Icon and Braille Plus User's Guide
Larry Skutchan


Icon and Braille Plus User Guide

Icon Braille+

Copyright 2006-2008

American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.

LevelStar, LLC.


2008/5/22

Introduction

Congratulations. You now possess the most flexible, accessible, and easy-to-use mobile manager available today. It coordinates multimedia collections, reads and edits email and documents, plays and records voice and music, browses the web, reads Digital Talking Books, tracks headlines and podcasts, manages contacts and calendar, takes notes, calculates, times events, and much more, all with a device small enough to fit into a purse or pocket. It offers an excellent non-visual way to communicate, inform, entertain, and manage life. The ergonomic tactile groupings of keys and stereo speakers maximize ease of use, and the multiple ways to type ensure your new mobile manager is ready for nearly any task.

In the Box

Your investment comes with all you need to get started quickly. Please ensure all the following are included in the box:

If any of these items is missing, please contact the manufacturer promptly.

Orientation

Remove your new device and its battery from the box, and place them on a flat surface in front of you.

There are several rubberized keys on the face. They are grouped and shaped to make finding the key you need simple.

Telephone keypad

Telephone Keypad

The bottom portion of the face features a telephone dialing keypad with a nib on the 5 key to help with orientation. Think of the unit as a largish phone with some extra keys. You use those phone keys to type numbers or to type text as you would on a cell phone. (Use * to backspace.)

Ear Piece and Speakers

As with any phone, there is an earpiece at the top in the middle of the case. There are also small round stereo speakers at the top on the left and right sides of the case from which emanate speech and audio.

Ear Piece and Speakers

Insert Battery

Place the unit face down and locate the battery door at the bottom. Orient it so the door is on the edge closest to you, then grasp the edges of the case and use the ribs on the sides of the battery door to gently pull toward you.

Insert the battery by sliding in the left side first, then push down on the right side. The left side of the battery is indented. The battery fits tightly to prevent accidental loss of the battery in a fall.

The unit vibrates as soon as you insert the battery. That vibration is its way of informing you that the system is starting. It may take several seconds. Thankfully, once booted, turning on and off the unit takes only a second or two.

Being careful to align it, Take a few seconds while booting to replace the battery compartment door, then flip the unit over so the keys face up and the telephone keys are closest to you. This is its normal operating position. You often use it like this with one hand while using the other on the telephone or computer keyboard. Or, you might hold it in one hand and use the other to operate the buttons. You may hold it up to your ear in one hand and control it with the same hand's thumb, keeping the other hand free.

When its time to write notes, email, or documents, place it on a desk in front of you and use both hands in any of these ways:

Supply AC Power

Interface Cable

Locate and remove the interface cable from the box. It is the short cable with a flat connector on one end and a block on the other. The connector features an embossed image that helps orient you to the side that goes up. Locate the connection slot in the middle of the edge of the case closest to you, and gently slide the interface cable connector into this slot until it clicks into place. Do not force the connection, it should easily slide into place. When you are ready to disconnect the cable, press the small tabs on the left and right edges of the connector, then pull toward you.

Remove the AC Adapter from its box and plug it into a wall socket. Plug the other end of the adapter, the small round end, into the round receptacle on the top side of the plastic block at the other end of the interface cable. Notice the USB connections on the opposite side of the plastic block from the AC adapter. One is a host connection into which you may plug keyboards, thumb drives, and other mass storage devices, and the other is a small client connection into which you plug the USB cable to your PC.

As soon as the software that speaks is ready, your new mobile manager says "Welcome" followed by its name and the version. Then, it announces, "Applications Menu" and waits for you to tell it what to do. You instruct it by pressing keys on the telephone keypad, arrows, and other keys. It reports back to you by speaking, vibrating, or playing audio.

The Rest of the Controls

In addition to the telephone keypad, your mobile manager contains other keys on its face and on the left edge, and it has other connectors at the top and bottom.

Mid Region

Mid Region

Above the dialing keys is a group of three keys. The left and right keys in this group look like corners that bound the diamond shaped key above them. They are OK (on the left) and Cancel (on the right.)

Labeled with a red X, the Cancel key stops an action or lets you back out of an activity. It also turns the device on and off.

To turn off your new mobile manager, press and hold Cancel. The unit responds with a double vibration and a brief sound. Then, it goes to sleep. This sleep state conserves battery life yet leaves your work undisturbed. You may leave the device in a sleep state for weeks at a time on a full charge.

To turn on the device, press Cancel. It responds with a short vibration and a sound, then it announces the status of the current application. In many cases, this is, "Applications Menu."

The OK button, identified with a green check mark, confirms actions and serves as the Enter key in the Word Processor. Use it, for example, to confirm time and date settings.

The Menu key is between OK and Cancel. It offers options dependent on what you're doing at a particular time. If, for example, you were listening to music, the menu key might offer activities related to music like turning on the shuffle feature or announcing the current song's title, artist, and more. Use this key often to discover an application's capabilities.

Arrows and Select

Arrows and Select

Besides the telephone dialing keys, one of the most prominent features on the face is the large arrow diamond shaped key with a raised dot in the middle. This key is above the OK, Program Menu, and Cancel buttons. Each of the points of the diamond acts as an arrow key that moves in that direction. These arrows move through menu choices or lines of text, depending on what you're doing. The dot in the middle is the Select key, and it activates an item to which you moved with the arrows.

The Top Five Keys

Top Five Keys

The five keys above the diamond are grouped and shaped for quick and easy identification.

Program 1 and Program 2

The small round keys at the top left and right are Program 1 and Program 2. Think of them as Dial and End on a phone. Their functionality is reserved for future expansion of the unit.

To turn on and off the wireless radio, hold Program 2. The unit responds, "Wireless On," and scans for networks in range. See the Network Manager section of this user's guide for details.

To open or close the network manager, press Program 2.

Applications

The long horizontal bar between Program 1 and Program 2 is the Applications key. Labeled Apps, this key is prominent because you use it often. No matter what you're doing, you may press this key to get a menu of all the available applications..

Help

The small rectangular key below the Apps key on the right side is Help. Marked with a question mark, the Help key provides definitive documentation about the task at hand. Press it to open the manual, or to learn the name of each key, hold Help.

Status

Located below the Applications key to the left is the small rectangular key called Status. Labeled with "S," the Status key announces progress, summaries, and repeats the last phrase spoken.

Repeat Phrase: Status

To repeat a phrase, press Status once.

Progress: Status Twice

To get progress reports about an activity, press Status twice quickly.

Open Status Menu: Hold Status

To open the Status Menu, hold Status.

Spell Last Phrase: Status, Help

To spell the last phrase spoken, press Status, then press Help.

Quick Controls

Quick Controls

Along the left edge of the case, there are three keys, a long rectangular one, and two small round ones. These keys control volume, speakers, and let you make a quick recording.

Volume

The long rectangular key on the left edge controls the volume. Press the top portion to increase volume, and press the bottom part of the key to reduce volume. You may also hold down the appropriate part of the volume key to quickly adjust volume. Release the key when the desired volume is reached.

You may also combine the three keys at the bottom of the telephone keypad, Star, 0, and Pound, to modify the volume key. Hold one of these keys down as if it were a shift key while pressing the volume control.

To adjust the audio volume without effecting the speech volume, press 0+Volume. The audio player responds by scaling the audio volume either up or down and playing a tone at the new volume level. When the relative audio volume reaches its normal position, the unit vibrates once to inform you that no scaling is applied. Use this vibration as the indicator of optimal volume settings.

To adjust speech volume without effecting audio, press Star+Volume. The unit responds by changing the speech volume and announcing the new volume level.

To adjust the speed of the speech, press Pound+Volume. The unit responds by changing the speed of the speech and announcing the new speed level.

Note that you also have independent control of the volume when listening through earphones. Adjusting the volume while earphones are inserted into the earphone jack will not effect the volume previously set when the earphones are removed. Also, next time you use earphones, the device remembers the volume you had previously set the last time you adjusted it while earphones were in use.

Speaker Toggle

The first small round key on the side of the case below the volume control is the speaker toggle key. It switches the audio output between the earpiece and the stereo speakers. Normally, you use the speakers, but if you prefer, you may press the speaker toggle button and use the telephone earpiece when it is more convenient to get your information privately.

Voice Record

The second small round button on the left side of the case makes audio recordings. Hold it down for about a second to start recording. Press cancel to stop recording. To listen to the recordings, use the Voice Recorder tool in the Tools menu.

Braille Keys on Braille+

Braille Keys on Braille+

The Braille+ contains 9 additional plastic keys that flank the rubberized section on the face. The six traditional braille keys are on the left side, and there are three keys on the right: shift, space, and control. These keys are not rubberized, and they are oriented 90 degrees from the normal operating position. To orient Braille+ for braille input, turn the unit 90 degrees clockwise. In the braille operating position, the unit is wider than tall, and the braille keys are farthest from you. The Shift, Space, and Control are along the edge closest to you.

Top Edge

Top Edge

The top edge of the unit contains three audio jacks and a mini-SD slot.

Microphone and Line-in Jack

The left-most jack an the top edge accepts both stereo microphones and a line-in patch cable.

Mini Secure Digital Flash Card Slot

The mini-SD slot is located at the center of the top edge just right of the microphone jack. The mini-SD card is a quick and effective means of transferring material between your device and PC or from device to device.

Earphone Jack

The earphone jack is located just to the right of the SD slot on the top edge.

Headset Jack

The rightmost jack on the top edge is a sub-mini headset jack which accepts combination microphone/headphone headsets as used on cell phones.

Bottom Edge

Bottom Edge

The bottom edge contains a slide switch toward the left side and a connector in the middle into which you plug the interface cable.

Lock Keys Slide

The Lock Keys slide switch is located on the left side of the bottom edge. It locks the keyboard so you cannot accidentally press keys while carrying the unit. Sliding this switch to the right locks all keys and announces, "Keypad Locked." Use this lock feature to prevent accidental key presses even when the machine is in use. Slide the switch toward the left to unlock the keys. It says , "Keypad Unlocked," and returns to normal use. Check this slide if it seems like the keys do nothing when you press them.

Connector Slot

The center portion of the bottom edge contains the connector into which you plug the interface cable.

Reset

Reset

In the rare instance that your unit locks up or begins acting erratically, you may need to reset. If it is possible, turn off the unit before resetting.

The Reset button is located left of the battery behind the battery compartment door. To access it, remove the battery compartment door and press and hold the reset button for five seconds with a small object such as a stylus or the jack end of ear buds. The button is recessed in a hole that is located at the top left side of the battery compartment on the wall between the battery and the left side of the case. There is a slight but pronounced click sound from the small button and movement upon successful depression. The unit responds with the single vibration to let you know it is restarting.

Set Time and Date

To set the time and date,

  1. Hold Status. The Status menu appears and announces its first item, the current time and date. The date spoken is certainly incorrect on the first start up, because there has been no power until now.
  2. If the Status menu announces one of its other status items, press up or down arrow until you hear the time and date.
  3. Press Select. The device shows the Time and Date Settings Form.

