                 SECTION IV: CONVERSING WITH OTHER DEVICES


                               INTRODUCTION 

Up to now, we've looked at the Braille 'n Speak as a "stand-alone" device.  In
computerese, such a device can perform tasks on its own, without being hooked
up to any other devices.  And we've seen how powerful the Braille 'n Speak is
all by itself.  We now begin to explore how much more you can do when you hook
up the Braille 'n Speak to other devices: printers, computers, disk drives,
and modems.

No doubt, you've heard that things get real technical when words like "cable",
"serial versus parallel", and even that big word, "telecommunications", come
on the scene.  Consequently, many shy away from exploring what
telecommunications can mean to them.  It is indeed very easy to slide into
jargon when discussing the subject.  The good news is, you don't have to be a
techie-whiz to hook up your Braille 'n Speak to another device.

As with previous sections of this manual, we assume that you may not be
familiar with telecommunications and that an introduction will help to
demystify the subject for you.  If you're already acquainted with the jargon,
we suggest skimming over the first section anyway, and then looking over the
rest of the chapter more carefully, because we discuss customizing
telecommunications settings in the Braille 'n Speak.  Then you can skip
directly to those chapters of special interest to you.
          CHAPTER 13: INTRODUCING TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND SETTINGS

What happens when you're using your telephone or watching your television? 
Why, information is being sent and received, of course: voice through the
phone and pictures through the TV.  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.

13.1 Cables

The Braille 'n Speak comes with a cable that you can connect to many printers,
computers, even modems.  At times, you can make the connection without
additional adapters or connectors.  But more often, you need to connect cable
adapters or additional cables between the Braille 'n Speak cable and the other
device.

Let's clear up some of the mystery around 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.

There are four things to consider when linking the Braille 'n Speak to another
device: serial versus parallel, gender, number of pins, and null modem cable
requirements.  Don't be scared off by these terms.  We promise not to get too
techie.

13.1.1 Serial versus Parallel

The Braille 'n Speak is a serial device.  You must determine whether the
device to which you want to link the Braille 'n Speak is serial or parallel. 
(The manual that came with the device should tell you and the dealer can give
you this information even before you purchase the device.) Most printers today
are parallel devices or have both parallel and serial options.  If you want to
link the Braille 'n Speak to a parallel device, you'll need to get a
serial-to-parallel converter cable before you can do anything else.  Since the
Braille 'n Speak is a serial device, we'll assume that you're linking it to
another serial device and focus on the myriad settings you can change on a
serial connection.

* 13.1.2 Gender

* Another thing to determine about cables is the sex of the connector and the
sex of the port to which you're linking it.  The ports on the Braille 'n Speak
2000 are female and accept only male DIN connectors.

(Note:  If you've upgraded to a 2000, notice the new ports.  Your old cables
will not work with your new Braille 'n Speak 2000 because the connectors are
entirely different.

* From our physical exam way back in Chapter 1 you should recall that the
ports on the Braille 'n Speak 2000 are on the left side of the unit within a
long rectangular opening and are separated by two little vertical bars.  They
feel like two small round objects with tiny holes in them.  The Braille 'n
Speak cable can be plugged into either port for use with another device.

* Now let's examine each end of the  Braille 'n Speak cable.  Notice that you
have a small round connector at one end and a larger rectangular connector on
the other end.  The housing of the small round connector, which is the one
that plugs into the Braille '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.

* Let's check out the other end of the cable.  It 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.  You plug the opposite sex end of the
gender changer to the Braille 'n Speak cable, then plug the other end of the
gender changer into the port on the device and tighten the finger screws on
either side of the connector.  

Your machine comes with two gender changers - one male and one female.  But if
you need to, you can usually get serial gender changers from your local
computer store.  However, to avoid a costly mistake, make sure you're specific
when telling a salesperson the sex of your connector and the sex of the port.

* 13.1.3 Number of Pins

* Yet another issue is the number of pin locations on the connector that plugs
into a device and the number of pins that the port on that device can accept. 
This number must match exactly or, once again, you'll need an adapter.  The
standard cable that comes with your Braille 'n Speak 2000 has a 25-pin
connector for plugging into other devices.  Since 9-pin connectors are
becoming more common these days though, you may opt for a Braille 'n Speak
cable with a 9-pin connector instead.  (Call Blazie Engineering for the
alternative cable or adapter.)

* if it's convenient to have both options at your disposal, you can get by
with an adapter that converts your 25-pin connector to a 9-pin connector. 
Adapters can be purchased at your local computer store or from Blazie
Engineering.  Here again, it's not crucial that you understand the technical
details.  But you do need to know what kind of connector you have and what
kind of port you're trying to link with so that your salesperson can sell you
the right adapter.

13.1.4 Null Modem Cable Requirements

To connect the Braille 'n Speak to a modem, to another Braille 'n Speak or
Braille Lite, and to some computers, you need a special cable called a "null
modem" cable or adapter.  Some Apple computers, for example, require one,
although an IBM PC-compatible does not.  The important pieces of information
to note here are the genders and the number of pins each connector and port
needs in order to match up precisely.

When you purchase a Braille 'n Speak, an interface kit containing gender
changers, a null modem adapter, and even a minitester comes with the unit to
help with technical problems.


Now that we've established the cable requirements, let's look at what you need
to do to prepare the Braille 'n Speak for stepping out into the world of other
devices.

13.2 Telecommunications Settings

Assuming you've cabled everything correctly, you still need to make sure that
your Braille 'n Speak telecommunications settings match those on the other
device.  Often times, trouble arises from simply having mismatched speeds or
duplex settings or whatever.  In this section, we look at how to determine the
status of these settings and how to change them.  Both devices you are linking
together must "talk the same language" and be polite enough to "listen" to
each other without interrupting.  It's also crucial that they communicate at
the same rate of speed so that one isn't overwhelmed by the dizzying rate, or
turned off by the sedate pace, of the other.

Before you start hooking things up, check the manual of the other device for
the status of telecommunications settings preset from the factory on that
device (referred to as the "default" settings). If you need to change any
settings, chances are, it'll be easier to do from the Braille 'n Speak's side
of the link than from the other side.

To see the status of telecommunications settings in the Braille 'n Speak, you
look them up in the Status menu.  From there, you can change them, or simply
exit the Status menu with either a z- chord or e-chord.  On the other hand, if
you just want to change a setting but don't need to see its present status,
you can change it from the Parameters menu.  We'll show you both as we go
through the telecommunications settings one at a time.

13.2.1 Baud Rate

The speed at which characters are transmitted to and from a device is called
the Baud rate.  It is preset to 9600 Baud, or 960 characters per second, in
the Braille 'n Speak.  To see the present value of this setting, get into the
Status menu with an st-sign-chord (dots 3-4-chord) and enter a b.  The Braille
'n Speak tells you the current setting, in this case, "9600 Baud".

You can write the first digit, or the first and second digits, of the setting
you want instead (using dropped numbers, as always).  The possible settings
are: 150, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, and 38400.

Where the first digit is not specific enough to identify the desired rate, you
may need to write the second digit as well.  For example, if you need to set
the Braille 'n Speak to 150 Baud, you must write 15 since 19200 is another
possible Baud rate and the Braille 'n Speak can't guess which of the two you
want.  However, if you need to set the Braille 'n Speak to 2400 Baud, you can
simply write a 2 and the Braille 'n Speak understands.  Remember to exit the
Status menu with an e- chord to return to your previous work area.

If you just want to change the Baud rate without checking its present value,
bring up the Parameters menu by pressing a p-chord from wherever you're
working.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "Enter parameter".  Write a b and at the
"Enter Baud rate" prompt, simply write the first digit, or first and second
digits, of your choice.  The Braille 'n Speak doesn't repeat the Baud rate
you've entered.  It just says, "Okay."  However, if you write an invalid
setting, it says, "Invalid input" and leaves you back where you were last
working.  You'll need to start all over again with a p-chord b to issue a
valid setting.

13.2.2 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.  Get into the
Status menu with an st-sign-chord and write a p.  The Braille 'n Speak says,
"No parity".  To change it, write an e for Even or an o for Odd.  Exit the
Status menu with an e-chord.

To change parity from the Parameters menu, press a p-chord.  At the "Enter
parameter" prompt, write a p.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "Enter parity, None,
Even, Odd".  When you write the first letter of a choice, the Braille 'n Speak
simply confirms, "Okay" and leaves you back in your previous work area.

13.2.3 Duplex

This setting deserves special notice because it affects what you hear during a
transmission as well as what exactly is being transmitted.

There are three choices: Half duplex, Full duplex and None.  In the following
discussion, we assume that your Braille 'n Speak is set to transmit data.  In
other words, its serial port is "active", ready to send and receive data.  


When duplex is set to half, the default value, everything you write - your
responses to prompts, for example - is stored in your currently open file, as
well as sent out the serial port to another device.  If you accidentally fail
to press the spacebar when pressing a chord, a character (the non-chorded
keys) is appended to the end of the text in your currently open file.

When duplex is set to full, everything you write is sent out the port and
nothing is stored in your currently open file.  Therefore, full duplex is
generally more desirable.  If you have your Braille 'n Speak connected to a
computer, you'll usually want to set the Braille 'n Speak to full duplex mode.

When duplex is set to none, what you write 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 Braille 'n Speak directly to a printer. 
Otherwise, each time you send a carriage return or whenever the printer
receives all it can handle, it might print before you are ready.

Enter the Status menu and write a d to hear the current setting of duplex. 
Change it by writing an f or an n.  Then exit The Status menu with the usual
e-chord.

Or, enter the Parameters menu and write a d.  The Braille 'n Speak says,
"Enter duplex: half, full or none".  Enter a choice by writing its first
letter and the Braille 'n Speak responds, "Okay", leaving you back in your
currently open file.

13.2.4 Data Bits

The next setting to consider is the data length, or "data bits" setting.  The
possible options are 7 and 8, with 8 being the most commonly used setting.

To see the present status of data bits, enter the Status menu with an
st-sign-chord and write a dots 4-5-6 character.  The Braille 'n Speak should
say, "8 data bits".  You can change it, if necessary, by writing a dropped 7. 
That is your only other option in this case.  The only time you need to worry
about this setting at all is when the device at the other end requires a
setting of 7 instead of 8 data bits.  Remember to exit the Status menu with an
e-chord.

To change the data bits setting from the Parameters menu, press a p-chord and
at the "Enter parameter" prompt, write a dots 4-5-6 character.  The Braille 'n
Speak says, "Enter data bits".  It assumes that you know your choices.  If you
write an invalid entry, the Braille 'n Speak says, "Invalid input" and kicks
you back into your currently open file.  To set a valid data bits setting, you
must start the process over again.

