1) NOTES:
Using grade one Braille in the notes facility on the bookPort is very much
like typing individual characters on a regular keyboard, but by using
Braille writer key configuration, it is possible to have comfortable size
keys and key separation on a very compact unit. this would not be a very
practical feature for a customer base that is unfamiliar with Braille. The
synchronization feature for Notes between Book Port and the host computer is
similar to the old Microsoft Briefcase feature for floppy disk and hard
drive file synchronization. The various additional functions in the Notes
facility are great enhancements for producing, searching, and editing plain
text files.
[3 cheers for the APH design team!]
2) DICTIONARY:
I still have my American Heritage Dictionary files (from the 1990's) on
floppy disks. The files edited as supplied, have <REF> inserted in front of
word entries to facilitate more accurate searches for entries, not just
random occurrences of a word. I placed an AHD folder on my desktop computer
and on the BookPort. The file names are simply A.txt, B.txt, etc., and the
additional front.txt file. It is very easy to move between files to search,
and BookPort will even hold the place in individual files for easy cross
referencing. BookPort also remembers the last letter file I used when I was
in the dictionary folder (as with all folders).
3) BIBLE:
I have the free Online Bible software (slight misnomer, it is downloadable
to your hard drive - www.onlinebible.net for North America), and free
downloaded modules for many public domain Bible versions, Bible dictionaries
and lexicons, commentaries, and other related Books (such as selections from
Answers in Genesis). There is some time involved in transferring the
material to text files, but I have placed the entire KJV Bible on the
BookPort. First I made a KJV folder, then sub folders for New Testament,
Books of Moses, History, Prophecy, and Poetry-Wisdom. Each book is a single
file in the appropriate folder. It is not difficult to set chapter book
marks during reading, and search is always available. I added files
gradually until all transfers were complete, and I did some reading along
the way.
Mike Justice, www.MPNHome.net
The other bonus to grade 1 Braille only is you can throw the file on a pc
and immediately access it there also.
I also love the idea of a dictionary, there was a copy of the American
Heritage Dictionary used by some back in the early 90s. It was about 12mb
and although not the definitive dictionary did provide nice definitions, I
still have it on my hd. It may be possible to put it on a card say in a dic
folder the files could be specifically named say ahd-a.txt ahd-b.txt and
then some code could be added to access it.
I'd already kind of thought of adding it and just using the search feature
for looking up words, let's see what Rob thinks.
-----Original Message----- From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Allen Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 2:19 PM To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bookport] Re: operating system
Hi Megan and list:
Like you, I like contracted Braille. But I have been surprised by how easily
I've adapted to using computer Braille in my book port notes. Remember
contracted Braille was designed as a space saving measure. One particular
unfortunate result of it has been less literate blind people because they
spent so much time agonising over contractions that they can't spell beyond
elementary school level. In the book port context, the amount of space it
would save would not be significant. This is only my opinion.
Cheers, Dave