To change any of the settings, use up and down arrow to find the setting. The Time and Date form moves either up or down to the next setting, then announces the setting's name, current setting, and some brief instructions on changing the setting.

One of the most important settings is Time Zone. When you arrow to that item, the unit might say, "Time Zone: UTC , Press Select to change." This means that the current setting is Time Zone, and it is currently set to UTC, and that you may press Select to change it. (UTC is a bad acronym for Universal Coordinated Time.) Pressing Select presents the Time Zone list. Use up and down arrow to find the time zone you want. There are many ways to set the zone, and if you are a time enthusiast, this is the place for you. For the rest of us in the United States and Canada, arrow down to America, then press Select to show a list of cities. Whenever you get a large list like this, use the telephone keypad to tap out the first letter to move directly to the first item in the list that starts with that letter. In the case of Louisville, press 5 three times quickly, once for J, once for K, and once for L. When you find your city, press Select. It sets the time zone and returns to the Time and Date Settings, then announces the Time Zone again, this time with your new selection.

Continue filling out the clock format, time, and date with up and down arrow.

To save the clock settings, Press OK. The Status menu returns, and this time, it announces the correct time and date as you just set.

One of the options in the Time and Date Settings is Retrieve Time from the Internet. Once you set the time zone, you may find this the most convenient way to set the clock. To use it, you need an internet connection.

Going Wireless

To start using the internet with the wireless capabilities,

  1. Turn on wireless by holding Program 2. The unit turns on the wireless radio and scans for wireless networks. It then presents a list of the networks it finds.
  2. Press up or down arrow to find the connection of interest. The unit responds by moving to the next item in the list and says the name, security, and signal strength.
  3. To connect to the indicated network, press Select. The unit responds, "Connecting" as it attempts the connection. If the network is secure, the network manager prompts you for the key. Type the key and press OK. If the attempt succeeds, it announces, "Connected to Network" and remembers the connection details. The next time you turn on wireless or turn on the unit with wireless on, it automatically connects, so you won't have to pick the network from a list again.

To turn off wireless, hold Program 2 again. It shuts off the wireless radio and says, "Wireless Off." You may elect to turn off wireless when not in use or out of range of any networks. The wireless radio uses about twice the battery power as normal, so turn it off to prolong battery life.

Once you establish a wireless or USB internet connection, you will almost certainly wish to connect to other shared resources on the network and share resources on your device. See Network Settings for information on preparing your device to share files and Share this Folder and Manage Network Folders for more information on these topics.

Program CD

The program CD contains network drivers for the USB connection, the Sync program, and documentation. The Sync program is used to copy contacts and appointments from Outlook. You may also specify folders from which the program should copy music to your device. To install it, insert the program CD and follow the instructions.

Documentation

In addition to the documentation provided on the unit itself, there are versions of the manual on the CD in both html and Microsoft Word from which you may wish to print, and there is a quick start audio guide. The CD also contains the files from which you may print or emboss additional copies of the Quick Start in print or Braille.

Key Conventions

This manual uses the plus sign (+) to indicate that two or more keys should be pressed together. If, for example, it states that the command to move to the next word is to hold down control while pressing Right Arrow, it uses Ctrl+Right Arrow to indicate the key sequence. This means that you should press and hold Control. Then, while Control is still depressed, press then release Right Arrow. After that, you may release the Control key.

Commas (,) are used to indicate a series of keystrokes that follow one another. You may get instructions to access the Bookshelf program by pressing 3,1. This means press, then release 3, then press and release 1.

The dash (-) is used to separate a series of dots in a braille cell. The manual may instruct you to press dots 1, 2, and 3 at the same time by the phrase Dots 1-2-3.

Ways to Activate Keys

Sometimes, you control the device by using the keys differently. You may press a key once, twice quickly, or hold it down for a second. To convey those different types of key presses, this documentation calls them press, press twice, and hold respectively.

Command Conventions

One of the things that makes a device like this so flexible is the number of ways to accomplish a particular task. The preferences you have about how you type and listen are numerous. Unfortunately, the technique you use to give a command depends on which kind of input you are using. Take the Backspace key for example. When using ABC mode on the telephone keypad, Star acts to backspace. In Braille mode, Backspace is Star+3. On the Braille keyboard of the docking station and Braille+, Backspace by holding down Space while typing the letter B. When using a USB, Bluetooth, or the docking station QWERTY keyboard, Backspace is the Backspace key. To reduce redundancy, this documentation uses the QWERTY version of the key. Similarly, when a command includes a modifier key, like Control, the documentation uses the QWERTY version of the command even though there are other ways to perform that task. Ctrl+Right Arrow, for example, moves to the next word in a document. When you know that ABC and Braille use 0 on the telephone keypad as Control, you know that you may hold down 0 while pressing Right Arrow to move. Similarly, the braille keyboard on the docking station and the Braille+ use Dot 5 Chord to produce Ctrl+Right Arrow. Consult the Type Text section of the user's guide for the complete details about how each input technique works.

What is Not in the Manual

While this documentation covers the applications supplied on the mobile manager, it cannot document every aspect of it. For more information about topics like Linux or Python, see www.linux.org or www.python.org.

This manual does not teach the use of braille. While a knowledge of braille makes using the mobile manager much more efficient, the manual assumes a rudementary knowledge of the subject. There are many excellent sources of braille instruction, and you may wish to perform an internet search for current sources and information.

General Principles

There are some general rules that help make your use of the device more efficient.

Menus and Lists

Much of your interaction with the various programs occurs through menus, lists, and forms. Fortunately, all these controls work in similar ways.

Whenever the unit presents a menu of choices from which you select an option, you may move from option to option on the menu by pressing up or down arrow.

To select an option to which you just moved, press Select or Right Arrow. To back out of a menu and return to its parent menu, press Left Arrow.

To move directly to the top or bottom of a menu, hold up or down arrow.

To move directly to a menu item or an item in a list, type the first letter or two of that item's name.

Menu items are numbered. Anytime a menu is associated with a number, you may directly select that menu option by pressing the number of that item using the telephone dial pad.

In addition to menus, the unit often presents lists of choices. There are two kinds of lists, single selection and multiple selection. To select an item in a single selection list, use the arrows to move to the desired item, and press Select or OK. To pick options from a multiple selection list, use 0+Select. When you mark an item in a list with the 0+Select, the program makes a sound to let you know the item is marked. You may unmark an item by pressing 0+Select while pointing to an item that is already marked. Once you finish marking multiple items in a list, press OK to confirm.

OK vs Select

Sometimes, it may be difficult to tell when it is appropriate to use Select or when OK is the key to use. Remember that Select is used to bring up more choices. OK is used to confirm your choices.

File Explorer Control

There are many places where the system lets you browse for files on the hard drive or other media such as the SD card or external flash drives connected to the USB port. You see this control while using the web browser or word processor to save a file. The control used to display and manage files is the file explorer control. It is used in the File Explorer program (in the Utilities menu,) in the word processor Save File Form, and other places throughout the suite of applications.

To move from file to file with the file explorer control, use up and down arrow.

To mark a file, press 0+Select.

To delete a file, press Star.

The Applications menu is the center of control. Pressing the long horizontal bar on the top of the keypad activates the Applications menu no matter what else you're doing. The unit responds by saying "Applications Menu" and presents a list of activities.

Use any of the methods previously described to move to and select one of the menu options.

Show Active Tasks: Hold Applications

Many times, you leave an activity working while you do something else. It is not uncommon to leave three or more tasks working concurrently. The Task Manager lists these and lets you activate or stop any of them.

In addition to using Task Manager to quickly get back to an application, you may select it from the Applications menu again or dial its menu numbers.

Status Menu

The Status menu informs you about the operation of your device, the date and time, and any upcoming appointments. It also adjusts and controls various aspects of your device, lets you set appointments, and sets the time and date.

Activate the Status Menu: Hold Status

To activate the Status menu, hold the Status key. It is the small rectangular key on the top left below the Program 1 key. When you request status information, the device responds by announcing one of the status messages. Use Up Arrow and Down Arrow to move through the menu of status messages.

Time and Date

The first item in the Status menu is the date and time. When you hold the Status key at 4:30 on April 1, 2007, the unit announces 4:30 PM Sunday, April 1, 2007. If the date is incorrect, use the Status menu to set the time and date.

Set Time and Date: Select

To set the clock, press Select at the Time and Date item in the Status menu. It responds with a menu of options related to the time and date. You provide the information, then press OK to set the items as you request.

Battery Status

The Battery item in the Status menu shows the percent of remaining useful battery life. If the unit is plugged into either a PC's USB port or to the included wall AC adapter, this menu item also announces, "charging."

See the Battery Care and Use section of the user's guide for more details about the battery.

Appointments

The appointment status option shows the next appointment in your planner. If you have no appointments, the menu item may say, "No more appointments for the rest of the day." If, on the other hand, you have an upcoming appointment for the day, this menu option contains the name of the appointment, its time, and how long the appointment lasts.

Appointment Information

To open the Planner and get details about the appointment or check other appointments for the day, press the Select key. The unit responds by presenting a calendar into which you may add appointments. (Press the menu key and select Add New Appointment from the menu.)

Wireless Status

The wireless status option in the Status menu shows the state of your wireless connection, the name of the connection, and its signal strength.

Connect Wirelessly

Press Select to open the Network Manager where you control network connections.

Wireless Details

To read details about the wireless connection, open the Status menu, move to the Wireless Connection option, then select Wireless Details from the menu. The status menu responds by showing a form with the details about the current connection. Use up and down arrow to move from item to item in the form. Use left and right arrow to review each item's information character by character. The details include the connection's Access Point, Mac Address, IP Address,Broadcast Address, Netmask, Bytes Received, and Bytes Sent.

Bluetooth

The Bluetooth item in the Status menu shows the status of your Bluetooth connection and lets you turn on and off the Bluetooth radio.

Software Version

The Software Version information in the Status menu shows you the version of software you are currently running. Customer Service or Technical Support personnel may ask for this information while troubleshooting any problem you may have.

Serial Number

The Serial Number item in the Status menu displays the unit's serial number. Each unit possesses its own serial number, and technical support personnel may ask for this number.

Rearrange Status Options

To change the order of any of the status options in the menu, point to the item to move, then Press the Menu key. Select Move Up or Move Down from the program menu to move that item up or down in the list.

Insert Mini SD Card Actions

Secure Digital cards provide storage for content you may wish to move from device to device. When you insert an SD card into the slot at the top of the mobile manager or insert a USB device with storage, the device scans the contents of the card and presents a menu that depends on what kind of files are on the card.

If there are any files at all on the SD card or USB drive, the software offers a menu option that opens the file explorer for that device.

If there is music on the card or USB drive, some of the menu options include Move Music and Copy Music. These options place files into the music folder.

If there are other kinds of files, like Digital Talking Books, the menu offers to either open the book or put it into the library.