13.2.5 Stop Bits

This telecommunications setting has only two choices: 1 and 2.  Generally,
devices require only 1 stop bit.

To see which way the stop bits parameter is presently set, enter the Status
menu with an st-sign-chord and write an s.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "1 stop
bit."  Change it to 2, if necessary, by writing a dropped 2.  Exit the Status
menu with an e-chord to return to the file in which you were working.

Or, if you just want to change stop bits, press a p-chord to enter the
Parameters menu.  At the prompt, write an s and the Braille 'n Speak says,
"Enter stop bits".  As always, an invalid entry kicks you back into your
currently open file.  To restart the process, you need to re-enter the
Parameters menu.

13.2.6 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 Braille 'n Speak keeps sending to a printer which is not able to
process the information coming into it, you could lose text.  So, handshaking
keeps the flow of information on track.

The three choices are None, Software handshaking and Hardware handshaking. 
What's important here is to match the Braille 'n Speak's setting to what the
other device expects.

Enter the Status menu with an st-sign-chord and write an h.  The Braille 'n
Speak may say any one of the three choices, something like, "Software
handshake".  To change it to one of the other two, simply write the first
letter of your choice.  Exit the Status menu with an e-chord.

You may also set handshaking from the Parameters menu.  At the "Enter
parameter" prompt, write an h.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "Enter Hardware,
Software or None".  Write the first letter of an option and the Braille 'n
Speak responds, "Okay", leaving you back in your currently open file.

When transmitting from a PC to the Braille 'n Speak, we recommend not using
the "None" handshake setting because it will cause loss of data.

Next, we'll look at a few parameters that affect how your data appears when
it's sent and how your Braille 'n Speak is affected by transmission of data. 
Though you don't have to match these parameters on both ends of the link, you
should understand how they can be of use, and how they can create potential
snags if they're set incorrectly.

13.2.7 The Interactive Mode

Recall from Chapter 4 that, in order to have the Braille 'n Speak echo what
you write, the Interactive mode must be "on".  The easiest way to enable or
disable it is with a g-chord.  When you enable it, the Braille 'n Speak says,
"Interactive, okay" and when you disable it, the Braille 'n Speak says, "Off,
okay".

To see the current status of Interactive mode, enter the Status menu and write
a g.  The Braille 'n Speak tells you its status.  Change it with a y (for on)
and an n for off) and exit the Status menu with an e-chord.

So what does all this have to do with communications?  When interactive mode
is "on", not only is the text you write spoken, text coming into the Braille
'n Speak through its serial port is also spoken.  This can be especially vital
when you're connected to a bulletin board through a modem, for example.

If you want to listen to everything coming in, you can.  However, this slows
down the whole transmission process.  Even with speech set to maximum speed,
the Braille 'n Speak's voice lags behind the transmission.  On the other hand,
having Interactive mode on means that you'll know when transmission has
stopped or when you are being prompted by the other device.  It also means
that if you halt speech with an e-chord and data continues to transmit, the
voice will resume and you'll be able to "catch up" - so to speak.

13.2.8 Rejecting Ornamentation

This is the parameter that controls what kinds of characters are accepted as
part of a transmission.  Computer networks 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 content in your Braille 'n Speak,
not the fancy squiggles sighted readers find so aesthetically pleasing.

When you set the Reject Ornamentation parameter "on", the Braille '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 check the status of the Ornamentation parameter, enter the Status menu and
write an o.  You change the setting on and off with a y or n.  Most of the
time, you'll want to keep it "off" unless you're hooked up to a device that is
constantly sending you extra stars and the like.

You can also change this setting by pressing a p-chord to enter the Parameters
menu.  Write an o and the Braille 'n Speak prompts, "Reject ornamentation
characters; enter y or n."  Respond according to your need at the time and you
hear, "Okay", finding yourself back in your currently open file.

Now that you have an elementary understanding of telecommunications settings
and how to match them to the device you're linking with your Braille 'n Speak,
you are ready to skip to the chapters of this section that particularly
interest you.                    CHAPTER 14: THE PORTABLE DISK DRIVE

We spend very little time explaining standard computer terms - formatting a
disk, operating system, textfile, etc.  We assume you're familiar with these
basic computer terms or have access to training on them.  Rather, our focus is
on the Braille 'n Speak's interaction with other devices.

The portable disk drive is the Braille 'n Speak's passport to the world of
computers.  It lets you work with standard 3-1/2 inch disks formatted for an
MS DOS (IBM PC-compatible) computer.

You can load text documents (ASCII textfiles) into the Braille 'n Speak, read
them, edit them, even transfer them back onto disks.  You can load programs
(applications) specially written for the Braille 'n Speak - such as the
checkbook writer and spellchecker - adding even more power to your unit.

You can list the contents of a disk (a directory), format a disk (prepare it
to receive information), delete files on the disk, create new ones, etc.

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.

* 14.1 How to Operate the Disk Drive

* NOTE: Blazie Engineering now has a new, slimmer version of the portable disk
drive.  You may have an older model.  Check out Appendix E for details on
which chargers work with the new disk drive.  In addition, the cable that
connects the new disk drive to your Braille 'n Speak 2000 is different from
the one you may already have, so check with Blazie for details on upgrading
your older model.

* The disk drive connects to either of the Braille 'n Speak 2000's ports.  A
cable comes with the drive when you purchase it.  The connector that fits into
the Braille 'n Speak feels identical to the DIN connector on your serial
Braille 'n Speak 2000 cable.  (See Section 13.1.2.)

* Now let's see what this drive looks like before we start messing with file
transfers between it and the Braille 'n Speak.

Position the drive with the slot where the disk goes facing toward you.  Rest
the unit on a flat, stable surface - like a desk.  Now look at the back of the
device.

* Starting from the left, the first thing you find is a rocker switch.  This
powers up the disk drive.  It comes in the "Off" position from the factory,
rocked to the right.  To turn on the disk drive, you rock it to the left.  But
don't do that just yet.

* Now feel along the back of the unit to the right, past a rectangular object
(which is the port for the cable that connects the drive to your Braille 'n
Speak).  Continue to the right until you find the jack for the drive's 12-volt
charger.  The disk drive can be operated from its internal battery, much like
the Braille 'n Speak, and it should be fully charged when you purchase it. 
Nevertheless, you might want to plug your charger into the unit the first time
you run the drive.

* The battery in the disk drive is identical to the battery in the Braille 'n
Speak.  In fact, the two battery chargers are interchangeable.  The disk drive
needs only two to four hours to attain a full recharge and it can run for
three to five hours before needing another recharge.

* Move back now toward the middle of the back side of the disk drive until you
feel the rectangular object we mentioned a moment ago.  As we said, this is
the port that connects the disk drive cable to your Braille 'n Speak.  In
order for the drive to power up, you must have the cable connected to the port
on the drive and to one of the ports on the Braille 'n Speak, and the Braille
'n Speak itself must be turned on.  If you try to turn on the disk drive
without first inserting the cable into the port, connecting it to your Braille
'n Speak, and then turning on the Braille 'n Speak, nothing will happen.

* Let's examine the cable more closely.  One end, as we pointed out at the
beginning of this section, has a DIN connector.  The top of the housing of
this connector is flat to help you align it properly to your Braille 'n
Speak's ports.  The rim of the connector is semi-circular and there are tiny
pins located on the inside of this rim.  These pins fit snugly and precisely
into either of your Braille 'n Speak's ports.

* Now, the other end of the disk drive cable fits into the rectangular port
located in the middle of the back side of the disk drive.  Those of you
familiar with parallel printer cables will notice that this port and connector
are miniature variations of the Centronix port and connector found on a
parallel printer.

* Align the connector with the port and gently push until the connector mates
snugly with the port.  You'll hear a distinctive click when the cable is
properly seated in the port.  Although there is no marking on the connector,
it can only go into the port one way.  So if you find you're having trouble,
turn the connector around and try again.

* Notice that on either side of the housing of this connector are two small
clips.  To remove the cable from the drive, simply squeeze these clips
together and the cable will come loose.

* Once the cable is properly connected to both the disk drive and the Braille
'n Speak, you may go ahead and turn on the disk drive.  You'll hear three
distinct tones to indicate that the unit is active.  Insert the disk that came
with the drive, braille side up and with the characters facing away from you,
into the slot in the front of the machine.  The disk should click into place
and a small, square button to the right of the slot should pop out toward you. 
When you're ready to extract this disk from the drive, simply push that button
in and the disk will pop out.


Mostly, you'll be storing and retrieving files between the disk drive and your
Braille 'n Speak.  So we'll go through examples of each type of transmission.

14.2 Retrieving a File from Disk

First, you need to create a space in the Braille 'n Speak to receive the
incoming file.  But how do you know what size to make it, and what if you make
it too small?  Won't you lose some of the text in the file, or couldn't you
end up with a huge, empty space in your Braille 'n Speak?

If you know the size of a file in bytes (and remember that a Braille 'n Speak
"page" holds up to 4,096 characters), you can then "guestimate" how many
Braille 'n Speak "pages" are required for a file.  But if you guess wrong,
you're still okay, as you'll see.  Let's go through a simple, concrete example
of retrieving an existing file from the disk that came with the drive.

Let's create a file called "disk" six Braille 'n Speak pages long with braille
translation turned off.  Once you're in the file, press an s-chord.  The
Braille 'n Speak says, "Storage".  Now write an l and at the prompt "Load,
enter filename", write the word "disk".  Press an e-chord to start the
transmission.

You'll hear some clicks from the disk drive and some hissing noises from the
Braille 'n Speak.  Within a very short time, the Braille 'n Speak will say,
"File is full" and, if Interactive mode is on, it will start speaking the text
of the file.  Shut up the Braille 'n Speak by writing a dots 4-5-6-chord to go
to the end of the file.  Check how much room you have left with an r-chord. 
You should hear something like, "Room left is 11".

You can read this file in the usual way.  Go ahead and do that now, moving to
the top of the file and either listening to the complete text or skipping
around in the file.  Do you have the complete file saved on the Braille 'n
Speak?  Well, one way to find out is to read the current line at the end of
the file with a c-chord.  In the current example, you'll hear something like,
"by R".  Doesn't sound like the end of a document, does it.

Actually, the disk drive emits a single tone when it completes sending a file
to the Braille 'n Speak, and the Braille 'n Speak itself says, "Okay".  Since
this didn't happen, we can assume there is more text in the file that hasn't
been transmitted yet because the Braille 'n Speak ran out of room.  The disk
drive is smart enough to know when the Braille 'n Speak can't take any more
data and stops sending text.  Let's see how to continue getting more of the
file from the disk drive.

