Version 

Changes

9.08 

July 2025

New: 

the add-ins for Microsoft Word are now also available in DOTM format. Starting with Word 2007, after installing RTFC, the files will be exchanged for the previous add-ins in DOT format. This happens as soon as the Hypertext Wizard is invoked. The DOTM format is based on the Office Open XML format, which is preferred by administrators over the DOT format. It's more efficient and allows you to enforce stricter macro antivirus security policies. For backward compatibility, both file variants are now stored in the installation directory of RTFC. Remember that if you use your own digital signature, the new templates must now be signed.

Improvement: 

when trying to print an empty file in Braille, a corresponding error message appears. Previously, a dialog was displayed to open a file for printing.

9.07 

September 2024

New: 

this version supports Word 2024 (desktop app) and corresponding versions installed locally on Windows 10 or Windows 11 as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription for the first time.

New: 

if the Word List Builder is invoked while Microsoft Word is running with an open and already saved document in the foreground, the document is automatically loaded into the Word List Builder. You will be taken directly to the "Word List" dialog step and can select the desired list parameters. If no document is open or Word is minimized, the Word List Generator start dialog is invoked.

Improvement: 

In speech synthesis, a hyphen between Roman numerals is now interpreted as a " dash" and read aloud correctly, unless it is a single letter.

Improvement: 

The interaction of conditional hyphens and active hyphenation has been improved. In this context, the vocabulary of active hyphenation has been supplemented by several thousand words.

Improvement: 

this release fixes an issue with current versions of Microsoft Office 2021 or later (desktop app) and Microsoft 365 (subscription), which could cause a prompt to appear when Word is closed asking if changes should be saved to the RtfcWiz.dot file. This problem only occurred if there were other add-ins from other manufacturers in addition to the add-ins from RTFC.

Bug fix: 

If the option for duplex printing was disabled in the RTFC print dialog, the print output was unnecessarily completed with a form feed character. This resulted in an unnecessary blank page when Enabling Juliet 120.

Bug fix: 

The preview window for table profiles in the Hypertext Wizard did not always match the result after conversion to Braille, because no leading spaces were added for advertisement characters.

9.06 

July 2024

New: 

this version supports Microsoft Mobile Voices, which are available for the Narrator screen reader from Windows 10 onwards. If additional voices have been installed on Windows, they can be installed by running the RTFC installer again. RtfcInst.exe for the creation of digital audio books.

New: 

if the Hypertext Wizard is invoked while Microsoft Word is running with an open and already saved document in the foreground, the document is automatically loaded into the wizard. You will be taken directly to the "Target Files" dialog step and can select the desired output format. If no document is open or Word is run minimized, the start dialog of the wizard is opened. If you call up the Hypertext Wizard with the keyboard shortcut <AltGr+R> while Word is running, it's easier than using the button in Word's add-ins.

Improvement: 

after a conversion to the intermediate format "Rich Text Braille", RTFC now jumps to the current reading position from the source document, as well as after a direct conversion to Braille. This happens even if the file is later opened from File Explorer.

Improvement: 

with the Braille Labeler BL-1000 from KGS Corporation, computer Braille can now also be printed, with points 7 and 8 being cut off. Apart from the fact that some characters become unreadable in this way, computer braille can also save space. The numbers do not require numerals and some special characters such as percent (represented by the full sign) are considerably shorter than in full or shorthand.

Improvement: 

this release fixes an issue with current versions of Microsoft Office 2021 or later (desktop app) and Microsoft 365 (subscription) that caused the Braille and Daisy menus to not display correctly in Word's Add-Ins tab. It is not known whether older Office versions are also affected. The Braille and Daisy menus appeared swapped since the beginning of June 2024 due to an update from Microsoft, and the Braille menu label was no longer visible. For some customers, the problem even manifested itself with Microsoft Word aborts and the error message that there is not enough RAM available. Still other customers have reported that the installation of the add-ins ran in an endless loop. These problems have been fixed with the current service release.

Bug fix: 

using TrueType fonts with the Macintosh character set no longer leads to the incorrect display of umlauts and other special characters.

Bug fix: 

the use of superscripts or subscripts and certain special characters such as annotation brackets could result in excessively long lines and thus an incorrect line break in Braille. This problem also occurred when the source document contains direct indications of point combinations in the form "<ptnnn>".