To cancel the options, press Cancel.

To disable the feature that scans your device for content, set Search Removable Media for Content off in the General Settings of the Settings menu.

Notes About Turn Off

Before turning the unit off, it is important to remove any USB mass storage devices from the USB port. Such devices might include thumb drives or an external USB hard drive. The device will not turn itself off while such a device is connected.

Instructions: Help

The Help system makes looking up what you need to know a breeze. When you need help, press the Help key. The unit opens the manual to the section relevant to the application in use and starts reading the instructions. Use this key often to learn how to use each application.

While reading the documentation, you may control how and what you read.

Document Navigation

Each time you read a document, you may navigate with the arrows, start and stop reading, and, where supported, go to the table of contents of the book.

Start Reading: Select

To begin reading, press Select. The document reader responds by reading and continues to read until you stop.

Quick Previous and Next Paragraph

While using the continuous reading mode, you may use Left Arrow and Right Arrow as a shortcut means of moving quickly to the previous or next paragraph.

Stop Reading: Select

To stop reading, press Select. The document reader stops immediately and leaves your cursor on the last word you heard.

Move Line by Line: Up and Down Arrow

To move from line to line in a document, use the up and down arrows. Each time you press one of these keys, the document reader responds by moving to the line in that direction, then reading that line. If you're already at the beginning or end of the document, it beeps to let you know there is no where else to go in that direction.

Letter by Letter: Left and Right Arrow

To move letter by letter, press left or right arrow. With each key press, The document reader responds by moving to the letter in the indicated direction and announcing that letter. If the letter is capitalized, the document reader indicates the case of the letter by raising the pitch of its pronunciation.

Word by Word: Ctrl+Left and Right Arrow

To move word by word through a document, press Ctrl+left or right arrow. The document reader moves to the next word in the indicated direction and says the word. Remember that you may use the telephone dial pad 0 as the control key to hold in conjunction with one of the arrow buttons.

Move by Paragraphs: Ctrl+Up and Down Arrow

To move from paragraph to paragraph, press Ctrl+up or down arrow. The document reader moves to the new paragraph and reads it.

Next and Previous Page: Page Down and Page Up

To move to the next or previous page, press Page Down or Page Up. The document reader moves to the next page where known or estimated when there is no page information, then reads the new page. To press a Page Up or Page Down on the telephone keypad, hold Pound while pressing up or down arrow.

Go to the Beginning or End: Ctrl+Home and End

To move directly to the beginning or end of a document, press Ctrl+Home or Ctrl+End. Hold Up Arrow or Down Arrow on the keypad. In Braille, use 1-2-3 Chord and 4-5-6 Chord. The document reader moves in the indicated direction then reads the line at the new cursor location.

Start and End of Line: Home and End

To move the cursor to the beginning or end of the line, press Home or End. On the keypad, hold Left Arrow or Right arrow. In Braille, use P Chord and TH Chord. The document reader moves to the indicated location and says the word at the beginning or end of the line. If using this command in a single word prompt or when the cursor is already inside the word, it announces the letter instead of the entire word.

Go to Contents: Hold Menu

Many documents, especially Daisy books, contain a table of contents.

To move to the table of contents for a document, hold the program menu key or pick Document Navigation from the Edit menu. The document reader responds by opening a menu and announcing the name of the section in which you are currently positioned.

Explore Contents: Up and Down Arrow

To move from item to item in the table of contents, press up and down arrow. The menu responds by moving to the previous or next section then announces the name of the section and, if there are any, the number of sub-sections in that section.

Open and Close Section: Right and Left Arrow

To open a section, press Right Arrow. To close a section in the contents, press Left Arrow.

Read Section: Select

To read the section to which you point, press Select. The document reader moves to that section and starts reading.

Cancel Contents

To return to the place in the document where you were when you opened the table of contents, press Cancel. The document reader responds, "Navigation Canceled," and leaves you ready to continue reading at your current position.

Links are words or phrases in the document that may lead you to further information about the word or phrase. This documentation, for example, contains links that point to this section of the manual in places where it explains how to read and navigate through documents.

The document reader indicates the presence of a link by making a sound or changing the voice as it reads the text of the link. To go to the target of the link, hold OK.

When you hold OK while pointing to a link, the document reader tries to move to the target of that link. If the target resides in the same document, the document reader moves the cursor to that section of the current document. If the target of the link refers to another document, however, the document reader enlists the aid of the web browser to activate the link. If the web browser is not already open, the program makes its normal startup sound as the web browser loads.

If you follow several external links, you may reduce the startup time by leaving the web browser open and returning to the original document via the task manager or direct dialing.

Reading Keypad

The numeric keys on the telephone keypad are sometimes used for typing text. There are, however, several kinds of documents where typing text is not an option. Think, for instance, of an email message. You cannot type text into the original message until you reply to it.

When a document cannot be modified, such as when reading an email, a book in the bookshelf, or a story in the RSS reader, you may use the telephone keypad for other things such as navigation to different parts of the document. You may also use the Reading Keypad while in continuous reading mode weather or not the document is read only.

When the Reading Keypad is enabled, you may use keys on the telephone style buttons to navigate and obtain information about the current document.

Back and Next Word: 1 and 3

When the continuous reading mode is not in use, you may use 1 and 3 to quickly move from word to word in a document. If the current document contains audio material, these keys move by 10 second segments.

Current Word: 2

In addition to 1 and 3 to move by words, you may use 2 to repeat the current word. Press 2 twice quickly to spell the current word.

Back and Next Paragraph: 1 and 3 While Reading

To move to the previous or next paragraph while reading, use 1 and 3.

Back and Next Page: 4 and 6

To move to the previous or next page of a document, press 4 or 6. The document reader responds by moving to the new position in the document. If you had been reading when you pressed the command key, reading resumes at the new location.

Navigate Heading Levels

Many documents, especially well constructed Digital Talking Books, contain several levels of content.

To see a list of the kinds of navigation possibilities a document offers, press 8 repeatedly. Bookshelf responds by moving to the next navigation type among all the possibilities then it announces the new level. Levels might include Level 1, Level 2, Paragraph, and Bookmark. When you reach the end of the list, pressing 8 again moves back to the top of the navigation type list, so if the first level were called Level 1, and the last were Bookmarks, pressing 8 while on Bookmarks moves back to the item called Level 1

Back and Next Heading: 7 and 9

To move to the previous or next heading, press 9 or 7. Bookshelf responds by moving to the new place in the book and resumes playback there

Set Bookmark: Hold 8

To set a bookmark at the current position, hold 8. Bookshelf responds, "Bookmark Set" and places a marker in the text that is easy to return to.

Back and Next Bookmark

To move from mark to mark, select Bookmark as the navigation type by pressing 8 until Bookshelf responds, "Bookmark," then use 7 and 9 to navigate back and forward through all the marks in that document. Bookshelf responds by moving to the mark and announcing either the time, percentage, or a line of text from a text-based document.

Clear Bookmark

To clear a bookmark, pause the player, move to the bookmark, then hold 8. Bookshelf responds, "Bookmark Cleared," and removes the bookmark.

Binary Movement: Hold 1 and 3

The binary navigation system lets you quickly find a particular portion of a document, no matter how large that document. Here is how it works:

When you hold 3, the document reader moves your reading position to a place half way between where you are and the right-hand boundary of the document. The document reader then announces the new percentage value of where you are in the document. The first time you use the command, the right boundary is the end of the book, so holding 3 moves you to a place half way between where you are and the end of the book. Now, the left boundary is the original position, and the right boundary is the end of the book. You may narrow in on a position by moving either back or forward to a new half way position each time you use one of the commands.

An example helps illustrate how the command works. If you start this sequence of moves while at the beginning of the book, holding 3 the first time moves between the beginning and the end of the book, so you move to the middle, and document reader announces, "50%." Now, you could either move to 25% of the document by holding 1, or you could move to 75% by holding 3. If you had moved to 25%, you could then either move to 12% by holding 1 or to 37% by holding 3. Each time you move, the new position is a new boundary, and you keep narrowing in on the place you desire.

Pressing a key other than one of the binary move commands resets the boundaries.

Back and Next Link: Star and Pound

When a document contains links, you may move from link to link by pressing the Star or Pound key.

Find Text: Ctrl+F

To find text, press Ctrl+F or select Find from the Edit menu. The unit responds with the Find Form where you decide how the find command should work. This form asks for the text to find, whether or not it should start from the beginning of the document, and whether or not the search should be case sensitive.

Search String

Type the text to find.

From Cursor

The From Cursor question in the Find Form lets you decide if the search should start from the beginning of the document or from the cursor position. Press Select to toggle between Yes and No. Select Yes to continue searches. Select No to start the search from the beginning of the document.

Match Case

Sometimes, you may wish to make your searches more restrictive by requiring the case of the letters in the text to match the case of the letters in your search term. Press Select to toggle between Yes and No to answer this question.

Start Search: OK

To start the search, press OK. It responds with either Text Found, in which case, it moves your cursor to that text, or "Not Found," in which case, it does not change your position in the document.

Find Next: Shift+Ctrl+F

To find the second and subsequent occurrences of some text for which you searched, use the Find Next command or pick Find Next from the Edit menu. The unit responds by immediately repeating the search. If the word processor finds the text, it responds, "Found" and moves the cursor to that occurrence of the desired text. If it does not find any further occurrences, it says, "Not Found" and leaves the cursor at its original position.

Select Text

When reading or writing a document, you may mark sections of that text. Once marked, a selection of text may be copied, moved, or deleted. When copying text, the editor uses a clipboard, so you may copy and paste text from one application to another, or you may copy some text and paste it into a search string.

The document reader considers a section of text as selected when you place a selection mark in the text and move the cursor. The text between that selection mark and the cursor is the selected text.

Set Selection Mark: Alt+M

To start a selection, move to the place in the document of interest, then pick Set Selection Mark from the Edit menu or press Alt+M. The document reader marks the spot and responds, "Mark Set."

Copy Selected Text

To put a copy of the selected text onto the clipboard, pick Copy Selection from the Edit menu.

Clear Selection

To clear a mark you previously set, pick Clear Selection from the Edit menu.

Select All

To select all the text in a document, pick Select All from the Edit menu. This may be a convenient way to copy an entire document to an email or to another document.

Close: Cancel

To close the document, press Cancel.

Key Equivalents

This brief chart shows the keys for various input types of the most common navigation commands. Consult the Type Text section of the user's guide for the complete key codes.