Make the Braille 'n Speak file bigger by 1 Braille 'n Speak page, say.  Then
go to the end of the file.  (This is still just after the last character the
file had before you expanded it.  The difference now is that there are another
4,096 empty spaces that can be filled with data from the disk drive.) Now
press an s-chord.  At the "Storage" prompt from the Braille 'n Speak, write an
r (for resume).  This time, the disk drive should emit a single tone,
indicating that it has finished sending the file, and the Braille 'n Speak
should say, "Okay" to acknowledge that it has received a complete file.

Of course, this process doesn't work if you turn off the disk drive (thinking
you got the whole file), and then turn it on again (when you realize you
didn't).  The disk drive isn't that smart.  Once you turn it off, and then on
again, it can't remember what file it had been sending, and certainly not at
what point it had stopped.

Once you hear the "Okay" prompt, you can proceed as before, reading the file
in the usual way.

Incidentally, you've probably noticed a couple of tones from the disk drive
every few minutes.  Don't worry; it's the drive's way of reminding you that
it's still on, just as the Braille 'n Speak has a Power Reminder feature that
says "Hello" when you've left it inactive for a few minutes.

Now, how about if we want to save a file onto disk from the Braille 'n Speak.

14.3 Saving a File to Disk

There are several ways to save a file from the Braille 'n Speak to a disk. 
Three common methods include: saving a file merely for backup purposes; saving
a file as a "print" file ready for a printer or word processor to handle; and,
saving a file as a "braille" file ready to send to a braille embosser.

The simplest way to save a file from the Braille 'n Speak to a disk - mostly
used for backup purposes - is to press an s-chord from within the file and at
the "Storage" prompt, write an s (for save).  The Braille 'n Speak says,
"Save; enter filename".  Use the MS DOS file naming conventions to name the
file and press an e-chord.  The disk drive spins and the Braille 'n Speak
hisses and clicks.  Shortly, a single tone from the disk drive followed by an
"Okay" from the Braille 'n Speak tell you that your transfer was successful.

You can check the status of braille translation through the Status menu, but
this method of saving files facilitates that.  You don't have to think about
which way your braille translator is currently set.

Another method of saving files is this: From within the file you want to save,
press an s-chord.  At the "Storage" prompt, write a t to save the file
translated from Grade 2 braille into normal, English text (a textfile), or
write a b to save the file as a Grade 2 braille file to be printed on a
braille embosser or sent out to a braille display device.  For clarity, you
might answer the "Enter filename" prompt with "filename.txt" for "print" files
and with "filename.brl" for "braille" files.

The Braille 'n Speak goes through its usual clicks and hisses and the disk
drive spins.  Your transfer is complete when you hear, "Okay" from the Braille
'n Speak and a single tone from the drive.

A note of caution: In our present discussion, we haven't addressed the issue
of physical page layout - page length, margins, centering, etc.  Before you
save a file to disk as a "print" or "braille" file you intend to send to a
printer or braille embosser, you must set up the appropriate page format for
the file.  Otherwise, your file is translated into print or Grade 2 braille
but its page format may be a mess.  Review Section 4.9 for a full discussion
of formatting strings you can include in your files, as well as format 
parameters you can set from the Status menu.

Whether you're transmitting an application (computer program) or a textfile to
or from the disk drive, or perhaps a group of files, here's another, more
sophisticated transmission method.

14.4 Transmitting Textfiles or Applications

First, let's take a look at how this optional transmission process works,
regardless of the type of file being transferred.  In the next section, we'll
deal specifically with transferring "programs" or "applications" to the
Braille 'n Speak.

Enter the Files menu and press a t-chord (for transfer a file).  The Braille
'n Speak sees that the disk drive is connected and prompts you with, "Disk
drive, enter s to send or r to receive".  If you press an s or an r, you hear
the names of the files as they are being transmitted.

14.4.1 Sending Files to the Disk Drive

Write an s to send files to the drive.  The Braille 'n Speak prompts you with
the name of the file to which you're pointing in your files list and tells you
whether that file is "marked".  Marking the Braille 'n Speak files you want to
send prepares them for transmission.

You can navigate through your files list to hear which files are marked.  If
you don't want the file you're pointing to sent to the disk drive, unmark it
with an n.  Then move through your files list, unmarking files with an n:
forward with a dot 4-chord or backward with a dot 1-chord, to the beginning
and end of the files list with an l-chord and dots 4-5-6-chord as usual.  When
you find a file you do want to send, write a y to "mark" it for sending.

There's a quicker way to mark and unmark files.  When you find a file you want
to mark, press a y-chord to mark the file.  This automatically moves you to
the next file in your files list.

Finally, if you want to send all the files in your Braille 'n Speak files
list, write an m to mark them all at once.  Write a u to "unmark" your entire
files list all at once and select individual files to send.

You can also use "wildcard" characters to mark groups of files with similar
names.  (See Section 6.8 for details on wildcard characters.) Press an m-chord
or u-chord to mark or unmark a specific group of files that have similar
names.  For example, suppose you have several files with names like,
"names.brl" and "books.brl".  Press an m-chord followed by the characters
"*.brl" (that's an asterisk, a period, then the letters brl).  All files with
names that end in ".brl" are marked for sending to the drive.  Similarly, a
u-chord followed by "*.brl" unmarks that group of files so that they are not
sent.

And, are you remembering to use computer braille - dots 1-6 for the asterisk,
dots 1-4-5-6 for the question mark, and dots 4-6 for the period?

By the way, you can toggle between marking and unmarking the file to which
you're pointing by pressing the spacebar.

When you've marked all the files you want to send to the drive, press an
e-chord to let the Braille 'n Speak start sending files.  You hear the drive
spin and nothing much from your Braille 'n Speak until it finishes sending. 
Then it prompts you with "Okay, enter file command".

Remember, you started this process from within your Files menu; the Braille 'n
Speak knows that.  So it leaves you there when it completes the transmission.


14.4.2 Receiving Files from the Disk Drive

From the Files menu, press a t-chord.  At the prompt, "Disk drive; enter s for
send or r to receive", write an r.  The Braille 'n Speak prompts, "Enter
filename" and waits for you to write the name of a known file on the disk in
the drive or a group of similarly named files.  Press an e-chord to let the
Braille 'n Speak start receiving.  You may use wildcard characters for
similarly named groups of files, as illustrated above.

After you press the e-chord to signal the Braille 'n Speak to begin receiving
files from the drive, you should hear the drive spin and eventually the
Braille 'n Speak say, "Okay".  Files from the drive are appended to the end of
your Braille 'n Speak files list.

However, if there is already a file in your Braille 'n Speak with the same
name as a file you're trying to transmit from disk, you hear a prompt, "file
exists.  delete, skip rename or abort."  Choose d to delete your Braille 'n
Speak file and replace it with the incoming file.  Choose s to skip the file
and move to the next one on disk to transmit. When you choose r for Rename the
Braille 'n Speak still transmits the file, but it also adds a .0 extension to
your old file to distinguish it from the new one.  Choose a for abort to
cancel the entire transmission procedure and return to the Files menu on the
Braille 'n Speak.

Next, let's see how to receive a file that is a program or application, not a
textfile.

14.5 Adding an Application to the Braille 'n Speak

Up to now, we've been talking exclusively about sending and receiving
textfiles - that is, files with text you can read in them.  As you may know,
the other type of file a computer uses is a "program", a file that instructs
the computer on how to do something, like run a word processor or a
spreadsheet application.  For the Braille 'n Speak there are new applications
being developed all the time that you can add to your unit - for example, the
checkbook writer.

You can send to the Braille 'n Speak an application - or binary file - using
the Transfer command just described.  We'll use the handy financial calculator
as our example so you can find out how much interest you're actually going to
pay on the loan you just took out to buy your Braille 'n Speak.

Insert the disk whose label starts with, "checkbook" into your drive.  From
the Files menu, press a t-chord, as before.  This time, answer with an r.  The
Braille 'n Speak says, "Enter filename".  Respond, "fcalc.*".  This way, both
the "fcalc.bns" and "fcalc.doc" files will be transmitted.  The Braille 'n
Speak recognizes files with ".bns" extensions as programs and the file with an
extension of "doc" is probably the file that tells you how to use the program. 
Press an e-chord.  The disk drive spins and eventually the Braille 'n Speak
says, "Okay".

Obviously, if the file is not on the disk, you hear an error message.  As
you'll see in a minute, you can check what files are on a disk.  For now,
we'll assume that things worked fine and you have the files in your Braille 'n
Speak.

Go to the end of your files list to see their names.  You should hear, "file
number x, fcalc.bns, external program" (where x is the number of the file in
your files list).  Press a dot 1-chord to back up one file and hear, "File
number x, fcalc.doc".  The Braille 'n Speak knows that the file with the "bns"
extension is not a textfile.  Press a dot 4-chord to point to it again and
open it.  You'll see that when you try to read it, you hear gibberish.  That's
because this file is meant to be "run", as you run your spellchecker, and not
"read" as you would read your address file.


To run this special calculator program, you'll need to read its user guide,
called "fcalc.doc".  There are two ways to run the program:

Simply press an o-chord to get into the Options menu, then write an x.  The
Braille 'n Speak says, "Enter program to execute".  Write "fcalc" and press an
e-chord.  The Braille 'n Speak loads the program and gives you its first
prompt.  Quit this particular program with a q from its main menu.  You'll
then be back in the Files menu at the prompt, "Enter file command".  

Or, bring up the Files menu and point to the "fcalc.bns" file by pressing dot
4-chords until you're on it.  In our example, you could just press a dots 4-5-
6-chord to reach the last file in your files list, which is the file we want. 
Then press an x-chord.  The Braille 'n Speak loads the program and it gives
you its first prompt.

As we said above, the Braille 'n Speak recognizes files with the ".bns"
extension as external programs and automatically write-protects them.  Files
with extensions .bin, .bns, .com, .dic, .exe, and .sys, are also
write-protected automatically.  You can delete such files, but you cannot
write in them.

If you're not ready to explore the financial calculator, delete it at this
time, or save it for when you're more comfortable with your unit's overall
features.

14.6 Reading the Directory from a Disk

We cover the directory command here since you must know what's on a disk to
use it effectively.  But we won't describe all the commands you can use with
the disk drive - such as Format a disk, or Kill a file on disk.  These
commands assume an understanding of MS DOS.  They all begin with the s-chord
and are followed by the first letter of the command.  For example, s-chord
followed by k is the command for "killing" a file on disk.  A list of disk
drive functions is in the Braille 'n Speak Help file and in Appendix B.