Bug fix: 

the conversion to partial shorthand could lead to program aborts due to unauthorized access to the RAM.

Bug fix: 

the Braille input with The RTFC Braille Keyboard can now also be done in computer Braille again with the Braille table from the RTFC country settings.

9.05 

April 2024

New: 

with the Braille tag "Ignore page change", no more manual page changes are transferred to the target file. Instead, the text flow continues without interruption. This can also be applied specifically to specific page changes by inserting the tag before and after a page change to turn the page turn off and on.

Improvement: 

the back translation is now always performed when a file with a known Braille extension is converted. If the file was not originally created with RTFC or if it comes from another device, the option "Query settings for back translation", the corresponding dialog is always displayed. The back translation is also performed if a file contains binary zeros and may not be a well-formed BRL file. If the file does not comply with the rules of Braille or contains inadmissible control characters, the result of the back translation may be correspondingly inadequate.

Improvement: 

to the keywords in a Index Words that only appear in headings are now added. Previously, only the body of the text without headings was taken into account.

Improvement: 

the accessibility check now also takes into account Manually continued enumerations and numbering. If a following line in a list was created by a paragraph mark and then the bullet was deleted with the Delete key, this is considered an error. If you want to write multiple paragraphs within a list item, you need to use manual (soft) line breaks to connect the paragraphs together. Otherwise, the list will be interrupted at this point when converted to file formats such as Braille, Daisy or HTML and will no longer appear as a continuous list.

Improvement: 

in the accessibility report, the environment of a quotation mark is displayed in the warning "Odd Number of Quotation Marks" is now more clearly reproduced. This makes it easier to find misplaced or missing quotation marks in documents.

Improvement: 

in the accessibility report, footnotes and endnotes are now counted separately in the statistics on the objects.

Improvement: 

In the accessibility report, the font statistics now also show the character maps and associated language groups. Word automatically assigns character maps for foreign languages when you use foreign language letters in a document. By displaying it in the accessibility report, you can check if this may have been unintentional.

Bug fix: 

if the alternative text of a graphic contained Unicode characters, it could not be included in the target file.

Bug fix: 

when converting to Braille, the black text page transition was not specified after a manual page change when the "Wrap Text" option was disabled in the "Format" section of the text profile. This had an impact, among other things, on documents that were converted with the "Note Device" profile.

Bug fix: 

when converted to Braille, line breaks within advertisement characters for table cells at the beginning of a page were not displayed when the "Specify black text page transition with page number" option was enabled.

Bug fix: 

if the "Save files to the source document" and converting a document from OneDrive to an audio book using Microsoft Word, the files are now stored in a subdirectory with the source document. If the location of the source document cannot be determined on the local computer, the subdirectory is created in the configured default target directory of RTFC. Until now, the files in this case were incorrectly stored directly in the default target directory without a subdirectory.

9.04 

July 2023

New: 

with the supplied text profile "Note-taking device" for Braille is the option "Wrap text" in the Format pane. This means that a break is only made for paragraph marks from the source document, so that one long line is created per paragraph. This type of formatting is well suited if you want to read texts in a Braille note-taking device that has its own break function. If black text page numbers have been defined in the source document, they are copied and the black text page transition is specified in the body text with page number. In addition, tables are converted into a bulleted list and the individual cells are indented in a step-like manner, so that tables can also be read meaningfully in a note-taking device.

New: 

with the option "Marking the Outline Level, the level of structure is indicated before each heading in plain text and Braille. This makes the outline level of a heading easily recognizable and can be found with the search function in an editor. This option can be used as an alternative or in addition to the "Underline headings". The outline level is specified on the same line before a heading, which eliminates the need for an additional line as with the underline. This option works even if line breaks have been disabled in the Format section of the text profile, for example, to prepare a file for a Braille note-taking device.

New: 

if the "Indicate outline level" option is activated in the text profile, a new tab named "Titles". Here, announcement and discontinuation marks for headings can be freely defined. Certain meta characters can be used to design headings, as they are already known from tables or graphics. This opens up more possibilities for displaying headings in Braille, in addition to paragraph formatting from the document and options from the text profile (Professional Edition only).

