Table of Contents About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What is a Type 'n Speak? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 SECTION I: The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CHAPTER 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 What the Type 'n Speak Looks Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Charging the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Type 'n Speak Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The First Time Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Type 'n Speak's File Structure . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Files Provided by Blazie Engineering . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Type 'n Speak's Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Some Basic Type 'n Speak Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Type 'n Speak Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Navigating Through the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Pull-down Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Status Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 How to Charge the Built-in Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Double-speed Chip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 CHAPTER 2: Changing the Type 'n Speak's Voice . . . . . . . . . . 20 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 The Speech Parameters Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Volume, Speech Rate, Pitch, and Tone . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Announcement of Punctuation and Numbers . . . . . . . . . 21 Multiple Voice Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 SECTION II: Working With Your Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CHAPTER 3: Reading Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Navigating Through a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Finding the Top and Bottom of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Reading Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Reading Long Passages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Stopping at a Specific Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Skimming with Hyper-speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Spelling Out Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Reading Characters Phonetically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 The ASCII Value of the Character Under the Cursor . . . . . . . . 31 Moving by Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Moving by Relative Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Examples of Moving by Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The Text Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Defining Blocks of Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Skipping Blank Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Reading by User-defined Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Defining Window Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The Automatic Braille Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Special Types of Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Searching for Text in a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Location of the Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Finding Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Example of a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Click Tip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Canceling a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Case-sensitive Searches for Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 CHAPTER 4: Writing Your Own Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 How to Create a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 The Type 'n Speak Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Where to Store Files in Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 How to Name Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Creating a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Tips for Writing in a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The Location of the Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Room Left in Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Writing Text in Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Controlling Where Text Appears on the Page . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Lines and Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Tabbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Practicing Writing Basic Control Characters . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Writing Repeated Character Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Selecting Your Typing Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Typing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Hearing Words Spoken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Braille Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Cursor Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Tracking the End of a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 CHAPTER 5: Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 The Two Editing Modes: Append and PC Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Activating PC Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Changing the Typing Voices of PC Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Switching Typing Modes with PC Edit Mode Active . . . . . . . . . 55 Overwriting Text with PC Edit Mode Inactive . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Overwriting a Single Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Overwriting a Block of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Backspacing and Rubbing Out a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Deleting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Inserting Text with PC Edit Mode Inactive . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Copying Text into a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Finding and Replacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Word Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 CHAPTER 6: Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Types of Printers that Work with the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . 71 Typing Escape Codes into Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Typing Formatting Commands into Your File . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Setting and Adjusting Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Indenting a Block of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Outdenting a Line of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Justifying Blocks of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Changing Page Length and Line Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Status Menu Formatting Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Making Settings File-Specific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Changing Formatting Parameters in the Status Menu . . . . . . . . 79 Centering Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Setting Up a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Tabbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Page Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Changing the Appearance of Print Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Stopping the Print Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Double-spacing a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Inserting a Time Stamp on a Printed Document . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Skipping Portions of a File to Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 CHAPTER 7: Manipulating Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Checking the Name of the Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Exploring the File Command Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Listing Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Listing a Group of Files with Similar Names . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Setting Up Some Practice Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Navigating through Your Files List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Checking Which File is Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Opening an Existing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Opening a File Whose Name is Known . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Flipping Between the Last Two Open Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Opening a File by its Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Jumping to a File from the Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . 93 Finding a File in the Files List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Renaming a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Write-protecting and Unprotecting a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Protecting a File with a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Deleting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Deleting a Single File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Deleting a Group of Files with Similar Names . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Changing the Size of a File Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Checking the Size of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Adding Pages to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Subtracting Pages From a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Resizing Files That are Not Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Copying an Entire File into the Currently Open File . . . . . . . 102 Free Space in the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Using a Mini-help File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 CHAPTER 8: Organizing Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Viewing the Files List by Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Navigating through Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Jumping to a Folder by its Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Creating a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Moving a File into a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Moving Groups of Files into a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Opening a File in a Different Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Moving Files Between RAM and Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Renaming a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Deleting a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 SECTION III: Working With Other Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 CHAPTER 9: The Clock and the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 The Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Checking the Current Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Switching Between American and European Time . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Setting the Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Resetting the Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Hourly Announcement of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Setting the Alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Setting the Alarm to Sound More than Once . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 The Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Checking Today's Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Setting Today's Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Getting a Date from the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Inserting a Date and Time into a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Finding a Date in Your Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Adding a Calendar Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Calendar Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Information About Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 CHAPTER 10: The Stopwatch and the Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 The Stopwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Starting and Stopping the Stopwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Reading Elapsed Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Stopping and Resetting the Stopwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 The Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Finding Out the Time Remaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Timing in the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Inserting Stopwatch Information into a File . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 CHAPTER 11: The Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Basic Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Changing Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Switching Between Fraction and Decimal Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Using the Embedded Number Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Inserting Calculation Results into a File . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Computing an Expression from Within a File . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Performing Percentage Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Storing and Using the Memory Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Extracting a Square Root . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Complex Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Error Messages and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 CHAPTER 12: The Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Creating Your First Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Entering Data into the Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Looking Up an Entry in Your Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Editing Phonebook Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Customizing the Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Using the Personal or Business Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Creating Multiple Phone Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Selecting the Active Phone File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Returning to Default Phonebook Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Customizing Field Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 CHAPTER 13: Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 What's a Macro, Anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Recording a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Cautions About Recording Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 An Example of a Simple Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Playing a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 How to Check What a Macro Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Pausing a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 An Example of a Complex Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Write-protecting Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Adding Your Own Messages to a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Start-up Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Erasing a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 CHAPTER 14: The Spellchecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 What is a Spellchecker? