Exciting stuff indeed - look also at the Players area of the Daisy site for freeware players so that you can verify the quality of materials before sharing them and be aware that the 'save as Daisy' plug-in doesn't by itself actually allow you to create stand-alone digital talking books - you'll need to use the Pipeline app to turn your daisy compatible xml in to a Daisy book.

Adrian Higginbotham
Project manager: Learning services
Becta
Tel: Direct dial 024 7679 7333 - Becta switchboard 02476-416994.
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.becta.org.uk/
BECTA, Millburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ 


-----Original Message-----
From: Equal Access to Software & Information [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of George Kerscher
Sent: 07 May 2008 12:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Microsoft "Save As DAISY XML" and DAISY Pipeline Released

Dear All,

Today the first official release of Microsoft's "Save As DAISY XML" translator for  Word and the simultaneous release of the newest version of the DAISY Pipeline were announced.  Full details and links to downloads, press release and related information, and support  documentation for the Microsoft "Save As DAISY XML" add-in are available from the DAISY Web site:

http://www.daisy.org

The direct link to the Microsoft Save as DAISY area is in the Projects area of the DAISY Web site at: 

http://www.daisy.org/projects/save-as-daisy-microsoft/

Information, links to the DAISY Pipeline press release, and downloads for the Pipeline are on the  DAISY Pipeline project area at: 

http://www.daisy.org/projects/pipeline/

Press releases for Microsoft's "Save As DAISY XML" translator are also provided in DAISY  2.02 format. This DAISY DTB with synthetic speech was created using the "Save As DAISY XML"  translator and the DAISY Pipeline. It is also available for download from the Microsoft Save as DAISY XML project area referenced above.

Best
George


George Kerscher Ph.D.
Access to information is a fundamental human right in our Information Age.
 Senior Officer, Accessible Information
Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) http://www.rfbd.org Secretary General, DAISY Consortium http://www.daisy.org Co-chair Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a division of the W3C http://www.w3c.org/wai
Board Representative to the International Digital Publishing Forum    (IDPF)
http://www.idpf.org
Phone: +1 406/549-4687
Email: [log in to unmask]