From anywhere within your currently open file, press an s-chord followed by a
d.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "Directory; enter filename".  Respond with an
e-chord for a complete list sorted alphabetically and with file size
information only.  Or respond with the specific file on the disk whose name
you know, or a specific group of files whose names all end with, say, "bns",
using wildcard characters.  Then press an e-chord.  Add /n after the d to get
an unsorted list of files.  Write a /w after the d if you want the files
alphabetically sorted and you want to see the dates and times they were last
modified.

Whichever way you invoke the directory command, momentarily, the Braille 'n
Speak will have received the directory, and if Interactive mode is on, it will
start saying, "Volume label is . . ."  and begin listing files.  Is this list
being transmitted into your currently open file?  No.  Luckily, the Clipboard
- that scratchpad area that holds things for you in the Braille 'n Speak - is
receiving the directory list.  You can read through it from the Clipboard file
as you read any other text.

One new trick is that you can load a file into your Braille 'n Speak directly
from the Clipboard as you read through the directory of files.  Bring your
cursor onto the file you want to load, then press s-chord g.  The file is
automatically loaded into your Braille 'n Speak at the end of your files list.

Check out the section on sophisticated modem protocols in the next chapter
because you can also use the s-chord command with the ymodem protocol.  And
using it can save you time.


The disk drive opens up a whole new infinite realm of possibilities for you to
explore.  Printers let you communicate with others by physically producing
your work on paper.  Computers and modems - especially modems - can broaden
your options even further.  And speaking of printers and other computers, we
turn to them next.                CHAPTER 15: PRINTERS, MODEMS, AND COMPUTERS

15.1 Transmission Considerations

Your Braille 'n Speak is preset from the factory for 9600 Baud, 8 data bits, 1
stop bit, no parity, half duplex, and software handshaking.  If you're
unfamiliar with these terms and you don't know what your other device expects
these settings to be, review Section 13.2 before continuing.  It might save
you countless hours of aggravation the first time you try to transmit data
between the Braille 'n Speak and another device.

And while we're about it, if you bypassed the discussion of cables (Section
13.1), we suggest you take a minute to skim over that section, as well.  Wrong
cables account for a considerable amount of technical support questions and
needless frustration.

Now let's talk about a couple of settings on the Braille 'n Speak we
deliberately left out of Section 13.2 to avoid confusion.

15.1.1 Activating the Serial Port

To conserve power, the serial port on the Braille 'n Speak is normally turned
off.  Before you can communicate with any external device through this port,
you must activate it.  The longer the serial port is active, the greater the
drain on the Braille 'n Speak's battery.  If you make heavy use of the port,
the battery drains quickly.  Don't think anything is wrong with the battery if
you start getting "Battery low" warning messages after only seven hours of
use, for instance.  So check your battery drain periodically.  (See Section
1.5.3 for details.)

There is no reminder that the serial port is active once your unit is turned
on.  If the serial port was left active the last time you turned off the
Braille 'n Speak, when you next turn it on, the start-up message says,
"Braille 'n Speak ready, serial port".  So it's important to turn off the
serial port immediately upon completing communications with another device to
save battery power.

Of course, you can check whether the port is active.  Enter the Status menu
with an st-sign-chord and write an f.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "Serial
port, off."  To turn it on, write a y.  To turn it off later, write an n.  Or,
press a p-chord to bring up the Parameters menu.  At the "Enter parameter"
prompt, write a dots 2-6-chord.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "Serial port,
enter y or n".  Whatever your choice, the Braille 'n Speak may only squeak in
response, although most of the time, you'll hear the confirming prompt,
"Okay".  This setting is hard to change on purpose to avoid accidental
activation of the serial port.

15.1.2 Appending Linefeeds


Back in Chapter 4, we explained the difference between a carriage return and a
linefeed and why it is that you don't really need to have linefeeds present in
your files on the Braille 'n Speak.  Let's revisit this briefly to see how it
applies to transmitting text.

In effect, a carriage return moves the cursor to the left margin of a line. 
In the Braille 'n Speak, it doesn't affect your reading because you are not
physically moving up and down a piece of paper to read.  So the carriage
return serves only as a marker.  A linefeed, on the other hand, moves the
cursor to the next line on the page.  Once again, in a Braille 'n Speak file,
linefeeds are meaningless because you're not physically moving vertically
along a piece of paper.

However, it's clear that when you print the contents of a Braille 'n Speak
file, you need both carriage returns and linefeeds.  Otherwise, a printer will
simply print the first line of text, then return the carriage to the left
margin and print the next line, and the next, and the next, without ever
moving down the page.  And you can guess what a jumble of letters you'll have
- all on the same line.  (Some printers actually refuse to print at all if
they don't receive pairs of carriage returns and linefeeds.) Luckily, there's
a provision built into the Braille 'n Speak to deal with this.

Enter the Status menu with the st-sign-chord.  Write an a.  The Braille 'n
Speak says something like, "Add linefeed when transmitting, off".  Turn this
parameter "on" with a y and "off" with an n.  Unless you're transmitting,
you'll want it off.  Or press a p-chord to bring up the Parameters menu. 
Write an a for "Add linefeeds" and turn on the setting before you transmit
your file.

A word of caution: The Add linefeeds setting is not file-specific, even if the
setting to make parameters file-specific in the Status menu is "on".  This is
important because, if you forget to turn it off when you're through printing,
all your files will retain linefeeds and that may cause other transmission
problems.

Next, let's quickly revisit page formatting to make sure your printouts come
out just right.

15.2 Physical Page Format Considerations

When sending text directly to a printer, braille embosser, or computer, you
want it to look right in that environment.  In other words, if the text is
going to a printer, you probably want the page length to be 54 lines with top,
bottom, left, and right margins of about an inch, for example.  If the text is
going to a braille embosser, on the other hand, no doubt you'll want something
like a page length of 25 lines, a line width of 40 characters, and Grade 2
braille.

As you'll recall, these format considerations can be handled simply by
including special formatting strings in your file as you write, and by setting
certain parameters at transmission time.  Review Section 4.9 for a complete
discussion of formatting strings and parameters.  Here we'll only focus on
settings and formatting strings that affect the actual process of printing or
brailling.  All of these formatting strings can be added temporarily and
removed once the commands they initiate have been performed by the printer or
braille embosser.

15.2.1 Printing Text Without Translating

There may be times when you want a portion of your file not to be translated
from Grade 2 braille because you've written it in computer braille, instead.  

 For example, say your document explains how to write a certain MS DOS command
that has slashes in it.  If you do nothing to warn the Braille 'n Speak when
it prints your file to an ink printer, every slash will be printed as an "st". 
In fact, you should be aware of this even as you write it because the Braille
'n Speak will pronounce things like "/w" as "s t w".

To prevent the Braille 'n Speak from accidentally translating something you
don't want translated, you have two options for temporarily stopping
translation.  Place a ' $brl+ ' just before the text you want to print
untranslated, and a ' $brl- ' just before the place where you want translation
to resume.

Or use the symbol, dot 4 followed by a dash (dots 3-6) at the beginning of a
group of characters you don't want translated, and a dot 4 followed by an l
when you want translation to resume.  Like the $ formatting strings, the dot 4
symbol requires spaces around it.  So you'd write something like, "space, dot
4, dash, space, Do not translate this text., space, dot 4, l, space".  Either
method works.  It's just a matter of preference.

If you just want one character not to be translated - say, an asterisk (dots
1-6 in computer braille) - place a dot 4 before the character.

15.2.2 Finding out What Page is Being Printed

There are two ways to find out what page is being printed.  You can either
insert the string ' $st ' at the place where you want specifically to hear
what page is being printed.  As it's printing, the Braille 'n Speak will
announce, "Status directive encountered on Page x, Line x" at the place you
wrote the formatting string in your file (the x's being the actual number of
the page and line printing at the time).  Or, you could always just press the
spacebar as you're printing at any time to hear what page is being printed. 
This way you don't have to add a special string into your file at any
particular point in the file.

15.2.3 Transmitting a Portion of a Document

Although we covered this in Section 4.9.6, we review it here for clarity. 
There are two ways you can limit how much of your document actually goes to
the printer or braille embosser.  For example, you might just want to print
out Page 1 to see how your text is lining up in the columns you set up.  At
the point where you want the printer to stop, write a ' $ef ' in your file. 
When you transmit your document to the printer, it will stop at the place
immediately before your ' $ef ' string.

But what if your printer jammed on Page 4 and you need to start from there. 
Just before the place where you want the printer to skip the text, write a '
$( ' into your file.  Just before the place where you want the printer to
start paying attention again and begin printing, write a ' $) '.

Even if you're not sure of the physical location in your file where the
printer would begin Page 4, there is a way to find that out before you
actually insert the strings we've just described.  In the next section, we'll
show you how to figure out where the word you're on would print on a physical
page and line.

15.2.4 Double-Spacing a Document on the Fly

In Section 4.9.4, we described how you can place a formatting string into your
file so that your document prints out with a blank line in between each line
of text.  This type of printout is often used in a school setting where a
professor wants to be able to add comments to your paper or exam.

In some cases, you'll want to have only a portion of your document print
double-spaced, and then the rest print out single-spaced (which is the
standard way to print out a document).  The formatting strings discussed in
Section 4.9.4 are best for that scenario because you can place them exactly
where you want the text to print out double- and single-spaced respectively.

But if you want the whole document to print double-spaced, it's quicker to use
the Status menu setting for double-spacing.

Enter the Status menu with the usual st-sign-chord (dots 3-4-chord) and jump
to the setting with an ar-sign.  Double-spacing is set to "off" from the
factory.  Write a y to turn it on.  Now, when you print your document, or when
you check out how many pages the printed document would contain, you'll get a
very different answer because, of course, it's as if the document were itself
doubled in size.  The good thing is that it doesn't take up any more room in
your Braille 'n Speak since the setting in the Status menu controls the
additional blank lines.  It's just like the Add Linefeeds setting in this
respect.  It doesn't change the way your Braille 'n Speak's voice reads the
file. It just affects the printout of the file.

Unless you have the setting that makes parameters file-specific turned off,
double-spacing is only in effect for the currently open file.  That's probably
the way you want it because, otherwise, all your documents would print out
double-spaced.