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Running the Spellchecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Adding a Word to Your Custom Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Bypassing a Word for the Rest of the Document . . . . . . . . . . 162 Hearing a Word in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Correcting a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Repeating a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Overlooking a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Suggested Replacement Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 SECTION IV: Talking With Other Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Introduction 165 CHAPTER 15: Telecommunications Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Serial versus Parallel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Number of Pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Null Modem Cable Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Customizing Telecommunications Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Baud Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Parity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Duplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Data Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Stop Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Handshaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 The Interactive Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Rejecting Ornamentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 CHAPTER 16: The Portable Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 What Can You Do With the Disk Drive? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 How to Operate the Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Connecting the Disk Drive to the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . 175 Retrieving a File From Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Saving a File to Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Transferring Textfiles or Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Sending Files to the Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Receiving Files From the Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Reading the Directory on a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 CHAPTER 17: Printers, Modems, and Computers . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Transmission Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Activating the Serial Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Adding Line-feeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Physical Page Format Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Finding Out What Page is Being Printed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Transmitting a Portion of a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Double-spacing a Document on the Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Previewing Where Text Will Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Sending Blocks of Text to Another Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Transmitting Text to Another Type 'n Speak File . . . . . . . . . 191 Connecting Modems and Other Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 The Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Using Modem Protocols to Transmit Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Sending Files to a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Receiving Files from a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 The Type 'n Speak as a Speech Synthesizer . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Simple Speechbox Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Enhanced Speechbox Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 The Indexing Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Specific Screen Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Sending Type 'n Speak Output to Your Computer Screen . . . . . . . 200 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 CHAPTER 18: Running External Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 How to Obtain Programs for the Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Which Files are External Programs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Running an External Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Running a Program From the Files Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Running a Program From the Currently Open File . . . . . . . . . . 203 Updating Your Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 The Bilingual Type 'n Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Switching Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 APPENDIX A: Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Telecommunications Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Internet Connection Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Printing Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Transmission Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Crash and Recovery Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 RAM and Flash Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Miscellaneous Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 APPENDIX B: Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Speech Parameters Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 File Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Folder Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Entering Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Moving the Cursor and Speaking Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Finding and Replacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Deleting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Inserting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Clock and Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Stopwatch / Countdown Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Scientific Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Phonebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Spellcheck Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Disk Drive Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Transmitting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Parameters Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Status Menu Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Miscellaneous Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 APPENDIX C: Technical Data About the Serial Port . . . . . . . . . 253 APPENDIX D: Which Charger to Use? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 About This Manual If you're a Type 'n Speak veteran, you'll find it easy to get acquainted with the new features in the Type 'n Speak. Appendix B, which lists all the Type 'n Speak commands by subject, is a good starting point for you to see what's new. Since this manual is a new document, it does not rely on or refer to the previous edition (written in 1993), so don't be fooled by a section's name. For example, a section called "Changing the Type 'n Speak's Voice" contains information about new features. This manual is your "road map" as you explore the Type 'n Speak's modes, features and functions. Each chapter discusses related groups of commands and what they do, along with practical examples. Here is a key to the map: INTRODUCTION: Tells you what a Type 'n Speak is. SECTION I - THE BASICS: Explains what to do the first time you take the Type 'n Speak out of the box. SECTION II - WORKING WITH YOUR FILES: Walks you slowly and painlessly through reading, writing, and manipulating files. SECTION III - WORKING WITH OTHER TOOLS: Tours the Type 'n Speak's calendar, calculator, stopwatch, timer, and much more. SECTION IV - CONVERSING WITH OTHER DEVICES: Demystifies the complicated business of file transfers, printing considerations, the external disk drive, and external programs — all without any technobabble. APPENDIX A - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Answers the questions we hear most frequently about printing, file recovery, file transfers, and the like. APPENDIX B - QUICK REFERENCE: Lists, by subject, all Type 'n Speak commands. APPENDIX C - TECHNICAL DATA ABOUT THE SERIAL PORT: Provides technical specifications for linking the Type 'n Speak to nonstandard devices. APPENDIX D - WHICH CHARGER TO USE? Explains what chargers work with the various models of the Type 'n Speak, Braille 'n Speak, Type Lite, Braille Lite, and portable disk drive to help you prevent damaging your unit by plugging the wrong charger into it. By the time you finish exploring the Type 'n Speak universe, you'll wonder how you managed without it. What Is a Type 'n Speak? The Type 'n Speak is a laptop-style computer with a built-in speech synthesizer to provide you with spoken feedback. Not only does it speak all prompts for its commands, it speaks back what you type. Weighing about two pounds, with its own internal, rechargeable battery and storage, this powerful little laptop can act as your notebook, your address book, your calendar, your calculator, your stopwatch, your timer, and much more! You can use a Type 'n Speak comfortably and unobtrusively at a meeting, on a street corner or a subway, just as anyone uses a pencil and notepad. And you probably won't run out of room, because the unit can store a lot of information. The Type 'n Speak can store about 300 physical pages of print in its random- access memory area (or 758 kilobytes), and over 800 more in Flash memory (or 2 mega-bytes). We will fully discuss RAM and Flash memory shortly. The Type 'n Speak can "talk" with other computers — whether it's to store information on a disk (for you to read later), or whether it's to print files with an ink printer, or Braille them with a Braille embosser. Using an external modem and your telephone, the Type 'n Speak links you to a wealth of information using services such as the Internet: news, shopping, research, conversation with other computer users, and so on. If you have a personal computer with a screen reader, you can use your Type 'n Speak as a portable speech synthesizer with your screen reader through the Type 'n Speak's Speechbox mode. This can come in handy if you're on the go a lot and want to minimize the gear you carry. You can imagine all the possibilities hidden within the Type 'n Speak. So, let's get started in learning how to use it! SECTION I: The Basics Introduction This section covers very basic information about the Type 'n Speak, in two separate chapters. Chapter 1 explains what the Type 'n Speak looks like, what to expect when you turn it on for the first time, and how to navigate the menu system. Chapter 2 shows you how to set up the voice to your liking through the flexible Speech Parameters option. If you're already generally familiar with how to operate your Type 'n Speak, you may wish to skim most of this section. But be on the lookout for features that may be new to you in the Type 'n Speak. CHAPTER 1: Getting Started Introduction This chapter focuses on some Type 'n Speak basics. We'll first check into what the Type 'n Speak looks like, and explore its keyboard layout. Then we'll discuss what to expect the first time you turn it on, and how to use the Type 'n Speak's commands and menus. What the Type 'n Speak Looks Like Let's start by giving the Type 'n Speak a physical to learn the basics about its use. The Type 'n Speak is about a foot wide, seven inches from front to back, and one inch high. Its keyboard looks much like the typewriter keyboard of a laptop computer. But the similarity ends there. It has no display screen for visual feedback, and many of its keys perform functions that are unique to the device. Place the unit in front of you with the spacebar closest to you -- the usual position for typing. Find the right corner closest to you and slide your finger toward the back of the unit. About halfway, you'll find the on/off rocker switch. To turn the Type 'n Speak on, rock the switch away from you; to turn it off, rock it toward you. Immediately in back of the on/off rocker switch is an earphone jack. In addition to using a standard earphone with this jack, you can also use it with a patch cord to send the Type 'n Speak's voice output to an external speaker or to a tape recorder. Now find the back left corner of the unit. Slide your finger toward the right. The first thing you find is the A.C. power adapter jack. Note that the Type 'n Speak uses a 9-volt adapter. Continuing about an inch to the right of the A.C. jack, find two round openings about an inch apart. They feel virtually identical, each with tiny holes. These are called DIN ports. They are used to connect the Type 'n Speak to other devices. The DIN port closest to the A.C. jack is a serial port, to connect the Type 'n Speak to other serial devices (like personal computers and modems). The other DIN port connects the Type 'n Speak to the Blazie Engineering portable external disk drive. Just to the right of this DIN port is the Type 'n Speak's parallel port. You will use it to connect the Type 'n Speak to parallel printers or Braille embossers. The cable that came with your Type 'n Speak lets you connect the unit to other serial devices, including another Type 'n Speak (or any other Blazie notetaker), a computer, a modem, and a serial printer. For details about connecting the Type 'n Speak to other devices, see Chapter 15. For details on connecting the Type 'n Speak to the portable disk drive, see Chapter 16. Charging the Type 'n Speak When charging the Type 'n Speak's built-in battery, use only the 9-volt charger supplied with the unit. Do not use one of the newer 12-volt chargers you may have lying around for use with other Blazie products, such as the Braille 'n Speak 2000 or Braille Lite 40. (See Appendix D for information on chargers.) Substituting another transformer which looks or feels like the correct one, but which has the incorrect voltage requirements (or polarity), could destroy chips or other critical parts of the Type 'n Speak. With normal usage, a fully-charged Type 'n Speak functions properly under battery power for about 25 hours. And it takes eight hours to charge a Type 'n Speak fully. However, the actual length of time your Type 'n Speak will function under battery power varies according to use. For example, to communicate with another computer, you must activate the Type 'n Speak's serial port. Heavy use of the serial port, using battery power rather than A.C., drains the battery more quickly. The Type 'n Speak has a handy battery-usage safety feature. It warns you when the battery starts to get low, and continues to do so until you take action. Note: We offer an emergency cable that lets you power the Type 'n Speak from an external battery in case you can't charge your battery immediately. Experiment with your machine to see how much time it actually operates after the "battery low" message first occurs. Operation for too long in low-voltage conditions may cause scrambling of data stored in the