Section 1: Before You Turn on the Computer

This Section provides crucial background information to ensure that your first encounter with BEX is a pleasant one. Because computers are so literal-minded, it's important that you're precise when you communicate with them. Part 1 explains the conventions we use in our manuals to help you communicate clearly with the computer.

Part 2 discusses the minimum equipment you need to run BEX. Part 3 discusses some of the equipment you can use with BEX. Depending on your preferences and your vision, you can access the computer in various ways: through letters on the computer monitor in various sizes, through various speech devices, and through braille screen access devices. Part 3 also covers regular printers, large print printers, and braille embossers. If you've never used an Apple before, be sure to read Part 4, where we provide fundamental information about the Apple.

The BEX Interface Guide explains how to connect the special devices that BEX supports to your Apple. For the nitty-gritty details about anything mentioned in this Section, please refer to the extensive descriptions in the BEX Interface Guide.

Part 1: Guide to Conventions in the BEX Manuals

Structure

The BEX Manual is divided into three Levels, Learner, User, and Master. Each Level is divided into numbered Sections, and each Section is further divided into numbered Parts. When we refer to a Part without mentioning a Section, we are talking about a Part within the current Section. All references to another Section refer to the Section within that Level, except when explicitly stated otherwise.

The Index provides page references for all three Levels. Many topics are covered at all three Levels; while the Learner Level reference may simply provide a step-by-step sample, the Master Level reference may provide an in-depth understanding of what's happening.

Symbols used in this manual

We use the following symbols to make sure that you know exactly what to type.

This font shows you exactly what keys to press when you're typing at the Apple keyboard. Any spaces shown in this font are significant. Unless we state otherwise, you type any space shown in this font. In the braille edition, this font is transcribed with the Code for Computer Braille Notation. In the audio edition, we frequently spell out this material letter-by-letter, as well as using a distinctive tone of voice.

This font shows exactly what the computer says so you can compare what's on the screen with what's in the manual. In the braille edition, this is also transcribed with the Code for Computer Braille Notation. When the print shows a dialogue between you and BEX, your responses are in bolder type than what the computer prompts. In this case only, we use emphasis markers in the Computer Braille Transcription. What BEX prompts is emphasized; your response is not.

In the audio edition, it's shown by a slightly lower tone of voice.

Some keys have long names, which we abbreviate throughout the manual. For example, the key labelled Return is abbreviated <CR>. When you need to press the spacebar once, we show it as <space>. Later on you will encounter other character names inside angle brackets.

() Warning! When we want you to pay special attention to a feature, you see a note like this one. () Echo Some information only concerns people with certain equipment. The group that it applies to appears on the left, with the note in the main body of the text.

A tale of two twos

The two in the Apple II family name has been represented many ways over the years. Originally, the two was created from a right bracket next to a left bracket. (And TEXTALKER has a special entry to pronounce this right.) Later on, Apple used two slashes to represent the two; on current Apples, the two is shown with two uppercase letter I's. Of course, devices that plug in to the Apple have used even more ways to show the two. In the BEX Manual, we use the Roman numeral II when talking about Apples. However, whenever the BEX program references two it uses the Arabic digit 2. This ensures clarity in speech output.

Part 2: Equipment Requirements

A detailed technical description of the Apple computers appears in Section 1 of the Interface Guide. Here's a summary.

BEX Performs Best with 128K Apple II

BEX is designed to work on a 128K member of the Apple II family. When you have more than 128K of memory, BEX can use this extra memory for RAM drives. The Apple IIc and IIgs always have at least 128K of memory. If your Apple does not have 128K of memory, you will encounter a number of limitations as you use BEX; in particular, 128K of memory is required for the Master Level. Appendix 4 discusses BEX in a 64K environment.

The information in Appendix 4 is also relevant if your Apple is the oldest member of the Apple II family, the Apple II Plus. While BEX minimally functions on a Apple II Plus, there are many BEX features that you can't take advantage of with the older machine.

