Advanced Wordprocessing using a classic Braillenote

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Braille Keyboard Shortcuts and  Advanced Wordprocessing User Guide for a Braillenote 32 

This tutorial was written for the original Braillenote 32 used in a classroom situation. Although not written for the new silver coloured Braillenotes, the keyboard shortcuts haven't altered much.  If you do get stuck, try doing "Spacebar + H" which will access the online help menu, to exit back to what you were doing try "Spacbar and E".

Using the Braillenote Effectively in the Classroom.  

Before we get going I strongly suggest you get organised.  Create a set of folders for each subject and create one file for each half terms work in each folder.  Eg If you are doing Science, then create a folder called "Science" and in this folder create one wordprocessed file called "Science A", every time you go into a science lesson open that file, go to the bottom, insert the date and carry on Brailling.  Back up the file at the end of every week!  This is VERY important.  After every holiday create a new file, that way your files will be of a manageable size and easily searchable when it comes to revision time.

Advanced Wordprocessing Using the Braillenote 32

These are the tasks that you will be expected to be able to do independently by the end of Key stage 4. You should be able to do this on either your Braille notetaker or on a PC equipped with a screenreader such as Lookout, Jaws, or Hal.
Open a new document.
Name and save the new document.
Amend/edit the document.
Use the style facility.
Format the layout of the document.
Move, cut, copy and delete text.
Demonstrate the use of word-wrap.
Make use of the scrolling facility.
Align text, ie justify, left and right.
Use different fonts.
Print document.

To gain a distinction in Wordprocessing
produce a standard letter.
use mail merge/mail shot facility.

1. Creating a new document

Turn the Braille note on and holding the spacebar down Braille the FOR sign, it will respond “Main Menu”, now Braille W for wordprocessor and it will respond “Keyword menu”. Braille C to create a document, it will respond, “Folder name, press enter for General”.
We do not wish to create a new folder at this moment so press the “Enter” key on the braillenote, it will respond “Document to create”, now you must Braille a name for your document, call it “Wallaby”
It responds “Top of document, blank”
Now you can start Brailling your document (see note below, moving around a document), we are going to write.
I Wannabe a Wallaby
I Wannabe a Wallaby
A Wallaby that’s true.
Don’t wannabe a Possum
A Koala or a Roo.

I wannago hop hopping
Anywhere I please.
Hopping without stopping
Through Eucalyptus trees.

A Wallaby, a Wallaby
Is what I wannabe.
I’d swap my life to be one,
But a problem – I can see;

If I’m gonna be a Wallaby
I shall have to go and see
If I can find a Wallaby,
A very friendly Wallaby,
Who would really, really, really…
Wannabe….. Me!
David Whitehead (Teasing Tongue Twisters – Collins) 

2. Saving a new document

Exiting and saving a document when finished
We are now going to save the document, this is something you should get into the habit of doing regularly as you are typing, just in case the windows CE system that powers the Braillenote decides to throw a wobbler half way through something important! And yes it does happen, we are not using Linux here.
To save, hold the spacebar down and Braille “S” it will respond “Document name press enter for Try me out”. Now press the enter key it will respond “File already exists, Replace?”, Braille “Y” for yes, it will respond “Saving document, blank.”
Now you can carry on typing.
When you have finished typing a document you can exit the file by holding the spacebar down and Braille E for exit, it will respond “Exit, keyword menu.”
If you hold the spacebar down and Braille “E” again, it will respond “Exit, main menu”
This is a useful feature to cancel any operation, spacebar and Braille “E”.
Opening an existing document
Get to the main menu by holding down the spacebar and Brailling the “FOR” sign, then Braille W for wordprocessor. Now Braille “O” for Open and the braillenote will respond “Folder name press Enter for General”, press the enter key it will respond “Document to open, press enter for Wallaby”. Hit the enter key and it will respond with the first line of the document.
If you wish to open a document other than the one you were last working on, then Braille “O” to Open a document, once it has responded “Document to open, Press Enter for Try me out”, press the spacebar and it will respond “List of all documents in general folder” by pressing the spacebar repeatedly it will respond in alphabetical order with the files in the General folder. To get to a file quickly press the first letter of the filename, so to get to “Wallaby”, Braille W, you may have to press the spacebar once or twice to get to the file, press the Enter key when you are reach the filename you require.

3. Moving around a document

Note: $P signs, when Brailling you will discover that each time you hit enter, a new line marker will appear, this is denoted by the “ED” sign followed by a “P”, the “ED” is in fact computer Braille for “$”.
 