Function Qwerty Phone Phone Braille Braille
Move to previous or next letter Left and Right Arrow Left and Right Left and Right Dot 3 Chord and Dot 6 Chord
Move to previous or next line Up and Down Arrow Up and Down Up and Down Dot 1 Chord and Dot 4 Chord
Move to previous and next word Ctrl+Left and Right Arrow 0+Left and Right 0+Left and Right Dot 2 Chord and Dot 5 Chord
Move to start or end of line Home and End Hold Left and Right Hold Left and Right P Chord and Dots 1-4-5-6 Chord
Move to previous or next paragraph Ctrl+Up and Down Arrow 0+Up and Down 0+Up and Down Dots 2-3 Chord and Dots 5-6 Chord
Move to previous or next page Page Up and Page Down #+Up and #+Down Star+6 and Star+9 Dots 1-2-3-4-5 Chord and Dots 2-3-4-5-6 Chord
Move to Start or End of Document Ctrl+Home and End Hold Up and Down Hold Up and Down Dots 1-2-3 Chord and Dots 4-5-6 Chord

Volume

The volume key provides some shortcuts, special controls, and good feedback about volume changes to your text and music.

The most common way to use the volume control is pressing the top or bottom part of the key repeatedly. With each press, the unit changes the volume and announces the word Volume with a number representing the new volume level. Note, however, that if the unit is talking, it raises or lowers the volume without saying anything that might interrupt the current speech. That it is why it may appear that two quick presses of volume up only raise the volume by one level. In fact, the volume gets raised twice, but the unit only announces the volume command on the first press, because when you press it the second time, it is still announcing the word "volume" from the first press.

In addition to pressing the volume key once, you may hold down the key. It responds by quickly raising or lowering the volume and saying or playing something at the new volume level. If its playing audio, the unit continually raises or lowers the playback level until you release the key. If there is no audio playing when you hold the volume key, it responds by continuously changing the volume and announcing "louder" or "softer."

Audio Volume: 0+Volume

Normally, when you use the Up and Down Volume keys, the unit adjusts both the volume of the speech and the volume of the audio output.

To turn up or down the volume of the music without effecting the volume of the speech, hold down the 0 key while pressing the volume key. It responds by raising or lowering the volume of the music if it is playing. If no music is playing when you adjust the audio volume, It beeps at the new volume level.

Speech Volume: Star+Volume

Sometimes, you may wish to read or write while listening to audio. You may raise or lower the volume of the speech without affecting the audio volume. To change speech volume, hold Star while pressing one of the volume keys.

Speed

To increase or decrease the rate of the speech, hold Pound while pressing Volume Up or Volume Down. The unit responds by increasing or decreasing the rate of the speech then announcing either "faster" or "slower."

Address Book

The Address Book lets you keep track of your contacts. It shows a list of people you have added and lets you look up phone numbers, addresses, or email addresses. You may also send a contact an email message.

Move to an Address: Up and Down Arrow

To move through the list of addresses, press up or down arrow. The address book responds by moving to the previous or next address, then announcing the name of the contact.

You may also type the first few letters of the contact's last name. The address book responds by moving to the first contact with a name beginning with those letters you typed and reading that name.

Open Address Entry: Select

To open an address entry, move to it, and press Select or pick View Contact from the program menu. The address book responds by showing the Address Form where you may view the information that makes the contact.

Add Contact

To add a new address, select Add Contact from the menu. The address book responds with the Address Form.

Edit Contact

To edit a contact, select Edit Contact from the program menu. The address book presents the address form.

Address Details

The address form contains all the details about a contact. Use up and down arrow to move from item to item. Type the indicated information when adding a new address, or edit existing text in each area for existing contacts.

Email

The address book supports multiple email addresses for each person. Press Select to open the list of email addresses for that person. The email list shows you the list of email addresses and lets you add, delete, or edit them.

Add Email

To add an email address, pick New Email Address from the menu. It responds with the Email Form.

Name

The Name item on the email form is where you type the person's real name.

Email Address

This is where you type the new email address.

Is Default

Each person may have a default email address that gets used in the email program. If this is the email address you wish to use for this person, press Select to change to Yes.

Save Address: OK

When you add or edit an address, press OK to save your changes and return to the main list of addresses.

Cancel Changes: Cancel

If you accidentally change an address entry or you decide not to add an address, press Cancel to return to the main address list without saving any changes you made.

Delete Contact: Star

To delete a contact, press Backspace or pick Delete Contact from the program menu.

Send Email

To send an email to the current item in the address book, press the menu key and select Send Email. The address book responds by starting the email program and putting that person's email address into the "to:" field of the new email form. Add the subject, press OK, and compose the message just as you would from the email program.

More Folders

The Address Book lets you create additional folders in which you may categorize your contacts.

To move to the folder list, press Left Arrow. Address Book responds by showing a list of folders into which you may organize contacts.

Selecting Folders

Use the up and down arrows to highlight the folder of choice, then press Right Arrow to open that folder.

Add New Folder

To create a new folder in which to store contacts, pick Folders from the program menu, then select New Folder from the menu. The address book responds by asking you to give the new folder a name. Type the name, and press OK to create the new folder. It responds by returning you to the folder list. This time, your new folder appears in the list.

Delete Folder

To delete a folder, highlight it in the folder list, then select Delete Folder from the menu by pressing OK.

Move Contacts

To move one or more contacts to another folder, mark each contact to move by pressing 0+Select while the contact of interest is highlighted.

Once the contacts are marked, move to the folder into which you wish to move the contacts.

Press the program menu key and pick "Move Selected Contacts."

Music Player

Your new mobile manager makes the best, most accessible, and capable audio player available today, and it is not just for music! You may read audio books, listen to podcasts, and enjoy your favorite music even while you work on other activities.

Music Player supports audio in the following formats:

Audible .aa
flac .flac
Digital Talking Book .opf
Mpeg 3 .mp3
Vorbis .ogg
Wav .wav
Play List .pls
Play List .m3u

To start playing music, press the Apps key, then press 2, or select Music Player from the Applications menu. The music player responds with a menu that lets you easily find the music of interest.

Music Player's menu offers to list your songs by song, artist, album, Genre, play list, or by files. To pick a listing method, use up or down arrow, then press Select. It responds with another menu. That menu contains what you requested in the first menu, so if you had selected artists, the menu contains artist names.

To find the name of a song, artist, or album in the list, use up and down arrow or type the first few letters of the name. Music Player responds by moving through the list and announcing the song, artist, or album name.

If you select Files as the way to view your music, Music Player opens a version of the File Manager that points to the Music folder on your device. When in this view, you may use the normal file manager navigation commands to move through the contents of your files and folders. You do not have to stay in the Music folder. To move to the parent of the music folder, press Left Arrow. From there, press Left Arrow again for a list of drives just as you would in the file explorer program. You may, in fact, browse to folders that aren't even located on the device. See Use Shared Folders for details on browsing the music collection from your home system.

To play a file, press Select. To play an entire folder, select Play all Files in this Folder from the program menu. To add a folder of files to a playlist, select Add Files in this Folder to a Playlist from the program menu.

To return to the previous menu where Music Player offers the different ways to view your music collection, press Cancel.

Whichever method you choose to view your music, Music Player shows a list of songs. To Play the song, press Select. It responds, "Audio Player," and plays the selected music.

To play all the music in your collection, select Songs, then Play All by pressing Select twice from Music Player's main menu.

Audio Controls

No matter what kind of audio you play, the keys to start, stop, rewind, and forward are the same.

Pause: Select

To stop playing your music, podcast, or recording, press Select. Music Player immediately pauses playback.

Play: Select

To start playing or to resume from paused audio, press Select. Music Player resumes playback from where you paused it, or it begins playback at the start of the content.

Increase and Decrease Playback Rate: Up and Down Arrow

To increase the rate at which the sound plays, press Up Arrow. Down Arrow decreases the rate.

Rewind and Forward: Hold Left and Right Arrow

To rewind or forward through an audio selection, hold left or right arrow. The audio player rewinds or fast forwards through the content and plays back samples to help you tell where you are in the audio. Music Player also announces the amount of time it has moved.

To stop rewinding or forwarding, release the arrow key. The audio player resumes playback at the new position.

Back and Next Track: Left and Right Arrow

To move to the next or previous song, press right or left arrow. The audio player responds by moving to the next track and starts playing it, or it moves to the beginning of the current track if more than three seconds into the track, and resumes playback from there. To move to the previous track while more than three seconds into a song, press Left Arrow twice. The audio player responds by moving to the previous song and begins playing that track.

Back or Forward 10 Seconds: 1 and 3

To move back or forward by 10 seconds, press 1 or 3.

Back or Forward One Minute: 4 and 6

To move back or forward by one minute, use 4 or 6.

Back or Forward 10 Minutes: 7 and 9

To move back or forward by ten minutes, use 7 or 9.

Load Music Content

The media player gets its content from the folder called music on the hard drive. So, before you may use the player, you must copy content to that folder on the device. See Disk Drive Mode or Share Folders for details on copying files to the device.

The Information List

When Music Player plays a track, it gathers information about that track and places it into an Information List.

Move Within the Information List: 2 and 8

Music Player lets you use the 2 and 8 keys as if they were up and down arrows to move through information about the track that is playing. Artist, Album, Title, Length, and the path to the track are all included. Press 8 as if it were a down arrow key to move to the next snippet of information about the current track, and use 2 as if it were an Up Arrow key. To repeat the current item, press the Status key.

Notice that each of the options in the information list is a key word that you may use in either an Announcement Template or a Status Template.

Current Position: 5

Press 5 to get the current position. Music Player responds by announcing the time of the current position within the current track.

Music Player Options

Music Player supports a number of options that let you configure how it behaves.

Turn Shuffle On

To shuffle the order of playback, select Turn Shuffle On from the menu. This setting stays in effect until you turn it back off.

When you select Turn Shuffle On, the audio player shuffles the songs you select. It also changes the menu item to read Turn "Shuffle Off" where you may return to the alphabetical play order.

Turn Repeat On

Use the Repeat option in Music Player's menu to continuously repeat a song or selection of songs. As with the Shuffle option, the menu name changes to reflect the state of repeating.

Resume

The Resume option in Music Player's menu lets you return to the point in the audio content where you last left off. This option is used more for lengthy content like podcasts or books.

To return to the last position, start Music Player and select Resume from the program menu.

If you had been using a play list, the resumption of playback respects both the position in the play list and the position within the current track in the play list.

Edit Templates

Music Player contains two templates that direct it how to announce information in two different places: When you press Status twice to get current status and when the player moves from track to track. Each of these has its own name. The Announce template is the one that gets used when you move from track to track, and the Status template is what gets used when you press Status twice.

By default, the Status template contains key words that get replaced with the values of the current time, length, title, and artist, but you may change the order or even all the information provided.

The Announce template contains the title and artist, but you may add key words or change the order. Note, too, that you must select the Music Template On option in the program menu before the Announce template functions.

To change either template, select Edit Templates from the program menu. Music Player responds with a form containing places to type the template for each of the options.

Use the list of key words found in the information list to replace that word with the actual value of the information. Each of the key words must match exactly. Otherwise, the word itself is used in the template.

Example Template

To create a template that announces the title, artist, and album for each track, use the following template: title artist album

If you wish to use one of the key words as a word to be spoken, use a capital letter in the key word name. That makes the word a non key word.

