Braillenote Classroom and File Management 

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Using the Braillenote 32 effectively in the classroom.

This tutorial was written for the original greenish coloured Braillenotes that had a serial connection on the back of them.  If you have one of the new silver mPower BrailleNotes, then many aspects of this tutorial will still work, however your connections will be different.  I will produce an updated tutorial for the mPower Braillenote as soon as time allows. 

Using the Braille Note 32 - A Guide for Teachers Aides.

1.  Visual display via a laptop

Switch on the laptop and the BrailleNote, once the laptop has finished booting connect the serial cable (that's the cable with 9 pins supplied with the Braillenote) to the COM port of the computer and to the back of the Braille Note.

Now I strongly suggest that you ensure both the laptop and the Braillenote are fully charged before you start using the visual dispaly feature or that you are near a power point if you are going to use the visual display function of the Braillenote, this is because the battery on the Braillenote will drain down a lot quicker than normal if using this feature as the signals it sends to the laptop are in the form of +5V and -5V, the same is true of the battery on the laptop.

Having said that I have run the laptop and Braillenote quite happily for a couple of hours on the visual display mode without any ill effects, but I think it is useful to be aware that battery drain is increased when using the visual display function.
Once the cable has been connected, hold down the space bar on the braillenote and braille "O" it should respond by saying "Options Menu".
Press the "spacebar" on the Braillenote until it says "Visual Display".
Press the enter key on the BrailleNote, it should say "Visual display currently serial", if it does not then braille "S" and it should respond by saying “Serial”, now press the "Enter" key on the Braillenote.
Next click on the BrailleNote Visual Display Icon on the desktop of the laptop, a "BrailleNote Visual Display - Hyperterminal" window should appear. Hopefully the box on the bottom left hand corner of the window should say "Connected", and whatever is done on the Braillenote will appear as text on the Hyperterminal window.

However if it comes back with a message such as “Cannot use COM1” then it probably means that COM1 is already being used by the program Active Sync. To see if this is the case click the ActiveSync icon on the desktop. A Microsoft ActiveSync window should appear.
Click once on “File” and go down to “Connection Settings”, a connection settings dialogue box will appear, make sure there is no tick in the small box that says “Allow serial cable or infrared connection to this COM port”. Once this has been done click on “OK”, and close the Active Sync window.
Now try clicking on the Braillenote Visual Display icon on the desktop again.
If everything is working OK then whatever you do on the Braille note should come up in the hyperterminal window on the laptop.

Once you have finished using the Visual display feature it is a good idea to disable the Serial port, do this by brailling “O” for the “Options Menu”, press the space bar until you get to “Visual Display”, press the “Enter” key and it will respond “Visual display currently serial”, now Braille “F” and press the enter key.
It should respond by saying “Visual display currently off”.

2.  Visual display via a Palm M105

Switch on the palm and the BrailleNote, connect the cable from the palm cradle to the back of the Braille Note.

Turning it on

Once the cable has been connected, hold down the space bar on the braillenote and braille "O" it should respond by saying "Options Menu".
Press the spacebar on the Braillenote until it says "Visual Display".
Press the enter key on the BrailleNote, it should say "Visual display currently serial", if it does not then braille "S" and it should respond by saying “Serial”, now press the "Enter" key on the Braillenote.
On the palms screen use the stylus to tap on "BNView". The program will open and whatever you do on the Braillenote should appear as text on the palm’s screen.

Turning it off

Once you have finished using the Visual display feature it is a good idea to disable the Serial port, do this by brailling “O” for the “Options Menu”, press the space bar until you get to “Visual Display”, press the “Enter” key and it will respond “Visual display currently serial”, now Braille “F” and press the enter key.
It should respond by saying “Visual display currently off”.

3.  Printing from a Braille Note (Via an attached Printer)

Before you start to try to print, make sure that the visual display function on the braillenote is turned off, if you do not you are going to get all sorts of error messages. To do this hold down the space bar and braille "O", it will respond "Options Menu", keep pressing the space bar until you hear "Visual display", then press the enter key, it should respond "Visual display currently off", if it responds with something else then braille "F" and press the enter key. This should bring you back to the main menu. Now you may begin.
The printer I have used to write this tutorial is an HP Deskjet 340 with an infrared port (the portable printer that the peripatetic teachers have).
Turn on the Braillenote, hold down the space bar, and braille the "for" sign, the braillenote should respond with "Main Menu", press the space bar again until it says "wordprocessor". Press the enter key on the braillenote and it should say "keyword menu", keep pressing the space bar until it says "Print a document", now press the enter key on the braille note. The Braillenote should say "Print or set up printer".