Top
To go to the top of the document hold down the spacebar and Braille dots 123, it will respond “Top of document, Wallaby”.
 
Bottom
To go to the bottom of a document hold down the spacebar and Braille dots 456, it will respond “Bottom of document, blank”.
 
Reading the whole document
To read the whole document, go to the top by hold down the spacebar and Brailling dots 123 and then hold down the spacebar and Braille “G” for Go. You can stop it by holding down the Backspace and Enter keys at the same time.
 
Word by word
To go forward, hold down the spacebar with dot 5
To go backward, hold down the spacebar with dot 2

4. Editing the Document: Inserting words

We are now going to add a title to the document, to do this open up the file “Wallaby”.
Go to the top of the document, by pressing space and dots 123.
Find Braille cell 1 on the Braillenote, move your finger above the Braille cell and press down the button, just above the Brailled letter I, an additional 2 dots will now appear under the letter “I”. Now Braille “Poem by David Whitehead” and press the enter key, it will respond “Poem, new line”.

5. Spell checker

We will now check the spelling within the document, to do this, hold down the spacebar and Braille the CH sign for Check, it may respond “There is no language currently installed, language?” press the spacebar and it will respond “List of spelling dictionaries in dictionaries folder”, press the spacebar again, when it responds “UK spelling dictionary”, hit the Enter key and it will respond “Spelling checker menu”. Now press the spacebar and it will cycle through a number of options, when it responds “document check” hit the Enter key.
If you have spelt wannabe as it is pronounced it should respond “Wannabe”, press the spacebar with dots 2 and 5, it will repeat the word. Press the spacebar with dots 2 and 5, again, it will spell the word back to you. You can do this as many times as you like.
If you run a check but don’t wish to change a word that the spell checker finds Braille “I” for Ignore.
To correct the word Braille C for Change and it will respond “Enter replacement”, type in the correct word and hit Enter, it will respond “Correct all or first?” To correct all occurrences Braille A for all, or F for First.
If you have spelt “Friendley” with an extra e then you will have to replace that as well. Once all questionable words have been replaced it will respond “Spell check complete”.

6. Searching for words

Go to the top of the document. Now hold down the spacebar and Braille “F” for Find, it will respond “Search forward or back?” To search forward Braille “F” for Forward, and it will respond “Find, computer Braille is required”. I would suggest you use grade 1 Braille at this point, as computer Braille has different contractions from Grade 2. Now Braille the word that you are searching for, in this case enter “Eucalyptus” and it will respond “Eucalyptus found”, the Braille line cursor will appear under the first letter of the word. This function is particularly useful if you have embossed out a hard copy and found a fault in it and you need to correct it quickly without having to go back line by line to search for words.
Another use for the find function is to quickly find your place in a file, for example: Create one document called “Science term a”, every Science lesson open this document, go to the end, and continue typing or refer easily to a part of your notes using the Find facility. I would suggest that you don’t make each file too large as the larger it gets the more likely it is to disappear into electronic purgatory.

7. Moving, cutting, copying, and deleting text

The first thing we have to do before we can do any copying, deleting or moving is to select a block of text for editing.
I have now turned this poem into a song and one verse is going to become the chorus.
We are going to copy and paste the chorus in between, the other verses of the poem.
First find the following lines: “I wannago hop hopping. Anywhere I please. Hopping without stopping. Through Eucalyptus trees.” Use the “find” facility to do this. I suggest you find “hop” and then go back a couple of words. Now if you have used dot 6 before “I” to represent a capital letter, then feel along the Braille line and press the marker above the dot 6 before the “I”. Now set a block command by holding down the spacebar and Brailling “B”, the Braillenote will respond “Block commands menu”, press the spacebar until it says “Top marker insertion” and hit the “Enter” key, it will say “Top of block, I”. Now go through line by line until you get to the word “Trees”, press the marker in the cell after the full stop. Hold down the spacebar and Braille “B”, it will respond “Block Commands menu”, press the spacebar until it says “Copy Block to clipboard” and hit enter, It should respond “Block copied to clipboard, Trees period.” Don’t worry, period is American for full stop.
Now go to the line that reads “But a problem – I can see;”
 
At the end of the line you will find two computer Braille markers $P space $P, you will read them as EDP EDP, but they are written in computer Braille, they are end of line, beginning of line markers. Press the switch in the Braille cell between the markers and hit the enter key to get a new line. Now hold down the spacebar again and Braille “B” until it says “Paste clipboard”, then hit enter, it will say “clipboard pasted, I”
Now go to the end of the line that reads “Wannabe….. Me!” Create a new line and paste the text in again.
Well done! You have created a song, all we need now is the music.
We still have one thing left to do though, deleting the markers we have set. To do this go to the Block commands menu (spacebar and Brailled “B”) and keep pressing the spacebar until it responds “Erase the block markers”, then hit the enter key.
 

