a pop-up text box where you can enter the configuration mark-up for mapping the XML elements to different synthetic voices. For example, if you wish to choose a different voice for reading headings and paragraphs, you can list the headings (h1, h2, h3, etc.) under a synthetic voice and paragraph (p) under another synthetic voice.

After making the appropriate selections, click Close to return to application window. You can cancel any changes you have made by pressing Esc.

Menu

• What is this Feature all About?
• Underlying Research
• What are Image Descriptions?

• Types of Image Description
• Content Types Supported by Tobi for Image Descriptions
• Attributes Pertinent to an Image Description

• Creating or Modifying Image Descriptions

• Navigation Pane (F8)

Selecting an Image
Displaying an Image
Adding Image Descriptions

• Document Pane (F6)

Selecting an Image
Adding Image Descriptions

• Editor Window (Ctrl+Shift+D)

Methods of Invoking  the Editor Window

Basic Editor Window
Adding a Textual Description
Modifying a Textual Description

Removing a Textual Description
Adding a Graphical Description
Removing a Graphical Description
Clearing the Text Entered for Tour in Graphical Description

Advanced Editor Window
Metadata Tab
Descriptions Tab
Encapsulated Information Tabs
Adding a Description
Editing a Description
Removing a Description

• Exporting Image Descriptions

• Details of the DIAGRAM Description Directory
• Embedding Image Descriptions in DAISY/EPUB Publication

What is this Feature all About?
Images are a crucial part of the learning process. Whether it’s a histogram of statistics, demand and supply curve of economics, construction of geometry, map of a location, or portrait of history, an image helps in grasping and memorizing a concept in a convenient and effective way.But comprehending a diagram or graphic can be challenging for visually impaired or people with cognitive and learning disabilities. A meticulously devised description can elucidate an image by shedding light on the layout and other details.

With this feature, we intend to provide a framework wherein the author can supply text and audio describing the image and actually make the image speak.

Various descriptions can be packaged together to address the diverse needs of an audience. For example, descriptions can be long or concise, may vary on the level of simplicity, or can be alternative simplified or tactile images.

Tobi enables you to supply image descriptions in a full-text, full-audio DAISY 3 book or EPUB media overlays via its comprehensive functionality of creating and modifying image descriptions. It can also import existing full-text, full-audio DAISY book and DTBook.xml enabling insertion of image descriptions in both of them.

Underlying Research
The image description workflow is based on the DIAGRAM Content Model, which is developed under the directions of DIAGRAM Center established by US Department of Education (Office of Special Education Programs).The DIAGRAM Content Model lays down the specifications for creating alternative verbal or pictorial depictions for the graphical content present in the publications, which can be referenced by the graphical elements in the host languages such as EPUB or HTML.

What are Image Descriptions?
An image description is textual, audio or graphic content portraying the image in a representation intelligible by the addressees. The description should be comprehensive as well as perceptible by the target audience. For example, carefully formulated long description and a corresponding tactile image can be useful for people with visual impairment, whereas a simplified language description and simplified image can decipher the difficult concepts for slow learners. The guidelines for appositely creating descriptions pertinent to the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) can be found on http://ncam.wgbh.org/experience_learn/educational_media/stemdx/guidelines.

Types of Image Descriptions
Image descriptions can be broadly classified in two categories, namely, textual and graphical. Textual descriptions explicate the layout and other details of the image in words (both typed and spoken), whereas graphical descriptions are tactile or simplified depictions of the main image.The following types of textual descriptions can be created in Tobi.

• Long description: A comprehensive verbal representation of the image exposing the constitution, structure, and significance of the image. This is the primary description of the image and cannot be omitted.
• Summary: A brief and concise version of the long description giving the central idea.
• Simplified Language: Description of the image in basic, easy to understand language.
• Annotation: Explanations that are relevant to the subject matter but cannot be included in the main description. These may include, but are not restricted to, clarification of some words used in the main description.

