Table of Contents About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What is a Type 'n Speak? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 SECTION I: The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CHAPTER 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 What the Type 'n Speak Looks Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Charging the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Type 'n Speak Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The First Time Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Type 'n Speak's File Structure . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Files Provided by Blazie Engineering . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Type 'n Speak's Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Some Basic Type 'n Speak Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Type 'n Speak Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Navigating Through the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Pull-down Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Status Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 How to Charge the Built-in Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Double-speed Chip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 CHAPTER 2: Changing the Type 'n Speak's Voice . . . . . . . . . . 20 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 The Speech Parameters Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Volume, Speech Rate, Pitch, and Tone . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Announcement of Punctuation and Numbers . . . . . . . . . 21 Multiple Voice Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 SECTION II: Working With Your Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CHAPTER 3: Reading Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Navigating Through a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Finding the Top and Bottom of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Reading Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Reading Long Passages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Stopping at a Specific Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Skimming with Hyper-speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Spelling Out Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Reading Characters Phonetically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 The ASCII Value of the Character Under the Cursor . . . . . . . . 31 Moving by Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Moving by Relative Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Examples of Moving by Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The Text Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Defining Blocks of Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Skipping Blank Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Reading by User-defined Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Defining Window Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The Automatic Braille Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Special Types of Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Searching for Text in a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Location of the Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Finding Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Example of a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Click Tip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Canceling a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Case-sensitive Searches for Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 CHAPTER 4: Writing Your Own Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 How to Create a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 The Type 'n Speak Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Where to Store Files in Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 How to Name Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Creating a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Tips for Writing in a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The Location of the Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Room Left in Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Writing Text in Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Controlling Where Text Appears on the Page . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Lines and Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Tabbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Practicing Writing Basic Control Characters . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Writing Repeated Character Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Selecting Your Typing Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Typing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Hearing Words Spoken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Braille Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Cursor Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Tracking the End of a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 CHAPTER 5: Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 The Two Editing Modes: Append and PC Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Activating PC Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Changing the Typing Voices of PC Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Switching Typing Modes with PC Edit Mode Active . . . . . . . . . 55 Overwriting Text with PC Edit Mode Inactive . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Overwriting a Single Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Overwriting a Block of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Backspacing and Rubbing Out a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Deleting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Inserting Text with PC Edit Mode Inactive . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Copying Text into a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Finding and Replacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Word Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 CHAPTER 6: Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Types of Printers that Work with the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . 71 Typing Escape Codes into Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Typing Formatting Commands into Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Setting and Adjusting Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Indenting a Block of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Outdenting a Line of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Justifying Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Changing Page Length and Line Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Status Menu Formatting Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Making Settings File-Specific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Changing Formatting Parameters in the Status Menu . . . . . . . . 79 Centering Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Setting Up a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Tabbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Page Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Changing the Appearance of Print Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Stopping the Print Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Double-spacing a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Inserting a Time Stamp on a Printed Document . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Skipping Portions of a File to Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 CHAPTER 7: Manipulating Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Checking the Name of the Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Exploring the File Command Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Listing Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Listing a Group of Files with Similar Names . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Setting Up Some Practice Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Navigating through Your Files List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Checking Which File is Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Opening an Existing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Opening a File Whose Name is Known . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Flipping Between the Last Two Open Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Opening a File by its Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Jumping to a File from the Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . 93 Finding a File in the Files List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Renaming a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Write-protecting and Unprotecting a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Protecting a File with a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Deleting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Deleting a Single File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Deleting a Group of Files with Similar Names . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Changing the Size of a File Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Checking the Size of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Adding Pages to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Subtracting Pages From a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Resizing Files That are Not Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Copying an Entire File into the Currently Open File . . . . . . . 102 Free Space in the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Using a Mini-help File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 CHAPTER 8: Organizing Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Viewing the Files List by Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Navigating through Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Jumping to a Folder by its Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Creating a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Moving a File into a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Moving Groups of Files into a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Opening a File in a Different Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Moving Files Between RAM and Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Renaming a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Deleting a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 SECTION III: Working With Other Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 CHAPTER 9: The Clock and the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 The Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Checking the Current Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Switching Between American and European Time . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Setting the Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Resetting the Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Hourly Announcement of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Setting the Alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Setting the Alarm to Sound More than Once . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 The Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Checking Today's Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Setting Today's Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Getting a Date from the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Inserting a Date and Time into a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Finding a Date in Your Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Adding a Calendar Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Calendar Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Information About Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 CHAPTER 10: The Stopwatch and the Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 The Stopwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Starting and Stopping the Stopwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Reading Elapsed Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Stopping and Resetting the Stopwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 The Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Finding Out the Time Remaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Timing in the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Inserting Stopwatch Information into a File . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 CHAPTER 11: The Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Basic Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Changing Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Switching Between Fraction and Decimal Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Using the Embedded Number Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Inserting Calculation Results into a File . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Computing an Expression from Within a File . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Performing Percentage Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Storing and Using the Memory Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Extracting a Square Root . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Complex Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Error Messages and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 CHAPTER 12: The Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Creating Your First Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Entering Data into the Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Looking Up an Entry in Your Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Editing Phonebook Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Customizing the Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Using the Personal or Business Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Creating Multiple Phone Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Selecting the Active Phone File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Returning to Default Phonebook Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Customizing Field Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 CHAPTER 13: Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 What's a Macro, Anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Recording a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Cautions About Recording Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 An Example of a Simple Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Playing a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 How to Check What a Macro Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Pausing a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 An Example of a Complex Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Write-protecting Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Adding Your Own Messages to a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Start-up Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Erasing a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 CHAPTER 14: The Spellchecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 What is a Spellchecker? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Running the Spellchecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Adding a Word to Your Custom Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Bypassing a Word for the Rest of the Document . . . . . . . . . . 162 Hearing a Word in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Correcting a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Repeating a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Overlooking a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Suggested Replacement Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 SECTION IV: Talking With Other Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Introduction 165 CHAPTER 15: Telecommunications Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Serial versus Parallel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Number of Pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Null Modem Cable Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Customizing Telecommunications Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Baud Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Parity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Duplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Data Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Stop Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Handshaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 The Interactive Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Rejecting Ornamentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 CHAPTER 16: The Portable Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 What Can You Do With the Disk Drive? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 How to Operate the Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Connecting the Disk Drive to the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . 175 Retrieving a File From Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Saving a File to Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Transferring Textfiles or Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Sending Files to the Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Receiving Files From the Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Reading the Directory on a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 CHAPTER 17: Printers, Modems, and Computers . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Transmission Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Activating the Serial Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Adding Line-feeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Physical Page Format Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Finding Out What Page is Being Printed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Transmitting a Portion of a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Double-spacing a Document on the Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Previewing Where Text Will Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Sending Blocks of Text to Another Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Transmitting Text to Another Type 'n Speak File . . . . . . . . . 191 Connecting Modems and Other Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 The Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Using Modem Protocols to Transmit Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Sending Files to a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Receiving Files from a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 The Type 'n Speak as a Speech Synthesizer . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Simple Speechbox Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Enhanced Speechbox Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 The Indexing Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Specific Screen Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Sending Type 'n Speak Output to Your Computer Screen . . . . . . . 200 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 CHAPTER 18: Running External Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 How to Obtain Programs for the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Which Files are External Programs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Running an External Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Running a Program From the Files Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Running a Program From the Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . 203 Updating Your Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 The Bilingual Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Switching Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 APPENDIX A: Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Telecommunications Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Internet Connection Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Printing Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Transmission Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Crash and Recovery Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 RAM and Flash Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Miscellaneous Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 APPENDIX B: Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Speech Parameters Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 File Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Folder Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Entering Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Moving the Cursor and Speaking Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Finding and Replacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Deleting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Inserting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Clock and Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Stopwatch / Countdown Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Scientific Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Spellcheck Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Disk Drive Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Transmitting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Parameters Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Status Menu Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Miscellaneous Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 APPENDIX C: Technical Data About the Serial Port . . . . . . . . . 253 APPENDIX D: Which Charger to Use? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 About This Manual If you're a Type 'n Speak veteran, you'll find it easy to get acquainted with the new features in the Type 'n Speak. Appendix B, which lists all the Type 'n Speak commands by subject, is a good starting point for you to see what's new. Since this manual is a new document, it does not rely on or refer to the previous edition (written in 1993), so don't be fooled by a section's name. For example, a section called "Changing the Type 'n Speak's Voice" contains information about new features. This manual is your "road map" as you explore the Type 'n Speak's modes, features and functions. Each chapter discusses related groups of commands and what they do, along with practical examples. Here is a key to the map: INTRODUCTION: Tells you what a Type 'n Speak is. SECTION I - THE BASICS: Explains what to do the first time you take the Type 'n Speak out of the box. SECTION II - WORKING WITH YOUR FILES: Walks you slowly and painlessly through reading, writing, and manipulating files. SECTION III - WORKING WITH OTHER TOOLS: Tours the Type 'n Speak's calendar, calculator, stopwatch, timer, and much more. SECTION IV - CONVERSING WITH OTHER DEVICES: Demystifies the complicated business of file transfers, printing considerations, the external disk drive, and external programs — all without any technobabble. APPENDIX A - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Answers the questions we hear most frequently about printing, file recovery, file transfers, and the like. APPENDIX B - QUICK REFERENCE: Lists, by subject, all Type 'n Speak commands. APPENDIX C - TECHNICAL DATA ABOUT THE SERIAL PORT: Provides technical specifications for linking the Type 'n Speak to nonstandard devices. APPENDIX D - WHICH CHARGER TO USE? Explains what chargers work with the various models of the Type 'n Speak, Braille 'n Speak, Type Lite, Braille Lite, and portable disk drive to help you prevent damaging your unit by plugging the wrong charger into it. By the time you finish exploring the Type 'n Speak universe, you'll wonder how you managed without it. What Is a Type 'n Speak? The Type 'n Speak is a laptop-style computer with a built-in speech synthesizer to provide you with spoken feedback. Not only does it speak all prompts for its commands, it speaks back what you type. Weighing about two pounds, with its own internal, rechargeable battery and storage, this powerful little laptop can act as your notebook, your address book, your calendar, your calculator, your stopwatch, your timer, and much more! You can use a Type 'n Speak comfortably and unobtrusively at a meeting, on a street corner or a subway, just as anyone uses a pencil and notepad. And you probably won't run out of room, because the unit can store a lot of information. The Type 'n Speak can store about 300 physical pages of print in its random- access memory area (or 758 kilobytes), and over 800 more in Flash memory (or 2 mega-bytes). We will fully discuss RAM and Flash memory shortly. The Type 'n Speak can "talk" with other computers — whether it's to store information on a disk (for you to read later), or whether it's to print files with an ink printer, or Braille them with a Braille embosser. Using an external modem and your telephone, the Type 'n Speak links you to a wealth of information using services such as the Internet: news, shopping, research, conversation with other computer users, and so on. If you have a personal computer with a screen reader, you can use your Type 'n Speak as a portable speech synthesizer with your screen reader through the Type 'n Speak's Speechbox mode. This can come in handy if you're on the go a lot and want to minimize the gear you carry. You can imagine all the possibilities hidden within the Type 'n Speak. So, let's get started in learning how to use it! SECTION I: The Basics Introduction This section covers very basic information about the Type 'n Speak, in two separate chapters. Chapter 1 explains what the Type 'n Speak looks like, what to expect when you turn it on for the first time, and how to navigate the menu system. Chapter 2 shows you how to set up the voice to your liking through the flexible Speech Parameters option. If you're already generally familiar with how to operate your Type 'n Speak, you may wish to skim most of this section. But be on the lookout for features that may be new to you in the Type 'n Speak. CHAPTER 1: Getting Started Introduction This chapter focuses on some Type 'n Speak basics. We'll first check into what the Type 'n Speak looks like, and explore its keyboard layout. Then we'll discuss what to expect the first time you turn it on, and how to use the Type 'n Speak's commands and menus. What the Type 'n Speak Looks Like Let's start by giving the Type 'n Speak a physical to learn the basics about its use. The Type 'n Speak is about a foot wide, seven inches from front to back, and one inch high. Its keyboard looks much like the typewriter keyboard of a laptop computer. But the similarity ends there. It has no display screen for visual feedback, and many of its keys perform functions that are unique to the device. Place the unit in front of you with the spacebar closest to you -- the usual position for typing. Find the right corner closest to you and slide your finger toward the back of the unit. About halfway, you'll find the on/off rocker switch. To turn the Type 'n Speak on, rock the switch away from you; to turn it off, rock it toward you. Immediately in back of the on/off rocker switch is an earphone jack. In addition to using a standard earphone with this jack, you can also use it with a patch cord to send the Type 'n Speak's voice output to an external speaker or to a tape recorder. Now find the back left corner of the unit. Slide your finger toward the right. The first thing you find is the A.C. power adapter jack. Note that the Type 'n Speak uses a 9-volt adapter. Continuing about an inch to the right of the A.C. jack, find two round openings about an inch apart. They feel virtually identical, each with tiny holes. These are called DIN ports. They are used to connect the Type 'n Speak to other devices. The DIN port closest to the A.C. jack is a serial port, to connect the Type 'n Speak to other serial devices (like personal computers and modems). The other DIN port connects the Type 'n Speak to the Blazie Engineering portable external disk drive. Just to the right of this DIN port is the Type 'n Speak's parallel port. You will use it to connect the Type 'n Speak to parallel printers or Braille embossers. The cable that came with your Type 'n Speak lets you connect the unit to other serial devices, including another Type 'n Speak (or any other Blazie notetaker), a computer, a modem, and a serial printer. For details about connecting the Type 'n Speak to other devices, see Chapter 15. For details on connecting the Type 'n Speak to the portable disk drive, see Chapter 16. Charging the Type 'n Speak When charging the Type 'n Speak's built-in battery, use only the 9-volt charger supplied with the unit. Do not use one of the newer 12-volt chargers you may have lying around for use with other Blazie products, such as the Braille 'n Speak 2000 or Braille Lite 40. (See Appendix D for information on chargers.) Substituting another transformer which looks or feels like the correct one, but which has the incorrect voltage requirements (or polarity), could destroy chips or other critical parts of the Type 'n Speak. With normal usage, a fully-charged Type 'n Speak functions properly under battery power for about 25 hours. And it takes eight hours to charge a Type 'n Speak fully. However, the actual length of time your Type 'n Speak will function under battery power varies according to use. For example, to communicate with another computer, you must activate the Type 'n Speak's serial port. Heavy use of the serial port, using battery power rather than A.C., drains the battery more quickly. The Type 'n Speak has a handy battery-usage safety feature. It warns you when the battery starts to get low, and continues to do so until you take action. Note: We offer an emergency cable that lets you power the Type 'n Speak from an external battery in case you can't charge your battery immediately. Experiment with your machine to see how much time it actually operates after the "battery low" message first occurs. Operation for too long in low-voltage conditions may cause scrambling of data stored in the machine. But should this happen, you may be able to recover the data, as you'll see later. The "battery low" message will occur only five times during the current session. In other words, after the first time you hear the warning, it repeats only four more times, unless you turn off the Type 'n Speak first. However, if you turn on the Type 'n Speak again without recharging it, the "battery low" message will occur another five times during that session. If you do decide to experiment with the length of battery usage and your data, do it before your machine is full of sensitive data -- or, at least wait until you are familiar with data recovery techniques for the Type 'n Speak. The Type 'n Speak comes fully charged from the factory. But, eventually you'll need to recharge the battery. Once you have done so, you must remember to set the battery use timer. The optimal way to use the Type 'n Speak is to keep it turned off unless you are actually reading, writing, computing, or transmitting data. The great thing is that turning it off does not erase your data, and turning it back on instantly returns you to wherever you last stopped. In fact, the Type 'n Speak doesn't like to be ignored. It reminds you of its presence with a "Hello?" message when you have not pressed a key within five minutes. The Type 'n Speak Keyboard The Type 'n Speak keyboard layout is probably already somewhat familiar to you, since it has many of the same keys found on a typewriter or personal computer. There are the standard alphanumeric keys, of course. These include all the letters of the alphabet, punctuation, and digits from 0 through 9. But the function keys, navigation keys, and the other keys all perform tasks unique to the Type 'n Speak that we'll discuss in detail as we move through this manual. For now, we'll simply work on defining what the keys are called and where they are located, with respect to keys that are already familiar. It's not important that you understand the functionality of each key at this point, just what each one is called on the Type 'n Speak. And in case you know the names of keys on a laptop, we'll define each key in terms of what it would be on a laptop, just for clarity. Position the Type 'n Speak with the spacebar at the front of the unit, the side closest to you as you would type. The key on the right top corner of the Type 'n Speak keyboard, normally called Break, is the Help key. You use the Help key to move instantly to the Type 'n Speak's Help file (which contains a brief listing of Type 'n Speak commands). If you press Shift together with the Help key, the Type 'n Speak goes into Learn mode. While you're in Learn mode, the Type 'n Speak announces the function of any key you press, other than the alphanumeric keys, without actually performing that function. So for example, if you press the Help key itself, you hear, "Open Help file." You exit Learn mode by pressing Esc. Now move down the right side of the keyboard. The key immediately under Help, normally called Home, is the Top key. You use this key to jump to the top of a file, the top of your list of files, or the first choice on a menu. Continuing down the right side of the keyboard, just under the Top key is the Previous-paragraph key, normally called PgUp. You use this key to jump to the previous paragraph in a file. Under the Previous-paragraph key is the Next-paragraph key, normally called PgDn. You use this key to jump to the next paragraph in a file. Under the Next-paragraph key is the Bottom key, normally called End. You use this key to jump to the bottom of a file, the end of your list of files, or the last choice on a menu. Next, going down the right side of the keyboard, is the key at the bottom right corner. This is the Right-arrow key. You use this key to move to the next word in a file. If you press Shift together with Right-arrow, you will move to the next character in a file. Now move along the bottom row of the keyboard. The first key to the left of the Right-arrow is the Down-arrow key. You use this key to move to the next line in a file. If you press Shift together with Down-arrow, the Type 'n Speak says the current word. Just to the left of Down-arrow is the Left-arrow key. You use this key to move to the previous word in a file. If you press Shift together with Left-arrow, you move to the previous character in a file. Now let's move back to the Down-arrow key for a minute. Just above this key is the Up-arrow key. You use this key to move to the previous line in a file. If you press Shift together with Up- arrow, the Type 'n Speak says the current line. You should note that immediately to the left of Up-arrow, just above Left-arrow, is the right Shift key used for capitalizing letters, shifting numbers on the number row, and shifting the function keys on the top row of the keyboard. The Right-shift key is slightly larger than the keys to its left, its right, and underneath it. Now continuing up from Up-arrow, the key just above Up-arrow is the all-important Enter or Return key. It is easy to distinguish from the keys surrounding it because it is slightly larger, a rectangle rather than a square. You use this key to force a new line in a file and to execute many commands on the Type 'n Speak. Let's return to the bottom row of the keyboard and check out the keys on either side of the Spacebar. Just to the right of the Spacebar is the Accent key, which when shifted, becomes the Tilde key. This key is not used very often and is considered part of the alphanumeric keys. So, it is not announced when you're in Learn mode. But, just to the right of the Accent key is the Insert key. You use this key to insert text into a file that already contains text. And to the right of Insert is the Delete key. You use this key to delete text, whether it's single characters or big blocks of text in a file, to delete an entire file, or to delete groups of files. The key immediately to the left of the spacebar is the Alt key, just as it is on a PC keyboard. You use Alt in combination with other keys for certain Type 'n Speak commands. To the left of the Alt key is the Macro key, which lets you run pre-existing macros you may have in your Type 'n Speak. The key to the left of the Macro key, which is also at the left bottom corner of the keyboard, is the Control key (Ctrl). You use Ctrl to silence the Type 'n Speak's voice on demand. Moving up the left side of the Type 'n Speak keyboard now, there are some keys also found on a PC keyboard. Going up the row that starts with Ctrl are the left-Shift key, the CapsLock key, the Tab key, and the Escape key (Esc). Notice that Tab feels different from all other keys. It is shaped like a regular key, but has an extra thin piece, lower than the rest of the keys going up from its left edge. Feeling for this makes it easy to find Tab when you need it. As we just mentioned, the Esc key is at the left top corner of the keyboard. You use Esc to abort commands and to exit menus. Now moving from the Esc key to the right across the top row of the keyboard, there are 10 function keys (F1 through F10), as found on a PC. But here, these function keys perform tasks unique to the Type 'n Speak. We'll discuss what each function key does specifically as we move through the manual. Let's move back to the right top corner of the keyboard now, to check out the last few keys on the top row of the keyboard. Remember that the key on the top right corner of the keyboard is Help. The key immediately to the left of Help, normally called PrintScreen, is the Transmit key. You use this key to transfer information between the Type 'n Speak and another serial device, such as a PC or modem. If you press Shift together with the Transmit key, it lets you transmit to a parallel port. You use this key combination to transfer information from the Type 'n Speak to a parallel device, generally a printer or Braille embosser. To the left of the Transmit key is the Record Macro key, normally called Scroll-Lock. This key lets you define a single keystroke to perform key sequences you execute repeatedly. If you press Shift, together with the Record Macro key, the Type 'n Speak pauses the macro you're recording for user entry. (See Chapter 13 for a full discussion of macros.) The key to the left of the Record Macro key is the Paste key, normally called NumLock. This key will insert blocks of information from the Type 'n Speak's Clipboard into a file -- anything from a date, to an entire file. If you press Shift together with the Paste key, you may copy a block of text to the Type 'n Speak's Clipboard for later pasting. (See Chapter 5 for how to copy and paste blocks of text, Chapter 9 for how to paste calendar information, Chapter 10 for how to paste the time being reported by the stopwatch, and Chapter 11 for how to paste results from the calculator.) Remember that Top is the key just under the Help key. The final key we need to identify is just to the left of Top. This is the backspace key. To make it easier to find, backspace is slightly larger than the keys surrounding it. You use backspace to back up and erase the last character you wrote. Now that we've learned all the keys on the Type 'n Speak keyboard, let's discover what you can expect the first time you turn on your Type 'n Speak. The First Time Out Assuming you're starting from scratch, with the Type 'n Speak set up as it comes straight from the factory, turn the Type 'n Speak on by flipping the on/off rocker switch away from you. The unit says, "Type 'n Speak ready; Help is open." If this does not happen, flip the rocker switch back toward you (to the off position), plug the A.C. power supply/battery charger into the A.C. jack, and flip the switch on again. You should then hear, "Type 'n Speak ready; Help is open." Once you're comfortable with the Type 'n Speak, or if you're in a setting where the Type 'n Speak's start-up prompt could be distracting, you may choose to start the Type 'n Speak silently. To do so, simply hold down the spacebar as you turn on the unit. A click indicates that the Type 'n Speak is ready for use. The Type 'n Speak's File Structure The Type 'n Speak is like a nearly empty, three-ring binder just waiting to be filled with your own personal data. Usually, a three-ring binder comes with tabs, or separators of some kind, to indicate the start of each new section in the binder. So each tagged section can be considered a distinct "file." And in fact, with so much storage capacity in the Type 'n Speak, you're not limited to just one "binder" of files, so to speak. There's no reason why you can't have a number of "binders" or "folders" that contain groups of files you want to keep together. (See Chapter 8 for a full discussion on how to work with folders.) Files Provided by Blazie Engineering The Type 'n Speak comes with several files ready for your use. (The exact number may vary.) Here are some you can expect to find when you first receive your unit: The Help file contains a summary of the commands you use to operate the Type 'n Speak. You can jump to it from virtually any file in which you're working by pressing the Help key. The Clipboard file is like a blank scratchpad, or trash can, for storing temporary information. Although the information you store in the Clipboard is temporary, the Clipboard itself is a permanent file in the Type 'n Speak, meaning that you can't remove it. But, you won't want to -- it's very handy to have around. The Calendar file is ready to be filled with your busy schedule. The Type 'n Speak uses this file to help you remember special dates through its Calendar Alert feature. The "spell.dic" program file, the spelling dictionary, is unlike the Help, Clip-board, and Calendar files (whose contents you can actually read). Since spell.dic is a program file, it contains a program that the Type 'n Speak can access to help you do spellchecking. It is not a file you can read yourself. (See Chapter 14 for a complete discussion of the Type 'n Speak's spellchecker.) Finally, we sometimes also include files that contain last-minute information that didn't make it into this manual. We usually provide such information in both textfile and Braille versions so that you have the option of printing or brailling it. The Type 'n Speak's Memory There are two concepts you need to understand with respect to the Type 'n Speak's memory: The Type 'n Speak has Flash-ROM, as well as RAM and Flash memory. Flash-ROM: The Type 'n Speak has special programming built into it, including Flash-ROM (read-only memory). Flash-ROM lets you run special software to update your Type 'n Speak yourself. (See "Updating Your Type 'n Speak" in Chapter 18 to learn how to update to our latest software release.) RAM and Flash Memory: The Type 'n Speak's storage space for your files is divided into two portions. The RAM (random-access memory) portion can store 300 pages of print. RAM contains 758 kilobytes of space where you can edit your files and run external programs. Your Flash memory can store over 800 pages of print. Flash memory contains two megabytes of space where you can store programs and files while you're not working with them. Files and programs move easily between the RAM and Flash portions of your Type 'n Speak's memory. (See "Moving Files Between RAM and Flash" in Chapter 8.) Some Basic Type 'n Speak Commands There are several types of commands in the Type 'n Speak: Some commands let you bring up menus of options. Others let you navigate through your files and edit them. Still others let you run the Type 'n Speak's built-in tools, such as the stopwatch or calculator. And some even let you transfer data between your Type 'n Speak and another device, like a computer or printer. Many commands on the Type 'n Speak begin with the press of a function key. We'll discuss each command specifically as we move through this manual. But for now, here are a couple of basic things you need to know. You usually press Enter to "execute" a command. But, the Type 'n Speak is pretty forgiving about letting you cancel a procedure. Most of the time, if you change your mind midstream, you can cancel a command procedure with Esc. If you halt a procedure with Esc, the Type 'n Speak announces, "Abort." The Type 'n Speak Menus The Type 'n Speak has a set of commands for working with menus. Just as a restaurant menu offers you choices of food, menus on a computer offer you choices of functions to perform. And a "submenu" offers more levels of choice. Let's say that the major menu covers breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you pick the dinner menu, you'll see choices for appetizers, entrees, desserts and beverages. Clearly, you'll then need to read over each of those sets of choices to decide which appetizer, entree, and beverage you want -- and, if you're very good, you'll skip the set of dessert choices. The Type 'n Speak's menu system works very much like that. The major menus are the Speech Parameters menu, the Status menu, and the Files menu. Like the dessert portion of a restaurant menu, each menu in the Type 'n Speak provides choices. For example, in the Speech Parameters menu, you can choose to change the Type 'n Speak's volume, speech rate, and how much punctuation to speak as it reads to you. Some of the Type 'n Speak menus let you perform functions and issue commands. Others, like the Status menu, let you change Type 'n Speak settings. Navigating Through the Menus You can navigate through all the choices in a Type 'n Speak menu quite easily. When you bring up a menu, either write the specific letter that selects the choice you want, or cycle through the choices till you find the one you want. Here are the commands used to navigate through most menus: ? To move to the next choice, press Down-arrow. ? To move to the previous choice, press Up-arrow. ? To move to the first choice, press Home. ? To move to the last choice, press End. ? To hear the hot key for the current choice, press Shift+End. ? To hear the current choice repeated, press Shift+Up-arrow. Once you hear the choice you want, press Enter to select it. Sometimes, doing so brings up another set of choices (or, a submenu). To exit a menu, press Esc. Whenever you exit a menu, just as when you first turn on the Type 'n Speak, the Type 'n Speak remembers to put you right back into your file, just where you had stopped working in that file. Pull-down Menus Several menus on the Type 'n Speak are called pull-down menus, because they let you, in effect, "pull down" choices for performing a specific task in a particular way. You can navigate through the choices in a pull-down menu with the Up-/Down-arrows or the spacebar, or you can press a hot key to jump directly to a choice. To hear the hot key for the choice you're pointing to, press Shift+End. Here are the pull-down menus and the keystrokes that bring them up: ? Delete menu - Del ? File Command menu - F1, Help key (Break) ? Move menu - Shift+F3 ? Options menu - F9 or Alt+o ? Parameter menu - Alt+p ? Paste menu - NumLock ? Remote menu - Alt+0 ? Set Time/Date menu - F9 or Alt+o, s ? Spellcheck menu - F6 ? Storage menu - F8 ? Transmit menu - Transmit key (PrtScr/Shift+PrtScr) As with all menus, you can exit a pull-down menu at any time by pressing Esc. The Options Menu The Options menu contains a list of the things you can do with the Type 'n Speak. As with other menus, you can navigate the Options menu with Up-/Down-arrows or the spacebar, or you can press a hot key to jump directly to a choice. To hear the hot key for the choice you're pointing to, press Shift+End. Here are the commands available in the Options menu: ? Calendar check ? Braille mode ? Calculator ? Date ? Calendar entry ? File commands ? Smart calendar ? Calculate line ? Open the previously opened file ? Open the currently pointed-to file ? Open phonebook ? Phonebook ? Set time/date ? Spellcheck ? Time ? Say countdown timer ? Stopwatch ? Execute program ? Say alarm As with all menus, you can exit the Options menu at any time by pressing Esc. The Status Menu The Status menu contains a list of all the settings in the Type 'n Speak, along with the status of each setting. You can change the status of each setting, as you'll see throughout this manual. The Status menu has three groups of settings: serial parameters, format parameters, and miscellaneous parameters. As with other menus, move through the settings in the Status menu with up/down- arrows, or press a hot key to jump directly to a setting. To hear the hot key for the setting you're pointing to, press Shift+End. Notice that you cannot use the spacebar for cycling through menu choices in the Status menu, as you can do with other menus. In the case of the Status menu, the spacebar is used differently. You can bring up the Status menu, from within whatever file you're working, with F10. You should hear, "Status menu, Interactive off." Try it, for practice, if you like. Move through the settings by pressing Down-arrow and Up-arrow. Since the Status menu has so many settings, it may be confusing to listen to terms you may not recognize. So jump to the last setting with End. You should hear, "PC Edit mode, off." Jump back to the first setting with Home, or with another Down- arrow. You should hear, "Interactive off" again. If you jump to the first setting with Home, or if you press Up-arrow repeatedly to bring you back to the first setting, pressing another Up-arrow cycles you around to the last setting again. Stop somewhere in the middle of the settings and press Shift+Up- arrow to hear the current one repeated. Or, press Shift+End to hear the name of its hot key. For example, if you're pointing to, say, the setting that tells you the revision date for the Type 'n Speak's software, press Shift+End to hear "R." Settings come in two flavors. They either have on/off status, or they have multiple status options. For a setting that can be turned only on or off, you do so with a "y" for on, or an "n" for off. If a setting that has multiple status options, you cycle among its options by pressing the spacebar until you hear the status you want, then press Esc to exit the Status menu. Another way to jump directly to a major group of settings in the Status menu is to press PgDn to move forward, or PgUp to move backward. These commands jump you to the first setting in a major group: serial parameters, format parameters, or miscellaneous parameters. For example, press Home to jump to the first setting on the Status menu, "Interactive off." Now press PgDn. You'll hear, "Serial Parameters, Interactive off." Press PgDn again to hear, "Miscellaneous Parameters, Braille translator off." Another PgDn brings you to, "Format Parameters, printer is Epson compatible," and one more PgDn cycles you back to "Serial Parameters, Interactive off." Cycle backward through these major groups with PgUps. As with other menus, you exit the Status menu by pressing Esc. The Type 'n Speak says, "Exit." By the way, whenever you re-enter the Status menu, it places you on the setting you had last examined. For example, if you stop on "Battery used" and then exit, the next time you enter the Status menu, you'll be right there, at "Battery used," even if you turn off the Type 'n Speak and turn it on again later. How to Charge the Built-in Battery If you've upgraded your Type 'n Speak, take a look at Appendix D, "Which Charger to Use?" The Type 'n Speak still uses a 9-volt charger, not the new 12-volt charger we now provide for use with the Braille 'n Speak and Braille Lite products. If you try to charge your Type 'n Speak with the wrong charger, you may end up with a non-working unit. So read Appendix D carefully if you have more than one of our products, and thus, more than one charger around the house or office. It is important to know how long your battery has been running since you last charged your Type 'n Speak. The Type 'n Speak warns you when its battery is running low with a "Battery low" message. Once you've recharged the battery, you should reset the battery used timer to zero to keep an accurate reading of how well your unit is retaining its charge. To do this, enter the Status menu with F10. Jump to the setting, "Battery used," by typing a question mark. You hear something like, "Battery used, zero hours, 10 minutes." Of course, the actual time depends on how long the unit has run since its last charge -- not how much time has passed since you last turned on the unit, but how long it's been since the Type 'n Speak was last charged with the battery charger. To reset the battery used timer, type a 0 or press the spacebar at this point. The Type 'n Speak says, "Reset battery timer, y or n?" Type a y for yes. You'll hear, "Zero hours, zero minutes." Then exit the Status menu by pressing Esc. The Double-Speed Chip There is an optional chip you can add to the Type 'n Speak to improve its performance. We call this the "double-speed" chip because it speeds up the time it takes the Type 'n Speak to handle certain tasks. For example, searching for text in a long file can time- consuming. But with the double-speed option, text can be found in half the time it used to take. To check whether you have the double-speed option in your unit, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type a + to jump directly to the double-speed setting. If your machine is not equipped with double-speed, the Type 'n Speak says, "Double-speed, off" even when you try to turn it on. Otherwise, it tells you the status of double-speed, which is off by default. Remember to exit the Status menu with Esc when you're through checking whether you have double-speed. And if you don't have it, call us for information about how we can add the chip to your machine. Summary You now know all the basics about your Type 'n Speak. It might be a good idea to review the keyboard by going into learn mode (The Help key shifted) if you feel that you need to review where the navigation keys, function keys, and other important keys are located. Commands in the rest of the manual will be far easier to learn if you don't have to hunt for the keys that perform them. In the next chapter, we'll learn how to configure the Type 'n Speak's voice to your favorite settings. CHAPTER 2: Changing the Type 'n Speak's Voice Introduction If you're used to listening to a speech synthesizer, the Type 'n Speak's voice may seem slow at first. But, you can change it to sound just as you like. You can alter the Type 'n Speak's voice in several ways: not only can you adjust the volume, the rate of speech, pitch, and tone of the voice, you can also adjust how the Type 'n Speak handles the announcement of punctuation and numbers. In fact, you can adjust the voice to behave differently for different circumstances, like pronouncing numbers as digits when you're reading your files, but pronouncing them as full numbers when you're running the calculator. So, let's get the Type 'n Speak talking in the way that's most comfortable for you. The Speech Parameters Menu To change any speech parameters, we must bring up the Speech Parameters menu. Press F7 to open the Speech Parameters menu. The Type 'n Speak prompts you with, "Set speech parameters," and waits for you to enter an option. Should you enter an option that the Type 'n Speak does not recognize, it prompts you with, "Invalid parameter" and waits for you to try again. To exit this menu, as you exit all menus in the Type 'n Speak, press Esc. The Type 'n Speak says, "Exit." If you accidentally press F7 twice, the Type 'n Speak goes into Speechbox mode. (See Chapter 17 for a full discussion.) You may think there's something wrong with your unit because, in this mode, virtually all the keys are disabled. Just press F7 twice again to return your Type 'n Speak to normal operation. Volume, Speech Rate, Pitch, and Tone The speech parameters for volume, speech rate, pitch, and tone are easy to remember and to change. ? To raise the volume, press Up-arrow. To lower it, press Down-arrow. ? To raise the speech rate, press Right-arrow. To make it slow down, press Left-arrow. ? To raise the pitch of the voice, press Shift+Right-arrow. To lower it, press Shift+Left-arrow. ? To raise the tone (frequency) of the voice, press Shift+Up- arrow. To lower it, press Shift+Down-arrow. Each time you press one of these commands, the Type 'n Speak announces what you have done while producing the desired effect. So, for example, when you press Down-arrow, the Type 'n Speak says, "Softer" in a softer voice. When you press Left-arrow, it says, "Slower" in a slower voice, and so on. Naturally, there is a limit on how soft/loud and how fast/slow and even how high or low you can make the voice. If you go too far in the "softer" direction for volume, for example, you'll stop hearing "softer" announced. Don't panic. Just press Up- arrow a couple of times to bring the volume back to where you can hear it again. When you're ready to leave the Speech Parameters menu, press Esc. Experiment to find a set of levels you like. The Type 'n Speak remembers how you've set the voice after you exit the Speech Parameters menu, and even the next time you turn on the Type 'n Speak. You can always return to the default settings for speech, or anything else for that matter, and we'll show you how to do that later. Announcement of Punctuation and Numbers You can change the way the Type 'n Speak's voice announces punctuation marks and numbers. Punctuation: To find out the current status of the punctuation setting, enter the Speech Parameters menu with F7. Then write a p, and you'll hear something like, "Current punctuation setting is No." Here are the punctuation levels you can select: ? To hear total announcement of punctuation marks - all of them, regardless of what and where they are - write the letter t (total punctuation). ? To hear most punctuation announced, write the letter m. ? To hear only some punctuation, write the letter s. ? To hear no punctuation announced whatsoever, write the letter z. Remember, you can change this level whenever you want. Numbers: The Type 'n Speak has two options for pronouncing numbers. You may prefer to hear numbers spoken as digits or as full words. Write the letter n to switch between these two modes. For example, from the Speech Parameters menu, if you write the letter n and the Type 'n Speak says, "Say full numbers," this means that when you are reading a number, you will hear the number in words like "two thousand." If you write the letter n again, the Type 'n Speak says, "Say digits." The next time you read a number, the Type 'n Speak will pronounce each digit, like "two, zero, zero, zero." You'll probably want to set the Type 'n Speak to read numbers as digits most of the time since phone numbers, addresses, zip codes, and the like are easier to listen to as digits. When you work with numerical data, such as money information for your bank account, you'll probably want to hear full numbers. When you're ready to leave the Speech Parameters menu, press Esc. Multiple Voice Settings Since you can manipulate the Type 'n Speak's voice to speak in different volumes, at different speech rates, pronounce different levels of punctuation, and so on, it would be nice if you could make these changes on-the-fly - without having to adjust each voice setting from the Speech Parameters menu. Well, you can. You can create up to five different configurations of speech parameters - or "voices" - numbered from 1 to 5. Configuring the Voices: To configure a voice with a particular set of speech parameters, first enter the Speech Parameters menu by pressing F7. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Speech Parameters," you can press PgUp to move to the previous voice and PgDn to move to the next voice. Once you have selected a voice configuration, you can set its speech parameters any way you want. Then press Esc to exit the Speech Parameters menu. The current configuration stays in effect until you change to another voice. In fact, Type 'n Speak retains the current voice configuration the next time you turn it on. Now let's take an example. First note that from the factory, the Type 'n Speak is set to Voice 1. By now you may have changed some features of this voice, as you've worked through earlier sections of this chapter. That's great - but, just remember that the voice you're now hearing is Voice 1. For purposes of this example, we'll establish Voice 2 as such that all punctuation is announced, and to distinguish it from Voice 1, let's raise the volume a couple of notches and speed it up a bit. Enter the Speech Parameters menu with F7 . Press PgDn once. You should hear the Type 'n Speak say, "Voice Number 2." Now that you've selected this voice, you can change its speech parameters. Turn on total punctuation announcement with a t. Then press Up- arrow a couple of times to raise the volume, and Right-arrow two or three times to speed up the speech rate. Exit the Speech Parameters menu with Esc. From now on, this voice will be in effect until you choose another, even when you turn off your Type 'n Speak and turn it on again. Selecting a Voice: Once your various voice configurations are established, you can easily switch among them. From anywhere in your currently open file, press Alt+y followed by a number from 1 to 5. The voice switches instantly to your choice. You don't even have to press Enter. We'll assume the currently open file is the Help file, which is the file that is automatically opened the first time you start the Type 'n Speak. While it can be useful to have all punctuation announced when you're proofreading, it can be quite annoying the rest of the time, because even spaces are announced - all of them. So let's return to Voice 1. From your currently open file, press Alt+y. The Type 'n Speak says, "Voice" and waits for you to enter a number from 1 to 5. Write a number 1. You'll instantly hear Voice 1's volume, speech rate, pitch and tone. And if you read something, you'll see that punctuation is set to however you had it for Voice 1. A couple of notes about voice configurations: Voices 2 through 5 are retained even if you do a warm reset. In the case of a warm reset, only Voice 1's settings return to our factory defaults. The only time all voice settings are lost is when you do a cold reset. (For more information on warm and cold resets, see Appendix A.) A real neat twist to the capability of switching voice configurations is that you can incorporate the command into a macro. Macros are commands you can define to automate some functions you perform repeatedly. For example, you could create a macro that switches to Voice 5, say, and opens your bank statement file, where Voice 5 has been preset to speak numbers as full words. (For a full discussion of macros, see Chapter 13.) Experiment by setting up two or three voice configurations and juggling among them until you're comfortable with the concept. Summary We have covered how to change various aspects of the Type 'n Speak's voice, including how to change its volume, speech rate, and so on. We also discussed how to change the level of punctuation the Type 'n Speak announces as it reads, and the way it pronounces numerical information. Finally, we looked at how you can set up different voice configurations for different situations you might require. There are other speech options in the Speech Parameters menu, which we will discuss as we need to learn about them. But the basic speech parameters we've outlined here will let you set up the Type 'n Speak however it sounds nicest to you. SECTION II: Working With Your Files Introduction This section covers the most critical commands in the Type 'n Speak. While it's nice to have a set of built-in tools like the calendar and clock, the Type 'n Speak's ability to store so much text is what makes it such a powerful notetaker. So, this section is where we cover everything you need to know in order to work with text files. First we discuss how to read the text that's in your files (Chapter 3), and how to write files of your own (Chapter 4). Then once you've practiced these basic functions, we move into the many useful techniques the Type 'n Speak has for editing your text (Chapter 5), and for formatting text so that it prints and brailles properly (Chapter 6). And finally, we show you how to manipulate the files themselves (Chapter 7), and how to organize them into folders to make it easier to find what you need quickly and efficiently (Chapter 8). Once you've mastered the commands in this section, you'll find that the Type 'n Speak is an indispensable tool for your daily use. CHAPTER 3: Reading Your Files Introduction You can control how much text the Type 'n Speak reads to you at any one time. You can read by paragraphs, by sentences, line by line, word by word, even character by character. Or, if you prefer, you can read a whole file without stopping. And the Type 'n Speak can even spell a word for you. The first step to understanding how to read your Type 'n Speak files is to learn about the cursor and its location. Once you know where the cursor is, you can move anywhere within a file so you can read a particular section. And once you know how to move to any section in your file, you can quickly find the particular word or phrase where you want to start reading. The Cursor If you've ever worked with a Perkins broiler, or a slate and stylus, you already know what a cursor is, although you may never have called it that. In computer jargon, the cursor, used for reading and writing, refers to the electronic equivalent of your stylus or the brailler's punching mechanism. The cursor is very important because it marks the place where this "electronic stylus" is resting. You can't feel it anywhere on the Type 'n Speak. But you can move it, find out where it is in your file, and even discover what character is "under" it, all by using Type 'n Speak commands. When we talk about moving through a file to read by sentence, paragraph or whatever, it means that we're moving the cursor to a particular place in that file and commanding the Type 'n Speak to read starting from that location. Navigating through a File You can move through your files on the Type 'n Speak much faster than you can turn Braille or print pages. You can move instantly to the top or bottom (beginning or end) of your file, search for a particular word, or move by a specific number of lines, characters or words. Moving means just that - moving the cursor from one place to another. It's just like lifting a pencil off one place on a piece of paper and then putting it down somewhere else - perhaps on the same page, perhaps on another. The keys used to move around a file are all located on the right side of the key-board. If you're not sure what some keys are called, or where they are located, review "The Type 'n Speak Keyboard" in Chapter 1. Keys you need to know are: Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Up-arrow, Down-arrow, Left-arrow, and Right-arrow. Finding the Top and Bottom of a File Let's use the Help file that comes on your Type 'n Speak to learn how to move the cursor around read different file sections. Turn on the Type 'n Speak. It should say, "Type 'n Speak ready, Help is open." To move to the top (beginning) of the file, press Home. The Type 'n Speak says, "Top of file." To move to the bottom (end) of the file, press End. The Type 'n Speak says, "End of file." Notice that the Type 'n Speak doesn't read any text when you press Home or End. It just tells you where you are in your file, and this is important to know when you're searching for specific text or writing something into a file. The Type 'n Speak remembers where you left off in each file, even after you turn it off and turn it on again. Whenever you reopen a file, your cursor will be wherever you last used it in that file. Reading Blocks of Text The commands for reading text on the Type 'n Speak are generally intuitive and easy to remember. To read by lines, you use the Up- and Down-arrows; to read by words, you use the Left- and Right- arrows. And to read one character at a time, you use the Shift key together with the Left- and Right-arrows. First, we list the commands you need to know for reading by lines, words, and characters. Then we go through some examples for practice. Here are the specific commands for reading by lines, words, and characters: Lines ? To move to the next line of text and speak it, press Down- arrow. ? To move to the previous line of text and speak it, press Up- arrow. ? To speak the current line of text again, press Shift+Up- arrow. Words ? To move to the next word and speak it, press Right-arrow. ? To move to the previous word and speak it, press Left-arrow. ? To speak the current word again,, press Shift+Down-arrow. ? To spell out the current word, press Shift+Down-arrow twice. Characters ? To move to the next character and speak it, press Shift+Right-arrow. ? To move to the previous character and speak it, press Shift+Left-arrow. ? To speak the current character again, press Shift+End. ? To speak the current character phonetically, press Shift+End twice. Here are the specific commands for reading by paragraphs: To move to the next paragraph and speak its first line, press PgDn. To move to the previous paragraph and speak its first line, press PgUp. Here is how to read through a whole file nonstop: To speak the rest of the file from your current cursor position, press Ctrl+End. To silence the Type 'n Speak, press Ctrl+Alt. Now let's use the Help file to practice reading. Turn on the Type 'n Speak. The Help file should be open and ready to be explored with the reading keys. So that we all start from the same place, press Home to hear "Top of file." Practice moving around the Help file by pressing the various keys we've described above. Jump to the end of the file by pressing End, then try reading back through the file. When you jump around the file by paragraphs, notice that you hear a single line of text. Again, this is because the Type 'n Speak reads only the first line of a paragraph when you jump to it with PgUp or PgDn. You can use Down-arrows to continue reading through a paragraph, or Up-arrows to work back to the previous one. If you run into a word you can't understand, spell it out by pressing Shift+Down-arrow twice. Use the Shift+Left- and Shift+Right-arrows to read it letter by letter. At some point along the way, try letting the Type 'n Speak read nonstop to you by pressing Ctrl+End. When you want to stop the voice, just press Ctrl+Alt. Reading Long Passages While reading through a long file, you may want to stop when hearing something important, and might want to skim more quickly over an uninteresting section. You can use a couple of Type 'n Speak features to help manage both of these scenarios. Stopping at a Specific Point If you're reading nonstop through a file and decide you do want to stop at some particular point, you can press Ctrl+Alt to stop the voice near that point. Then you can use your Shift+Up-arrow to read the current line where you stopped, or Shift+Down-arrow to read the current word on which your cursor is resting. You can't control the exact word on which the voice stops, but you can control how close it stops to the word where the cursor is resting. The Status menu setting, Speak Words in Say-all mode, can make a difference. If Speak Words in Say-all mode is turned off, speech is fairly smooth, and pressing Ctrl+Alt to stop speech puts you at the beginning of a line. But this may not necessarily be anywhere near the last word you heard. But if Speak Words in Say-all mode is turned on, speech is somewhat choppy, and pressing Ctrl+Alt gets you pretty close to the last word you heard (if not right on it). How close you get to the last word you heard before you stopped speech depends on how fast the Type 'n Speak was reading. The faster the speech, the harder it is to stop the Type 'n Speak's voice exactly where you want - but it can get quite close. To check the status of Speak Words in Say-all mode, bring up the Status menu with F10. You hear, "Status menu," followed by the setting you last examined. Jump to the Speak Words in Say-all Mode setting by typing a right parenthesis. By default, this setting is turned off. To experiment with stopping the Type 'n Speak's voice close to a word or phrase you want to read carefully, turn on Speak Words in Say-all mode by typing a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. Now go ahead and read from the currently open file with Ctrl+End. Notice that the speech is somewhat jerky. Press Ctrl+Alt to stop the voice. Use Shift+Up-arrow (current line) and Shift+Down-arrow (current word) to check where you are. You should be right on, or very close to, the last word you heard. When you're through reading this way, you can turn off Speak Words in Say-all mode to return the Type 'n Speak to its smoother-sounding voice. Skimming with Hyper-speech If you're reading nonstop, and want to skim over text that doesn't interest you at the moment, you can press Ctrl by itself as the Type 'n Speak is reading. Its speech rate will suddenly start moving at a fast clip as it reads quickly over the text in your file. This is called hyper-speech. When you release the Ctrl key, the Type 'n Speak's normal speech rate resumes. Spelling Out Words Suppose you're reading along, and need to stop to have a word spelled out. You may stop the voice with Ctrl+Alt. Press Left-arrow or Right-arrow until the cursor is resting on the word you want spelled. Then press Shift+Down-arrow twice to hear the word spelled out. You're now in spelling mode, and can continue to have each word spelled as you press Left-Arrow and Right-Arrow. Exit spelling mode by pressing any other key. Reading Characters Phonetically Let's say you're reading along and come across something you cannot understand. You stop the voice with Ctrl+Alt and start reading a character at a time with Shift+Left-arrow and Shift+Right-arrow. Still, some letters are hard to distinguish. Letters like B, D, G, P, T, V and Z may sound alike when pronounced by a speech synthesizer. So, the Type 'n Speak can help clarify things for you. To repeat the current character, you normally press Shift+End. If you press Shift+End twice, the Type 'n Speak first pronounces the letter, and then gives you a word that starts with that letter for clarity. So, for example, say you're on the letter c. Press Shift+End twice. The first time, you hear, "C." The second time, you hear, "Charlie." You're now in a phonetic mode where the Type 'n Speak says each letter as a clarifying word, like "bravo" for b or "delta" for d every time you press Shift+Left-arrow or Shift+Right-arrow. Exit phonetic mode with any other key. The ASCII Value of the Character Under the Cursor The announcement of ASCII values is optional. Computer programmers are the ones most likely to care about them, since ASCII values are used in programming. (Most of us couldn't care less that a capital A's ASCII value is 65.) But for those of you who do need this type of information, the option exists. First you have to turn on a setting from the Status menu. And then, you can use the keys that let you read a character at a time to hear the ASCII value of each character. Here's how it all works: To check the current status of the "Say ASCII values" setting, enter the Status menu with F10. Jump there directly by pressing Shift+Down-arrow. You should hear, "Say ASCII values, off." Turn the setting on by typing a y. Exit the Status menu with Esc. From now on, whenever you press Shift+End three times in a row, you're in ASCII value mode. The Type 'n Speak says the ASCII value of the character under the cursor - such as 65 for the uppercase letter A, or 97 for the lowercase letter a. Once in this mode, you can continue pressing Shift+Left-arrow and Shift+Right-arrow to hear each character's ASCII value as your cursor passes over it. Exit ASCII value mode by pressing any other key. Moving by Blocks of Text Suppose you want to move the cursor by a number of blocks of text - a specific number of characters, words, Braille pages, print pages, or even absolute Type 'n Speak pages. When you press Shift+F3, the Type 'n Speak says, "Move," and places you in a pull-down menu with several options for moving by blocks of text. (For a full discussion of pull-down menus, see "Pull-Down Menus" in Chapter 1.) By pressing the spacebar, you cycle through the block choices: absolute Type 'n Speak page, Braille page, character, line, paragraph, mark, print page, and word. Or you can jump directly to a choice simply by writing its first letter - like w for word or l for line. Then type the number of blocks by which you want to move. When you've made your selection, press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Please wait," moves you to the place you specified, and then reads to the end of that line. If you ask the Type 'n Speak to move to, say, line 5 with Shift+F3, l5, it takes you to line 5 of your file, not five lines from your starting point. Likewise, if you ask it to take you to print page 6 with Shift+F3, p6, and Enter, the Type 'n Speak takes you to print page 6 of your document, not six print pages from your starting point. Moving by Relative Blocks of Text If you want to move the cursor relative to where you are, you can also use Shift+F3. Press Shift+F3. But this time type l+3. Then press Enter. Now you are moved three lines forward from your starting point, and hear speech till the end of that line. If you press Shift+F3 and simply type a number (like 10), without indicating the letter designation of one of the choices and without a plus or a minus, the Type 'n Speak assumes you want to move by a certain number of lines relative to the beginning of the document. Examples of Moving by Blocks of Text Let's take a couple of examples using the currently open Help file. Get to the top of the file with Home so we're all starting from the same place. Now let's ask the Type 'n Speak to move to the line 10 of this file. Press Shift+F3, l10, Enter. You should hear, "Please wait," followed by a click or two, and then something like, "Find text: F2." Suppose we want to jump directly to print page 3 of this file. Press Shift+F3, p3, Enter. You should hear, "Please wait," followed shortly by something like, "Three pages printed; key is passed through." Well, now that we're on print page 3, let's go back about four lines, say. Press Shift+F3, l-4, Enter. We should hear, "Please wait," followed shortly by whatever appears there. Just for clarity, let's take one more example. Press Shift+F3, 3, Enter. This time you should hear, "Please wait," a click or two, and then something like, "Key learn mode - Shift+Break. Esc exits." Why? Well, remember that when you press Shift+F3 and then just type a number, the Type 'n Speak assumes you want to move by lines and takes you to the number of lines you requested relative to the beginning of the file. If you want to go back or forward by a number of blocks of text from your starting point, you must include a plus or a minus after the letter designation and then the number of blocks by which you want to move. The Text Counter The Move command lets you count the number of characters, lines, and words in your file. This is handy when your professor asks for a term paper of no more than, say, 500 words. Using the Help file again as an example, press Shift+F3. Type a w followed by a 0. The Type 'n Speak should say something like, "Please wait," and after a few clicks, "4,330." That's a lot of words, yes; but the Help file is handy to have around. Defining Blocks of Text Let's clarify the Type 'n Speak's definition of "line" and "sentence." The Type 'n Speak defines a "line" and "paragraph" based on the location of hard returns or hard return/linefeed pairs. (On a physical piece of paper, a hard return moves you to the beginning of a line, and a line-feed moves you down a line.) (Actually, you don't need line-feeds in a Type 'n Speak document. You will see why later.) The Type 'n Speak sees all text between one hard return and the next as a single "line" of text. It defines a "paragraph" to be all text between a set of two or more hard returns and the next. It considers a "sentence" to be all text between one period, question mark, or exclamation point and the next instance of one of these punctuation marks. Skipping Blank Lines When you move your cursor over a set of two or more hard returns, as there are between paragraphs, the Type 'n Speak indicates the extra blank lines with a "plink." But you may want to silence this audible cue. If you want to skip blank lines, from anywhere in your currently open file, press Alt+ampersand (Alt+Shift+7). The Type 'n Speak says, "Skip blank lines, enter y or n." Type a letter y. From now on, you won't hear any distinguishing sound to tell you that you've passed over extra hard returns. If you forget which way this parameter is set, you can always check its status from the Status menu. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type an ampersand to hear whether Skip Blank Lines is on or off. Exit the Status menu with Esc. Reading by User-Defined Blocks In addition to reading by lines or paragraphs, you can read by "sentences," or by blocks of text from 18 to 80 characters in length, referred to as "windows." Reading by windows is most useful when the Type 'n Speak is speaking text generated from a computer or modem. (See Chapter 17.) Here's how to switch easily among these three reading modes: windows, lines, or sentences. From anywhere in your currently open file, press Alt+w. The Type 'n Speak says, "Speak windows, lines, or sentences." Whichever option you choose - w, l or s - the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay." From then on, it reads to you in the mode you selected. You can cycle among the three modes in a flash as you read. And the Type 'n Speak even remembers which mode was in effect the next time you turn it on. The commands for reading by window or sentence are the same as the commands for reading by lines. The Type 'n Speak moves forward to and speaks the next window or sentence with Down- arrow. It moves backward to and speaks the previous window or sentence with Up-arrow. And, it speaks the current window or sentence with Shift+Up-arrow. Defining Window Length If you select to read by window, you must also define the length of the window. Its limits range from 18 to 80, with 80 being the default value. You can check the current status of window length from the Status menu. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Type a w to hear something like, "Window length 80." At this point, you may change the setting to any number between 18 and 80. Press Enter. The Type 'n Speak confirms your change by repeating it to you. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. The Automatic Braille Translator Normally, you won't be working with Braille files on your Type 'n Speak. But if you transfer to the Type 'n Speak a file that was originally written in Grade 2 (or Grade 1) Braille, it may sound like gibberish - which means that the Type 'n Speak's Braille translator is probably set incorrectly for that file. You must turn on the translator, so that the Type 'n Speak reads the file's text as regular words. Note: Since you can send files to a Braille embosser from your Type 'n Speak, you may want to create Grade 2 Braille files. Our Braille translation software for the Type 'n Speak, Quick Braille, lets you translate files to and from Grade 2 Braille. Call us for more information about this program. To check the status of the Braille translator for the currently open file, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type a t. For most of your files, like the Help file, the Type 'n Speak says, "Braille translator off." And this is how it should be set. But if you need to use the translator with a file, type a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. When you try to read the file again, it should sound like regular text. CAUTION: Remember that this file is still actually in Grade 2 (or Grade 1) Braille. In other words, the Type 'n Speak is translating the Grade 2 Braille contractions in the file as it reads the text to you, without changing the actual contents of the file. It is critical that you understand this because when you search for text in a Grade 2 file, you may be surprised at the results. (See the next section for a full discussion.) Special Types of Characters The Type 'n Speak can identify special characters to you as you read through your file. These characters include uppercase characters and control characters. We all know what uppercase characters are. But what are control characters? Control characters are special codes that the Type 'n Speak uses to format your text and instruct a printer where to place it on a page. Common examples of control characters include hard returns, line-feeds, form-feeds and tabs. Hard returns and line-feeds move text to the next line on the page, form-feeds move text to the next page, and tabs move text several spaces across the page. When you're reading the text of your currently open file a character at a time, the Type 'n Speak reads uppercase characters in a higher-than-normal pitch. And as it runs into control characters, it reads them as well. Use the Help file to practice reading uppercase characters and control characters. You'll hear both as you move through the Help file one character at a time. Searching for Text in a File The Type 'n Speak can find text faster than you could if you had the file printed out. Since you can look for text going forward or backward in your file, it's probably a good idea to know where your cursor is located when you're starting your search. The Location of the Cursor To check where the cursor is currently, from anywhere within your file, press Shift+F1. The Type 'n Speak says something like, "Column 5, cursor at 119." This means that the cursor is resting on the fifth place on a line, and that you are 119 characters into the file. If the cursor happens to be resting on a hard return or a line-feed, you'll hear "Column Zero" instead of any other number. Finding Text You can search for text forward or backward through your currently open file. When you issue the Find command, the Type 'n Speak puts you into a search buffer - a scratchpad of sorts - until you press the key that begins the search. If you change your mind, and decide not to search for this particular text after all, you can cancel the search with Esc. While in the search scratchpad, you can type text (a "search string") of up to 63 characters. You can use the backspace to erase a character just as you can when you're writing. And you can press Shift+Up-arrow to see what you've written so far. To search for text forward from anywhere within your currently open file, press F2. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter text to find." Type a search string, then press F2 again to execute the command. If the text is found, the Type 'n Speak moves the cursor to the first character of the text, and reads forward to the next hard return. If it does not find the text, you hear, "Not found," and the cursor remains where you started your search. To reverse a search, start with F2. When you hear, "Enter text to find," type the text you want to find. But press Up-arrow instead of F2 to execute the command. If the text is found, the Type 'n Speak moves the cursor to the first character of the text and reads forward to the next hard return. If it does not find it, you hear, "Not found" and the cursor remains where you started your search. The Type 'n Speak remembers what you last asked it to find, even from file to file. This is helpful when you're looking for the same text in a number of files. But when you turn off the Type 'n Speak, it forgets what you last requested. Example of a Search Using the Help file as an example, let's practice searching for text. So that we're all starting from the same place, press Home to return to the top of the file. Just to verify where we are, press Shift+F1 to locate the position of the cursor in the file. The Type 'n Speak says, "Column zero, cursor at one." Good. We are, indeed, at the very first character position in the file. Now let's look for a word. Press F2. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter text to find." We'll look for the word, "read". Type the word, then press F2 to execute the command. The Type 'n Speak says, "Reading Functions." Notice that the Type 'n Speak found a variation - "reading" - of the word you were looking for. It looks for the combination of characters you requested, and, when it finds that string of characters, it stops there and assumes that this is what you wanted. It takes you quite literally. If you had really wanted to find "read" in particular, you should have searched for the string "space read space." For now though, let's just use this example to find out whether there are more instances of the string, "read", in this Help file. Press F2 again. The Type 'n Speak says, "Find read," because it still remembers that we just looked for "read." So press another F2 to have it look for "read" again. The Type 'n Speak says, "Reading." Read the current line with Shift+Up-arrow and you'll hear something like, "Hyper-speech: Hold down Ctrl while reading." You could continue like this, finding every occurrence of the string, "read", or any variation of the string. In fact, even if you switch to another file, you could still look for the same string. Now let's reverse the search. Press F2. But when you hear, "Find read," press Up-arrow. You should hear something you've already heard, like "Reading Functions." If you press F2 and Up-arrow once more, you should hear, "Not found," because there are no more instances of the string as you search backward through Help. Notice how important it is to know where your cursor is when starting your search. If you get a "Not found" message that surprises you, it may be because you started your search at the wrong end of the file, or at least past the point where the string you were looking for could be located. Try finding a word or phrase on your own. Move to different places in the Help file as you search. Once you're comfortable, you'll find that you can flip through a file and find a phone number faster than you can thumb through an address book. The Click Tip When you have large files, you'll probably hear a ticking sound as the Type 'n Speak searches for text. The larger the file, the greater the distance the Type 'n Speak may have to travel looking for your text, and the greater the number of clicks you will hear. But, be patient and it will find your text - if it is there to be found. Canceling a Search Even after you press the second F2 that starts a search, you can cancel the search with Esc. This can be handy with a long search in a large file. Case-sensitive Searches for Text By default, the Type 'n Speak disregards case when searching for text, and you'll want to keep it this way most of the time. But if you do need to perform a case-sensitive search, here's how to do so. To set the Type 'n Speak to be case-sensitive when it searches for text, from anywhere within your currently open file, bring up the Status menu with F10 and press the exclamation point (Shift+1). The Type 'n Speak says, "Distinguish case during find? Enter y or n." Type a y, then exit the Status menu with Esc. Let's work with an example using the Help file so that you can see the effect of performing a case-sensitive search. So we're all starting from the same place, go to the top of the Help file with Home. Now press F2 so we can look for some text. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter text to find," type "blazie" in all lowercase letters. Then press F2 so that the Type 'n Speak can look for this text. In a moment, you should hear the Type 'n Speak say, "Not found." Either the word is not in the file - or "blazie" is not in lowercase. Maybe it's in capital letters. Press F2 again. But this time, type "BLAZIE" all in uppercase. Then press F2 to let the Type 'n Speak search. The Type 'n Speak should still respond with, "Not found." What's wrong now? It looks like "BLAZIE" is not in the file either. It must be that the word is spelled with only the first letter in uppercase. Let's try looking for "Blazie" with just the "B" in uppercase. Yes. The Type 'n Speak now says, "Blazie Engineering." As you can see, this took some effort, so you'll usually want case- sensitivity off when you're looking for text. But it's good to have that option, in case you really do need it. Summary Well, now. You're just about ready to start writing your own files. This chapter has focused primarily on how to read what's in a file that already exists. As we discussed, knowing the location of the cursor scan be critical when you're moving to a particular part of your file, whether it's just to read from that point or to perform a search from there. We talked about specific issues like whether the Braille translator is in effect for the file you're reading, and whether you want to perform a case-sensitive search. The Help file can serve as a practice tool to learn the reading and search functions of the Type 'n Speak. Since, by default, the Help file is in the Flash portion of your Type 'n Speak's memory, it is write-protected. This means that you can't accidentally alter its contents. So it's a safe file to use for practice at this time. When you're ready, move onto Chapter 4, where we discuss file- writing in detail. CHAPTER 4: Writing Your Own Files Introduction This chapter covers the basics you need to know in order to write your own files on the Type 'n Speak. We'll first discuss how to create files, and how to name them properly for transferring to another device. Then we'll customize the Type 'n Speak's typing options, so you can work in the way that's optimal for you. As we move through various sections of this chapter, we'll create a file called "practice," and use it as an example to illustrate many of the Type 'n Speak's writing functions and its various typing modes. How to Create a File To create a new file on the Type 'n Speak, you need to work with the Files menu. This menu has many choices for manipulating files, like opening an existing file to read or write in it, renaming an existing file, deleting an unwanted file, and - of course - creating a new file. The Type 'n Speak automatically saves your files. In fact, the instant you create a file and name it, that file is saved for you. And as you write in it, everything you write is automatically saved - even when you turn off the Type 'n Speak. Before we can create a file, though, there are three issues to consider: the number of pages the file may have, where in memory to store the file, and the types of names the file can have. So let's talk about these preliminaries first. The Type 'n Speak Page When you create a file on the Type 'n Speak, it assigns a "page" (or pages) from the "binder" to a particular filename. So it's critical that you understand the Type 'n Speak's definition of page. As you add text to a file, the Type 'n Speak automatically adds pages to it. Likewise, as you discard text from a file, the Type 'n Speak automatically deletes pages from the file. But there are times when you need to be aware of the number of Type 'n Speak pages a file contains, especially when using the Type 'n Speak with a modem, as we'll see in Chapter 17. Each Type 'n Speak page can hold up to 4,096 characters - about two pages of print, or four pages of Braille. Where to Store Files in Memory You can create files only in the RAM portion of the Type 'n Speak's memory, which can hold 184 Type 'n Speak pages. When you're through writing in your files and just need them for reference, you can move them into the Flash portion of memory. If you need to edit them again, you'll have to move them back to RAM. How to Name Your Files Filenames on the Type 'n Speak may be up to 20 characters long. However, if you plan to send Type 'n Speak files to a PC, modem, or our portable external disk drive, you must name your files using MS DOS file naming conventions. Furthermore, if the names of the files you plan to transfer from the Type 'n Speak contain space characters, the space characters become underline characters when those files are transferred from the Type 'n Speak. In case you are not familiar with MS DOS file naming conventions, let's briefly describe them. MS DOS filenames can have two parts: a "filename" portion of up to eight characters in length, and an "extension" portion of up to three characters in length. The filename and extension portions are separated by a period. For example, a file can be called "address.txt" or simply "address." But if you plan to transfer a file to a PC, or to our portable disk drive, you shouldn't call it some-thing like "phonebook," because the file's name will become "phonebook" when it's transferred. In other words, its name gets shortened to eight characters. This may lead to confusion when you try to retrieve it from your PC or disk drive later. Also, certain characters are invalid in filenames. For example, never begin a file-name with a period. Other characters to avoid in filenames include: the question mark, asterisk, slash, backslash, comma, colon, and percent sign. Finally, if you name a file with an extension that begins with the letters "br," such as ".brl" or ".brf," the Type 'n Speak automatically turns on Grade 2 Braille translation, assuming that you meant the file to be in Grade 2 Braille. (This can pose a real problem if you try to type in such a file using the Type 'n Speak's standard typing mode. See Typing in Braille Mode, later in this chapter.) Creating a File To create a new file on the Type 'n Speak, bring up the Files menu by pressing F1. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file command." Since we want to create a file at this time, type a c. The Type 'n Speak now prompts you for the name of your file with, "Enter file to create." Let's call our file "practice." Type "practice", and press Enter. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Practice now open." That's it. You're in your first file, a blank Type 'n Speak page, ready to be filled with your personal data. Tips for Writing in a File There are some things to check about your newly created file which will help you keep track of where you are as you write, how much room there is left for you to write, as well as what to do if you can't remember how to execute a command. So, let's briefly discuss these features before you actually start typing text. Throughout this section, we'll use the "practice" file as an example. The Location of the Cursor Since "practice" has no text in it yet, the cursor is at the beginning of the file. To check this, press Shift+F1. The Type 'n Speak says, "File is empty." As you type practice text, press Shift+F1 periodically to hear where the cursor has moved. Room Left in Your File To see how much room there is left for you to type after the last character in the file, press Shift+F2. In the empty "practice" file, for example, the Type 'n Speak says, "Room left is 4,096." This is because you haven't typed anything into the file yet, and the file is one Type 'n Speak page long. As you fill it with text, the room left in the file decreases. But since you can add pages to the file, this won't be a problem. Getting Help The Help file contains a brief list of Type 'n Speak commands. It assumes that you know how to do things with the Type 'n Speak, and only want a quick reminder about how to execute a command. The Help file is accessible from within any other file in the Type 'n Speak. From within any file, press the Help key to jump to the Help file. The Type 'n Speak says, "Help now open." Check through the Help file for what you need - with the Find command, perhaps - and then press Esc. You'll find yourself back in the file where you were working before you pressed the Help key. Go ahead and try jumping into and out of Help from the currently open file, "practice." Writing Text in Your File Well, it's time to write in a file. We'll use the file called "practice" as an example. Type the sentence, "This is a practice file to learn how to write in the Type 'n Speak." Don't worry if you make mistakes. You'll be able to fix them. Notice that the Type 'n Speak is saying every character as you type it. You can choose to have the Type 'n Speak be silent as you type, or only echo words as you complete them. (See "Selecting your Writing Mode" later in this chapter.) Check where your cursor is now with Shift+F1. Assuming that you didn't make any mistakes, the Type 'n Speak should say, "Column 67, cursor at 66." This means that you're at the 67th position on the current line, and 66 characters from the beginning of the file. Don't worry if your numbers differ. Remember, this is only an example. What's important is that the column number is greater than zero. Now, check how much room there is left for you to write, with Shift+F2. The Type 'n Speak should say something like, "Room left is 4,029." You'll have to type quite a bit before you run out of room, because you're using up Type 'n Speak space, not physical space on a piece of paper. One Type 'n Speak page holds 4,096 characters. Controlling where Text Appears on the Page Even before you consider how to center text, how to number pages, and so on, you need to be able to tell the Type 'n Speak when you want to start a new line or a new page, and how many spaces to indent a new paragraph. Lines and Pages First of all, you need to understand the concept of "word wrapping." By default, the Type 'n Speak is set to standard print and Braille line widths and page lengths. This means that it automatically moves your text to the next line and the next page as you type. Of course, you also need to be able to force it to begin text on a new line or new page. When the Type 'n Speak wraps text from line to line and page to page for you, it is doing "soft" returns and "soft" page breaks. When you actually type a command to force a new line or new page, you are doing a "hard" return or a "hard" page break. Let's be clear about what these terms mean: A hard return takes you back to the first physical position on a line - in other words, to the left margin. However, it does not advance you to the next physical line on the page. A line-feed takes you to the next physical line on the page, but does not move to the left margin. So technically, it is the combination of a hard return and line-feed that acts like a "hard return" on a typewriter, moving you to the left margin and next physical line, respectively. Luckily, you don't need to type line-feeds as you write on the Type 'n Speak, because it can add them for you automatically when you transmit your file to a printer, Braille embosser, computer, or over a modem. A hard page break takes you to the first line and first position of the next physical page. It is also called a form-feed. Hard returns, line-feeds, and form-feeds are also called control characters. Control characters are special codes that instruct a printer or Braille embosser about things like when to go to the next physical line on the page, when to go back to the left margin on a line, how many spaces to tab over, when to go to the next physical page, and so on. To force a hard return, press Enter. To force a page break, press Ctrl+l. Tabbing A tab moves the cursor a certain number of spaces to the right on a line; you choose how many spaces. For example, you can tab to indent for a new paragraph. To tab on the Type 'n Speak, press Tab. You hear, "Column." Now type in a number from 1 to 255. This number indicates how many spaces you want the cursor to move. Then press Enter to move the cursor to that position. Practicing Writing Basic Control Characters Now, let's practice writing hard returns, tabs, and page breaks using the "practice" file as an example. If you haven't done so already, type some text. Then force a hard return by pressing Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Return." Now check the location of the cursor by pressing Shift+F1. You should hear some-thing like, "Column zero, cursor at 67." This is because the hard return brought your cursor back to the left margin of the line. Now press Tab. The Type 'n Speak says, "Column." Type a 5 to indicate that you want to move the cursor five spaces to the right on this line. Then press Enter to move it there. Check the location of the cursor with Shift+F1. You should hear something like, "Column four, cursor at 72." It says "Column four" because it counts the first space on the line as position zero. So in other words, the Type 'n Speak spaced over to the fifth position from the left margin, and placed the cursor there for you to type something else. You can check this by moving back a character at a time with Shift+Left-arrows until you hear "Return." This is the hard return you typed a moment ago. Now type "Hello." and press Enter to move to another new line. But wait. Don't you have to move the cursor forward, to the end of the file, to continue writing there? No. By default, the Type 'n Speak protects you from over-writing text. No matter where you last read in your file, when you type something, the Type 'n Speak jumps to the end of the file and appends to it. So, the "H" of the word "Hello." you just typed is automatically placed on the fifth position of the line, where you had tabbed. The return you just typed after the word "Hello" is now the last character in the file, and anything further you type will be placed after it. Of course, the Type 'n Speak does allow you to overwrite and insert text. See Chapter 5 for a full discussion of all the ways possible to edit as you type. In the meantime, though, let's make the next words you type go on the next physical page. So type a hard page break by pressing Ctrl+l. The Type 'n Speak just says, "Ctrl+l" when you type it. But any text you type after this Ctrl+l will appear on a new physical page. Type, "This is Page 2." Then type another hard return by pressing Enter. If you were to print or Braille the contents of this file, it would appear on two physical pages even though the file itself is still only one Type 'n Speak page long. And if you check how much room you have left to write on this Type 'n Speak page with Shift+F2, you'll find that you still have a long way to go before you fill it up with text. Writing Repeated Character Strings When you want to create a border or boundary between one block of text and another, for emphasis or clarity, you can place a line of repeated characters between the blocks of text you want to separate. Sighted people use this technique a lot more than blind people, because when you write in Braille, you generally avoid writing extraneous characters. But, even in Braille, a row of dashes is used to indicate a new print page or a blank field to be filled out on a form. To generate a string of repeated characters on the Type 'n Speak, you start with the Tab key. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Column," type the character to be repeated, followed by the number of times you want it repeated. Then you press Enter to make the Type 'n Speak write out the string of characters for you. For example, let's say we want a row of dashes to appear after the line where the title of a chapter appears. Let's use the title of this section as an example. Using the "practice" file as an example, first type a hard return (Enter) to make sure you're on a new line. Then type the title of this section, "Writing Repeated Character Strings", followed by another hard return. Now press Tab. The Type 'n Speak says, "Column." Type a dash, followed by something like 65 (or 30, depending on whether you're writing a file for printing or brailling). The number of repeats is entirely up to you, and depends on the line width you set. Press Enter to make the Type 'n Speak write out the dashes for you. The Type 'n Speak instantly places you on the last of your repeated characters and awaits your next keystroke. You should probably type a hard return right away, because otherwise you may end up accidentally wrapping the row of dashes you just created around to the next line. Technically speaking, you can't have more than 255 repeated characters. But since 255 would generate several lines of repeated characters, you probably wouldn't choose a number that high, anyway. Also, you can't use a numeral as a repeated character because, of course, when you press Tab and type a numeral, the Type 'n Speak assumes it to be the number of spaces you want to tab. Selecting Your Typing Mode By this time, you may be wondering how to change what you hear as you type. There are a few options: the Type 'n Speak can be set to click each key as you press it, to echo back each character as you type it, or to be totally silent as you type. In addition, it can be set to say each word as you complete typing it, to track the cursor where you're reading instead of where you're writing, and finally, to write directly in Grade 2 Braille. Let's check out these features one at a time. Typing Options There are three typing options that determine what you hear as you type. The Speech Parameters menu lets you cycle among them. Bring it up with F7. Then cycle among the three modes with the spacebar. Each time you press the spacebar, the Type 'n Speak says, "Key click on," "Silent keys," or "Key echo." When you hear the mode you want to use, exit the Speech Parameters menu with Esc. Using the "practice" file as an example, try typing something in it. Depending on the typing mode you choose, you'll hear a short click each time you press a key and no characters spoken. Or you'll hear nothing at all as you type. Or you'll hear each character echoed back to you as you type it, which is the default typing mode. Hearing Words Spoken To hear the Type 'n Speak say complete words as you finish typing them, you can use the Interactive mode. This one you can toggle on and off on-the-fly by pressing Alt+g. When you press Alt+g the first time, you hear the Type 'n Speak say, "Interactive on." From now on, the Type 'n Speak echoes back each word to you only after you type a space or punctuation mark. You can instantly turn off Interactive mode by pressing Alt+g again. The Type 'n Speak says, "Interactive off." From that point on, anything you type is spoken a character at a time again. Braille Mode There may be instances when you want to turn the Type 'n Speak into a Braille keyboard - you want to generate a Braille file by forming Braille characters, using the Type 'n Speak keyboard instead of using the regular alphanumeric keys and performing Braille translation later. Here's how it works. Bring up the Options menu with F9. Then type a b. The Type 'n Speak says, "Braille mode on." At this point, the Type 'n Speak's alphanumeric keys no longer work as typing keys. The s, d, and f are now dots 3, 2, and 1, respectively, and the j, k, and l are now dots 4, 5, and 6, respectively. The function keys and arrow keys mostly work, except for the Left-arrow. To exit this mode, press F9 again, followed by a b. The Type 'n Speak says, "Braille mode off," and you're back to your usual alphanumeric keyboard. Cursor Tracking By default, the Type 'n Speak comes with cursor tracking turned on. Cursor tracking means that the reading cursor is at the same place as the writing cursor. What, two cursors? Well, in effect, yes. Normally, the Type 'n Speak keeps track of where you are as you read. But as you write, the Type 'n Speak has to track both what you type and what you read. Isn't it the same? Not necessarily. You might be writing down a memo to yourself but have to go back and read a date to include in that memo, for example. As long as you don't have a silent keyboard for writing, you're okay because the Type 'n Speak is saying each letter or word as you're writing. In other words, it's tracking what it is speaking. But if you're writing with a silent keyboard and want to track where you are reading elsewhere in your file, cursor tracking must be off. To check the status of cursor tracking, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then jump to the setting by writing the letter c. If the setting happens to be off, type a y to turn on cursor tracking. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. For sample purposes, let's use the "practice" file to gauge the effect of cursor tracking while writing with a silent keyboard. First, make your keyboard silent for typing if it isn't already. To do this, bring up the Speech Parameters menu with F7 and press the spacebar until the Type 'n Speak says, "Silent keys." Then exit the Speech Parameters menu with Esc. Now that your keyboard is silent, type something, and then read the current word. You should now hear the last word you wrote. This is normally the way you want the cursor to track. But now suppose you want the cursor to track where you're reading instead of where you're writing? You need to turn cursor tracking off. Bring up the Status menu again with F10 and type a c. Then type an n to turn off cursor tracking. Exit the Status menu with Esc. You should be right back where you left off in your file. Now, move back a few lines, read what you have, then write something. Read where you are. The cursor should indicate where you last read, not where you last wrote. This dual-cursor business is potentially very confusing, so we recommend not using it until you're very comfortable with the reading and writing features of your Type 'n Speak. The choice between having cursor tracking on or off really depends on what you're doing. (There are practical uses for both.) However, we suggest that you typically keep it on, to avoid confusion about what you last wrote. Tracking the End of a Line On a typewriter, a bell warns you when you're approaching the end of a line. Even though you don't have to worry about this on the Type 'n Speak (because it automatically word-wraps for you), there may be times when you do want to know when you're nearing the end of a physical line. Remember that the Type 'n Speak's line is defined as all text between two hard returns. This text may wrap around many physical lines on a print or Braille page. So the line we're referring to here is that physical line, not a Type 'n Speak line. The Type 'n Speak can "ring a bell" (well, not ring, exactly) -- but it can beep. You can set the beep to go off anywhere from the first to the 255th character after the last hard return or hard return/line-feed pair. By default, the end-of-line beep is set to zero so that it doesn't sound at all. But if you do need to hear it, here's how to turn it on. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Jump to the setting for column beep by typing a q. The Type 'n Speak says, "Beep at column, zero." Change the setting to some number between zero and 255 (something like 28 for a physical Braille page). Then press Enter. Exit the Status menu with Esc. As you type from now on, whenever you pass over the point on the line you set to beep - say, 28 - the Type 'n Speak beeps to let you know. When you're ready to turn off the end-of-line warning, reset "beep at column" to zero. Summary This chapter has concentrated on the basic commands you need to know in order to create a file on the Type 'n Speak and write text in it. We pointed out that when you create a file, it is important to consider how you name it, so that its name transfers properly when you transmit the file to a computer or over a modem. And finally, we discussed how you can adjust the Type 'n Speak's typing modes so that you're most comfortable as you write. We suggest that you now take some time to practice writing in files. Don't worry about mistakes for now. You can fix them easily, as you'll find out in the very next chapter. CHAPTER 5: Editing Text Introduction Like any good word processor, the Type 'n Speak lets you revise what you have written. You can overwrite text, insert text between existing blocks of text, even delete unwanted text. As you insert and delete text, the Type 'n Speak automatically moves existing material aside so you can insert new text, or squeezes text together after you delete what you no longer need. What's nicest is that it reformats your pages automatically. This way, your documents still print or Braille properly. In this chapter, we first discuss the difference between Append mode and PC Edit mode. We'll focus on how to work when you're in Append mode, and how to work when you're in PC Edit mode. In both modes, this includes overwriting, inserting, deleting, copying, and moving text. And finally, we talk about how you can search for and replace text to make editing easier and more efficient. Throughout this chapter, we'll use a practice file as an example. See "How to Create a File" in Chapter 4 if you don't already have a practice file in your Type 'n Speak. The Two Editing Modes: Append and PC Edit By default, the Type 'n Speak is set to Append mode. This means that any text you write is automatically appended to the end of your file unless you specifically invoke Insert or Overwrite mode. However, you may prefer to use PC Edit mode. This means that you can write anywhere within your file, and whether you're overwriting, inserting, or appending depends on how you have the unit set at any point in time. This is how a PC editor generally works. Let's take an example for clarity. With PC Edit turned off, which is the default, suppose your file contains the text, "This is a practice file to learn how to edit." You even have a hard return at the end of the sentence. Now you want to add, "I am now learning how to insert text." By default (being in Append mode), when you write this sentence, it appears directly after the sentence, "This is a practice file." Even if you place your cursor at the top of the file, any new sentence you write is automatically appended to the end of your file. On the other hand, when PC Edit mode is active, you have three choices for where the text you write should appear: Append, Overwrite, and Insert. If you're in Append mode, your Type 'n Speak behaves as it does when PC Edit mode is turned off - that is, any text you write is automatically appended to the end of your file. But if you're either in Overwrite or Insert mode, any text you write appears where your cursor is located. So, in our example, if PC Edit mode is active and your cursor is at the top of the file, the sentence, "I am now learning how to insert text." may appear at the end of your file if you're in Append mode. But if you're in Overwrite mode, it replaces part or all of your previous sentence. And if you're in Insert mode, it is inserted before the sentence that's already in your file. Activating PC Edit Mode It's easy to activate PC Edit mode. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type a dollar-sign (Shift+4). By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "PC editing, off." To turn it on, type a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. From this point on, you'll need to be more aware than before where your cursor is, and which mode you've set. The first time you bring up PC Edit mode, the Type 'n Speak assumes you want to be in Append mode. In fact, it remembers that you have PC Edit mode turned on the next time you power up your unit. In addition, the Type 'n Speak lets you know which mode is active as you type, through the pitch of its voice. When you're in Overwrite mode, the Type 'n Speak's voice is lower pitched than normal. When you're in Insert mode, it's higher pitched than normal. Only in Append mode does the Type 'n Speak talk at its normal pitch, however you have that set. Changing the Typing Voices of PC Edit Mode You can choose how much contrast you want to hear in the Type 'n Speak's voice as you type while you're in PC Edit mode. In fact, you can elect not to have the voice change pitch at all. Here's how it works. To shift the Type 'n Speak's voice for Overwrite and Insert modes while PC Edit mode is active, first bring up the Speech Parameters menu with F7. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Set speech parameters," press a percent sign (Shift+5). At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Voice shift" and waits for you to enter a number. The higher the numbers you enter, the greater the contrast between the voice for Overwrite and Insert modes. If you type a 0, the Type 'n Speak's voice sounds the same, regardless of what typing mode you're activating. Once you type a number, press enter, then Esc to exit the Speech Parameters menu. Unless you choose to have no voice shift, from now on, in Overwrite mode, the Type 'n Speak's voice sounds lower than normal as you type. Whenever you shift into Insert mode, it sounds higher than normal as you type. When you shift back to Append mode, it sounds the same whether you're typing or reading. Switching Typing Modes with PC Edit Mode Active When PC Edit mode is active, overwriting, inserting, and appending text is quite easy. The key is to be very clear about where your cursor is located before you type. Otherwise, you may be unpleasantly surprised at where the text you type actually appears in your file. To switch to Overwrite or Insert mode while PC Edit mode is active, first move your cursor to where you want to begin typing. Then use the Insert key to shift into Overwrite or Insert mode. When you first activate PC Edit mode, you're automatically in Append mode, just as you are when PC Edit mode is off. The Insert key is a toggle. So pressing it once kicks the Type 'n Speak into Overwrite mode. Pressing it again brings up Insert mode. And pressing it a third time returns you to Append. You'll know which mode is active because the Type 'n Speak says, "Overwrite," "Insert," or "Append" in different pitches - lower for Overwrite, higher for Insert, and normal for Append. If you just want to overwrite a single character and you're in Insert mode, you can move your cursor to the character you want to overwrite. Then press Shift+Insert, and type the replacement character. Once you're through overwriting text or inserting it, you may want to return to Append, or stay in Overwrite or Insert. It doesn't matter which mode you choose. Any time you want to type in a different mode, simply press Insert until you've toggled to that mode and continue typing. But again, be clear where your cursor is whenever you type while in PC Edit mode. If you're familiar with how editing works in a PC, this won't be new to you. But if you've been using a Type 'n Speak for a while and are used to its Append mode, it may take a while to make the adjustment. Once you do, though, you'll probably want to keep PC Edit mode active most of the time. Overwriting Text with PC Edit Mode Inactive When PC Edit mode is off, you're always in Append mode as you type, unless you specifically command the Type 'n Speak to overwrite text. When you want to overwrite text, you can overwrite either a single character or a whole block of text. The easiest way to see how this works is through an example. So we'll work with the "practice" file. (See "How to Create a File" in Chapter 4 if you don't already have a practice file open and ready to use.) Overwriting a Single Character Let's start by typing a couple of hard returns to separate the current practice section from any previous ones. Then type the word, "Hello." Now move your cursor back to the first character of the word by pressing Shift+Left-arrows until it is resting on the H. We'll change "Hello" to "Jello." To overwrite a single character, press Shift+Insert. The Type 'n Speak says, "Overwrite." Type the letter J. Now read the current word with Shift+Down-arrow. The Type 'n Speak should say, "Jello." At this point, type the following words to complete the sentence, " is a light dessert." Notice two things: (1) we started with a space; and (2) we didn't tell you to move your cursor forward to the end of the word "Jello" before typing the rest of the sentence. As we pointed earlier in this section, whenever you add text to your file, that text is automatically added to the end of the file unless you command the Type 'n Speak to do otherwise. In this example, you needed a space to follow the word "Jello," then you could type the rest of the sentence without worrying about overwriting anything accidentally. Overwriting a Block of Text Suppose you want to overwrite a whole word - or an even larger block of text. Here again, the first step is to move your cursor onto the first character that you want to overwrite. Then press Shift+Insert twice to put the Type 'n Speak into Continuous Overwrite mode. When you're through overwriting text, turn off Continuous Overwrite mode by pressing Shift+Insert again. the Type 'n Speak says, "Off." At that point, any more text you type will once again be added automatically to the end of your file. Working with our current example, let's change the sentence from "Jello is a light dessert." to "Fruit is a light dessert." Move the cursor back to the first character of the word, "Jello." If you know it to be the first word in your file, you can jump to it fastest by pressing Home. Otherwise, the best way to get there is probably to move by words with Left-arrows until you're on the word itself. Then check that you're on the J by pressing Shift+End. To overwrite more than one character, press Shift+Insert twice. The Type 'n Speak says, "Continuous overwrite." From now on, until you turn off Continuous Over-write mode, any text you type replaces existing text under the cursor instead of adding it to the end of the file. So in our present example, type the word, "Fruit" at this time. What you hear when you're overwriting depends on how your Type 'n Speak is set to respond to what you type. (See "Selecting Your Typing Mode" in Chapter 4 for a full discussion of various typing modes.) For example, if the Type 'n Speak is set to echo your keystrokes as you type, when you overwrite a character, you hear first the character you just typed, and then the character where the cursor is now resting. So in our example, as you start to type the characters for the word "Fruit" to replace "Jello," you hear, "Overwrite F, e" because the F has replaced the J of Jello, and the cursor is now under the e of Jello. On the other hand, if the Type 'n Speak is set to be silent as you type, when you overwrite a character, you hear the character where the cursor is now resting but not the character you just typed. You don't necessarily have to replace every character in succession. You could skip a word, a line, or whatever. You can go ahead and read any of the text in your file, jumping around with the usual reading commands. Even the Find command works while in Continuous Overwrite mode. When you're ready to overwrite something else, just move the cursor to that character and start typing. Don't worry if you forget to turn off Continuous Overwrite mode when you turn off your Type 'n Speak. That, and opening another file, turns it off just the same. There is one thing to keep in mind. If you overwrite the last character in your file, and forget to turn off Continuous Overwrite mode, you'll keep overwriting that last character again and again instead of appending to the end of the file. (Not good.) Backspacing and Rubbing Out a Character If you make a mistake as you're typing, and want to delete the last character you typed, simply press the backspace key. The Type 'n Speak deletes the character. The location of your cursor depends on whether PC edit mode is active. When you backspace over a character with PC Edit mode active, your cursor moves to the character that was before the one you just erased, wherever that is within your file. But when PC Edit mode is off, you can only backspace over the last character in the file, since you can only append to the end of the file anyway in this mode. So for example, using the "practice" file, let's assume that PC Edit mode is off. Type, "This is 1998." We'll backspace over the 8 and change it to a 9. After you've typed the period of the sentence, press the backspace key twice. The first time, you're deleting the period itself. The second time, you're deleting the 8. Once the 8 is gone, your cursor is on the 9, which is now the last character in your file. At this point, you can type another 9, for instance, and add the period again to make the sentence read, "This is 1999." What you hear as you backspace depends on how the duplex telecommunications setting on the Type 'n Speak is set. For a full discussion of telecommunications settings, see Chapter 15. Deleting Text You can delete text, regardless of where the text is located within your file. The Type 'n Speak lets you delete one or more chunks of text at a time. The chunks can be blocks of text, groups of characters, words, lines, sentences, paragraphs, or a marked segment of text. You can even empty out the file completely. The text you delete from your file goes into the Clipboard file - a temporary trash can of sorts. But remember, that trash can is always being emptied, so you may not be able to retrieve something from it if you change your mind later. For example, if you delete something, then insert text, or use the Type 'n Speak's calendar, calculator, or clock, the text you deleted is gone. In effect, the trash collector came by and emptied the deleted text, and somebody else came by and put other stuff in it. This is why the Clipboard file is so handy, but also rather like a sieve. You have to move fast to retrieve deleted text. There are two ways to handle what goes into the Clipboard when you delete text. You can empty the Clipboard each time you delete something, or you can add to the pile of deleted text in the Clipboard instead. If you empty the Clipboard each time you delete, you probably won't be able to recover any data later. That text will have been lost. But, if you add to the pile of deleted text in the Clipboard, you might be able to recover some of it later if you find you need it back. (For a full discussion of how to recover data, see "Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions.") If you only want to delete the character currently under the cursor, just press the Delete key twice. But if you want to delete more than that, you begin by moving your cursor onto the first character of the text you want to delete, and then bringing up the Delete Parameters menu with the Del key. To choose how much text to delete, you first have to decide how big a chunk to delete (for example, a line or a paragraph). Then you must decide how many chunks to delete. To choose the amount of text you want to delete, you can type the first letter of your choice, or you can navigate the menu to pick a choice. The Delete Parameters menu is a pull-down menu. (For full details on pull-down menus, see Chapter 1.) Here's how to navigate the Delete Parameters menu: ? To move through the choices, press spacebar. ? To move to the next choice, press Down-arrow. ? To move to the previous choice, press Up-arrow. ? To hear the current choice repeated, press Shift+Up-arrow. ? To hear the hot key for the current choice, press Shift+End. ? To move to the first choice, press Home. ? To move to the last choice, press End. ? To perform the current choice, press Enter. ? To abort a deletion, press Esc. The types of text segments you can delete and their hot keys are: ? Block - b. ? Character - c. ? Line - l. ? Marked block - m. ? Paragraph - p. ? Sentence - s. ? Word - w. ? Cursor to end of text - z. Once you've selected the size of the chunk you want to delete, you press enter to choose how many chunks to delete. After typing the number, you press Enter or NumLock to make the deletion take affect. Pressing Enter empties the Clipboard. Pressing NumLock appends your deletion to what's already in the Clipboard. The process of deleting text sounds more complicated than it really is. So let's take some examples using the "practice" file. We'll assume that it is empty. Example 1: Deleting a Group of Words Bring up the "practice" file if you're not already in it, and type, "This is a practice file to learn how to delete text." Press Enter to create a blank line. Now move to the top of the file with Home. Then bring up the Delete Parameters menu with Del. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter delete parameter." Let's type a w (for word). At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Word" and waits for you to tell it how many words you want to delete. Suppose you want to delete a few words - "this is a" - so type the number 3. And since you want to empty the Clipboard of any previous deletions, instead of appending to what's already in it, press Enter. Now check your current line with Shift+Up-arrow. It should read, "practice file to learn how to delete text." Check the character under the cursor with Shift+End - it should be the p of "practice." In fact, you should still be at the top of the file, because by deleting the first three words in the file, the word "practice" is now first in the file. You can check this by pressing Shift+F1 to see your cursor location. It should say, "Cursor at 1, column zero." Example 2: Adding the Deleted Text to the Clipboard This time, let's add the deletion to the Clipboard instead of emptying it. It can prove useful when you're deleting a lot of text in a single editing session. Move to the end of your "practice" file with End. Then type, "I'm now learning how to add the text I'm deleting to the Clipboard." Press Enter to create a blank line. Now move your cursor back to the beginning of the text you just wrote. You should be on the capital T of the word "This." Press the Del key to bring up the Delete Parameters menu. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter delete parameter." Type an l so you can delete the current line. Then press NumLock to perform the deletion and add it to the contents of the Clipboard. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Appended, okay." The line you just deleted is now in the Clipboard appended to whatever text was already there from a previous deletion or insertion or whatever. Example 3: Wiping Out the Rest of the File Suppose you want to wipe out the contents of this file - sort of like erasing a blackboard. You don't want to delete the file itself, just its contents...or, at least everything from the current cursor position to the end of the file. Move to the top of the file with Home (or, to the point where you want to start the deletion). Then bring up the Delete Parameters menu with Del. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter delete parameter." This time, type a z to zap away all text, from your current cursor position to the end of the file. The Type 'n Speak says, "All?" because it wants to confirm that this is what you really want to do. Press Enter to perform the deletion. In our example, your file should now be completely empty of any of the text you've practiced with in this session. Example 4: Deleting a Block of Text The Type 'n Speak can determine what a line is, what a word is, and so on. But suppose you want to delete a portion of text that is not predefined. It might be part of a single sentence, or two sentences within a paragraph, or half a page of text. There are two methods for blocking a portion of text you want to delete. One way is to mark one end of it and move to the place where you want to end the deletion. The other way is to place your cursor at the beginning of the text and tell the Type 'n Speak the string of characters before which to end the deletion. Let's look at each method individually. Marking the block: Starting with an empty "practice" file, type the following: "This is a practice session where I am going to learn how to block the portions of text I don't want for deleting." (Clearly, this sentence needs some work.) Let's delete the phrase, "where I am going" because it is extraneous and makes the sentence quite long. So, move your cursor to the beginning of the phrase, the w of "where," and then press Alt+m. The Type 'n Speak says, "Marked, okay." At this point, move the cursor one character past the last character you want to delete, in this case the space after the g of going. Then bring up the Delete Parameters menu with Del. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter delete parameter." Type an m. Now the Type 'n Speak says, "Mark." Press Enter or NumLock. Pressing Enter empties the Clipboard before placing your deleted text there, and pressing NumLock appends your deleted text to what's already in the Clipboard. Either way, the Type 'n Speak confirms your deletion with, "Okay." When you read your line now, it should be, "This is a practice session to learn how to block the portions of text I don't want for deleting." Better, but still wordy. Defining the string before which to end the block: We'll delete the phrase, "the portions of text I don't want" because it really makes the sentence awkward. Move your cursor to the first character of the text you want to delete, in this case the t of "the." Now bring up the Delete Parameters menu with Del. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter delete parameter." Type a b. At this point, the Type 'n Speak prompts, "Block." Type the specific string of characters that comes just after the end of the text you want to delete - in our example, the word "for" - and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak finds the next occurrence of the string and deletes everything from your current cursor position up to (but not including) that string of characters. It confirms the deletion with, "Okay." Now the current line should read, "This is a practice session to learn how to block for deleting." You might want to add the word "text" at the end of the sentence, perhaps, but it's certainly much cleaner than when we started. If the Type 'n Speak doesn't find the string of characters you provide, it says, "Not found, okay." Your cursor is still at the point where you began the block. Inserting Text with PC Edit Mode Inactive When PC Edit mode is off, anything you type is appended to the end of your file unless you specifically perform a command to insert text. To insert text somewhere before the end of your file, you first have to move the cursor to the point where you want to begin the insertion. Then press the Insert key. The Type 'n Speak says, "Insert." At this point, you're in a scratchpad of sorts where you can type text you want to insert. You can use your navigation keys to review what you're inserting, and you can even backspace over a mistyped character. Once you're ready to complete the insertion, you simply press the Insert key again. Only at that point does the text actually become part of your file. If you decide to cancel the insertion before you press Insert a second time, you can just press Esc at any point as you're typing. This returns you to your file, with your cursor one character back from where you were before you began the insertion. Let's take an example. We'll work in the "practice" file (which we'll assume is empty). First type, "This is a practice session on how to insert text into a file." How about adding the word "learning" before the word "how?" Move your cursor back to the word "how" with Left-arrows until the Type 'n Speak says, "How." Now press Insert. The Type 'n Speak says, "Insert mode active." Type the word "learning " followed by a space, and then press Insert again so that the text can be inserted. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay." See what's under the cursor with Shift+End. It should be on the space, the last character you inserted. Then read the entire sentence with Shift+Up-arrow. It should say, "This is a practice session on learning how to insert text into a file." In other sections of this manual, we'll discuss how to insert specific types of information into your file. You can "paste" a date, a calculation result, even another file, into the currently open file. Copying Text into a File You can copy text within the currently open file, or from one file to another. When you perform the copy procedure itself, it's important to place your cursor exactly where you want the text to appear in your file. The Clipboard file is temporary storage for the text you want to copy. You can store the text you want to copy in two ways: You can empty the Clipboard before you store the text there, or you can append the text to whatever's already in there. Remember, when you perform another activity that affects the Clipboard (like a calculation), any text stored in the Clipboard is wiped out. To copy a block of text, you first have to mark one end of it, and then move your cursor to the other end of it. Then you copy the marked block to the Clipboard, move your cursor to the exact location where you want the text to appear in your file (or in another file), and finally paste the text there from the Clipboard. Let's take an example. We'll assume that "practice" is the currently open file and that it is empty. To set up the example, type the sentence, "This is a practice session on learning how to copy text into a file." Follow this sentence with two hard returns to prepare for a new paragraph. Now let's copy the text, "This is a practice session." We'll put it after the two hard returns. To do this, find the beginning of the text you want to copy. In this case, it's easy. Simply go to the top of the file with Home. To mark the beginning of the text, press Alt+m. You hear, "Mark, okay." Now move your cursor forward with Right-arrows until you're on the space after the word "session." Essentially, you're marking the beginning of the text you want to copy, and then marking its end by placing the cursor one character past it. To copy this marked text into the Clipboard, press Shift+NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Copy or append; press c or a." Type a c if you want to empty the Clipboard before storing your text there. Type an a if you want to append your text to whatever's already in the Clipboard. If you type a c, the Type 'n Speak says, "Copied." If you type an a, it says, "Appended." In either case, you're still exactly where you started in your currently open file when you began the copy procedure. For sample purposes, we'll say that you're choosing c for copy instead of a for append. This way, the text you're copying into the Clipboard is the only text in the Clipboard. Now let's copy this marked text from the Clipboard back into the "practice" file. By the way, notice that the text you just copied to the Clipboard is still in your currently open file. If you check what's in your file right now, you see that it still says, "This is a practice session on learning how to copy text into a file." Press End to reach the end of the file. Then press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Paste what?" Type a letter c to copy the Clipboard's contents into your file. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Clipboard, okay." If you have Interactive mode turned on, the Type 'n Speak starts reading, "This is a practice session." There are several other types of information you can paste into a file, not just text copied from the Clipboard. We'll look at other types of insertions as we work through relevant sections of the manual. For now, just practice this particular concept: copying text from the Clipboard into your file. Finding and Replacing Text On a computer, replacing text can be a pleasure or a curse. If you want to save retyping a phrase over and over again in your file, a global replacement can save you lots of time. But if you replace the wrong text, you have a massive editing job ahead. So be careful how you use this procedure! Here's how it works. To replace text, you begin with the same function key you use for finding text, F2. When you hear the prompt, "Enter text to find," type the text you want found. At this point, you'd normally press Enter or Up-arrow to search for text forward or backward, respectively, throughout your file. However, to replace text, press Alt+r instead. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter replacement text." Type what you want to replace the old text. Then press Enter so that the Type 'n Speak can begin the process. When the Type 'n Speak finds the first occurrence of the text you want to replace, it says, "Replace, skip, all?" Type the first letter of your choice (r, s, or a). An r replaces the current occurrence of the text you asked the Type 'n Speak to find with your replacement text. The Type 'n Speak then continues searching for the next occurrence of the text you asked it to find. When it finds that text, the Type 'n Speak repeats its original question, "Replace, skip, all?" An s tells the Type 'n Speak to skip this occurrence and find the next one. When it finds that next occurrence, you'll hear again, "Replace, skip, all?" You can continue this way, checking each occurrence of the text you might want replaced. In fact, you can read the material surrounding the text the Type 'n Speak has found. To do this, when the Type 'n Speak says, "Replace, skip, all?", press Shift+Up-arrow. The Type 'n Speak reads the current line of text, letting you hear how the text it found fits into your file. If you're definitely sure that you want to replace all occurrences of the text you wanted found, select the letter a from the prompt, "Replace, skip, all?" This is a global replacement, so exercise caution. Let's take an example. Suppose you're writing about the Type 'n Speak. Who wants to pound out "Type 'n Speak" every time they refer to the device? Well, you can type "tns" instead throughout the article, and then replace them all, at the end, with "Type 'n Speak." However, even here you have to be careful. Why? Well, the Type 'n Speak's update software (an external program you run on the Type 'n Speak) ends with the extension, ".tns". Guess what happens to that extension if you refer to it in your article - and then globally replace all occurrences of "tns" with Type 'n Speak? That's right. Suddenly, any time you had something like, "tnseng.tns", which is the name of the Type 'n Speak's update software, it became "Type 'n Speakeng.Type 'n Speak". What a mess! So - it's easy to see that globally replacing text can be a great help or a great pain. As long as you're careful, though, it can be a real time-saver. Word Exceptions The Type 'n Speak can pronounce unusual words or acronyms properly through its word exceptions dictionary. This dictionary is a special file that you create. It contains the correct pronunciations for words and acronyms that the Type 'n Speak doesn't readily recognize.. To create the special word exceptions file, create a file called "word.fix" having one Type 'n Speak page. (For a full discussion of creating a file, see "How to Create a file" in Chapter 4.) Once you're in the file "word.fix", type the text whose pronunciation you want to fix - for example, USA. Then type an equals sign immediately after the text. And finally, type the correct pronunciation of the text, followed by a hard return. So in our example, the line would read: "USA=u s a" In order that the Type 'n Speak check for word exceptions, the Word Exceptions setting in the Status menu must be active. So let's check the status of this setting. To check the status of the Word Exceptions setting, bring up the Status menu with F10, and type an e. The Type 'n Speak should say something like, "Exceptions check off." To turn it on, type a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. To test whether the Type 'n Speak will now pronounce this text correctly, you need to return to a file that contains the text, or a junk file where you can test it. We'll use the "practice" file created in Chapter 4 as an example. There are a few ways to return to the "practice" file. We'll discuss them in Chapter 7. But for now, let's just use a command from the Files menu. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then type the letter o. The Type 'n Speak says, "File to open?" Type "practice" and press Enter. Once in the "practice" file, type the sentence, "Blazie Engineering is in the USA." Notice that the Type 'n Speak now pronounces the acronym correctly as USA. Summary This chapter has covered all the major editing capabilities of the Type 'n Speak. We suggest that you take time to practice inserting and deleting text, moving it around, copying and pasting it, and replacing it. Then, all you'll need to learn is how to make your documents look pretty when you print or Braille them. The next chapter concentrates exclusively on this. But get really comfortable with all the editing features before you start formatting your files. CHAPTER 6: Formatting Text Introduction If you're already familiar with word processing, you know that it lets you control how text appears on paper. This is true both in Braille and in print. For example, headings are centered without you having to count how many spaces are needed. Page numbering remains accurate even after you insert or delete whole blocks of text into a file. Headers and footers print out where they belong on each page, no matter how many lines of text you write. And margins can be adjusted to accommodate indented blocks of text, and then readjusted. What's more, you can italicize text, underline it, put it in boldface, even change the shape of the characters you print. Depending on your printer, the selection of print types (fonts) can be huge. Of course, Braille is quite limited when compared to print. There is only one choice in Braille for what a letter A looks like; whereas, in print, the choices are virtually endless. Italics, boldfacing, and underlining exist in Braille only by way of the special emphasis indicator (dots 4-6). Nevertheless, there are many things you can do to format your files, whether you intend to print or Braille them - or both. And so the focus of this chapter is, in effect, document layout. Preliminaries All formatting parameters can be controlled using formatting commands. These commands are strings of characters included in your files to make the text output as if you had physically typed it on a typewriter, or brailled it on a Braillewriter. Many of the formatting commands work for both files that are written in Braille or in print. Most of them affect text layout, except for commands that change the appearance of print characters. Types of Printers that Work with the Type 'n Speak The Type 'n Speak works with three kinds of printers: Epson- compatible, Imagewriter-compatible, or Hewlett-Packard- compatible. We chose to support these three types because they are very popular. What do we mean by "compatible?" Well, this is just a little technical. But we'll keep it as simple as possible. Printers are always busy counting: they count how many lines down the page have been printed and how many are left to be printed (or skipped) so that they can tell when to change pages. They count how many characters (including spaces) have been printed on any given line and how many are left to be printed (or skipped) so that they can move to the next line. Even when instructed to skip lines or tab across a page, or to print some text in larger letters or fine print, they still keep track of the physical space available on each page. Typing Escape Codes into your File Printers and Braille embossers know how to print or Braille your files because they have built-in "escape sequences" that instruct them on how to interpret your for-matting instructions. These escape sequences (codes) are similar to the formatting commands you write into your file to control how your text will print or Braille. But they are specific to each particular printer. So for example, Printer X and Printer Y may use entirely different escape sequences to perform the same hard return. To avoid confusion, many manufacturers are now programming printers to understand the escape codes that Epson, Imagewriter, and HP printers can interpret. So if your printer is any of these, or if it is "compatible" with them - that is, if your printer can understand the same escape codes as the printer types we support - then you're in business. Often, even if your printer is not immediately compatible, you might be able to trick it into thinking it's compatible to an Epson, Imagewriter, or HP by flipping a switch on it. Check your printer manual, with your dealer, or with the technical support staff of your printer's manufacturer. If your printer is not compatible with any of those supported by the Type 'n Speak, you'll need to learn the appropriate escape codes for your printer to format documents properly for printing. In that case, rather than using the formatting character strings we'll show you here, you'll probably need to use at least some escape codes in your files. Generally, escape codes begin with the "escape" character, a control character available to you, just like the control character for hard return we've mentioned so often. To type an escape code that begins with the escape character into your file, press Ctrl+x, and then type a Left Bracket. The Type 'n Speak says, "Escape." Then, type whatever other characters make up the string. Remember, this is not a Type 'n Speak command. So, you don't end it with Enter. Probably, a space is all you need to end the string. Typing Formatting Commands into Your File It's quite easy to type formatting commands in your files. All the formatting commands for the Type 'n Speak begin with a $ sign (Shift+4). Also, they must be surrounded by spaces. Otherwise, the Type 'n Speak assumes that these strings are printable parts of your text. Note: For readability, we write all formatting strings enclosed in single quotation marks. When you type them into your file, however, simply write spaces in place of our single quotation marks. Some examples of basic formatting strings include alternatives to the hard return you normally produce by pressing Enter, or the hard page break you normally produce by pressing Ctrl+l. The string '$l' means "new line," the string '$p' means "new paragraph," and the string '$f' means "new page." Setting and Adjusting Margins Whether your document is to be printed or Brailled (or both), you may want to adjust your margins - especially if you want to block off sections of text by indenting or outdenting them. Particularly in print, you may want to alter margins to make different sections of your document stand out better. Examples include having text print flush right, aligned to a wider left margin, or begin at a narrower top margin for a particular section. The Type 'n Speak has several default margin settings. You can check them out in the Status menu, but here's how they're set up. Brailling: By default, a Braille line is 33 characters long with a left margin of one character. Since you can have literally 34 characters across an 8-1/2" x 11" piece of Braille paper, you have 32 places for printable characters across each line. Your left margin and right margins are both one, by default. For example, Blazie Engineering's Braille Blazer can accommodate these defaults. However, for most embossers that accept only smaller Braille paper, you should set the default line width to 30 and the left margin to one, since the maximum number of characters that can print across a line on these embossers is 32. Similarly, a Braille page is 25 lines long with a top margin of one (since there are 27 possible lines, maximum, on a Braille page). Top and bottom margins are both one. Printing: It works more or less the same way for inkprint documents, except that the defaults are a line length of 75 and a left margin of 10, giving you 65 positions for printable characters going across the page, and a right margin of 10. In addition, the default print page length is 60 with a top margin of six, giving you 54 printable lines of text. Page numbering: If page numbering is turned off, when the printer reaches the 60th line on a page, it jumps to the next physical page. If page numbering is turned on, when the printer reaches the 60th line on a page, it counts an additional six blank lines and then moves to the next physical page. In either case, you end up with a bottom margin of six blank lines. Examples of how to adjust margins: All of the formatting commands begin with the $-sign, and most of the margin commands are followed immediately by the letter m, and then by some number indicating how many spaces you want the margin to have. Let's describe an example. The Type 'n Speak's print defaults assume a print font whose size accommodates 10 characters per inch (going across the page) and six lines per inch (going down the page). So, these defaults give you a one-inch margin all around the text on the page. However, if you do want different margins, here's how to adjust the defaults using some sample numbers. Let's assume a left margin of 10 - the print default - which is literally 10 spaces from the left edge of the paper. Set a new left margin of five by typing in your file the string, '$ml5'. (Remember to place spaces on either side of it.) This new left margin is closer to the left edge of the paper by five spaces. Let's also assume a right margin of zero (the default margin), which is 10 spaces from the right edge of the paper. Change this to a new right margin of five with the string, '$mr5'. We'll say that page numbering is turned off, since this is the default anyway. So starting with a top margin of six (the default), change it to three with the string, '$mt3'. And then for symmetry, change the bottom margin also to three with the string, '$mb3'. Since the print default page length is 60 with a top margin of six and the top margin is now three, the page length needs to be changed as well to compensate for the new margins. The new page length should be 63, giving a top margin of three, 60 printable lines of text, and a bottom margin of three. These particular adjustments to the default margin settings provide margins of half an inch all around the text on the page. Indenting a Block of Text An indented block of text is offset from the left margin (and perhaps the right margin) that is in effect. Take a long quote in a document - it's usually indented to set it apart from the main text, that aligns to the document's default left margin. To indent text, you add a plus sign (Shift+Equals) before the number in the string for the left or right margin. Here's an example. Suppose your document has a default left margin of 10. You want to include a long quote from a book in your file. To offset the quote from the rest of your document, type the string, '$ml+5'. The new left margin is 15 spaces from the left edge of the paper. All text you write after this string is indented from the original default left margin by five spaces. When you want to resume the original default left margin of 10, place a minus sign before the number in the string for left margin. So type the string, '$ml-5'. All text you write following this string aligns once again to the default left margin of 10. Outdenting a Line of Text An outdented line of text in a section lies somewhat to the left of the document's default left margin. For example, the first lines of numbered questions on an exam or survey are usually outdented to make them stand out and easier to read. To outdent a block of text, type the string, '$out'. The text following that string appears to the left of the previous margin you had in effect, by one tab stop. Here's an example. Suppose your document has the default left margin of 10. You want to generate a set of numbered questions in your document. Start by increasing your left margin by five with the string, '$ml+5'. This gives you a new default left margin of 15. Now type the string, '$out'. The text on the first line you write now begins at the 10th space from the left edge of the page (the original default left margin). But this text then wraps back into your present margin of 15 spaces from the left edge of the page on subsequent lines. When you want to resume the original default left margin of 10, place a minus sign before the number in the string for left margin. So, type the string, '$ml-5'. All text you write following this string aligns once again to the default left margin of 10. Justifying Blocks of Text In computerese, justification refers to the alignment of text to the margins that are in effect. There are four formatting commands for justifying text. The formatting string that justifies text uses the letter j after the dollar-sign, followed by r for right-justified text, f for full-justified text, or n for no justification. Normally, text is left-justified (aligned to the current left margin). This margin is usually the default left margin. Text is always left-justified unless you specifically issue a formatting command to make it align to a different margin. For example, if you tab at the beginning of a line, text on that line starts one tab stop in from the current left margin. But when it wraps around to the next line, or when you force it to start on a new line with a hard return, it re-aligns to the current left margin. Right-justifying text: Text that is right-justified is aligned to the right margin, however that margin is set, and regardless of how the left margin is set. For example, let's assume a default right margin of 10. If you type the string, '$jr', all text you write after the string will be flush with that right margin. To resume writing left-justified text (the default), type the string, '$jn'. In fact, for Braille files, it's probably best to keep the default in effect. Full-justifying text: Text that is full-justified is spread evenly across the page so that there are no visual gaps. This can create a more visually-pleasing effect. Of course, full-justified text is possible only in print, since Braille characters each take up the same amount of space. To make text full-justified, type the string, '$jf'. When you want to resume writing left-justified text (the default), type the string, '$jn'. Changing Page Length and Line Width In Braille, the default page length is 25 lines with top and bottom margins of one line. In print, the default page length is 66 lines, with a top margin of six, a bottom margin of zero, and page numbering turned off. In Braille, the default line width is 32, with left and right margins of one space. In print, the default line width is 75 with a left margin of 10 and a right margin of zero. Since Braille characters each take up the same amount of space, we'll focus on print files instead. Generally, for a standard 8-1/2" x 11" page, the printer assumes six lines per inch and 10 characters per inch. This means that it counts 66 lines vertically and 80 characters horizontally. Let's look at page length and line width separately. Print page length: With the default top margin of six and page length of 60, the printer skips over the first six lines, and then prints up to 60 lines of text before jumping to the next physical page. This is a total of 66 lines. But the problem, of course, is that the 60th printable line appears literally at the bottom of the first page. It's better to have balanced top and bottom margins. The printer should really have a page length of 54 so that it skips the first six lines, prints up to 54 lines, and then skips the last six lines before jumping to the next physical page. The point is to maintain the 66-line limit as you adjust the top and bottom margins. To change the page length to 54, type the string, '$pl54'. Taking another example, let's say that you decide to have top and bottom margins of three. Subtracting them from 66 gives you a page length of 60. And so your page length string is '$pl60'. Print line width: With the default left margin of 10 and line width of 75, the printer skips over the first 10 spaces across the page, and then prints up to 65 characters before jumping to the next physical line. This is a total of 75 spaces across the page. But the problem here is that the 75th printable space is only five spaces from the right edge of the page, whereas the first printable character is 10 spaces from the left edge of the page. It's better to have balanced left and right margins. The printer should have a line width of 60 so that it skips the first 10 spaces, prints up to 60 characters, and then skips the last 10 spaces across the page before jumping to the next physical line. So, the point is to maintain the 80-character limit as you adjust your left and right margins. To change the line width to 60, type the string, '$pw60'. Taking another example, let's say that you have left and right margins of five. Subtracting them from 80 gives you a line width of 70. And so your line width string is '$pw70'. Note: When you increase the left or right margin (say, for indenting a block of text), the printer remembers your original line width and wraps your text properly. But if you decrease the size of your left or right margin, you have to adjust your line width accordingly. For example, with left and right margins of five and a line width of 70, let's reset the left and right margins to -10. In effect, you're now asking the printer to print 80 characters across the page and count a total of 90 spaces. And since it can't, you have a problem. Braille page lengths and line widths: In Braille, the default page length is 25 with top and bottom margins of one line. However, some embossers, such as Blazie Engineering's VersaPoint Duo, allow for a page length of 27, with top and bottom margins of zero. For embossers that accommodate larger Braille paper, the default line width should be set to 40, with left and right margins of one space, since the most you can fit across the page is 42 characters. For embossers that accommodate only smaller Braille paper, the default line width should be set to 30 with a left and right margins of one space, since the most you can have is 32 characters. Status Menu Formatting Defaults The Status menu has a group of default settings for formatting your documents. The group begins with the setting for type of printer (Imagewriter-, Epson-, or HP-compatible) and continues through the setting for Braille top margin. The settings include defaults for print and Braille page length, line length, left margin, and top margin. Although the $-sign formatting string equivalents of these settings always override Status menu settings, you don't have to use the $-sign strings at all if the layout of your document is fairly simple. It's best to use the Status menu formatting settings when you plan to print and Braille the same file. This is because the Status menu formatting settings can both be in effect for the same file. If you change your left margin (say, to five) with a formatting string, that string overrides all formatting settings in the Status menu. So the Braille embosser doesn't know that you intend that left margin setting to apply only to a printer. Therefore, to avoid confusion, use only the Status menu settings when you intend to Braille and print the same file. Making Settings File-Specific You can make the formatting settings in the Status menu apply to all files or be file-specific. This is the "make parameters file- specific" setting. Regardless of whether this setting is on, though, the formatting strings for page length, line length, left margin, and top margin override any equivalent settings in the Status menu. Also, the setting applies only to ink printing, since Braille margins are generally the same from file to file. To check the status of "Make parameters file-specific," bring up the Status menu with F10. Jump directly to the setting by typing a left parenthesis (Shift+9). By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "Make parameters file-specific, off." To turn it on, type a y. Exit the Status menu with Esc. From now on, each of your files can have unique formatting parameters for page length, line length, left margin, and top margin as well as anything else. Once again, your Braille files are not affected by having "make parameters file-specific" on. Only your print files are affected. Changing Formatting Parameters in the Status Menu You can change the formatting parameters in the Status menu for page length, line length, left margin, and top margin for both your print and Braille files. Here's how. First of all, you may wish to review the full discussion in "Setting and Adjusting Margins" earlier in this chapter. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Jump to the first setting in the grouping by typing an one. This brings you to the choice for Imagewriter, Epson, or HP. If you haven't already done so, choose the appropriate printer with an i for Imagewriter, an e for Epson, or an h for HP. Then press Down-arrow. Now you're at the setting for print line length. The default is 75. Change it to your printable line length. Then press Enter, and another Down-arrow, to move to the next setting. Now you're at the setting for print left margin. Type a five, say, and press Enter and another Down-arrow to move to the setting for print page length. Type 54, for example. Then press Enter and another Down-arrow to see the setting for print top margin. Go ahead and set it to something like three. You could stop here by exiting the Status menu with Esc. Or, if you want to set Braille margin, line length, and page length settings, continue as above with Down-arrows to move to each one and set them. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. Centering Text On the Type 'n Speak, you can only center text a line at a time. You cannot center a whole block of text that spills over several lines. Nevertheless, the procedure is straightforward. Here's how it works. To center a line of text, type the string, '$c' before the actual text you want centered. Then type the text, followed by a hard return. The hard return ends centering. If the text you want to center runs over one line, you must center each line by hand. Tracking the location of the cursor can help you determine where each segment break should occur. To do this, press Shift+F1 to check where the cursor is in relation to the beginning of the current physical line. When deciding where to break up text that is to be centered over more than one line, consider whether you're going to Braille or print the document. For example, if you want to Braille your document on 8-1/2" x 11" paper (with a line width of 32 characters), and the text you want to center is the name of Chapter 15 of this manual, including the chapter number, it won't fit on one Braille line. Portion it out so that "CHAPTER 15" appears centered on the first line, and the words "TELECOMMUNICATIONS SETTINGS" appears centered on the next line. Headers and Footers If you want the same text to repeat at the top or bottom of each page, you need to set up a "running" header or footer, respectively. Page numbers are the simplest example of running headers or footers, and you can set them to appear at a particular position on each page. To set up a running header, type the string, '$hb'. Then type the actual text of the header, including any formatting strings you want associated with the text (centering, for instance). Now type a hard return to end the header. Sometimes you need to disable a running header temporarily - for example, to insert a page with a chart that has its own header. In such a case, begin the page with the string, '$h-'. Then start the next page with a '$h+' string to resume the running header. Footers work much the same way, except that the string is, '$fb 'to create the running footer, '$f-' to disable it, and '$f+ 'to enable it again. Setting Up a Table On the Type 'n Speak, you have control over how far each tab stop moves across the page. When you generate a tab using the Tab key, the Type 'n Speak asks you for the number of spaces you want to tab. But when you want to move the same number of spaces with each tab (a tab stop), you can use formatting strings. This is useful, for example, to set up a table. In planning a table, you must consider the width of the tab stops, the width of each column, and the number of columns that fit on your page. Furthermore, you must keep in mind the width of the page itself. This is critical, especially in Braille, where the ability to produce tabular information on one page is a bit limited. To demonstrate how to set up a table, we'll use sample information. Let's say that you want three columns of numbers across a page and you know that none of the numbers has more than five digits in it. So you can make the tab stop between each column three spaces wide. Set the tab stop with the string, '$ts3'. But remember, this only dictates the size of the tab. To move the writing cursor to each tab stop, type the string, '$t', followed by the text of the column. So a line in our example reads something like this: "123 $t 4567 $t 8910" The current tab stop remains in effect for the remainder of your document unless you specifically reset it. So, in our example, any time you type the string, '$t', your writing cursor moves three spaces (in other words, one tab stop). Tabbing There is a formatting string that produces the same effect as using the Tab key and typing in the number of spaces you want the tab to have. Use this string, and text only on the current line will start a certain number of spaces in from the left margin. To tab using a formatting string, type the string, '$to', followed by a two-digit number. So, for example, if you want the text on the current line to start seven spaces in from the left margin, begin the line with the string, '$to07'. Then type the text. When the text wraps to the next line, it begins at the left margin again. Page Numbering You have control over if, and where, page numbers appear, especially in print. In addition, you can choose between Arabic or Roman numerals. And, you can even decide what the first page number should be, and whether it should appear at all. Setting up page numbering: To get your file to number pages, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then jump to the "Number pages" setting by typing the number-sign (Shift+3). The Type 'n Speak says, "Number pages, off." Turn on numbering with a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. Selecting the types of numerals for page numbering: If you want to specify the types of numerals to use to number pages, begin the file with the string, '$pnar' for Arabic numerals or the string, '$pnrn' for Roman numerals. This choice is helpful, for example, to set apart the table of contents section of a book with Roman numerals from the rest of a book that has Arabic numerals. Establishing the starting page number: To establish the starting page number, type the string, '$pn', followed by a number from 1 to 999. Having this choice is useful, for example, to set up a file which is a continuation of another - like the second chapter of a book. Positioning the page number: You can choose where to position the page number. For files you're going to Braille, page numbering always goes on the top right corner of the page. But for files you're going to print, you actually have six options. The six possible positions for print page numbers are top left, top center, top right, bottom left, bottom center, or bottom right. The corresponding formatting strings are '$pntl', '$pntc', '$pntr', '$pnbl', '$pnbc', and '$pnbr'. Suppressing page numbers: To stop page numbers from printing at all, you can type the formatting string, '$pnnp' at the beginning of your file. Or, you can turn off the setting from the Status menu. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type a number-sign (Shift+3), followed by an n. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. Selecting whether the first page number appears: You can choose to have the first page number (usually page one) of your file appear when you output the file. When you turn on page numbering from within the Status menu, a new setting appears. Here's how it works. To turn on page numbering, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then jump to the setting by pressing the number-sign (Shift+3). By default, the Number Pages setting is off. So, turn it on by typing a y. At this point, press Down-arrow to hear, "Put page number on first page, off." This setting only appears in the Status menu when the Number Pages setting is active. If you want the page number to appear on the first page of your file when you print or Braille it, type a y to activate this setting. Otherwise, leave it as it is, and exit the Status menu with Esc. Changing the Appearance of Print Text Only printers that are Epson-, Imagewriter-, or HP-compatible can interpret the Type 'n Speak's formatting strings for changing the appearance of printable characters. All printers understand centering, tabs, page numbering, and so on. But if your printer is not compatible with the three we support, you may have to use escape codes for that specific printer to achieve the same results. Here are basic formatting strings that change the appearance of your text: ? To boldface text, precede it with the string, '$bb' and end it with the string, '$bf'. ? To italicize text, precede it with the string, '$ib' and end it with the string, '$if'. ? To underline text, precede it with the string, '$ub' and end it with the string, '$uf'. ? To doublestrike text for even more emphasis, precede it with the string, '$dbsb' and end it with the string, '$dbsf'. Stopping the Print Process There may be times when you want to print only a portion of your file - say, to test how a table prints out. Or you may want to pause the printer so you can examine the pages. There are two formatting strings you can insert in your files temporarily that control when the printer stops printing. To stop printing altogether before the end of your file, type the string, '$ef', at the point in your file where you want printing to stop. To pause the printer between pages, type the string, '$w'. (This option is also useful if your printer only accepts single sheets one at a time.) Double-spacing a Document If you want to double- or triple-space a print document - for example, a school paper - type the string, '$ls', followed by a number. So, for example, '$ls2' makes your document print with a blank line between each printed line, and with four blank lines, instead of two, between each paragraph. To resume single-spacing, type the string, '$ls1'. The advantage of using formatting strings for double-spacing is that you can double-space a portion of a document, but single-space the rest. Inserting a Time Stamp on a Printed Document Using format strings, you can insert a "stamp" onto a document to indicate the date and time it is actually printed. Clearly, you may not always print a document the minute you create it. In fact, it may be days or weeks before you actually print it. Some jobs, however, require very accurate time-stamping. For example, when a receptionist takes a message, it generally must be printed right away. To insert a stamp into your file so that the date and time it is output appears as part of the printed document, type the string, '$tm' for the time and '$dt' for the date. Skipping Portions of a File to Print You can insert a formatting string into your file to skip a portion of text that you don't want to print. For example, suppose that you have a five-page file, and you only want to print from page 3 to page 5 because the printer jammed on page 3. Just before the portion of text you want to skip, type the string, '$('. Then just after it, type the string, '$)'. Page numbering should still be in effect accurately. Summary In this chapter, we have concentrated on the many ways in which you can control how and where text prints on paper, and even whether it prints at all. Not only can you center text, indent it, outdent it, and put it into columns, but you can also change its appearance (at least in print), have running headers or footers, and number your pages. Furthermore, you can stamp your files with the date and time they are actually printed, double-space them, and skip portions that you don't want to print at all. Take the time to make yourself at home with all the concepts presented thus far. We've covered a lot of ground. CHAPTER 7: Manipulating Files Introduction The Type 'n Speak lets you create files to enter your personal data. Soon, you'll have many files in your Type 'n Speak and will need to do things like rename them, change their sizes, and simply open them to read and type in them. You might want to look at a list of your files, delete ones you no longer need, and create new ones. All of these options, and more, are handled through the Files menu, which is the focus of this chapter. As a starting point for exploring the Files menu, we'll use a file called "practice" throughout this chapter. If you haven't already created such a file, we suggest that you do so before working through the examples on the following pages. For a full discussion on creating a file, see "How to Create a File" in Chapter 4. Checking the Name of the Currently Open File Whenever you turn on your unit, you hear, "Type 'n Speak ready; filename is open." This is because the Type 'n Speak knows what file you were in, and where your cursor was within that file, when you last turned off the Type 'n Speak. But what if you're working in a file and get interrupted by a long phone call, or if you can't remember what file you were working in before lunch (and you forgot to turn off the Type 'n Speak)? The quickest way to check the name of the currently open file is to press Esc. But since we're concentrating on the Files menu options in this chapter, let's see how to check the file's name from there. Bring up the Files menu with F1. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file command." Then type a t. Assuming the "practice" file is the currently open file, you should hear something like, "Practice, one page, is open; enter file command." Notice that the last thing the Type 'n Speak said was "Enter file command." You're still in the Files menu. To return to the file itself wherever you had stopped in it, just press Esc. The Type 'n Speak says, "Exit." Exploring the File Command Menu You can see a list of all Files menu commands through the File Command menu. This list is available only from within the Files menu. Since File Command is a pull-down menu, you can navigate through it in the usual way you navigate a menu. Find the command you want, then you can perform it by pressing Enter. (For a full discussion of how to navigate menus, review "Pull-Down Menus" in Chapter 1.) To bring up the File Command menu, you first need to bring up the Files menu with F1. Starting from your currently open file, press F1 now. The Type 'n Speak prompts, "Enter file command." Then press the Help key to hear, "File Command menu." Here's how to navigate the File Command menu: ? To cycle through the command list, press the spacebar. ? To hear the current command repeated, press Shift+Up-arrow. ? To hear the next command, press Down-arrow. ? To hear the previous command, press Up-arrow. ? To hear the first command, press Home. ? To hear the last command, press End. ? To hear the hot key for the command being pointed to, press Shift+End. ? To perform the command being pointed to, press Enter. ? To exit the File Command menu and return to the currently open file, press Esc. ? To exit the File Command menu and return to the files list, press F1. There are so many Files menu commands that we can't spend time listing them all here. (See Appendix B for the complete list of file commands.) However, the rest of this chapter explains the basic, most-often-used commands from within the Files menu. The more complex Files Menu commands are covered in other sections of this manual where they are relevant. Listing Your Files Right now you should have very few files in your Type 'n Speak: some from Blazie Engineering itself, the "practice" file we are using for examples, and possibly, the "word.fix" file that contains the word exceptions dictionary (See Chapter 5.) But it won't be long before you have many files in your Type 'n Speak. And it will become important to be able to list the files you have. To see a list of your files, you need to bring up the Files menu. Starting from your currently open file, bring up the Files menu with F1. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file command." At this point, you can list your existing files in several ways: ? To hear a list of your files with some important information about each one, type a l. ? To hear a quick list of your files, with only filenames, type a q. ? To hear a list of your files with complete information about each one, type a v. ? To copy your files list temporarily to the Clipboard, press Alt+v. ? To hear a list of your files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+f. Let's practice with a sample files list. Bring up the Files menu with F1. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file command," type a l. The Type 'n Speak should say something like this: "Files list: Help six pages; Clipboard one page; Calendar one page; Spell.dic 86 pages; Practice one page; word.fix one page; 66 pages remaining. Enter file command." Of course, remember that the number of pages remaining depends on the number of files that came on your unit and the sizes of those files. Also, notice that the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file command" after it reads you the names of your files. This is because you're still in the Files menu. Listing a Group of Files with Similar Names The Type 'n Speak can list a group of similarly named files instead of the entire files list. You specify which group of files to list by using a wildcard pattern like the one you might use for a group of similarly named MS DOS files. Unfamiliar with using wildcards in filenames? Then here is a brief description. If you want to affect a group of files with similar names, you can use a wildcard pattern as part of the command. The wildcard characters are the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?). The asterisk replaces a group of characters, and the question mark replaces an individual character. For example, suppose that the files list in your Type 'n Speak includes the files "letter.txt" and "letter.doc." The wildcard name for these two files is "letter.*" because the part that is the same in both files is the filename "letter" and the part that is different is the extensions "txt" and "doc." Therefore, the wildcard is the extension portion. Likewise, if your files list contains the files "dates.txt" and "rates.txt", the wildcard name for them is, "?ates.txt" because everything in their respective names is the same except for the wildcard first letter in their filename portions. To see a list of a specific group of files in your files list, first bring up the Files menu with F1. Then press Alt+f. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename?" At this point, you may type a wildcard pattern such as "*.txt", and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak will then list for you just that group of files from your files list. Setting Up Some Practice Files The rest of this chapter, as well as the next one, assumes that you have several files in your files list. So, we suggest that you create a couple of new files at this time so that you can work through the examples on the following pages. Create a file called "temp" for "temporary," and another called "names." For a full discussion on creating a file, see "How to Create a File" in Chapter 4. Navigating Through Your Files List Moving to a file does not mean you can read it or type in it. It just means that you're "pointing" to it - physically moving to the place in the Type 'n Speak's memory where the file's name is stored. It's like flipping through the tabs in your binder of files. When you turn to a particular tab, you check out its name and open to the pages within it, or you flip backward or forward a tab, jump all the way back to the first one, or even skip to the very last one in the binder. When you point to a file, the Type 'n Speak reads you its name, the number of pages the file contains, and whether Braille translation is active for that file. To flip through the filenames in your files list, you first have to bring up the Files menu. Starting from your currently open file, bring up the Files menu with F1. Here are the different ways you can navigate through the files list: ? To point to the first file, press Home. ? To point to the last file, press End. ? To point to the previous file, press Up-arrow. ? To point to the next file, press Down-arrow. ? To repeat the filename you're currently pointing to, press Shift+Up-arrow. ? To spell out the filename you're currently pointing to, press Shift+Down-arrow. ? To point to and hear just the previous filename without any file information, press Shift+Left-arrow. ? To point to and hear just the next filename without any file information, press Shift+Right-arrow. If you do nothing after pointing to a filename except exit the Files menu with Esc, you'll find yourself back in whatever file you had open before you brought up the Files menu in the first place. Now, let's practice navigating through the files list. For sample purposes, we'll assume that you have certain filenames in your files list. And we'll further assume that the last file you created is "names." So starting from this point, bring up the Files menu with F1. Now press Home. The Type 'n Speak should say something like, "File number zero, Help, six pages." Now press Down-arrow to hear, "Clipboard, one page," and press again for "Calendar, one page." Press Up-arrow to move back a file and hear, "Clipboard, one page." Press Shift+Down-arrow to hear the name of this file spelled out, "File number one, Clipboard, c l i p b o a r d, one page." Press Shift+Right-arrow to hear just the name of the next file in the list, "calendar," and then Shift+Left-arrow to hear the previous filename again, "Clipboard." Checking Which File is Open When you're moving around your files list, the file you're pointing to may not be the one that's open. Knowing which file is open is important. If you want to open the file you're pointing to, you specifically have to tell the Type 'n Speak to open that file by pressing Enter. For sample purposes, we'll assume that you have the "names" file open. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Begin pressing Up- and Down-arrows to point to the Clipboard file in your files list. Now type a t. The Type 'n Speak should say, "Names, one page, is open. Enter file command." Then press Shift+Up-arrow. The Type 'n Speak says, "Clipboard, one page." Why? Even though your currently open file is "names," you're pointing to the filename "Clipboard." See the difference? Which file is affected when you perform a Files menu command depends on how you invoke that command. Basically, you can issue a Files menu command to affect a file in two ways: ? If the file you're pointing to in the files list is already open, you can perform a command simply by writing the first letter of the command (for example, r for rename). ? However, if the file is not open, you must point to it first, and then invoke the command by pressing Alt together with its corresponding first letter (for example, Alt+r for rename). Opening an Existing File Move along in the files list, pointing to different files. When you arrive at the one you want to open, simply press Enter. The file you previously had open is closed and saved automatically, and the new file now becomes the currently open file. For sample purposes, let's return to our "practice" file if you're not already in it. Bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt "Enter file command," press a few Down-arrows until you hear, "Practice, one page," then press Enter to open it. The Type 'n Speak says, "Practice now open." Opening a File Whose Name is Known It seems simple enough to open a file by pointing to it in the files list and pressing Enter. This is fine for a short files list, but what about when you accumulate a lot of files on your Type 'n Speak? If you know the name of the file you want to open, all you have to do is tell the Type 'n Speak its name. The Type 'n Speak will find it, and open the file for you. For instance, let's say you're in the file "practice" and want to return to "names." Bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," type an o. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file to open." Type out the name of the file and press Enter. Almost at once, the Type 'n Speak says, "Names now open." Flipping Between the Last Two Open Files If you realize you need some information from the file you last opened, you can flip back and forth between it and the one you currently have open. To do this, press F9 followed by the letter l to bring up that file again. Your unit remembers what file you opened last and takes you there, placing you at whatever point you'd stopped there. Pressing F9 l again returns you to the file from which you started, at the point where you'd stopped working in that file. So, for example, if you have "names" open, but want to check something in your "practice" file (which was the file you had opened last), just press F9 l to bring up the "practice" file. Then, when you finish getting what you need from it, return to your "names" file in a flash by pressing F9 l again. Assuming that Calendar Alert is deactivated in the Status menu, the Type 'n Speak remembers the last two files you had opened even after you turn it off. (For a full discussion of the calendar, see Chapter 9.) With Calendar Alert off, when you next turn on the Type 'n Speak, it returns you to the file where you were last working, wherever you had stopped. And it lets you flip to the file you had opened before that one, wherever you had stopped in it as well. Opening a File by Its Number When you point to a file in the files list, the Type 'n Speak says a number along with other information about the file. For example, it may say something like, "File zero, Help, six pages." The Type 'n Speak can store a maximum of 127 files in RAM and 992 in Flash (if each file is small). Actually, the number of files that can be stored at any one time varies. For example, if one of your files contains 30 Type 'n Speak pages - a substantial size - the Type 'n Speak will be able to store fewer files on the whole. The files in the RAM portion of the Type 'n Speak's memory are numbered sequentially. The Help file is zero, the Clipboard is one, and so on. If you frequently need to jump to a file whose number is between 0 and 99, just open the file by its two-digit number. Note: Although the Type 'n Speak can hold up to 127 files in RAM, you can only access the first hundred files, numbered 00 through 99, by using their two-digit numbers. Files numbered higher than 99, and files stored in the Flash portion of the Type 'n Speak's memory, must be opened from within the Files menu. To open a file whose number is known, from anywhere within the currently open file, press F9 (or Alt+o). When the Type 'n Speak says, "Option," type the file's two-digit number. You don't even have to press Enter. The Type 'n Speak immediately opens that file for you, placing you wherever you had last worked in it. Let's take an example. Suppose you want to open the fifth file on your Type 'n Speak. That might be the file we created a little while ago called "temp." Let's start from the Help file, which is numbered zero. You can open the Help file from any other file by pressing the Help key. Now press F9. The Type 'n Speak says, "Option." Since the Help file is numbered zero, The fifth file is numbered four. So type 04. Immediately you hear something like, "Temp now open." It's that easy. If you type a number for a file that doesn't exist, the Type 'n Speak just says, "File doesn't exist" and leaves you exactly where you were in your currently open file. Jumping to a File from the Currently Open File If your currently open file contains the name of another file you want to open, there is a very quick and easy way to jump directly to that file. Let's see how it works. Suppose you're working in a file called "practice," and you have written the name of the file "address" somewhere in the text of your currently open file. All you have to do to jump to the file called "address" is to put a carriage return in front of it so that it begins a new line. Then press F9, followed by an o. The file called "address" is instantly opened at the place where you last worked in it. That's all there is to it. Finding a File in the Files List Once your Type 'n Speak is filled with many files, it becomes a tedious business to listen to a long files list. And it's even more tiring to have to search through the list by pressing Up- and Down-arrows to hear the filenames one at a time. You can turn the files list temporarily into a mini-list that shows you just that group of files with similar names. To do this, you provide the Type 'n Speak with a wildcard pattern, and it finds all files that match that pattern and shows you only those files. Here's how it works. Suppose you have a small group of files all ending in ".txt." Some are in RAM, some in Flash. To see a mini-files list that contains only these files, first bring up the Files menu with F1. Then at the prompt, "Enter file command," press Alt+f. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename?" At this point, you can type a wildcard pattern like "*.txt", and then press Enter. From this point on until you press Esc, you can use all the Files menu commands just on this mini-files list. So you can do things like press Home to find the first file that ends in ".txt," press End to find the last one, type an l to hear all the ".txt" files listed, and so on. Once you press Esc, you're back at the "Enter file command" prompt with the whole files list available to you again. Renaming a File It's easy to rename a file on the Type 'n Speak. To do so, you must first bring up the Files menu. Then at the prompt, "Enter file command," you type an r to rename the currently open file, or point to another file and press Alt+r to rename it. Let's take a couple of examples. First, let's change the "temp" file to "drill." Assuming the currently open file is "temp," bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," type an r. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename." Type the filename "drill" and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay, enter file command." Notice that you're still in the Files menu. To return to the currently open file, now called "drill," just exit the Files menu with Esc. Now let's change the name of a file that is not currently open. Let's change the file called "names" to "address." Bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," press a few Down-arrows until you're on "names." Then press Alt+r. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename." Type "address" and press Enter. Just as before, the Type 'n Speak now says, "Okay, enter file command." When you exit the Files menu with Esc, though, you should find yourself back in the file called "drill," because that is the currently open file. Write-protecting and Unprotecting a File To guard against a serious blunder, such as accidentally deleting your address file, you can write-protect files from accidental deletion or overwriting. This is especially useful for files that are absolutely essential. Protecting a file is like putting a lock on it. In effect, you are safeguarding yourself against losing or scrambling its contents. It's easy to protect or unprotect a file on the Type 'n Speak. In order to perform either command, you must first bring up the Files menu. Then at the prompt, "Enter file command," here are your options: ? To protect the currently open file, type a p. ? To unprotect the currently open file, type a u. ? To protect a file not currently open, first point to it, and then type Alt+p. ? To unprotect a file not currently open, first point to it, and then type Alt+u. Let's take an example. Open your file called "drill," if you're not already in it. Now bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," type a p. The Type 'n Speak says, "File is write-protected; enter file command." Exit the Files menu with Esc, and try writing something in your "drill" file. Every time you type a character, the Type 'n Speak says, "File is write-protected." Oh, you can read the file just fine. But now you can't type anything in it. In fact, your "drill" file may have nothing in it right now. But if it did, you would only be able to read its contents, not type in the file. Now let's protect a file that is not currently open, the "address" file. Bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," press a few Down-arrows and Up-arrows until you're pointing to "address." Press Alt+p. The Type 'n Speak says, "File is write-protected; enter file command." When you exit the Files menu with Esc, though, you should be back in "drill." Go ahead and unprotect "drill" again. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then type a u. The Type 'n Speak says, "Unprotected; enter file command." When you exit the Files menu with Esc now, you should once again be able to type in the file without a problem. Protecting a File with a Password In the event that someone else has access to your Type 'n Speak, you can protect files for privacy. You do this by attaching a password to each file you want to protect from unauthorized access. Here's how it works. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then open the file you want to password-protect. Now bring up the Files menu again, and type a w. The Type 'n Speak now says, "Enter password." The password you choose must contain no more than six characters. Type a word, or a string of letters and digits, with special meaning to you that others are unlikely to guess. Then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter password again." To confirm your password, retype it and press Enter again. Whenever you try to access this file from now on - whether you try to open it from the Files menu, or by its two-digit number - the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter password." If you type an incorrect password, the Type 'n Speak kicks you into the Help file, saying, "Help is open." Note: Files stored in Flash cannot be password-protected. To remove the password from a password-protected file, first bring up the file itself using its password. Then bring up the Files menu with F1 and type a w. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter password." Press Enter. Then the Type 'n Speak repeats, "Enter password." Pressing enter again removes the password from the file. The Type 'n Speak confirms this by saying, "Okay," leaving you back at the prompt, "Enter file command." From now on, the file will be accessible again without a password. Deleting Files In order to delete a file, or group of files, on the Type 'n Speak, you must start from the Files menu. We'll first discuss deleting a single file, and then deleting a whole group of files all at once. Deleting a Single File You can delete a file whether it is currently open or not. If you delete the currently open file, the Type 'n Speak automatically opens the Help file instead. But if you delete a file that is not currently open, you will stay in your currently open file. To delete a file, bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," you have three choices: You can delete the currently open file, point to a file and delete it, or delete a file whose name you know. In the first case, you press the Del key. The currently open file is deleted, and the Type 'n Speak stays in the Files menu awaiting another command. When you exit the Files menu with Esc, you'll find yourself in the Help file. In the second case, you point to the file you want to delete, and press the Del key. After the file is deleted, the Type 'n Speak remains in the Files menu awaiting another command. But when you exit the Files menu with Esc, you're back in your currently open file. In the third case, you type a d, then the name of the file you want to delete, followed by Enter. Let's work through a few examples. First, we'll delete the currently open file. Assuming that your currently open file is "drill," bring up the Files menu with F1. Then press Del. The Type 'n Speak says, "Delete drill, are you sure; enter y or n?" Type a y. Now, the Type 'n Speak confirms, "Okay, Help is open; enter file command." Since you just deleted the file you had open, the Type 'n Speak automatically opened the Help file, but is still in the Files menu awaiting a command. Next, we'll point to the file we want to delete. Bring up the Files menu and press Up- and Down-arrows until you're on the file called "address," for example. Then press Del. The Type 'n Speak prompts, "Delete address, are you sure; enter y or n?" You may type n at this point if you don't really want to delete this file. But if you do want to delete it, type a y. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay, enter file command." Here again, if you exit the Files menu now with Esc, you should be back in your currently open file, whatever it may be. The fact that you deleted a file that was not open has no effect on the one you do have open. Finally, we'll delete a file that is not currently open and whose name we know. We'll delete "practice." Assuming that your currently open file is not "practice," bring up the Files menu with F1 and type a d. At the prompt, "Enter file to delete," type "practice", and then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Delete practice, are you sure; enter y or n?" Type a y. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay, enter file command." When you exit the Files menu with Esc, you should still be in your currently open file. Deleting a Group of Files with Similar Names The Type 'n Speak lets you delete a group of files with similar names. You can use a wildcard pattern for the group of files you want to delete. (For a full discussion of using wildcard characters in filenames, see "Listing a Group of Files with Similar Names" earlier in this chapter.) The wildcard characters are the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?). The asterisk replaces a group of characters; the question mark replaces an individual character. Here's how to delete a group of files with similar names all at once. Bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," type a g. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file to delete." Type a filename with a wildcard pattern - for example, *.txt. Then press Enter. When the Type 'n Speak finds all the files with all the names that match your wildcard pattern, it says something like, "Delete file *.txt, y or n?" Type a y to accept the deletion, or n to cancel it. Naturally, you'll want to use this group delete command cautiously. But it can save you time when you have a large number of files to delete that have some part of their names in common. For extra security, you may want to decide one by one which files in the group you want to delete. To do this, type d instead of g. But when the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename to delete," respond with a wildcard pattern. This forces the Type 'n Speak to ask you, file by file, whether you want to delete each one it finds that matches your wildcard pattern. Changing the Size of a File Manually The Type 'n Speak automatically expands your files as you type in them and insert text from other files in them. It also automatically shrinks your files as you delete unwanted blocks of text from them. But there are times when you'll want to resize your files manually. This becomes especially important when you're using the Type 'n Speak with a modem. (For a full discussion of using the Type 'n Speak with a modem, see Chapter 17.) Remember that the Type 'n Speak page is really a block of Type 'n Speak memory consisting of space equal to 4,096 characters. And remember that spaces, blank lines, and control characters all count as characters in computerland. Since the Type 'n Speak's memory is really a continuous space to be filled with characters, and since the Type 'n Speak doesn't care whether those characters are text or control characters, blocks worth 4,096 characters (called pages) are pretty hefty chunks of memory. Checking the Size of a File Remember that the character count for a file includes everything in your file: control characters, spaces, decorative characters, formatting strings, and so on. And remember that the Type 'n Speak page is 4,096 characters of space. To check how many characters, and Type 'n Speak pages, a file already contains, you must first bring up the Files menu with F1. There are several ways to get file information about the file you're pointing to in your files list: ? To hear complete file information about the file to which you're pointing, press F8. ? To hear complete file information about a file to which you're not pointing, press Shift+F8, type the filename or a wildcard pattern, and press Enter. ? To hear just the size of the file to which you're pointing, press F7. ? To hear just the size of a file to which you're not pointing, press Shift+F7, type the filename or wildcard pattern, and press Enter. Let's take an example. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then press Shift+F7. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename." Type "address" and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak tells you its size even though you haven't pointed to "address," and even though that file is not currently open. If you answer the "Enter filename" prompt with a wildcard pattern (like *.txt), the Type 'n Speak tells you the sizes of all the files fitting the wildcard pattern. Adding Pages to a File The Type 'n Speak lets you add pages manually to your file, but only in chunks of 4,096 characters worth of space. Let's see how this works. We'll use the "address" file as an example. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then point to "address" in your files list and open it by pressing Enter. Now bring up the Files menu again and type a b. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter number of pages to expand." Type a 1, for example, and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay" and leaves you back in the file wherever you were. Subtracting Pages from a File The Type 'n Speak can automatically subtract pages from a file, but only in chunks of 4,096 characters worth of space. And it subtracts only empty space from the end of the file. Let's see how this works. We'll use the "address" file as an example. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then point to "address" in your files list and open it by pressing Enter. To set up this example, we may have to make your "address" file bigger temporarily. Check the size of your "address" file before taking the next step. To check how much room there is left in the "address" file, press Shift+F2. If the number is less than 4,096, make the file bigger by one page. To do this, bring up the Files menu with F1 and type a b. At the prompt, "Number of pages to expand," just press Enter to expand the file by a single Type 'n Speak page. Now bring up the Files menu again. Type an s. The Type 'n Speak says, "One page(s) removed," because it knew how much of the file was empty. Once it has removed the extra empty Type 'n Speak page (or pages) from the end of the file, the Type 'n Speak returns you to the currently open file, wherever you had stopped working in that file. Resizing Files That are Not Open You can resize a file - adding or subtracting Type 'n Speak pages - when those files are not open. As with other Files menu commands, you point to the file first, and then press Alt+b or Alt+s, respectively, to make the file bigger or smaller. Copying an Entire File into the Currently Open File The Type 'n Speak can copy the contents of one file directly into another file. To do this, you first need to find the place in your currently open file where you want the other file to be inserted. Then you can perform the copy operation. Let's go through an example to see how it works. Suppose you're writing a school paper in a file called "paper," and have all your bibliography information in another file called "bibliography." It's practical to copy the bibliography into the file called "paper" to avoid retyping all that information. The Type 'n Speak automatically expands the size of "paper" to accommodate the incoming file. Also, it's critical to place your cursor exactly where you want the insertion to take place - because that's where the incoming file is going to end up. Even if you want the contents of the incoming file to be inserted at the end of the currently open file, you should probably type a hard return, or a hard page break, at the point where the incoming file will be inserted. Otherwise, that text may not be properly formatted after it is inserted. Assuming that "paper" is the currently open file, move your cursor to the place where you want to insert the bibliography. Since that type of information is usually placed last in a document, move your cursor to the end of the file with End. Then force a new page with Ctrl+l. To copy a file into the currently open file, press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Paste what?" Type an f (for File). At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "File, enter filename." Type the name of the file you want to insert ("bibliography," in our example), and press Enter. The file is instantly inserted at your cursor position. If you have Interactive mode turned on, the Type 'n Speak starts reading what it has just inserted. Be aware that all you've done is copy the file, not remove it. The original file, "bibliography," is still intact. Free Space in the Type 'n Speak As you add and delete files, as well as change their sizes, the amount of free space in the Type 'n Speak varies. From time to time, it's good to check just how much you have left, especially if you're about to add a biggie. You can find out how many Type 'n Speak pages you have left both in RAM, as well as in Flash, memory. From the Files menu, simply type an f at the "Enter file command" prompt. The Type 'n Speak reports that you have x-number of pages remaining and how much flash memory you have left. For example, you may hear something like, "184 pages remaining, 2045K Flash; enter file command." Of course, this example is for an empty Type 'n Speak. No doubt, your unit will report numbers that are very different. Using a Mini-help File If you need to make more room in a jam-packed Type 'n Speak, and you're very familiar with its use, you can now delete the large, comprehensive Help file and still have a mini-Help file available to you. When you bring up the Files menu with F1 and view your complete files list, notice that there are two Help files: the large, comprehensive Help file you usually see listed as file zero in the RAM portion of memory, and an identical copy of it stored in the Flash portion of memory. While you cannot delete the Help file that is numbered zero, you can delete the copy of the Help file that's stored in Flash. And you can do this in the usual way, by pointing to it from the Files menu and pressing Del. Once you delete the copy of the Help file that's stored in Flash, the Help file that's numbered zero becomes a one-page mini-Help file. This mini-Help file lists only the most commonly used commands. To return the Help file to its original comprehensive version, you must transfer it into your Type 'n Speak from the floppy disk that came with your updated unit, or download it from our website. (For a full discussion of how to transfer files to your Type 'n Speak, see Chapters 16 and 17.) To ensure that the Help file you transfer becomes file zero again, you must call it "help". It doesn't matter whether you transfer it into RAM or Flash. By default, the disk or website version of the "help" file is called "tnseng.hlp". So after transferring it to your Type 'n Speak, you need to rename it "help." That way, pressing the Help key brings up this file instead of the mini-Help file. Summary This chapter has focused almost exclusively on working with commands in the Files menu. As you have seen, the Files menu lets you list your files in several ways, lets you create files, delete them, copy them, and even resize them. In addition, the File Command menu makes it easy to work through the many commands available to you in the Files menu. Although we have covered many Files menu commands throughout this chapter, there were a few deliberately left out, because they are better discussed elsewhere in this manual. For now, though, it's worth taking the time to practice the commands you've learned thus far. They are among the ones you'll use most often. In the next chapter, we work on organizing your ever-growing files list into more manageable groups of files called folders. CHAPTER 8: Organizing Your Files Introduction Once you have created a lot of files in the Type 'n Speak, they can easily become disorganized. For example, your may find your phonebook followed by a letter to a friend, followed by class lecture notes, etc. And what about external programs like Checkbook and Braille Base, Graph-It, or Braille Term, that you might also have loaded onto your unit? Such hodgepodge is okay for a while. But after you've added 20 or 30 files to your Type 'n Speak, things can become quite unwieldy. So, you might want to separate groups of related files into different "binders," or folders. For example, your recipes file, your diet chart, and your restaurant menus could be in a folder called "food." Your checkbook, budget information, bank statements and the like could be in a folder called "money." This chapter discusses all the commands in the Files menu related to organizing your files into folders. First, we talk about how to view your files list by folders, then we describe how to create the folders themselves, and then how to navigate from one folder to another. Next, we talk about how you can move your files into different folders, rename folders, and even delete ones you no longer need. And, of course, we show you how to place your folders either in the RAM or Flash portions of your Type 'n Speak's memory. Let's see how it all works. Viewing the Files List by Folders When you create folders and put your files into them, you're not making extra copies of those files. Having Folder mode activated simply means that you can view your files in a more organized way. You still only have one copy of each file. When Allow Folder mode is inactive, which is the default, you can view your files list as two giant files lists divided into two folders. The "RAM startup" folder holds the files stored in the RAM portion of your Type 'n Speak's memory, and the "Flash startup" folder holds the files stored in the Flash portion of memory. But when Folder mode is active, you can view either one giant files list, containing all your files (regardless of where you have stored them), or you can view your files list one folderful at a time. To activate Allow Folder mode, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then jump to the setting that toggles this mode on and off with Alt+f. By default, Allow Folder mode is off. To turn it on, type a y. Any time you want to disable Allow Folder mode, simply toggle it off with an n. While Allow Folder mode is active, you can move files in and out of folders. You can create your own folders, as well as use the two that we have already created for you by default: RAM startup and Flash startup. Once Allow Folder mode is active, you can view your files list in two ways from the Files menu. Bring up the Files menu with F1. To toggle viewing your files list in folders or as a complete files list, press the spacebar. Depending on which view is currently set, you'll hear, "Folder mode," which means you can view your files list a folderful at a time, or you'll hear, "All files mode," which means you can view your complete files list regardless of which folder contains your files. Navigating Through Folders Once Allow Folder mode is in effect, you can view your files list a folderful at a time. Let's take an example. We'll assume that you have activated Allow Folder mode from the Status menu and that you've toggled the Spacebar in the Files menu so that you're in folder mode. Get to the Files menu with F1. This is the first time we've invoked folder mode, so you should hear, "Folder mode, RAM startup, RAM folder, enter file command." Notice that whenever you bring up the Files menu in folder mode, you hear the name of the current folder before the familiar prompt, "Enter file command." Since your Type 'n Speak is equipped with RAM and Flash memory, and since you can have folders in either memory area of your Type 'n Speak, the default names of your RAM and Flash folders are "RAM startup" and "Flash startup." But, you can personalize these folder names, if you prefer, as you'll learn later in this chapter. When you first receive your Type 'n Speak, the RAM startup folder may contain very few files, and the Flash startup folder may contain most of your files, or the Flash startup folder may be empty. But you can easily move files between the RAM startup and Flash startup folders. Here are the commands used to navigate your files list while in folder mode: ? To move to the previous file in the current folder, press Up- arrow. ? To move to the next file in the current folder, press Down- arrow. ? To move to the previous folder, press PgUp. ? To move to the next folder, press PgDn. ? To hear the name of the current folder, press Alt+7. ? To move to the first folder in your folders list, press Alt+8. ? To move to the last folder in your folders list, press Alt+0. Right now, all you can do is flip back and forth between your RAM startup and your Flash startup folders. Let's check this out. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then press PgDn. Since the Flash startup folder is currently empty, the Type 'n Speak says, "Flash startup folder; folder is empty. Enter file command." Flip back to your other folder with PgUp and you'll hear, "RAM startup, RAM folder, enter file command." Jumping to a Folder by its Number Just as you can jump to a file if you know its two-digit number, you can jump to a folder if you know its number. You can have up to 20 folders in your Type 'n Speak, and you can jump to the first 10 of them using the digits, 0 through 9. The RAM startup folder is numbered 00, and the Flash startup folder is numbered 01. When you start creating your own folders, each will have its own two-digit number. Creating a Folder The Type 'n Speak lets you create up to 20 folders. To create a folder, bring up the Files menu with F1. Then press the Plus key (Shift+Equals). The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter folder name." Type the name you want the new folder to have and press Enter. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter f for Flash or r for RAM folder," because it needs to know in which portion of memory to place the folder. Type either letter and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay, enter file command." Your folder is now created, but it has no files in it yet. Let's take an example. We'll use this example folder (and some others) in subsequent sections of this chapter as we move through other folder commands. We'll start by making a "money" folder so we can keep all our financial records in one place. (You can, of course, name your folders anything you want to, as long as you remember to keep their names under 20 characters long.) Bring up the Files menu with F1. At the "Enter file command" prompt, press the Plus key. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter folder name?" Type "money" and then press Enter. Now you should hear, "Enter f for Flash, or r for RAM folder." For practice in this example, we'll type an r and press Enter. This means that the "money" folder will be placed in the RAM portion of your Type 'n Speak. The reason your "money" folder needs to be in RAM is that you'll most likely want to edit the files in this folder - to reflect your growing, hopefully not dwindling, bank account. Since you cannot edit files stored in Flash, you cannot store them in a folder that is in Flash. So in our current example, we place the "money" folder in RAM so that we may edit the files stored in it. Once the Type 'n Speak creates the folder, it leaves you back at, "Enter file command," ready to accept your next command. Moving a File into a Folder To move a file from one folder to another, you first need to bring up the Files menu with F1. Then you need to point to the file you want to move by pressing Up- or Down-arrows until you hear its name. At this point, you press Shift+NumLock to start the process. When the Type 'n Speak asks for the name of the folder where you want to move the file, you can arrow through your folders list until you find it, or you can type its two-digit number if the folder's number is among the first 10 in your Type 'n Speak. Then you press Enter. Your file is immediately placed into that folder, and you're back at, "Enter file command." Let's take an example. Bring up your "practice" file so that we're all starting from the same place. For sample purposes, let's say you want to move your "recipes" file into your "food" folder. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Point to the "recipes" file by arrowing up and down through your files list until you hear its name. Then press Shift+NumLock. The Type 'n Speak prompts, "Select a folder, RAM startup, RAM folder." So in effect, it's telling you the folder where your file is now and asking you where you want to put it instead. Find the folder where you want the file to go: press Up-/Down- arrows to move through your folders list until you hear the name you want. Then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Please wait," pauses for a second, and then, finishes with, "Enter file command." Note that the file has not actually been moved in the Type 'n Speak unless you've moved it from a folder in RAM to a folder in Flash. You do not have two copies of the file, one in the RAM startup folder and another in the "food" folder. What you do have now is the "food" folder with the file called "recipes" located in it, and no longer a file called "recipes" in your RAM startup folder. But, you are still in the RAM startup folder and the file you have open is still the "practice" file. Just because you moved the "recipes" file into the "food" folder doesn't mean you moved there and opened a file within that folder. You're still sitting in whatever file you had opened before you pointed to "recipes" to move it into the "food" folder. In our case, that's the "practice" file, and that file happens to be in the RAM startup folder. Moving Groups of Files into a Folder Suppose you have a bunch of related files that you want to put into a particular folder. You can just move the whole group and plunk it down where you want all the files to go. Here's how. Let's take an example. We'll start from the "practice" file. For sample purposes, let's say you want to put all your money- related files - like checks, savings, mortgage statements, etc. - into the "money" folder. First bring up the Files menu with F1. Then press the less-than key (Shift+comma). The Type 'n Speak says, "Practice is not marked." This means that the file currently being pointed to, in this case the currently open file, is not tagged for moving into another folder. When you press the less-than key, your files list comes up one file at a time, beginning with your currently open file. Here is what you can do while viewing your files list for marking files: ? To mark or unmark your open file, type a y or Alt+y. ? To move through your files list to decide which files to mark, press Up-arrow and Down-arrow. Once on a desired file, press y or Alt+y to mark it. ? To mark all RAM files, press r. ? To mark all Flash files, press f. ? To mark all files in the current folder, press m. ? To unmark all files in the current folder, press u. ? To mark a group of similarly-named files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+m, wildcard pattern, Enter.. ? To unmark a group of similarly-named files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+u, wildcard pattern, Enter. So, in our example, you could mark the files called "bank," "mortgage," and "stocks" to put into your "money" folder, but not mark the files called "address," "recipes," and so on. When you've finished marking all the files you want to move, press Enter to select the folder where you want them to go. To find the folder - in our case, the "money" folder" - press Up- /Down-arrows or type a number from 00 to 09 if you know the "money" folder's two-digit number, and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Please wait," pauses for a few seconds, and then says, "Okay, enter file command." If you didn't move the file you had open at the time you started the procedure, you'll still be in that file when you leave the Files menu with Esc. But if the file you had open at the time was one of the files you moved, you'll be in the Help file when you leave the Files menu with Esc. This is because if the open file was moved to a different folder, you're no longer in it. And since the Type 'n Speak always has to have a file open, it places you in the Help file. Opening a File in a Different Folder When you want to open a file that's in a different folder from where your currently open file is located, you must first find that folder, and then open the file. Let's go through an example. Assuming that "practice" is the currently open file and that it is in the "RAM startup" folder, let's open the "stocks" file, which we know is in the "money" folder. Bring up the Files menu with F1. Then press PgUps and PgDns until you hear, "Money, RAM folder; enter file command." At this point, if you type a q, say, to hear a quick listing of your files, you should hear only the names of the files in the "money" folder. Press Up-arrow and Down-arrow until you find your "stocks" file. Then, press Enter to open it. When you don't see a certain file in your files list, you may think it's been deleted somehow. But, remember, it may simply be in another folder. In such a case, you could toggle out of Folder mode temporarily to All Files mode, and then look for the file. In All Files mode, all your files are visible regardless of their respective folders, and no matter whether they're stored in RAM or Flash memory. Moving Files between RAM and Flash You can store files in Flash memory, and you can read them from there. But you cannot edit them unless they're in RAM. You must be in All Files mode in order to move a file between RAM and Flash. Here's how. First, bring up the Files menu with F1. Press the spacebar to hear, "All Files mode." Now, you can point to the file you want to move, and then press Shift+NumLock. The Type 'n Speak Says, "Filename; move to RAM or Flash? Enter y or n." When you type a y, the Type 'n Speak says, "Please wait," pauses for a few seconds, and then says, "Enter file command." Let's take an example. We'll move the "recipes" file from Flash to RAM. Starting from your "practice" file as the currently open file, bring up the Files menu with F1. Since you're in Folder mode at this time, you'll hear something like, "Files menu, RAM startup, RAM folder; enter file command." Toggle out of Folder mode with the spacebar. You should now hear, "All Files mode; enter file command." At this point, press Up-/Down-arrows until you find "recipes." Then press Shift+NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Recipes, Flash file, move to RAM? Enter y or n." Type a y to move the file into RAM. The Type 'n Speak says, "Please wait," pauses for a moment, and then confirms, "Okay, enter file command." When you press Esc to exit the Files menu, you aren't in "recipes," though. You're still in "practice." If you want to open "recipes" right now, you need to bring up the Files menu again, find the file, then press Enter. But since it's now in RAM, you can add that not-for-calorie-counters chocolate cheesecake recipe to the file before moving it back into Flash memory. Caution: If you move the file you have open into the other memory portion, that file is no longer open. You are now in the Help file instead. To reopen the file, you need to bring up the Files menu again, find the file, then press Enter to open it. Renaming a Folder Suppose you have a folder whose name is no longer useful, or you misspelled the name you wanted it to have in the first place? Just as you can rename a file, so too can you rename a folder. Here's how. From your currently open file, bring up the Files menu with F1. Then find the folder whose name you want to change by pressing PgUp/PgDn until you hear its name. To rename the folder, press Shift+Scroll-Lock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter folder name?" Type the new folder name and press Enter. That's all there is to it. Let's take an example. We'll rename the "food" folder "diet." Bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," press PgUp/PgDn until you hear its name. Then, press Shift+Scroll Lock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter folder name?" Type the new name, "diet," and press Enter. The folder is instantly renamed, and you're back at, "Enter file command." Deleting a Folder Remember that folders are simply markers of sorts, letting you group your files into logical categories. As a precaution, a folder must be empty of all files before it can be deleted. So, when you decide to delete a particular folder, you must either delete all its files or move them to another folder. To delete a folder, bring up the Files menu with F1. Then find the folder you want to delete and check its list to see if there are any files you want to keep. If so, move them elsewhere. If not, delete them. Once the folder is empty, press Dash. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay, enter file command." Let's take an example. We'll delete the "money" folder. From your currently open file, Bring up the Files menu with F1. Find the "money" folder with PgUp and PgDn. When you hear its name, check the files list to see which files, if any, you might want to move elsewhere. Move the files you want to keep, and delete the ones you don't need any more. In any case, just make sure the folder is empty before proceeding. Now, still from the Files menu, press a Dash. Since the folder is empty, the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay, enter file command." The "money" folder is now gone. Summary This chapter has focused on how to organize your files into manageable groups of related files called folders. With folders of files, you can view smaller files lists and keep better track of your documents and program files. And since folders are so flexible, you can move files among your various folders, whether the files are in the RAM or Flash portion of your Type 'n Speak's memory. In addition, you can create folders with names that are meaningful to you, rename them later as needed, and even delete folders you no longer need at all. We suggest that you practice with some test folders before putting any of your important files into them. Once you've mastered the idea of folders, you'll find them a very useful way to manipulate files quickly and efficiently. SECTION III: Working With Other Tools Introduction Each chapter in this section focuses on one of the Type 'n Speak's many useful built-in tools. These tools include the clock, the calendar, the stopwatch, the timer, the calculator, the macro facility, the spellchecker, and the phonebook. For the most part, you can work with the Type 'n Speak's tools through the Options menu, although many of them can also be accessed directly from your currently open file. So, they are convenient to get to. Most of the tools do what you'd expect them to do. The clock tells you the time, the calendar tells you the date, and so on. But others, like the macro facility, do much more than you might think. And even the obvious ones like the calendar have some extra features built into them that make them very useful. CHAPTER 9: The Clock and the Calendar Introduction We all rely on watches, clocks, and calendars to keep ourselves on track. So, the Type 'n Speak has both a clock and a calendar built into it for your convenience. Not only can the clock tell you what time it is right now, it can also track the time when you last changed a file. Not only can the calendar tell you today's date, it can also tell you how many days away you are from that long-awaited vacation. In this chapter, we'll first look at the functions of the clock, and then the functions of the calendar. But these tools are closely related, because it is the clock that tells the calendar what day it is. And the nice side effect of both functions is that they make it possible for the Type 'n Speak to stamp files with the last date and time you changed them. So, finally, we'll look at how you can check on information about your files. The Clock With the Type 'n Speak's clock, you can do the same things you do with the one that sits on your nightstand. You can check the time, reset the time, and set the alarm. In addition, you can have the time announced on the hour, and you can hear the time announced in either American or European fashion. If you have punctuation announcement set to Most Punctuation from the Speech Parameters menu, hours and minutes are announced separated by the word "colon." But if you have punctuation announcement set to Some Punctuation, time is announced just as a person might say it. Checking the Current Time There's no telling how your unit might be set by default. So, we'll use an example. To check the current time from within your currently open file, simply press F4. The Type 'n Speak says something like, "12 p.m.," and leaves you back in your currently open file, wherever you had left off in that file. Switching Between American and European Time American time, which is the default, is announced from 1 to 12 hours with a.m. or p.m. to indicate the portion of the day. European time, however, is like military time. It announces the hours from 0 to 23 with no reference at all to a.m. or p.m. To switch between these two modes, you must bring up the Options menu with either F9 or Alt+o. The Type 'n Speak says, "Option." To set the announcement mode, type s1 for American time or s2 for European time. Setting the Time You should set the clock accurately, because as you create your personal files, the Type 'n Speak stamps them with what it thinks is the real time. For sample purposes, we'll set the time to 12:15 p.m. To set the current time from within your currently open file, bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. The Type 'n Speak says, "Option." Type the letters st to let the Type 'n Speak know that you want to set the current time. The Type 'n Speak should say, "Enter time hhmm," indicating that you should type in a four-digit number. Type something like, "1215" (without the colon), but do not press Enter. (If you make a mistake while typing the time, you can backspace and correct your error.) Once you've written a valid time, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter a or p for a.m. or p.m." Type p. The Type 'n Speak confirms, "The time is 12:15 p.m." When the correct time is announced, you're immediately back in your currently open file wherever you had left off in that file. Resetting the Time When you travel across time zones, you're constantly resetting your watch to reflect local time. The Type 'n Speak needs the same attention when you take it on the road. Also, for those who spring ahead by an hour in the spring and fall back an hour in the fall, this feature comes in handy. Here's how it works. To reset time from within your currently open file, first bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. At the prompt, "Option," type the letters st as if you were going to set the current time. But instead of using a four-digit number for the time, simply type a three-digit number representing the number of hours backward or forward that you want the time to move, with a minus or a plus preceding the number. For example, to move forward three hours, type +030. To move backward one hour, type -010. You don't even have to press Enter. The Type 'n Speak sets the new time and announces it. When the new time is announced, you're immediately back in your currently open file wherever you had left off in that file. Hourly Announcement of Time The Type 'n Speak doesn't have to be turned on in order for its clock to announce the hour, just as your talking clock does. Here's how it works. To set the time to be announced hourly, starting from within your currently open file, you must first bring up the Status menu with F10, and then jump directly to the setting by typing an h. By default, the Hourly Announcement setting is off. The other three options are: Bell only, Voice only, or Bell and Voice. You can cycle among the four choices by pressing the spacebar until you hear the one you want. Or, jump directly to an option by typing one of the following: ? Bell only - 1. ? Voice only - 2. ? Bell and Voice - 3. ? Off - n. Once you've selected an option, exit the Status menu with Esc. From now on, when the hour changes, the Type 'n Speak turns itself on and announces the hour. Setting the Alarm The Type 'n Speak doesn't have to be turned on in order for its clock to act just as your alarm clock does. Here's how it works. To set the alarm from within your currently open file, you must bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. At the "Option" prompt, type the letters sa. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter alarm time, hhmm." Now, type a four-digit number representing when you want to be alerted. So for example, to set the alarm to go off at noon, you type 1200. Once the Type 'n Speak sees a valid time, it immediately asks you for a.m. or p.m. Here, type a p because we want to have the alarm go off at noon, not midnight. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter alarm date, mmddyy." Pressing Enter at this point sets the alarm just for today. But if you want the alarm to go off on another day, you must type the six- digit number representing that date - for example, 123199. Once you provide a valid date, the Type 'n Speak confirms with "Okay," and leaves you back in your currently open file. If you forget how you've set the alarm, you can check it from anywhere in your currently open file. Just bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. Then type a y. The Type 'n Speak announces the current time and date setting of the alarm and leaves you back in your currently open file. Setting the Alarm to Sound More than Once You can use a wildcard to make the alarm sound repeatedly - for example, every day at lunchtime, or today, every half hour. Here's how it works. To set the alarm to go off more than once, starting from your currently open file, bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. At the prompt, "Option," type the letters sa as if you were going to set the alarm. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter alarm time, hhmm." If you use an x as any part of your four-digit response, you're setting the alarm with a wildcard. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter a for a.m. or p for p.m." After you type either an a or a p, the Type 'n Speak prompts you for a date with, "Enter alarm date, mmddyy." Here again, if you use an x as part of your six-digit response, you're setting the alarm date with a wildcard. You don't need to press Enter for any part of this procedure. Once the Type 'n Speak sees a time and date with valid wildcard patterns, it confirms with, "Okay," and leaves you back in your currently open file. Let's use an example. Suppose you want the alarm to go off every day at lunchtime. Go to the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o, and type sa. At the prompt, "Enter alarm time, hhmm," type something like 1230. At the prompt, "A.m. or p.m.?" type a p. Now you're prompted with, "Enter a date, mmddyy." Type "xxxxxx". From now on, the Type 'n Speak will let you know when it's lunch time every day. The Calendar The Type 'n Speak's calendar keeps pace with its clock as each new day arrives. So today's date must be set correctly for the calendar to stay accurate. The calendar has some great features. Besides checking today's date, you can: ? Check on what day of the week a certain date falls. ? Move backward a number of days to see what a particular date was, or go forward a number of days to see what a date is going to be. ? Insert a particular date in your personal calendar. ? Jump to your personal calendar from your currently open file. ? Set the Type 'n Speak to remind you when important dates arrive. Checking Today's Date To check today's date, simply press F5. The Type 'n Speak says something like, "Saturday, July 4, 1998," and leaves you back in your currently open file, wherever you had left off in that file. Setting Today's Date Although today's date should be set correctly by default, this is not always so. In any event, here's how to set today's date. To set today's date, bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. At the prompt, "Option," type the letters sd. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter date, mmddyy." Type today's date as a six-digit number - something like 070498. You don't even have to press Enter. Once you've entered a valid date, the Type 'n Speak says something like, "Saturday, July 4, 1998," and you're back in the currently open file, wherever you had left off. From now on, the Type 'n Speak will count forward based on the current time, and change dates as the clock cycles through each 24-hour period. Note about the year 2000: The six-digit number for the date is composed of the month, the day of the month, and the year - each in two-digit form. If the year portion of the six-digit number you enter falls between 89 and 99, the Type 'n Speak assumes the 20th century. However, if the year portion of the six-digit number you enter for a date falls between 00 and 88, the Type 'n Speak assumes the 21st century. So for example, setting the date as 070498 yields the correct calendar date of July 4, 1998. But setting the date as 070488 would yield a date of July 4, 2088. Getting a Date from the Calendar The Type 'n Speak can calculate on what day a certain date fell, or will fall. This is useful, for example, when you're planning on what day to leave for vacation or checking on what day your last dental appointment took place. To get a date from the calendar, press Shift+F5. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter number of days, or a date, mmddyyyy." Depending on what you type, the Type 'n Speak responds differently. Here are the possibilities: ? To hear how many days there are between the beginning of the year and today, press Enter. So if today is July 4, 1998, you hear, "Day number 185." ? To hear the day on which a certain date falls, type a six- digit number and press enter. So if you type, 010198, you hear, "Thursday, January 1, 1998." ? To hear a date a certain number of days from today, type the number of days and press Enter. So if today is July 4, 1998 and you type a 6, you hear, "Friday, July 10, 1998." Placing a minus before the number makes the Type 'n Speak count backward from today. Inserting a Date and Time into a File You can insert a date (including the day of the week on which it falls), and the current time, into your currently open file. This may be useful, for example, if you have to keep track of messages for other people. If you have Interactive mode turned on when you insert a date or time into your file, you hear what it is being inserted. But whether Interactive mode is on or off, the Type 'n Speak leaves you at the beginning of the inserted information. To insert a date, even today's date, or the current time into your currently open file, you must first move your cursor to the place where you want the information to appear in your file. Then press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Paste what?" and waits for you to make a choice. There are several choices you can make at this point, but we'll just concentrate on the clock and calendar choices here: ? To insert today's date, type a d. ? To insert the current time, type a t. ? To insert any date, type a g. Then type either a number representing a certain number of days (preceded by a minus sign if going backwards in time), or an eight-digit number representing a specific date. Let's take a couple of examples. Suppose you want to insert the date July 4, 1998 into your file. Move your cursor to the place where you want the date to appear in your file, and press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Paste what?" Type a g. At the prompt, "Enter a number of days or a date, mmddyyyy," type 07041998 and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak immediately inserts the information into your file and says, "Okay." If Interactive mode is turned on, it also says, "Saturday, July 4, 1998." In either case, your cursor is now on the s of Saturday. Now suppose you want to insert the date for a week ago today. Move your cursor to where you want the date to appear in your file and press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Paste what?" Type a g. When you hear the prompt, "Enter a number of days or a date, mmddyyyy," type -7 and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak counts backwards seven days from today and inserts that date into your file. Finding a Date in Your Currently Open File If you have inserted several dates into your file and need to find a particular one, here's a quick way to find it. To find a date previously inserted into your currently open file, starting from any-where within your file, press F2. At the prompt, "Enter text to find," press Alt+g. Now, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter number of days or a date, mmddyyyy." Type a date you know to be in your file - like 07041998 - or type a number of days, like 7 for the date a week from today. Then, press F2 to search forward or Up-arrow to search backward through the file. If the date is found, the Type 'n Speak says it, and places your cursor on the first character of the day (like the s of Saturday). Otherwise, it says, "Not found" and leaves you where you began your search. Adding a Calendar Entry The Type 'n Speak comes with a "calendar" file ready to be filled with your personal schedule. You can review its contents as you can any other file. But you can also jump directly to the calendar to add an entry from anywhere within your currently open file. Here's how it works. To add a new entry in your calendar, starting from anywhere in your currently open file, you must bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. At the prompt, "Option," type an e. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Add calendar entry, enter number of days or a date, mmddyyyy." Type either a number representing a number of days - like three days ago - or type an eight-digit number, like 07041998, and press Enter. Now the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter event text." You can type in any information about this date that's important to you - like, picnic at 3 p.m. Once you've typed the information, press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," and leaves you back in your currently open file. To add multiple events for a single calendar entry, just press Ctrl+m between each event you want to add. Then, press Enter to complete the entire entry. If you want to add another event later for the same calendar entry, simply repeat the process, starting with F9 or Alt+o followed by e, for all the events you want to add. In other words, if you enter the same date repeatedly, each event you add is inserted within the same calendar entry. But, be aware that each new event you add is inserted ahead of any previous ones already noted for the entry. So for example, if you enter a second event for July 4, 1998, the calendar entry for this date reads: "Saturday July 4, 1998. Fireworks at 8. Picnic at 3." If you want to view the contents of the calendar file, you can simply bring up the Options menu and open it by its number, 02. Or, find it in your files list through the Files menu. (For a full discussion of opening files, review Chapter 7.) Once in the calendar file, you can view its contents and edit it just as you would any other file. What makes this file special is that the Type 'n Speak uses it to alert you about important dates. Calendar Alert You can set the Type 'n Speak to remind you of important dates you've written into your calendar. This feature, called Calendar Alert, can be activated or deactivated through the Status menu. When Calendar Alert is activated, the Type 'n Speak looks to see if today is in your calendar. If it is, the Type 'n Speak reminds you. Here's how it works. To set an example, let's add an entry to the calendar using today as the date. We'll start from the "practice" file. So, bring up that file now (if you're not already in it). From anywhere within your "practice" file, bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. At the prompt, "Option," type an e for calendar entry. The Type 'n Speak says, "Add a calendar entry; enter a number of days or a date, mmddyyyy." Type today's date - in our example, 07041998. Then press Enter. Now the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter event text." Type something like, "Picnic at 3 p.m." Then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," and leaves you back in your currently open file, "practice." To activate Calendar Alert, which is off by default, you must bring up the Status menu with F10. Then jump directly to the setting by typing a j. By default, the Calendar Check setting is turned off. To activate Calendar Check, type a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc and turn off the Type 'n Speak. Now turn on the Type 'n Speak again, and listen carefully to what it says. You should hear something like, "Type 'n Speak ready, Calendar Alert. Do you want to open the calendar? Enter y or n." The Type 'n Speak doesn't let you do anything else until you answer this prompt. If you answer with an n, you're left in your currently open file. But if you answer with a y, the Type 'n Speak says today's date and places you at that point in the calendar. Check your current line. You'll see that it is right on today's date, with the following line containing the event you wanted to be reminded about today. Every time you turn on the Type 'n Speak today, you have to answer this Calendar Alert prompt. The Type 'n Speak isn't smart enough to know that you've already checked the calendar once today. Besides, you just might want to check it again later in the day to make sure you covered everything on your agenda. On the other hand, if you start the Type 'n Speak silently - that is, if you press the spacebar manually as you turn on the unit, Calendar Alert is bypassed entirely. Calendar Alert can be annoying if you have something in your calendar for today and you're constantly turning the unit on and off. But even if you choose to keep Calendar Alert turned off, you can still check whether today is in your calendar. To check if today is in your calendar from anywhere within your currently open file, you must bring up the Options menu with F9 or Alt+o. Then type an a. The Type 'n Speak looks in your calendar for today. If it is, you hear, "Calendar Alert," followed by today's date. Press Down-arrows to read what you scheduled for today. Information About Your Files The Type 'n Speak stamps your files with the date and time they were last modified. This can be important, for example, if you want to replace a file with new content, or delete it altogether. In addition, you can check for all kinds of information about your files. To see information about a file, you must first bring up the Files menu with F1. Then you can either point to the file you want to check by using Up-arrows and Down-arrows until you hear its name, and then perform a command to hear about that file. Or, you can perform a command to hear about a file you're not pointing to, or a group of files. Here are the types of information you can check about files: ? To hear complete information about the file being pointed to, press F8 or Alt+i. ? To hear complete information about a file or group of files, press Shift+F8 or i. ? To hear only time and date information about the file being pointed to, press F6 or Alt+m. ? To hear only time and date information about a file or group of files, press Shift+F6 or m. ? To hear the size of the file being pointed to, press F7 or Alt+colon. ? To hear the size of a file or group of files, press Shift+F7 or Colon. Let's take a couple of examples. We'll first use the Help file as our sample file. Then we'll talk about a group of files with similar names. Example 1: Starting from your currently open file, which we'll say is the "practice" file, bring up the Files menu with F1. At the prompt, "Enter file command," find the Help file by pressing Up-arrow until you hear its name. Now let's find out the complete information available about this file. Press F8. The Type 'n Speak should say something like, "Help 6 pages; date 6/30/98; time 15:35; 23,905 bytes; file is write- protected; enter file command." As you can see, you get very complete information about the file this way. In addition, if the file were a Braille file - that is, a file in Grade 2 Braille with Braille translation on - you would also hear that information. Example 2: Now let's suppose you have a group of files with names such as, "letter.txt," "school.txt," and "junk.txt," for which you want information. You can use a wildcard pattern to get information about each file in the group. (For a full discussion of wildcard characters in filenames, see "Listing a Group of Files with Similar Names" in Chapter 7.) Starting from your currently open file (say, "practice"), bring up the Files menu with F1. At The prompt, "Enter file command," type an i. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename." You can now either type the name of a file, or use a wildcard pattern for a group of files with similar names. In our example of several files all ending in the ".txt" extension, let's type "*.txt" and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak starts naming each file that matches the wildcard pattern along with all relevant information about each file. When you're finished hearing information about your files, exit the Files menu with Esc to return to your currently open file. As mentioned above, you don't have to get complete information about a file. Sometimes all you want to hear is the time and date the file was last modified. Or you may simply need to know the size of the file. You can use the commands listed above just as you do the ones for getting complete file information. Summary This chapter has covered all the features related to the Type 'n Speak's built-in clock and calendar. As we have seen, the clock is just like your talking alarm clock because it can do everything from announce the current time, using either the American or European style, to announcing the time on the hour, to announcing when it's lunchtime every day. Also, the calendar can do everything from telling today's date, to reminding you about the appointments in your datebook. All of these functions are helpful in day-to-day activities. Next, let's explore more of the Type 'n Speak's built-in time tools. CHAPTER 10: The Stopwatch and the Timer Introduction The stopwatch and the timer work hand-in-hand on the Type 'n Speak. The stop-watch is a choice from the Options menu that lets you time an event. Interestingly, a stopwatch is, in effect, the opposite of a timer. While a stopwatch times how long an event lasts, a timer counts how long you want an event to last. In this chapter, we'll discuss the functions of the stopwatch; then, functions of the timer. Finally, we'll detail how to insert the time being reported by the stopwatch into your currently open file - a nice feature for logging stopwatch activities. The Stopwatch The Type 'n Speak's stopwatch lets you time how long an event lasts. Here's how: To bring up the stopwatch from within your currently open file, you simply press Shift+F4. The Type 'n Speak says, "Stopwatch ready." When you're in stopwatch mode, you can perform only stopwatch tasks. To return to your currently open file, you must exit Stopwatch mode with Esc. In the following sections on stopwatch functions, we'll assume you're already in Stopwatch mode. Starting and Stopping the Stopwatch To run the stopwatch, from the prompt, "Stopwatch ready," press Right-arrow. To stop it, simply press Right-arrow again. The Type 'n Speak says a time interval followed by the word "stopped" - something like, "25 seconds, stopped." After a few seconds, press Right-arrow again. You hear, "Running," again. As you continue to start and stop the stopwatch by pressing Right-arrow repeatedly, you'll hear increasingly longer time intervals. This is because the stopwatch has not been reset. It's counting forward from the point where you last stopped it. So, for example, run the stopwatch, stop it after 10 seconds, wait a minute, and then run it for another 10 seconds. The next time you stop it, it will report a time interval of 20 seconds. Reading Elapsed Time It can be useful to observe the passage of time - for example, to time the length of a song or to find out how long the personal greeting is on your answering machine. To check how much time has elapsed since you started running the stopwatch, you can simply press the spacebar. As you continue to press the spacebar, the Type 'n Speak announces a new time. So, you'll be observing the passage of time. Each time you press the spacebar, the stopwatch announces the time at that instant. Once you stop the stopwatch with Right- arrow, you can press the spacebar again to check how long the event was. For instance, start running the stopwatch at the beginning of a song, stop the stopwatch and press the spacebar when the song ends, and you can hear how long the song is. If you miss what the stopwatch said as you're timing an event, and need to hear it repeated, press a c. Pressing c repeatedly, even with the stopwatch running, makes the Type 'n Speak announce the time last spoken when you pressed the spacebar. Stopping and Resetting the Stopwatch Pressing Right-arrow starts the stopwatch and stops it without resetting the time to zero. But, you often want to reset the time to start counting from zero again. So, to reset the stopwatch to zero, press Left-arrow. You'll hear the time that has elapsed since you started the stopwatch, followed by the words "Stopped reset." By the way, the stopwatch can run even when the Type 'n Speak is off. If you leave the stopwatch running, the stopwatch resumes running when you next turn on the unit. The stopwatch has a capacity of 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59.9 seconds. The Timer In a sense, the countdown timer is similar to an alarm clock or kitchen timer. Once you start the countdown timer, you can cancel it - but you cannot put it on hold. In order to use the timer, you must be in Stopwatch mode. To bring up Stopwatch mode, from anywhere within your currently open file, simply press Shift+F4. The Type 'n Speak says, "Stopwatch ready." At this point, you can only perform stopwatch functions. To return to your currently open file, press Esc. To start the countdown timer, press the number sign (Shift+3). The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter countdown minutes." At this point, type the number of minutes you want to time - for example, 2 for two minutes - and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak now says, "Enter countdown seconds." So type the number of seconds (if any) you want to time - for example, 15 - and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak should say, "Counting." Now just sit back and wait. After one minute and 15 seconds, the Type 'n Speak says "One minute." If you continue to wait, at the end of two minutes fifteen seconds, the Type 'n Speak says, "Time is up, stopwatch ready." Finding Out the Time Remaining Let's see how to check the time left to count down on the timer. Using our example above, press the number-sign and set the timer to count down 2 minutes, 15 seconds again. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Counting," wait a few seconds and press the spacebar. The Type 'n Speak might say something like, "Zero minutes 30 seconds remaining." Pressing the spacebar repeatedly tells you how much time remains to be counted down. Timing in the Background If you are timing an event, you may have better things to do than pressing the spacebar every so often to see how much time remains to be counted down. As long as the Type 'n Speak stays on, you can time an event in the background while you type or read text and perform other activities. To do this, just end your countdown request by pressing Enter, then Esc. Here's an example. Set your count-down timer to 1 minute, 20 seconds. When you have written the 20, press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Counting." Then press Esc. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," and leaves you back in the file you had open wherever you had left off in that file before you brought up the Timer. Even if you're just reading in a long file, at the end of the minute and 20 seconds, the Type 'n Speak will stop reading and say, "Time is up." But it won't say, "Stopwatch ready" as it did when you were in the Stopwatch mode. You're still at the place in your file where the timer interrupted to let you know time was up. If you want to check out how much time is left, just press F9 followed by the number-sign (Shift+3). The Type 'n Speak tells you the time remaining to be counted down or says, "Stopped," if time is already up. Inserting Stopwatch Information into a File In case you ever need to log an event as the stopwatch is timing it or counting it down, you can insert the current time reported by the stopwatch into your currently open file. The time being reported can, of course, refer to elapsed time if you're running the stopwatch, or to the time remaining to be counted down if you're running the countdown timer. Here's how it works. Bring up the stopwatch with Shift+F4 in the usual way. Then start running it to time an event or start the countdown timer. Leave Stopwatch mode by pressing Esc to return to your currently open file. You may continue working in your file as you normally would. When you're ready to insert the current time being reported by the stopwatch, just bring your cursor to the place in your file where you want to insert that data. Then press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Paste what?" Press the number-sign (Shift+3). Immediately, the Type 'n Speak reports the time on the stopwatch, and inserts it into your file. For example, it might insert something like, "0:00:10.0," meaning no hours, no minutes, ten seconds, and zero tenths of a second. Summary This chapter has discussed all the functions of both the stopwatch and the timer. The functions of the stopwatch help you time an event, while the functions of the timer help you control how long an event lasts. Both tools are especially useful to log the time being reported by the stopwatch or the timer. CHAPTER 11: The Calculator Introduction The Type 'n Speak's calculator is scientific! This powerful built-in calculator does much more than a standard calculator. Aside from performing the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, this calculator can perform algebraic expressions, trigonometric functions, etc. In addition, it can store calculation results in its 26 memory locations. This makes it easier to work with complicated computations. This chapter covers all the functions of the calculator. These functions include all the basic operations you would expect (like adding and subtracting), as well as the complex functions performed in higher math and science. We'll provide examples along the way and try to keep the technical aspects as simple as possible. Basic Operations The calculator can perform all the basic arithmetic operations. These include: ? addition + ? subtraction - ? multiplication * ? division / ? percent % ? square root - F1 To bring up Calculator mode, you simply press F3. The Type 'n Speak says, "Calculator ready." While in the calculator, you can perform only calculator functions. When finished, press Esc to return to your currently open file, wherever you had left off. To perform any computation with the calculator, type an expression including all appropriate operator symbols (like a plus sign, for example). Make sure not to include spaces, as you might on paper. As you type the expression, the Type 'n Speak announces the operator - like "plus" or "divided by" - before you type another number. To hear the result, press Enter. Let's take a couple of examples. We'll assume you're in Calculator mode. Type 2+2, and then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak responds, "Four," or "Four period." The response varies with how your speech parameters for punctuation announcement are set. To compute something else, you usually don't have to clear the calculator. The Type 'n Speak assumes that you're starting a new computation when you enter a number after pressing Enter for a result. (For example, type 375-157, and then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "218.") But, you must clear the calculator when working with negative numbers, because if you don't, your calculations are cumulative. To clear the calculator for another computation, press F3. The Type 'n Speak says, "Clear." To hear the last result repeated or verify the computation you've written thus far, press Shift+Up-arrow. Changing Precision So far, our sample calculations have come out even. There have been no remainders. But, divide 100 by 14, and the response will vary according to the number of decimal places to which your calculator is set. (This is referred to as the precision of the calculator.) Usually, two decimal places are enough, since that's all you need for currency. But occasionally, you'll want a more precise response. To change the decimal precision on the calculator, from within calculator mode, press F5. The Type 'n Speak prompts, "Enter precision." Type a number from one to 12 - say, three - and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay." Let's use an example while precision is set to three decimal places. Type 100/14, and press Enter. You should hear, "7.142." Although you can set the calculator to a maximum precision of 12 decimal places, the calculator, like any calculator, drops zeroes at the end of a result. For example, if you divide 300,000 by 1,190 and you have precision set to two, you get 252.1 as a result. If you set the precision to three, you still get 252.1. When you increase precision to four, you discover that your result is 252.1008. The second and third decimal places were zero, and were not spoken when precision was set to just three decimal places. Switching Between Fraction and Decimal Mode The calculator can provide results as fractions or decimals. You can change which way you hear results on the fly. Here's how. To switch between fraction and decimal mode, starting from within Calculator mode, press Alt+Slash. By default, the calculator is set to decimal mode. So the first time you press this keystroke, the Type 'n Speak says, "Fraction mode." As long as you remain in Calculator mode, when your computation results in a number that's not an integer, you'll hear the result announced as a fraction. To switch back to decimal mode, just press Alt+slash again or exit Calculator mode. Let's take an example. Compute 3/2. By default, the Type 'n Speak says the answer as "1.5." Now switch to fraction mode with Alt+Slash and press Enter again. The Type 'n Speak now reports the result as, "One, and one divided by two." To switch back to decimal mode, just press Alt+Slash again. You can switch back and forth between fraction and decimal mode at will, as long as you stay in Calculator mode. Exiting Calculator mode or turning off the Type 'n Speak reverts the calculator to decimal mode the next time you use it. Using the Embedded Number Pad If you perform a lot of calculations and are used to a calculator's number pad, you may want to use the Type 'n Speak this way. It's a little tricky to get used to at first. But, you may find it handy when all you're doing is computing one result after another. Here's how it works. To turn on the embedded number pad, starting from within Calculator mode, press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "NumLock on." Now, as long as you stay in Calculator mode, part of your Type 'n Speak keyboard acts like a number pad as follows: ? Number row 7 - 7. ? Number row 8 - 8. ? Number row 9 - 9. ? Number row 0 - * (times). ? Letter u - 4. ? Letter i - 5. ? Letter o - 6. ? Letter p - - (minus). ? Letter j - 1. ? Letter k - 2. ? Letter l - 3. ? Semicolon - + (plus). ? Letter m - 0 (and Clear). ? Period - . (point). ? Slash - / (slash). ? Percent - % (Shift+Number row 5). To turn off the embedded number pad, just press NumLock again or exit the calculator. You can switch back and forth between using or not using the embedded number pad at will, as long as you stay in Calculator mode. Exiting Calculator mode, or turning off your unit, turns off the embedded number pad. Inserting Calculation Results into a File To insert the result of a computation into the text of your currently open file, bring up Calculator mode and perform your calculation. Then exit the calculator with Esc. At this point, place your cursor where you want the result to appear in your file. Then press NumLock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Paste what?" Type a c for Clipboard and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak remembers that you just computed something and instantly inserts it into your open file, leaving your cursor where it was before you inserted the calculation result. Computing an Expression From Within a File If you have mathematical expressions written in a file for which you need the results, you don't have to type those expressions over again from within Calculator mode. Here's how it works. Move your cursor to a new line in your currently open file by pressing Enter at the point where you want the expression to be. Then type the expression. To hear the result of the expression, press F9 or Alt+o followed by a k. The result is not automatically inserted into your file at the end of the expression you typed, but you can paste the result there by pressing NumLock, followed by a c, and Enter. Performing Percentage Calculations Many people find dealing with percents baffling, to say the least. Nevertheless, we provide a couple of examples here for your convenience. Bring up Calculator mode with F3, if you're not already in it. To determine what percent one number is of another, first type the value of the percentage, then type the percent sign, and finally, the number whose percentage you want to calculate. As usual, finish by pressing Enter. For example, to find 50 percent of 26, type 50%26, followed by Enter (remembering not to put spaces between parts of the expression). You hear, "13." Make sense? Fifty percent of something is half of it; 13 is half of 26. A real practical example involves calculating sales tax. Let's say an item you want to buy costs $24.95. To compute the sales tax, type, "24.95%5" (if tax is five percent in your state) and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "1.25." So, the sales tax on this purchase is $1.25. Storing and Using the Memory Locations The Type 'n Speak calculator has 26 memory locations where you can store results of computations. These memory locations are labeled 'a' through 'z.' One special memory location, 'r,' always stores your last result. All the others store and save results, even after you exit Calculator mode and turn off the Type 'n Speak. You can store a number in a memory location in two ways: 1. Type an arithmetic expression and press Enter to compute its result. Then press F4. The Type 'n Speak says, "Store." Type the letter of the memory location where you want to put it - such as, a. The Type 'n Speak confirms, "Okay." 2. Start with a cleared calculator: press F3. Type a number followed by Enter. Then press F4, and by the letter of the memory location where you want it stored. To read the contents of any memory location, simply type the letter of that location followed by Enter. If you have stored a number in a memory location, you can use that number within a calculation. Type the letter of the memory location where you stored the number as part of the expression to be calculated. Let's take an example. Type 3-2 and press Enter. At the response, "One," press F4 followed by the letter a to store the result in memory location 'a.' Then type 3-1 followed by Enter. At the response, "Two," press F4 followed by the letter b to store this result in memory location 'b.' So, now you have numbers stored in memory locations 'a' and 'b.' Type a+b followed by Enter. The Type 'n Speak looks up the number stored in each memory location and calculates, "Three." You were able to add the numbers using only the letter labels of the memory locations. As we said earlier, 'r' is a special memory location. The most recent result you got from pressing Enter is always stored in 'r.' You can use the number stored in 'r' just as you use the other locations labeled 'a' through 'z.' With a bit of practice, you can use the memory locations to store long numbers, or important ones (like the amount of your paycheck, so you can track how it's dwindling as you go through the week). Extracting a Square Root No, not nearly as painful as a root canal! To extract the square root of a number, type the number whose square root you want, then press F1. You don't have to press Enter for the result. Here is an example. Type "25" followed by F1. The Type 'n Speak immediately says, "Five." Complex Functions The Type 'n Speak has built-in capabilities for performing algebraic, trigonometric, and even statistical functions. Basically, these functions have names like "sin" for the sine function, and arguments that you provide within parentheses, separated by commas. For your convenience, we'll go through a few examples of how to enter functions correctly into the calculator. But for a complete listing, refer to the Help file or to Appendix B, the Quick Reference guide. In the following examples, we'll assume you're familiar with the terms "function," "argument," etc. This section may not be for you if your head starts spinning at words like "exponent" and "sine of pi radians." But, if you enjoy tinkering with higher math, these few examples should be enough to whet your appetite. We'll assume you're already in Calculator mode. 1. Find the average of three numbers. Type avg(3,5,7) and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak should respond, "Five." Easy enough. 2. Calculate the sine of 90 degrees or pi/2 radians. Type sin(90) and press Enter. You should hear the correct answer, "One." By the way, the calculator's default is in degrees. To switch to radians, simply press Alt+r. The Type 'n Speak says, "Radians." Now type sin(pi/2) and press Enter. Not surprisingly, you also get a response of "One," since the calculator computed pi/2 and then its sine in radians. To return to degrees, press Alt+d. 3. Calculate the value of e. First let's reset precision to something like five to get a better computation. Press F5. At the prompt, "Set precision," type a 5 followed by Enter. Now type exp(1) followed by Enter. You should hear, "2.71828." Sound right? Yes, e is somewhere around that. 4. Calculate the median of a group of numbers. Type median(5,6,7,8) followed by Enter. The Type 'n Speak answers, "6.5." 5. Add like functions together - for example, sin(90) + sin (45). By now you're either on your way - or totally at sea. If you find you're having problems calculating some of these complex functions (like certain trigonometric functions), call us for help. Error Messages and Tips Here are some helpful hints about using the calculator along with the types of error messages you typically get from pressing an invalid keystroke when performing a computation. If you set the calculator an impossible task, such as dividing 17 by zero, the Type 'n Speak rejects the expression with, "Error, division by zero." If you press an incorrect key for a result instead of Enter, the Type 'n Speak says, "Not valid calculator command." You can use the backspace key to make corrections. For example, if you want to add .5 and .5 but type .4 as your second entry, press a backspace to erase the 4 and then type the 5. Then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak responds to your corrected entry with, "One." If you haven't pressed Enter yet, you can hear the expression you have typed thus far by pressing Shift+Up-arrow. Once you press Enter, however, pressing Shift+Up-arrow does nothing. Finally, pressing F2 toggles the voice between announcing numbers as digits or full numbers. However, this command affects only how numbers are spoken by the calculator, not how numbers are spoken in your files. Summary This chapter has covered all the features of the calculator. These features range from the very basic arithmetic operations to the highly complex algebraic and scientific functions. However you use it, you'll find the calculator very handy. CHAPTER 12: The Phonebook Introduction The Type 'n Speak has a built-in tool to create a phonebook that you can reference from within any currently open file. In fact, you can have several phone books - say, one for business, one for family - on your Type 'n Speak at the same time. This chapter discusses all the things you can do with the Type 'n Speak's phone-book tool. First, we'll detail how to create your first phonebook, and work with the fields already built into it for your convenience. Then, we'll explore how to enter your personal data into the phonebook. Finally, we'll talk about how you can customize its field names - and even create additional phone books. If you already have an "address" file, like the one we've used in other sections of this manual for practice, you may be able to use it as your phonebook. If you don't have such a file already, you'll find that having one will add even more flexibility to what you can do with your Type 'n Speak. Creating Your First Phonebook The Type 'n Speak creates a file called "phone" for you the first time you bring up the phonebook tool. In addition, the phonebook tool provides built-in field names for you to use. Here's how it works. To create your first phone file, starting from within your currently open file, press F9 or Alt+o to bring up the Options menu. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Option," type a p for phonebook. Since this is the first time you're bringing it up, the Type 'n Speak creates a file called "phone" for you. So it says, "Phonebook, enter name." This means that the Type 'n Speak is now awaiting your first entry. If you don't want to enter anything at this time, you may return to your currently open file with Esc. If you do want to enter data into the phonebook, you can proceed to do so. In either case, the file called "phone" now exists in your files list ready for you to use at any time. All you have to do to enter data into it is to bring it up again with F9, p. Entering Data into the Phonebook When you want to enter data into a phone file, you just bring it up from within your currently open file by pressing F9, p. The Type 'n Speak has quite a number of built-in fields that you can use to enter information about each person. You can move forward through the fields by pressing Enter. You can skip over fields which you don't want to use. The only exception is the Name field. If you skip it, and press Enter to move to the next field, the Type 'n Speak will jump to the last field, Comments. Pressing Enter on Comments returns you to your currently open file. The next time you bring up the phonebook, the Type 'n Speak will once again prompt you for a name. As you type data into each field, you can backspace to correct a mistake. You can also have the Type 'n Speak repeat the data you just typed by pressing Shift+Up-arrow. But, you cannot press any other editing keys to correct errors while you're entering data using the phonebook. The default field names for the phonebook are as follows: ? Name ? Title ? Company ? Address ? Address 2 ? City ? State ? Zip Code ? Home Phone ? Work Phone ? Pager ? Cell Phone ? Fax ? E-Mail ? Web Address ? Comments As you move through each field, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter" before each field name. For example, it says, "Enter name," Enter title," etc. In addition, you can jump directly to certain fields as follows: ? To jump to the Home Phone field, press Alt+p. ? To jump to the E-Mail field, press Alt+m. ? To jump to the Comments field, press Alt+f. When you reach the Comments field, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter Comments; press e-chord when done. Comment." "E-chord" refers generically to Blazie notetakers that use Braille instead of typing keys. On the Type 'n Speak, "e-chord" means "Enter." Enter single or multiple comments, each on its own line. When you press Enter at the end of each comment line, the Type 'n Speak repeats, "Comment." Once you're done, press Enter twice - once to end the current line, and then again to leave the Comment field altogether. In fact, you can leave Comment empty by pressing Enter twice without typing any text into it at all. In either case, when you leave the Comment field, you're returned to your currently open file. Looking Up an Entry in your Phonebook If you need to look up information about someone in your phonebook, you can do so directly from within your currently open file. Here's how it works. To find an entry in your phonebook, from anywhere within your currently open file, press F9 or Alt+o, followed by Alt+p. The Type 'n Speak says, "Phone is open." Since the Type 'n Speak treats this file as it does any other file, your cursor is wherever you last read within the "phone" file. Here's how to navigate through a phone file: ? To move forward an entry, press PgDn. ? To move backward an entry, press PgUp. ? To move to the first entry, press Home. ? To move to the last entry, press End. ? To move to the next field within the current entry, press Down-arrow. ? To move to the previous field within the current entry, press Up-arrow. ? To hear the current field repeated, press Shift+Up-arrow. All the other navigation keys you usually use to move around in your files work in the "phone" file. So you can move by individual words and characters, have a word spelled, etc., just as you can with any other file. In fact, you can even perform a search as you normally do by pressing F2 and so forth. (For a full discussion of how to navigate through your currently open file, see Chapter 3.) When you're finished looking up a phonebook entry, you can return to your previously open file by pressing F9 or Alt+o, followed by l. Editing Phonebook Entries While you're typing data into a field using the phonebook, you cannot edit an entry other than to backspace through the current field to correct a mistake. But, you can edit entries by bringing up the file called "phone," just as you do when you simply want to look up an entry in the phonebook. Here's how it works. To edit a phonebook entry, you must first bring up the "phone" file by pressing F9 or Alt+o, followed by Alt+p. The Type 'n Speak says, "Phone is open." As we discussed in the last section, you can now move from entry to entry, or field to field, within the "phone" file, just as you can through any other file. In addition, all your usual editing features are available while you're in the "phone" file. So you can insert, overwrite, and delete any information that's in the file. You can insert text within a field, add additional fields, or even whole entries. You can overwrite portions of existing fields using your Overwrite capabilities, or by turning on PC Edit mode (if it's not already active). And you can delete text within a field, individual fields, whole entries, or even the entire contents of the file. Since the Type 'n Speak treats each field as a line, you delete the current field by deleting the current line. And since the Type 'n Speak treats each entry as a paragraph, you delete the current entry by deleting the current paragraph. Logical, eh? Once you're through editing phonebook entries, you can flip back to your previously open file by pressing F9 or Alt+o, followed by an l. Customizing the Phonebook You can tailor the fields in the phonebook to your personal needs. In fact, you can even create more than one phonebook file. And as a backup, you can return the phonebook fields back to their default settings. All of these features are handled through the phonebook's configuration menu. To bring up the phonebook's configuration menu, starting from within your currently open file, press F9 or Alt+o, followed by a p as you normally do to add a new phonebook entry. But when the Type 'n Speak says, "Phonebook, enter Name," press Alt+o. Here, the Type 'n Speak says, "Phone is the active file. Set up field names." This is the first choice of the phonebook's configuration menu. There are three choices: ? Set up field names: Lets you customize which of the default built-in fields are used by the phonebook when you are adding an entry into a phonebook file. ? Select phone file: Lets you create multiple phonebook files, as well as select the one you want to activate at any given time. ? Re-initialize phonebook: Lets you return the phonebook to its original field names, and the settings for each field. You can cycle through the menu choices with Up-/Down-arrows as you would through any Type 'n Speak menu. Once you're on the choice you want, select it by pressing Enter, or you can cancel the whole procedure by pressing Esc. Let's examine each menu choice separately. Using the Personal or Business Phonebook You can enter data into the phonebook using business or personal field names. If you're using business field names, your entries probably include information about people's titles, the name of their companies, fax numbers, and so on. But if you're using personal field names, you might want only people's names, their home addresses, home phone and work phone numbers. So the Type 'n Speak lets you choose from either type of phonebook - or create a mixture of the two. Here's how it works. To choose what type of field names to use with the phonebook, you need to bring up the phonebook's configuration menu with F9 or Alt+o, followed by a p, and then Alt+o. The Type 'n Speak says, "Phone is the active file; Set Up Field Names." To bring up the Set up Field Names option, press Enter. By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "Phonebook field settings; title is on." At this point, you have three choices: ? To use the personal phonebook, type a p. The Type 'n Speak says, "Personal options set; title is off." ? To use the business phonebook, type a b. The Type 'n Speak says, "Business option set: title is on." ? To turn on all the fields, type a z. The Type 'n Speak says, "All fields marked; title is on." Once you've chosen one an option, you can customize the fields even further by turning them on or off. To move through the fields, press Up-/Down-arrows. When you're on one you want to change, just press the spacebar to flip to its opposite setting. The Type 'n Speak confirms the change by repeating the field name as it is now set. So, for example, suppose you want to use the personal field names option, but you also want to include the names of the companies people work for, and their cell phone numbers, as well as their home and work numbers. When you hear the Set Up Field Names option, press Enter and type a p to use the personal field names option. Then move down to Company and press a spacebar. The Type 'n Speak says, "Company is on." You can now move through the other fields; activate or deactivate the ones you want. This means that whenever you bring up the phonebook to add an entry, the Type 'n Speak only prompts you for those fields you activated. When you're finished marking the fields you want to use, press Esc to return to the phonebook's configuration menu, and another Esc if you want to return to the point where you can add an entry. When you press the second Esc, the Type 'n Speak says, "Exiting phonebook; enter name?" If you don't want to add an entry at this time, press Esc again to return to your currently open file. Creating Multiple Phone Books The Type 'n Speak phonebook lets you have multiple phone files. By default, the first time you bring up the phonebook, the Type 'n Speak creates a file called "phone." But you can use existing files that contain this type of information as long as the information is arranged as the phonebook requires - that is, each field on a separate line, and each entry starting a new paragraph. In addition, you can create different phone files that the phonebook can recognize and use for your data. For example, you might have separate files for your business and personal contacts, for your school and community organizations, etc. Here's how you can create your own phone files. To create a phone file that the phonebook can recognize from within its configuration menu, press F9 or Alt+o, followed by a p and then Alt+o. The Type 'n Speak says, "Phone is the active file; Set Up Field Names." Since we want to work with the phone file itself, press Down- arrow to move to the next choice in the phonebook's configuration menu. The Type 'n Speak says, "Select phone file." When you press Enter on this choice, the Type 'n Speak says, "Select phonebook, phone." This means that the "phone" file is the file where entries are added. To create a new phone file, type an n. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename?" If you type a name that begins with the word "phone," the Type 'n Speak adds it to the list of phone files in its configuration menu. Then, you can select it again from the Select Phone File option. In this case, the Type 'n Speak says, "Create file 'xxx;' enter y or n?" where 'xxx' is the filename you've typed. If you answer the prompt with a y, the file is created and added to the phonebook's configuration menu. If you answer the prompt with an n, the Type 'n Speak returns you to the choice for selecting a phone file. When you type an n to create a new file, if you type the name of an existing file that doesn't begin with the word "phone," the Type 'n Speak lets you use it but can't access it from the phone files in its configuration menu. In this case, the Type 'n Speak just says, "Okay" and returns you to the choice for selecting a phone file. To exit the phonebook's configuration menu at this point, press Esc. This returns you to the point where you can add an entry into the file you've just created. Don't want to add an entry? Just press another Esc to return to your currently open file. Selecting the Active Phone File Once you have more than one phone file in your Type 'n Speak, you can work with each one at will. Whenever you bring up the phonebook, the Type 'n Speak reminds you which file is currently active, the default being "phone." To add entries into another phone file, you must bring up the phonebook's configuration menu and select that phone file instead. Here's how it works. To select a phone file other than the default file called "phone" to use with the phonebook, bring up the phonebook's configuration menu with F9 or Alt+o, followed by a p and Alt+o. The Type 'n Speak says, "Phone is the active file; Set Up Field Names." At this point, press Down-arrow once to move to the choice for selecting a phone file. The Type 'n Speak says, "Select phone file." To bring up this choice, press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Select phonebook, phone." If you have more than one file whose name begins with the word "phone," you can Up-/Down-arrow through those filenames. Otherwise, if you have a file whose name does not begin with the word "phone" that you want to use with the phonebook, you need to type an n as if you were going to create a new phone file. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename?" type the name of the file you want to use - something like "names" - and press Enter. Since this is not a new file, the Type 'n Speak doesn't ask you if you want to create it. Instead, it just says, "Okay," and leaves you back at the choice for selecting a phone file. To exit the configuration menu, press Esc. This returns you to the point where you can add an entry to the phone file you just selected. If you don't want to add an entry to that file, just press Esc again to return to your currently open file. Returning to Default Phonebook Settings After playing with the various settings for field names and phone files in the phonebook's configuration menu, you may decide to return to the phonebook's default settings. Here's how. To return to the phonebook's default settings, bring up the phonebook's configuration menu with F9 or Alt+o, followed by a p and Alt+o. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Filename is the active file; set up field names" (where "filename" is the name of your current phone file), press Down-arrow twice. The Type 'n Speak now says, "Re-initialize phonebook." When you press Enter, the Type 'n Speak confirms with "Okay," and repeats the choice, "Reinitialize phonebook." When you exit the phonebook's configuration menu with Esc, you're at the point where you can add an entry to the phone file called "phone." All the field names are once again activated. If you don't want to add an entry at this time, just press Esc again to return to your currently open file. Customizing Field Names What if you simply don't want to use the field names supplied by the phonebook? You can develop your own field names to use along with, or instead of, the ones that come as defaults. Here's how it works. To create your own field names, you need to create a file called "phone.fld". In this file, place the field names you want to have (each on a separate line). If you don't want to include any of the default phonebook field names, type the phrase "nodefaultfields" all as one word on a line by itself. From now on when you bring up the phonebook with F9 or Alt+o, followed by a p, the phonebook still asks for the field, Name. But then it continues only with the field names located in your "phone.fld" file. The only other default field name the phonebook retains is Comments. If you want to return to using the phonebook's default field names, just delete the file called "phone.fld" or rename it. Until you do, the phonebook continues to use its field names. Summary This chapter has covered how to use the phonebook with its default settings and phone file, as well as how to create your own phone files and customize the field name settings supplied with the phonebook. In addition, we discussed how you can develop your own field names to be used along with, or instead of, the ones supplied with the phonebook. And, of course, you can always return the phonebook to its default settings. You'll find yourself using the phonebook in many different ways. In effect, it's like having a database program built right into your Type 'n Speak. CHAPTER 13: Macros Introduction If you're already familiar with the concept of macros, you may wish to skip the first section of this chapter, where we explain what you can do with macros. However, the following sections cover all the features of the Type 'n Speak's macro-writing facility. These features include recording and playing macros, as well as how to personalize them with your own messages and so on. We'll work with examples throughout the chapter to make it all easier to understand. What's a Macro, Anyway? By now you've probably noticed that there are some key sequences we perform all the time. For example, you're constantly bringing up the Files menu, using Up- and Down-arrows to move to a particular file, and pressing Enter to open that file. Big deal, right? - that's just a few keystrokes. But what if you check your calendar several times a day, or jump in and out of a certain file all the time to look up a phone number? The numerous keystrokes that it may take can get tedious. Wouldn't it be great to have a single-keystroke command to perform a multi-keystroke task? This is exactly what a macro lets you do - in effect, a macro is a shortcut method for performing multi-keystroke tasks. Here's how it works. First, you assign a keystroke to the macro, so that whenever you press that key together with the Type 'n Speak's Macro key, the macro will be performed. Next, you record the keystrokes the macro should perform. In this portion of the process, you can personalize the macro in several ways, as we'll see. Finally, you tell the Type 'n Speak that you're finished recording the macro. From this point, any time you press the keystroke that runs the macro, the Type 'n Speak will perform the task for you. For example, suppose you frequently need to look up phone numbers in your "address" file. Normally, you'd do the following: 1. Press F1 to bring up the Files menu. 2. Type an o to open a file. 3. Spell out the name of the file you want to open. 4. Press Enter to open the file. 5. Press Home to move your cursor to the top of the file. 6. Press F2 to find text. 7. Type the name of the person whose number you want to find. 8. Press F2 to find the name. 9. Press Down-arrow to hear the phone number following the name. 10. Press F9, l to return to your previously opened file. Fatiguing - especially on a regular basis. A macro makes the task much simpler. Recording a Macro The first time you create a macro, the Type 'n Speak automatically creates a file called "macros.sys" and places it at the end of your files list. It stores the macros you create - so, when you want to play them, the Type 'n Speak can find them. You can create up to 64 macros, and each macro can contain up to 63 keystrokes. As you're recording a macro, the Type 'n Speak beeps when you're about six keystrokes from the 63-character limit. You can assign any alphanumeric key to run a macro. These include the alphabet, all punctuation marks, and the digits from 0 to 9. But it's best to make the keystroke that runs a macro something easy to remember. For example, you might assign the letter c to a macro that checks your calendar. Cautions About Recording Macros When creating a macro, you are literally recording it: you are actually performing the sequence of keystrokes you want to automate, and recording them at the same time. It's like recording on your tape recorder with a live microphone. Just as unwanted conversation or extraneous noises can creep into a recording, unwanted keystrokes can creep into a macro, if you're not careful. So, record a macro slowly and deliberately to avoid recording erroneous keystrokes. This is especially important if part of the macro is supposed to edit text or manipulate files. Imagine your surprise if you accidentally delete the wrong file as you're recording your macro. It could be a costly mistake. Oh, it won't matter by the time you go to play the macro. You'll already have deleted the file. In addition, if you include commands in a macro that take you to the end of your file, the macro aborts when it reaches the end of the file. This happens if you include the End key in a macro, for example. You won't notice any problem as you record the macro. But when you play it, it processes your commands only up to the point where it encounters the End key, or otherwise finds the end of a file. If you include a Find command, or search-and-replace sequence within a macro, the macro runs properly as long as text is found. But if the text is not found (which means that the end of the file was reached without finding your text), the macro aborts immediately at that point. An Example of a Simple Macro Let's take a simple example. We'll use the file called "practice" to create a macro that inserts tomorrow's date into the currently open file. You might use this at the end of each day to move your diary forward a day. For sample purposes, we'll say that today is Saturday, July 4, 1998. Before recording the macro, run through all the steps you want it to perform to ensure that each step does exactly what you want. Remember, when you're recording a macro, you are in fact performing the steps you're recording. So it's best to plan carefully. Here are the steps of the macro for our present example: 1. NumLock - Brings up the Paste pull-down menu. 2. G - Brings up the calendar prompt for a date. 3. 1 - Moves the calendar forward a day from today. 4. Enter - Pastes tomorrow's date into your currently open file. Now let's perform the actual recording. Make sure that you're at the end of your file and that the last two characters are hard returns. To start recording a macro, press Scroll-Lock. This is the third key from the right along the top row of the Type 'n Speak's keyboard. The Type 'n Speak says, "Macro, enter a character." Type a d (for diary). The Type 'n Speak says, "Recording." At this point, you can perform the keystrokes listed in the example above exactly as shown. If you make a mistake, simply abort the recording process with Esc. When you've pressed all the keystrokes you want the macro to perform, press Scroll-Lock again to finish recording. The Type 'n Speak should say, "Macro end," and leave you back in your currently open file. Notice that the last line of your file is indeed tomorrow's date. So as you can see, the Type 'n Speak recorded your macro, and also performed the steps it recorded. Playing a Macro To play a macro, you simply press the keystroke that performs the macro, together with the Type 'n Speak's Macro key. The Macro key is the second key from the left on the bottom row of the Type 'n Speak's keyboard. It is the key between Ctrl and Alt to the left of the spacebar. If you want to incorporate an existing macro into one you're recording, don't press Scroll-Lock at the end of the recording process as you normally would. Instead, when you reach the point in the current macro where you want the other macro to take over, press that macro's assigned keystroke together with the Macro key. This is referred to as "nesting" macros. Using the macro created in the last section, let's see how to play it. Bring up your "practice" file if you're not already in it. Then press End to move your cursor to the end of the file. To ensure that the macro is performed on a line by itself, add a couple of hard returns. Now play the macro that is assigned the letter d by pressing the letter d together with the Macro key. The Type 'n Speak may or may not announce each step of the macro as it performs it. This depends on whether it's set to voice macro steps. For this example, we'll assume it is speaking the steps as it performs them. Notice that the Type 'n Speak finishes the whole process far faster than you can. You should be at the point in your file that says tomorrow's date. If you run this macro again tomorrow, the next day's date will be added for you. How to Check What a Macro Does Whether the Type 'n Speak voices the steps of a macro as it plays is up to you. From anywhere within your currently open file before you play a macro, you can silence it with Alt+k, or verbalize its speech with Alt+v. In fact, you can even include Alt+k and Alt+v commands in your macro as you record it. Once you're comfortable with using macros, you'll probably want speech off as you run them. They do run much faster if the Type 'n Speak remains silent. But until you're very comfortable with macros, it's best to turn on macro speech with Alt+v to ensure that they're doing what you think they're doing. Pausing a Macro Suppose you want to have a macro pause so that you can respond to a prompt (or type in some information), and then continue processing a task. For example, a macro might search for a phone number from your "address" file. In this case, the macro must pause to let you type in the name of the person whose phone number you want, and then it must find that phone number for you. To instruct a macro to pause while it's playing, type a special command as you're recording it, at the point where you want the macro to pause. There are two ways to pause a macro: 1. To pause a macro for you to type a single character, press Shift+Scroll-Lock. The Type 'n Speak says, "Pause." 