To make a template that says the word song followed by the name of the song, use this template:

song: title

Music Template On/Off

To toggle the announcement of information about the current track when that track changes, select the Music Template On or Off option in the program menu.

Add Songs to a Play List

When a song is playing, there is an additional menu option, Add This Song to a Play List.

Selecting Add This Song to a Play List lets you add the current song to a play list. When you select this option, the program displays a list of existing play lists. Use up and down arrow to find the play list of interest, then press Select to add the current song to that list.

If you do not already have a play list, you must create one before adding a song to a play list.

To create a new playlist, open Music Player, then select Play Lists from the main program. Music Player responds with a list of play lists. Press the program menu key, and select Create a New Play List.

Rebuild Catalog

Rebuilding the catalog is necessary if you turn off the Auto Catalog Update feature. You should rebuild the catalog each time you add or remove content to or from the music folder.

Turn Auto Catalog Update On

Normally, when Music Player starts, it scans the music folder to check for updates that it may need to add to its database. If your music folder contains thousands of songs, this process can take some time. It is for this reason that Media Player offers you the option of turning off this feature. Note that if you do turn off Auto Update, you must use the Rebuild Catalog option each time you add new content to your music folder.

ID3 Tags

Music player uses information embedded in each song to establish the track's artist, title, album, and genre. This embedded information is called ID3 tags, and most programs that convert (rip) music from CD consult an online database to obtain this information. You may also edit the ID3 tags. One way to edit the tags from Windows on your computer is to highlight the track, then get properties on the file. (You may get properties by pressing Alt+Enter or right clicking and selecting Properties from the context menu that appears. Windows responds by showing a multi-tab dialog. Move to the Details tab to examine or edit the information.

Get Music from Your CDs

One of the best ways to get a large collection of music onto your device is from your CD collection. Getting the music from a CD onto the device is a multi step process.

First you must get the songs from the CD onto your computer. There are several programs that help with this step. Windows Media Player is one such program that you most likely already have on your computer. When you put an audio CD into the CD drive on your PC, Windows shows a menu that includes "Rip Music from CD" as one of its options. When you select this option, Media Player converts the songs from the CD format into files and stores them on your computer's hard drive. Before doing this for the first time, you may wish to alter some of Media Player's options. By default, Media Player converts the songs into the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. Unfortunately, the mobile manager does not recognize this format, so you should tell Media Player to use mp3 instead of WMA.

To instruct Media Player to use the mp3 format, open Media Player and select the Options item on the Tools menu. Move to the Rip tab, and pick mp3 from the format option. You may also wish to configure where Media Player puts the files and how it names the files it creates. You may also adjust the quality of the music.

Once the songs are on your computer's hard drive, copy them to the mobile manager's hard drive for use in the music player. To copy the files, locate the folders where they are stored on the PC and copy the songs or folders of interest to the clipboard.

Next, turn on the mobile manager's disk drive mode by selecting option 3 from the Utilities Menu. Windows responds by showing the autorun menu which includes the option, Open to View Files. Select that option and move to the Music folder. Open the Music folder, then paste the contents of the clipboard into that folder. Note, this may take several minutes depending on the amount of material selected to copy.

Download Music

One of the problems with downloading music is the presence of digital rights management (DRM). Online music stores like Itunes, Walmart, and Napster all use this technology to prevent illegal duplication and sharing. None of these kinds of songs will play in Music Player. It does not contain the necessary technology to decrypt the DRM files.

Fortunately, there are more and more music options that do not use DRM. Itunes contains thousands of titles that are not protected with DRM, but the interface is difficult to use, and the files are in AAC format.

Amazon.com sells popular and independent music tracks. These are easy to obtain and play perfectly in Music Player. Look for the MP3 Downloads section of Amazon for details.

Another site that sells open music is www.emusic.com.

In addition to the web sites that sell tracks of music, you may also consider subscribing to podcasts that include music. www.magnatunes.com is one such site that ships music over the internet right into your RSS Reader program.

Internet Radio

Music Player supports both .pls and m3u play lists, and many internet radio stations use these play lists for music transmission. As long as the station uses either mp3 or ogg as its file type, Music Player should have no trouble playing the streams.

When you download a pls or m3u file, you may use File Explorer to find and start playing such a list of songs. Music Player also contains support for reading the tags from such streams, so you may use the information list or the Announce Status menu option to have Music Player announce the track information dynamically just like a disk jockey if you wish.

For a good place to start experimenting with internet radio, see www.live365.com or www.shoutcast.com.

When you select one of the links to play a station, Web Browser lets you open or save the file. Save the file to a known location on your hard drive, then use File Explorer to pick the station to use. You may even wish to create an internet radio folder on the drive and save the play list files to that folder for easier use.

Note that playing streaming radio requires an internet connection.

Music on the Home Stereo

While the mobile manager contains great speakers for close listening, you will never disturb the neighbors or rattle the windows with the unit's built-in speakers. To do that, you'll want to connect it to your home stereo system or boom box.

If the equipment you wish to connect contains an input for a 1/8 inch jack, obtain a patch cord with male 1/8 jacks on each end and plug one into the earphone jack on the mobile manager and the other into the input jack of the stereo.

Most stereos use RCA jacks to connect components. Since the mobile manager contains no RCA jacks, you will need to purchase a Y cable with RCA jacks at one end and a 1/8 inch stereo male jack at the other end. Plug the RCA jacks into the back of the stereo. You may wish to leave the 1/8 inch jack end of the cable in a convenient place so it is easy to plug it into the earphone jack on the mobile manager.

When you are ready to play music through the home stereo, plug the 1/8 inch jack into the mobile manager's earphone jack, then turn on the stereo and select the component corresponding to where you connected the RCA jacks from the cable.

Music Player in the Car

To play music in an automobile stereo, you may either use a direct connect method, or you may use an FM transmitter.

Direct Connection

Some car stereos come with an aux in jack. If the stereo contains one of these, obtain a 1/8 " audio patch cord and plug one end into the earphone jack on the mobile manager and the other into the aux in jack on the stereo. Most car stereo systems also require you to set the input to come from the aux in jack. Consult the documentation for the specific system to find out how to make this setting on your system.

Once the car stereo is set to accept input from the aux in jack, and you have the patch cord connected, start the Music Player on your mobile manager. You will hear both the speech and audio through the car's speakers. You may need to adjust the volume of the mobile manager to match the power of the car stereo. Once you have the volume set so the level is low when you turn down the volume on the car and the volume is high when you turn up the volume, use the car's normal volume controls to set the most appropriate levels.

Cassette Adapter

If the car stereo does not contain an aux in jack and it does contain a working cassette player, you may purchase a cassette adapter. These accessories are available at most chain retail stores for less than $20, and they contain a cassette looking device with a cord that then plugs into the earphone jack of the mobile manager. Just insert the cassette portion of the device into the cassette player and start the music on the mobile manager. Most car stereos will recognize that a cassette is inserted and will accept input from the cassette without changing any settings on the stereo.

FM Transmitter

An FM transmitter is another option you may consider for routing audio through your car's stereo system. These devices also contain a jack that you plug into the earphone jack of the mobile manager. They then take that signal from the earphone jack and transmit it over an unused FM station. You then tune your car radio to that FM station to receive the signal.

The devices are also available in most retail chain stores, or you may find them online. An internet search for "fm transmitter" should get you several possibilities.

Play Commercial Audio Books

Increasingly, commercial publishers are offering books in audio format. These typically come on one or more CDs. The best way to seamlessly play a book consisting of a series of files is to create a play list containing all the files on the CD. To create a play list that contains an entire folder of files, follow these steps:

To play this book, start Music Player and select Play Lists from the main menu. Next, find the play list that contains the book of interest. Music Player resumes with the current play list item and the last position in the current track.

Library Menu

The Library menu lets you read, download, and manage your reading material. The options in the Library menu work very closely with a subscription to bookshare.org and an internet connection to retrieve content. You do not need an internet connection to read previously downloaded content. For information about a subscription to bookshare.org, see www.bookshare.org.

Bookshelf

The Bookshelf lets you read books. In addition to managing and organizing your collection so the book you want is easy to find, it lets you move through the book, mark your place, and returns to your position when you reopen a book you already started.

Bookshelf supports a variety of book types including those from National Library Service, bookshare.org, audible.com, and plain text, Microsoft Word, html, and braille files. You do not have to know what kind of book you are reading, but you may need to know some differences between the way some commands work among text and audio books. The controls differ slightly. Those details are explained shortly.

List the Books

When you first open Bookshelf, it shows a menu with three options. Those options are Recent Books, Authors, and All Books. Decide the method you wish to use to list your book collection, then use Up Arrow and Down Arrow to move to that option and press Select.

Recent Books

Most often, returning to the bookshelf means returning to a book in progress. That is what the Recent Books option does. When you open the Recent Books list, Bookshelf shows a list of the last several books you have opened to make it convenient for you to return to a read in progress.

Authors

The Authors list shows an alphabetical list of the authors in your library. When you find an author, press Select to show a list of books written by that author.

All Books

If you select All Books, Bookshelf shows a listing of all the books in your library. Each book is listed with the title and author's name. You may show this list ordered alphabetically, or you may select Sort by When Added to put the books most recently added at the top of the list. To return to an alphabetical listing of all books, select Sort by Title from the program menu.

Open Book: Select

To open a book in the list of books or the list of books by a specific author, use the up and down arrows, or type the first few letters of the book's name. When you get to the book of interest, press Select to open the book. The bookshelf responds, "Opening Book," and begins gathering the book information. Depending on the size and type of the book, this process may take a few seconds.

If this is the first time you opened this book, the program shows the beginning of the book. Otherwise, it returns you to where you were when you last read that book.

When you open a book, Bookshelf begins reading. You may pause by pressing the Select key. Press Select again to resume reading.

Reading occurs in the normal editing environment for books created from text, so you have all of the navigation, marking, and finding capabilities available. See the Document Navigation section for details.

Audio Navigation

Audio books also contain all the navigation features that the book supports. In addition, since there are no lines or letters in an audio book, Bookshelf uses the arrow keys for audio controls.

Speed Up and Slow Down: Up Arrow and Down Arrow

To increase the rate of playback for an audio book, press Up Arrow. Bookshelf responds by speeding up playback by about 20%. To slow down playback, press Down Arrow. (Note that you cannot slow down playback to a rate slower than it was originally recorded.) You may increase the playback rate to up to three times normal. Each time you change the playback rate, the device announces the new playback rate as a percentage. When you change the rate to normal (100%), the unit announces, "Speed normal."

Rewind and Fast Forward: Left and Right Arrow

To rewind for three seconds in an audio book in the Bookshelf, press Left Arrow.

To Fast Forward for three seconds, press Right Arrow.

Note that these commands work only in the Bookshelf. Left Arrow and Right Arrow are the commands to move to the previous and next track while using Music Player.

Move by Time: Hold Left or Right Arrow

If you wish to move by time through an audio selection, hold Left or Right Arrow. Bookshelf responds by moving in small segments at first then gradually increasing the amount of movement as you hold the key. You may also use the numbers 1 and 3 on the telephone keypad to move by small amounts.