In addition to these textual descriptions, the following graphical descriptions may also be supplied.

• Tactile image: Alternative image transcribed according to the production method such as swell paper production or stereolithographic printing. This image should be fully formed for output rendering by end users.
• Simplified image: The modified version of the main image either removing the intricacies or providing extras such as labels for each component of the graphic. A high-contrast version of the image may also be provided in this category.

Textual descriptions, in entirety, will become a part of the DAISY or EPUB publication. At the same time, they will be exported to the DIAGRAM descriptions directory, as described in Details of the DIAGRAM Descriptions Directory. On the other hand, graphical descriptions will only be exported in the DIAGRAM descriptions directory.

Notes:

• Graphical descriptions may also include a textual tour explaining how to explore the alternative image.
• Out of all the description types, only long description is mandatory. However, it is recommended to create at least one description for each description type.
• There can be more than one description for each description type such as tactile image descriptions varying on the production method or simplified language description differing on the level of simplicity.

Content Types Supported by Tobi for Image Descriptions
Although you can equip your description with more than one type of content, the principal content type differs on what category the description falls in. For example, the content type image is vital for a tactile image description to exist. As a general rule, all the textual descriptions must have descriptive text accompanying them and all the graphical descriptions should contain an image.The following table tries to explain the implication of a content type for both textual and graphical descriptions. If a content type is irrelevant for a description type, it is marked with “-“.

Content type	Textual	Graphical
Text	Depiction of the image in words	Text giving the tour of the image
Audio	Narration of the text supplied in the “text” category	–
Image	–	Alternative tactile or simplified image
Attribute	Properties that describe and provide references for the description	Properties that define and characterize the alternative image

The following list describes what can be supplied in each content type.

• The content of text type may include the following:
  • Plain text
  • XML markup for block elements such as paragraph (<p>)
  • XML markup for inline elements like line breaks (<br>)
  • MathML
• The content of audio type may either be human voice based or generated using synthetic voice.
• The alternative image can be in any of the following formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, and SVG.

Attributes Pertinent to an Image Description
Attributes of image descriptions describe and characterize them. This section lists some of the attributes that are relevant for an image description.

Attribute name	Attribute value
xml:id	Unique ID for an image description that helps in distinguishing one description from another.
xml:lang	The language used by the author of the description such as “English (U.K.)”.
ref	Points to the ID of another description. For example, for a long description, this field may contain the unique ID of the corresponding annotation.
by	Relationship of the author of the description with the target audience such as teacher. This field may have the value “author”, if the author does not have any such direct relationship with the target audience.
role	The purpose of the image description. For example, “clarification”, if the annotation description is created to clarify; “swell paper production”, if tactile image description is transcribed for swell paper production.
src	Path of the image file for a graphical description.
srctype	Type of the source specified in the “src” attribute; for instance, “image/jpeg” for a JPEG image.

Creating or Modifying Image Descriptions
The process of creating image descriptions involves the following GUI components of Tobi:

• Navigation pane (F8)
• Document pane (F6)
• Editor Window (Ctrl+Shift+D)

For a full view of Tobi’s UI, refer to the tutorial User Interface of Tobi.

Navigation pane (F8)
Navigation pane, as the name suggests, is a panel to navigate to various elements of the document such as headings, pages, images, etc. It is positioned on the extreme left and structured in four tabs representing different set of elements; each tab contains a sequential or hierarchical list of objects relating to that element. For example, the Descriptions tab shows the list of graphical elements of the document.You can navigate among these tabs by pressing Ctrl+Tab. Mouse users can click on the arrows on the right and left side of the horizontal list of tabs, positioned at the bottom of the Navigation pane, to scroll through them and click on the desired tab when revealed.

For image descriptions, you must have the Descriptions tab in view. It displays the list of all the available images in the document order. Each item of the list includes the image name, a preceding visual tick box indicating the presence of a description corresponding to it, and an accessible label stating whether the image is described or not. Note: the visual tick mark and Described statement will appear only if a long description has been created for the image.