We are first going to check it is set up for your type of printer, so braille "S" and it should say "Printer set up list" press the space bar until it says "Printer port currently......(it will say either infrared, serial or parallel)" to change the port, braille "I" for infrared, "P" for parallel or "S" for serial. If you have to change the port, then once you have brailled either "I, S or P" you must press the enter key on the braille note. Now hold down the spacebar on the braillenote and braille the "for" sign, it should respond with "Confirm Changes", braille "Y" for yes, and then it should say "Main Menu".
Now press the space bar until it says "Wordprocessor", now press the enter key on the braillenote, it should say "keyword menu", press the space bar a few times until you hear "Print a document". Press the enter key on the braillenote and it should say "Print or set up printer", now braille "P" and it should say "Folder name Press enter for general".

Press the enter key on the braillenote, it will say something like "Press enter for ............", press the space bar and it will say "List of documents in general folder", keep pressing the space bar until you hear "Demonstration Document", now press the enter key on the braillenote It will say "printer ready", make sure the printer is switched on and connected to the braillenote, when you are confident everything is ready, braille "Y" on the braillenote. Your document should now print.

4.  Backing up files using Active Sync
To back up files hold down the space bar on the braillenote and braille the “FOR” sign, it will say “Main menu”, now braille “U” and it should say “Utilities Menu”. Press the enter key on the braillenote and it should say “Connect to ActiveSync”.
Now click on the ActiveSync icon on the desktop of your PC. A “Microsoft Active Sync” window will open. Click on “File” and go down to Connection settings, put a tick in the box that says “Allow serial cable or infrared connection to this COM port”, (it should say COM1 in the box below the writing), then click on OK.
Now Braille “C” on the braillenote, it should make a weird blup, blup, blup noise and a “New Partnership” window will appear. Click on the “No” radio button and then press “Next”, it should say “Connected” in bold writing under the name Guest.

Press the “Explore” button on the Active sync window and another window should appear with the title “Mobile device”, in this window will be all the folders that you have on your braillenote.
Double click on the “Flash Disk” folder as this is where most of the folders and files that you have created will be stored.
Double click on the “General” folder to see what is inside. Most of the documents that you will have created should appear in this window.
Now assuming that you wish to back up this folder, do the following. Press the “Back button” at the top of the window so that you can see the directory ”\Flash Disk”, double click anywhere in the title bar of the window and it should become smaller, move it to one side of the desktop.

Now click on the “my documents” icon on your desktop, and a “My documents” window will open, double click anywhere on the title bar to make the window smaller, and move the window so that it is next to the Flash disk window. Click once on the “General Folder” so that it is highlighted, and holding the mouse button down drag it onto the “My documents” window, the computer should now start copying the General folder and all the files that it contains onto the hard drive of your PC. When you have finished close the windows. Click on the ActiveSync window, click on “File” and go down to “Connection Settings”, click in the box that has the tick in it next to “Allow serial cable or infrared connection to this COM port” and click "OK", both the Braillenote and the laptop will make the blup, blup, blup noise to show they have been disconnected. Now close the Active Sync window.

5.  Exporting files to other formats for Printing

There are a number of ways in which files can be exported, this is reasonably easy but may seem a bit long winded. Now if I was you, I would suggest that you start the Microsoft active sync program and have a look in the Flash disk section of the Braille note so you can easily understand what you are doing when you export files. Active sync can communicate quite happily with the Braille note while you are importing and exporting, and will not interfere with the running of the Braillenote.
First create two folders on the Braille note one called Imported and one called Exported. To do this, hold down the spacebar and braille the FOR sign, it should respond “Main Menu” now Braille F, it should respond “File manager menu”, and then Braille F again, it should respond “Folder manager menu”.
Now press the enter key and it should respond Create folder, Braille “C”, it should respond “Create folder on which drive, Press enter for flash disk”. Press the enter key and then Braille the name for your folder, and press return.

Changing Braille files to text
So that files can be easily read by the PC it is better if they are changed to text documents before they are transferred, these files once translated are placed in the export folder.
To translate and move files, hold down the space bar and Braille the FOR sign, now Braille F for File manager menu, and then Braille T for Translation menu. Now Braille E for export and it will respond “Export document from which folder, press Enter for General”. If you do not require the General folder then press the space bar until you arrive at the folder you require, to enter the general folder press the enter key.
Once you are in the folder you require, press the space bar until you reach the file that you wish to export, once you reach it press the enter key. It will respond “Export to which device”, now Braille F for File, it will respond “Export as which file type, press enter for ASCI text file”. To change the document to a Microsoft Word format hold down the spacebar with dots 3 and 4 (the slash sign) It will respond “Plain Braille file”, press spacebar with dots 3 and 4 again and it will respond “Microsoft Word file”, hit the enter key.
Next it will say “Destination drive, press enter for flash disk”. Once you have pressed enter it will respond “Directory name, press enter for slash export” If it does not say “slash export” do not get alarmed: simply Braille dots 3,4 (the slash sign) and enter the name of the folder where you want it exported and then press the enter key.
Press the space bar until you find the General folder or the folder that contains the file you want to export, once you find the folder, press the enter key.
The Braille note will respond “Destination filename: computer Braille is required” now Braille a name that you would like to call the file and press the enter key. The Braille note will respond “One file exported”.
You can now use Active sync to select this file and drag it into one of your folders on the PC for printing.