The longer you hold the key, the further you move. Bookshelf and Music Player provide verbal feedback about the amount you move. Release the key to stop movement.

Close: Cancel

To close a book, press Cancel.

Add Books to the Library

There are several ways to add books to the library.

Internet Book Search Program

One of the most common methods of adding books to the bookshelf is with the Internet Book Search program in the Library menu. When you download a book from bookshare.org, Internet Search automatically adds the book you select into the bookshelf.

Copy Books to Bookshelf

In addition to using the Internet Book Search program, you may copy entire folders directly into the library. Start the Bookshelf program and select Copy Books to the Bookshelf from the program menu. Bookshelf responds by presenting a list of drives similar to the drives list in File Explorer. Select the drive where the books reside. Next, move to the folder on that device to copy and press Select or mark multiple folders to copy and press Select. Bookshelf responds by copying the folders you marked into your library.

Use the Import Folder

The bookshelf's import folder is another method to easily move books into the bookshelf. When the program starts, it scans this folder for content that needs to be imported. This content may include zipped files directly downloaded from NLS. If it finds such files, Bookshelf extracts the contents of the .zip file, moves the entire set of files to a newly created folder in the library/books folder, then removes the .zip file from the import folder. Dropping downloaded books from NLS into the library/books/import folder on your device is one of the quickest and easiest ways to begin enjoying this content.

Bookshelf announces import progress while you are still using the menu system of the program, but once you open a book to read, Bookshelf no longer announces progress messages.

If there were any imported books, Bookshelf adds a new menu item called Bookshelf Import Status. Selecting this option from the program menu shows the log file of book imports and may help track down a problem.

Copy Files

Copy the file or files into the library/books folder on the unit's hard drive. If you wish to, you may also create a folder named with the author's name (or any other naming scheme of your choosing) then copy the file or files into that folder. Bookshelf scans all the files and folders in the /library/books folder and all its sub folders.

The technique you use to copy files to the appropriate folder may depend on your preferences. You may turn on Disk Drive Mode and use your computer to copy the files to the external drive, use the mobile manager to copy files from other devices over the network, or use your computer to copy files to the device to folders you have shared with the folder sharing options.

Use Copy Books or Move Books when you Insert an SD Card

When you insert an SD card into the mobile manager's card slot, it scans the card for content and presents a menu of options based on what content it finds. If it finds any books on the card, two of the menu options are Copy Books to Bookshelf and Move Books to Bookshelf. As the names indicate, one option moves the books from the card and the other copies the books and leaves them on the card.

Books From National Library Service

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is a tremendous resource for US citizens and residents that lets you download structured, professionally recorded books from their web site for playback on your device. These are called Digital Talking Books (DTBs).

Before You Start

There are four things that must happen before you may play NLS content on your device:

Active NLS User

If you are not already an active user of the NLS program, you can locate the library serving your area at www.loc.gov/nls. Please see the details on that page for eligibility and instructions.

Register the Device

To register the mobile manager with the manufacturer, select Check for Updates on the mobile manager's Utilities menu. If you have already registered, the update manager checks for software updates. If you have not already registered with the manufacturer, it presents the User Registration form. Fill out the information in this form, and press OK to send it to the manufacturer. (You must have an internet connection.)

Register with the NLS Download Pilot Site

Once signed up for service with NLS, you may additionally participate in a pilot program to let you download up to 30 books per month. You may play that content on your device. To sign up for the pilot download program, go to www.nlstalkingbooks.org/dtb and click the Application Instructions link. Read the instructions, and click the Enrollment Form link. If you are already signed up with the pilot program, you must log onto the NLS web site and select the Update My Settings link and select the Add a New Player option.

Fill out all the information requested, and where the form asks for the kind of playback device, indicate LevelStar Icon or APH Braille+ (plus) Mobile Manager.

When NLS verifies that you are an active user with the talking books program, it will send you an email with instructions on how to log onto the page where you may download books. NLS will also contact the manufacturer with the information you provided on the application form. The manufacturer must match the information you provided to NLS with what you provided when you registered your device. Especially important is the email address. It must match for the NLS and the manufacturer registration.

Install the Key

Once the manufacturer has both the registration information from you and your NLS application from NLS, they will prepare a key for your exclusive use on this device. That key will be distributed to you through the normal update process. The manufacturer will email you when the key is ready to download. Please allow five to ten business days for this process.

When you receive the email informing you that your key is ready, use the software update process again, as outlined in the email, to download and install the new key. (The Check for Updates option is found at option 6 in the Utilities menu.) Once the key is installed, its use is transparent. You will be able to open and read any of the content from NLS without having to even think about the key.

If you attempt to play a protected NLS book with a device that is not authorized, Bookshelf opens a special version of that book that provides instructions and information from the publisher of the protected Digital Talking Book.

Copy Books to the Device

To download a book from the NLS web site, follow the instructions provided in the email from NLS. The books are stored in zip files. This means they are packaged together so the entire book may be transmitted as one file.

To put the zip file into the bookshelf, copy it from your computer and place it into the library/books/import folder. Each time you start Bookshelf, the program scans the import folder and puts any new titles into the bookshelf. The newly imported books appear at the top of the Recent Books list, so they should be easy to find and identify.

You may also unzip the files on your PC. To use that book, open Windows Explorer and point to the file. Press Enter to open the zip file. Copy all the files from that zip package to the library/books folder on your mobile manager's hard drive. You may create folders for the author and/or the title if you desire.

Using NLS Books

Digital Talking Books from NLS contain all the rich features of any audio Digital Talking Book, but there are some things you should be aware of when using these books.

Some of the books in the NLS collection have been converted to digital from the analog master of the tape. In such cases, navigation is somewhat limited. For those books recorded in digital format, navigation points are normally found at the beginning of each chapter in many books, and richer, more detailed markup is available in some specialized books and magazines. Books converted from analog, however, normally contain navigation points at the beginning and end of the book and at the start of the book's contents, so the ability to quickly move from section to section or chapter to chapter will not be available in such books. Happily, all new books being recorded do contain the richer navigation markup that users quickly learn to love.

Audible.com

Audible.com is the largest commercial producer of audio books, and your mobile manager is an approved audible.com playback device. This resource contains thousands of titles, and for a small fee per book, you may download and read any of them.

Get Started with Audible.com

To get started playing audible content, you must sign up for an account and authorize the device. To authorize the device, browse to www.audible.com and download the Audible Manager application for your PC. Once downloaded, install and run it. Then select the function to add a new device. Pick LevelStar Icon/Braille+ from the menu.

Copy Books to the Device

To play audible.com content, find the material of interest on www.audible.com. When you elect to purchase a book, the web site asks you to select a format. As explained, format four is the largest, but it also sounds the best. The mobile manager supports formats two, three, and four.

Each of the titles you purchase shows up in your audible library. To download the content from your library to the PC, click the My Library link on the audible.com web site. Find the titles you have purchased, then click the Download link.

Once the titles reside on your PC's hard drive, you must use the Audible Manager program that you previously downloaded and installed to send that content to the mobile manager. To transfer a title to your device, turn on disk drive mode from the Utilities menu. Then, open Audible Manager on the PC, and highlight the book of interest. Next, press the Applications key or right click, and pick Transfer to Icon/Braille+ from the menu.

The first time you transfer audible content to the device, Audible Manager asks you to activate the device. In order to activate a device, you must have an internet connection, and the device must be connected to your computer via the USB. Enter your audible.com account name and password to activate the mobile manager.

To deactivate your device, use Audible Manager again, but select deactivate from the menu.

Update the Library

Each time you start Bookshelf, it scans the books folder for new content and adds any new material into its list. If the book is a text file or some other file that does not contain author and title information in a structured format, you must edit that books information to include the title and author into Bookshelf's database. Otherwise, Bookshelf files that work under the author, "Unknown."

Edit Book Information

To add title and author information for a book you add to the bookshelf, start Bookshelf and list all books. Find the new book, then select Edit Book Information from the program menu. Bookshelf responds with the Book Information form. This form contains the title of the book, and a list of authors.

To change the title, edit the text in the Title field.

To add or delete an author, move to the Authors list, then press Select. Bookshelf responds "Edit Book Authors Form."

To add an additional author to the book, select Add Author from the program menu.

To delete an author, select Delete Author from the program menu.

Delete a Book

To remove a book from the bookshelf, start Bookshelf and point to the book to delete. Then, select Delete Book from the program menu.

Update Book Catalog

Normally, Bookshelf scans the entire books folder to determine the existence of new books you may have added. After your collection reaches numbers in the hundreds, you may wish to use the Do Not Automatically Update Book Catalog on Startup option in the program menu. This saves time scanning the folder each time you start the program. If you have set that option, you will use the Update Book Catalog to force the Bookshelf to scan the books folder for new content.

Turn Auto Catelog Update Off

Once your library of books reaches numbers in the hundreds, you may wish to save time by turning off the feature that scans and updates the catalog each time the program starts. When you do add books, use the Update Book Catalog option to force the program to add that new content.

Manage Books

As your book collection continues to grow, you may find it useful to know some things about how to manage a large number of titles.

Find New Books Added to Bookshelf

As your collection grows, one of the most annoying problems is finding books that you just added to the Bookshelf. Fortunately, the program keeps track of the date and time each book gets added, and it provides a way to view the books in the All Books list in date added order so the newest books added to the bookshelf show up at the top of the list.

To sort the All Books list, follow these steps:

When you select a sorting option for the All Books list, that selection remains in effect until you change it. To sort the list in alphabetical order, select Sort by Title from the program menu while in the All Books list.

Bookshelf indicates the current sorting order of the All Books list by announcing "selected" after the menu item that reflects the current sorting condition.

News Stand

The News Stand, in conjunction with a subscription to bookshare.org, downloads entire periodicals and provides a reading environment in which you may browse and read one of several dozen magazines.

When News Stand starts, the program displays a list of the periodicals to which you are subscribed. The first time you start the program, this list is empty, because you must first let the program know to which periodicals you wish to subscribe.

Add a Periodical

To subscribe to a periodical, press the menu key and select Add Periodical. If you have not already entered and selected to preserve the information, the program asks for your bookshare.org logon information. You may also elect to save this information, so you won't have to enter it each time you subscribe or update your magazines.

Once the program verifies your bookshare.org user ID and password, it displays a list of available periodicals. Find the periodical in which you are interested and press Select to subscribe to it. The program displays a form asking for the number of days to keep this periodical. By default, the program keeps periodicals indefinitely, but you may enter a number to indicate how many days you wish to keep this periodical. The program announces, "Subscribed" and returns to the list of periodicals, so you may subscribe to additional items or press Cancel to return to the list of subscribed magazines.

Get All New Issues

The Get All New Issues option downloads any periodicals to which you have subscribed and that are new since the last time you checked. If you didn't elect to preserve your bookshare.org user ID and password, the program asks for that information before checking for and downloading any new issues.