Selecting an Image
You can select an image from the list of available images by one of the following methods:

• Scroll through the list sequentially by using Up and Down arrow keys and stop where the desired image name is encountered.
• Click on the image name directly, if it is visible. Otherwise, you can bring the desired image in view using the adjacent vertical scroll bar and click on the image when revealed.

Displaying an image
You can display the image by selecting the image and pressing Enter or by double-clicking on the image name. The image will be displayed in the Document pane.

Adding Image Descriptions
You can add descriptions to the selected image by either using the Add/Edit button beneath the list of images or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D. This will open the Editor Window where all the actions pertaining to the creation, modification and removal of image descriptions can be performed.

Document pane (F6)
Document pane exposes all the contents of the document such as text, XML markup, and graphical elements. It is composed of one main window displaying the entire document, and a Document structure trail that displays the predecessor hierarchy of the selected XML element.Apropos of image descriptions, the Document pane also contains graphical elements for which image descriptions should be provided.

Please note that the Document pane is not synchronized with the Navigation pane. This means that traversing through the elements of any of them will have no effect on the other of the two.

Selecting an Image
An image can be selected by both mouse and keyboard shortcuts.

• Mouse users can simply click on the image. If the desired image is not visible, you can bring it in view by using scroll bar on the right side of the Document pane.
• Keyboard users can use the shortcuts Ctrl+Period to move to the next phrase and Ctrl+Comma to move to the previous phrase.

Adding Image Descriptions
You can create or modify a description for the selected graphical element by clicking Edit->Add image description/modify descriptions on the menu bar or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D.
Editor Window (Ctrl+Shift+D)
Editor Window is the dialog box where actual process of creating and editing image descriptions takes place. It can be used in both basic and advanced modes. In the basic mode, it provides a framework to create one description for each fundamental description type by entering the information essential for the respective type of description to exist. On the other hand, the advanced mode can be used to create any number of descriptions in their full fledged forms.You can switch between the basic and advanced view of Editor Window by using Switch to Basic Editor Window/advanced Editor Window button.

Some controls will be present in both basic and advanced modes of Editor Window and are listed below.

• Import link for DIAGRAM XML: Imports the contents from the XML file containing the descriptions pertaining to an image. But for the import operation to execute correctly, it is important for the file to be in conformity with the DIAGRAM Content Model.
• Export link for DIAGRAM XML: Exports all the descriptions of the current image to an external file. This function is independent of Tobi’s main export and thus does not affect the DAISY or EPUB publication.
• OK button: Commits the changes to the project and exits the Editor Window. Please note that committing the changes to the project is different from saving the project, which can be achieved by pressing Ctrl+S.
• Apply button: Commits the changes to the project without exiting the Editor Window.
• Cancel button: Exits the Editor Window discarding the additions or modifications made therein.

Please note that you can move among the controls of Editor Window, such as lists or buttons, by pressing Tab.

Methods of Invoking the Editor Window
The Editor Window can be invoked only if an image is selected, which can be accomplished using the Navigation pane or the Document pane. After selecting an image, do any of the following:

• Click Edit->Add image description/Modify descriptions on the menu bar.
• Press Ctrl+Shift+D.
• Use the Add/Edit button of the Navigation pane.

Basic Editor Window
The basic view of Editor Window has two main tabs, namely, Text descriptions to create textual descriptions and Alternative images to create graphical descriptions. The Text descriptions tab provides functionality for placing text for fundamental textual descriptions, i.e., long description, summary, and simplified language. Whereas, the Alternative images tab enables you to insert a tactile and simplified version of the main image along with their tours. However, you cannot add more than one description for any of these description types, nor you can add audio and attributes for any description using the basic view of Editor Window.The Text descriptions tab is arranged in three vertical groups; each group signifying a description type determined by its label. Every group comprises of an edit box displaying the text entered for the description and will be blank initially, an Edit button to invoke a dialog box to add or modify the textual content of the description, a Clear button to remove the description, and an Audio button to place the audio narration of the description.