6.  Exporting files to a floppy disk and changing Braille files to Word format

The super disk drive that can be connected to the Braillenote can use both the special 120Mb disks and a standard 1.44Mb floppy disk. The super disk drive is connected to the Braillenote via a PCMCIA card, push it into the slot on the right hand side of the Braillenote, make sure that the side with the vinyl sticker on it is uppermost you will have to push it in quite firmly, with luck the Braillenote will respond “Card inserted” and the disk drive will make some whirring noises. To get the card out press the button in, that is next to the slot, again you will have to be quite firm with it, the Braillenote should respond “Card removed”.
By exporting documents in a word format and saving them onto a floppy disk they can easily be printed out using the PC attached to the Braille production system.
So that files can be easily read by the PC it is better if they are changed to Word documents before they are transferred, these files once translated are placed in the export folder.

To translate and move files, hold down the space bar and Braille the FOR sign, now Braille F for File manager menu, and then Braille T for Translation menu. Now Braille E for export and it will respond “Export document from which folder, press Enter for General”. If you do not require the General folder then press the space bar until you arrive at the folder you require, to enter the general folder press the enter key.
Once you are in the folder you require, press the space bar until you reach the file that you wish to export, once you reach it press the enter key. It will respond “Export to which device”, now Braille F for File, it will respond “Export as which file type, press enter for ASCI text file”. To change the document to a Microsoft Word format hold down the spacebar with dots 3 and 4 (the slash sign) It will respond “Plain Braille file”, press spacebar with dots 3 and 4 again and it will respond “Microsoft Word file”, hit the enter key.
Next it will say “Destination drive, press enter for flash disk”. Hit the spacebar and it will respond “Drive list” keep hitting the space bar until it says storage card, now hit enter. Directory name press enter for slash,
Once you have pressed enter it will respond “Directory name, press enter for slash, computer Braille is required.”
If you do not want it in "/" do not get alarmed: simply Braille dots 3,4 (the slash sign) and enter the name of the folder where you want it exported and then press the enter key.
Press the space bar until you find the General folder or the folder that contains the file you want to export, once you find the folder, press the enter key.
The Braille note will respond “Destination filename: computer Braille is required” now Braille a name that you would like to call the file and press the enter key. The Braille note will beep, the disk drive will whirr and the Braille note will then say “One file exported”.

7.  Importing text files onto the Braille note via Actice Sync

Connect the Braillenote and open the Active Sync programme.
 Press the “Explore” button, and open the folder “Flash Disk”, double click on the title bar of the “Flash disk window” and it will become smaller. Drag this to one side of your computer screen. We will be using this later.
The file that you wish to export from the Braillenote has to be in a form that the Braillenote can convert. Firstly you need to save the file as a .txt document.
To do this from Microsoft Word, go up to “File” and down to “Save As”. In the small box where it says “Save as type”, click on the downward facing arrow and select “text only .txt” and press Save.
Close down Word, and open the folder that your document is stored in, usually the “My Documents” folder.
Double click on the title bar to make the window smaller, and drag the .txt file into the import folder on the Braille note.
Importing text files onto the Braille note via floppy disk.
Before you do any importing of Word files, it is a good idea to check your “Preferred reading grade” on the Braillenote, the reason for this is because this is the grade of Braille that a file will be converted into when it is imported.
To check your grade, hold down spacebar and Braille “O”, it will respond “Options menu”, now Braille “B”, hit the spacebar until it responds “Preferred reading grade, currently grade…” To change it to grade 2, hit dots 1 and 2, then hit enter.
Before you import, save the word file you wish to put onto the Braillenote onto a floppy disk and connect the superdrive to the Braillenote.
To import, start from the main menu, Braille “F” on the Braillenote, it will respond “File manager menu”, now Braille “T”, it will respond “Translation menu”.
To import Braille “I” it will respond “Import from which device”, now braile “F” for file. It will respond “Import file from which drive press enter for flash disk”, hit the spacebar and it will respond “Drive list”, keep pressing the spacebar until it responds “Storage card”, then press enter. If it does not say “storage card”, remove and then reinsert it into the slot on the Braillenote.
Assuming that it does respond “Storage card”, hit the enter key and it will respond “Directory name press enter for slash, computer Braille is required”, hit the enter key. If you need to get into a particular folder on the disk then Braille dots 3 and 4 (the slash sign) followed by the folder name and then hit enter. The Braillenote will now say “File to import, computer Braille is required”, hit the spacebar until you hear the filename you wish to import, then hit enter. The Braillenote will respond “Translate into Braille”, Braille “Y” for yes, and it will respond “Destination folder name, press enter for….” Use the spacebar to select the folder you require and hit enter, it will respond “Braille document name?” Braille a name for your file and hit enter, it will respond  “One file imported”. You should now be able to open that file using the keyword wordprocessor.