8. Align text, ie justify, left and right

The first thing we are going to do is to centre a line of text. All the commands for centring and justifying text are found in the format menu, this is accessed by holding down the spacebar and brailling “the” dots 2,3,4,6.
Go to the top of the document and find the line that reads “Poem by David Whitehead”.
First make sure that there is an end of line marker after “Whitehead”, this will appear as $P (EDP in grade 2) Go to the start of the line and insert the cursor anywhere under the first word, now hold down the spacebar and Braille the “The” sign and it will respond “Format menu”, now Braille “C” for centre and it will respond “Centre line”. If you check along the Braille line you will find the sign “$C” at the start of the line, to indicate that the line has been centred.
When I did this, the Braillenote managed to insert a new line marker “$P” at the point I had put my cursor, if it does this then, put the cursor in front of it and delete it, the Braillenote will respond “new line”.

9. Use the style facility: formatting a document for ink printing

Headings and Sub Headings
Within any type of wordprocessor there is always the ability to set styles. This means that you can change the styles for complete lines of text easily and consistently. Use of the style facility will not affect the layout of the Braille document. A heading is centred and in a bold font, the Braille equivalent of this is a centred word, all in capitals.
A sub heading is bold and starts at the left margin. The Braille equivalent is one that is started 3 cells in with each word having a capital sign.
We are going to put a heading at the top of the document, “I wannabe a Wallaby”, we have already created this line so we are going to use our new found skill to select the line and “Move block to clipboard”, then we are going to go to the top of the document, insert the cursor and “Paste block from clipboard”.
To use the heading style correctly, we need to ensure that there are at least two blank lines below the heading or keyword will give all lines below it heading style, until it encounters two blank lines. You can tell if this is the case on the Braillenote by looking for two “$P” signs after the word “Wallaby”.
First locate the cursor anywhere in the line that reads “I wannabe a Wallaby”, then do space with a Brailled “the” sign. It will respond “Format menu”, now Braille “S”, it will respond “Presentation style currently paragraphs”, press the spacebar until it says “Heading” and then hit the enter key. It will respond “Heading style”, now feel along the Braille line and you should feel “$H” at the start of the line, this denotes heading style.
 

10. Inserting the date

Go to the bottom of your document, insert a new line, type your name and then insert today’s date.
To insert the date at any point in a document, hold down the spacebar and Braille “O”, it will respond “Options menu”, now Braille “I” for insert, it will respond “Insert”, now Braille “D” and it will respond “Insert today’s date or printing date”, now Braille “T” for today and it will insert today’s date.
Printing the document
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, this needs to be connected via a cable to the parallel port on the back of the Braillenote).
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 Braillenote. 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 spacebar 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.

11. Wordprocessing Exercise 1

Open a new document. 
Name the new document. Call the document “Potter”

Type in the following text:

Peter Potter’s Portrait Posters
Peter Potter painted portraits,
Put the portraits onto posters,
Pinned the posters to his gatepost.
Patty Porter saw the portraits,
Said to Peter Potter, “Please
Paint my portrait on a poster.
So
Peter Potter painted Patty Porter’s
Portrait and put it on a poster
And
Patty Porter pinned Peter Potter’s
poster on her gatepost.

Save the document.
Amend/edit the document. Close the document and then open it again. Go to the bottom of the document and enter the following text. By John Foster (Teasing Tongue Twisters 2002)
Use the style facility. Go to the top of the document and ensure that there are two clear lines below the title “Peter Potter’s Portrait Posters”, set the heading style to Heading.
Add your name and the assignment name to the bottom of the document. Print and emboss the document.
Make use of the scrolling facility. Go to the top of the document and then move through it line by line until you get to the authors name.
Move, cut, copy and delete text. Cut the Authors name from the document and go to the heading, create 2 new lines and paste in the Authors name, set this to Sub heading style and ensure there is at least one blank line below it.
Align text, ie justify, left and right. Set the body of the text to “Right justify”, save the document and print it out again.