New: 

with the Braille tags "Announcement Signs for Headings" and "Discontinuation sign for headings", the implementation of headings can be designed just as freely as with tables and graphics. This opens up more possibilities for displaying headings in Braille, in addition to paragraph formatting from the document and options from the text profile (Professional Edition only).

Improvement: 

that Table of contents can now be created for plain text and Braille even if the line break is disabled in the "Format" section of the text profile. In this case, it cannot contain Braille page numbers because the page length is not defined and therefore no page numbering is possible, but if black text page numbers have been defined in the source document, they will be adopted. In this way, quotable BRL files are created, which, together with the marking of outline levels for headings, can be read as comfortably as is possible with digital audio books with a daisy book.

Improvement: 

the advanced settings for Braille and the MP3 encoder for audio books, as well as the paper size and page margins for printers have been added to the Export inherited. By exporting and importing settings in the Program Options, Compatibility tab, these settings can now also be used as presets for other users on the same workstation or transferred to other computers (Professional Edition only).

Improvement: 

The import of settings in the program options, tab "Compatibility" now also takes into account a possibly defined workgroup directory. If necessary, the directory is created on the target system and the files that were previously exported from another computer are compared with the workgroup directory. This allows all settings to be restored if they were lost after replacing a server on the local network (Professional Edition only).

Improvement: 

if a list of the styles "Wiles" and "List continueN" after the "E-book standard 16" and is in a frame, the frame is now left-aligned across all list levels. Although this differs from the presentation in Microsoft Word, it is more in line with the expectations of users of the e-book standard. Please note that this type of conversion only takes place if the option "Conversion of special notations according to the e-book standard" is activated in the text profile or an e-book tag has already been used in the document (only for the Professional Edition).

Improvement: 

within frames created using Braille tags or e-book tags, paragraph formatting can now also be used for text alignment. This makes it possible to center texts in such frames or to display them right-aligned (only for the Professional Edition).

Improvement: 

the accessibility checker now also takes into account page numbers that have been defined either in double round brackets or by Braille tags. This checks whether the page numbers are continuously ascending. Page numbers that have already been defined, that are smaller than the current page or that skip a page are reported. The definition of page numbers in documents is important in order to be able to publish citable publications in digital form.

Improvement: 

in audio books, Roman numerals are now recognized and pronounced correctly based on certain keywords before or after the numbers. Terms such as "chapter", "section", "paragraph", "blackboard", "table" or "main piece" are used as keywords.

Improvement: 

in the info dialog it is now possible to reset The RTFC Word Integration so that it is reinitialized the next time the program is started. This is necessary if the user template directory or the startup directory has been reconfigured in Word, or if a repair or reinstallation of Word has been performed. The Word integration is thus set up again for the current user.

Bug fix: 

if a file was to be created in the user profile via the context menu in File Explorer and the environment variable %PERSONAL% was not defined, the target directory could not be created.

Bug fix: 

if a file has been prepared in Braille in such a way that a line break follows each page break, the resulting additional blank line is ignored in the print output.

Bug fix: 

after selecting a daisy player via the link "Select playback device for daisy", the next dialog step was incorrectly called up in the hypertext wizard. Also, the progress bar after transferring a daisy book after completing a conversion has not been removed.

9.03 

October 2022

New: 

To make the files created by RTFC easier to find, a shortcut to the target directory is now created on the user's desktop. If you want to remove this shortcut from the desktop, disable the option "Create shortcut for target files on the desktop" in the program options, "Directories" tab.

New: 

via the menu item "Braille shortening" in the context menu for the drop-down list for the cut profile, a report of all cuts in the cut classes and cut profiles can now be called.

Improvement: 

if you have set the directory for a workgroup on the local network and want to access an exception list or pronunciation dictionary that is already open by another user, you will receive a hint that contains that user's login name. In this way, you can specifically ask other users to close the file and thus release it.

Improvement: 

when converting to a Word document or PDF file, the Alternative text to graphics inherited.

Improvement: 

when converting via the context menu in Explorer, the respective source file is now also converted to the Recent Files List inherited. This list can be accessed from the context menu for the "Add File" button in the Hypertext Wizard.

Improvement: 

when converting to Braille, within headings several spaces in a row inherited.