machine. But should this happen, you may be able to recover the data, as you'll see later. The "battery low" message will occur only five times during the current session. In other words, after the first time you hear the warning, it repeats only four more times, unless you turn off the Type 'n Speak first. However, if you turn on the Type 'n Speak again without recharging it, the "battery low" message will occur another five times during that session. If you do decide to experiment with the length of battery usage and your data, do it before your machine is full of sensitive data -- or, at least wait until you are familiar with data recovery techniques for the Type 'n Speak. The Type 'n Speak comes fully charged from the factory. But, eventually you'll need to recharge the battery. Once you have done so, you must remember to set the battery use timer. The optimal way to use the Type 'n Speak is to keep it turned off unless you are actually reading, writing, computing, or transmitting data. The great thing is that turning it off does not erase your data, and turning it back on instantly returns you to wherever you last stopped. In fact, the Type 'n Speak doesn't like to be ignored. It reminds you of its presence with a "Hello?" message when you have not pressed a key within five minutes. The Type 'n Speak Keyboard The Type 'n Speak keyboard layout is probably already somewhat familiar to you, since it has many of the same keys found on a typewriter or personal computer. There are the standard alphanumeric keys, of course. These include all the letters of the alphabet, punctuation, and digits from 0 through 9. But the function keys, navigation keys, and the other keys all perform tasks unique to the Type 'n Speak that we'll discuss in detail as we move through this manual. For now, we'll simply work on defining what the keys are called and where they are located, with respect to keys that are already familiar. It's not important that you understand the functionality of each key at this point, just what each one is called on the Type 'n Speak. And in case you know the names of keys on a laptop, we'll define each key in terms of what it would be on a laptop, just for clarity. Position the Type 'n Speak with the spacebar at the front of the unit, the side closest to you as you would type. The key on the right top corner of the Type 'n Speak keyboard, normally called Break, is the Help key. You use the Help key to move instantly to the Type 'n Speak's Help file (which contains a brief listing of Type 'n Speak commands). If you press Shift together with the Help key, the Type 'n Speak goes into Learn mode. While you're in Learn mode, the Type 'n Speak announces the function of any key you press, other than the alphanumeric keys, without actually performing that function. So for example, if you press the Help key itself, you hear, "Open Help file." You exit Learn mode by pressing Esc. Now move down the right side of the keyboard. The key immediately under Help, normally called Home, is the Top key. You use this key to jump to the top of a file, the top of your list of files, or the first choice on a menu. Continuing down the right side of the keyboard, just under the Top key is the Previous-paragraph key, normally called PgUp. You use this key to jump to the previous paragraph in a file. Under the Previous-paragraph key is the Next-paragraph key, normally called PgDn. You use this key to jump to the next paragraph in a file. Under the Next-paragraph key is the Bottom key, normally called End. You use this key to jump to the bottom of a file, the end of your list of files, or the last choice on a menu. Next, going down the right side of the keyboard, is the key at the bottom right corner. This is the Right-arrow key. You use this key to move to the next word in a file. If you press Shift together with Right-arrow, you will move to the next character in a file. Now move along the bottom row of the keyboard. The first key to the left of the Right-arrow is the Down-arrow key. You use this key to move to the next line in a file. If you press Shift together with Down-arrow, the Type 'n Speak says the current word. Just to the left of Down-arrow is the Left-arrow key. You use this key to move to the previous word in a file. If you press Shift together with Left-arrow, you move to the previous character in a file. Now let's move back to the Down-arrow key for a minute. Just above this key is the Up-arrow key. You use this key to move to the previous line in a file. If you press Shift together with Up- arrow, the Type 'n Speak says the current line. You should note that immediately to the left of Up-arrow, just above Left-arrow, is the right Shift key used for capitalizing letters, shifting numbers on the number row, and shifting the function keys on the top row of the keyboard. The Right-shift key is slightly larger than the keys to its left, its right, and underneath it. Now continuing up from Up-arrow, the key just above Up-arrow is the all-important Enter or Return key. It is easy to distinguish from the keys surrounding it because it is slightly larger, a rectangle rather than a square. You use this key to force a new line in a file and to execute many commands on the Type 'n Speak. Let's return to the bottom row of the keyboard and check out the keys on either side of the Spacebar. Just to the right of the Spacebar is the Accent key, which when shifted, becomes the Tilde key. This key is not used very often and is considered part of the alphanumeric keys. So, it is not announced when you're in Learn mode. But, just to the right of the Accent key is the Insert key. You use this key to insert text into a file that already contains text. And to the right of Insert is the Delete key. You use this key to delete text, whether it's single characters or big blocks of text in a file, to delete an entire file, or to delete groups of files. The key immediately to the left of the spacebar is the Alt key, just as it is on a PC keyboard. You use Alt in combination with other keys for certain Type 'n Speak commands. To the left of the Alt key is the Macro key, which lets you run pre-existing macros you may have in your Type 'n Speak. The key to the left of the Macro key, which is also at the left bottom corner of the keyboard, is the Control key (Ctrl). You use Ctrl to silence the Type 'n Speak's voice on demand. Moving up the left side of the Type 'n Speak keyboard now, there are some keys also found on a PC keyboard. Going up the row that starts with Ctrl are the left-Shift key, the CapsLock key, the Tab key, and the Escape key (Esc). Notice that Tab feels different from all other keys. It is shaped like a regular key, but has an extra thin piece, lower than the rest of the keys going up from its left edge. Feeling for this makes it easy to find Tab when you need it. As we just mentioned, the Esc key is at the left top corner of the keyboard. You use Esc to abort commands and to exit menus. Now moving from the Esc key to the right across the top row of the keyboard, there are 10 function keys (F1 through F10), as found on a PC. But here, these function keys perform tasks unique to the Type 'n Speak. We'll discuss what each function key does specifically as we move through the manual. Let's move back to the right top corner of the keyboard now, to check out the last few keys on the top row of the keyboard. Remember that the key on the top right corner of the keyboard is Help. The key immediately to the left of Help, normally called PrintScreen, is the Transmit key. You use this key to transfer information between the Type 'n Speak and another serial device, such as a PC or modem. If you press Shift together with the Transmit key, it lets you transmit to a parallel port. You use this key combination to transfer information from the Type 'n Speak to a parallel device, generally a printer or Braille embosser. To the left of the Transmit key is the Record Macro key, normally called Scroll-Lock. This key lets you define a single keystroke to perform key sequences you execute repeatedly. If you press Shift, together with the Record Macro key, the Type 'n Speak pauses the macro you're recording for user entry. (See Chapter 13 for a full discussion of macros.) The key to the left of the Record Macro key is the Paste key, normally called NumLock. This key will insert blocks of information from the Type 'n Speak's Clipboard into a file -- anything from a date, to an entire file. If you press Shift together with the Paste key, you may copy a block of text to the Type 'n Speak's Clipboard for later pasting. (See Chapter 5 for how to copy and paste blocks of text, Chapter 9 for how to paste calendar information, Chapter 10 for how to paste the time being reported by the stopwatch, and Chapter 11 for how to paste results from the calculator.) Remember that Top is the key just under the Help key. The final key we need to identify is just to the left of Top. This is the backspace key. To make it easier to find, backspace is slightly larger than the keys surrounding it. You use backspace to back up and erase the last character you wrote. Now that we've learned all the keys on the Type 'n Speak keyboard, let's discover what you can expect the first time you turn on your Type 'n Speak. The First Time Out Assuming you're starting from scratch, with the Type 'n Speak set up as it comes straight from the factory, turn the Type 'n Speak on by flipping the on/off rocker switch away from you. The unit says, "Type 'n Speak ready; Help is open." If this does not happen, flip the rocker switch back toward you (to the off position), plug the A.C. power supply/battery charger into the A.C. jack, and flip the switch on again. You should then hear, "Type 'n Speak ready; Help is open." Once you're comfortable with the Type 'n Speak, or if you're in a setting where the Type 'n Speak's start-up prompt could be distracting, you may choose to start the Type 'n Speak silently. To do so, simply hold down the spacebar as you turn on the unit. A click indicates that the Type 'n Speak is ready for use. The Type 'n Speak's File Structure The Type 'n Speak is like a nearly empty, three-ring binder just waiting to be filled with your own personal data. Usually, a three-ring binder comes with tabs, or separators of some kind, to indicate the start of each new section in the binder. So each tagged section can be considered a distinct "file." And in fact, with so much storage capacity in the Type 'n Speak, you're not limited to just one "binder" of files, so to speak. There's no reason why you can't have a number of "binders" or "folders" that contain groups of files you want to keep together. (See Chapter 8 for a full discussion on how to work with folders.) Files Provided by Blazie Engineering The Type 'n Speak comes with several files ready for your use. (The exact number may vary.) Here are some you can expect to find when you first receive your unit: The Help file contains a summary of the commands you use to operate the Type 'n Speak. You can jump to it from virtually any file in which you're working by pressing the Help key. The Clipboard file is like a blank scratchpad, or trash can, for storing temporary information. Although the information you store in the Clipboard is temporary, the Clipboard itself is a permanent file in the Type 'n Speak, meaning that you can't remove it. But, you won't want to -- it's very handy to have around. The Calendar file is ready to be filled with your busy schedule. The Type 'n Speak uses this file to help you remember special dates through its Calendar Alert feature. The "spell.dic" program file, the spelling dictionary, is unlike the Help, Clip-board, and Calendar files (whose contents you can actually read). Since spell.dic is a program file, it contains a program that the Type 'n Speak can access to help you do spellchecking. It is not a file you can read yourself. (See Chapter 14 for a complete discussion of the Type 'n Speak's spellchecker.) Finally, we sometimes also include files that contain last-minute information that didn't make it into this manual. We usually provide such information in both textfile and Braille versions so that you have the option of printing or brailling it. The Type 'n Speak's Memory There are two concepts you need to understand with respect to the Type 'n Speak's memory: The Type 'n Speak has Flash-ROM, as well as RAM and Flash memory. Flash-ROM: The Type 'n Speak has special programming built into it, including Flash-ROM (read-only memory). Flash-ROM lets you run special software to update your Type 'n Speak yourself. (See "Updating Your Type 'n Speak" in Chapter 18 to learn how to update to our latest software release.) RAM and Flash Memory: The Type 'n Speak's storage space for your files is divided into two portions. The RAM (random-access memory) portion can store 300 pages of print. RAM contains 758 kilobytes of space where you can edit your files and run external programs. Your Flash memory can store over 800 pages of print. Flash memory contains two megabytes of space where you can store programs and files while you're not working with them. Files and programs move easily between the RAM and Flash portions of your Type 'n Speak's memory. (See "Moving Files Between RAM and Flash" in Chapter 8.) Some Basic Type 'n Speak Commands There are several types of commands in the Type 'n Speak: Some commands let you bring up menus of options. Others let you navigate through your files and edit them. Still others let you run the Type 'n Speak's built-in tools, such as the stopwatch or calculator. And some even let you transfer data between your Type 'n Speak and another device, like a computer or printer. Many commands on the Type 'n Speak begin with the press of a function key. We'll discuss each command specifically as we move through this manual. But for now, here are a couple of basic things you need to know. You usually press Enter to "execute" a command. But, the Type 'n Speak is pretty forgiving about letting you cancel a procedure. Most of the time, if you change your mind midstream, you can cancel a command procedure with Esc. If you halt a procedure with Esc, the Type 'n Speak announces, "Abort." The Type 'n Speak Menus The Type 'n Speak has a set of commands for working with menus. Just as a restaurant menu offers you choices of food, menus on a computer offer you choices of functions to perform. And a "submenu" offers more levels of choice. Let's say that the major menu covers breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you pick the dinner menu, you'll see choices for appetizers, entrees, desserts and beverages. Clearly, you'll then need to read over each of those sets of choices to decide which appetizer, entree, and beverage you want -- and, if you're very good, you'll skip the set of dessert choices. The Type 'n Speak's menu system works very much like that. The major menus are the Speech Parameters menu, the Status menu, and the Files menu. Like the dessert portion of a restaurant menu, each menu in the Type 'n Speak provides choices. For example, in the Speech Parameters menu, you can choose to change the Type 'n Speak's volume, speech rate, and how much punctuation to speak as it reads to you. Some of the Type 'n Speak menus let you perform functions and issue commands. Others, like