Get New Issues for this Periodical

Instead of getting all the periodicals to which you subscribe, you may, in the interest of time, wish to get only the new issues of the periodical which you have highlighted in the list. To do so, highlight the name of the periodical of interest, then open the program's menu, and select Get New Issues for this Periodical.

Periodical Settings

Each periodical contains settings that control how long to keep each issue and whether or not to subscribe to the periodical. You provide this information when you add a periodical to your subscribed list, and you may alter that information in the Periodical Settings option in the program menu.

Days to Keep Back Issues

Unless you specify otherwise, News Stand keeps back issues forever. You may enter a number here to instruct the program how many days to keep each periodical. Use 0 to continue keeping them forever.

Subscribe to this Periodical

If you wish to temporarily unsubscribe from a periodical without deleting the periodical from your list, select this option.

Delete a Periodical

If you decide you are no longer interested in receiving new issues of a periodical, point to that periodical in the list and select Delete from the program's menu.

Reading Periodicals

To read a periodical, use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow to find the periodical of interest, then press Right Arrow or Select to open the folder containing those issues. You see a list of editions of that periodical that will differ depending on the length of time you elected to preserve the issues. If you had, for instance, selected to keep a certain periodical for five days, you see the last five editions of that periodical in the list. If, on the other hand, you selected 0 as the number of days to preserve an issue, you see a list that grows everyday until you manually delete individual issues. The newest issues of a periodical appear at the top of the list.

Choose the issue of interest with the Up Arrow and Down Arrow then press Select to open that issue.

Once you open a particular issue of a periodical, News Stand shows the contents of that issue by section. Use right arrow to open the category of interest, and News Stand displays the names of the stories in that section. To open a story, press Select or OK. Once you open a story, News Stand starts reading the story. Press Select to pause reading. News Stand uses the normal document navigation commands to let you read and navigate through the issue.

Internet Book Search

The Internet Book Search works in conjunction with a subscription to bookshare.org and an internet connection to let you search for books on the internet and download those books of interest to your device. You will not find a more powerful or convenient means of obtaining a vast array of reading material anywhere on earth.

When you start the program, it displays a menu with Authors, Titles, and Browse as menu options.

To move from option to option, use Up Arrow and Down Arrow.

To select an option, press Select or Right Arrow.

To return to the previous menu, press Cancel or Left Arrow.

To download the selected book, press select. It is that easy. If you have not saved your bookshare.org user ID and password, the program requests them. Once you enter this information or if you elected to save this information, it responds, "Logging into bookshare.org." Once logged in, it says, "Downloading" and the name of the book. When the book is on your device, Icon announces, "Done." You may then use the Bookshelf application to read the book.

Internet Menu

While this device is a useful tool on its own, its real power and flexibility is vastly enhanced by connecting to the internet.

Connect to the Internet

To connect to the internet, you need a service provider. In most cases, an internet service provider is a service that you subscribe to and pay on a monthly basis much like you subscribe to telephone or cable service.

In addition to subscribing to an internet service provider, you may enjoy free access at an increasing number of establishments. Coffee shops, small restaurants, and others often make free internet access available through what is known as a hot spot. You may also set up a hot spot in your own home that makes your existing internet service available wirelessly. The installation of a wireless router (less than $100) is all that is needed.

Turn on Wireless: Hold Program 2

Before connecting to a wireless network, you must turn on the wireless radio. To turn on the wireless radio, hold Program 2. The unit responds, "Wireless On," opens the network manager, and scans for access points in range.

The first time you use the wireless capabilities, you need to select the access point to which you wish to connect. Once you select an access point and network manager successfully establishes a connection, you will not have to select that access point again. When you turn on the wireless radio next time, network manager automatically connects to wireless networks to which you have already connected. Likewise, if you turn on the device and the wireless radio is already on, network manager connects to established profiles automatically.

Turn off Wireless: Hold Program 2

To turn off the wireless radio when it is no longer in use, select Turn off Wireless from the menu or hold Program 2 while the radio is on. The unit responds by turning off the wireless radio and announcing, "Wireless Off." Turning off the wireless radio conserves power, so turn it off when it is no longer needed.

Network Manager: Program 2

Network Manager is the program that helps connect the mobile manager to the internet. There are several ways to find the network manager.

The network manager is located in the Internet menu. You may also open it with the short cut key, Program 2. Selecting the network status item in the Status menu also opens the network manager.

When you start the network manager, it shows a list of network connections. This list includes wireless access points in range, ethernet and USB network connections, and names of established network connection profiles.

Each item in the list shows the name of the profile, connection status, signal strength (as a percentage,) and the security setting.

If the wireless radio is on and there are access points within range, those connections are first in network manager's list. They are sorted in signal strength order, so the access point with the strongest signal is first in the list. When you try connecting to a new access point, the items at the top of the list indicate all the networks in range.

After the access points in range, network manager shows the ethernet and USB connections.

Below the ethernet and USB connections, network manager shows an alphabetized list of profiles. Profiles are connections that you have already configured. These profiles are at the bottom of the list, and they each indicate that you cannot currently connect with them. You may, however, edit or delete each of these profiles.

Connect to an Access Point

To connect to an access point, move to its name on the list, and press Select. If there are several options from which to choose, the names at the top of the list are usually the best bet, because they have the strongest signal. If attempting to use a public connection, you may also wish to look for open networks rather than secured ones.

When you find the access point of interest, press Select. Network manager responds by trying to establish a connection. If the network is secure, network manager asks you to type the connection's security key. If you do not know this key, consult your network administrator or examine the wireless router's configuration.

When it makes a successful connection, network manager announces the name of the network and "Ready" indicating that the connection is established and ready to use. If this is the first time using the connection, network manager also creates a profile for that connection so that when you turn on the wireless radio, the unit connects with that access point without you having to select it every time.

Connect to a Wireless Access Point That Does not Broadcast its Name

While many wireless routers broadcast the name of the network, some security minded network administrators hide the network's name to prevent unauthorized attempts to connect to their access point.

To connect to an access point that does not broadcast its name, open the program menu from network manager, and select the New Wireless Profile option. Network manager responds by presenting the Network Settings form.

Network Settings Form

The Network Settings form contains the information necessary to make a successful connection to the network.

Profile Name

When a network connection is established, network manager assigns a profile to that connection. Normally, it gives the profile a name that matches the network's name. You may, however, name the profile anything you wish.

Address Type

Assign IP Address Automatically

Many networks are configured to let the user obtain an internet protocol (IP) address automatically. If the network administrator or your service provider requires it, you may also assign an IP address. Use left and right arrow to select the appropriate address type.

Specify an IP Address

If the network is configured to specify an IP address, enter the IP address, subnet mask, gateway, default name server, and alternate name server. Your network administrator or internet service provider supplies this information.

SSID

The SSID is the network's name that the router usually broadcasts. It is this name that appears at the top of the list when network manager scans for access points in range. If the router is set to hide the SSID, type its name here. Otherwise, its name is automatically filled in with the name that the router broadcasts.

Security

Select the network's security type. The mobile manager supports open, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), both version 1 and 2.

Open Networks

Open networks are the least trouble to access. You find open networks in public places that offer wireless access.

WEP

WEP security keeps unauthorized people from accessing a wireless network. To connect to the network, the user must know the key associated with the network. Ask the network administrator for the value to type for the key. If you are the administrator, you may set this key in your router's configuration screen or you may let the router generate a series of keys. Consult the wireless router's documentation for details on this process.

WPA and WPA 2

WPA is a more secure encryption type than WEP. It also requires a key in the form of a phrase that you must type before connecting to the access point. Consult your administrator or the router's documentation for details. Note that older routers may not support WPA 2.

Delete Profile

Since network manager creates a profile each time you connect to a wireless network, you may find many obsolete network profiles at the end of the networks list. This is especially true if you often travel to new locations and connect with wireless networks.

To remove a profile that is no longer needed, point to that profile in the list, then select Delete Profile from the program menu.

USB Network

When your device is connected to your PC with the USB cable, you may use your PC's internet connection from the mobile manager. To do so, select the USB connection from the Network Manager option of the Internet menu.

Set up USB Networking

Before using the internet through the USB connection for the first time, you must

Install Network Drivers

Installing the network drivers is a two step process. You first install the handler, then once the unit tries to connect to the PC, the handler finishes the network driver installation.

  1. Insert the program CD into your Windows XP or Vista CD drive.
  2. Select USB Network Drivers from the menu. The network driver installation wizard starts.
  3. Use the wizard to complete the installation.
  4. Connect your PC to the device with the USB cable.
  5. Open the unit's Network Manager from the Internet Menu. It responds, "Network Manager and shows a list of any networks you may have already configured. In addition, there is a network item called USB Network."
  6. Select USB Network from the list of networks. The network manager responds, "Connecting," and Windows responds with the New Hardware wizard on your PC.
  7. Complete the steps in the New Hardware Wizard. When the New Hardware Wizard completes, your Windows machine has a new network connection named LevelStar LAN Link."
  8. Select Network Connections from the Control Panel on your PC.
  9. Highlight the connection named LevelStar LAN Link and press Space to select it.
  10. Use Ctrl+Up or Ctrl+Down to find and highlight your internet connection. (Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down lets you move through the list of connections while preserving the selection you made.)
  11. Press the Application key on your PC. Windows responds with a context menu.
  12. Select Bridge Connection from the context menu to bridge the unit's network connection with your internet connection.
  13. Select USB connection once more from the network manager on the Icon or Braille+.

The USB network can be useful but difficult to configure. You need only go through all these steps once to set USB networking on your PC. Once configured, the USB network may be established by simply selecting USB network from network manager.

Web Browser

The world wide web is a network of computers that presents interactive documents. These documents often contain links that open other web pages. Most companies and many individuals maintain their own web pages to provide information to customers or friends.

The state-of-the-art web browser lets you browse the world wide web, interact with forms, and use Javascript applications. The browser combines the power of a commercial application with custom speech prompts to provide you with more power, performance, and flexibility than with any other hand-held unit.

When you start the browser, it displays the home page. By default, this is www.google.com, but you may change it to something that you normally use fairly frequently. To change the home page, select Settings from the File menu and pick the Start Page option.

When the browser loads each new web page, it reads the page's title. You may press Select to continuously read the page, or you may change the settings to automatically read each new page as it is loaded.

To move and interact with a web page, use many of the normal document navigation techniques. To move up or down a line, press up or down arrow. To move letter by letter, press left or right arrow.

Links

One thing a web page contains that most other documents do not are links. Links are elements in the document that provide more information about the link. You might read a page, for instance, about rivers in the United States and each river's name may be a link that, upon activation, shows more in-depth information about that river. The text of a link may be a picture, a word, or a phrase in the document. As you read a document, the browser indicates the presence of a link by playing a sound and announcing the text of that link in an altered voice. To activate a link, press OK. The browser responds by opening the web page indicated in the target of the link.