12. Wordprocessing Exercise 2

Open a new document. 
Name the new document. Call the document “Clones”
Type in the following text:
 
Crazy Clarence Clack
“Clone me!” Clarence Clack commanded his computer.
“Clone me countless Clarence Clacks or be crashed!”

“Oh, cruel, cruel, Clack,” complained the computer, craftily calculating.

“I crave Clacks,” crooned crazy Clarence.
“Create me Clacks. Create me a colony of Clacks, a camp of Clacks, a cohort of Clacks, a cacophony of Clacks. Crusty Clacks, copy Clacks, cuddly Clacks, cantankerous Clacks, King Clacks, Clacks of all Classes,
A Cosmos crammed with Clacks.”

The computer clicked, clacked, clunked, and created Clacks.
A cornucopia of Clacks cascaded, cursing, colliding, kicking and clamouring.
“Cor!” cackled Clarence, clapping, cavorting and capering.

But a carpet of Clacks collected.
Converging, congealing, clutching, crushing Clarence Clack.
“Cretins! Clods! Clots! Criminals!” cried Clarence Clack crumpling.
Then, clawing cravenly, he croaked his last.

The crafty computer created itself King of Clacks and later, conquered the world.

Save the document.
Demonstrate the use of word-wrap.
The lines in the second verse are very long, so they should automatically flow from one line to the next without you having to use the carriage return as you do on the Perkins, this is what is meant by word wrap.
Amend/edit the document. Close the document and then open it again. Go to the bottom of the document and enter the following text. By Marian Swinger (Teasing Tongue Twisters 2002)
Use the style facility. Go to the top of the document and ensure that there are two clear lines below the title “Crazy Clarence Clack”, set the heading style to Heading.
Add your name and the assignment name to the bottom of the document, and insert the date.. Print and emboss the document.
Make use of the scrolling facility. 
Go to the top of the document and then move through it line by line until you get to the authors name.
Move, cut, copy and delete text. 
Cut the Authors name from the document and go to the heading, create 2 new lines and paste in the Authors name, set this to Sub heading style and ensure there is at least one blank line below it.
Align text, ie justify, left and right. Set the body of the text to “Right justify”, save the document and print it out again.
 

13. Produce a standard letter

This is a useful feature whereby you can make a standard letter, which contains a set text, plus elements that have been personalised to make the letter appear as though it has been written just for the recipient, whereas in fact it has been merged with data from a database.

14. Entering Data into Database

First we have to create our database, with some records in it.

These are the addresses that I want you to enter onto your address list.
Billy Fish, 1 Dock Road, Grimsby, GY14 7BZ
Debbie Haddock, 5 The Ponds, Cleethorpes, GY27 5BR
Polly Herring, 17 Trawler Drive, Hull, HU7 4QJ

 To enter the data into our keylist menu (which is the address list we are going to use) Braille the “FOR” sign for main menu and then Braille “A” for address list, it will respond “keylist menu”, hit the spacebar and it will say “add address” hit enter it will say “entry list for address list“, hit the spacebar, it will say “Last name?” Braille “Fish”, hit enter, “First name?” Braille “Billy”, hit enter, do this for all the remaining fields, if you come to a field you do not wish to make an entry into, simply hit the spacebar.
When you have finished adding data hold down spacebar with the “EN” sign. Finally add your own home address to the list.

15. Using the data and placing it into a template

First we need to select a record from our data, go to main menu, spacebar and the “FOR” sign, then Braille “A”, next Braille “L” for lookup and it will respond “selection list for address list”, hit spacebar, it will say “Last name”, hit enter, then press spacebar with dots “5,6”until it comes out with your own name. Now copy this record to the clipboard using spacebar with “B”, it will say “Block commands menu”, hit spacebar till it says “Copy record to clip board”, and hit enter, it will respond “Template name, press enter for …”, hit spacebar until it says “Letterhead Template”, then hit enter it will say “Record copied to clipboard”.
Now exit keyword with space and “E” until it says “main menu”, open the wordprocessor and create a document in the General folder called “letter try”, now paste the contents of the clipboard into the document. Do this by doing spacebar and “B”, then Braille “P” for paste, it will say “clipboard pasted identical to source style”. Go to the top of the document and then read the document through and you will find you have pasted your home address at the top of a document, this is very useful if you wish to send individual letters to people, it will save you having to type out your address time and time again.
 
Next we will create our own template, this is a little more challenging but you can do some very useful things like mail shots using your Braillenote.