Improvement: 

when temporarily switching to expert mode with the link "Edit additional settings", the current list item remains selected in a checklist. This makes it easier for blind and visually impaired people to find their way around the dialogues.

Improvement: 

the MP3 encoder settings are now applied to the "Daisy" and "Audio" separately. A change for one of the two formats no longer affects the other format.

Bug fix: 

when setting trimming profiles for the UEB language, duplicates for the truncations of the Strong Contractions class were displayed via the More switch.

Bug fix: 

immediately after calling up the Braille display dialog in the text profile, the correct help topic was not assigned. Thus, with the switch "Help" or with <F1> a different help topic appeared.

9.02 

January 2022

New: 

this version supports Word 2021 (desktop app) and corresponding versions installed locally on Windows 10 or Windows 11 as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription for the first time. It also supports the conversion of files from OneDrive folders and other cloud solutions that are edited with Microsoft Word. In addition, the installer for RTFC has been improved so that it now also detects third-party Microsoft 365 distributions where Office has not been fully enrolled in the registry.

New: 

this version supports for the first time Microsoft Edge for displaying HTML pages. If you create files in HTML format or work with RTFC's accessibility checker, you can now also select Edge as your browser in the program options, File Types tab. Similarly, Edge is offered in the context menu of the "View" button when you convert a document to HTML. At least Windows 10 Release 1909 is required for this.

New: 

for keyboard operation, static texts and groups are now also included in the tab order. This increases the information content for users who work with a screen reader and are not yet familiar with the operation of the program. However, this also requires more keystrokes to navigate the dialogs. This behavior can therefore be deactivated in the program options, tab "General" via the "Accessibility" button with the option "Keep focus on dialog elements". This also applies to the focus on buttons that have already been triggered. If you deselect this option, the focus will automatically move to another dialog item after pressing a button. This allows you to trigger the default button ("OK" or "Next") at any time with the Enter key.

New: 

when selecting source files in the Hypertext Wizard, a File analysis be in progress. To do this, select the menu item "Analyze File" from the context menu for a source file. An accessibility check is carried out for documents. In the case of audio files, the key data for the conversion into a digital audio book is determined and displayed.

New: 

In the "Print" and "Printer Setup" dialogs, you can now use the context menu for the drop-down list for the printer to disable the automatic hardware detection of new USB printers if you only want to work with the USB printers or Windows printer drivers that have already been recognized. Here you can also get the properties of the printer including the current print format and control sequences to check if the printer is properly configured within RTFC.

New: 

When converting to Braille with the Hypertext Wizard, you can now call up the configuration dialog for the RTFC Braille Viewer directly from the context menus of the drop-down lists for the output format and the further steps, as well as the "Display" button. If you are converting to Braille shorthand, you can also go directly to the selection of a shortening profile for partial shorthand.

New: 

round and square brackets with a space between them are passed through in Braille as round and curly brackets to make it easier to create simple forms with checkboxes. This type of display is based on screen readers, which display selection fields and checkboxes in this way.

Improvement: 

when converting tables to HTML, column headings are now marked if they have been specified as a header in the document or formatted in bold text. This makes it easier to navigate with a screen reader, even in the daisy full text.

Improvement: 

via the option "Do not consider this device in the future", the currently displayed device can be excluded from automatic detection as a daisy player. This means that the detection of target drives for audio books is no longer generally switched off, but only ignores the current device.

Improvement: 

the automatic book transfer now works with a process synchronization that prevents the system from being loaded by transferring several audio books at the same time.

Improvement: 

the automatic detection of daisy players can now distinguish between the different models of the Milestone from Bones. However, the Milestone 112 is not recognized by RTFC as a daisy player, as it does not support flexible directory names and therefore cannot be populated with multiple daisy books via the automatic book transfer. We would like to point out that the Milestone 112 is still able to play the MP3 files of Daisy books if you copy them by hand into one of the folders M1 to M5.

Improvement: 

the automatic book transfer now takes into account the new control files that are generated for the Milestone of Bones from firmware version 6.1 onwards. This means that Milestone's navigation capabilities are automatically updated when the same audio book has been converted and transferred again.

Improvement: 

if a system crash occurs while an exception list or pronunciation dictionary is in progress, the previously saved data is retained after the program is restarted.

