AW: [sw-l] How to create Sign Literature

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
July 5, 2006

On Jul 5, 2006, at 10:14 AM, Stefan Wöhrmann wrote:
> last week I finished another 28kb .sgn file document with the good  
> old SW44
> program. This means 32 pages or 224 lines or .... how many signs --  
> smile-
>
> On the other side - just for expanding my skills I try to write  
> emails with
> SignPuddle  - but of course with the support of the SignPuddle  
> dictionary -
> and it still takes a long time to find the exact spelling of the  
> gloss-entry
> -especially if there is help_1, help_2 help_3 ... ;-)


Hello Stefan!!
Your SignWriter DOS skills, and your documents created with  
SignWriter DOS, are impressive! I love SignWriter DOS too, but I do  
not use it for two reasons:

1. SignWriter DOS runs slowly on my Mac, because I have to use  
Windows 98 inside Virtual PC (a Windows emulator) and that is too slow

2. SignWriter DOS cannot type directly down in vertical columns with  
Lanes

3. The symbols look better in SignText, than they do in SignWriter DOS.

So for these reasons, I create sentences directly in SignText, in  
vertical columns with Lanes, without searching the dictionary by  
glosses...I create my email with SignText, not SignPuddle...

My real point of this thread, is to suggest that people can write  
directly, without transferring signs from any dictionary...

Have you ever tried creating sentences directly in SignText without  
pasting from the dictionary? It is faster than searching for sign_1,  
sign_2, sign_3...that is not intuitive enough from me...

It is a skill that I know you can learn because you are so smart!! ;-)

I think that a lot of people assume you have to use a dictionary, but  
I never did with SignWriter DOS either...I always typed directly in  
SignWriter DOS without accessing the dictionary...I just used the  
dictionary to check a spelling, but not to paste it into the  
document...that is the way I type English too...but that is my style  
and not other people's style...

I don't believe that most people have really tried typing signs  
directly...they assume you have to be dependent on the dictionary,  
and that is not true...If you try it, after awhile it becomes easy  
and your skills improve and you become faster...

Thanks for all your wonderful help on the List, Stefan!

I gave your beautiful book to Stuart Thiessen as my gift to him.  
Stuart and Philippe's NAD workshop was superb...and they had your  
book there too, to show people after the lecture was over. I will  
order another copy of your book for my own office now!

And I met people who had seen your presentation in Maastricht last  
summer, and they were already open and receptive to SignWriting  
because of your videos showing the Deaf children succeeding with  
SignWriting in your classroom - I will tell you the details in the  
next few days...It was so exciting for me to realize how your  
presentation has benefitted SignWriting...It has laid the groundwork  
for the future...THANK YOU!

Val ;-)