the Status menu, let you change Type 'n Speak settings. Navigating Through the Menus You can navigate through all the choices in a Type 'n Speak menu quite easily. When you bring up a menu, either write the specific letter that selects the choice you want, or cycle through the choices till you find the one you want. Here are the commands used to navigate through most menus: ? To move to the next choice, press Down-arrow. ? To move to the previous choice, press Up-arrow. ? To move to the first choice, press Home. ? To move to the last choice, press End. ? To hear the hot key for the current choice, press Shift+End. ? To hear the current choice repeated, press Shift+Up-arrow. Once you hear the choice you want, press Enter to select it. Sometimes, doing so brings up another set of choices (or, a submenu). To exit a menu, press Esc. Whenever you exit a menu, just as when you first turn on the Type 'n Speak, the Type 'n Speak remembers to put you right back into your file, just where you had stopped working in that file. Pull-down Menus Several menus on the Type 'n Speak are called pull-down menus, because they let you, in effect, "pull down" choices for performing a specific task in a particular way. You can navigate through the choices in a pull-down menu with the Up-/Down-arrows or the spacebar, or you can press a hot key to jump directly to a choice. To hear the hot key for the choice you're pointing to, press Shift+End. Here are the pull-down menus and the keystrokes that bring them up: ? Delete menu - Del ? File Command menu - F1, Help key (Break) ? Move menu - Shift+F3 ? Options menu - F9 or Alt+o ? Parameter menu - Alt+p ? Paste menu - NumLock ? Remote menu - Alt+0 ? Set Time/Date menu - F9 or Alt+o, s ? Spellcheck menu - F6 ? Storage menu - F8 ? Transmit menu - Transmit key (PrtScr/Shift+PrtScr) As with all menus, you can exit a pull-down menu at any time by pressing Esc. The Options Menu The Options menu contains a list of the things you can do with the Type 'n Speak. As with other menus, you can navigate the Options menu with Up-/Down-arrows or the spacebar, or you can press a hot key to jump directly to a choice. To hear the hot key for the choice you're pointing to, press Shift+End. Here are the commands available in the Options menu: ? Calendar check ? Braille mode ? Calculator ? Date ? Calendar entry ? File commands ? Smart calendar ? Calculate line ? Open the previously opened file ? Open the currently pointed-to file ? Open phonebook ? Phonebook ? Set time/date ? Spellcheck ? Time ? Say countdown timer ? Stopwatch ? Execute program ? Say alarm As with all menus, you can exit the Options menu at any time by pressing Esc. The Status Menu The Status menu contains a list of all the settings in the Type 'n Speak, along with the status of each setting. You can change the status of each setting, as you'll see throughout this manual. The Status menu has three groups of settings: serial parameters, format parameters, and miscellaneous parameters. As with other menus, move through the settings in the Status menu with up/down- arrows, or press a hot key to jump directly to a setting. To hear the hot key for the setting you're pointing to, press Shift+End. Notice that you cannot use the spacebar for cycling through menu choices in the Status menu, as you can do with other menus. In the case of the Status menu, the spacebar is used differently. You can bring up the Status menu, from within whatever file you're working, with F10. You should hear, "Status menu, Interactive off." Try it, for practice, if you like. Move through the settings by pressing Down-arrow and Up-arrow. Since the Status menu has so many settings, it may be confusing to listen to terms you may not recognize. So jump to the last setting with End. You should hear, "PC Edit mode, off." Jump back to the first setting with Home, or with another Down- arrow. You should hear, "Interactive off" again. If you jump to the first setting with Home, or if you press Up-arrow repeatedly to bring you back to the first setting, pressing another Up-arrow cycles you around to the last setting again. Stop somewhere in the middle of the settings and press Shift+Up- arrow to hear the current one repeated. Or, press Shift+End to hear the name of its hot key. For example, if you're pointing to, say, the setting that tells you the revision date for the Type 'n Speak's software, press Shift+End to hear "R." Settings come in two flavors. They either have on/off status, or they have multiple status options. For a setting that can be turned only on or off, you do so with a "y" for on, or an "n" for off. If a setting that has multiple status options, you cycle among its options by pressing the spacebar until you hear the status you want, then press Esc to exit the Status menu. Another way to jump directly to a major group of settings in the Status menu is to press PgDn to move forward, or PgUp to move backward. These commands jump you to the first setting in a major group: serial parameters, format parameters, or miscellaneous parameters. For example, press Home to jump to the first setting on the Status menu, "Interactive off." Now press PgDn. You'll hear, "Serial Parameters, Interactive off." Press PgDn again to hear, "Miscellaneous Parameters, Braille translator off." Another PgDn brings you to, "Format Parameters, printer is Epson compatible," and one more PgDn cycles you back to "Serial Parameters, Interactive off." Cycle backward through these major groups with PgUps. As with other menus, you exit the Status menu by pressing Esc. The Type 'n Speak says, "Exit." By the way, whenever you re-enter the Status menu, it places you on the setting you had last examined. For example, if you stop on "Battery used" and then exit, the next time you enter the Status menu, you'll be right there, at "Battery used," even if you turn off the Type 'n Speak and turn it on again later. How to Charge the Built-in Battery If you've upgraded your Type 'n Speak, take a look at Appendix D, "Which Charger to Use?" The Type 'n Speak still uses a 9-volt charger, not the new 12-volt charger we now provide for use with the Braille 'n Speak and Braille Lite products. If you try to charge your Type 'n Speak with the wrong charger, you may end up with a non-working unit. So read Appendix D carefully if you have more than one of our products, and thus, more than one charger around the house or office. It is important to know how long your battery has been running since you last charged your Type 'n Speak. The Type 'n Speak warns you when its battery is running low with a "Battery low" message. Once you've recharged the battery, you should reset the battery used timer to zero to keep an accurate reading of how well your unit is retaining its charge. To do this, enter the Status menu with F10. Jump to the setting, "Battery used," by typing a question mark. You hear something like, "Battery used, zero hours, 10 minutes." Of course, the actual time depends on how long the unit has run since its last charge -- not how much time has passed since you last turned on the unit, but how long it's been since the Type 'n Speak was last charged with the battery charger. To reset the battery used timer, type a 0 or press the spacebar at this point. The Type 'n Speak says, "Reset battery timer, y or n?" Type a y for yes. You'll hear, "Zero hours, zero minutes." Then exit the Status menu by pressing Esc. The Double-Speed Chip There is an optional chip you can add to the Type 'n Speak to improve its performance. We call this the "double-speed" chip because it speeds up the time it takes the Type 'n Speak to handle certain tasks. For example, searching for text in a long file can time- consuming. But with the double-speed option, text can be found in half the time it used to take. To check whether you have the double-speed option in your unit, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type a + to jump directly to the double-speed setting. If your machine is not equipped with double-speed, the Type 'n Speak says, "Double-speed, off" even when you try to turn it on. Otherwise, it tells you the status of double-speed, which is off by default. Remember to exit the Status menu with Esc when you're through checking whether you have double-speed. And if you don't have it, call us for information about how we can add the chip to your machine. Summary You now know all the basics about your Type 'n Speak. It might be a good idea to review the keyboard by going into learn mode (The Help key shifted) if you feel that you need to review where the navigation keys, function keys, and other important keys are located. Commands in the rest of the manual will be far easier to learn if you don't have to hunt for the keys that perform them. In the next chapter, we'll learn how to configure the Type 'n Speak's voice to your favorite settings. CHAPTER 2: Changing the Type 'n Speak's Voice Introduction If you're used to listening to a speech synthesizer, the Type 'n Speak's voice may seem slow at first. But, you can change it to sound just as you like. You can alter the Type 'n Speak's voice in several ways: not only can you adjust the volume, the rate of speech, pitch, and tone of the voice, you can also adjust how the Type 'n Speak handles the announcement of punctuation and numbers. In fact, you can adjust the voice to behave differently for different circumstances, like pronouncing numbers as digits when you're reading your files, but pronouncing them as full numbers when you're running the calculator. So, let's get the Type 'n Speak talking in the way that's most comfortable for you. The Speech Parameters Menu To change any speech parameters, we must bring up the Speech Parameters menu. Press F7 to open the Speech Parameters menu. The Type 'n Speak prompts you with, "Set speech parameters," and waits for you to enter an option. Should you enter an option that the Type 'n Speak does not recognize, it prompts you with, "Invalid parameter" and waits for you to try again. To exit this menu, as you exit all menus in the Type 'n Speak, press Esc. The Type 'n Speak says, "Exit." If you accidentally press F7 twice, the Type 'n Speak goes into Speechbox mode. (See Chapter 17 for a full discussion.) You may think there's something wrong with your unit because, in this mode, virtually all the keys are disabled. Just press F7 twice again to return your Type 'n Speak to normal operation. Volume, Speech Rate, Pitch, and Tone The speech parameters for volume, speech rate, pitch, and tone are easy to remember and to change. ? To raise the volume, press Up-arrow. To lower it, press Down-arrow. ? To raise the speech rate, press Right-arrow. To make it slow down, press Left-arrow. ? To raise the pitch of the voice, press Shift+Right-arrow. To lower it, press Shift+Left-arrow. ? To raise the tone (frequency) of the voice, press Shift+Up- arrow. To lower it, press Shift+Down-arrow. Each time you press one of these commands, the Type 'n Speak announces what you have done while producing the desired effect. So, for example, when you press Down-arrow, the Type 'n Speak says, "Softer" in a softer voice. When you press Left-arrow, it says, "Slower" in a slower voice, and so on. Naturally, there is a limit on how soft/loud and how fast/slow and even how high or low you can make the voice. If you go too far in the "softer" direction for volume, for example, you'll stop hearing "softer" announced. Don't panic. Just press Up- arrow a couple of times to bring the volume back to where you can hear it again. When you're ready to leave the Speech Parameters menu, press Esc. Experiment to find a set of levels you like. The Type 'n Speak remembers how you've set the voice after you exit the Speech Parameters menu, and even the next time you turn on the Type 'n Speak. You can always return to the default settings for speech, or anything else for that matter, and we'll show you how to do that later. Announcement of Punctuation and Numbers You can change the way the Type 'n Speak's voice announces punctuation marks and numbers. Punctuation: To find out the current status of the punctuation setting, enter the Speech Parameters menu with F7. Then write a p, and you'll hear something like, "Current punctuation setting is No." Here are the punctuation levels you can select: ? To hear total announcement of punctuation marks - all of them, regardless of what and where they are - write the letter t (total punctuation). ? To hear most punctuation announced, write the letter m. ? To hear only some punctuation, write the letter s. ? To hear no punctuation announced whatsoever, write the letter z. Remember, you can change this level whenever you want. Numbers: The Type 'n Speak has two options for pronouncing numbers. You may prefer to hear numbers spoken as digits or as full words. Write the letter n to switch between these two modes. For example, from the Speech Parameters menu, if you write the letter n and the Type 'n Speak says, "Say full numbers," this means that when you are reading a number, you will hear the number in words like "two thousand." If you write the letter n again, the Type 'n Speak says, "Say digits." The next time you read a number, the Type 'n Speak will pronounce each digit, like "two, zero, zero, zero." You'll probably want to set the Type 'n Speak to read numbers as digits most of the time since phone numbers, addresses, zip codes, and the like are easier to listen to as digits. When you work with numerical data, such as money information for your bank account, you'll probably want to hear full numbers. When you're ready to leave the Speech Parameters menu, press Esc. Multiple Voice Settings Since you can manipulate the Type 'n Speak's voice to speak in different volumes, at different speech rates, pronounce different levels of punctuation, and so on, it would be nice if you could make these changes on-the-fly - without having to adjust each voice setting from the Speech Parameters menu. Well, you can. You can create up to five different configurations of speech parameters - or "voices" - numbered from 1 to 5. Configuring the Voices: To configure a voice with a particular set of speech parameters, first enter the Speech Parameters menu by pressing F7. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Speech Parameters," you can press PgUp to move to the previous voice and PgDn to move to the next voice. Once you have selected a voice configuration, you can set its speech parameters any way you want. Then press Esc to exit the Speech Parameters menu. The current configuration stays in effect until you change to another voice. In fact, Type 'n Speak retains the current voice configuration the next time you turn it on. Now let's take an example. First note that from the factory, the Type 'n Speak is set to Voice 1. By now you may have changed some features of this voice, as you've worked through earlier sections of this chapter. That's great - but, just remember that the voice you're now hearing is Voice 1. For purposes of this example, we'll establish Voice 2 as such that all punctuation is announced, and to distinguish it from Voice 1, let's raise the volume a couple of notches and speed it up a bit. Enter the Speech Parameters menu with F7 . Press PgDn once. You should hear the Type 'n Speak say, "Voice Number 2." Now that you've selected this voice, you can change its speech parameters. Turn on total punctuation announcement with a t. Then press Up- arrow a couple of times to raise the volume, and Right-arrow two or three times to speed up the speech rate. Exit the Speech Parameters menu with Esc. From now on, this voice will be in effect until you choose another, even when you turn off your Type 'n Speak and turn it on again. Selecting a Voice: Once your various voice configurations are established, you can easily switch among them. From anywhere in your currently open file, press Alt+y followed by a number from 1 to 5. The voice switches instantly to your choice. You don't even have to press Enter. We'll assume the currently open file is the Help file, which is the file that is automatically opened the first time you start the Type 'n Speak. While it can be useful to have all punctuation announced when you're proofreading, it can be quite annoying the rest of the time, because even spaces are announced - all of them. So let's return to Voice 1. From your currently open file, press Alt+y. The Type 'n Speak says, "Voice" and waits for you to enter a number from 1 to 5. Write a number 1. You'll instantly hear Voice 1's volume, speech rate, pitch and tone. And if you read something, you'll see that punctuation is set to however you had it for Voice 1. A couple of notes about voice configurations: Voices 2 through 5 are retained even if you do a warm reset. In the case of a warm reset, only Voice 1's settings return to our factory defaults. The only time all voice settings are lost is when you do a cold reset. (For more information on warm and cold resets, see Appendix A.) A real neat twist to the capability of switching voice configurations is that you can incorporate the command into a macro. Macros are commands you can define to automate some functions you perform repeatedly. For example, you could create a macro that switches to Voice 5, say, and opens your bank statement file, where Voice 5 has been preset to speak numbers as full words. (For a full discussion of macros, see Chapter 13.) Experiment by setting up two or three voice configurations and juggling among them until you're comfortable with the concept. Summary We have covered how to change various aspects of the Type 'n Speak's voice, including how to change its volume, speech rate, and so on. We also discussed how to change the level of punctuation the Type 'n Speak announces as it reads, and the way it pronounces numerical information. Finally, we looked at how you can set up different voice configurations for different situations you might require. There are other speech options in the Speech Parameters menu, which we will discuss as we need to learn about them. But the basic speech parameters we've outlined here will let you set up the Type 'n Speak however it sounds nicest to you. SECTION II: Working With Your Files Introduction This section covers the most critical commands in the Type 'n Speak. While it's nice to have a set of built-in tools like the calendar and clock, the Type 'n Speak's ability to store so much text is what makes it such a powerful notetaker. So, this section is where we cover everything you need to know in order to work with text files. First we discuss how to read the text that's in your files (Chapter 3), and how to write files of your own (Chapter 4). Then once you've practiced these basic functions, we move into the many useful techniques the Type 'n Speak has for editing your text (Chapter 5), and for formatting text so that it prints and brailles properly (Chapter 6). And finally, we show you how to manipulate the files themselves (Chapter 7), and how to organize them into folders to make it easier to find what you need quickly and efficiently (Chapter 8). Once you've mastered the commands in this section, you'll find that the Type 'n Speak is an indispensable tool for your daily use. CHAPTER 3: Reading Your Files Introduction You can control how much text the Type 'n Speak reads to you at any one time. You can read by paragraphs, by sentences, line by line, word by word, even character by character. Or, if you prefer, you can read a whole file without stopping. And the Type 'n Speak can even spell a word for you. The first step to understanding how to read your Type 'n Speak files is to learn about the cursor and its location. Once you know where the cursor is, you can move anywhere within a file so you can read a particular section. And once you know how to move to any section in your file, you can quickly find the particular word or phrase where you want to start reading. The Cursor If you've ever worked with a Perkins broiler, or a slate and stylus, you already know what a cursor is, although you may never have called it that. In computer jargon, the cursor, used for reading and writing, refers to the electronic equivalent of your stylus or the brailler's punching mechanism. The cursor is very important because it marks the place where this "electronic stylus" is resting. You can't feel it anywhere on the Type 'n Speak. But you can move it, find out where it is in your file, and even discover what character is "under" it, all by using Type 'n Speak commands. When we talk about moving through a file to read by sentence, paragraph or whatever, it means that we're moving the cursor to a particular place in that file and commanding the Type 'n Speak to read starting from that location. Navigating through a File You can move through your files on the Type 'n Speak much faster than you can turn Braille or print pages. You can move instantly to the top or bottom (beginning or end) of your file, search for a particular word, or move by a specific number of lines, characters or words. Moving means just that - moving the cursor from one place to another. It's just like lifting a pencil off one place on a piece of paper and then putting it down somewhere else - perhaps on the same page, perhaps on another. The keys used to move around a file are all located on the right side of the key-board. If you're not sure what some keys are called, or where they are located, review "The Type 'n Speak Keyboard" in Chapter 1. Keys you need to know are: Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Up-arrow, Down-arrow, Left-arrow, and Right-arrow. Finding the Top and Bottom of a File Let's use the Help file that comes on your Type 'n Speak to learn how to move the cursor around read different file sections. Turn on the Type 'n Speak. It should say, "Type 'n Speak ready, Help is open." To move to the top (beginning) of the file, press Home. The Type 'n Speak says, "Top of file." To move to the bottom (end) of the file, press End. The Type 'n Speak says, "End of file." Notice that the Type 'n Speak doesn't read any text when you press Home or End. It just tells you where you are in your file, and this is important to know when you're searching for specific text or writing something into a file. The Type 'n Speak remembers where you left off in each file, even after you turn it off and turn it on again. Whenever you reopen a file, your cursor will be wherever you last used it in that file. Reading Blocks of Text The commands for reading text on the Type 'n Speak are generally intuitive and easy to remember. To read by lines, you use the Up- and Down-arrows; to read by words, you use the Left- and Right- arrows. And to read one character at a time, you use the Shift key together with the Left- and Right-arrows. First, we list the commands you need to know for reading by lines, words, and characters. Then we go through some examples for practice. Here are the specific commands for reading by lines, words, and characters: Lines ? To move to the next line of text and speak it, press Down- arrow. ? To move to the previous line of text and speak it, press Up- arrow. ? To speak the current line of text again, press Shift+Up- arrow. Words ? To move to the next word and speak it, press Right-arrow. ? To move to the previous word and speak it, press Left-arrow. ? To speak the current word again,, press Shift+Down-arrow. ? To spell out the current word, press Shift+Down-arrow twice. Characters ? To move to the next character and speak it, press Shift+Right-arrow. ? To move to the previous character and speak it, press Shift+Left-arrow. ? To speak the current character again, press Shift+End. ? To speak the current character phonetically, press Shift+End twice. Here are the specific commands for reading by paragraphs: To move to the next paragraph and speak its first line, press PgDn. To move to the previous paragraph and speak its first line, press PgUp. Here is how to read through a whole file nonstop: To speak the rest of the file from your current cursor position, press Ctrl+End. To silence the Type 'n Speak, press Ctrl+Alt. Now let's use the Help file to practice reading. Turn on the Type 'n Speak. The Help file should be open and ready to be explored with the reading keys. So that we all start from the same place, press Home to hear "Top of file." Practice moving around the Help file by pressing the various keys we've described above. Jump to the end of the file by pressing End, then try reading back through the file. When you jump around the file by paragraphs, notice that you hear a single line of text. Again, this is because the Type 'n Speak reads only the first line of a paragraph when you jump to it with PgUp or PgDn. You can use Down-arrows to continue reading through a paragraph, or Up-arrows to work back to the previous one. If you run into a word you can't understand, spell it out by pressing Shift+Down-arrow twice. Use the Shift+Left- and Shift+Right-arrows to read it letter by letter. At some point along the way, try letting the Type 'n Speak read nonstop to you by pressing Ctrl+End. When you want to stop the voice, just press Ctrl+Alt. Reading Long Passages While reading through a long file, you may want to stop when hearing something important, and might want to skim more quickly over an uninteresting section. You can use a couple of Type 'n Speak features to help manage both of these scenarios. Stopping at a Specific Point If you're reading nonstop through a file and decide you do want to stop at some particular point, you can press Ctrl+Alt to stop the voice near that point. Then you can use your Shift+Up-arrow to read the current line where you stopped, or Shift+Down-arrow to read the current word on which your cursor is resting. You can't control the exact word on which the voice stops, but you can control how close it stops to the word where the cursor is resting. The Status menu setting, Speak Words in Say-all mode, can make a difference. If Speak Words in Say-all mode is turned off, speech is fairly smooth, and pressing Ctrl+Alt to stop speech puts you at the beginning of a line. But this may not necessarily be anywhere near the last word you heard. But if Speak Words in Say-all mode is turned on, speech is somewhat choppy, and pressing Ctrl+Alt gets you pretty close to the last word you heard (if not right on it). How close you get to the last word you heard before you stopped speech depends on how fast the Type 'n Speak was reading. The faster the speech, the harder it is to stop the Type 'n Speak's voice exactly where you want - but it can get quite close. To check the status of Speak Words in Say-all mode, bring up the Status menu with F10. You hear, "Status menu," followed by the setting you last examined. Jump to the Speak Words in Say-all Mode setting by typing a right parenthesis. By default, this setting is turned off. To experiment with stopping the Type 'n Speak's voice close to a word or phrase you want to read carefully, turn on Speak Words in Say-all mode by typing a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. Now go ahead and read from the currently open file with Ctrl+End. Notice that the speech is somewhat jerky. Press Ctrl+Alt to stop the voice. Use Shift+Up-arrow (current line) and Shift+Down-arrow (current word) to check where you are. You should be right on, or very close to, the last word you heard. When you're through reading this way, you can turn off Speak Words in Say-all mode to return the Type 'n Speak to its smoother-sounding voice. Skimming with Hyper-speech If you're reading nonstop, and want to skim over text that doesn't interest you at the moment, you can press Ctrl by itself as the Type 'n Speak is reading. Its speech rate will suddenly start moving at a fast clip as it reads quickly over the text in your file. This is called hyper-speech. When you release the Ctrl key, the Type 'n Speak's normal speech rate resumes. Spelling Out Words Suppose you're reading along, and need to stop to have a word spelled out. You may stop the voice with Ctrl+Alt. Press Left-arrow or Right-arrow until the cursor is resting on the word you want spelled. Then press Shift+Down-arrow twice to hear the word spelled out. You're now in spelling mode, and can continue to have each word spelled as you press Left-Arrow and Right-Arrow. Exit spelling mode by pressing any other key. Reading Characters Phonetically Let's say you're reading along and come across something you cannot understand. You stop the voice with Ctrl+Alt and start reading a character at a time with Shift+Left-arrow and Shift+Right-arrow. Still, some letters are hard to distinguish. Letters like B, D, G, P, T, V and Z may sound alike when pronounced by a speech synthesizer. So, the Type 'n Speak can help clarify things for you. To repeat the current character, you normally press Shift+End. If you press Shift+End twice, the Type 'n Speak first pronounces the letter, and then gives you a word that starts with that letter for clarity. So, for example, say you're on the letter c. Press Shift+End twice. The first time, you hear, "C." The second time, you hear, "Charlie." You're now in a phonetic mode where the Type 'n Speak says each letter as a clarifying word, like "bravo" for b or "delta" for d every time you press Shift+Left-arrow or Shift+Right-arrow. Exit phonetic mode with any other key. The ASCII Value of the Character Under the Cursor The announcement of ASCII values is optional. Computer programmers are the ones most likely to care about them, since ASCII values are used in programming. (Most of us couldn't care less that a capital A's ASCII value is 65.) But for those of you who do need this type of information, the option exists. First you have to turn on a setting from the Status menu. And then, you can use the keys that let you read a character at a time to hear the ASCII value of each character. Here's how it all works: To check the current status of the "Say ASCII values" setting, enter the Status menu with F10. Jump there directly by pressing Shift+Down-arrow. You should hear, "Say ASCII values, off." Turn the setting on by typing a y. Exit the Status menu with Esc. From now on, whenever you press Shift+End three times in a row, you're in ASCII value mode. The Type 'n Speak says the ASCII value of the character under the cursor - such as 65 for the uppercase letter A, or 97 for the lowercase letter a. Once in this mode, you can continue pressing Shift+Left-arrow and Shift+Right-arrow to hear each character's ASCII value as your cursor passes over it. Exit ASCII value mode by pressing any other key. Moving by Blocks of Text Suppose you want to move the cursor by a number