The Alternative images tab follows a similar arrangement with two groups; each displaying the corresponding alternative image, an Open… button to browse for the file containing the image, and a Clear button to delete the image. It also enables you to enter a textual tour, for exploring the alternative image, via the Edit button.

An Edit in advanced mode button is provided under each group to facilitate the users in quick and easy insertion of audio and attributes for the description. Clicking on this button will have the following effect:

• The Editor Window will switch to the advanced mode.
• The respective description will be selected in the Descriptions summary list.
• The encapsulated information tabs, where you can place the audio or assign attributes, will display the contents of the selected description.

Like all other tabs, you can alternate between the tabs of the basic view using Ctrl+Tab or by clicking on the tab name.

Adding a Textual Description
The process of creating all the textual descriptions is the same, so this section will exemplify it using one type of image description, that is, long description. Please note that keyboard users can use Tab and Shift+Tab to move to the next or previous fields of the Editor window.

1. Bring the Text descriptions tab into view.
2. Go to the long descriptions group.
3. Click on the Edit button beneath the edit box that will be blank initially. A dialog box appears that lets you insert the text for the description.
4. Enter the text for the description, which may be first created using document editing software like WordPad, etc. and then copied into the edit box of newly opened window. You may also type the text directly in the edit box.
5. Click on the OK button.

Tobi will return to the Editor Window and display the text just entered by you in the edit box immediately below the group label, which is Long description in this case. Please note that you can also include inline, paragraph, and MathML markup in the text for the descriptions.

To insert audio or assign attributes, click on the Edit in advanced mode button, which will open the Editor window in advanced mode and display the contents of the respective description.

Modifying a Textual Description
You may modify the text of the descriptions any time using the same Edit button and the same successive dialog box used for creating image descriptions.

Removing a Textual Description
A textual description can be deleted completely from the project by clicking on the Clear button adjacent to the Edit button under the same group. This will result in removal of the entire content (text, audio, and attributes) corresponding to the deleted description.

Adding a Graphical Description
Here the process of adding a tactile image description will be illustrated and the process of creating simplified image description will be along the same lines.

1. Bring the Alternative images tab into view.
2. Go to the tactile image group using Tab.
3. Click on the Open… button. A dialog box appears that lets you browse for the file containing the tactile image.
4. Select the desired file and click on the Open button to return to the Editor Window. Now the selected image will be displayed in the tactile image group.
5. To add a tour for the image, click on the Edit button at the bottom of the group. A dialog box opens presenting an edit box, an OK button, and a Cancel button.
6. Enter the text advising how to explore the tactile image such as “Moving from front to the top right corner…”
7. Press OK to commit and return to the Editor Window.

The tactile image group of the Editor Window will start displaying the selected tactile image beneath the group label, and the textual tour will show in the edit box above the Edit button.

You can assign attributes to the description by clicking on the Edit in advanced mode button, which will open the Editor Window in the advanced mode and display the contents of the respective description.

Removing a Graphical Description
You can remove a graphical description specified for the image by clicking on the Clear button next to the Open button.

Clearing the Text entered for Tour in  a Graphical Description
The text entered in the edit box pertaining to the tour of image can be erased by clicking on the Clear button next to the Edit button. In this case, the description will not be deleted, only the tour will be removed.

Advanced Editor Window
The advanced view of Editor Window encompasses the complete functionality for working on image descriptions. It covers the information concerning the metadata of the image and the entire information contained in all the descriptions corresponding to an image. It has two tabs, namely, Metadata to edit the metadata properties of the main image and Descriptions to create and modify descriptions corresponding to the image.

