Guess What? Braille Sense 4.0 Beta 1 Web-Braille Books
Nov-01-2006Disclaimer
The following message includes information regarding Braille Sense 4.0 Beta 1. Please note that Braille Sense 4.0 Beta 1 HAS NOT been released at this time. We are, however, providing you with some small glimpses into the features that the 4.0 Braille Sense upgrade will contain. We are currently not answering any questions regarding the functionality of the beta. The only things we're going to talk about will be what we have included in our new Guess What series, which will continue daily up to the beta release date, November 3, 2006. We will answer all questions at that time. Please be patient; you will be rewarded.
If you're subscribed to the GW Micro or Guess What podcast feed, you'll automatically receive this Guess What in MP3 format. Check out www.gwmicro.com/podcast for more information. If you want to download the MP3, read this article online, or view more Guess What articles (when they are released), please visit www.gwmicro.com/sensebeta.
Enjoy!
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Welcome to GW Micro's "Guess What?" series, an introductory look at the upcoming release of Braille Sense 4.0 Beta 1. We’ll be covering a new feature in Braille Sense 4.0 Beta 1 every day until its release, so stop by our web site (www.gwmicro.com/sensebeta) each day, to make sure you don't miss any of the exciting new features.
Since its Release the Braille Sense has taken the country by storm. The 4.0 upgrade of the Braille Sense will continue to raise the bar in quality. We are excited about the new features in this release and we are conducting this series to give you a glimpse in to what you will see in the Braille Sense 4.0update.
GW Micro is committed to quality and stability in our products, and we want to give you the opportunity to give us feedback on the new features in this release. Since our Window-Eyes public betas are so successful we have decided to conduct a public beta for the Braille Sense. Very soon users of the Braille Sense will be able to give us feedback as we release the first public beta for the 4.0upgrade.
Today we are going to take a look at the Braille Sense and reading Web-Braille Books.
Perhaps some of you are not familiar with Web-Braille and the National Library Service or “NLS for short.”
The National Library Service provides books on tape or in Braille for those who are blind and visually impaired.
One of the cool things about NLS is Web-Braille. Web-Braille allows you to read thousands of Braille books and magazines online. You can also download these books or magazines to your computer to read at a later time.
Thanks to the new Braille Sense 4.0 upgrade you can now read these books online or save them to your Braille Sense.
If you live in the United States you can contact your cooperating NLS library to set up your Web-Braille account.
Let’s take a look at getting a Web-Braille Book.
To get started, we need to login to our Web-Braille account.
To do this we need to launch the Braille Sense Web Browser.
To quickly launch the Web Browser press F1 then the letter B.
<Braille Sense Speech>
Once you have launched the Web Browser press ENTER-U and type the following address: www.loc.gov/nls/braille/. Then press ENTER.
<Braille Sense Speech>
You will then be prompted to type in your Web-Braille Username and password. By default you will land on the Username edit box. Type in your Username and then tab to the password edit box to type in your password. Remember you need to enter these in Computer Braille.
Once this is done press Enter to login.
<Braille Sense Speech>
Once on the Web-Braille page you can use SPACE-DOT-4 or SPACE-DOT1 to move through line by line. You can also use SPACE-4-5 to tab through the links on the Web Page, or SPACE-B to go backwards through the links.
Let’s tab until we get to Braille Magazines.
<Braille Sense Speech>
Now press ENTER to activate this link.
<Braille Sense Speech>
There are a number of Magazines here so you will definitely find something interesting to read.
Once you have tabbed to the Magazine you want to read you can press ENTER to open the new page. There you will be presented with the issues of that magazine that you can open to read.
I have a magazine that I want to read. It is for October 2006 and since there are several Volumes for the magazine it is in several parts.
Let’s take a look at what happens when pressing ENTER on part 1.
You are given a pledge that you must agree to in order to read these books. I am going to tab to the button that says I accept best for NoteTaker Users and press ENTER.
<Braille Sense Speech>
The Braille Sense tells you that you are downloading a BRL or BRF document and that it will be downloaded to the word processor.
Once the magazine or book is downloaded you will be placed in the Braille Sense Word Processor where you can read the document.
One really cool feature in the Braille Sense 4.0 upgrade is the new compressed document mode. If you have a Braille document that is not formatted for 32 characters per line you can optimize if for reading on the Braille Sense by pressing SPACE with dots 1-2-4-6.
There are 2 modes you can choose from. Reading Mode Original and Reading Mode Compressed.
The Original Mode shows the document in its original form. This means you may have 32 characters on one line but 8 on another. By setting the Braille Sense to Compressed Mode you ensure that all of the real-estate of your Braille Display is being fully used. Now you can enjoy reading Braille and read it faster on the Braille Sense.
All this is very nice you say, but what if you don’t have an Internet connection and you want to read a book or magazine later on?
The Braille Sense makes it very easy to save that book or magazine for later reading.
If at any time you decide you want to save what you are reading press SPACE-S to save it to your Braille Sense for later reading.
<Braille Sense Speech>
By default if you press ENTER here the Braille Sense will place the Magazine or book in to your work folder where you can access it later.
<Braille Sense Speech>
We hope today’s Guess What has given you a glimpse in to the Braille Sense and its support for downloading and reading Web-Braille Books.
Please join us again tomorrow when we’ll look at making sense of the Braille Sense and DataBases.
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