of blocks of text - a specific number of characters, words, Braille pages, print pages, or even absolute Type 'n Speak pages. When you press Shift+F3, the Type 'n Speak says, "Move," and places you in a pull-down menu with several options for moving by blocks of text. (For a full discussion of pull-down menus, see "Pull-Down Menus" in Chapter 1.) By pressing the spacebar, you cycle through the block choices: absolute Type 'n Speak page, Braille page, character, line, paragraph, mark, print page, and word. Or you can jump directly to a choice simply by writing its first letter - like w for word or l for line. Then type the number of blocks by which you want to move. When you've made your selection, press Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Please wait," moves you to the place you specified, and then reads to the end of that line. If you ask the Type 'n Speak to move to, say, line 5 with Shift+F3, l5, it takes you to line 5 of your file, not five lines from your starting point. Likewise, if you ask it to take you to print page 6 with Shift+F3, p6, and Enter, the Type 'n Speak takes you to print page 6 of your document, not six print pages from your starting point. Moving by Relative Blocks of Text If you want to move the cursor relative to where you are, you can also use Shift+F3. Press Shift+F3. But this time type l+3. Then press Enter. Now you are moved three lines forward from your starting point, and hear speech till the end of that line. If you press Shift+F3 and simply type a number (like 10), without indicating the letter designation of one of the choices and without a plus or a minus, the Type 'n Speak assumes you want to move by a certain number of lines relative to the beginning of the document. Examples of Moving by Blocks of Text Let's take a couple of examples using the currently open Help file. Get to the top of the file with Home so we're all starting from the same place. Now let's ask the Type 'n Speak to move to the line 10 of this file. Press Shift+F3, l10, Enter. You should hear, "Please wait," followed by a click or two, and then something like, "Find text: F2." Suppose we want to jump directly to print page 3 of this file. Press Shift+F3, p3, Enter. You should hear, "Please wait," followed shortly by something like, "Three pages printed; key is passed through." Well, now that we're on print page 3, let's go back about four lines, say. Press Shift+F3, l-4, Enter. We should hear, "Please wait," followed shortly by whatever appears there. Just for clarity, let's take one more example. Press Shift+F3, 3, Enter. This time you should hear, "Please wait," a click or two, and then something like, "Key learn mode - Shift+Break. Esc exits." Why? Well, remember that when you press Shift+F3 and then just type a number, the Type 'n Speak assumes you want to move by lines and takes you to the number of lines you requested relative to the beginning of the file. If you want to go back or forward by a number of blocks of text from your starting point, you must include a plus or a minus after the letter designation and then the number of blocks by which you want to move. The Text Counter The Move command lets you count the number of characters, lines, and words in your file. This is handy when your professor asks for a term paper of no more than, say, 500 words. Using the Help file again as an example, press Shift+F3. Type a w followed by a 0. The Type 'n Speak should say something like, "Please wait," and after a few clicks, "4,330." That's a lot of words, yes; but the Help file is handy to have around. Defining Blocks of Text Let's clarify the Type 'n Speak's definition of "line" and "sentence." The Type 'n Speak defines a "line" and "paragraph" based on the location of hard returns or hard return/linefeed pairs. (On a physical piece of paper, a hard return moves you to the beginning of a line, and a line-feed moves you down a line.) (Actually, you don't need line-feeds in a Type 'n Speak document. You will see why later.) The Type 'n Speak sees all text between one hard return and the next as a single "line" of text. It defines a "paragraph" to be all text between a set of two or more hard returns and the next. It considers a "sentence" to be all text between one period, question mark, or exclamation point and the next instance of one of these punctuation marks. Skipping Blank Lines When you move your cursor over a set of two or more hard returns, as there are between paragraphs, the Type 'n Speak indicates the extra blank lines with a "plink." But you may want to silence this audible cue. If you want to skip blank lines, from anywhere in your currently open file, press Alt+ampersand (Alt+Shift+7). The Type 'n Speak says, "Skip blank lines, enter y or n." Type a letter y. From now on, you won't hear any distinguishing sound to tell you that you've passed over extra hard returns. If you forget which way this parameter is set, you can always check its status from the Status menu. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type an ampersand to hear whether Skip Blank Lines is on or off. Exit the Status menu with Esc. Reading by User-Defined Blocks In addition to reading by lines or paragraphs, you can read by "sentences," or by blocks of text from 18 to 80 characters in length, referred to as "windows." Reading by windows is most useful when the Type 'n Speak is speaking text generated from a computer or modem. (See Chapter 17.) Here's how to switch easily among these three reading modes: windows, lines, or sentences. From anywhere in your currently open file, press Alt+w. The Type 'n Speak says, "Speak windows, lines, or sentences." Whichever option you choose - w, l or s - the Type 'n Speak says, "Okay." From then on, it reads to you in the mode you selected. You can cycle among the three modes in a flash as you read. And the Type 'n Speak even remembers which mode was in effect the next time you turn it on. The commands for reading by window or sentence are the same as the commands for reading by lines. The Type 'n Speak moves forward to and speaks the next window or sentence with Down- arrow. It moves backward to and speaks the previous window or sentence with Up-arrow. And, it speaks the current window or sentence with Shift+Up-arrow. Defining Window Length If you select to read by window, you must also define the length of the window. Its limits range from 18 to 80, with 80 being the default value. You can check the current status of window length from the Status menu. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Type a w to hear something like, "Window length 80." At this point, you may change the setting to any number between 18 and 80. Press Enter. The Type 'n Speak confirms your change by repeating it to you. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. The Automatic Braille Translator Normally, you won't be working with Braille files on your Type 'n Speak. But if you transfer to the Type 'n Speak a file that was originally written in Grade 2 (or Grade 1) Braille, it may sound like gibberish - which means that the Type 'n Speak's Braille translator is probably set incorrectly for that file. You must turn on the translator, so that the Type 'n Speak reads the file's text as regular words. Note: Since you can send files to a Braille embosser from your Type 'n Speak, you may want to create Grade 2 Braille files. Our Braille translation software for the Type 'n Speak, Quick Braille, lets you translate files to and from Grade 2 Braille. Call us for more information about this program. To check the status of the Braille translator for the currently open file, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type a t. For most of your files, like the Help file, the Type 'n Speak says, "Braille translator off." And this is how it should be set. But if you need to use the translator with a file, type a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. When you try to read the file again, it should sound like regular text. CAUTION: Remember that this file is still actually in Grade 2 (or Grade 1) Braille. In other words, the Type 'n Speak is translating the Grade 2 Braille contractions in the file as it reads the text to you, without changing the actual contents of the file. It is critical that you understand this because when you search for text in a Grade 2 file, you may be surprised at the results. (See the next section for a full discussion.) Special Types of Characters The Type 'n Speak can identify special characters to you as you read through your file. These characters include uppercase characters and control characters. We all know what uppercase characters are. But what are control characters? Control characters are special codes that the Type 'n Speak uses to format your text and instruct a printer where to place it on a page. Common examples of control characters include hard returns, line-feeds, form-feeds and tabs. Hard returns and line-feeds move text to the next line on the page, form-feeds move text to the next page, and tabs move text several spaces across the page. When you're reading the text of your currently open file a character at a time, the Type 'n Speak reads uppercase characters in a higher-than-normal pitch. And as it runs into control characters, it reads them as well. Use the Help file to practice reading uppercase characters and control characters. You'll hear both as you move through the Help file one character at a time. Searching for Text in a File The Type 'n Speak can find text faster than you could if you had the file printed out. Since you can look for text going forward or backward in your file, it's probably a good idea to know where your cursor is located when you're starting your search. The Location of the Cursor To check where the cursor is currently, from anywhere within your file, press Shift+F1. The Type 'n Speak says something like, "Column 5, cursor at 119." This means that the cursor is resting on the fifth place on a line, and that you are 119 characters into the file. If the cursor happens to be resting on a hard return or a line-feed, you'll hear "Column Zero" instead of any other number. Finding Text You can search for text forward or backward through your currently open file. When you issue the Find command, the Type 'n Speak puts you into a search buffer - a scratchpad of sorts - until you press the key that begins the search. If you change your mind, and decide not to search for this particular text after all, you can cancel the search with Esc. While in the search scratchpad, you can type text (a "search string") of up to 63 characters. You can use the backspace to erase a character just as you can when you're writing. And you can press Shift+Up-arrow to see what you've written so far. To search for text forward from anywhere within your currently open file, press F2. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter text to find." Type a search string, then press F2 again to execute the command. If the text is found, the Type 'n Speak moves the cursor to the first character of the text, and reads forward to the next hard return. If it does not find the text, you hear, "Not found," and the cursor remains where you started your search. To reverse a search, start with F2. When you hear, "Enter text to find," type the text you want to find. But press Up-arrow instead of F2 to execute the command. If the text is found, the Type 'n Speak moves the cursor to the first character of the text and reads forward to the next hard return. If it does not find it, you hear, "Not found" and the cursor remains where you started your search. The Type 'n Speak remembers what you last asked it to find, even from file to file. This is helpful when you're looking for the same text in a number of files. But when you turn off the Type 'n Speak, it forgets what you last requested. Example of a Search Using the Help file as an example, let's practice searching for text. So that we're all starting from the same place, press Home to return to the top of the file. Just to verify where we are, press Shift+F1 to locate the position of the cursor in the file. The Type 'n Speak says, "Column zero, cursor at one." Good. We are, indeed, at the very first character position in the file. Now let's look for a word. Press F2. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter text to find." We'll look for the word, "read". Type the word, then press F2 to execute the command. The Type 'n Speak says, "Reading Functions." Notice that the Type 'n Speak found a variation - "reading" - of the word you were looking for. It looks for the combination of characters you requested, and, when it finds that string of characters, it stops there and assumes that this is what you wanted. It takes you quite literally. If you had really wanted to find "read" in particular, you should have searched for the string "space read space." For now though, let's just use this example to find out whether there are more instances of the string, "read", in this Help file. Press F2 again. The Type 'n Speak says, "Find read," because it still remembers that we just looked for "read." So press another F2 to have it look for "read" again. The Type 'n Speak says, "Reading." Read the current line with Shift+Up-arrow and you'll hear something like, "Hyper-speech: Hold down Ctrl while reading." You could continue like this, finding every occurrence of the string, "read", or any variation of the string. In fact, even if you switch to another file, you could still look for the same string. Now let's reverse the search. Press F2. But when you hear, "Find read," press Up-arrow. You should hear something you've already heard, like "Reading Functions." If you press F2 and Up-arrow once more, you should hear, "Not found," because there are no more instances of the string as you search backward through Help. Notice how important it is to know where your cursor is when starting your search. If you get a "Not found" message that surprises you, it may be because you started your search at the wrong end of the file, or at least past the point where the string you were looking for could be located. Try finding a word or phrase on your own. Move to different places in the Help file as you search. Once you're comfortable, you'll find that you can flip through a file and find a phone number faster than you can thumb through an address book. The Click Tip When you have large files, you'll probably hear a ticking sound as the Type 'n Speak searches for text. The larger the file, the greater the distance the Type 'n Speak may have to travel looking for your text, and the greater the number of clicks you will hear. But, be patient and it will find your text - if it is there to be found. Canceling a Search Even after you press the second F2 that starts a search, you can cancel the search with Esc. This can be handy with a long search in a large file. Case-sensitive Searches for Text By default, the Type 'n Speak disregards case when searching for text, and you'll want to keep it this way most of the time. But if you do need to perform a case-sensitive search, here's how to do so. To set the Type 'n Speak to be case-sensitive when it searches for text, from anywhere within your currently open file, bring up the Status menu with F10 and press the exclamation point (Shift+1). The Type 'n Speak says, "Distinguish case during find? Enter y or n." Type a y, then exit the Status menu with Esc. Let's work with an example using the Help file so that you can see the effect of performing a case-sensitive search. So we're all starting from the same place, go to the top of the Help file with Home. Now press F2 so we can look for some text. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Enter text to find," type "blazie" in all lowercase letters. Then press F2 so that the Type 'n Speak can look for this text. In a moment, you should hear the Type 'n Speak say, "Not found." Either the word is not in the file - or "blazie" is not in lowercase. Maybe it's in capital letters. Press F2 again. But this time, type "BLAZIE" all in uppercase. Then press F2 to let the Type 'n Speak search. The Type 'n Speak should still respond with, "Not found." What's wrong now? It looks like "BLAZIE" is not in the file either. It must be that the word is spelled with only the first letter in uppercase. Let's try looking for "Blazie" with just the "B" in uppercase. Yes. The Type 'n Speak now says, "Blazie Engineering." As you can see, this took some effort, so you'll usually want case- sensitivity off when you're looking for text. But it's good to have that option, in case you really do need it. Summary Well, now. You're just about ready to start writing your own files. This chapter has focused primarily on how to read what's in a file that already exists. As we discussed, knowing the location of the cursor scan be critical when you're moving to a particular part of your file, whether it's just to read from that point or to perform a search from there. We talked about specific issues like whether the Braille translator is in effect for the file you're reading, and whether you want to perform a case-sensitive search. The Help file can serve as a practice tool to learn the reading and search functions of the Type 'n Speak. Since, by default, the Help file is in the Flash portion of your Type 'n Speak's memory, it is write-protected. This means that you can't accidentally alter its contents. So it's a safe file to use for practice at this time. When you're ready, move onto Chapter 4, where we discuss file- writing in detail. CHAPTER 4: Writing Your Own Files Introduction This chapter covers the basics you need to know in order to write your own files on the Type 'n Speak. We'll first discuss how to create files, and how to name them properly for transferring to another device. Then we'll customize the Type 'n Speak's typing options, so you can work in the way that's optimal for you. As we move through various sections of this chapter, we'll create a file called "practice," and use it as an example to illustrate many of the Type 'n Speak's writing functions and its various typing modes. How to Create a File To create a new file on the Type 'n Speak, you need to work with the Files menu. This menu has many choices for manipulating files, like opening an existing file to read or write in it, renaming an existing file, deleting an unwanted file, and - of course - creating a new file. The Type 'n Speak automatically saves your files. In fact, the instant you create a file and name it, that file is saved for you. And as you write in it, everything you write is automatically saved - even when you turn off the Type 'n Speak. Before we can create a file, though, there are three issues to consider: the number of pages the file may have, where in memory to store the file, and the types of names the file can have. So let's talk about these preliminaries first. The Type 'n Speak Page When you create a file on the Type 'n Speak, it assigns a "page" (or pages) from the "binder" to a particular filename. So it's critical that you understand the Type 'n Speak's definition of page. As you add text to a file, the Type 'n Speak automatically adds pages to it. Likewise, as you discard text from a file, the Type 'n Speak automatically deletes pages from the file. But there are times when you need to be aware of the number of Type 'n Speak pages a file contains, especially when using the Type 'n Speak with a modem, as we'll see in Chapter 17. Each Type 'n Speak page can hold up to 4,096 characters - about two pages of print, or four pages of Braille. Where to Store Files in Memory You can create files only in the RAM portion of the Type 'n Speak's memory, which can hold 184 Type 'n Speak pages. When you're through writing in your files and just need them for reference, you can move them into the Flash portion of memory. If you need to edit them again, you'll have to move them back to RAM. How to Name Your Files Filenames on the Type 'n Speak may be up to 20 characters long. However, if you plan to send Type 'n Speak files to a PC, modem, or our portable external disk drive, you must name your files using MS DOS file naming conventions. Furthermore, if the names of the files you plan to transfer from the Type 'n Speak contain space characters, the space characters become underline characters when those files are transferred from the Type 'n Speak. In case you are not familiar with MS DOS file naming conventions, let's briefly describe them. MS DOS filenames can have two parts: a "filename" portion of up to eight characters in length, and an "extension" portion of up to three characters in length. The filename and extension portions are separated by a period. For example, a file can be called "address.txt" or simply "address." But if you plan to transfer a file to a PC, or to our portable disk drive, you shouldn't call it some-thing like "phonebook," because the file's name will become "phonebook" when it's transferred. In other words, its name gets shortened to eight characters. This may lead to confusion when you try to retrieve it from your PC or disk drive later. Also, certain characters are invalid in filenames. For example, never begin a file-name with a period. Other characters to avoid in filenames include: the question mark, asterisk, slash, backslash, comma, colon, and percent sign. Finally, if you name a file with an extension that begins with the letters "br," such as ".brl" or ".brf," the Type 'n Speak automatically turns on Grade 2 Braille translation, assuming that you meant the file to be in Grade 2 Braille. (This can pose a real problem if you try to type in such a file using the Type 'n Speak's standard typing mode. See Typing in Braille Mode, later in this chapter.) Creating a File To create a new file on the Type 'n Speak, bring up the Files menu by pressing F1. The Type 'n Speak says, "Enter file command." Since we want to create a file at this time, type a c. The Type 'n Speak now prompts you for the name of your file with, "Enter file to create." Let's call our file "practice." Type "practice", and press Enter. At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Practice now open." That's it. You're in your first file, a blank Type 'n Speak page, ready to be filled with your personal data. Tips for Writing in a File There are some things to check about your newly created file which will help you keep track of where you are as you write, how much room there is left for you to write, as well as what to do if you can't remember how to execute a command. So, let's briefly discuss these features before you actually start typing text. Throughout this section, we'll use the "practice" file as an example. The Location of the Cursor Since "practice" has no text in it yet, the cursor is at the beginning of the file. To check this, press Shift+F1. The Type 'n Speak says, "File is empty." As you type practice text, press Shift+F1 periodically to hear where the cursor has moved. Room Left in Your File To see how much room there is left for you to type after the last character in the file, press Shift+F2. In the empty "practice" file, for example, the Type 'n Speak says, "Room left is 4,096." This is because you haven't typed anything into the file yet, and the file is one Type 'n Speak page long. As you fill it with text, the room left in the file decreases. But since you can add pages to the file, this won't be a problem. Getting Help The Help file contains a brief list of Type 'n Speak commands. It assumes that you know how to do things with the Type 'n Speak, and only want a quick reminder about how to execute a command. The Help file is accessible from within any other file in the Type 'n Speak. From within any file, press the Help key to jump to the Help file. The Type 'n Speak says, "Help now open." Check through the Help file for what you need - with the Find command, perhaps - and then press Esc. You'll find yourself back in the file where you were working before you pressed the Help key. Go ahead and try jumping into and out of Help from the currently open file, "practice." Writing Text in Your File Well, it's time to write in a file. We'll use the file called "practice" as an example. Type the sentence, "This is a practice file to learn how to write in the Type 'n Speak." Don't worry if you make mistakes. You'll be able to fix them. Notice that the Type 'n Speak is saying every character as you type it. You can choose to have the Type 'n Speak be silent as you type, or only echo words as you complete them. (See "Selecting your Writing Mode" later in this chapter.) Check where your cursor is now with Shift+F1. Assuming that you didn't make any mistakes, the Type 'n Speak should say, "Column 67, cursor at 66." This means that you're at the 67th position on the current line, and 66 characters from the beginning of the file. Don't worry if your numbers differ. Remember, this is only an example. What's important is that the column number is greater than zero. Now, check how much room there is left for you to write, with Shift+F2. The Type 'n Speak should say something like, "Room left is 4,029." You'll have to type quite a bit before you run out of room, because you're using up Type 'n Speak space, not physical space on a piece of paper. One Type 'n Speak page holds 4,096 characters. Controlling where Text Appears on the Page Even before you consider how to center text, how to number pages, and so on, you need to be able to tell the Type 'n Speak when you want to start a new line or a new page, and how many spaces to indent a new paragraph. Lines and Pages First of all, you need to understand the concept of "word wrapping." By default, the Type 'n Speak is set to standard print and Braille line widths and page lengths. This means that it automatically moves your text to the next line and the next page as you type. Of course, you also need to be able to force it to begin text on a new line or new page. When the Type 'n Speak wraps text from line to line and page to page for you, it is doing "soft" returns and "soft" page breaks. When you actually type a command to force a new line or new page, you are doing a "hard" return or a "hard" page break. Let's be clear about what these terms mean: A hard return takes you back to the first physical position on a line - in other words, to the left margin. However, it does not advance you to the next physical line on the page. A line-feed takes you to the next physical line on the page, but does not move to the left margin. So technically, it is the combination of a hard return and line-feed that acts like a "hard return" on a typewriter, moving you to the left margin and next physical line, respectively. Luckily, you don't need to type line-feeds as you write on the Type 'n Speak, because it can add them for you automatically when you transmit your file to a printer, Braille embosser, computer, or over a modem. A hard page break takes you to the first line and first position of the next physical page. It is also called a form-feed. Hard returns, line-feeds, and form-feeds are also called control characters. Control characters are special codes that instruct a printer or Braille embosser about things like when to go to the next physical line on the page, when to go back to the left margin on a line, how many spaces to tab over, when to go to the next physical page, and so on. To force a hard return, press Enter. To force a page break, press Ctrl+l. Tabbing A tab moves the cursor a certain number of spaces to the right on a line; you choose how many spaces. For example, you can tab to indent for a new paragraph. To tab on the Type 'n Speak, press Tab. You hear, "Column." Now type in a number from 1 to 255. This number indicates how many spaces you want the cursor to move. Then press Enter to move the cursor to that position. Practicing Writing Basic Control Characters Now, let's practice writing hard returns, tabs, and page breaks using the "practice" file as an example. If you haven't done so already, type some text. Then force a hard return by pressing Enter. The Type 'n Speak says, "Return." Now check the location of the cursor by pressing Shift+F1. You should hear some-thing like, "Column zero, cursor at 67." This is because the hard return brought your cursor back to the left margin of the line. Now press Tab. The Type 'n Speak says, "Column." Type a 5 to indicate that you want to move the cursor five spaces to the right on this line. Then press Enter to move it there. Check the location of the cursor with Shift+F1. You should hear something like, "Column four, cursor at 72." It says "Column four" because it counts the first space on the line as position zero. So in other words, the Type 'n Speak spaced over to the fifth position from the left margin, and placed the cursor there for you to type something else. You can check this by moving back a character at a time with Shift+Left-arrows until you hear "Return." This is the hard return you typed a moment ago. Now type "Hello." and press Enter to move to another new line. But wait. Don't you have to move the cursor forward, to the end of the file, to continue writing there? No. By default, the Type 'n Speak protects you from over-writing text. No matter where you last read in your file, when you type something, the Type 'n Speak jumps to the end of the file and appends to it. So, the "H" of the word "Hello." you just typed is automatically placed on the fifth position of the line, where you had tabbed. The return you just typed after the word "Hello" is now the last character in the file, and anything further you type will be placed after it. Of course, the Type 'n Speak does allow you to overwrite and insert text. See Chapter 5 for a full discussion of all the ways possible to edit as you type. In the meantime, though, let's make the next words you type go on the next physical page. So type a hard page break by pressing Ctrl+l. The Type 'n Speak just says, "Ctrl+l" when you type it. But any text you type after this Ctrl+l will appear on a new physical page. Type, "This is Page 2." Then type another hard return by pressing Enter. If you were to print or Braille the contents of this file, it would appear on two physical pages even though the file itself is still only one Type 'n Speak page long. And if you check how much room you have left to write on this Type 'n Speak page with Shift+F2, you'll find that you still have a long way to go before you fill it up with text. Writing Repeated Character Strings When you want to create a border or boundary between one block of text and another, for emphasis or clarity, you can place a line of repeated characters between the blocks of text you want to separate. Sighted people use this technique a lot more than blind people, because when you write in Braille, you generally avoid writing extraneous characters. But, even in Braille, a row of dashes is used to indicate a new print page or a blank field to be filled out on a form. To generate a string of repeated characters on the Type 'n Speak, you start with the Tab key. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Column," type the character to be repeated, followed by the number of times you want it repeated. Then you press Enter to make the Type 'n Speak write out the string of characters for you. For example, let's say we want a row of dashes to appear after the line where the title of a chapter appears. Let's use the title of this section as an example. Using the "practice" file as an example, first type a hard return (Enter) to make sure you're on a new line. Then type the title of this section, "Writing Repeated Character Strings", followed by another hard return. Now press Tab. The Type 'n Speak says, "Column." Type a dash, followed by something like 65 (or 30, depending on whether you're writing a file for printing or brailling). The number of repeats is entirely up to you, and depends on the line width you set. Press Enter to make the Type 'n Speak write out the dashes for you. The Type 'n Speak instantly places you on the last of your repeated characters and awaits your next keystroke. You should probably type a hard return right away, because otherwise you may end up accidentally wrapping the row of dashes you just created around to the next line. Technically speaking, you can't have more than 255 repeated characters. But since 255 would generate several lines of repeated characters, you probably wouldn't choose a number that high, anyway. Also, you can't use a numeral as a repeated character because, of course, when you press Tab and type a numeral, the Type 'n Speak assumes it to be the number of spaces you want to tab. Selecting Your Typing Mode By this time, you may be wondering how to change what you hear as you type. There are a few options: the Type 'n Speak can be set to click each key as you press it, to echo back each character as you type it, or to be totally silent as you type. In addition, it can be set to say each word as you complete typing it, to track the cursor where you're reading instead of where you're writing, and finally, to write directly in Grade 2 Braille. Let's check out these features one at a time. Typing Options There are three typing options that determine what you hear as you type. The Speech Parameters menu lets you cycle among them. Bring it up with F7. Then cycle among the three modes with the spacebar. Each time you press the spacebar, the Type 'n Speak says, "Key click on," "Silent keys," or "Key echo." When you hear the mode you want to use, exit the Speech Parameters menu with Esc. Using the "practice" file as an example, try typing something in it. Depending on the typing mode you choose, you'll hear a short click each time you press a key and no characters spoken. Or you'll hear nothing at all as you type. Or you'll hear each character echoed back to you as you type it, which is the default typing mode. Hearing Words Spoken To hear the Type 'n Speak say complete words as you finish typing them, you can use the Interactive mode. This one you can toggle on and off on-the-fly by pressing Alt+g. When you press Alt+g the first time, you hear the Type 'n Speak say, "Interactive on." From now on, the Type 'n Speak echoes back each word to you only after you type a space or punctuation mark. You can instantly turn off Interactive mode by pressing Alt+g again. The Type 'n Speak says, "Interactive off." From that point on, anything you type is spoken a character at a time again. Braille Mode There may be instances when you want to turn the Type 'n Speak into a Braille keyboard - you want to generate a Braille file by forming Braille characters, using the Type 'n Speak keyboard instead of using the regular alphanumeric keys and performing Braille translation later. Here's how it works. Bring up the Options menu with F9. Then type a b. The Type 'n Speak says, "Braille mode on." At this point, the Type 'n Speak's alphanumeric keys no longer work as typing keys. The s, d, and f are now dots 3, 2, and 1, respectively, and the j, k, and l are now dots 4, 5, and 6, respectively. The function keys and arrow keys mostly work, except for the Left-arrow. To exit this mode, press F9 again, followed by a b. The Type 'n Speak says, "Braille mode off," and you're back to your usual alphanumeric keyboard. Cursor Tracking By default, the Type 'n Speak comes with cursor tracking turned on. Cursor tracking means that the reading cursor is at the same place as the writing cursor. What, two cursors? Well, in effect, yes. Normally, the Type 'n Speak keeps track of where you are as you read. But as you write, the Type 'n Speak has to track both what you type and what you read. Isn't it the same? Not necessarily. You might be writing down a memo to yourself but have to go back and read a date to include in that memo, for example. As long as you don't have a silent keyboard for writing, you're okay because the Type 'n Speak is saying each letter or word as you're writing. In other words, it's tracking what it is speaking. But if you're writing with a silent keyboard and want to track where you are reading elsewhere in your file, cursor tracking must be off. To check the status of cursor tracking, bring up the Status menu with F10. Then jump to the setting by writing the letter c. If the setting happens to be off, type a y to turn on cursor tracking. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. For sample purposes, let's use the "practice" file to gauge the effect of cursor tracking while writing with a silent keyboard. First, make your keyboard silent for typing if it isn't already. To do this, bring up the Speech Parameters menu with F7 and press the spacebar until the Type 'n Speak says, "Silent keys." Then exit the Speech Parameters menu with Esc. Now that your keyboard is silent, type something, and then read the current word. You should now hear the last word you wrote. This is normally the way you want the cursor to track. But now suppose you want the cursor to track where you're reading instead of where you're writing? You need to turn cursor tracking off. Bring up the Status menu again with F10 and type a c. Then type an n to turn off cursor tracking. Exit the Status menu with Esc. You should be right back where you left off in your file. Now, move back a few lines, read what you have, then write something. Read where you are. The cursor should indicate where you last read, not where you last wrote. This dual-cursor business is potentially very confusing, so we recommend not using it until you're very comfortable with the reading and writing features of your Type 'n Speak. The choice between having cursor tracking on or off really depends on what you're doing. (There are practical uses for both.) However, we suggest that you typically keep it on, to avoid confusion about what you last wrote. Tracking the End of a Line On a typewriter, a bell warns you when you're approaching the end of a line. Even though you don't have to worry about this on the Type 'n Speak (because it automatically word-wraps for you), there may be times when you do want to know when you're nearing the end of a physical line. Remember that the Type 'n Speak's line is defined as all text between two hard returns. This text may wrap around many physical lines on a print or Braille page. So the line we're referring to here is that physical line, not a Type 'n Speak line. The Type 'n Speak can "ring a bell" (well, not ring, exactly) -- but it can beep. You can set the beep to go off anywhere from the first to the 255th character after the last hard return or hard return/line-feed pair. By default, the end-of-line beep is set to zero so that it doesn't sound at all. But if you do need to hear it, here's how to turn it on. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Jump to the setting for column beep by typing a q. The Type 'n Speak says, "Beep at column, zero." Change the setting to some number between zero and 255 (something like 28 for a physical Braille page). Then press Enter. Exit the Status menu with Esc. As you type from now on, whenever you pass over the point on the line you set to beep - say, 28 - the Type 'n Speak beeps to let you know. When you're ready to turn off the end-of-line warning, reset "beep at column" to zero. Summary This chapter has concentrated on the basic commands you need to know in order to create a file on the Type 'n Speak and write text in it. We pointed out that when you create a file, it is important to consider how you name it, so that its name transfers properly when you transmit the file to a computer or over a modem. And finally, we discussed how you can adjust the Type 'n Speak's typing modes so that you're most comfortable as you write. We suggest that you now take some time to practice writing in files. Don't worry about mistakes for now. You can fix them easily, as you'll find out in the very next chapter. CHAPTER 5: Editing Text Introduction Like any good word processor, the Type 'n Speak lets you revise what you have written. You can overwrite text, insert text between existing blocks of text, even delete unwanted text. As you insert and delete text, the Type 'n Speak automatically moves existing material aside so you can insert new text, or squeezes text together after you delete what you no longer need. What's nicest is that it reformats your pages automatically. This way, your documents still print or Braille properly. In this chapter, we first discuss the difference between Append mode and PC Edit mode. We'll focus on how to work when you're in Append mode, and how to work when you're in PC Edit mode. In both modes, this includes overwriting, inserting, deleting, copying, and moving text. And finally, we talk about how you can search for and replace text to make editing easier and more efficient. Throughout this chapter, we'll use a practice file as an example. See "How to Create a File" in Chapter 4 if you don't already have a practice file in your Type 'n Speak. The Two Editing Modes: Append and PC Edit By default, the Type 'n Speak is set to Append mode. This means that any text you write is automatically appended to the end of your file unless you specifically invoke Insert or Overwrite mode. However, you may prefer to use PC Edit mode. This means that you can write anywhere within your file, and whether you're overwriting, inserting, or appending depends on how you have the unit set at any point in time. This is how a PC editor generally works. Let's take an example for clarity. With PC Edit turned off, which is the default, suppose your file contains the text, "This is a practice file to learn how to edit." You even have a hard return at the end of the sentence. Now you want to add, "I am now learning how to insert text." By default (being in Append mode), when you write this sentence, it appears directly after the sentence, "This is a practice file." Even if you place your cursor at the top of the file, any new sentence you write is automatically appended to the end of your file. On the other hand, when PC Edit mode is active, you have three choices for where the text you write should appear: Append, Overwrite, and Insert. If you're in Append mode, your Type 'n Speak behaves as it does when PC Edit mode is turned off - that is, any text you write is automatically appended to the end of your file. But if you're either in Overwrite or Insert mode, any text you write appears where your cursor is located. So, in our example, if PC Edit mode is active and your cursor is at the top of the file, the sentence, "I am now learning how to insert text." may appear at the end of your file if you're in Append mode. But if you're in Overwrite mode, it replaces part or all of your previous sentence. And if you're in Insert mode, it is inserted before the sentence that's already in your file. Activating PC Edit Mode It's easy to activate PC Edit mode. Bring up the Status menu with F10. Then type a dollar-sign (Shift+4). By default, the Type 'n Speak says, "PC editing, off." To turn it on, type a y. Then exit the Status menu with Esc. From this point on, you'll need to be more aware than before where your cursor is, and which mode you've set. The first time you bring up PC Edit mode, the Type 'n Speak assumes you want to be in Append mode. In fact, it remembers that you have PC Edit mode turned on the next time you power up your unit. In addition, the Type 'n Speak lets you know which mode is active as you type, through the pitch of its voice. When you're in Overwrite mode, the Type 'n Speak's voice is lower pitched than normal. When you're in Insert mode, it's higher pitched than normal. Only in Append mode does the Type 'n Speak talk at its normal pitch, however you have that set. Changing the Typing Voices of PC Edit Mode You can choose how much contrast you want to hear in the Type 'n Speak's voice as you type while you're in PC Edit mode. In fact, you can elect not to have the voice change pitch at all. Here's how it works. To shift the Type 'n Speak's voice for Overwrite and Insert modes while PC Edit mode is active, first bring up the Speech Parameters menu with F7. When the Type 'n Speak says, "Set speech parameters," press a percent sign (Shift+5). At this point, the Type 'n Speak says, "Voice shift" and waits for you to enter a number. The higher the numbers you enter, the greater the contrast between the voice for Overwrite and Insert modes. If you type a 0, the Type 'n Speak's voice sounds the same, regardless of what typing mode you're activating. Once you type a number, press enter, then Esc to exit the Speech Parameters menu. Unless you choose to have no voice shift, from now on, in Overwrite mode, the Type 'n Speak's voice sounds lower than normal as you type. Whenever you shift into Insert mode, it sounds higher than normal as you type. When you shift back to Append mode, it sounds the same whether you're typing or reading. Switching Typing Modes with PC Edit Mode Active When PC Edit mode is active, overwriting, inserting, and appending text is quite easy. The key is to be very clear about where your cursor is located before you type. Otherwise, you may be unpleasantly surprised at where the text you type actually appears in your file. To switch to Overwrite or Insert mode while PC Edit mode is active, first move your cursor to where you want to begin typing. Then use the Insert key to shift into Overwrite or Insert mode. When you first activate PC Edit mode, you're automatically in Append mode, just as you are when PC Edit mode is off. The Insert key is a toggle. So pressing it once kicks the Type 'n Speak into Overwrite mode. Pressing it again brings up Insert mode. And pressing it a third time returns you to Append. You'll know which mode is active because the Type 'n Speak says, "Overwrite," "Insert," or "Append" in different pitches - lower for Overwrite, higher for Insert, and normal for Append. If you just want to overwrite a single character and you're in Insert mode, you can move your cursor to the