15.2.5 Previewing Where Text Will Print

Remember from Section 4.9.5 that you can control page numbering for both print
and braille files with format strings.  Also, recall that there's a setting in
the Status menu that you can turn on to number your pages if you don't want or
need to include format strings in your file.  You can check how many physical
print or braille pages your file would contain before you actually print or
braille it on physical paper.

By now you know how essential it is to set up your page format parameters to
get accurate margins and page lengths, etc.  Always check page format
parameters in your currently open file before you transmit it to a printer or
braille embosser to make sure the settings match your expectations.

Let's look at an example.  Suppose you want to print a file containing 500
characters of text all in Grade 2 braille.  We can't be exactly sure how many
print or braille pages that file turns into without knowing how many blank
lines you have and how many carriage returns you physically put into the file. 
But even beyond that, if you set your page format parameters for "print" with
say, 66 lines per page and 65 characters per line, when the Braille 'n Speak
counts the number of pages, it will determine a very different number than if
you had set your page format parameters to a page length of 25 and a line
length of 40, as for a braille file.

The whole business can be confusing.  But you can stay on top of it by
checking whether the file is a "braille" or "print" file, by checking your
page format parameters before checking how many physical pages will be printed
or brailled, and certainly before transmitting the file itself.  Even with
Page Numbering turned off in the Status menu, as long as you have a print or
braille page length greater than 0, you can get a reading on how many physical
pages your file will contain when it's printed or brailled.

Working with our example of a 500-character, Grade 2 braille file, go to the
end of the file and press an sh-sign-chord (dots 1-4-6-chord).  The Braille 'n
Speak says, "Enter p, b, or a".  Once you write either a p or b, the Braille
'n Speak hisses for a couple of seconds.  Eventually, it says something like,
"Page 2, line 17".  Assuming you responded with a p, you now know that when
you actually print out this file, it will contain two pages and the second of
the two will be only about a third of the way full of text.  If you had chosen
a b response and you got this reading, you could assume that the file would
braille out as a two-page document with the second page almost two-thirds full
of text.

If you choose the "a" option, you'll get a reading on how many "absolute"
Braille 'n Speak pages there are in your file up to the point where your
cursor is resting.  In our 500-character file, you're still on Braille 'n
Speak page 1, of course, since a Braille 'n Speak "page" is 4,096 characters
long.

There can be a problem if you don't have Page-numbering turned on and you have
a braille or print page length of 0 set in the Status menu.  In this scenario,
when you invoke the sh-sign-chord and choose the p or b response, you hear,
"No page format set".

We suggest you try a few test runs, setting up page format parameters and
using the page-numbering setting as trials, before you actually trust that
things will be printed or brailled as you expect.  All printers and braille
embossers, especially printers, have quirks that may require different values
than we recommend for the settings.  Nevertheless, once you get these page
format issues under control, you should be transmitting virtually flawlessly
formatted documents all the time.  It's a matter of practice.

Now, we're finally ready to tackle actually transmitting blocks of text from
the Braille 'n Speak to another device.

* 15.3 Sending Blocks of Text to Another Device

In this section, we deal specifically with sending blocks of text from the
Braille 'n Speak to another device, such as a printer.  Naturally, a block of
text can be a whole file.  But it can just as easily be less than that.

 Of course, you can use the commands discussed here to transmit blocks of text
to other devices as well as printers.  But look at Section 15.5 for more
sophisticated ways to transmit files to and from computers.

When you're sending blocks of text directly from the Braille '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 we discussed in
the previous section.  Formatting the text from the Braille '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'll want your format to be just
right if you're going to transmit directly to a printer.

A telecommunications program can facilitate adjusting telecommunications
settings to match those on the Braille 'n Speak.  Furthermore, such a program
can perform error-checking during the transmission.  There are several
shareware versions that work well with speech synthesizers and screen access
programs.  And Blazie Engineering even has a program for $99 called PCDISK
that uses almost all the same commands as our portable disk drive, including
ymodem transfer commands.  For our discussion, we'll assume you have such a
program and are familiar with its use.

Remember to address those essential, physical page format parameter
considerations before you send text to a printer or you may find the resulting
printout very strange indeed.  Now, let's go through the mechanics of the
transmission process.

* You can send text from the Braille 'n Speak to another device in the
following ways: the entire file, a single line, paragraph or a block of text. 
Each of these options starts with a t-chord.  Writing a certain letter after
the "Enter transmit parameter" prompt sends the desired amount of text to the
other device.  If you want the entire file to be sent to an ink printer,
choose the letter a.  To send the entire file to a braille embosser, choose
the letter b.

* However, if you just want to send a smaller portion of the file - a line,
paragraph, or marked block of text - when you press its corresponding letter
(an l, p, or m), the Braille 'n Speak is going to ask if you want to send the
text in print or braille.  Answer with a p or b, and your text is on its way,
using appropriate formatting for print or braille.


* Here are some details.

* When you're ready to send text from your currently open file, place your
cursor where you want the transmission to begin, then press a t-chord.  The
Braille 'n Speak says, "Enter transmit parameter".  Write an l, p, or z to
indicate whether you are sending from the current cursor position to the end
of the current line (l), paragraph (p), m (marked block), or entire text from
the cursor forward (z).

* of course, to send a block of text that does not extend to the end of the
file, you need  to define the block.  Before issuing the t-chord, you must
"mark" the block to be transmitted.  Find the final character you want to
include in your transmission.  Move beyond it one character with a dot
6-chord.  Mark the place by pressing an m-chord.  Then move to your starting
point, the first character you want to include in your transmission.  Now that
you have defined the block to transmit, press a t-chord.  At the "Enter
transmit parameter" prompt, write an m.  Then choose either p for print or b
for braille and All the text from your current cursor location to the mark is
transmitted.  The nice thing is that appropriate print or braille margins are
honored for ink printers and braille embossers respectively.

The commands t-chord a or t, t-chord b, and t-chord s reduce the number of
steps you need to perform in order to transmit text.

t-chord a or t automatically moves the cursor to the beginning of your file
and transmits everything within that file.  Any format conditions you have in
effect are honored respective to whether you're transmitting to print or
braille: margins, line and page length, etc.

t-chord b sends text from the beginning to the end of the file but it turns
off the braille translator.  It is the command of choice to transmit text
directly to a braille embosser.  Any format values you may have set are in
effect.  If page numbering is on, braille page numbers are included in the
printout in literary braille notation.

t-chord s performs steps which are essential if you want to send "clean" text
to a device for backup purposes only.  If you want no format considerations,
no braille translation, and all of your text sent, then use t-chord s.  It
sends your cursor to the beginning of the file, turns off the braille
translator, if it is on, and sets all format parameters to 0 before
transmitting the entire file.

Those are the different ways to send blocks of text from the Braille 'n Speak
to another device.  But wait.  Don't try printing just yet.

Anyone who does a lot of printing knows how much paper is wasted in printouts
that didn't come out right for one reason or another.  One final thing you can
do before actually transmitting a file to a printer or braille embosser is to
print the file to another file.  What?  How could that be of use, you might
wonder.

What we're suggesting here is transmitting your file with all of its
formatting strings - as if it were going to a printer or braille embosser - to
another file in your Braille 'n Speak.  Transmitting the file as if it were
going to a real printer means that all formatting strings are replaced by the
actual physical layout of the text - with pages numbered, say, with headers
maybe, with indented sections, etc.  Then you can examine the layout carefully
and make any necessary corrections to the file that still has the formatting
strings.  It might also save a few trees.  

To print to a file, from wherever you want to start in your currently open
file, press a t-chord.  At the prompt, "Enter transmit parameter", write an f. 
The Braille 'n Speak repeats, "Enter transmit parameter".  At this point you
can choose any of the options we've just described (a, b, l, m, p, s, or z). 
The Braille 'n Speak then prompts, "Enter filename".  Write a filename like,
"test1" and press an e-chord.  Your file is transmitted to the file called
"test1" and the Braille 'n Speak says, "Okay" when it's done.

However, if there is already a file in your Braille 'n Speak called "test1",
you hear a prompt, "file exists.  delete, skip rename or abort."  When you
choose d, the currently open file replaces the old one.  When you choose r for
Rename the Braille 'n Speak still transmits your file to "test1", but it also
adds a .0 extension to your old file.  When you select s or a, the whole
transfer process is cancelled.

15.4 Modems and Other Computers

Modems are special devices that link two computers together through the
telephone line.  You hook up a computer to your phone line by connecting the
computer first to the modem and then the modem to the phone jack (or to the
phone itself).  The computer you're calling is similarly linked to a phone
line through a modem.

We won't spend time on how modems work.  These devices, too, have manuals
which describe their setup and detail the commands to which they respond.  For
example, you can tell a modem to dial a phone either by tones or by dial
pulses, to dial 9 first, wait for a specified period before dialing the rest
of the other computer's phone number, to answer the telephone when it rings
and on which ring to answer, etc.

The computer on your end of such a connection could easily be your Braille 'n
Speak.

Now turning to computers, if you have a computer and want to transmit data
between it and your Braille 'n Speak, you need to run a telecommunications
program in that computer.  This program sets up the computer to receive
information from an outside source - in this case, your Braille 'n Speak.  As
with printers, having the correct cable goes a long way toward making things
easy.

Blazie Engineering has telecommunications programs for the IBM PC and simple
file capture programs for both the IBM PC compatible and the Apple families of
computers.  Also, there are several shareware products that work well with
screen access programs.

In addition, we have programs that come with our external disk drive - such as
the checkbook writer and the financial calculator.  Since these programs come
on an MS DOS compatible 3-1/2 inch floppy disk, even if you don't have a disk
drive, you can still load them into your Braille 'n Speak by using a PC. 
Check with our Customer Support staff to find out how to obtain any of these
programs.

Now let's see how to connect the Braille 'n Speak to devices other than
printers.

To link your Braille 'n Speak to a modem, to another Braille 'n Speak, and to
some computers (like some Apple models), you need a "null modem" cable or
adapter.  As we mentioned in Section 13.1, matching up the right cables really
eases your connectivity challenges.  Make sure you get a null modem cable with
the right attributes to match your Braille 'n Speak cable and the serial port
on your modem or computer.  (The manual for your computer or modem should
indicate whether you need a null modem cable, and certainly the dealer that
sold it to you should be able to provide this information.

We'll focus on the IBM PC compatible since it is the computer of choice for
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 should be all set to transmit data.