Bug fix: 

cursor tracking with JAWS did not always work properly immediately after calling a BRL file with the RTFC Braille Viewer, so that the cursor incorrectly jumped back to the beginning of the file and did not stay at the current conversion position.

Bug fix: 

on some computers, it could take several minutes to generate an accessibility report.

Bug fix: 

BRL files with a line length of less than 10 characters can now be easily printed using printers from Index and Thiel.

Bug fix: 

in NOT files (for sheet music) no page breaks could be saved.

Bug fix: 

when sorting the source files, file names with leading zeros were incorrectly sorted if they were single zeros.

Bug fix: 

specifying wildcards for the target file in the command line could lead to the use of an incorrect target filename.

Bug fix: 

the keyboard shortcut <Ctrl+Shift+R> to start the RTFC Document Reader was also interpreted outside of Microsoft Word, which prevented its use in other programs. For example, the "Reply all" function in a mail program could no longer be executed with <Ctrl+Shift+R>.

Bug fix: 

the hyphen was not recognized as a word delimiter within emphasis in Braille, which meant that in certain situations superfluous discontinuation signs were placed before a hyphen.

Bug fix: 

Stand-alone question marks, exclamation marks and dots in brackets are given the cancellation point 6 in shorthand to avoid confusion with monotonous abbreviations.

9.01 

October 2020

New: 

We have the Context menu in File Explorer with two more menu items, with which a direct conversion into Braille and digital audio books is possible. In addition to the integration into Microsoft Word and the conversion with the Hypertext Wizard, a third approach is available for the use of RTFC. If you hold down the Shift key when calling up the menu items, a dialog will appear to change the default settings. This allows you to configure the menu items and determine which format you prefer for each. For Braille, you can choose between shorthand, full print or computer Braille. With Daisy, you can choose between different types of audio books or simple audio files.

New: 

Select the folder or a file from a daisy book in File Explorer and select the menu item "Performing Book Transfer" from the context menu to load this audio book into your player. The only requirement is that you have agreed to the use of the connected daisy player as a target device for the transmission of audio books or have selected it manually. Of course, daisy books that were not created with RTFC can also be transferred.

New: 

the Choosing a Daisy Player for the automatic book transfer, the link "Select a playback device for Daisy". This allows you to select a player not only in the Hypertext Wizard, but also in the default settings for Daisy.

New: 

if you use the Hypertext Wizard to convert files to Braille or the Portable Document Format, you can use the context menu for the "Next steps" drop-down list to select the Text Import Options call. With the help of these options, the conversion can be influenced in order to filter out certain parts of the text and obtain a formatted document for optimal further processing.

New: 

with the Braille tag "Conversion according to the e-book standard", a document can be marked as an e-book. On the one hand, this eliminates the need to activate the corresponding option in the text profile. On the other hand, it allows this option to be turned off and on during the course of a document. This is useful if the implementation rules for special notations according to the e-book standard 16 are to be overridden for parts of the document.

Improvement: 

the automatic book transfer is now executed as a transaction, which means that files that have already been copied are taken back in the event of an abort. This prevents incomplete audio books from remaining on your player and consuming storage space.

Improvement: 

the Font Class Settings now also have an effect on the implementation of annotation brackets in connection with e-book tags. This allows, for example, the use of German annotation brackets in English texts when e-book tags are translated into German with the help of font classes.

Improvement: 

with a prohibition of abbreviation before the counter of integer fractions, the alternative notation with a slash instead of the fraction bar is now also used in UEB.

Bug fix: 

the distinction between individual signs and individual words in emphasis in UEB had not taken into account the apostrophe as a possible word component. Now words introduced with apostrophes, such as in "I've" or "You'll" with the single word character.

Bug fix: 

when creating several files in Braille at the same time, the RTFC Braille Viewer could crash due to a lack of process synchronization when instantiating Microsoft Word objects.

Bug fix: 

in the case of umlauts in file names, cross-references between documents in HTML and the daisy full text could not be resolved. Now umlauts in file names are replaced by the respective basic letter.

Bug fix: 

the footnote text in HTML and the daisy full text was not converted if a file was previously converted to Braille with a limited footnote level.

9.0 

July 2020

 

Release of version 9.

See also: 

What's new in RTFC version 9