2. To pause a macro for you to type a full line of text, press Shift+Scroll-Lock twice. The Type 'n Speak says, "Line pause." To make a macro resume processing the rest of the steps you want it to perform, press Alt+e. The Type 'n Speak confirms with, "Pause end." An Example of a Complex Macro Let's take an example of a macro that pauses for you to type in an entry. Suppose you have to keep a log of all messages that come into the office - in our example, that's for more than 40 people. Each person has a voice mailbox where callers can leave messages. With that many names, you can't memorize all the extensions; so you have them in a file called "staff." First, set up the files on your Type 'n Speak. Create a file called "staff" and type some names and phone number extensions in it as follows: name, hard return, phone number, two hard returns, next name, hard return, phone number, two hard returns, etc. (Placing two hard returns between entries makes it easier to read quickly through a file of this kind.) Now create yourself a "messages" file where you place the time and date when messages come in for the staff. In our example, the macro does the following, assuming you're starting from within the "messages" file and assuming that you're in Append mode: 1. Hard return twice - Separate current entry from previous one. 2. F1, o, staff, Enter - Open "staff" file. 3. Home - Move cursor to top of file. 4. F2 - Find text command. 5. Shift+Scroll-Lock twice - Pause macro for you to enter desired name. 6. Alt+e - End the pause. 7. F2 - Find the name. 8. Alt+m - Mark the beginning of the entry. 9. Down-arrow - Read phone extension so you can transfer caller to that extension. Down-arrow - Place cursor at end of entry. 10. Shift+NumLock - Copy entry to Clipboard. 11. F9, l - Return to "messages" file. 12. space - Append space at end of file. 13. NumLock, c - Copy entry from Clipboard. 14. NumLock, d, NumLock, t - Copy date and time for current entry. Since this macro has prompts we need to hear, press Alt+v to verbalize macro speech before starting the recording process. For practice, try recording the macro as shown above. Remember that you can always abort the whole process with Esc if you make a mistake. Begin by pressing Scroll-Lock. Use the letter l (for log) for this macro to play. After completing all the steps of the macro, press Scroll-Lock again. Don't respond to the prompt for finding text, of course. Just continue the steps of the macro as shown in our example above. When you press the Scroll-Lock that completes the recording process, read what's in your file. You should hear nothing except today's date and the current time because you didn't ask the macro to find a name while you were recording it. So all it pasted into your "messages" file was the date and time. Now let's play the macro in our example by pressing the letter l together with the Macro key. You should hear, "Top of file, enter text to find, line pause." Type a name that's in your "staff" file - say, John - and press Enter to let the macro continue. You'll hear, "Pause end." Then you should hear something like, "Extension 25, marked, copied, option, enter file command, filename, "staff" is open, paste what? Saturday July 4, 1998, paste what? 12:15 p.m." All of the prompts speak as the macro is running. So press Alt+k to kill macro speech and run the macro again. The big difference is that you won't hear anything before "Enter text to find." Type another name in your "staff" file - say, Jane - and press enter to let the macro continue. You should only hear the extension for Jane followed by the date and time when they are pasted into your "messages" file. Certainly, this is much simpler than having to run through all those steps manually each time a call comes in, and at the end of the day, you can print out today's log for your boss. Just think how efficient you'll look. What happens if the name you are searching for is not found? The macro simply aborts at that point. Write-protecting Macros What if you forget that you already have a macro assigned to the letter l, for instance? You could start recording a new macro, erasing the one you so pains-takingly created before. To avoid this pitfall, consider protecting your macros. To write-protect your macros, starting from anywhere within your currently open file, press Scroll-Lock as if you were going to record a macro. But at the prompt, "Macro, enter a character," press Alt+p. The Type 'n Speak says, "Write-protected." Now if you try to type over an existing macro, the Type 'n Speak stops you with, "Write-protected." In fact, you won't be able to create any new macros while in this mode. It's similar to write-protecting your important files. (By the way, the "macros.sys" file is always protected. You couldn't type in it even if you wanted to do so.) To be able to create new macros or replace old ones, you can unprotect them with Scroll-Lock followed by Alt+u. The Type 'n Speak says, "Unprotected." From then on, you'll be able to create new macros once again. Adding Your Own Messages to a Macro You can include your own prompts and messages within a macro. This might be useful if, for example, the macro pauses for you to insert some specific type of text. So your prompt might be something like, "Enter first name?" Here's how it works. Record the macro, and at the point where you want your message or prompt to speak, press Alt+v to verbalize macro speech. Then press Alt+8. Type the text of the message or prompt. Then press Alt+e, followed by Alt+k to once again silence macro speech. Now continue the rest of the steps you want the macro to perform. When you play this macro, your message or prompt speaks at the point where you placed it in the macro sequence. It can be very effective to include your own message or prompt in a macro when you want to be prompted to type something. The macro does, of course, say the normal Type 'n Speak prompts like "Enter text to find." But this is only true if macro speech is on when a prompt occurs within the macro. If you've silenced speech during the entire macro, you won't hear any prompts at all - neither your own nor the Type 'n Speak's prompts. So, in the macro that runs your name and phone number search, you could have it say something like, "Enter a person's name from your staff file" to remind you exactly what it is you're supposed to find. But when you record the macro, you should include the command to verbalize macro speech just before that prompt, or you won't even hear it when you play the macro. Start-up Macros This section is not for the inexperienced user. Wait until you're very comfortable with macros before tackling it. The concept of a start-up macro is rather simple, but if you mess up while recording such a macro, who knows what will happen? - and it will happen every time you start up your Type 'n Speak, unless you catch your error before you turn the unit off and can erase the macro before it can screw up your work. In essence, a start-up macro is one you create to play every time you power up your Type 'n Speak. For example, let's say you're frequently looking up phone numbers and addresses in your database. It might be worth it to create a start-up macro that runs your Braille Base program (a neat and easy-to-use database program you can order for your Type 'n Speak). To record a start-up macro, first be very clear about the steps you want the macro to perform, as always when creating a macro. Write down the exact sequence of steps and/or execute them by hand first to make sure they work just right. When you're ready to record the start-up macro, starting from wherever you are within your currently open file, press Scroll- Lock as you normally do to start recording a macro. But at the prompt, "Macro, enter a character," type a space. The Type 'n Speak says, "Create start-up macro; are you sure (y or n?)" If you type an n, the process aborts and the Type 'n Speak confirms with, "Abort macro." If you type a y, the Type 'n Speak says, "Recording," and waits for you to type in the keystrokes you want the macro to perform. End the recording in the usual way with another Scroll-Lock. The Type 'n Speak confirms that you're finished recording with, "Macro end." Whenever you turn on your Type 'n Speak, from now on, this macro runs automatically. But if you start the Type 'n Speak silently - that is, if you press the spacebar manually as you turn on the unit, the start-up macro is bypassed entirely. Erasing a Macro If you want to erase the start-up macro (or any other macro you have created, for that matter), simply press Scroll-Lock, the key assigned to the macro, and then another Scroll-Lock. This, in effect, empties out the key definition of the macro and makes it unplayable. So, for example, if you no longer need your start-up macro, just press Scroll-Lock, spacebar. When the Type 'n Speak prompts you that this is a start-up macro, answer the prompt with a y. But instead of writing anything for the macro to perform, simply press another Scroll-Lock. This empties out the current definition of the start-up macro. It won't play anymore when you turn on your Type 'n Speak. Summary Clearly, macros enhance what you can do with your Type 'n Speak. Not only can you record and play macros that perform repetitive key sequences, you can also create a macro that plays each time you power up your Type 'n Speak, and you can personalize your macros with your own messages and prompts. Once you're comfortable with creating and using macros, you'll find that they can save you lots of time in performing all those repetitious tasks. CHAPTER 14: The Spellchecker Introduction This chapter explains how to use the spellchecker with your currently open file to produce nearly flawlessly spelled documents. The spellchecker program file may already be loaded on your unit. The file, "spell.dic," uses 86 Type 'n Speak pages. We first talk about the program file that contains the spellchecker. If you deleted it, you'll need to refer to parts of Section IV of this manual to find out how to transfer a copy of this file back to your Type 'n Speak. Since the spellchecker is an external program - that is, it's not built into your unit like other tools we've been discussing - the program file "spell.dic" must be present in order for you to work with the spellchecker. After explaining what the spellchecker program file does, we'll run through its various features, and provide appropriate examples to illustrate how it works. What is a Spellchecker? Having a spellchecker on your Type 'n Speak is somewhat like having a dictionary always at your fingertips. Well, it's not exactly a dictionary. The spellchecker inspects your files for spelling errors and suggests corrections for the misspelled words it finds. It also allows you to create a secondary, personal "dictionary" with words that are spelled correctly but that aren't part of the "spell.dic" file. Since your Type 'n Speak is equipped with Flash memory, you can actually store the spellchecker in Flash so it doesn't take up any room at all in the RAM portion of your unit. And, yes, you can run the spellchecker from Flash. Running the Spellchecker To run the spellchecker on your currently open file, you must bring it up with F6. The spellchecker starts checking for errors from your current cursor position forward. So, place your cursor at the beginning of the file if you want an entire document checked. When you bring up the spellchecker with F6, the Type 'n Speak says, "Spellcheck what?" Type a w to check the word currently under your cursor, or type a z to check your entire document starting from your current cursor position. If you decide to stop spellchecking the document, abort the process with Esc. Then, the document is checked only to the point where you cancelled the process. When a word is not found, it means one of three things: ? You've spelled the word incorrectly, meaning that it doesn't match a word in the spellchecker. ? You've spelled the word correctly, but it may not be a word found in a standard dictionary, like a proper name. ? You've spelled the word incorrectly, and it has a suggested spelling in the spellchecker's dictionary. When the spellchecker thinks a word is misspelled, it provides you with several options, which we'll discuss in the following sections of this chapter. If the Type 'n Speak says, "Not found," and spells the word in question, it then presents a set of options in the Spellcheck menu. Let's look at these one at a time. If you get stuck and can't remember the available options, type an h to hear them repeated. Or, just navigate the menu as you would any other in the Type 'n Speak. Adding a Word to Your Custom Dictionary When the spellchecker finds a word you've actually spelled correctly, you could add the word to a custom dictionary so that it is not found to be incorrect again. To add a word to the custom dictionary, choose option a from the Spellcheck menu. The first time you add a word, a file called "personal.dic" is created, and placed at the end of your files list. This is your custom dictionary. Once the new word is added to the custom dictionary, the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," and keeps searching the file for other misspellings. Bypassing a Word for the Rest of the Document Suppose you have the abbreviation "XYZ" in a file. This is the way you want to spell this acronym. You don't want to add it to your custom dictionary, or to be reminded every time it is found by the spellchecker. To bypass the current word the spellchecker thinks is misspelled, choose option b from the Spellcheck menu. This way, the word is bypassed for the remainder of the spellcheck process in the current file. Hearing a Word in Context What if you're not sure whether a word is correctly spelled, but you would be if you could hear surrounding text? This might be true of an abbreviation or acronym. To hear a word in context, choose option c from the Spellcheck menu. This way, you'll hear the word spoken as part of the current line of text in your file. Correcting a Word If you realize that the word the spellchecker has found is spelled incorrectly, you may choose to fix it rather than let the spellchecker correct the word. To edit a word the spellchecker thinks is misspelled, choose option e from the Spellcheck menu. The Type 'n Speak prompts you to, "Enter correct word." Type the correct word, and then press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," confirming that it has replaced the word for you in the file. Then it continues to spellcheck the document. Of course, if you misspell your correction, the spellchecker prompts you again that the word is misspelled. Repeating a Word If you're not sure how you spelled the word the spellchecker thinks is misspelled, choose option r from the Spellcheck menu to have the word spoken and spelled again. Press Shift+Down-arrow to hear the word spelled out phonetically. Overlooking a Word If you want to skip the current occurrence of the word the spellchecker thinks is misspelled, choose option o from the Spellcheck menu. The next time the spell-checker finds this word, it again tells you that it thinks this word is misspelled. Suggested Replacement Words When the spellchecker thinks a word is misspelled, it tries to suggest possible correct spellings, if it can match part of the word in its dictionary. If you want to hear this suggestion list, choose option s from the Spellcheck menu. Here's how to navigate the suggestion list: ? To move back a choice, press Up-arrow. ? To move forward a choice, press Down-arrow. ? To move to the top of the suggestion list, press Home. ? To move to the end of the suggestion list, press End. ? To hear the current choice repeated, press Shift+Up-arrow. ? To accept the current choice as a replacement, press Enter. ? To get help on using the suggestion list, press q. ? To exit the suggestion list without accepting any choice, press Esc. If you exit the suggestion list without making a choice, the spellchecker returns you to the point where you entered the list - that is, it's still pointing to the word that led you to the suggestions in the first place. You still have to make a choice of some kind before the spellchecker moves onto checking the rest of the document. Getting Help If you need to get help for using the spellchecker once you're running it, choose option h from the Spellcheck menu. The spellchecker lists all the options available in its menu and returns you to the current word it thinks is misspelled. Summary The spellchecker can be a lifesaver when you want to ensure that a document is spelled flawlessly from beginning to end. Since the Type 'n Speak has so much storage capability, you can keep the spellchecker in Flash. This chapter has covered all the features of the spellchecker. Since you can customize the spellchecker in addition to using its own dictionary of words, the spellchecker may well become one of those Type 'n Speak tools you use daily. SECTION IV: Talking With Other Devices Introduction Until now, we've looked at the Type 'n Speak as a stand-alone device. Such a device can perform tasks on its own without being hooked up to any other devices. In this section, we explore all the things you can do when you hook up the Type 'n Speak to other devices. These other devices include printers, computers, disk drives, and modems. It is all too easy to slide into jargon when talking about telecommunications. This is the big word that refers to how devices are linked. But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to connect your Type 'n Speak to another device. If you're already acquainted with the lingo of telecommunications, you may wish to skim over the first section of Chapter 15 and move immediately into "Customizing Telecommunications Settings" that takes up the rest of the chapter. Then, you may want to skip directly to those chapters of special interest to you. Chapter 16 discusses how to use Blazie Engineering's portable external disk drive with your Type 'n Speak. Chapter 17 describes in detail everything you need to know to hook up your Type 'n Speak to a printer, a PC, or a modem. And finally, Chapter 18 explains how to run external programs on the Type 'n Speak - including how to update your unit to the latest software revision and make it bilingual. CHAPTER 15: Telecommunications Settings Introduction What happens when you use a telephone or watch television? Why, information is sent and received, of course: voice through the phone and pictures through the TV. Similarly, telecommunications is simply the ability to send and receive information to and from one place to another, from one device to another. It is accomplished through cables linking the devices, and by matching up various settings on the devices being linked. This chapter explains what you need to know to hook up your Type 'n Speak to another device. You'll need to know some of the terminology, which is rather technical, but we'll keep it as simple as possible. We first talk about all the cable options there are, and then focus on how you can easily customize the telecommunications settings on your Type 'n Speak so that transferring data between it and the other device goes smoothly. Cables The Type 'n Speak comes with a cable that you can connect to some printers, to most computers, and to modems. You can usually make the connection without additional adapters or connectors. But since electronics are changing so rapidly, it's just as likely that you'll need to connect adapters or additional cables between the Type 'n Speak cable and the other device. Let's clear up some of the mystery about cables right off. You don't have to understand the technical details surrounding cabling issues - just be aware of what kind of connectors you may need. Four things to consider when linking the Type 'n Speak to another device: ? Serial versus parallel ? Gender ? Number of pins ? Null modem cable requirements Serial versus Parallel The Type 'n Speak is both a serial and a parallel device. You must determine whether the device you want to link to the Type 'n Speak is serial or parallel. The manual for that device has the information, and your dealer should as well. Most printers today are parallel devices, although some still have both parallel and serial options built into them. The parallel connection is much easier to use because very little tweaking of either the Type 'n Speak or the printer is necessary. On the other hand, computers and modems use the serial option to connect to a device like the Type 'n Speak. Since a serial connection requires that both devices have equivalent telecommunications settings, the rest of this chapter focuses on how to customize those settings on your Type 'n Speak. Gender You must determine the sex of the connector, and the sex of the port to which you're linking it. The ports on the Type 'n Speak are female and accept only male DIN connectors. The ports on the Type 'n Speak are all on the back side of the unit, the side facing away from you. The DIN ports are small, round, indented openings while the parallel port is a larger, rectangular object that sticks out a bit from the unit. Moving from left to right, the port located about an inch to the right of the A.C. power jack is the Type 'n Speak's serial port for connecting to a computer or modem. The port located about an inch to the right of this one is the port for connecting the Type 'n Speak to Blazie Engineering's portable external disk drive. Both these ports feel the same, but since they perform different functions, be clear as to which one is which. The port furthest to the right is the Type 'n Speak's parallel port for connecting the Type 'n Speak to a printer. Now let's examine each end of the Type 'n Speak cable. Notice that you have a small round connector at one end, and a larger rectangular connector on the other. The housing of the small round connector, which is the one that plugs into the Type 'n Speak, has one flat side. This side faces up when you plug the connector into your unit. Also, the rim of the connector is semi- circular with tiny pins on the inside of the rim. These tiny pins fit snugly and precisely into the tiny holes in the port on your unit. This type of connector is called a DIN connector. The other end of the cable may be male or female. Depending on its gender and that of the port to which you're connecting it, you may have to get a gender changer. To connect a gender changer to the Type 'n Speak's DIN cable, you plug the opposite-sex end of the gender changer to the Type 'n Speak cable, then plug the other end of the gender changer into the port on the other device. Tighten the finger screws on either side of the connector to secure it in place. There are, of course, both male and female gender changers. You can usually get them from your local computer store, if you don't get them from us. Number of Pins The number of pins on the connector that plugs into a device, and the number of pins that the port on that device can accept, must match exactly. If they don't, you need an adapter. The DIN cable that comes with your Type 'n Speak has a 25-pin connector for plugging into other devices. Since 9-pin connectors are just as common now, though, you may request a Type 'n Speak cable with a 9-pin connector instead. (Call Blazie Engineering for the alternative cable or adapter.) If, on the other hand, you need to have both 25- and 9-pin cables, you can get by with one cable and an adapter that you can buy at your local computer store or from Blazie Engineering. Null Modem Cable Requirements To connect the Type 'n Speak to a modem, to another Type 'n Speak or Braille Lite, and to some computers, you need a special connector called a null modem cable or adapter. Some Apple computers, for example, require a null modem connector to work with the Type 'n Speak, although an IBM PC-compatible does not. What's important here is to know the genders and the number of pins each connector and port needs in order to match up precisely. When you buy a Type 'n Speak, an interface kit containing gender changers, a null modem adapter, and even a mini-tester can be purchased with the unit to help forestall technical problems. Customizing Telecommunications Settings Once you've established the cable requirements, you need to determine whether you must customize settings on your Type 'n Speak and/or on the other device. This is especially true if the connection is serial. So we'll focus strictly on the serial connection for the rest of this chapter. Assuming you've cabled everything correctly, you still need to make sure that your Type 'n Speak telecommunications settings match those on the other device. Often- times, trouble arises from simply having mismatched settings. Start by checking the manual of the other device to see what its default settings are. If you need to change settings, it'll probably be easier to do from the Type 'n Speak's side of the link than from the other side. To see the status of telecommunications settings in the Type 'n Speak, look them up in the Status menu. You can change them, or just exit the Status menu with Esc. Baud Rate The speed at which characters are transmitted to and from a device is called the baud rate. The Type 'n Speak is preset to 9600 baud, or 960 characters per second. To see the status of baud rate, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type a b. By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "9600 baud." To change the baud rate, you can type the first digit (or the first and second digits) of the baud rate you want. Possible settings are: 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, and 38400. If one digit is not specific enough to identify the desired rate, you need to type the second digit as well. For example, if you need to set the unit to 19200 baud, you must type 19, since 1200 is another possible rate and the Type 'n Speak can't guess which of the two you want. However, if you need to use the 2400 baud setting, you can just type 2, and the Type 'n Speak understands. Exit the Status menu with Esc. Parity Parity works to keep your transmission error-free. All you need to know is that it can be set to even, odd, or none. The default is none. To see the status of parity, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type a p. By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "No parity." To change parity, type an e, an o, or an n. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. The only time you may need to change parity to even is when the device at the other end requires 7 data bits. Duplex This setting deserves special attention because it affects what you hear during a transmission, as well as what exactly is being transmitted. There are three duplex options: half duplex, full duplex, and none. In the following discussion, we assume that your Type 'n Speak is set to transmit data. In other words, its serial port is active - ready to send and receive data. Here is what happens using the three duplex options: ? Half duplex: This is the default. Everything you type - your responses to prompts, for example - is stored in your currently open file, as well as sent out the serial port to another device. ? Full duplex: Everything you type is sent out the port and nothing is stored in your currently open file. Therefore, this option is generally more desirable - especially if you have the Type 'n Speak connected to a computer or modem. ? None: What you type is stored in your currently open file, but it is not transmitted to the other device. This is most useful when transmitting a file from the Type 'n Speak directly to a serial printer. Otherwise, each time you send a hard return, or whenever the printer receives all it can handle, it might print before you are ready. To see the status of duplex, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type a d. To change duplex, type an f, an h, or an n. Then exit The Status menu with Esc. Data Bits The data bits setting has only two options, 7 and 8. Eight is the default and the most commonly used. To see the status of data bits, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type the underline character (Shift+Dash). By default, you hear, "Eight data bits." To change data bits, type a 7. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. The only time you may need to change data bits is when the device at the other end requires even parity. Stop Bits The stop bits setting has only two options, 1 and 2. One is the default and is more commonly used nowadays. To see the status of stop bits, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an s. By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "One stop bit." To change stop bits, type a 2, and then exit the Status menu with Esc. Handshaking Handshaking refers to a sort of traffic cop, telling one device to stop sending while the other deals with information it has received. For example, if the Type 'n Speak keeps sending data to a modem that can't process the information coming into it, you could lose text. So, handshaking keeps the flow of information on track. The handshake setting has three options: none, software, and hardware. To see the status of handshake, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an h. By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "Software handshake." To change handshake, type an s, an h, or an n. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. Note: When transmitting from a PC to the Type 'n Speak, avoid use of the none option for handshake, because it will cause loss of data. The Interactive Mode In Chapter 4, we learned that in order to have the Type 'n Speak echo what you type, the Interactive mode must be turned on. The easiest way to toggle Interactive mode is with Alt+g from within your currently open file. When you enable it, the Type 'n Speak says, "Interactive, on," and when you disable it, the Type 'n Speak says, "Interactive, off." To see the status of Interactive mode, bring up the Status menu with F10 and press Home. By default, it is off. So the Type 'n Speak says, "Interactive, off." Since this is an on/off setting, to turn on Interactive mode, type a y, and then exit the Status menu with Esc. So what does Interactive mode have to do with telecommunications? When interactive mode is on, the text you type into the Type 'n Speak as well as the text coming into it through the serial port are both spoken. This scenario is vital if you're interacting over the Internet through a modem, for example. If you want to listen to everything coming in, you can. But this slows down the transmission. Even with speech set to maximum speed, the Type 'n Speak's voice lags behind the transmission. On the other hand, with Interactive mode on, you can tell when the transmission has stopped or when the other device is prompting you. Furthermore, you can press Enter to halt speech so that the transmission can resume and the voice can catch up. Rejecting Ornamentation This setting controls what kinds of characters are accepted as part of a transmission. Computers can generate cute graphic characters (like smiley faces and Greek symbols, and even characters that draw boxes around text). You can lock out such characters from ever intruding into your file. Most likely, all you want is the text. When you turn on the Reject Ornamentation setting, the Type 'n Speak effectively screens out strings of three or more spaces, stars, or any other characters that produce ornamentation in the text or affect the layout of the text in some way. To see the status of the Reject Ornamentation setting, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an o. By default, you hear, "Reject ornamentation, off." Since this is an on/off setting, to turn on Reject Ornamentation, type a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. Summary This chapter has covered all the cable considerations and telecommunications settings you need to check in order to hook up your Type 'n Speak to another type of device. Now that you have a basic understanding of telecommunications settings and how to match them to the device you're linking with the Type 'n Speak, you are ready to skip ahead to the chapters of this section that particularly interest you. CHAPTER 16: The Portable Disk Drive Introduction In this chapter, we discuss everything you need to know to connect the Type 'n Speak to Blazie Engineering's portable external disk drive, and how to transfer files between your Type 'n Speak and the disk drive. But we won't spend much time explaining computer terms like formatting a disk, textfile, and program. We first describe what you can do with your disk drive, and how to operate the unit. Next, we explain how to connect the disk drive to your Type 'n Speak. And then we talk in detail about the various ways you can transfer files between your Type 'n Speak and the disk drive, and how to read the contents of your disks. What Can You Do With the Disk Drive? The portable external disk drive works with standard 3-1/2" disks formatted for use on an IBM PC-compatible computer. Once you connect the disk drive and the Type 'n Speak, you can transfer ASCII textfiles and programs that work on the Type 'n Speak between the two units. Here's what you can do from the Type 'n Speak with the disk drive: ? List the contents of a disk (both directories and subdirectories). ? Format a disk as an MS-DOS disk (prepare it to receive data). ? Create directories and subdirectories on disk. ? Delete files and directories on disk. ? Transfer files between the Type 'n Speak and the disk drive. ? Back up Type 'n Speak files to disk for safekeeping. The disk drive can format and read either 720K or 1.44MB (low- and high-density) disks. When you command the drive to format a disk, it determines whether the disk is low- or high-density and formats accordingly. Note: Blazie Engineering now has a new, slimmer version of the portable disk drive. You may have an older model. Check out Appendix D for details on which chargers work with the new disk drive. In addition, the cable that connects the new disk drive to your Type 'n Speak is different from the one you may already have. So check with Blazie for details on upgrading your older model. How to Operate the Disk Drive The disk drive connects to the DIN port, located just to the left of the large rectangular parallel port on the back side of the Type 'n Speak. Even though it feels the same, don't connect the disk drive to the other DIN port that's located just to the right of the A.C. power jack. That port is for connecting the Type 'n Speak to a serial device. The disk drive's cable is similar to the Type 'n Speak's serial cable in that the small round connector at one end of the cable feels almost exactly like the one on the serial cable. The difference is that when you feel the inside of the rim, you find a tiny pin sticking up more than the rest; whereas on the serial cable, all the tiny pins inside the rim feel the same. Furthermore, the other end of the disk drive's cable feels different from the connector on the serial cable. Instead of having either a 9- or 25-pin connector, the connector on the disk drive's cable feels like a miniature Centronix parallel cable. (For a full discussion of cables, see "Cables" in Chapter 15.) Just be clear on which cable is which. Forcing the wrong cable into the wrong port may damage the cable and/or the port itself, and should never be done. You can operate the disk drive from its built-in battery just as you can operate your Type 'n Speak. The disk drive should be fully charged when you purchase it. But you might want to plug your charger into the unit the first time you run the drive. It needs only two to four hours to attain a full recharge, and it can run for 15 hours before needing another recharge. Connecting the Disk Drive to the Type 'n Speak The disk drive comes with its own manual. So we won't spend too much time discussing its physical layout here. We'll focus mainly on how to connect the disk drive to your Type 'n Speak so you can work with it. Position the disk drive on a flat surface, with its slot for inserting a disk facing toward you. If this is the first time you're using the drive, plug the 12-volt charger into the jack located on the back side of the drive, furthest to the right. Now starting from the left, feel along the back side of the drive to the right of the on/off rocker switch. The next object is the rectangular port that connects the disk drive cable to your Type 'n Speak. In order for the drive to power up, perform the following steps: 1. Connect the disk drive cable to the port on the disk drive. 2. Connect the disk drive cable to the disk drive port on the Type 'n Speak. 3. Turn on the Type 'n Speak. 4. Turn on the disk drive. If you don't follow this sequence of steps, the disk drive cannot power up. When you turn on the disk drive, three distinct tones indicate that the unit is active. While it is turned on, the disk drive emits a couple of tones every few minutes to remind you it is still on, much like the Type 'n Speak reminds you every few minutes that it's on by saying, "Hello." Retrieving a File from Disk To transfer a file from a disk to the Type 'n Speak using the portable external disk drive, you first need to create space in the Type 'n Speak to receive the incoming file. If you know the size of a file in bytes (characters, including all spaces, hard returns, line-feeds, form-feeds, etc.), you can guess how many Type 'n Speak pages are required for it. (Remember, one Type 'n Speak page holds 4,096 characters.) Let's take an example. We'll use a file on the disk that comes with the disk drive. Insert the disk into the slot on the front of the disk drive, Braille side up and closer to you. Now create a file on your Type 'n Speak called "disk." Make it six Type 'n Speak pages long. (For a full discussion on how to create a file, see Chapter 4.) To activate the disk drive, press F8. The Type 'n Speak says, "Storage." At this point, you have many options. But we'll concentrate on loading a file onto your Type 'n Speak. So type an l. The Type 'n Speak says, "Load, enter filename." Type the word "disk", and press Enter to start the transmission. The disk drive clicks, and the Type 'n Speak hisses a bit to let you know that the transfer is working properly. If you have Interactive mode turned on, the Type 'n Speak starts reading you the file's text once it has accepted it from the disk drive. Even if the Type 'n Speak should say, "File is full," if you have Interactive mode turned on, the Type 'n Speak starts speaking the text of the file it has retrieved up to the point where it couldn't take any more data. When you get an error message telling you the file is full, you can resume transferring the rest of the file as follows: 1. Place your cursor at the end of the file with End. 2. Bring up the Files menu with F1, and type a b to make the file bigger. 3. Expand the Type 'n Speak file by however many pages seems appropriate, with a number like 1. (Usually, one Type 'n Speak page is enough.) 4. Return to the Type 'n Speak file and bring up the disk drive menu again with F8. 5. Resume transferring the file to your Type 'n Speak with an r. The disk drive remembers where it had left off and continues sending the file, starting from your cursor location in the Type 'n Speak file. Of course, this won't work if you accidentally turn off the disk drive, thinking you had transferred the entire file. Once you hear the "Okay" prompt from the Type 'n Speak, you can do anything you'd normally do with a Type 'n Speak file: read it, move it to another folder, rename it, etc. Saving a File to Disk There are three common reasons for saving your Type 'n Speak files on disk: ? For backup purposes. ? As a print file ready for printing or editing with a word processor. ? As a Braille file for brailling with a Braille embosser. In each case, the process is similar. You start by bringing up the file you want to save to disk. From anywhere within that file, you can activate the disk drive with F8. The Type 'n Speak says, "Storage." At this point, you have many options. But we'll concentrate on the ones for saving a file to disk right now. Those options are: ? To back up the file with no formatting and translation in effect, type an s. ? To save the file as a textfile ready for printing, type a t. ? To save the file as a Braille file ready for brailling on a Braille embosser, type a b. (This assumes the file is in Grade 2 Braille.) ? To save a Braille file translated to print and without formatting, type a w. When you pick one of the options - s, t, b, or w, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename." If you're saving the file as a print file, you might want to save it with a .txt extension. If you're saving it as a Braille file, you might name it with a .brl or .brf extension. (For a full discussion of how to name files, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4.) Once you've named the file, press Enter to start the transfer. The disk drive spins, and the Type 'n Speak hisses and clicks. Shortly, the disk drive emits a single tone, and the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," indicating that the transfer is complete. Note: If you haven't specifically formatted your file for output, saving the file to disk and then running it through a printer or Braille embosser may yield unpredictable results. For a full discussion of formatting issues, see Chapter 6. Transferring Textfiles or Applications Regardless of whether files are textfiles or applications (programs), you can transfer them between the Type 'n Speak and the disk drive directly from the Files menu. Here's how it works. Note that if the disk drive is connected to the Type 'n Speak at the time when you perform any command for transferring a file, the Type 'n Speak automatically assumes you want to transfer files between the Type 'n Speak and the disk drive. Otherwise, the Type 'n Speak assumes you want to use its serial port. To transfer files between the Type 'n Speak and the disk drive, starting from within your currently open file, bring up the Files menu with F1. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file command." At this point, you have these options for transferring a file or group of files: ? To transfer a file (or group of files) between the Type 'n Speak and the disk drive using ymodem protocols, press the Transmit key (PrtScr) or Alt+t. ? To receive a file (or a group of files) from the disk drive to the Type 'n Speak using ymodem protocols, press NumLock. ? To send the file being pointed to from the Type 'n Speak to the disk drive using ymodem protocols, press F10. Let's discuss each of these options in detail. It's not important that you know what a modem protocol is. But it's critical that the disk drive and the Type 'n Speak use the same modem protocol for a transfer to be successful. Therefore, the Type 'n Speak automatically selects the ymodem protocol recognized by the disk drive when it sees that the disk drive is connected. If you try to perform a command to activate the disk drive and the Type 'n Speak doesn't see the disk drive, it says, "Storage device missing." Sending Files to the Disk Drive To send the file you're currently pointing to from within the Files menu, press F10. The Type 'n Speak says, "Start the transfer." The disk drive spins, and the Type 'n Speak hisses and clicks. Shortly, the disk drive emits a single tone, and the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," indicating that the transfer is complete. To send a group of files from the Files menu, press the Transmit key (PrtScr) or Alt+t. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter s to send or r to receive." Since you want to send at this time, type an s. At this point, the Type 'n Speak places you in your files list, pointing to the file you currently have open, so that you can select which files you want to send. If you're in Folder mode at this time, you see only your current folder's files list. You may want to toggle into All Files mode with the spacebar so that you can select files from your entire files list. You can select which files to send to the disk drive as follows: ? To mark the file being pointed to, type a y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to, type an n. ? To toggle the file being pointed to between being marked and unmarked, press the spacebar. ? To mark the file being pointed to and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+u. ? To mark all files, type an m. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To unmark all files, type a u. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To toggle the currently open file from being marked or unmarked, type an o. ? To mark all files in Flash, type an f. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark all files in RAM, type an r. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+m. ? To unmark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+u. (For a full discussion of wildcard characters in filenames, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4.) Once you've selected all the files you want to send to the disk drive, press Enter to start the transfer. As the files are being sent, the Type 'n Speak announces their names. Eventually, the disk drive emits a single tone, and the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," indicating that the transfer is complete. Note: If your filenames on the Type 'n Speak include the space character - like "my file", the space character becomes the underline character when the file is transferred onto disk because the disk drive assumes MS DOS file naming conventions are in effect. For a full discussion of filenames, see "How to Name Your Files" in Chapter 4. Let's take an example. We'll assume that the disk drive is turned on and connected to the Type 'n Speak. Suppose you have a group of files all ending in .txt that you want to send to the disk drive. The files are scattered in various folders in your Type 'n Speak. Here's what you need to do. Starting from your currently open file, bring up the Files menu with F1. Since you want to send a group of files that are scattered in different folders, the next thing you must do is to toggle to All Files mode. So press the spacebar. The Type 'n Speak says, "All files mode; enter file command." At this point, you can begin the transfer process by pressing the Transmit key. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter s to send or r to receive." Since you want to send files to the disk drive, type an s. The Type 'n Speak immediately places you in your files list, pointing to whatever file you currently have open. So it says something like, "Address is open; file is not marked." Since you want to send a group of files all ending in .txt, press Alt+m. The Type 'n Speak now says, "Enter filename." Type "*.txt", and press Enter to begin the transfer. As each file is sent to the disk drive, the Type 'n Speak announces its name. Eventually, the disk drive emits a single tone, and the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," indicating that the transfer is complete. To send your currently open file without leaving that file, you can press F8 to activate the disk drive. Then type a y to send the file to the disk drive using the ymodem protocol. (For a full discussion of modem protocols, see Chapter 17.) Receiving Files From the Disk Drive Whether you want to receive a single file, or a group of them, from the disk drive using ymodem protocols, you need to bring up the Files menu with F1. At this point, you have two options: You can either press NumLock to start the process, or you can press the Transmit key (PrtScr). If you press the Transmit key, you hear, "Enter s to send or r to receive." You want to receive something from the disk drive right now, so type an r. At this point, whether you started by pressing NumLock or the Transmit key, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename." You can type the name of a specific file or use a wildcard pattern to select a group of files with similar names. (For a full discussion of wildcard characters in filenames, see "How to Name Your Files" in Chapter 4.) Once you've typed the name (or names) of what you want to receive, press Enter. As each file comes into the Type 'n Speak, the Type 'n Speak announces its name. Eventually, the disk drive emits a single tone, and the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," indicating that the transfer is complete. If there is already a file in your Type 'n Speak with the same name as a file you're trying to receive from disk, the Type 'n Speak prompts, "File exists. Delete, skip, rename, or abort?" Here's what you can do if you get this prompt: ? To delete the file and replace it with the incoming file, type a d. ? To skip the file and move to the next incoming file, type an s. ? To rename the file on your Type 'n Speak with the same name as the incoming file, type an r. The file is renamed with a .$$0 extension to distinguish it from the incoming file. ? To abort the entire transmission and return to the Files menu, type an a. Reading the Directory on a Disk Since you need to know what files are on your disks, this section covers some of the basic commands for reading directory information. A complete list of disk drive commands is in Appendix B. You can perform any directory command from within your currently open file. When you activate the disk drive to read a directory, the Type 'n Speak flips you into the Clipboard where it temporarily stores the directory so you can read it. Here's how it works. From anywhere within your currently open file, activate the disk drive with F8. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Storage," you have many options. But we'll concentrate only on the directory options here. These directory options are as follows: ? To list a directory, type a d. Or type a d followed by /w to see time and date information for each file, or a d followed by /n to see an unsorted list of files. ? To change directories, type a c. ? To make a subdirectory, type an m. ? To delete a subdirectory, type an x. ? To kill a file on disk, type a k. ? To delete the file being pointed to in the directory, type a z. ? To format a disk, type an f. ? To insert a volume label on the disk, type a v. ? To load the file being pointed to in a directory, type a g. Let's take an example of loading a file from reading through a directory. Insert the disk that came with your disk drive or the disk that came with your Type 'n Speak into the disk drive. Let's see what's on this disk. From anywhere within your currently open file, press F8, followed by a d. The Type 'n Speak says, "Directory; enter filename." At this point, you can request the name of a single file by typing its name, a group of similarly named files by typing a wildcard pattern, or the whole directory by pressing Enter by itself. Shortly, the Type 'n Speak brings up the Clipboard where it temporarily stores the directory so you can work with it. If you have Interactive mode turned on, the Type 'n Speak starts reading you the contents of the directory once it has finished transmitting it from the disk drive to the Clipboard. It may say something like, "Volume label is " and begin listing the names of the files on the disk. Since the point of the present example is to load a file into your Type 'n Speak from the directory, move your cursor onto one of the files in the directory - say, the file called "tnsmanual.txt". Then press F8, followed by a g. Since you're, in effect, pointing to the file by having your cursor on it, the Type 'n Speak can pick it up and load it directly into your Type 'n Speak. Summary As we have seen, connecting your Type 'n Speak to the disk drive opens up a new realm of possibilities. This chapter has covered everything you need to know in order to read the contents of a disk in the disk drive and transfer files between it and your Type 'n Speak. The disk drive's manual covers all the disk drive commands in more detail than we did here. But with information from this chapter, you should be well on your way to making the disk drive another tool you use regularly with your Type 'n Speak. CHAPTER 17: Printers, Modems, and Computers Introduction In this chapter, we discuss everything you need to know to connect your unit to a printer, a modem, or another computer. The printer can be either an ink printer or a Braille embosser. The modem must be an external model. And the computer can be an IBM PC-compatible, a Mac, or any of the other Blazie notetakers (any model of the Braille 'n Speak, Braille Lite, Type Lite, or even another Type 'n Speak). First, we discuss the things you should consider before sending a Type 'n Speak file to a printer or Braille embosser. These include transmission issues and formatting concerns. Then we focus on how to transfer files between the Type 'n Speak and another computer or a modem. Finally, we cover how to turn your Type 'n Speak into a speech synthesizer that can work with your computer and screen reader. Transmission Considerations The Type 'n Speak is both a parallel and serial device. That is, it can connect both to parallel devices (mostly printers) and to serial devices (mostly other computers, modems, and the Blazie notetakers.) When you use the Type 'n Speak as a parallel device, the transmission process is rather simple and clean. But when you use the Type 'n Speak as a serial device, telecommunications settings on the Type 'n Speak and on the other device must match exactly. By default, your Type 'n Speak is set to these telecommunications settings: ? 9600 baud. ? 8 data bits. ? 1 stop bit. ? No parity. ? Half duplex. ? Software handshaking. Since serial connections can be tricky, we limit our present discussion to this type of connection. For a full discussion of telecommunications settings, see Chapter 15. Activating the Serial Port To conserve power, the serial port on the Type 'n Speak is normally turned off. Before you can communicate with any serial device through this port, the Type 'n Speak must activate it, or you must do it manually. By the way, the longer the serial port is active, the greater the drain on the Type 'n Speak's battery. If you use the serial port a lot, the battery drains quickly. Don't be surprised to get "Battery low" warnings much sooner than you'd expect. (For a full discussion of battery usage, see "How to Charge the Built-in Battery" in Chapter 1.) The Type 'n Speak doesn't remind you that the serial port is active, once the serial port is on. But if you leave the serial port active when you turn off the Type 'n Speak, the next time you power up, the Type 'n Speak says, "Type 'n Speak ready; serial port." The Type 'n Speak activates the serial port for you when you communicate with another device (like transferring a file), and also turns it off automatically when it completes communication with the other device. To check whether the serial port is active, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an f. By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "Serial port, off." If you need to turn it on manually, type a y. Adding Line-feeds Line-feeds aren't necessary in your Type 'n Speak files, because you're not reading from a physical piece of paper when reading on the Type 'n Speak. (All line-feeds do is move to the next physical line on a page. Hard returns, on the other hand, move to the left margin on a line.) Clearly, when printing to a printer or Braille embosser, you need both hard returns and line-feeds. So the Type 'n Speak can automatically append line-feeds for you when you transfer a file. Here's how it works. To check the status of line-feeds for file transfers, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an a. By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "Add line-feed when transmitting, on." If the setting is off, type a y to activate it. Note: The Add Line-feeds setting is not file-specific, even if the setting to make parameters file-specific is active. So if you forget to deactivate line-feeds, all your files will be transmitted with line-feeds. Physical Page Format Considerations When sending text directly from the Type 'n Speak to a printer, Braille embosser, or computer, you want it to look right in that environment. In other words, if you're transferring text to a printer, you probably want the page length to be 54 lines and all your margins set to one inch around the page. But if you're transferring the text to a Braille embosser, you probably want a page length of 25 lines and maybe a line width of 40 or 30 - depending on paper size, and Grade 2 Braille. These format specifications can be handled by typing special formatting strings into your file along with your text, as well as by setting certain parameters at transmission time. (For a complete discussion of formatting strings and parameters, review Chapter 6.) The formatting strings we discuss in this section can all be added temporarily, and then removed once the commands they initiate have been performed by the printer or Braille embosser. Finding Out What Page is Being Printed To find out what page is being printed, you can: 1. Press the spacebar as you're printing at any time. 2. Press Alt+colon to hear the percentage of the file that has been printed thus far. 3. Insert the string '$st' at the point in your file where you want to hear what page is being printed. When the Type 'n Speak encounters that point in your file, it says, "Status directive encountered on page x, line x." (The x's refer to the page number and line being printed at the time). Transmitting a Portion of a Document You can limit what portion of your file is actually printed or Brailled in two ways: 1. You want to stop printing before the end of the file (for example, because you want to check how the columns on page three line up). At the point where you want the Type 'n Speak to stop transmitting your file, type the string, a '$ef'. When you transmit the file, the printer or Braille embosser stops at the point just before your '$ef' string. 2. You want to start printing somewhere after the beginning of the file and stop somewhere before the end (for example, because page three jammed in the previous printout). Before the point in your file where you want the Type 'n Speak to start skipping, type the string, '$('. Then, just before the point in your file where you want the Type 'n Speak to resume transferring the file, type the string, '$)'. Double-spacing a Document on the Fly You can place a formatting string into your file so that a portion of it prints out with a blank line in between each line of text. This format is often used in a school setting, so that a professor can add comments to your paper. Especially in these cases, you need to control which portions of the file are double- spaced and which are single-spaced. Long quotes, for example, should appear in single-spaced blocks. (To find out how to do this, see "Double-spacing a Document" in Chapter 6.) But if you want the whole document double-spaced, you can use the Status menu setting for double-spacing. This setting is file- specific. Here's how it works. To activate double-spacing for the currently open file, bring up the Status menu with F10 and press a greater-than-sign (Shift+period). By default, double-spacing is off. To turn it on, type a y. When you transfer this file to a printer, or when you ask the Type 'n Speak how many pages the document contains, the number of pages is doubled. It's as if the document is now double its previous size. Luckily though, it's actually the same size it was before, because it's the Status menu setting that's controlling the additional blank lines. Previewing Where Text Will Print Since you can select your file to be a print file or a Braille file, you can select its print and Braille margins as well. Naturally, the way you set up your file affects how many pages it will produce when you transfer it for output to a printer or a Braille embosser. So, the Type 'n Speak lets you preview how many physical print or Braille pages your file will produce when transferred to paper. To get an accurate reading, it's essential to set your file with the appropriate margins and page length. To preview how many physical pages a file will produce when transferred to a printer or to a Braille embosser, move your cursor to the end of the file with End. Then press Shift+F9. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter p, b , or a." At this point, you have the following print-preview choices: ? To hear the number of print pages, type a p. ? To hear the number of Braille pages, type a b. ? To hear the number of absolute Type 'n Speak pages, type an a. Once you've selected a choice, the Type 'n Speak calculates the number of pages and announces the final page number and line of text the file will produce on paper. Let's take an example. Suppose you want to transfer a 500- character file to a printer or to a Braille embosser. There is no way to predict how many print or Braille pages that file will produce because we don't know how many blank lines and hard returns the file contains. And to complicate matters further, we don't know whether the file is a print or Braille file (in Grade 2 Braille), or whether it is set up with print or Braille page format parameters. We'll assume that this is a Grade 2 Braille file and that it is properly set up for brailling. In other words, Braille translation is off so that the file is transferred as-is to the Braille embosser, and Braille margins and page length settings are set properly within the Status menu for that embosser. To preview how many Braille pages this file will produce when it's transferred to the Braille embosser, move your cursor to the end of the file with End. Then press Shift+F9. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter p, b, or a." Since this is a Braille file, type a b to see how many Braille pages this file will produce on physical paper. The Type 'n Speak hisses for a few seconds, and then says something like, "Page two, line 17." So now you know that the Braille file is a little over one and a half Braille pages long. Next, change the file's parameters within the Status menu so that it is translated as it is transferred, and check to see that print page format is in effect. Then run the preview check again with Shift+F9. This time, the Type 'n Speak should report something significantly different. Page formatting can be a tricky business, at first, perhaps, yielding unpredictable results. But once you understand how the formatter works, you should be able to predict exactly what results you'll get when you transfer your files to paper. Sending Blocks of Text to Another Device This section describes how to transfer a block of text from your currently open file to another device (when you don't want to send an entire file to another device, but rather just part of a file). Although you can send blocks of text to a computer or a modem, we'll mostly talk about sending blocks of text to a printer for now. When you're sending blocks of text directly from the Type 'n Speak to a printer, you must choose the format (Braille or print), and you must consider things like page length, line width, and page numbering, as discussed in the previous section. Formatting from the Type 'n Speak is less important if you intend to edit the text with a word processor after you've sent it to a computer. But certainly, you want the format of the text to be correct when transmitting directly to a printer. For the most part, the commands described in this section apply mostly to both parallel and serial transmissions. If the transmission is parallel, the connection process is quite simple and clean, so we won't devote much time here to explaining it. But if the transmission is serial, you need a telecommunications program to adjust telecommunications settings to match those on the Type 'n Speak. Furthermore, such a program can perform error-checking during the transmission. There are several shareware telecommunications programs that work with MS DOS, and Windows has a program called HyperTerminal that you may use to transfer text as we describe below. In addition, Blazie Engineering has a program called PC Disk that uses almost all the same commands as our portable disk drive, including ymodem transfer commands. We'll assume you have such a program and are familiar with its use. (For a full discussion of telecommunications settings, see Chapter 15.) Before transmitting any text directly to a printer, check the physical page format parameters; or you may find the resulting printout very strange indeed. All the commands listed below apply to parallel and serial transmissions, except for the first one. You can send blocks of text from the Type 'n Speak to another device as follows: ? To transfer all formatted print text, type an a (serial devices only). ? To transfer all formatted Braille text, type a b. ? To transfer the current line, type an l. ? To transfer the current paragraph, type a p. ? To transfer from the current cursor location to a mark, type an m. ? To transfer the unformatted file, type an s. ? To transfer the formatted file, type a t. ? To transfer the unformatted, translated Braille file, type a w. ? To transfer from the current cursor location to the end of the file, type a z. When you're ready to send text from your currently open file to another device, place your cursor where you want the transmission to begin, then press the Transmit key (PrtScr). The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter transmit parameter." At this point, you're in a pull-down menu of all the choices listed above. Either navigate to the choice you want, or press its letter designation. Once you've picked a choice, press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Print or Braille?" When you type either a p or a b, the text is immediately transmitted to the other device. When the transfer is complete, the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," leaving you back in your currently open file at the point where you began the transmission. Transmitting Text to Another Type 'n Speak File A lot of paper is wasted in printouts that didn't come out right for some reason. But you can save paper by transmitting the text to another Type 'n Speak file before actually sending it to be printed or embossed. Transmitting the text to another Type 'n Speak file causes all formatting strings to be replaced by the actual physical layout of the text - numbered pages, headers, centering, etc. When you carefully examine the layout of this file, you can make any necessary corrections to the file that still has the formatting strings. It might save you some aggravation and also save a few trees. Here's how it works. To print to a file, place your cursor in your currently open file at the point where you want to start transmitting. Then press the Transmit key (PrtScr). The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter transmit parameter." Since you want to transmit to another Type 'n Speak file at this time, type an f. The Type 'n Speak repeats, "Enter transmit parameter." You may now select any of the options presented in the previous section for sending text to another device. After you select the block of text you want to transmit to the file, and choose whether to send it as print or Braille text, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter filename." Type a name like "test1.txt" and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak immediately copies the block of text you've selected into that file with all proper page layouts in effect. If the filename you've chosen already exists, the Type 'n Speak says, "File exists. Delete, skip, rename, or abort?" Here's what you can do if you get this prompt: ? To skip the file and cancel the procedure, type an s. ? To delete the file and replace it with the incoming file, type a d. ? To rename the file on your Type 'n Speak with the same name as the incoming file, type an r. The file is renamed with a .$$0 extension to distinguish it from the incoming file. ? To abort the procedure and return to your currently open file, type an a. Connecting Modems and Other Computers This section discusses some of the issues involved in connecting the Type 'n Speak to a modem or a computer. Modems A modem is a device used to link two computers together over a telephone line. To connect your computer to a phone line, you first have to connect the computer to the modem, and then connect the modem to the phone jack (or to the phone itself). Some phones, and most modems today, have an extra jack built into them for just this purpose. Furthermore, the computer at the other end of the phone line is similarly linked to that phone line through a modem. The computer on your end of such a connection can be your Type 'n Speak. But your modem must be external, serial, and able to handle the Type 'n Speak's baud rate limits. (For a full discussion of baud rates, see "Customizing Telecommunications Settings" in Chapter 15.) Computers If you want to transmit data between a computer and the Type 'n Speak, you need to run a telecommunications program in the computer. This program prepares the computer to receive information from an outside source - in this case, your Type 'n Speak. As with printers, having the right cable is the key to making things easy. Blazie Engineering has telecommunications programs for the IBM PC, as well as simple file capture programs for both the IBM PC- compatible and the Apple Macintosh families of computers. Also, there are several shareware products that work well with screen readers. There are numerous external programs you can run on the Type 'n Speak - such as Checkbook, Braille Calc, Braille Base, Braille Term, Book 'Em, and many games. Even if you don't have our portable external disk drive, you can load such programs onto your Type 'n Speak through your PC. Many of them can be freely downloaded from our website or FTP site. And those that must be purchased come on MS DOS-compatible 3-1/2" floppy disks. The Connection To link your Type 'n Speak to a modem, to another Type 'n Speak, and to some computers (like some Apple models), you need a null modem cable or adapter. (For a full discussion of cables, see "Cables" in Chapter 15.) This discussion centers around the IBM PC compatible, since it is the computer of choice for 95% of computer users in the United States, certainly including most visually-impaired users (and since it doesn't require a null modem cable). Assuming you've connected the cables properly, and have a telecommunications program running in your PC, you just need to check one more thing before you can start transmitting data between the computer and your Type 'n Speak. Make sure your telecommunications settings match on both sides of the link. It's critical that the baud rate, parity, data bits, stop bits, duplex, and handshaking all match properly. (For a full discussion of telecommunications settings, see "Customizing Telecommunications Settings" in Chapter 15.) Transmitting data can be a breeze, but only with the right cables, and only if all the telecommunications settings match on both devices. Using Modem Protocols to Transmit Data Although you can send a portion of your currently open file - in fact, even the whole file - to another device using the Transmit key, you can also use the Files menu to transfer a file or group of files between the Type 'n Speak and another computer. Here's how it works. To transfer files between the Type 'n Speak and another computer, you must first bring up the Files menu with F1. At this point, if you're in Folder mode, you may want to toggle into All Files mode with the spacebar so you can work with your entire files list. In either case, here are your choices for transferring files: ? To send the pointed-to file to the computer using ymodem protocols, press F10. ? To receive a file from the computer using ymodem protocols, press NumLock. ? To transfer a file or group of files between the Type 'n Speak and the computer using various modem protocols, press the Transmit key (PrtScr.). Remember that in order for this type of transfer to take place, you must be running a telecommunications program on your PC. When it's ready to send or receive files, the program asks which modem protocol you want to use for the transfer. While you can choose what's known as an "ASCII" transfer (which means you can send text directly from your currently open file to the computer and give it a name) it's better to use modem protocols. Basically, modem protocols transfer the data in chunks rather than one character at a time, and then perform error- checking on each chunk before accepting the next one. (Incidentally, the Type 'n Speak does not support zmodem.) If you choose to transfer data between the Type 'n Speak and another computer with the Transmit key, you must then select whether to send or receive files, and then select which modem protocol with which to transfer the data. Sending Files to a Computer To send a file or a group of files to the computer, starting from the Files menu, press the Transmit key. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter s to send, or r to receive." Since you want to send files at this time, type an s. At this point, you have several choices. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter x for xmodem, 1 for xmodem 1k, and y for ymodem." If you type an x or a 1, the Type 'n Speak asks for the filename you want to send. Type the filename and press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Start the transfer," and begins sending the file. If you type a y for ymodem, however, then you're put into your files list, pointing to your currently open file, and will hear, "Enter filename; filename is not marked." You may now select which files to send to the computer as follows: ? To mark the file being pointed to, type a y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to, type an n. ? To toggle the file being pointed to between being marked and unmarked, press the spacebar. ? To mark the file being pointed to and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+u. ? To mark all files, type an m. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To unmark all files, type a u. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To toggle the currently open file from being marked or unmarked, type an o. ? To mark all files in Flash, type an f. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark all files in RAM, type an r. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+m. ? To unmark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+u. (For a full discussion of wildcard characters in filenames, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4.) Once you've selected all the files you want to send to the computer, press Enter to start the transfer. As the files are sent, the Type 'n Speak announces their names. Eventually, the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," indicating that the transfer is done. Note: If your filenames on the Type 'n Speak include the space character - like "my file" - the space character becomes the underline character when the file is transferred to the computer, because the computer assumes MS DOS file-naming conventions are in effect. For a full discussion of filenames, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4. Of course, on the PC side of things, your telecommunications program must be ready to receive the file the Type 'n Speak is sending. So, you must answer its prompts properly, and at the right time, so that the Type 'n Speak doesn't try to send before the computer is ready to receive the file. Receiving Files from a Computer Whether you want to receive a single file or a group of them from the computer, you need to bring up the Files menu with F1. At this point, you have two options: You can either press NumLock to start the process, or you can press the Transmit key (PrtScr). If you press the Transmit key, the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter s to send, or r to receive." You want to receive something from the computer right now, so type an r. At this point, you must choose which modem protocol to use. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter x for xmodem, y for ymodem, or g for ymodem g." If you type an x, the Type 'n Speak asks for the name of the file you want to receive. With xmodem transfers, you can only receive one file at a time, and you must name the file on your Type 'n Speak. Once you've typed its name, press Enter to start the transfer. If you type either a y or a g, however, the Type 'n Speak just says, "Start the transfer," because it can determine the names of the incoming files from the PC. So, back on the PC side, the telecommunications program must be ready to send the files. When it asks you for which files to send to the Type 'n Speak, you can either type the name of a specific file or use a wildcard pattern to select a group of files with similar names. Once you've typed the name (or names) of what you want to receive from the PC, press the appropriate Transmit key for the telecommunications program (Enter or some other key). As each file comes into the Type 'n Speak, the Type 'n Speak announces its name. Eventually, the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," indicating that the transfer is done. If there is already a file in your Type 'n Speak with the same name as a file you're trying to receive from the computer, the Type 'n Speak prompts, "File exists. Delete, skip, rename, or abort?" Here's what you can do if you get this prompt: ? To delete the file and replace it with the incoming file, type a d. ? To skip the file and move to the next incoming file, type an s. ? To rename the file on your Type 'n Speak with the same name as the incoming file, type an r. The file is renamed with a .$$0 extension to distinguish it from the incoming file. ? To abort the entire transmission and return to the Files menu, type an a. The Type 'n Speak as a Speech Synthesizer The Type 'n Speak can perform double duty. You already know it's like having a traveling personal secretary - notetaker, record keeper, phonebook, clock, calculator, and calendar. But it can also act as your portable speech synthesizer. As long as you have the appropriate cables and a screen reader in your PC that supports the Type 'n Speak, you can link the Type 'n Speak to a PC just as you would any other external speech synthesizer. (For a full discussion of cables and telecommunications settings, see Chapter 15.) Here's how it works. First, we assume that you have a screen reader in your PC and that you understand its use. (There are many screen readers on the market.) In this section, we explain only how to link the Type 'n Speak to your screen reader so that you can use the Type 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer. We won't cover screen readers in detail. Check whether the vendor of your screen reader supports the Type 'n Speak as a synthesizer. If so, you may have to set up the screen reader with a Type 'n Speak driver supplied by that vendor. This usually takes the form of a Braille 'n Speak driver. (In other words, if a screen reader supports the Braille 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer, it also supports the Type 'n Speak.) To use the Type 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer with your screen reader, you first need to connect the Type 'n Speak to the serial port of your computer, making sure that all the telecommunications settings match on both sides of the link. (For a full discussion of connectivity issues, see Chapter 15.) Most screen readers preset communications ports to 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity. So, if you set your Type 'n Speak to these settings, the interface should work properly. Simple Speechbox Mode To use the Type 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer, bring up the Speech Parameters menu with F7. Then press Alt+s. The Type 'n Speak says, "Speechbox mode on, exit." You don't even have to press Enter. For the most part, the Type 'n Speak cannot accept input from its keyboard now. You can't check your calendar, perform a calculation, etc. In effect, you've turned the Type 'n Speak into a dumb terminal, a device that can only accept information from your PC. The only input your Type 'n Speak accepts from you directly on the Type 'n Speak keyboard is an F7 to re-enter the Speech Parameters menu, followed by Alt+s to turn off Speechbox mode and exit the Speech Parameters menu. Assuming your Type 'n Speak is connected to a PC, a screen reader that supports it is properly installed, and you've turned the Type 'n Speak into a speech synthesizer, here's what happens: The Type 'n Speak monitors your interaction with the PC. Depending on how your screen reader is set up, every time you type a space or punctuation mark, the Type 'n Speak may voice the word you just typed, or it may echo every character as you type it. If you perform a command from the PC keyboard (for example, to read the whole screen), the Type 'n Speak reads the contents of that screen. Enhanced Speechbox Mode A more sophisticated way of using the Type 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer is with the Enhanced Speechbox mode. To turn on the Enhanced Speechbox mode, press Shift+F10. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter l for line, b for block, or w for word handshaking." Now don't confuse this reference to handshake with the telecommunications setting discussed in Chapter 15. Whether you choose line, block, or word handshaking in the present context is purely subjective. If you select line handshaking, the Type 'n Speak reads you text from your PC a line at a time, pausing at each hard return. In fact, the computer will not send more text until the Type 'n Speak reads each line of text. This is desirable when you're programming, for example, or reading through a list. If you select block handshaking, on the other hand, the Type 'n Speak reads blocks of text up to 256 characters at a time. It doesn't look for hard returns as it reads. This produces smoother, more natural sounding speech with more natural pauses and inflections. It's better for reading through a document when it doesn't matter that you know where one line ends and the next begins. The Indexing Feature The indexing feature works only if the screen reader you're using supports indexing. Indexing means that the Type 'n Speak is so closely linked to the PC cursor as it's reading, that if you issue a "stop reading" command on your PC, the PC cursor and the Type 'n Speak both stop at the same place. So, the last word uttered by the Type 'n Speak is the same word as where your PC cursor is resting. This can be a wonderful time-saver when you're editing, for example. If your screen reader can change speech parameters (speech rate, volume, etc.), you can use your PC keyboard to change how the Type 'n Speak reads when it's performing as a speech synthesizer. Here are the commands: ? Volume - Control e x v, where x represents a volume from 01 to 16, 01 being the lowest volume. ? Pitch - Control e x p, where x represents a pitch from 01 to 63, 01 being the lowest pitch. ? Speech rate - Control e x e, where x represents a rate from 01 to 16, 01 being the slowest speech rate. ? Frequency - Control e x t, where x represents a tone from 01 to 25, 01 being the lowest frequency. ? Punctuation level - Control e followed by a, m, s, or z, where the letters represent all, most, some, or no punctuation, respectively. ? Index marker - Control f. ? Silence command - Control x. Specific Screen Readers If you're working specifically with Blazie's screen reader (PC MASTER), or with JAWS for Windows or Window Bridge, you should bring up Speechbox mode in a special way to optimize its responsiveness. To use Speechbox mode with these screen readers, bring up the Speech Parameters menu with F7. Then press Alt+p. Bringing up Speechbox mode with this command makes the link between the Type 'n Speak and the screen reader even better. To return the Type 'n Speak to normal use, bring up the Speech Parameters menu again with F7 and press another Alt+p. This ensures that all settings are returned to their normal state. Sending Type 'n Speak Output to Your Computer Screen A computer can display what you type on your Type 'n Speak as you type it. That computer can be a PC, another Type 'n Speak, a Braille 'n Speak, or a Braille Lite. To set up your Type 'n Speak as a remote device, all telecommunications settings must match, and all cables must be connected properly. For example, if the other device is one of the Blazie notetakers, you must use a null modem cable adapter. When the connection is set properly to turn the Type 'n Speak into a remote device, you must first activate the serial port. To do this, bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an f. The Type 'n Speak says, "Serial port, off." To activate it, type a y. Now, you can bring up Remote mode by pressing Alt+0. You hear, "Remote." You're now in a pull-down menu. You can navigate this menu just like any other Type 'n Speak menu. (For a full discussion of pull-down menus, see "Pull-down Menus" in Chapter 1.) Here are your options: ? To use ASCII mode, type an a. ? To use display mode, type a d. ? To use the MiniBraille, type an m. ? To use the Personal Touch, type a p. ? To use serial mode, type an s. When you're ready to exit Remote mode, turn off the Type 'n Speak. Summary This chapter has covered everything you need to know to connect your Type 'n Speak to another device. First, we discussed transmission and formatting issues you must consider before sending text to a printer or to a Braille embosser. We next explained how to send a portion of your currently open file to another device. And then we outlined how to use some Files menu options to transfer whole files between your Type 'n Speak and another device. And finally, we outlined how you can turn your Type 'n Speak into a speech synthesizer, or into a remote device. Concentrate on those sections that meet your needs, and skim over the rest. There's a lot of information here. So, take your time in learning about this subject. Once you have it mastered, you'll definitely reap rewards. CHAPTER 18: Running External Programs Introduction In Chapters 16 and 17, we discussed how to transfer files into your Type 'n Speak. Such files can be textfiles or programs. While the Type 'n Speak has many built-in programs, it also lets you run numerous external programs to give you even more flexibility. Some of these programs are free and available on disk, or over the Internet from Blazie Engineering. Others are programs you can purchase from us. In either case, all external programs are loaded and run using the same set of steps. So this chapter explains how to run external programs on your Type 'n Speak. Each external program comes with its own documentation. So the only ones we need to cover in detail here are the ones critical to keeping your unit up to date. These include the program that lets you update your Type 'n Speak's software, and the program that lets you turn your Type 'n Speak into a bilingual device. How to Obtain Programs for the Type 'n Speak You can transfer a program into your Type 'n Speak from disk, or directly from the Internet. If you're transferring a program from disk, you can use either Blazie Engineering's portable external disk drive, or a PC. If you're transferring it from the Internet, you can use an external modem directly with your Type 'n Speak, or you can transfer it first to your PC with its modem and your screen reader, and then from the PC to the Type 'n Speak. We offer a couple of external programs that you can load onto your unit to make file transfers and connecting to the Internet quite easy: PC Disk and Braille Term. On the Internet, Blazie Engineering maintains a website, FTP (file transfer protocol) site, and technical support mailing list. Through the website and FTP site, we can share Blazie news with you and provide a way to download any of our free programs. Through the mailing list, we can help you with technical questions and provide you an easy way to talk with other users who can share their knowledge and experience with you. In addition, if you have a maintenance service contract with us, we can send you upgrades as file attachments via e-mail. (See Appendix A, or look in your Help file for our contact information.) Which Files are External Programs? External programs for the Type 'n Speak must have extensions of .bin, .bns, .com, .dic, .exe, or .sys. Most have .bns extensions. (For a full discussion of transferring files into your Type 'n Speak, see the relevant sections in Chapters 16 and 17.) Running an External Program To run an external program on your Type 'n Speak, you have two options: You can either run the program from within the Files menu, or from within your currently open file. Here's how it works. Running a Program From the Files Menu To run a program from within the Files menu, you must bring up the Files menu with F1, and then point to the program you want to run. In most cases, the program has a .bns extension. Your options are: ? To hear information about the pointed-to program, type a question mark. After the Type 'n Speak briefly describes the program, it leaves you back at the Files menu prompt, "Enter file command." ? To run the pointed-to program, press Alt+x. ? To run the pointed-to program with arguments, type an x. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter arguments." Type the argument (or arguments separated by commas) and press enter to run the program. ? To move to the previous program in your files list, press Left-arrow. ? To move to the next program in your files list, press Right- arrow. Note: Programs stored in Flash can run from there only if there is enough free space in RAM for them to move to RAM while they run. When you end a program, you're back in the Files menu at the prompt, "Enter file command," pointing to the program's name in your files list. Running a Program From the Currently Open File To run a program from within your currently open file, press F9 or Alt+o, followed by an x. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter program to execute." Type the filename of the program you want to run and press Enter. You don't even need to type the extension part of the program's filename if it has a .bns extension. To return to your currently open file without running a program, answer the Type 'n Speak prompt with Esc. When you end the program, you're back in your currently open file wherever you had stopped working in that file. Updating Your Type 'n Speak The Type 'n Speak's update software is called "tnseng.tns". You can load it onto your unit from disk or from a PC. If you have a maintenance service contract with Blazie Engineering, you can receive the update file as an e-mail attachment. Back up any important files before updating your Type 'n Speak. The update software may erase all your existing files. (For a full discussion of how to back up files, see the relevant sections on transferring files in Chapters 16 and 17.) Once you've loaded the "tnseng.tns" program file into your Type 'n Speak, you may run the program just as you would any of our other external programs. Make sure that the battery is freshly charged, or that the Type 'n Speak is plugged into an outlet, before running the update program. If the battery fails during the update process, you'll be sending your machine back to Blazie for repairs. Now, here's what should happen when you run the update program: First, the Type 'n Speak says, "WARNING! This program should only be used to upgrade a Type 'n Speak. Are you sure you want to continue? Enter y or n." If you type an n, the Type 'n Speak says, "Aborted," leaving you back in the file you had open last. If you type a y, the Type 'n Speak continues to its next warning. Now the Type 'n Speak says, "WARNING! Updating your machine may destroy all of your files. Do you want to update your machine? Enter y or n." If you type a y, the Type 'n Speak repeats, "Are you sure? Enter y or n." When you type a y at this point, the Type 'n Speak begins the update process. It says, "Ready to install your Type 'n Speak update." The update program next tests and validates your unit, which takes about 30 seconds. Even before starting this part of the procedure, though, it warns you that the entire update takes about four minutes to install. The Type 'n Speak next tells you that it has detected Superflash. Then it asks you for a primary language with, "Enter a for first language, b for second." (For a full discussion of secondary languages you can install in your Type 'n Speak, see the next section in this chapter.) Whether or not you install a secondary language, you must respond to the prompt. So type an a to choose English as your primary language. At this point, the program alerts you that the remainder of the update process takes about three more minutes. Listen carefully to the instructions it provides, because you must follow them to the letter. The update program reminds you that when you hear a continuous long tone, the update process will be complete, and it will be safe to turn off your unit at that time. It also warns you that if you hear rapid beeps instead of a continuous long tone, the update will have failed, and you should call Blazie Engineering for help. Finally, you are warned very specifically not to do anything at all to your unit while the update is in progress. You can tell the update program is running because the Type 'n Speak emits progress clicks as the update installs. Once the process is complete, and you hear the continuous long tone, turn off your unit. If your Type 'n Speak behaves improperly after it's been updated, you must perform a cold reset. As we warned you at the beginning of this section, data files are generally lost completely when you update - especially if you have to take drastic measures. A cold reset also changes most settings in your Status menu back to our defaults. So keep that in mind if you must perform a cold reset. Through the entire re-initialization process of a cold reset, the Type 'n Speak forces you to answer each prompt twice. To perform a cold reset, first turn off the Type 'n Speak. And then: 1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del as you power up the Type 'n Speak. You may have to hold down the keys for a couple of seconds after flipping the on/off rocker switch. The Type 'n Speak says, "Initialize file system? Enter y or n." 2. To initialize the system, type a y. Then you hear, "Are you sure? Enter y or n." Type a y. The Type 'n Speak says, "System initialized. Initialize Flash system? Enter y or n." 3. To initialize the Flash system, type a y. Then you hear, "Are you sure? Enter y or n." So type another y. The Type 'n Speak says, "Please wait" and eventually, "Flash initialized" as the update program reconfigures the Flash memory in your machine. Note that initializing Flash means all files previously stored there are erased permanently. Make sure they're backed up before you update your unit! 4. To initialize folders, answer the prompt, "Initialize folder system? Enter y or n." Type a y. When the Type 'n Speak processes this step, it says, "Type 'n Speak ready; Help is open. Delete all data in your file area? Enter y or n." 5. To delete all files in your data area, the preferred choice, type a y. Then you hear, "Are you sure? Enter y or n." Type a y. The Type 'n Speak also needs to know on which language bank you want to place the update, language bank a or b. Even if you don't plan to add a second language, you must answer this prompt with an a for the primary language bank or a b for the secondary language bank. When you've answered all the prompts from the update program, the Type 'n Speak cleans out all your old data. You hear a series of progress clicks to let you know the process is working properly. Finally, the Type 'n Speak says, "Type 'n Speak ready; Help is open." By the way, performing a cold reset removes the update program from your unit along with all other data files. But if you don't need to perform a cold reset, you must remove the software manually. And you should, because it takes up about 70 Type 'n Speak pages. CAUTION: You should install the update program in both language banks of the Type 'n Speak even if you don't plan to add a second language to your unit. If you don't, you may experience disastrous consequences (losing all RAM files) and have to ship your unit back to Blazie for repairs. So just run the update program a second time, this time answering the "language bank a or b" prompt with a b. When the second update is complete, you should also transfer the file called "tnseng.hlp" onto your unit. This file contains the latest version of the Help file. Once it's loaded, rename it "help" so that you can view it with the Help key. (For a full discussion of how to use the comprehensive Help file, see "Getting Help" in Chapter 4 and "Using a Mini-help File" in Chapter 7.) Skim through the new Help file for changes, and read through the file called "update.txt" or "update.brl" that should be included in your update package to learn about any new features. The Bilingual Type 'n Speak At the time of this writing, the Type 'n Speak can instantly learn over 14 languages, and there are more languages on the way. The Type 'n Speak can be bilingual because it can hold any two languages in its memory at any one time. The default language for the unit is English, but you can make the default another language if you prefer. Each additional language costs $99. Call Blazie Engineering for a current list of available languages. The most popular ones include Spanish, French, and Russian. Although the Type 'n Speak is not multilingual, you can switch the two languages it speaks at any one time by having extra languages available on disk, ready to install when you need them. A language comes in the form of a program file that you run like any other external program in your unit. Each language file is specific to each Blazie notetaker. So be clear for which notetaker you're purchasing a language when you order. A language program is, in effect, virtually identical to the update software for your unit, except that all the prompts it speaks are in the language being installed. So it's essential that the person installing it is familiar enough with the language to follow the prompts in that language. (For a full discussion of how to update your Type 'n Speak, see the previous section.) When you get the language program, notice that the name of the file reflects the language - for example, the Spanish file is called "tsspa.tns." Load the program file into your Type 'n Speak, using either our portable disk drive or a PC to transfer the file. Then run the program as you would the English update software. When you arrive at the prompt for choosing your primary and secondary languages, you can choose the foreign language as your primary language (language bank a) or as your secondary language (language bank b). Depending on which language you install as primary, the prompt you hear when you turn on the Type 'n Speak may not be what you expect. Let's say that you installed Spanish as a secondary language. In this case, when you turn on the Type 'n Speak immediately after installing the Spanish language update, you'll hear, "Type 'n Speak ready, Help is open" in English. Switching Languages To switch to the alternative language installed on your Type 'n Speak, bring up the Parameters menu with Alt+p. Then type an l. Instantly, the Type 'n Speak switches into the other language (for example, Spanish) and says the name of the currently open file, and how many Type 'n Speak pages it contains, in Spanish. From now on, the Type 'n Speak announces all its prompts and reads all text you type (as well as all text previously typed) in Spanish. Translations of Type 'n Speak prompts are not exact, and there are occasional glitches in grammar. But for the most part, all the English Type 'n Speak prompts translate very well. And you can flip back and forth between the two languages in your machine simply by pressing Alt+p, followed by an l, or by turning off the Type 'n Speak and turning it on again. This makes it revert to its primary language. Summary In this chapter, we covered everything you need to know in order to run an external program on your Type 'n Speak. We detailed explicitly the procedure you must follow to update the software in your unit to the latest revision. And finally, we explained how to install a second language - any one of more than a dozen - in your Type 'n Speak. There are many more external programs for the Type 'n Speak you may want to explore. They range from simple and fun games to sophisticated utilities and tools. We hope you'll visit our Internet site to check them out, or call us for details. APPENDIX A: Frequently Asked Questions Introduction By now, you are no doubt comfortable with the general operation of your Type 'n Speak. But, if something goes wrong, you may still feel you need help. This appendix addresses many of the questions we get about everything from the use of the A.C. power adapter to word wrapping. We've grouped the questions into categories, so you can find what you need more easily. Incidentally, some solutions suggested below come directly from those of you brave enough to challenge the murky waters of troubleshooting. We commend you for helping all of us. Telecommunications Questions 1. How do I connect my Type 'n Speak to my (brand name) printer, computer, or modem? You must connect the right cables, and match the telecommunications settings between your Type 'n Speak and the other device. We offer a wide range of cables which connect the Type 'n Speak to computers, printers, and modems. These include cables for the IBM PC-compatibles, Apple computers, and printers. See Chapter 15 for general information, and Appendix C for technical information about cables. By default, the Type 'n Speak's telecommunications settings are set to the most commonly used parameters. Check their current status from the Status menu. See "Customizing Telecommunications Settings" in Chapter 15. 2. I connect my cable to my modem. It fits, but I cannot communicate. The cable may fit, but you need a null modem adapter to talk to the modem. 3. I am connected to my modem with a null modem adapter. When I try to communicate, I hear, "Waiting on serial device." Carrier Detect must be changed. It is low and must be made high. Try "at ampersand c1" from a PC, then "at ampersand w" to save the configuration. 4. My Type 'n Speak cable fits into my PC's serial port, but won't communicate. If the cable that comes with your Type 'n Speak fits into your port with no adapters, then you may have accidentally forced it into the disk drive port. The serial port is closest to the A.C. power adapter jack. 5. I hear "File is full" while connected to my printer or to my modem. If you're in a mode of duplex where material is stored and/or echoed back from the other device, and therefore appended to the end of your currently open file, you might run into a "File is full" error message. Turn off the serial port and check the file's contents, deleting any extraneous text. Also, change the duplex or echo feature of the device in question. 6. My Type 'n Speak doesn't speak the last character it receives from the modem when I'm connected to the Internet, or from the PC when I'm connected to it. You need to set the Interactive Timeout parameter, normally set to 0 (or "off"). Set this parameter from the Status menu. Speech devices require specific signals - for example, hard returns and spaces - in order to speak data they have received from another device. Occasionally, the final signal sent from an external device is not what the Type 'n Speak expects. For these cases, the Type 'n Speak produces a signal of its own. The Interactive Timeout parameter sets the amount of time the Type 'n Speak waits before generating this signal. Bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an x. By default, Interactive Timeout is set to 0 (off). To change the length of time the Type 'n Speak waits before issuing the signal to speak the data it has received, type a number from 1 to 255, representing tenths of a second. (Setting it to 10 means that the Type 'n Speak waits one second before speaking data it has received.) Generally, setting it to 3 works best. 7. When using the Type 'n Speak as a remote device with the Personal Touch or the MiniBraille, how do I match the telecommunications settings? For the MiniBraille, the default settings are: 9600 baud, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, software handshaking. For the Personal Touch, the default settings are: 4800 baud, even parity, 7 data bits, 1 stop bit, software handshaking. Finally, make sure you activate the serial port before pressing Alt+0 to activate remote mode. Internet Connection Questions 1. How do I connect my Type 'n Speak to the Internet? First, connect your Type 'n Speak to an external modem through its serial port. The cable that comes with your unit should connect to most Hayes-compatible modems. Make sure the modem and Type 'n Speak are set to the same telecommunications settings. Next, install telecommunications software on your Type 'n Speak. We offer two programs, Braille Term and V-Term, for this purpose. Run the telecommunications program from the Files menu or from your currently open file. See Chapters 16 and 17 for how to transfer files and Chapter 18 for how to run external programs. 2. What kinds of files can I download to my Type 'n Speak from the Internet? The only program files that run on your unit are those that are specifically written for the Blazie notetakers. Their filenames always end in a .bns extension. In addition, you can certainly download any ASCII textfile, as long as it is not compressed. Printing Questions 1. When I try to print, my printer won't move to the next line. Add line-feeds is off. When you activate this setting, a line- feed character is sent to the printer with every line that is printed. See the "Adding Line-feeds" section in Chapter 17. 2. When I try to print, the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay," but nothing happens. The printer is probably off-line. Turn the printer on-line. 3. When I print to a PC, I get garbage - mainly x's, p's and at- signs. Most likely, baud rates don't match. Check the baud rate on both devices. 4. When I print to a PC, my document is missing characters. Check that handshaking settings on the Type 'n Speak and on the PC match. Transmission Questions 1. I can't send or receive files from my disk drive, and I am properly connected to it. If I press the Transmit key, I don't hear the "Disk drive" message before the prompt, "Enter s to send or r to receive." If I press F8 from within my currently open file, I hear, "Storage device missing." Check that the disk drive is turned on. If this doesn't work, then turn the Type 'n Speak off and on again. 2. I'm connected to a computer or to a modem. When data comes in, I can hear it, but I can't read back the last piece of information received, and I can't read back what I type when responding to a prompt. Cursor tracking is probably off - so, the Type 'n Speak isn't tracking where you're writing and reading, although you may be typing at the end of the file and are not in Continuous Overwrite mode. Press Down-arrows from wherever you are to start reading the data most recently received. To jump directly to the very last thing sent by the other device, press End to move to the end of your file, and then read the current line. But it's better just to activate cursor tracking. See "Selecting Your Typing Mode" in Chapter 4. 3. I'm connected to a computer or modem, but whatever I type is doubled, even though data transmitted to my Type 'n Speak is fine. Your telecommunications program, and some modems, let you disable the echoing of your keystrokes. You're actually not transmitting double characters to the other device. It thinks you want to see each character it got from you. So it echoes your keystrokes back to you. It's easier to disable echoing from the Type 'n Speak side than from the PC side of the link. Change your duplex to full. See "Customizing Telecommunications Settings" in Chapter 15. Crash and Recovery Questions 1. All of my files have become gibberish. When I look at my files list, the filenames are incorrect. This rarely happens to our newer revisions, but there may be something wrong with your unit. It may be fixable. Try a warm reset. If that doesn't work, you must perform a cold reset. You perform a warm reset to return all Type 'n Speak settings to their default values (except for the battery timer and voice configurations) and without loss of data. Voice configurations are retained, but your Type 'n Speak reverts to Voice 1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Type 'n Speak says, "Warm reset, please verify." Press Ctrl+Alt+Del again to confirm. CAUTION: Do not perform a warm reset within another command, or while data are being transmitted. You can also perform a warm reset when you turn on the Type 'n Speak. With the power off, press Alt+Del as you power up the Type 'n Speak. Once power is on, continue to hold down Alt+Del for about a second. Use the cold reset procedure only as a last resort. All settings are reset to their defaults and all files you may have created, as well as their data, might be lost. To perform a cold reset, with the power off, press Ctrl+Alt+Del for about 2 seconds as you power up. The Type 'n Speak prompts you about initializing the system and so on. Using this command is drastic because the Type 'n Speak cleans things up. Your data is irrevocably lost. This process insures that no one can recover your personal data - so a cold reset is a good idea when exchanging your Type 'n Speak for an upgrade or a repaired machine. 2. When I turn on my Type 'n Speak, it says the correct message, but every time I press a key, it either says, "Space" or "File is write-protected." You may have write-protected the currently open file and don't remember having done so. Bring up the Files menu and press Alt+i to hear the status of the currently open file. If it is write-protected, unprotect it with a u. 3. My Type 'n Speak is dead when I turn it on. A warm reset usually fixes this problem. 4. I have deleted a file (or portion of a file). How can I retrieve it? This depends on whether you've done anything else since your deletion. If you haven't created another file, or performed another deletion, here's what to try: Example 1: You've deleted text from the current cursor position to the end of the file. Since the Clipboard is like a trash can, text you just deleted is there. To bring it back where it belongs in your currently open file, first move your cursor to the right place. Then press NumLock, followed by a c. Example 2: You've just deleted the last file in your files list. You can recover the file from the Files menu using a similar procedure to the one just described. But you now have no file to fill with text. So the first step is to create a new file. From this new empty file, bring up the Files menu and type an equals-sign. The Type 'n Speak says, "Recover file. Are you sure? Enter y or n." Type a y to recover the file. Check its end to see whether you have extraneous text to delete. RAM and Flash Questions 1. Can I load a file directly into Flash memory? Yes. But it depends on whether you're in Folder mode or All Files mode. If you're in Folder mode when you transfer files, they are stored in your current folder. So if that folder is in Flash, the files are also stored there. If you're in All Files mode, however, when transferring files, they are stored in your RAM portion. 2. When I view my files list from within the Files menu, I don't hear the numbers of the files I have stored in Flash. Due to the nature of Flash memory, files stored in Flash get shuffled around a lot. So their numbers are irrelevant. The lowest-numbered file in Flash is 128 since files stored in RAM are numbered from 02 to 127 (0 being the Help file and 01 being the Clipboard). You can jump to the first 99 RAM files by pressing F9 or Alt+o, followed by their two-digit numbers. To find the rest of your RAM files or any Flash files, move through your files list until you're pointing to the one you want, or use the File Find feature in the Files menu (Alt+f). For a full discussion of how to open files, see Chapter 7. 3. I can't move a small file into Flash. The Type 'n Speak says there's not enough room in Flash to fit the file. But, when I check how much free memory I have, there appears to be plenty of room in Flash. You might juggle some files a bit. First, move the largest file currently stored in Flash temporarily into RAM. Then move your small file into Flash. And finally, return the large file you just moved into RAM back into Flash. This procedure should shift things around enough so that your file fits into an available chunk of Flash memory. 4. I just moved a big file from Flash into RAM. But the Type 'n Speak still reports the same amount of Flash memory as it did before I moved the file. There is now a defragmentation program for the Type 'n Speak to fix this problem. Call us for details on how to obtain it. 5. I can't store an extra language program file in Flash for later updating of my Type 'n Speak. When I try to move the program file into Flash, the Type 'n Speak reports I don't have enough room there, even though I do. At the time of this writing, you cannot move a program file larger than 128K into Flash. But you can move a textfile larger than 128K into Flash, and you can move the spellchecker into Flash. Miscellaneous Questions 1. The F9, k command gives the wrong answer. The mathematical expression must be on a line alone, with no other text, and the Type 'n Speak must be in line reading mode - not window or sentence mode. 2. I want to cancel a command I've started to perform - like Insert text, or Find text, or Record a macro. Abort with Esc. This command aborts almost any procedure. If you press Esc during a transmission, the transfer is canceled. If you press Esc from within the Help file, you return to your currently open file. 3. I don't hear anything when I press a backspace. You might have duplex set to Full or None. Change it to Half duplex. 4. The filenames on the disk in my PC, or my disk drive, are not the same as the names of the files that I transmitted from my Type 'n Speak. You must use MS DOS file naming conventions when naming Type 'n Speak files that you plan to send to a PC or to the external disk drive. For a full discussion of filenames, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4. 