Back to Previous Page: Backspace

One of the things that makes browsing the web so fascinating is the ability to return to the original document from an activated link. In other words, it is quick and easy to explore a link then return to the original document ready to explore more links. To return from an activated link, press Backspace. The browser responds by closing the document and reloading the original document.

Web Controls

Many web pages contain elements to help elicit some kind of response from you. These elements might be buttons, lists, or edit boxes where you type something. The browser's support of controls on web pages is simple and powerful. There is no such thing as a "forms" mode as you may have seen in some screen readers running on the PC. Instead, you keep using the same familiar movement commands, then when encountering a control, you may interact with it immediately.

Edit Box

When a web page wants you to type something, it puts an edit box on the page. Google's page, for example, contains an edit box in which you type what you are looking for, and it contains a button (called Search) that initiates the search. When you encounter a control on a web page, the browser notifies you by saying the type of control, so, as you use down arrow to move from line to line in a page, the browser might say, "edit" to let you know that you may type text at that point in the document. You may usually tell what the page wants you to type by reading the text immediately above the edit box.

Edit Box and Computer Braille

The web browser cannot know when an edit control may or may not be appropriate for use with contracted braille. It is necessary, therefore, to use computer braille or plain text in all edit controls on web pages.

Another web control is the list. The browser lets you pick items from a list with the left and right arrow keys. Normally, it notifies you by saying, "Use Left and Right to Change." If you do not wish to hear the instructions about how to change items in a list, you may set that as one of the browser settings.

Read Continuously: Select

To read continuously, press Select. To stop continuous reading, press Select again.

Navigation Within a Page

To move through or read a page's contents, press the arrow keys. The browser alerts you when the text contains a link that you may select to follow.

Open a Link: OK

To follow a link, move to the link and press OK.

More Navigation

Use the keys on the telephone keypad to navigate by headings, links, or controls. 1 move backward by heading 3 move forward by heading 4 move backward by link 6 move forward by link 7 move backward by form control 9 move forward by form control

Top of Page: 2

To move to the beginning of the current page, press telephone key 2.

Find Text: 5

To find text on the current page, press Ctrl+F or press 5 on the telephone dial. The browser presents the normal Find Form where you specify what and how to search.

Find Again: 8

To repeat the find, press 8 on the telephone keypad. The browser responds by moving to the next occurrence of the text or saying "Not Found" and leaving the cursor at its original position if it cannot find the text.

Go To Text: 0

Web pages are so widely varied that you will discover pages that are both very easy and terribly difficult to use. There are some things you can do to help.

One of the tools that helps skip cumbersome or repetitive material on a page is the Skip Text command. To skip to the next chunk of text, press 0 on the telephone keypad.

You may define what the browser considers as a chunk of text with the Settings option in the File menu.

Go To URL

To open a new web page, select Go to URL from the File menu. The web browser provides a place to type the address of the page to which you wish to go. Press OK to open the page once you type the address.

Stop Loading

The Stop Loading option lets you stop loading a web page. You may wish to cancel loading a page if it takes too long to display or if you simply change your mind.

Backward

Use the Backward option to return to a page on which you opened the link to the page on which you are.

Forward

Use the Forward option to return to a page from which you used the Backward command. This lets you reopen a page without actually using the link to open that page.

Reload

The Reload option requests the server to send a fresh, current copy of the web page. You may use this for time sensitive pages where you may be examining stale information. A good example of a page where this option is useful might be a stock quote page that gets updated with fresh prices every few minutes. You would use the Reload option to get the latest version of the page.

Bookmark Page

When you find a page to which you wish to return at some point in the future, bookmark it. When you do, the web browser adds the page to its bookmark list, and you may go to any of the bookmarks by selecting Bookmarks from the menu.

Selecting Bookmark Page from the menu makes the web browser display a form in which you may either accept the default title and URL for the page, or you may alter the text of the title. Changing the URL will result in going to another page.

Bookmarks

When you wish to return to a page in your bookmark list, select Bookmarks from the menu.

The browser shows a list of all your bookmarked pages. To select one of these bookmarks and go to that page, use Up Arrow or Down Arrow until it announces the title of the page of interest, then press Select.

Settings

The browser lets you customize its behavior to match your preferences. It uses the Settings form to let you set your options. To open the Settings form, select Settings from the File menu.

Play Link Sound

Normally, the browser indicates a link on the page by playing a sound as the synthesizer announces the text of the link. To turn this feature off, use this setting. You may still tell the presence of a link because the browser speaks the text in a new, definable voice.

Say Graphic Before Graphic Text

Many web pages contain graphics that are labeled. When this option is set to Yes, the browser indicates these graphics by saying, "Graphic" before announcing the text.

Start Reading After a Find Operation

Normally, the browser just moves your cursor to the place on a page where the text to find occurs. You may also instruct it to start reading when it finds the text by setting this option to Yes.

Say "Use Left or Right to Change" when using a List Control

Normally, to help identify list controls on a page, the browser says, "Use Left or Right to Change." To turn this announcement off, set this option to No.

Stop Continuous Read When the Up or Down Key is Pressed

Normally, when you start continuous reading, any key stops it. Sometimes, however, it is useful to press up or down arrow to repeat or skip through parts of a page. To configure the browser to continue reading even after a press of one of the arrows, set this option to No.

Start Page

When you start the browser, it automatically loads a web page. The page it loads is called the start page, and you may set it to anything you like by typing the url to that page in this setting.

Skip To Next Text Chunk Minimum Character Length

This option lets you set a number of characters the browser uses to find meaningful text on a page when you use the telephone keypad 0 command. It works by looking for a chunk of text with at least this many characters.

Browser Voices

The last four options in the Settings form are the four possible voices that browser uses. They are Text, Link, Image, and Form. Browser uses the Text voice to read the page where there is normal text. It uses the Link voice to announce links on the page. When there is a graphic, browser uses the Graphic voice. Finally, when a page shows a form, browser uses the Form voice to read the content of that form.

As you move to each voice in the Settings form with up or down arrow, the browser uses the voice's characteristics to announce the name of the voice. You may alter the pitch, speed, and voice type of all the voices.

To alter the characteristics of a voice, highlight that voice and use the same commands as the Voice Settings option in the Utilities menu as follows:

Lower and Raise Pitch: 1 and 3
Lower and Raise Rate: 4 and 6

To lower the rate of the speech, press 4 while pointing to the desired voice, or to lower the rate of the default voice, hold down Pound while pressing Volume Down. To increase the rate of speech, press 6 while pointing to the desired voice, or to raise the rate of the default voice, hold Pound while pressing Volume Up. Note that the interactive rate changes work from anywhere in the system.

Change Voice: 7 and 9

The keys 7 and 9 cycle through the preset voices.

Email

The email application lets you compose, read, and manage email.

Once you experience the power and convenience of managing your mail with a mobile device like this, you will wonder why you hadn't taken your email mobile before. Particularly powerful is the combination of free wireless hot spots and free email accounts like gmail.com and yahoo.com that support the Pop3 protocol. These options combined with the small size, excellent accessibility, and wireless capabilities make the task of communicating with the world possible in thousands of locations, and all for free.

To start using email, select Email from the Internet menu, or type 4,2 from the Applications menu.

When you start the email program, it opens the Inbox folder and shows a list of messages. The program supports multiple folders in which you may organize messages. To get to the folders list, press Left Arrow. The email program comes with folders for Inbox, Outbox, and Trash, but you may wish to add additional folders; they will show up in the folder list, too.

Use Up and Down Arrow to find the folder of interest in the folder list. The email program responds by moving to the new folder, announcing its name, then announcing how many messages that folder contains. Press Right Arrow to open that folder and display the list of messages.

Configure Email Account

Before you can read and write email, you must set up your account. This configuration is a one time procedure, so you can forget about it once it is done. For the sake of discussion, this documentation provides examples for setting up a google account, but the specifics will vary from provider to provider.

To configure your account, press the menu key and select Accounts. The email program responds with the Accounts menu.

Select New Account from the Accounts menu. The email program responds by showing the Email Account Form.

If you do not know the information requested in the Email Account Form, check with your internet service provider (ISP) or the service provider of the pop3 account. Usually, when you sign up for a pop3 account with a service like gmail, the service provider instructs you about the correct values to use for such a setup. In some web based email accounts, you must turn on the pop3 capability; it may not be enabled by default.

Account Name

Each account uses a name to let you identify and refer to it. Type the name for the account here.

Account is Default

If this is the account you wish to use as your primary or only account, select Yes here. The email program uses the default account as the place from which your messages are normally sent when you create a new message. When you reply to a message, the email program uses the account to which the original message was written no matter the Default Account setting.

Real Name

Type your real name here so that it displays correctly to people who read your messages.

Email Address

Type the email address of the account.

Incoming Mail Server

Type the name of the incoming mail server. You may optionally add a ":" followed by an alternate port number. When setting up an account on gmail, for example, you would use: pop.gmail.com:995 because the name of the mail server for gmail is pop.gmail.com and the port number it uses is 995.

Note that many mail services do not require a port number. If your email provider does not require a special port number, simply eliminate the port number specification from this field.

Incoming Mail Server Type

Select the type of incoming mail server this account uses. The choices are Pop3 and Secure Pop3. Gmail uses Secure Pop3.

Leave Messages on Server

Selecting Yes instructs the mail program to leave the messages on the mail server so you may retrieve them with another program. Some people may wish to let their desktop computer remove the messages from the server. If you do that, anything you retrieve with the email program stays on the server. Then when you use your desktop to retrieve the messages, it may remove them. If you have an account dedicated to the unit, you may wish to set this option to No, so the email program removes the messages from the server once it retrieves them.

Incoming User Name

Type the user name of your account so the email program may login and retrieve your mail.

password

Type the account's password so the email program may log into your account to send and retrieve the mail.

Outgoing Mail Server

Type the name of the outgoing mail server. If the mail server uses an alternate port number, you may add ":" and the port number to the name. The outgoing mail server for Google's gmail accounts is, for example, smtp.gmail.com:587

Outgoing Server Type

Set the appropriate outgoing server type. The email program supports Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) and SMTP with Transport Layer Security (TLS) extension to prevent eavesdropping on your email sessions. Gmail accounts require the SMTP with TLS option.

Outgoing Authentication

Select how your mail server requires authentication. Gmail accounts require this to be set to Yes.

Get New Messages

Before you can read messages, you need to communicate with the central computer that stores your messages until you retrieve them. The email program takes care of all the details of communication when you use the Send and Recieve command on the Program menu. (Note that you must first have an account configured before you can successfully retrieve messages.)

When you use the Send and Receive option, the email program gathers all the emails for all the accounts for which you configured email and places those messages into the Inbox folder. It then looks in your Outbox folder and sends any newly composed messages it finds from you.

Message List

When you start the email program, it shows a list of messages in the Inbox folder. Each item in the list shows who the message is from, its subject, and the date and time of the message.

Move from message to message with Up Arrow and Down Arrow.

Open a message with the Select key.

Delete a message with the asterisk key.

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