Metadata Tab
Using the Metadata tab, you can add, modify, or remove metadata properties of the image. If no property has been defined for the image, only the Add button will be enabled. As soon as you assign a property using the Add button, other controls will get activated.The following table lists the controls presented under this tab and their functionality.

Control	Control type	Functionality
Metadata properties	List Box	Lists all the properties defined for the image with their values.
Add	Button	Opens a dialog box that lets you select a property name using the “Name” field and specify its value using the “Value” field.
Edit	Button	Opens a dialog box enabling you to modify the name and/or the value of a metadata property.
Remove	Button	Deletes a property from the metadata of the image.

Please note that Tobi allows you to create custom metadata properties also. This can be achieved by clicking the Add button and subsequently typing both the name and value for the custom property.

Descriptions Tab
This is the place where you can create descriptions for an image in entirety. The descriptions can belong to any description type; even custom description types are allowed. Furthermore, you can create several descriptions belonging to one description type and place all relevant information within using a single view.As there can be numerous descriptions for an image, it is a good practice to define a unique ID for each description that would be helpful in distinguishing it from other descriptions of the same image. The ID should be consequential in proper identification of the image. For example, “Tactile-Swell Paper” suggests that the description is a tactile image apposite for swell paper production. Please note that it is essential for the description of annotation type to have an ID, since annotations are referenced from other types of descriptions.

Initially, only the Add button is enabled that lets you add first description for the image. As soon as you add a description for the image, other controls will get activated that are described below.

• Descriptions summary list: A list of descriptions created for the image; each item of the list exhibits the unique ID of the description and its description type.
• Add button: Adds a new description corresponding to the image. During this operation, Tobi only asks for the description type and unique ID; other details should be provided in the encapsulated information tabs described below.
• Remove button: Removes the selected description from the project.
• Encapsulated information tabs: A set of tabs enabling you to supply matter for a description.

Encapsulated Information Tabs
The Descriptions tab encapsulates a set of tabs, positioned on the right side of Description summary list, that enable you to provide entire information pertaining to a description. There are four tabs in this set, namely, Text, Audio, Image, and Attribute.The Text tab enables you to enter text for your description, which should describe the image in the case of textual description and give a tour for exploring alternative image in the case of graphical description. It is of utmost importance for a textual description as it contains the textual representation of the image, which is imperative for a textual description to exist. In addition to plain text, it may also contain paragraph, inline, or MathML markup. It is comprised of an edit box exposing the contents of the textual information of a description, an Edit button facilitating insertion/modification of text, and a Clear button to remove the textual content of a description.

The Image tab, on the contrary, is vital for a graphical description. However, it is extraneous for textual descriptions such as long description, etc. It consists of an Open… button to select the file containing alternative tactile/simplified image and a Clear button to remove the specified file.

The Audio tab contains narration of text entered in Text tab, which may be human voice recording or generated using Text to speech software (TTS). It presents an Add/Edit button to place the audio or perform audio editing, a Play button to hear the playback, a slider indicating the percentage of audio played, and a Clear button to delete the audio content. It should be noted that currently this feature is not supported for the tour of graphical descriptions.

The Attribute tab is useful for describing or characterizing both textual and graphical descriptions. It is not mandatory, but recommended, to provide values for all the relevant attributes of a description. It displays a list of assigned attributes, an Add button to ascribe an attribute, an Edit button to modify the name and/or the value of an attribute, and a Remove button to remove an attribute.

You can reach the encapsulated information tabs using the keystroke – Tab. Thereafter, you can use Ctrl+Tab to switch from one tab to another.