One last thing: before you start attempting to transmit data:  Remember to
make sure your telecommunications settings match (Baud rate, parity, data
bits, stop bits, duplex and handshaking).  In Section 13.2, we detailed all of
these for you and explained how to change them, if necessary, on your Braille
'n Speak.  Naturally, we can't explain how your particular telecommunications
program allows you to change such settings.  We suggest that you go through
the manual for your telecommunications program to verify what the default
telecommunications settings are, and that you check out how to change them in
your telecommunications program, if the need arises.  Again, transmitting data
can be a breeze, but only if all the settings match on both your Braille 'n
Speak and the other device, and only if your cables are the proper cables. 
Overlooking any one of these issues can cause you needless frustration and
confusion.  Setting it up right the first time will save you many headaches
later.

Next, we look at using modem protocols to transmit data between your Braille
'n Speak and a computer.

15.5 Using Sophisticated Modem Protocols in Transmission

So far in our discussion of transmitting data from your Braille 'n Speak to a
computer, we've talked exclusively about using the t-chord command.  There is
a simpler way to transmit data when you're dealing with whole files.

A telecommunications program helps you to match telecommunications settings in
the PC with those in your Braille 'n Speak,.  It also helps to transfer your
files in the most error-free manner possible.

Telecommunications programs vary in their levels of sophistication.  But even
the most basic ones ask you whether the file you're transmitting is in ASCII. 
Recall that the ASCII character set is made up largely of the alphabet,
punctuation marks, numbers, and so on.  It is possible to transmit a file that
is a program written in binary or machine language (which is not in ASCII
characters) from one computer to another, and most telecommunications programs
have provisions for transmitting such files.

For the most part, however, files you transmit from your Braille 'n Speak to a
computer are ASCII files, even if they're in Grade 2 braille.  When your
telecommunications program is ready to receive a file from your Braille 'n
Speak and asks you whether you are sending it an ASCII file, you can answer,
"yes" and use your t-chord command on the Braille 'n Speak followed by the
appropriate letter - b for a braille file, for example.  

However, most telecommunications packages now have more flexibility, and so
does your Braille 'n Speak.  When it's ready to receive your file, a
telecommunications program may also ask you whether you want to use a "modem
protocol", such as xmodem, ymodem, zmodem, and even kermit.  Most of the time,
any of these options is probably a better choice than a straight ASCII
transfer.  (Note: The Braille 'n Speak does not support zmodem.) Basically,
what these options do is to take the transmission in chunks rather than one
character at a time, and to perform error-checking on each chunk before
accepting the next chunk.  This explanation oversimplifies the concept, but at
least it gives you a feel for why you might want to use a modem protocol.

Let's go through a couple of examples of electing to use modem protocols for
transmitting files between the Braille 'n Speak and your PC.  Here again, we
assume that all cables are connected properly, that you have matched Baud
rates, parity, data bits and stop bits, etc., and we further assume that you
are running a telecommunications program in your PC.

First, let's look at a transfer going from the PC into your Braille 'n Speak. 
From the Files menu in the Braille 'n Speak, enter a t-chord (for transfer). 
The Braille 'n Speak prompts, "Enter s to send or r to receive".  If you press
an s or an r, you hear the names of the files as they are being transmitted.

Now the Braille 'n Speak gives you some options to consider, "Enter x for
xmodem, y for ymodem, g for ymodem g or k for kermit".
 (Note: ymodem g does not work with 38400 Baud for a file longer than one
page.)

If you write an x (for xmodem), the Braille 'n Speak asks, "Enter filename". 
Write the filename followed by an e-chord.  The Braille 'n Speak confirms your
choice with, "Start the transfer."  Obviously, on the PC side of things, you
must choose x for xmodem as well in order for the transfer to work properly.

If you choose y (for ymodem), g (for ymodem g), or k (for kermit), the Braille
'n Speak does not prompt you for a filename because it gets that information
as part of the transfer automatically.  It creates the filename in your
Braille 'n Speak as it receives it from the PC.

(Incidentally, remember the s-chord command for the disk drive?  You can use
the y option with that command as well to transmit files to an attached disk
drive.)

Now let's make sure you understand how to approach this process from the PC
side.  From within your telecommunications program, you select the "Upload"
option.  When the program asks how you want to send this PC file and offers
the various choices we've just discussed, you select the one that matches what
you've chosen on the Braille 'n Speak.  So choose x for xmodem if you selected
that on the Braille 'n Speak, for example.

The telecommunications program asks you for the name of the PC file you want
to send.  Type the filename and press the appropriate key in your
telecommunications program to send the file, usually the Enter key on your PC. 
When the Braille 'n Speak has received the file, it will let you know with an
"Okay" prompt, followed by "Enter file command".  Why that prompt?  Well,
remember that you issued the t-chord from the Files menu.  You're still there.

If you want to see the contents of the file you just received, press a dots
4-5-6-chord to bring you to the last file in your files list and then press an
o-chord to open it.

Now let's say that something went wrong and the transfer was aborted.  In such
a case, the Braille 'n Speak says, "Transfer canceled; enter file command". 
You'll probably see some kind of error message on your PC, as well.

If you use the xmodem) option for transmitting files, you can only transmit
one file at a time.  However, with ymodem or kermit, you can receive multiple
files, and you can even use  the wildcard characters detailed in Section 6.8
and Appendix A for groups of files with similar names.

For example, when your telecommunications program asks you for the name of the
file you want to send, you could type "*.txt".  All files that have a "txt"
extension in your current PC directory are queued up and sent to the Braille
'n Speak.  Each one is added to your files list with its own name as it is
received.

Our whole discussion so far assumes that there are no duplicate filenames
between the files you're trying to send from the PC and your Braille 'n Speak
files.  But whenever the Braille 'n Speak sees an incoming file that already
exists, it stops and says, File exists, delete, skip, rename or abort."  If
you select d for Delete, your PC file replaces your Braille 'n Speak file. 
When you choose s for Skip, the PC just moves on to the next filename you
marked for it to send to your Braille 'n Speak.  When you choose r for Rename,
your PC file is still sent to your Braille 'n Speak, but the Braille 'n Speak
adds a .0 extension to your old file's name to distinguish it from the one
coming in from the PC.  Choosing a for Abort cancels the entire transfer
process.

Now let's look at sending a file from the Braille 'n Speak to the PC, using
modem protocol options.  We'll use the file called "practice" we created in
Chapter 4 as our sample file to transmit to the PC.

Enter the Files menu and then press a t-chord.  This time, respond with an s
to the prompt, "Enter s to send or r to receive."  Now you are prompted to,
"Enter x for xmodem, 1 for xmodem 1K, y for ymodem, or k for kermit."

We didn't see the option "1 for xmodem 1K" in the options for receiving files
from the PC because the Braille 'n Speak can distinguish whether it is
receiving a file with plain xmodem or with xmodem with 1K protocol.  Also,
notice that you don't see the option "g for ymodem g" here.  If you had set
your PC to receive the Braille 'n Speak file with ymodem g, simply choose the
ymodem option on the Braille 'n Speak side to send the file to the PC.  If you
choose either the x or 1 options for the two available xmodem choices, you can
send only one Braille 'n Speak file at a time to your PC.  However, if you
choose either y (for ymodem) or k (for kermit), you can send a bunch of files
from your Braille 'n Speak to the PC.

When you choose the y or k options for sending files from the Braille 'n Speak
to the PC, the Braille 'n Speak places you in your files list so that you can
"mark" the files you want to send.  Marking files in your files list prepares
them to be sent.  We'll see how in a minute.  After you've marked the files
you want to send, press an e-chord to start transmitting.

There are several ways to mark files for transmission.  One way is to move
through your files list with dot 1-chords and dot 4-chords.  You can press a
c-chord to hear the name of the file you are pointing to repeated, and you can
use l-chord and dots 4-5-6-chord to move to the beginning and end of your
files list, as usual.  When you come across a file you do want to send to the
PC, "mark" it by writing a y.  In other words, you're saying, "yes, I want to
send this file".  The Braille 'n Speak responds, "filename is marked".  Now
you can continue through your files list, marking other files to send to the
PC.

As you move through your files list in this marking process, the Braille 'n
Speak tells you whether the file you're pointing to is already marked.  If a
file was already marked from a previous transmission that you don't want to
send at the present time, you can "unmark" it by writing an n.

A faster way to go through this marking process is to press a y-chord to mark
a file and automatically move to the next file in your files list.

The fastest way of all is to send every file in your list to the PC, say, for
backup purposes.  In that case, simply write an m to mark all files except
Help and Clipboard.  Press a u to unmark all your files at once.

Yet another way to use the marking feature is to press an m-chord or u-chord
to mark or unmark a specific group of files that have similar names.  For
example, suppose you have several files in your Braille 'n Speak with names
like, "address.brl" and "practice.brl".  You can press an m-chord followed by
the characters "*.brl" and all files with names that end in ".brl" are marked
for sending to your PC.  Similarly, you can press a u-chord followed by
"*.brl" to unmark all such files so that they are not sent to your PC.

By the way, pressing the spacebar toggles between marking and unmarking the
file to which you are currently pointing, also.

Remember, throughout this whole discussion of marking files, we've been in the
middle of the transmission process.  In other words, you entered your Files
menu, pressed t-chord to transmit and then wrote an s for sending files from
the Braille 'n Speak to the PC.  You then chose either y or k for your modem
protocol.  And finally, now you have marked the files you want to send.  To
tell the Braille 'n Speak that you're finished marking files, as we said
earlier, you press an e-chord.  That says, "Okay, I'm done choosing the files
I'm going to send, Braille 'n Speak.  Now go ahead and send them, please".

The Braille 'n Speak says, "Start the transfer."  This means that it's ready
to send and is waiting for a signal from your PC that says, "Okay, I'm ready
to receive".

So now, on the PC, select the "Download" option in your telecommunications
program.  When prompted, choose the same protocol as you chose on your Braille
'n Speak - for example, y (for ymodem).  You should hear clicking and hissing
from the Braille 'n Speak and the disk drive spinning in your PC as files come
into it.  In fact, you'll also hear numbers coming across your PC screen. 
Don't worry, these are error checking signals being emitted and it's an
indication that all is well.

Should things go wrong, the PC and Braille 'n Speak will both issue messages
telling you that the transfer has been aborted.  In the case of the Braille 'n
Speak, you'll find yourself back in the Files menu at the prompt, "Enter file
command".  You can either try the transfer again or check to see whether all
your telecommunications settings match up, whether there's enough room in your
PC to accept files, etc.  See Appendix A for more help.

Now we turn to another convenient feature of the Braille 'n Speak.  It can
double as a speech synthesizer with a screen access program on your PC.

* 15.6 The Braille 'n Speak as a Speech Synthesizer


The Braille 'n Speak can perform double duty.  Not only can it serve as your
traveling notetaker, recordkeeper, and calendar, it can be your portable
speech synthesizer, as well.