16. Creating your own template

To create your own template first open the wordprocessor and create a blank document, call this document “form 1”, as we are going to produce a business like thankyou letter, the first thing we have to put in is our own address, do this at the top of the letter, making a new line for each part of our address.
We are now going to insert the date, not today’s date but, the printing date, this is a command that we can give the Braillenote to tell it to use the current date whenever it prints the document. Insert the printing date by holding down the “spacebar” and Brailling “O” it will respond “options menu”, now Braille “I” for insert and then “D” for date, it will respond “Today’s date or printing date”, Braille “P” for printing and you will find it has inserted $DTP into the Braille Line.
Now make a new line, we are going to insert fields from the keylist address database, to do this hold down “spacebar” and Braille “the” it will say “Format menu”, then Braille “T” for template menu, then Braille “I” for insert, it will respond “Insert data from which database, press enter for keylists address list”, now hit the “enter” key, it responds “field selection list”, hit the spacebar until you arrive at “Street address” and insert the field, by hitting enter, you will find that it has inserted $FLD (Street address) into the Braille line, hit the enter key again to insert a new line, and go through the same procedure and insert the fields, Street address line 2, City, Zip or postcode, with each field on a new line.
Once you have entered the address, create 2 new lines, write “Dear” and hit spacebar, then insert the field “First name”, put a comma and a new line and then enter the following text.
“Thankyou for my lovely present, it was very kind of you to send it to me. I am looking forward to seeing you in the new year. Best Wishes and Regards” then insert your own name and exit the document.

17. Use mail merge/mail shot facility

Using the template
To use the document as a template we have to put it into a special folder, the “keylist” folder.
Do this by going to main menu Brailling “F” for File manager, hit the “spacebar” until it says “Copy file”, and hit enter, it will say “Source drive, press enter for Flash disk”, hit enter again and it responds “source folder name, press enter for ..”, hit “enter”, source filename press enter for “Form 1”, hit enter again and it will say “Destination drive press enter for flash disk”, hit “enter” again and it responds “destination folder name press enter for…”, hit the spacebar till it says “keylist” and then hit “Enter”, it will say “One file copied, file manager menu.”
Select a person to receive your form, by going to main menu, bring up keylist by Brailling “A”, then Braille “L” for lookup, hitting enter and then spacebar with dots “5,6” to go through records, select the record “Debbie Haddock” and hit enter, then spacebar with “B”, spacebar again, copy record to clipboard, hit enter.
Now create a blank wordprocessed document, and holding down spacebar and Brailling “B”, bring up Block commands menu, and then Braille “P” for Paste.
Go to the top of the document, and read it through, low and behold you now have a personalised letter.
Now print out and emboss your document.
 

18. Inserting a file

Another handy feature, which we can use, is the ability to insert a file into a document.
For example you may wish to insert one of your poems into a letter for someone to enjoy, this is easily achieved by opening any wordprocessed document, then going to the “Block commands menu” with spacebar and “B”, it will respond “Block commands menu”, hit the spacebar until it says “Insert file”, then hit the enter key, it will respond “Insert document from which drive press enter for flash disk?”, assuming this is where the file you wish to use is hit enter, otherwise use the spacebar to select another drive and then hit enter, it will respond “Folder name press enter for …” Use the spacebar to select the folder with the desired file and then hit enter. “Document name?”, again use the spacebar to select your document and hit enter. Low and behold the selected document has been inserted into our current wordprocessed file.

19. Exercise 4.

Using and creating templates
 
Open the address book and insert your own name and address into the keylist address book.
If you have already done this. Well done!
Now open the address book and lookup your own address.
Using the block commands menu insert your record into the Braille letterhead template.

Open the wordprocesser and create a blank document, call it “Poem A”. Using the block commands menu paste your address into the current document.
Create two new lines and insert the Printing date.
Create two new lines, and write “Dear” leave a space and then using the format menu insert the fields “Title” and “Last name” with a space between them and a comma afterwards.

Create a new line and then type the following.
"I thought I would like to share this poem with you, I hope you have fun reading it and even more fun trying to read it aloud to others!"
 
Now insert the file “Clones”
Finally finish your letter off with
“Best Wishes (Your Name)”

Print out and emboss the document.
Exit the file and then using the “File manager menu” copy the file you just created into the keylist folder, so it can be used as a template.
Now open the keylist folder, look up Debbie Haddock and copy her address into the “Poem A” template.
Finally create a new wordprocessed document called “Debbie Poem” and paste the contents of the clipboard into it.
Print out and emboss your document.