Adding a Description
In the advanced mode of Editor Window, the processes of adding textual descriptions and graphical descriptions follow the similar lines. First of all, a description should be initialized by entering the description type and allocating a unique ID. Thereafter, you can insert the text, audio, or alternative image forming the description. But before concluding that the description is complete, you must check the attributes section that should characterize the description for the readers; for example, the value of “role” attribute of tactile image description should notify the production method for which the description is created.A description can be initialized by following the steps listed below:

1. Click on the Add button beneath the Descriptions summary list. A dialog box opens inquiring the type of description to be created.
2. Select the respective description type from the combo box Description type, such as “d:long desc” for long description. If you want to create a description of custom type, simply type the name of the custom type.
3. Click on the OK button. Another dialog appears, asking for a unique ID.
4. Enter a meaningful unique ID.
5. Click on the OK button.

Tobi creates a new description and adds an entry corresponding to it in the Descriptions summary list. When you return to the Editor Window by performing the last step listed above, the newly created description will be selected in the Descriptions summary list and the encapsulated information tabs will point to it.

Next, we should insert textual content or alternative image depending on whether it is a textual description or a graphical description. For a textual description, proceed as follows:

1. In the Text tab of the encapsulated information tabs, click on the Edit button.
2. A dialog box opens that lets you enter the textual matter for the description, which can be copied or typed directly in the space provided. Please note that apart from the plain text, markup such as MathML, line break and paragraph is also allowed.
3. After entering and checking the contents, click on the OK button. The text just entered will appear in the edit box under the Text tab. A Clear button will also get activated that enables the users to remove the content any time.
4. Next, you should add narration of the text just entered, which can be accomplished using the Audio tab. Switch to the Audio tab by pressing Ctrl+Tab or by simply clicking on it.
5. To add audio, click on the Add/Edit button. Tobi opens the Audio Editor Window facilitating the insertion of audio content and editing it.
6. You can perform text to speech conversion of the text entered in the Text tab by simply clicking on the Generate TTS button or by pressing Ctrl+G. The voice used for conversion will be the default voice of your system. However, you can alter the defaults by selecting desired voice in the Audio settings dialog, which can be brought in view by clicking Audio->Audio settings… on the menu bar. If you wish to provide human voice recording, click on the Record button to start recording directly and click on the Stop button when finished.
7. For inspecting the correctness of the audio content, click on the Play button to hear the playback. A slider beneath it indicates the playback position in percentage. If there are some errors, they can be rectified using the audio editing functionality of Tobi described in the tutorial Audio Insertion and Editing. But if you wish to discard the narration completely, it can be achieved by using the Clear button underneath the Add/Edit button.

If you are working on a graphical description, the following steps will guide your way:

1. Switch to the Image tab of encapsulated information tabs.
2. Click on the Open… button, which will result in opening a dialog box enabling you to browse for the file containing alternative simplified or tactile image.
3. Select the image file and click on the Open button. The image will be displayed under the tab label. The insertion of an image will also activate the Clear button enabling the deletion of the image.
4. The next step is to add a textual tour for exploring the alternative image, which can be done using the Text tab. Switch to the Text tab using Ctrl+Tab repeatedly till you land on it.
5. Click the Edit button therein. Consequently, a dialog box appears showing an edit box, and OK and Cancel buttons.
6. Type or copy the text informing how to explore the alternative image; for instance “In the upper left corner of the tactile…”
7. Click on the OK button.

Now that you have inserted the material for the constitution of the image description, you should assign attributes using the Attributes tab by following the instructions listed below.

1. Switch to the Attributes tab.
2. Click on the Add button. A dialog box opens asking for the name and value of the attribute.
3. Select the attribute name from the combo box – Name.
4. Enter the value in the edit box – Value.
5. Click on the OK button.

The newly assigned attribute will start showing in the Attribute list. You may choose to remove it any time by selecting it from the list and then clicking on the Remove button. The name and/or value of the selected attribute can also be modified by using the Edit button.

Editing a Description
You can edit the contents and attributes of a description by selecting it from the Descriptions summary list, and then, performing modifications in the encapsulated information tabs. The Edit and Add/Edit buttons (under the tabs) enable you to edit the text, audio and attributes of the description. The alternative image can be changed by clicking the Open…%

Tags: Tobi