5. My Type 'n Speak's voice sounds very flat. It's not pausing smoothly at commas and periods when I read through my files. Somehow your voice inflection setting got turned off. Bring up the Status menu with F10 and type an i. Then type a y to activate voice inflection. Exit the Status menu with Esc. 6. I can't flip between the last two files I opened. The Type 'n Speak thinks one of them is my "calendar" file. You must have Calendar Alert activated. So whenever you turn on the Type 'n Speak, it checks your "calendar" for today. Whether or not it finds anything, that file is now the last file the Type 'n Speak opened. The solution is either to turn off Calendar Alert from within the Status menu, or not to turn off the Type 'n Speak at any time while flipping between the last two files you opened. APPENDIX B: Quick Reference Introduction The Type 'n Speak is a product of Blazie Engineering. This quick reference guide lists by subject all the commands for the Type 'n Speak. Our complete contact information is: Blazie Engineering 105 East Jarrettsville Rd. Forest Hill, MD 21050 Phone: (410) 893-9333 Fax: (410) 836-5040 E-mail for technical support: E-mail for general information: E-Mail support list: To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: . Leaving the subject blank, type "subscribe support-list" in the body of the message. Website: FTP site: Preliminaries Here is some preliminary information about your Type 'n Speak: ? The Type 'n Speak has two kinds of memory: RAM and Flash. The RAM portion holds 758 kilobytes, and the Flash portion holds 2 megabytes. This means that you can have up to 127 files in RAM and about 992 files in Flash. ? The Type 'n Speak page can contain up to 4,096 characters. The RAM portion of the Type 'n Speak's memory can hold up to 184 pages. A single file may contain as many pages as desired, as long as that number does not exceed the 184-page limit. ? A line is defined as a block of text ending with a hard return. A paragraph is defined as a block of text ending with two or more hard returns, or two or more pairs of hard return / line-feeds. ? Page format commands let you specify physical line length and page length to prepare the document for printing or brailling. ? The phrase "(y, n)" means that you can select either y for yes or n for no. ? Spaces in command sequences are used only for readability. ? To silence speech at any time, press Ctrl+Alt. Function Keys Note: Function keys are on the top row. From left to right, the function keys are: Abort any command or leave a menu - Esc. Enter File menu - F1. Locate cursor - Shift+F1. Find text - F2. Speak room left in file - Shift+F2. Run calculator - F3. Move cursor by block of text - Shift+F3. Speak current time - F4. Run stopwatch - Shift+F4. Speak current date - F5. Get a date from the calendar - Shift+F5. Spellcheck - F6. Enter Speech Parameters menu - F7. Store to disk drive - F8. Enter Options menu - F9. Locate page - Shift+F9. Enter Status menu - F10. Enter Speechbox mode - Shift+F10. Paste - NumLock. Copy text - Shift+NumLock. Record macro - Scroll-Lock. Print or transmit through serial port - PrtScr. Print or transmit through parallel port - Shift+PrtScr. Open Help file - Break. Invoke key learn mode - Shift+Break. Speech Parameters Menu Enter Speech Parameters menu - F7. Exit Speech Parameters menu saving current settings - Esc. Note: The following commands are available from within the Speech Parameters menu. Softer volume - Down-arrow. Louder volume - Up-arrow. Slower speed - Left-arrow. Faster speed - Right-arrow. Lower pitch - Shift+Left-arrow. Higher pitch - Shift+Right-arrow. Lower frequency - Shift+Down-arrow. Higher frequency - Shift+Up-arrow. Cycle among keyboard modes (key echo, key click, silent keys) - spacebar. Toggle between speaking numbers as digits and as words - n. Speak status of punctuation setting - p. Do not announce any punctuation - z. Announce some punctuation - s. Announce most punctuation - m. Announce total punctuation, including spaces and control characters - t. Switch to previous/next voice - PgUp/PgDn. Notes: ? Once you select a voice, configure speech parameters such as volume, rate, pitch, tone, punctuation level, announcement of numbers, and keyboard mode. ? Exit Speech Parameters menu with Esc when finished. ? The current voice stays in effect until you select another voice configuration. ? If you perform a warm reset, the Type 'n Speak reverts to Voice 1 with its default settings, but all other voice configurations you have established are still available. ? If you perform a cold reset, voice configurations are lost altogether. Voice shift for PC edit mode - percent (Shift+5), number, Enter. (The higher the number, the greater the contrast in pitch among the three PC edit modes: Append mode at normal, Insert mode at a higher pitch, Overwrite mode at a lower pitch. If you choose 0, all modes sound the same.) Toggle enhanced Speechbox mode on/off - Shift+F10. block handshaking - b. line handshaking - l. word handshaking - w. Toggle speechbox mode on/off - Alt+s. (All serial input is spoken but not stored in the Type 'n Speak. To silence the voice, press any Type 'n Speak key, or press Ctrl-X from computer keyboard.) Toggle PC MASTER or Windows Master Speechbox mode on/off - Alt+p. Note: The following commands assume that Speechbox mode is on. They are used by a screen reader to alter the voice in the Type 'n Speak when it is acting as a speech synthesizer. Volume - Control e x v, where x represents a volume from 01 to 16, 01 being the lowest volume. Pitch - Control e x p, where x represents a pitch from 01 to 63, 01 being the lowest pitch. Speech rate - Control e x e, where x represents a rate from 01 to 16, 01 being the slowest speech rate. Frequency - Control e x t, where x represents a tone from 01 to 25, 01 being the lowest frequency. Punctuation level - Control e followed by a, m, s, or z, where the letters represent All, Most, Some, or No punctuation, respectively. Index marker - Control f. Silence command - Control x. File Commands Enter Help file from any other file - Help key. (Press Esc to return to previously open file.) Open a file whose number is known - F9, #. (# is a two-digit number between 00-99; but you can have up to 127 files in RAM and 992 files in Flash in your unit.) Flip to last file opened before currently open file - F9 or Alt+o, l. Jump directly to calendar file from currently open file - F9 or Alt+o, e. Jump to other file directly from currently open file - F9 or Alt+o, o. (Cursor must be on first character of desired filename.) Jump to phonebook - F9 or Alt+o, p. Open phonebook file - F9 or Alt+o, Alt+p. Enter Files menu - F1. Exit Files menu - Esc. Note: The following commands all begin with F1. If wildcard characters are permitted, a (w) appears after the command. Bring up File Command menu - Help key. To navigate through command list: Cycle through list - spacebar. Move to the next command - Down-arrow. Move to the previous command - Up-arrow. Repeat the current command - Shift+Up-arrow. Move to the beginning of the command list - Home. Move to the end of the command list - End. Perform command being pointed to - Enter. Hear hot key for command being pointed to - Shift+End. Return to currently open file - Esc. Return to the Files menu prompt - F1. Speak file number, filename, and page count of pointed-to file - Shift+Up-arrow or Alt+c. Spell name of pointed-to file - Shift+down-arrow. Speak name of previous file in files list - Up-arrow. (Includes number of pages and Grade 2 Braille translator status.) Speak name of next file in files list - Down-arrow. (Includes number of pages and Grade 2 Braille translator status.) Speak name of previous file without other file information - Shift+left-arrow. Speak name of next file without other file information - Shift+right-arrow. Move to top of files list - Home. Move to end of files list - End. Open an existing file - o (filename) Enter. Open pointed-to file - Enter. Find file in files list - Alt+f. (When you supply a wildcard pattern to the prompt for a filename, your files list becomes a mini-list containing only those files matching your wildcard pattern. All Files menu commands are available while viewing the mini-files list. To return to the whole files list, press Esc.) Make open file bigger - Shift+F2 or b. Make open file smaller - Shift+F1 or s. Rename open file - Shift+F3 or r. Write-protect open file - Shift+F5 or p. Unprotect open file - Shift+F4 or u. Create file - c, filename, Enter. Delete a file - d (filename) Enter (w). Delete pointed-to file - Del. Globally delete group of similarly-named files - g (w). List all files, and number of free pages at end of list - l. Quick list all files - q. Verbose list all files - v. Copy files list to Clipboard - Alt+v. Note: Files list is retained in Clipboard only until next Clipboard-related activity takes place. Tell name of open file - t. Tell complete information about pointed-to file - F8 or Alt+i. (Includes filename, Braille translator status, number of pages, date and time when last modified, number of bytes in file, write-protect status.) Tell last revision date and time of pointed-to file - F6 or Alt-m. Tell size of pointed-to file - F7 or Alt+colon. Write-protect pointed-to file - F5 or Alt+p. Unprotect pointed-to file - F4 or Alt+u. Password-protect a file - w, password, Enter, password, Enter. (Works only on the currently open file.) Remove password from password-protected file - w, Enter twice. (File must first be opened with its password before bringing up the Files menu and using the w command to remove the password. Pressing Enter twice at the "Enter password" prompt clears the password from the open file.) Make pointed-to file bigger - F2 or Alt+b. Make pointed-to file smaller - F1 or Alt+s. Rename pointed-to file - F3 or Alt+r. Tell complete information for file(s) - Shift+F8 or i, filename, Enter (w). (Includes filename, Braille translator status, number of pages, date and time when last modified, number of bytes in file, write-protect status.) Tell last revision date and time for file(s) - Shift+F6 or m, filename, Enter (w). Tell size of file(s) - Shift+F7 or colon, filename, Enter (w). Tell number of free pages remaining in RAM and free space remaining in FLASH memory - f. Recover open file - Equals. Execute external program - F9 or Alt+x. Execute external program with arguments - x, arguments, Enter. Speak information about pointed-to external program - Question mark. Move to next external program in files list - Right-arrow. Move to previous external program in files list - Left-arrow. Tell information about pointed-to external program - Question mark. Send pointed-to file to serial port or disk drive with ymodem protocol - F10 or Alt y. Receive file from serial port or disk drive with ymodem protocol - NumLock or Alt+&. Folder Commands Notes: ? The following commands are performed from the Files menu. Press F1 to bring up the Files menu. ? The Allow Folder mode setting must be activated from within the Status menu. Jump to the setting with Alt+f, and type a y to activate Folder mode. Toggle between Allow Folder mode/All Files mode - spacebar. (Folder mode must be active from within the Status menu in order for this command to work from within the Files menu. While in Folder mode, files can be viewed and moved to in their respective folders. While in All Files mode, files can be acted upon in the normal way, regardless of their folder locations.) Note: The following commands work while Allow Folder mode is enabled from within the Files menu. Once you're pointing to a particular folder, you can work with its files and view its files list, etc., using the usual Files menu commands. Speak name of open folder - Alt+7. Point to next folder - PgDn. Point to previous folder - PgUp. Point to first folder - Alt+8. Point to last folder - Alt+0. Jump to folder by number - 0 through 9. (You can jump by number only to the first 10 of Type 'n Speak's 20 possible folders. Use 0 for RAM startup folder, 1 for Flash startup folder, and so on through 9.) Create a folder - Plus, folder name, followed by f for Flash or r for RAM. (Files stored in Flash folders can be read but not edited. Programs stored in Flash can be run from there if there is enough room in RAM for them to work properly from within their Flash locations.) Move pointed-to file into folder - Shift+NumLock, folder where file is to go. (If file you want to move is empty, the process does not work.) Move file(s) into folder - Shift+comma (the less-than key), y or Alt+y to mark files to move, Enter, Up-/Down-arrow to select folder (or number from 0 through 9 of folder), Enter. When you press the less-than key, your files list comes up one file at a time, beginning with your open file. Here is what you can do while viewing your files list for marking files: ? To mark or unmark your open file, type a y or Alt+y. ? To move through your files list to decide which files to mark, press Up-arrow and Down-arrow. Once on a desired file, press y or Alt+y to mark it. ? To mark all RAM files, press r. ? To mark all Flash files, press f. ? To mark all files in the current folder, press m. ? To unmark all files in the current folder, press u. ? To mark a group of similarly- named files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+m, wildcard pattern, Enter.. ? To unmark a similarly-named group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+u, wildcard pattern, Enter. ? When all desired files are marked, press Enter to select the folder where the group of files should be moved. Then find the desired folder by pressing Up-/Down-arrow, or typing a number from 00 to 09 of the desired folder, and then press Enter. After files have been moved, you're at the "Enter file command" prompt -- and still in the file you had open before starting this process.) Move pointed-to file between RAM and Flash - Shift+NumLock. Notes: ? Command works when All Files mode is enabled from the Files menu, whether or not Allow Folder mode is in effect from the Status menu. ? If file is in Flash, it moves into RAM; if it's in RAM, it moves into Flash. ? Abort procedure by answering the prompt with an n. ? If open file is moved to other portion of memory, that file is no longer open. Point to it again from within the Files menu and open it by pressing Enter. Rename pointed-to folder - Shift+Scroll-Lock. Delete pointed-to folder - Dash. (A folder must be empty to be deleted.) Entering Text Note: Any characters you type are appended to the end of the file unless you are in Insert mode or in Continuous Overwrite mode. Backspace over and erase character under cursor - Backspace. Speak current cursor position within file - Shift+F1. (Announces column position from last hard return, and number of characters from beginning of file.) Speak current cursor position and line number within physical print or Braille page or absolute Type 'n Speak page - Shift+F9. (Enter b for Braille page, p for print page, a for absolute Type 'n Speak page.) Speak room left in open file - Shift+F2. Toggle words as spoken or silent as they are written - Alt+g. Select a voice configuration - Alt+y followed by a number. (Use speech configurations from 1 to 5. Configure voices from within Speech Parameters menu.) Note: The following two commands work while PC Edit mode is inactive. Overwrite current character - Shift+Insert. Continuous overwrite mode - Shift+Insert twice. (Press Shift+Insert again to turn off Continuous Overwrite, or turn off unit.) Note: The following two commands work while PC Edit mode is active. Toggle among Overwrite, Append and Insert modes - Insert. Overwrite current character only - Shift+Insert. (Works only in Insert mode.) Mark beginning of block of text at current cursor position - Alt+m. Tab specified number of columns relative to last hard return - Tab #. (Number refers to number of spaces from last hard return.) Type repeated character string - Tab, followed by character to be repeated, followed by number of times to be repeated, Enter. (Use a number to indicate how many times you want the character repeated. The limit is 255. You cannot repeat a digit, since it is assumed that a numeral following a Tab refers to the number of spaces to tab. But, you can repeat the space character itself.) Enter ASCII value of character - Alt+9, number between 0 and 255, Enter. Moving the Cursor and Speaking Text Note: When a single character is spoken, it is at a higher-than- normal pitch if the character is in uppercase. Speak current character - Shift+End. Speak current character phonetically - Shift+End twice. (E.g., a alpha, b bravo. Continue moving backward and forward a character at a time in this mode until any other key sequence is pressed.) Speak ASCII value of current character - Shift+End three times. (The setting must be activated from the Status menu; e.g., 65 for uppercase a, 97 for lowercase a. Continue moving backward and forward a character at a time in this mode until any other key sequence is pressed.) Move to and speak previous character - Shift+Left-arrow. Move to and speak next character - Shift+Right-arrow. Speak current word - Shift+Down-arrow. Spell current word - Shift+Down-arrow twice. (Continue moving backward and forward a word at a time in this mode until any other key sequence is pressed.) Move to and speak previous word - Left-arrow. Move to and speak next word - Right-arrow. Speak current line - Shift+up-arrow. Move to and speak previous line - Up-arrow. Move to and speak next line - Down-arrow. Move to previous paragraph - PgUp. Move to next paragraph - PgDn. Move to top of file - Home. Move to end of file - End. Speak all text from current cursor position to end of file - Ctrl+End. Skim text with hyper-speech - Hold down Ctrl while text is being read. (When you are reading nonstop with Ctrl+End, holding down Ctrl as Type 'n Speak reads speeds up voice. Releasing Ctrl returns voice to normal rate.) Move by number of blocks of text - Shift+F3, first letter of block choice, Enter. Notes: ? Cycle among choices with the spacebar. This command takes the reading cursor to a point relative to beginning of document. ? To move relative to current location in document, precede writing the number of blocks of text you want to move with a plus (+) to go forward or a minus (-) to go backward. Choices include: Absolute Type 'n Speak page - a. Braille page - b. character - c. line - l. mark - m. print page - p. word - w. Count number of blocks of text in file - Shift+F3, first letter of choice, 0, Enter. (E.g., Shift+F3 w0, Enter counts the number of words in the open file.) Skip blank lines when moving cursor over text - Alt+ampersand, (y/n). Speak windows, lines or sentences - F10, v (w-windows, l-lines, or s-sentences). Finding and Replacing Text Notes: ? You can search for a block of text up to 63 characters in length. ? You can backspace to make corrections in the search string as you type it. ? You can read the search string with Shift+Up-arrow. Distinguish case of text during a search - F10, exclamation point (y/n). (Case sensitivity is normally off.) Find text forward from current cursor position - F2, text to find, F2. Find text backward from current cursor position - F2, text to find, Up-arrow. Find date previously inserted into file - F2, Alt+g, number of days or date, F2 or Up-arrow. (If number of days is preceded by a minus, the calendar searches backward from today. Otherwise, it searches forward from today. F2 searches forward in the file; Up-arrow searches backward in the file.) Search and replace text - F2, text to find, Alt+r, replacement text, Enter; then r for replace, s for skip, or a for all. (If search string is not found, process aborts.) Deleting Text Notes: ? When you delete a block of text, the first 4,096 characters of that block temporarily go into the Clipboard. But, Clipboard content is cleared when Speechbox mode or certain disk drive commands are activated. At such times, the Clipboard content relates to those activities. ? The Clipboard automatically expands to accommodate deletions larger than one Type 'n Speak page. ? Place cursor at beginning of block of text to delete. ? All delete commands begin with Del. ? To move through the Delete Parameters menu: Back a choice - Up-arrow. Forward a choice - Down-arrow. First choice - Home. Last choice - End. Jump to a choice - Type first letter of choice. To delete multiple blocks of text, follow the appropriate letter with a number. ? Complete a delete command with Enter to empty the Clipboard before the text you're deleting gets placed there. Complete a delete command with NumLock to append your deletion to whatever is already in the Clipboard. ? Abort a Delete command with Esc. Delete character under cursor - Del twice. Delete current character(s) - Del, c Enter/NumLock. Delete current word(s) - Del, w Enter/NumLock. Delete current line(s) - Del, l Enter/NumLock. (Must have Windows set to Lines.) Delete current sentence(s) - Del, s Enter/NumLock. (Must have Windows set to Sentences.) Delete current paragraph(s) - Del, p Enter/NumLock. Delete from current cursor position to end of file - Del, z Enter/NumLock. Delete from beginning of marked block of text to current cursor position - Del, m Enter/NumLock. (Before executing command, mark beginning of text to be deleted with Alt+m. Then place cursor one character beyond endpoint of block of text to be deleted.) Delete block of text - Del, b, search string at endpoint of block, Enter/NumLock. (Place cursor at beginning of text to be deleted. Then press Del, b. Enter string of characters up to which text should be deleted.) Inserting Text Notes: ? When you copy text into the Clipboard to prepare it for insertion, it is not deleted from the file you have open. ? The Clipboard expands to accommodate the block you're inserting. ? When you insert text, it is inserted at the current cursor position, instead of being appended to the end of the file. ? Use backspace to make corrections in the text you're inserting. ? Read the text you're inserting by pressing any of the reading commands (e.g., Up-arrow, Shift+Up-arrow, etc.). Insert text into open file - Insert, text to be inserted, Enter. Insert today's date into open file - NumLock, d. Insert current time into open file - NumLock, t. Insert specified date into open file - NumLock, g, date in mmddyy format, Enter. Insert result from calculator into currently open file - NumLock, c. Note: The last item in the Clipboard must be a result from the calculator. Insert time being reported by stopwatch into currently open file - NumLock, # (number-sign), Shift+3. Paste text from Clipboard into currently open file - NumLock, c. (Before performing command, mark beginning of text to be pasted with Alt+m. Find its endpoint, and press Shift+NumLock to copy it into the Clipboard. Choose c to empty the Clipboard of all previous text and copy only your marked text into it. Or, choose a to add the text you're copying to whatever is already in the Clipboard. Then perform the insertion.) Insert another file into currently open file - NumLock, f, filename to be inserted, Enter. (Your open file automatically expands to accept the incoming file, assuming there is enough room in RAM. Move cursor to exact location where incoming file should be inserted into currently open file, pressing hard returns and/or page breaks prior to insertion to ensure proper formatting of incoming file.) Formatting Text Notes: ? Formatting strings override Status menu settings. ? Type all formatting strings directly into file to be formatted for print or Braille output. Formatting strings begin with a dollar sign ($) and are surrounded by spaces on either side - e.g., ' $ub ' to turn on underlining. ? Where "nn" is part of a formatting string, replace with appropriate number. ? Formatting strings for positioning page numbers apply only for documents to be printed. Documents to be Brailled always have page numbers positioned at the top right. Set left margin - $mlnn. Set right margin - $mrnn. Set top margin - $mtnn. Set bottom margin - $mbnn. Set page length - $plnn. Set page width - $pwnn. Increase left margin by number - $ml+nn. Increase right margin by number - $mr+nn. Increase top margin by number - $mt+nn. Increase bottom margin by number - $mb+nn. Decrease left margin by number - $ml-nn. Decrease right margin by number - $mr-nn. Decrease top margin by number - $mt-nn. Decrease bottom margin by number - $mb-nn. Pause printer for user to press key after each page - $w. New line - $l. New paragraph - $p. New page - $f. Center current line - $c. No justification - $jn. Right justification - $jr. Full justification - $jf. Number pages in Arabic numerals - $pnar. Number pages in Roman numerals - $pnrn. No page numbering - $pnnp. Print page number at top left - $pntl. Print page number at top center - $pntc. Print page number at top right - $pntr. Print page number at bottom left - $pnbl. Print page number at bottom center - $pnbc. Print page number at bottom right - $pnbr. Set new page number - $pnnn. Move to next tab position - $t. Set size of tab - $tsnn. Move to column relative to left margin - $tonn. Outdent left margin one tab position for current line - $out. Set line spacing - $lsnn. Begin underline - $ub. Finish underline - $uf. Begin italics - $ib. Finish italics - $if. Begin boldface - $bb. Finish boldface - $bf. Begin doublestrike - $dbsb. Finish doublestrike - $dbsf. End text formatting and stop printing - $ef. Insert current time into text at time of printing - $tm. Insert current date into text at time of printing - $dt. Begin running header - $hb. Disable running header - $h-. Enable running header - $h+. Begin running footer - $fb. Disable running footer - $f-. Enable running footer - $f+. End running header or running footer - $-. Respect Braille translator setting for file - $brl+. Display status of page number being printed - $st. (Use to determine specific point in file. Press spacebar at any point during printing to hear page being printed. Press Alt+colon at any point during printing to hear percentage of file completed.) Begin strikeout - $sob. Finish strikeout - $sof. Begin skipping text (do not print) - $(. Resume printing after skipped text - $). Clock and Calendar Speak current time - F4. Set time - F9, s, t, a four-digit number. (You can correct a mistake while typing the four-digit number with backspace.) Set time back or forward by a specified amount - F9, s, t, a minus or plus, a three-digit number. Set announcement of time to American time - F9, s, 1. (1 to 12 hours with a.m. and p.m.) Set announcement of time to European time - F9, s, 2. (0 to 23 hours.) Set hourly announcement of time - F10, Alt+h, 1, 2, 3, or n, Enter. (1 = hourly announcement, bell only; 2 = hourly announcement, voice only; 3 = hourly announcement, bell and voice; n = hourly announcement, off. This feature works even if unit is turned off.) Set alarm - F9, s, a. Type a four-digit time. Type a for a.m. or p for p.m. Then type a six-digit number for the date. You don't have to press Enter at any point during this procedure. This feature works even if unit is turned off. Check alarm setting - F9, y. Speak today's date - F5. Set date - F9, s, d. (Month, day, year. If year's 2-digit number is between 89 and 99, 20th century is assumed. If two-digit number is between 00 and 88, 21st century is assumed.) Insert today's date into open file at cursor position - NumLock, d. Insert current time into open file at cursor position - NumLock, t. Insert specified date into open file at cursor position - NumLock, g, number of days or date in mmddyyyy format, Enter. (If number of days is preceded by a minus, calendar counts backward from today. Otherwise, it counts forward from today.) Get specified date - Shift+F5, number of days or a date in mmddyyyy format, Enter. Get date a specified number of days from today - Shift+F5, number, Enter. (If number of days is preceded by a minus, calendar counts backward from today. Otherwise, it counts forward from today.) Get count of days from beginning of current year to today - Shift+F5, #. Check calendar for today's reminders (if any) - F9, a. (If today is in Calendar file, you are placed there. Press Down-arrows to check today's events.) Add calendar entry from open file - F9 or Alt+o, e, number of days or a date in mmddyyyy format, event text, Enter. (If number of days is preceded by a minus, calendar counts backward from today. Otherwise, it counts forward from today. To enter multiple events for the same date, press Ctrl+m between each event. Press Enter when finished adding events.) Stopwatch / Countdown Timer Enter stopwatch or timer mode - Shift+F4. Exit stopwatch or timer mode - Esc. Exit timer mode with timer still running - Enter. Start running or stop stopwatch or timer - Right-arrow. Reset timer - Left-arrow. Read time elapsed on stopwatch - spacebar. Speak last time read - c. Start countdown timer - number-sign, minutes, Enter, seconds, Enter. (Press Esc to exit countdown timer to time in background.) Check remaining time while running timer in background - F9, number-sign. (If time is up, unit says, "Stopped.") Insert current time on stopwatch into currently open file - NumLock, number-sign (Shift+3). Scientific Calculator Enter calculator mode - F3. Exit calculator mode - Esc. Speak current line - Alt+c. Execute calculation or speak current result - Enter. Speak display of current expression before result - Shift+up- arrow. Set precision level to calculate to specified decimal place - F5. (Up to 12 decimal places.) Clear calculator to 0 - F3. Toggle between speaking numbers as digits or as words - F2. (Command affects just calculator, not how numbers are spoken in your files.) Use embedded keypad - NumLock. (Current mode stays in effect only for current calculator session.) Operators accepted by the calculator: plus - Plus (+). minus - Dash (-). times - Asterisk (*). divided by - Slash (/). percent - Percent-sign (%). square root - F1. Store current result in memory locations - F4, a letter from a through z, except r. (R has latest result computed from pressing Enter.) Recall contents of a memory location - the letters a through z. Switch between fraction and decimal mode - Alt+Slash. (Current mode stays in effect only for current calculator session.) Calculate expression on current line of open file - F9 or Alt+o, k. Notes on using functions: ? Enter function name, arguments enclosed in parentheses and separated by commas. ? The expressions "arg1", "arg2", etc. refer to the arguments (numbers or other mathematical expressions) to be placed within the parentheses. ? Expressions (including arguments within parentheses) may not exceed 250 characters. abs(arg) - Absolute value of argument. avg(arg list) - Averages numbers in argument list. max(arg list) - Computes largest number within argument list. min(arg list) - Computes smallest number within argument list. mod(arg1, arg2) - Computes remainder of dividing argument 1 by argument 2. sum(arg list) - Totals numbers in argument list. sqrt(arg) - Computes square root of argument. pi - Computes value of pi to precision level set (e.g., 3.14159). Degrees mode - Alt+d. Radians mode - Alt+r. tan(arg) - Tangent of argument. cot(arg) - Cotangent of argument. atan(arg) - Arctangent of argument. sin(arg) - Sine of argument. asin(arg) - Arcsine of argument. cos(arg) - Cosine of argument. acos(arg) - Arccosine of argument. log10(arg) - Log to the base 10 of argument. alog10(arg) - Antilog base 10 of argument (where argument is exponent to which 10 is raised). exp(arg) - Computes e to the power specified by argument (e.g., exp(2) computes e squared). log(arg) - Log to the base e (natural log) of argument. alog(arg) - Antilog base e of argument (where argument is exponent to which e is raised; e.g., alog(1) computes to e itself). round(arg) - Integer part of argument (up if decimal exceeds .5, down if decimal is less than .5). trunc(arg) - Integer part of argument (regardless of decimal part). div(arg1, arg2) - Integer division of argument 1 by argument 2. stddev(arg list) - Standard deviation of argument list. median(arg list) - Median number of numbers in argument list. faren(arg) - Converts argument to Fahrenheit temperature. centi(arg) - Converts argument to Centigrade temperature. in(arg) - Converts centimeter argument to inches. cm(arg) - Converts inch argument to centimeters. l(arg) - Converts gallon argument to liters. gal(arg) - Converts liter argument to gallons. kg(arg) - Converts pound argument to kilograms. lb(arg) - Converts kilogram argument to pounds. g(arg) - Converts ounce argument to grams. oz(arg) - Converts gram argument to ounces. power(arg1, arg2) - Raise argument 1 to the power argument 2. root(arg1, arg2) - Compute the argument 2 root of argument 1. recip(arg) - Reciprocal of argument. fact(arg) - Factorial of argument. hd(arg) - Convert hexadecimal of decimal argument. dh(arg) - Convert decimal of hexadecimal argument. od(arg) - Convert octal of decimal argument. do(arg) - Convert decimal of octal argument. bd(arg) - Convert binary of decimal argument. db(arg) - Convert decimal of binary argument. Phonebook Notes: ? When you bring up the phonebook for the first time, the Type 'n Speak creates a file called "phone" for your use. ? By default, all field names are active; the file called "phone" is the active file. ? To exit the phonebook, press Esc. You may have to press Esc more than once, if you're in the phonebook's configuration menu, in order to return to your currently open file. ? You can create your own field names to use with the phonebook, but the field called Name and the field called Comments cannot be removed. ? If you create entries with the last name first, phonebook can alphabetize them. Bring up phonebook - F9 or Alt+o, p. Enter data in current field and move to next field - Enter. (You can leave any field empty, except Names field, by pressing Enter on it. You can enter multiple comments by pressing Enter at the end of each line in the Comments field, and then pressing Enter again on an empty comment line to complete entering data into that field.) Look up a phonebook entry - F9 or Alt+o, Alt+p. Move to next entry in phone file - PgDn. Move to previous entry in phone file - PgUp. Move to first entry in phone file - Home. Move to next field in current entry - Down-arrow. Move to previous field in current entry - Up-arrow. Repeat current field - Shift+Up-arrow. Move to Home Phone field - Alt+p. Move to E-mail field - Alt+m. Move to Comments field - Alt+f. Move by words in current field - Left-/Right-arrow and Shift+Down-arrow. Move by characters in current field - Shift+Left-/Shift+Right- arrow and Shift+End. Edit contents of phone file - F9 or Alt+o, Alt+p, followed by standard editing keystrokes. Bring up phonebook's configuration menu - F9 or Alt+o, p, Alt+o. The following commands work from within the phonebook's configuration menu. Press Esc to return to the point where you can add an entry, or Esc twice to return to your currently open file. From the configuration menu, you can: Move to next option - Down-arrow. Move to previous option - Up-arrow. Select an option - Enter. Change which field names are active - Enter (on Set Up Field Names option). (All field names are active by default. To turn a field name on or off, press spacebar. Press Esc when finished.) Activate personal phonebook option - Enter (on Set Up Field Names option), p, Esc. Activate business phonebook option - Enter (on Set Up Field Names option), b, Esc. Activate a different phone file - Enter (on Select Phone File option), n, filename, Enter. (If filename you select begins with the word "phone," you can press Up-/Down-arrows through list of them, instead of typing n and the name of the file you want to use. But if the filename doesn't begin with the word "phone," you must type n and then its name in order to use it with the phonebook.) Create a new phone file - Enter (on Select Phone File option), n, filename, y, enter. (If you name a file starting with the word "phone," it is added to the list of phone files recognized by the phonebook's Select Phone File option. Otherwise, you can use the file, but the phonebook doesn't add it to its list of phone files. If you respond with n to the prompt asking you to confirm the name of the phone file you're creating, you're left back at the Select Phone file option.) Return to default settings - Enter (on Re-initialize Phonebook). (This re-activates the file called "phone" as the active file and turns on all the field names originally supplied with the phonebook.) Note: The following command does not work from within the phonebook or its configuration menu, but it affects the field names the phonebook uses. Create your own field names - F1, c, phone.fld, enter. (When you create the file called "phone.fld," the next time you use the phone-book, it recognizes field names from this file as valid. The file must contain one field name per line. If you want to eliminate most default field names from your phonebook, add the phrase "nodefaultfields", with no spaces, on a line by itself at the end of file called "phone.fld". Note, however, that the Names field and the Comments field cannot be removed from the phonebook.) Macros Note: A macro may contain up to 63 keystrokes, and you may have up to 64 keys assigned to macros. To create a start-up macro - Scroll-Lock spacebar, y, key sequence of macro, Scroll-Lock. (Assigning the Space character to the macro causes it to be played each time you power up the Type 'n Speak. Answering the prompt about creating a start-up macro with an n aborts the entire procedure.) Start recording a macro - Scroll-Lock, any alphanumeric character. End recording a macro - Scroll-Lock. Erase existing macro - Scroll-Lock, assigned keystroke, Scroll- Lock. Play a macro - Macro key, pressed together with specified assigned keystroke. (E.g., Macro key, pressed together with s plays a macro whose assigned keystroke is the letter s.) Nest macros - Scroll-Lock, assigned keystroke, macro commands, Macro key together with pre-existing assigned keystroke. Kill speech during playing of macro - Alt+k. Voice speech during playing of macro - Alt+v. Pause macro for single-character input - Shift+Scroll-Lock. Line-pause macro for full-line input - Shift+Scroll-Lock twice. (Terminate entry with Alt+e.) Write-protect all macros - Scroll-Lock, Alt+p. Unprotect all macros - Scroll-Lock, Alt+u. Speak user-defined message within macro - Alt+8. (Terminate message with Alt+e.) Spellcheck Functions Notes: ? To use the spellchecker, you must have the file "spell.dic" loaded into either the RAM or Flash portion of the Type 'n Speak's memory. ? This is an external program. The file is available on Blazie Engineering's website and FTP site as well as on the disk that comes with the Type 'n Speak. ? You can load it onto your unit from the portable disk drive or from a PC. Load spellchecker from disk drive - F8, y, r, spell.dic, Enter. Run the spellchecker on the currently open file - F6. Exit spellcheck mode - Esc. Note: The following commands are available while running the spellchecker. Spellcheck current word - w. Spellcheck from current cursor position to end of file - z. Add word to personal dictionary - a. (The file called "personal.dic" is created the first time you add a word to the custom dictionary.) Bypass word for rest of file - b. Read word in context - c. Correct misspelled word - e. Get help on spellchecker options - h. Overlook current word - o. Repeat misspelled word - r. Spell incorrect word phonetically - Shift+Down-arrow. Suggest replacement words - s. Use the following keystrokes to navigate the suggestion list: ? To move back a choice - Up-arrow. ? To move forward a choice - Down-arrow. ? To hear current choice repeated - Shift+Up-arrow. ? To move to top of suggestion list - Home. ? To move to end of suggestion list - End. ? To get help on using suggestion list - q. ? To accept current choice as replacement word - Enter. ? To exit suggestion list without accepting a choice - Esc. Disk Drive Functions Note: When you transfer to disk a file whose name is longer than the limits allowed by MS DOS, the filename is truncated to compensate, and any space characters in the filename become the underline character. The following commands are available from within the currently open file and all begin with F8: Load file from disk - l. Back up file to disk - s. (regardless of file's page format) Save unformatted, Braille file to disk - w. Save formatted, print textfile to disk - t. Save formatted, Braille file to disk - b. Format disk - f. List directory of files on disk - d. (Add /n for unsorted files list, /w for time and date information on each file. Directory is temporarily stored in Clipboard for you to read.) Kill (delete) file on disk - k. Delete pointed-to file on disk - z. Add volume label to disk - v. Make subdirectory on disk - m. Delete subdirectory on disk - x. Load pointed-to file from directory into Type 'n Speak - g. (Find file to load from disk using Up-/Down-arrows.) Resume file transfer from disk - r. The following commands are performed from within the Files menu using ymodem protocols. To bring up the Files menu, press F1. Send pointed-to file to disk - F10. Receive file from disk - NumLock. Transfer file or group of files between Type 'n Speak and disk drive - Transmit key (PrtScr). (Press s to send or r to receive files. Once you've selected which files to transfer, press Enter to start the transmission.) If sending files, you must select which files to send from your files list as follows: ? To mark the file being pointed to, type a y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to, type an n. ? To toggle the file being pointed to between marked and unmarked, press the spacebar. ? To mark the file being pointed to, and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+u. ? To mark all files, type an m. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To unmark all files, type a u. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To toggle the currently open file from being marked or unmarked, type an o. ? To mark all files in Flash, type an f. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark all files in RAM, type an r. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+m. (For a full discussion of wildcard characters in filenames, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4.) ? To unmark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+u. (For a full discussion of wildcard characters in filenames, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4.) (If receiving files, type a single filename or a wildcard pattern to select files with similar names.) Transmitting Data Notes: Pressing the Transmit key (PrtScr) from within the currently open file brings up a pull-down menu. You can press the first letter of a choice to select it, or you can navigate the menu as follows: ? Move to next choice - Down-arrow. ? Move to previous choice - Up-arrow. ? Move to first choice - Home. ? Move to last choice - End. ? Hear current choice repeated - Shift+Up-arrow. ? Select current choice - Enter. ? Exit menu without making a choice - Esc. After you make a choice from the Transmit menu, type p for print or b for Braille transmission. Then, press Enter to start the transfer. Enter Transmit Parameters menu - Transmit key. Abort transmission - Esc. The following commands all begin with the Transmit key: Transmit all text in open file - a or t. Transmit all text in open file with Braille translation off - b. Transmit line from cursor to next hard return - l. Transmit block of text from cursor to mark - m. Transmit paragraph from cursor to next pair of hard returns or hard return /linefeed pair) - p. Transmit unformatted file - s. (Use for back-up purposes only.) Transmit from current cursor position to end of file - z. Transmit formatted text to file - f, Transmit Parameter menu choice, filename, Enter. (Menu choices are: a, b, l, m, p, s, t, or z.) Notes on Modem Protocols: ? The following commands are performed from within the Files menu. To bring up the Files menu, press F1. ? If a disk drive is attached to the disk drive port, the Type 'n Speak automatically assumes you want to transmit files to the disk drive. Otherwise, it assumes that you want to transmit files through the serial port. Transmit files using modem protocols - Transmit key s (send) or r (receive). If you type an s, you have these options: xmodem - x, filename, Enter. xmodem 1k - 1, filename, Enter. ymodem - y, files list, Enter. To select from your files list, you have these options: ? To mark the file being pointed to, type a y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to, type an n. ? To toggle the file being pointed to between being marked and unmarked, press the spacebar. ? To mark the file being pointed to, and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+y. ? To unmark the file being pointed to, and move to the next file in the files list, press Alt+u. ? To mark all files, type an m. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To unmark all files, type a u. (This affects only files in the current folder unless you're in All Files mode.) ? To toggle the currently open file from being marked or unmarked, type an o. ? To mark all files in Flash, type an f. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark all files in RAM, type an r. (This affects files in all folders.) ? To mark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+m. ? To unmark a group of files using a wildcard pattern, press Alt+u. (For a full discussion of wildcard characters in filenames, see "How to Name your Files" in Chapter 4.) If you type an r, you have these options: xmodem - x, filename, Enter. ymodem - y. ymodem g - g. Options Menu Notes: The following commands all begin with F9 or Alt+o. Here is how to navigate through the Options menu: ? Move to next command - Down-arrow. ? Move to previous command - Up-arrow. ? Move to first command - Home. ? Move to last command - End. ? Hear hot key for command being pointed to - Shift+End. ? Perform command being pointed to - Enter. ? Exit to currently open file - Esc. Calendar check - a. Braille mode - b. Calculator - c. Date - d. Calendar entry - e. File commands - f. Smart calendar - g. Calculate line - k. Open the previously opened file - l. Open the currently pointed-to file - o. Open phonebook - Alt+p. Phonebook - p. Set time/date - st or sd. Spellcheck - * (Shift+8). Time - t. Say countdown timer - # (Shift+3). Stopwatch - w. Execute program - x. Say alarm - y. Parameters Menu Notes: ? The following commands begin with Alt+p. ? You don't have to press Enter to complete them (except the "Window length" parameter). Here's how to navigate the Parameters menu: ? Move through choices - spacebar. ? Move to next choice - Down-arrow. ? Move to previous choice - Up-arrow. ? Hear current choice repeated - Shift+Up-arrow. ? Move to first choice - Home. ? Move to last choice - End. ? Hear hot key for choice being pointed to - Shift+End. ? Perform choice being pointed to - Enter. ? Exit Parameters menu - Esc. Add linefeeds during transmission of data - a (y, n). Set baud rate - b. Cursor tracking - c (y, n). Set duplex - d (h, f, or n). Set handshaking - h (s, h, or n). Switch languages - l. (Second language must be installed in unit through external program. Unit reverts to primary language - usually English - when next turned on.) Reject ornamentation characters - o (y, n). Set parity - p (n, e, or o). Speak revision date - r. Set stop bits - s (1 or 2). Set Braille translator on/off - t (y, n). Set window length (window, lines or sentences) - w (w, l, or s). Activate serial port - 5 (y, n). Set data bits - Underline (7 or 8). Serial number - Question mark (user specific). Status Menu Default Settings Note: The following settings are reset every time you perform a warm or cold reset. Here's how to change the status of a setting: ? To disable a setting, type an n. ? To enable a setting, type a y. ? To choose an option for a setting with multiple options, type the first letter of the desired choice, and press Enter. Or cycle among the options with spacebar, and press Enter when the desired option is highlighted. Here is how to navigate through the Status menu: ? To hear the current choice, press Shift+Up-arrow. ? To hear the next choice, press Down-arrow. ? To hear the previous choice, press Up-arrow. ? To hear the first choice, press Home. ? To hear the last choice, press End. ? To jump directly to a choice, press its hot key. (Hot keys are shown in brackets following each default setting.) ? To hear the hot key for the current choice, press Shift+End. ? To cycle forward to a group of choices, press PgDn. (Groups include: Serial Parameters, Miscellaneous Parameters, and Format Parameters.) ? To cycle backward to a group of choices, press PgUp. (Groups include: Serial Parameters, Miscellaneous Parameters, and Format Parameters.) Enter Status menu - F10. Exit Status menu - Esc. The following choices are available from within the Status menu: Interactive mode - off [g]. Serial port active - off [f]. Baud rate - 9600 [b]. (Use first digit, or first two digits, of baud rate to change setting.) Parity - none [p]. (E for even, o for odd, n for none.) Duplex - half [d]. (F for full, h for half, n for none.) Data bits - 8 [Underline]. (7 or 8.) Stop bits - 1 [s]. (1 or 2.) Handshake - software [h]. (S for software, h for hardware, or n for no handshaking.) Add line-feeds when transmitting - off [a]. Braille translator - off [t]. Cursor tracking - on [c]. Revision date - current revision date of Type 'n Speak [r]. Speak windows, lines or sentences - lines [v] (W for windows, l for lines, s for sentences.) Reject ornamentation characters - off [o] (Limits repetitive punctuation to two occurrences; rejects decorative control characters.) Skip blank lines - & [Shift+7]. Distinguish case during find - off [Shift+1]. Battery use - number of hours, minutes since battery was last set [question mark]. (Reset timer by typing 0.) Beep at column - 0 [q]. Printer is - Epson-compatible [l]. (Imagewriter, or HP.) Print line length - 75. Print left margin - 10. Print page length - 60. Print top margin - 6. Braille line length - 33. Braille left margin - 1. Braille page length - 25. Braille top margin - 1. Window length - 80 [w]. (Voice window from 18 to 80 characters in length, no effect on formatting or printing of text.) Interactive timeout - 0 [x]. Double-space - off [Shift+period]. Voice inflection - on [i]. Number pages - off [Shift+3]. Power reminder - on [z]. Ham calls - off [m]. Calendar check - on [j]. Word exceptions check - on [e]. Progress clicks - on [k]. Make parameters file-specific - off [Shift+9]. Speak words in say-all mode - off [Right parenthesis]. Say ASCII values - off [Shift+Down-arrow]. Hourly announcement - off [Alt+h]. Allow Folder mode - off [Alt+f]. Double-speed - off [+] (Only functions on machines equipped with the double-speed chip.) PC editing - off [$]. Miscellaneous Commands Power up Type 'n Speak silently - spacebar as you power up unit. (Add linefeeds reverts to On when you perform a warm or cold reset.) Warm reset with unit on - Ctrl+Alt+Del twice. (Resets most settings to defaults without loss of current data files.) Power up with warm reset - Hold down Alt+Del as you power up unit. (CAUTION: Use as last-resort option to attempt file recovery or if machine has stopped working properly.) Power up with cold reset - Ctrl+Alt+Del as you turn on unit. (CAUTION: Use as last resort for a crash recovery or when returning unit for exchange unit. Wipes out all data.) Enter Alt key combination from the Type 'n Speak into PC - Alt key, character. Turn interactive mode on/off - Alt+g. Do not translate next character - Accent key, character. (Only when Braille translation is in effect or when using Braille mode. Spaces are not required before or after the symbol.) Do not translate text between symbols - Accent key, Dash, text not to be translated, Accent key, l. (Only when Braille translation is in effect or using Braille mode. A space is required on either side of the opening and closing symbols, but no space is required between the Accent mark and the dash or Accent mark and the l.) APPENDIX C: Technical Data about the Serial Port The following technical information provides special cabling arrangements for using your Type 'n Speak with devices for which we do not offer specific cables. The Type 'n Speak is a DCE device. Use a null modem cable to interface the unit with other DCE devices. The Type 'n Speak has two female interface ports. Only the one closest to the parallel port can be used for the portable, external disk drive (Chapter 16). Only the one closest to the A.C. power adapter jack can be used as a serial port for a computer, modem, or any other serial device (Chapter 17). Below, we list this port's active pin assignments for your convenience. (Note that the cable we provide for this port has eight pin locations on the end which connects to the port, and 25 pin locations at the end that connects to an external device.) ? Pin 1 - DTR ? Pin 2 - CTS ? Pin 3 - TX ? Pin 4 - GND ? Pin 5 - RX ? Pin 6 - DTX (for disk drive) ? Pin 7 - DRX ? Pin 8 - DON APPENDIX D: Which Charger to Use? Introduction This appendix is for those who have more than one Blazie notetaker, or own our portable external disk drive, as well as a Type 'n Speak. The charger situation is this: Do not use a 12-volt charger with your Type 'n Speak! It accepts only a 9-volt charger. And incidentally, the new disk drive, Braille 'n Speak 2000, Braille Lite 2000, Type Lite, and Braille Lite 40 can all use the same 12-volt charger. Below are possible scenarios with respect to models and chargers, so you will know what works with what. If you plug the wrong charger into the wrong unit, you could damage it. So, read through this appendix carefully to determine your particular needs. Braille 'n Speak, Braille Lite, or Portable Disk Drive Upgrades 1. I got my unit in March of 1996. You may use its charger with your new unit. 2. I got my unit before March of 1996, and upgraded to the 5-cell battery pack inside my unit (factory update). You may use its charger with your new unit. 3. I have Flash ROM capability in my unit, so I can update it myself. You have to check the serial number on your unit. From your currently open file, press Alt+p, question-mark. If it begins with a 5, you may use that unit's charger with your new unit. WARNING: Having Flash ROM does not automatically mean you have the right charger for your new unit. You may still have a 9- volt charger. It does not work with the new unit. 4. I don't have Flash ROM, and cannot update my unit myself. You have to check the serial number on your unit by having someone look for it on the bottom of the machine. If it begins with a 5, you may use that unit's charger with your new unit. Disk Drives The new portable disk drive only works with the new Braille 'n Speak 2000, Braille Lite 2000, or Braille Lite 40, as well as the Type 'n Speak, because the disk drive's cable and the port to which it connects on the Braille 'n Speak 2000 and Braille Lite 2000 are different from older models. In addition, you can get an adapter for the disk drive, so its new cable can work with older models of the Braille 'n Speak or Braille Lite. The portable disk drive used to come with a 9-volt charger, but all disk drive up-grades as of March 1996 now use a 12-volt charger. That charger is interchangeable with the Braille 'n Speak 2000's, Braille Lite 2000's, or Braille Lite 40's charger. If you do have the new disk drive, DO NOT use your old 9-volt charger with it or you may damage your unit. How Long Does it Take to Charge Up, and How Long Does a Charge Last? Depending on how low the battery has drained, it takes eight hours to recharge your Type 'n Speak. It takes from two to four hours to recharge a Braille 'n Speak 2000, Braille Lite 2000, Braille Lite 40, or disk drive. The Type 'n Speak charge lasts from 20 to 24 hours, but this may vary with heavy use of the serial port. The disk drive charge lasts up to 15 hours. Index A.C. power adapter jack 5, 167 Alarm 119 check 119 Setting alarm to sound more than once 120 Setting the alarm 119 Append mode 53, 55 ASCII values 31 Say ASCII values setting 31 Backspace 58 Battery charger 6, 18, 254 drain and using the serial port 6 Reset battery-used timer 18 Battery power 6 Bilingual 206 Braille keyboard 49 Braille translator 35 Braille translation software 35 Check status of Braille translator 35 extension names for Braille files 43 Calculator 133 And complex functions 139 And memory locations 137 Announcing numbers as digits or full numbers 140 Basic arithmetic operations 133 Changing precision 134 Clearing the calculator 134 Computing a square root 138 Computing an expression written in a file 136 Computing percentages 137 Embedded number pad 135 Error messages 140 Fraction and decimal mode 135 Helpful hints 140 Inserting computation result into currently open file 136 Performing a computation 133 Reading contents of a memory location 138 Storing a number in a memory location 137 Calendar 121 Activating Calendar Alert 125 Adding a new entry 124 And the clock 121 And the year 2000 121 Calendar file 124 Checking for today with Calendar Alert off 127 Checking today's date 121 Finding a date in your file 124 Getting a date from the calendar 122 Inserting any date into a file 123 Inserting current time into a file 124 Inserting today's date into a file 124 Setting today's date 121 Viewing the contents of the calendar 125 Charging the Type 'n Speak's built-in battery 6 Check the name of the currently open file 86 Check the status of line-feeds 185 Clock 117 And how it is announced 117 Checking the current time 117 Resetting the time 118 Setting hourly announcement of time 119 Setting the current time 118 Switching between American and European modes 118 Cold reset 24, 204, 213, 214 Commands 13 And the Help file 44 Basic 13 Canceling a procedure 13 Executing a command 13 Connecting the Type 'n Speak to a modem or a computer 193 Computers 192 Modems 192 Continuous Overwrite mode 57 Control characters 36, 46 Reading control characters 36 Copy a block of text 65 Count the number of characters, lines, and words 33 CRASH AND RECOVERY 213 Cursor 26 And PC Edit mode 54 Append to end of file 47, 53 Check status of cursor tracking 50 Check the location of 37, 43 Move by blocks of text 32 Move relative to where you are 32 Move to top or bottom of file 27 Move writing cursor to next tab stop 81 With PC Edit mode active 55 Delete Parameters menu 59 Hot keys 59 Navigating the menu 59 Types of text segments to delete 61 Delete text 59 Adding deletion to clipboard 61 And the clipboard 59 Blocking a portion of text to delete 62 Defining the string before which to end the block 63 Deleting groups of text segments 61 Deleting the character under the cursor 60 Emptying the clipboard 61 Marking the block to delete 63 Wiping out the rest of the file 62 DIN ports 5 and portable disk drive 5, 175 and serial devices 5 Disk drive 174 Activating the disk drive 176 And All Files mode for transferring files 179 And Folder mode for file transfers 179 And the Clipboard for reading a directory 182 Battery 175 Cable 175 Charger and A.C. power adapter jack 175 DIN port 175 File-is-full error message 177 Filenames and transferring to disk 180 Inserting a disk into the drive 176 Loading a file from a directory 183 Loading a file from disk 176 Reading directories on disk 182 Resuming a transfer from disk 177 Saving a file to disk 177 Selecting which files to send to disk 179 Transferring a group of files to disk 180 Transferring files between Type 'n Speak and drive 178 Using ymodem protocols for file transfers 179 Double-speed 19 Earphone jack 5 End-of-line beep 51 External programs 201 And how to obtain them 201 And running from Flash 202 And their filename extensions 202 Running an external program 202 File 12 Adding pages manually to a file 100 And file-specific formatting parameters 78 Assign pages to a file 41 Automatically saved 41 Check name of currently open file 86 Checking the size of a file 101 Copying one file into another 102 Creating a file 41 Deleting a file 98 Deleting a group of files 99 Flip between last two files opened 92 Help file 44, 104 Information about files 127 Jumping to a file from the currently open file 94 Knowing which file is open 91 List a group of similarly named files 88 Navigate through files list 89 Opening a file by its number 93 Opening a file through the files list 92 Opening a file whose name is known 92 Password-protecting a file 97 Printing and brailling the same file 78 Removing a password from a password-protected file 97 Room left in a file 43 See list of files 88 See mini-files list of specified group of files 94 Subtracting pages manually 102 Write-protecting a file 96 File Command menu 87 Navigate command list 87 Filenames 42 Adding pages manually 102 And extensions for external programs 202 And Grade 2 Braille extensions 43 And transferring files 195 Naming conventions 42 Renaming 95 Subtracting pages manually 102 Wildcards 88, 94, 99, 128, 180, 195, 245, 247 Files menu 41, 86 Adding pages manually 101 And transferring files 193 File Command menu 87 Folder mode 106 Free space in Type 'n Speak 103 Find text 37 Canceling the search 39 Case-sensitive search 39 Date in your file 124 Replacing text 66 Reverse a search 37 Search forward 37 Folders 12, 106 Activating Folder mode 107 Creating a folder 109 Deleting a folder 114 Flash startup folder 107 Jumping to a folder by its number 108 Move group of files to a folder 111 Moving files between RAM and Flash 12 Moving the pointed-to file into a folder 110 Navigating the files list by folders 108 Opening a file in a different folder 112 RAM startup folder 106 Renaming a folder 114 Viewing complete files list 106 Viewing files list by folders 106 Format text 70 Adjust margins 72 And file-specific parameters 78 And Status menu settings 78 Braille default margins 73 Braille line and page lengths 73, 78 Centering text 80 Change formatting parameters in Status menu 79 Changing appearance of text 83 Changing line width 76 Default margin settings 73 Double-spacing a document 84 Escape sequences 71 Establishing the starting page number 83 Footers 80 Form-feed 45 Hard page break 45 Hard return 34, 45 Headers 80 Indenting a block of text 74 Justifying margins 75 Line-feed 45 Margins 72 Move writing cursor to next tab stop 81 Outdenting text 75 Page numbering 73, 82 Print defaults 73 Print line and page lengths 73, 78 Soft page breaks 45 Soft returns 45 Suppressing page numbers 82 Tabbing 46, 81 Tables 81 Types of numerals for page numbering 82 Typing escape codes 71 Typing formatting commands 72 Help file 44 Comprehensive Help file 104 Mini-Help file 104 How many physical pages a file will produce 187, 188 Hyper-speech 30 Insert text 53 Insert mode with PC Edit active 55 Inserting any date into a file 123 Inserting computation result into currently open file 136 Inserting current time into a file 123 Inserting stopwatch time into currently open file 132 Inserting today's date into a file 123 Switching into Insert mode with PC Edit mode active 55 Interactive mode 49 And copying text 66 And inserting a date and time into a file 123 And inserting an entire file 102 And telecommunications settings 172 And the disk drive 177 Keyboard layout 7 Languages 206 Learn mode 8 Levels of commands 13 Line 34 Changing line width 76 Setting a bell warning end of line 51 Macros 151 Adding personal prompts and messages to a macro 158 Assigning a keystroke 152 Cautions about creating a macro 152 Creating a macro 152 Erasing a macro 160 Macros.sys file 152 Nesting macros 154 Pausing a macro 155 Playing a macro 154 Recording a macro 152 Silencing macro speech 155 Start-up macros 159 Unprotecting macros 158 Verbalizing macro speech 155 Write-protecting macros 158 Margins 72 Braille and print defaults 73 Memory 13 And creating a file 42 And running external programs 202 Flash memory 13 Flash-ROM 13 How much free space is left 103 Questions about 215 RAM 13 Menus 14 Levels of choice 14 Navigate through 15 Pull-down menus 15 Move the cursor by a number of blocks of text 32 Move the cursor relative to where you are 32 Options menu 15 Overwrite text 56 Overwrite a single character 56 Overwrite more than one character 57 With PC Edit mode active 55 Page 41, 43 And resizing a file 100 Changing page length 76 Establishing the starting page number 82 Page length 72 Page numbering 73, 82 Positioning the page number 82 Suppressing page numbers 82 Types of numerals for page numbering 82 Paragraph 34 Parallel port 6 And transferring data 189 Linking to other devices 167 Pause the printer 84 PC Edit mode 53 Activating PC Edit mode 54 And pitch of the voice when typing 54 Shifting the voice for Overwrite and Insert mode 55 Switching among Overwrite, Insert, and Append modes 55 Phonebook 141 Business field names option 145 Choosing field names to use 146 Configuration menu 145 Correcting a mistake while entering data 142 Creating a new phone file 147 Creating the first phone file 142 Custom field names 149 Default field names 142 Editing an entry 144 Entering data into a phone file 142 Looking up an entry 143 Multiple phone files 147 Navigating through a phone file 143 Personal field names option 145 Returning to default settings 149 Selecting the active phone file 148 Phonetic mode 30 Printing 13 And escape codes 71 And formatting strings 72 Double-spacing the whole document 187 Make parameters file-specific 78 Pause between pages 84 Previewing how many pages will be produced 186 Printing to a Type 'n Speak file 191 Skipping portions of a file to print 85 Stop printing before end of file 84 Pronounce unusual words or acronyms properly 68 Check for word exceptions 68 Creating word exceptions dictionary 68 Reading text 27 By lines, words, and characters 27 By paragraphs 27 Nonstop through the file 27 Skim over text while reading nonstop 30 Speak current character phonetically 30 Speak Words in Say-All mode 29 Spell out current word 30 Stopping at a particular point 29 Remote device 200 Repeated characters 47 Resize your files manually 100 Say complete words 49 Sentence 33 Serial port 5 Activating the serial port 185 And telecommunications settings 169 And transferring data 189 Linking to other devices 167 Silence the Type 'n Speak 28 Skip blank lines 34 Speech parameters 20, 220 Configure a voice 23 Multiple voice configurations 22 Numbers and punctuation 21 Selecting a voice 23 Shifting voice for Overwrite and Insert mode with PC Edit mode active 55 Volume, speech rate, pitch, and tone 20 Speech synthesizer 197 And screen readers 197 Enhanced Speechbox mode 198 Indexing feature 199 Speechbox mode 197 Spellchecker 161 Adding a word to the custom dictionary 162 Bypassing a word for remainder of document 162 Correcting a word 163 Getting help 164 Hearing a word in context 163 Hearing the misspelled word repeated 163 List of suggested replacement words 164 Skip current occurrence of misspelled word 163 Spelling mode 30 Start up the Type 'n Speak silently 12 Status menu 16 And formatting documents 78 Change formatting parameters 79 Stopwatch 129 Check elapsed time 130 Countdown timer 130 Inserting elapsed time into currently open file 132 Repeat last time reported 130 Telecommunications program 189, 193 Telecommunications settings 169 And Interactive mode 172 And rejecting ornamentation 172 Baud rate 169 Data bits 171 Duplex 170 Handshaking 171 Parity 170 Stop bits 171 Timer 130 And the stopwatch 129 Check time remaining 131 Inserting time remaining into currently open file 132 Timing in the background 131 Transfer files 184 From the Files menu 193 Receiving files 195 Selecting which files to send 194 Sending text from currently open file 189 Types of printers 71 Escape codes and changing appearance of text 71 Typing options 48 Updating your Type 'n Speak 203 Warm reset 24, 213 Parameters that are reset 213 Power up with 213 To recover data 213 Word exceptions 68 Creating the dictionary file 68 Word processing 70 Word-wrapping 45