As long as you have the appropriate cables and a screen access program in your
PC that supports the Braille 'n Speak, you can link the Braille 'n Speak to a
PC just as you would any other external speech synthesizer.  (See Section 13.1
for a full discussion of cables.) Let's see how it works.

First, we assume that you have a screen access program in your PC and that you
understand its use.  There are numerous screen access programs on the market. 
Blazie Engineering even has one of its own, called PC Master.  We won't get
into the mechanics of how your screen access program works here.  But we'll
explain how to link the Braille 'n Speak to your screen access program so that
you can use the Braille 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer.

Check whether the vendor of your screen access program supports the Braille 'n
Speak as a synthesizer.  If so, you may have to set up the screen access
program with a Braille 'n Speak driver supplied by that vendor.

You'll need to hook up the Braille 'n Speak to the serial port of your
computer, as previously described, and all the telecommunications parameters
we detailed earlier, Baud rate, handshaking, and so on, must match.  (You may
need to use a telecommunications program to set those parameters properly on
your PC or you may be able to use the MS DOS "Mode" command.  Check your DOS
manual for details.)

But since most screen reader packages preset telecommunications ports to 9600
Baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity, if you set your unit  to match,
your screen reader will probably work fine with the Braille 'n Speak as a
speech synthesizer.

To use the Braille 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer, get into the Speech
Parameters menu with the usual ar-sign-chord (dots 3-4-5-chord).  Then press
an s-chord.  The Braille 'n Speak says, "Speech box mode on, exit."  You don't
even have to press an e-chord to exit the Speech Parameters menu.

For the most part, the Braille '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 Braille 'n Speak into a "dumb" device that can only accept
information from your PC.  The only input your Braille 'n Speak accepts from
you directly on the Braille 'n Speak keyboard is an ar-sign-chord to re-enter
the Speech Parameters menu followed by an s-chord to turn off speech box mode
and exit the Speech Parameters menu.

Let's practice this much.  Even if you don't presently have your Braille 'n
Speak linked to another device, you can test out this process.  Press an ar-
sign-chord followed by an s-chord.  You'll hear "Speech box mode on, exit".
c-chord.  Nothing happens.  Your Braille 'n Speak is waiting for something
from your PC.  Even if it isn't hooked up to one, it thinks it is and
patiently waits and waits.

Re-enter the Speech Parameters menu with an ar-sign-chord.  Whew! That does
work and you hear the usual prompt, "Enter speech parameters."  Now press an
s-chord, and you hear "Speech box mode off, exit".  You're back in business. 
The Braille 'n Speak should now respond normally again.

Assuming your Braille 'n Speak is hooked up to a PC, a screen access program
that supports it is properly installed to work with the Braille 'n Speak, and
you've turned the Braille 'n Speak into a speech synthesizer, here's what
happens:

As we just said, the Braille 'n Speak is now "dumb", patiently waiting for
something from the PC.  It monitors your interaction with the PC.  Depending
on how your screen access program is set up, every time you type a space or
punctuation mark, the Braille 'n Speak may voice the word you just typed, or
it may echo every character as you type it.  If you issue a command for the
screen access program from the PC keyboard - such as "read me the whole
screen" - the Braille 'n Speak says the contents of your PC screen to you.

A more sophisticated way of using the Braille 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer
is to turn speech box mode on with a for-sign-chord.  If you enter the Speech
Parameters menu and press a for-sign-chord, the Braille 'n Speak gives you a
choice about how it should read from the PC.  Let's try it now.

Again, you can test this out without having your Braille 'n Speak actually
hooked up to a PC.
From the Speech Parameters menu, press a for-sign-chord.  The Braille 'n Speak
says, "Enter l for line or b for block handshaking."  Now don't confuse this
prompt with our earlier discussion of handshaking and telecommunications
settings.  After you write an l or a b in response to the prompt, the Braille
'n Speak says, "speech box mode on".  Then you can exit the Speech Parameters
menu in the usual way with an e-chord.

The choice of Line or Block handshaking is really subjective.  If you choose
Line handshaking, the Braille 'n Speak reads you text from your PC a line at a
time, pausing at each carriage return.  In fact, the computer will not send
more text until the Braille 'n Speak has read to you the present line of text. 
In many cases, you'll find it desirable to have the Braille 'n Speak read this
way - when you're programming, for example, or reading through a list.

Choosing Block handshaking, on the other hand, means that the Braille 'n Speak
reads you blocks of text up to 256 characters at a time.  It doesn't look for
carriage returns as it reads to you.  Using this choice creates a smoother,
more natural sounding speech from the Braille 'n Speak, with more natural
pauses and inflections, rather than pauses controlled by the physical ends of
lines on the screen.  You'll probably find this a more useful choice for
reading through a document where it is not important that you know precisely
where one line ends and the next begins.

Another interesting feature of speech box mode is "indexing".  This capability
only works if the screen access program you're using supports indexing. 
Indexing means that the Braille '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 Braille 'n Speak will both stop at the same place.  In other
words, the last word uttered by the Braille 'n Speak is the same word as where
your PC cursor rests.  This can be very handy when you're editing, for
example, using a word processor in your PC.

If your screen access program has the capability to change speech parameters -
rate of speech, volume, and so forth - you can change how the Braille 'n Speak
reads to you from your PC keyboard.  Here is a brief list of the speech
parameters you might be able to control from your PC if your screen access
program lets you do it:

-    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.
-    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.

If you're working specifically with Blazie Engineering's screen access program
(PC Master), you should enter speech box mode in a special way to insure that
all the telecommunications settings are set properly.

Bring up the Speech Parameters menu with an ar-sign-chord.  Then press a p-
chord.  You'll hear, "Speech box mode on, exit".  You're now ready to interact
with PC Master.  Some Status menu settings are changed to make PC Master and
your Braille 'n Speak communicate better.

When you exit speech box mode, it'll be important to do so by the same method
you entered it.  In other words, press an ar-sign-chord and p-chord.  Exiting
speech box mode in some other way may cause problems because the settings
changed in the Status menu won't revert to what they were before you entered
speech box mode to work with PC Master.

The Braille 'n Speak's ability to perform as a portable speech synthesizer can
come in handy if you have to interact with many computers or are on the road a
lot and can't take extra equipment with you, or you can't take a PC apart to
install an internal speech synthesizer.  Now, we're going to look at going in
the opposite direction.

15.7 Sending Braille 'n Speak Output to Your Computer Screen

You can have what you write in your Braille 'n Speak be displayed directly on
your computer screen.  That screen may be your PC screen or it may be another
Braille 'n Speak, a Braille Lite, a Personal Touch, or a Mini Braille.  (These
are braille display devices sold by Blazie Engineering.)

To turn your Braille 'n Speak into a remote device, all the usual
telecommunications settings previously described must match up and cable
requirements must be met.  Press a 0-chord (dots 3-5-6-chord) on the Braille
'n Speak.  It says, "Remote".  Write a b for linking it to the Personal Touch
as a braille display.  Write an m for linking it to the MiniBraille as a
braille display.  Write a dot 4 to send output directly to a computer screen. 
You'll hear, "ASCII".  To turn off remote mode, turn off the Braille 'n Speak.

                                  SUMMARY

We have certainly come a long way in this section.  We suggest you review the
steps outlined in those sections that meet your needs and not dwell on those
that don't.  Telecommunications can be wonderful, but the staggering array of
possibilities can daunt even the heartiest among us.

Take your time learning about telecommunications and use Appendix A, COMMONLY
ASKED QUESTIONS, to help you when you get confused.  Usually,
telecommunications challenges arise from simply forgetting a step in the
process.  Once you've mastered the process though, you'll definitely reap its
rewards.                  CHAPTER 16: RUNNING EXTERNAL PROGRAMS 

In Section 14.5, we saw how to load programs into your Braille 'n Speak to add
even more flexibility to the machine.  We showed you an example of such a
program when we demonstrated how to load the financial calculator from our
portable disk drive.

* You could just as easily load a program into your Braille 'n Speak from your
PC or from a bulletin board or the Internet using a modem.  In fact, we at
Blazie Engineering maintain a bulletin board and Internet WEB page not only so
we can share Blazie news with you, but also to provide you with another way to
download any of our free programs that run on your Braille 'n Speak.  If you
have a maintenance service contract with us, we are able to send you upgrades
as file attachments via E-Mail.  (See Appendix A or look in your Help file for
the phone number of the BBS and the Internet address of our WEB site, or call
us to see about a service contract.)

* One external program you'll definitely want to read about is the one that
allows you to update your Braille 'n Speak.  We're always looking to improve
and add to what your Braille 'n Speak can do so we update its software
periodically.  Check out Section 16.1 for details on how to update your unit. 

* And if you're into foreign languages, check out Section 16.2 where we
discuss how you can turn your unit into a bilingual device.

External programs for the Braille 'n Speak must have extensions of .bin, .bns,
.com, .dic, .exe, or .sys.  Most have .bns extensions.  You can review the
details about how to load them into your Braille 'n Speak by reading over
Section 14.5.  In the present chapter, we focus on just two external programs:
the update program and the foreign language update option.  But the good news
is, exciting external programs are being developed for the Braille 'n Speak
all the time.  We hope you consider trying them out.  And who knows, maybe
you'll write one yourself to add to our ever-growing arsenal.

A few notes before we start learning about the first program:

From the Files menu, point directly to an external program by pressing dot 2-
chord to move to the previous one in your files list, or pressing dot 5-chord
to move to the next one in your files list.

* For information about an external program to which you're pointing, press a
th-sign (dots 1-4-5-6).  After hearing a brief description of the program,
you'll be back at the Files menu prompt, "Enter file command."  

To execute (or run) an external program, press an x-chord.  If the program can
accept arguments (we'll get into what that means later), write an x instead of
an x-chord.  Enter arguments in computer braille, separated by commas, and
then press an e-chord to run the program with your arguments.


* Finally, if the program you want to run is being stored in the Flash portion
of your unit, you'll need to move the program file into RAM in order to run
it.  Program files stored in Flash cannot be run from there.  (See Section
6.12.7 for details on moving files between RAM and Flash.)

These are all the things you need to know to get started.

* 16.1 Updating your Braille 'n Speak 2000


You can update your Braille 'n Speak using a special program called
"bs2eng.bns" that you load into your machine from disk.  If you have a
maintenance service contract with us, you can receive the update file as an
attachment to E-Mail.  Or of course, there's always "snail mail" - that is to
say, you can call us over the phone and order the update program to be sent to
you on disk by mail.

However you obtain the update files, updating your unit is relatively easy but
we encourage you to take some precautions before trying it.

It's essential that  you back up your existing files and programs to disk. 
Read over the relevant sections in Chapter 13 about file transfers to a PC, or
the relevant sections in Chapter 14 about file transfers to a disk using the
portable disk drive.

The update process will probably erase your existing data files and programs,
so unless you really don't care about what's presently in your unit, back up
everything you want to keep before proceeding.

Once you've loaded the "bs2eng.bns" program file into your Braille 'n Speak,
you may run the program just as you would any of our other external programs.

Now let's walk through what you can expect to happen when you run the update
program.

The first thing you'll probably  hear when you invoke the update program is,
"WARNING!  This program should only be used to upgrade a Braille 'n Speak
2000.  Enter any key to continue or any chord to abort."

If you press a chord, say an e-chord, you'll hear, "Aborted" and find yourself
back in the file you had last opened before running the update program, as if
you hadn't run it at all.  If you press a key without chording it, you should
hear the Braille 'n Speak say, "WARNING!  Updating your machine may destroy
all of your files.  Do you want to update your machine?  Enter y or n."

We give you plenty of chances to back out of the process here.  Even if you
type a y in response to this prompt, you'll once again, get a confirmation
message, "Are you sure?  Enter y or n."

When you enter a y at this point, your Braille 'n Speak starts the update
process and reports things to you along the way.  You'll hear, "Ready to
install your Braille 'n Speak update."  Even before your unit is tested and
validated, a process which takes about thirty seconds, the Braille 'n Speak
warns you that the entire update process will take about three minutes.

As it performs each step in the update process, the program reports what it's
doing.  So you'll hear something about Superflash being detected and then
you'll be asked to choose a primary language option, "Enter a for first
language, b for second.".  (See Section 16.2 for details on this option.) 
Whether or not you have a second language installed in your unit, you must
answer the prompt.  So go ahead and type an a to choose English as your
primary language.

At this point, the update program alerts you that the remainder of the update
process will take about two more minutes.  Listen carefully to the
instructions it provides because it's crucial you follow them to the letter. 
The update program reminds you that when you hear a continuous long tone, the
update process will have been completed 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'll know the update program has begun working because you'll hear progress
clicks as it performs the update.

Once the update process has been completed    successfully and you hear the
continuous long tone, turn off your unit.  Don't be startled if when you turn
it on, you hear garbled text coming from your machine.  This happens on some
units occasionally.  Don't panic.  Here's what you have to do to fix the
problem.

If you find that you hear garbled text when you turn on your machine just
after updating it, you must do 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 use these drastic measures.  A cold reset
will also change most settings in your Status menu back to our factory
defaults.  So keep those in mind when you are forced to perform a cold reset.

Through the entire re-initialization process of a cold reset, the Braille 'n
Speak prompts you twice to make sure you are answering each prompt the way you
really want.

Okay, let's begin.  To invoke a cold reset, turn off your machine and then
power up by pressing an i-chord simultaneously as you flip the rocker switch. 
The first thing you hear is,"Initialize file system, enter y or n."  If you
respond with a y, you hear, "Are you sure, enter y or n."

Pressing y at this prompt causes the machine to say, "System initialized. 
Initialize Flash system, enter y or n."  Answering y to this produces another,
"Are you sure, enter y or n."  For sample purposes, we'll continue to answer
with a y.

At this point, you hear, "Please wait" and eventually, "Flash initialized" as
the update program reconfigures the Flash memory in your machine.

It's important to note that initializing Flash means all files previously
stored there will be erased permanently.  So make sure they're backed up
before you update your machine.

The next prompt is about folders.  "Initialize folder system, enter y or n." 
Let's assume you do want this option, so again write a y.

The Braille 'n Speak finishes processing this step and says, "O, Braille 'n
Speak ready; Help is open; delete all data in your file area, enter y or n." 
It's best to answer with a y at this prompt so you resume working with a unit
that is pristine.  When you write the y, you'll get a confirmation with, "Are
you sure, enter y or n".  Writing another y will cause your unit to start
cleaning out all your old data and you'll hear a series of progress clicks to
let you know the process is working properly.

Finally, you'll hear, "Braille 'n Speak ready, Help is open."

By the way, your update program gets deleted when you do this cold reset but
if you were lucky enough not to require performing a cold reset after
updating, the program is still on your machine.  You'll probably want to
delete it right away to avoid any confusion later, and besides, it does take
up a bit of room you could use for your own programs and files.

Once you've successfully updated your machine to the latest version, it's a
good idea to read through the new version of the Help file that is now on your
unit, and to take a look at the file called "update.txt" or "update.brl" that
should be included in your update package.

Now we'll move onto the last external program of this section, the language
option.  Actually, once you've updated your unit to include a second language,
the program itself resides in your unit's Flash ROM so you won't have to run
it as you run the other external programs we've discussed so far in this
chapter.  You'll be able to flip instantly between that second language and
your primary one with a simple command.  

Let's see how you can turn the Braille 'n Speak into a bilingual machine.  Too
bad we can't become bilingual so fast ourselves.

* 16.2 The Bilingual Braille 'n Speak

At the time of this writing, the Braille 'n Speak can instantly learn over
fourteen languages, and there are more languages on the way.  The machine can
become bilingual in a matter of minutes since it can hold two languages in its
memory at any given time.

The default language for the unit is of course English but there's no reason
why you couldn't make the default be something else if you so chose.  Each
additional language costs $99.  Call Blazie Engineering for a current list of
available languages.  The most popular ones include Spanish, French, and
Japanese.

As we said, you can run only two languages at a time in your unit, thus,
making it bilingual.  You can even have several language program files on
disk.  When you want a different secondary language in your unit, you can
transfer one of the language programs from disk to your unit and update your
system to make that language the secondary language.  Of course, this means
running the update program for the particular language when you want to use
it, but it is an option that lets you have more than one secondary language
available to you.

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 the Braille
'n Speak or the Braille Lite so you must be clear about which version you want
when ordering.

Since Spanish is just about the most popular one, we'll walk through how to
update your unit to run in this language. When you get the language program,
notice that the name of the file reflects the language, in our example,
"bs2spa.bns".

Load the program file into your Braille 'n Speak, using either our portable
disk drive or a PC to transfer the file.  Now let's see how to run the update
program.

Bring up the Files menu and find the "bs2spa.bns" file with dot 4-chords. 
Recall that pressing a th-sign should speak information about the program file
to which you're pointing.  However, in this case, pressing a th-sign yields
something that sounds like gibberish.  This is because the text of the
information about this particular program file is in Spanish and your poor
Braille 'n Speak still only knows English right now. So its Spanish accent
leaves a lot to be desired.  Let's see if we can fix this by giving this
English-speaking unit a crash course (well, hopefully not crash as in computer
crash).

Here's how it works.

From the Files menu, still pointing to the "bs2spa.bns" file, press an x-chord
to run the update program.   The Braille 'n Speak starts jabbering away in
heavily English-accented Spanish, basically telling you the same things the
normal update program tells you in English.  (See Section 16.1 for details.)  
Since the sound of this Spanish is somewhat mangled due to the fact that the
Braille 'n Speak is still using its English pronunciation tables for speaking
the text, we suggest only those very familiar with Spanish attempt the
installation.  Otherwise, you might not answer the prompts correctly.  As is
the case with the English update program, you must answer the prompts as they
come up and you must not touch the unit at all during its update process,
which lasts about three minutes altogether.  The significant difference in the
"y or n" prompts is that in Spanish these prompts are "si o no", meaning that
you respond with an s for "si" (or "yes") rather than with a y as you would
for the English update program.

One prompt asks you whether you want this language to be Language a or
Language B.  Up to now, Language A has been English, and most of us will want
to keep that as the primary language.  So generally, you'd respond to this
prompt with a b, indicating that you want Spanish to be the secondary language
in your unit.

Assuming you answer all the prompts correctly, and the update process runs
smoothly, after three minutes or so, you should hear the long tone which
indicates the update was completed successfully.

Depending on how you answered the prompt about which language bank is to hold
the Spanish language (a or b), when you next turn on your unit, you may hear
English or Spanish spoken.  For sample purposes, we'll assume you told the
Braille 'n Speak to put the Spanish language in language bank b.

When you hear the long tone, just as with the English update program, you
should turn off your unit.  Then turn it on again.  Do this now.  And let's
see what we hear.

If all went well, you should hear, "Braille 'n Speak ready, Help is open" in
English.  Whew!  That's good.  At least we're still all talking the same
language.

Now how do we bring up the Spanish language?  Let's create a new file we'll
call "practica", which is Spanish for "practice".  Get into the file in the
usual way.

Now press a p-chord to bring up the Parameters menu.  At the "Enter parameter"
prompt, write an l.  In the blink of an eye, the Braille 'n Speak switches to
Spanish and reports the name of the currently open file, the fact that it has
one page and that it is a braille file.  That's it.

From now on, any command you execute, and any text you write in this or any
other file, results in Spanish speech, this time with a more realistic
sounding accent.  The unit even recognizes the braille accent marks for
commonly used Spanish letters like the n with a tilde over it (dots 1-2-4-5-6)
and pronounces them accurately.

Assuming you're familiar with the Spanish language, go ahead and write some
text now to play with this bilingual unit.  Bring up the Files menu and run
through its various options to see how the Braille 'n Speak refers to things
in Spanish.  Although you'll find that translations of prompts and commands
are not exact, and there are occasional glitches in grammar, for the most
part, the unit has learned how to translate all your English Braille 'n Speak
commands into Spanish quite well in a matter of a few minutes.

And you can flip back and forth between the two languages in your machine
simply by invoking the Parameters menu again with a p-chord and writing an l. 
The Braille 'n Speak then instantly switches back to English until the next
time you do a p-chord l.  However, if you turn the unit off, the Braille 'n
Speak reverts to its primary language, in our case, English, and you need to
do another p-chord l to switch back to Spanish again. 


That's the update procedure for adding a second language to your unit.  And
this is the end of our chapter on external programs, although, as we mentioned
at the outset of this chapter, there are many more external programs available
than we had room to show you here.  Make sure to call for details.



SUMMARY

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'VE DON IT! You've worked your way through this mammoth
manual.  We really tried hard to trim the fat; but we also made sure not to
discard any of the real meat.  By now, you really know your Braille 'n Speak,
don't you?

Well, just in case you run into a snag, ahead are four appendices to help you
- especially, Appendix A, where we answer most of the questions we usually
get.  Nevertheless, always remember, we're here if you need our personal
touch.