The Apple IIe

To use the full power of BEX, install an extended 80-column card, which offers both 80-column text display and 64K of memory. Once you've installed the extended 80-column card, you have a 128K Apple. You cannot operate the Master Level without an extended 80-column card.

An enhanced Apple IIe is different from a 128K Apple IIe with an extended 80-column card. Enhanced means that the main computer chip on the Apple IIe's motherboard has been changed to the same chip that the Apple IIc uses, the 653#02.

The Apple IIc

While the portable Apple IIc does not have slots for memory expansion cards or interface cards, the Apple IIc right out of the box has 128K memory and an 80-column card. The Apple IIc has two serial ports, and BEX fully supports interfacing to many devices through these ports.

The Apple IIgs

The Apple IIgs comes with 256K memory standard. BEX operates well on the newest member of the Apple II family, with one exception. On other Apples, you can enter text through a six-key, Perkins Brailler-style keyboard at the BEX User Level. However, due to differences in hardware, the six-key braille keyboard mode does not work with the Apple IIgs.

The Apple IIgs has both slots, like the IIe, and ports, like the IIc. How the Apple IIgs communicates through these slots or ports is determined by the Control Panel utility built in to the Apple IIgs. More details on this topic appear in Section 1 of the Interface Guide.

The Apple II Plus

We don't recommend using the Apple II Plus as the principal computer with BEX. BEX can minimally function (details in Appendix 4) but there's a lot of frustration ahead. No circuit cards exist to provide an Apple II Plus with the functional equivalent of the memory in a 128K Apple IIe or IIc. This means that the Master Level of BEX is not available on the Apple II Plus. BEX requires 64K of memory in the Apple II Plus to operate at ANY level--you need a language card or 16K RAM card. The Apple II Plus keyboard lacks true upper and lowercase, and some punctuation is missing. BEX allows true upper and lowercase, with or without the shift key mod.

The II Plus keyboard does not have the Open-Apple and Solid-Apple keys that control large print on the screen. The buttons on a joystick or game paddles do function like the Open-Apple and Solid-Apple keys, so if you want large print screen on an Apple II Plus, you need a joystick or game paddles. If you have an Apple II Plus and a 128K Apple, you can use the II Plus to drive your printer while you edit and review text with the more powerful Apple.

Disk Drives

In the past, Apple II'S always used 5.25 floppy disk drives. Beginning in 1986, Apple has also sold 3.5-inch disk drives, sometimes called microfloppy disk drives. To use BEX, your Apple must have at least one 5.25 inch disk drive, because the BEX program disk only boots from 5.25 inch floppy disks.

BEX works best when your Apple has two disk drives. You can tell BEX that you only have one disk drive, and BEX then prompts you to switch between the program disk and a data disk as required. However, you will be switching disks a lot if you have only one disk drive--more information appears in Appendix 3.

At the Learner and User Levels, BEX is limited to two 5.25 inch floppy disk drives. When you have an Apple IIgs with one 5.25 inch disk drive and one 3.5 inch disk drive, the Learner and User Levels of BEX are a little inconvenient.

At the Master Level, however, you have more disk drive options. BEX can store data on both 5.25 inch and 3.5 inch disks. When you have more than 128K memory in your Apple, BEX can use the additional memory for RAM drives. Finally at the Master Level, BEX supports one brand of hard disk system, the Sider manufactured by First Class Peripherals. Master Level Section 3 discusses all the possibilities in detail.

Part 3: Other Equipment You Can Use with BEX

None of the equipment described here is required when you are using BEX, but it certainly can make your computer system more productive.

Printing and Brailling

There are a great variety of inkprint printers: dot matrix, letter quality dot matrix, letter quality daisy wheel, laser printers, ink jet printers, and thermal printers. There are also two ways for the Apple to communicate with a printer: serial and parallel. BEX communicates with almost any inkprint printer in a generic fashion. BEX also has special printer drivers for specific brand name printers that allow boldface, superscripting etc.: check Interface Guide Section 4 for the brand names supported. Your computer dealer can supply you with the interface cards and expertise needed to connect an inkprint printer to your Apple. Learner Level Section 5 provides reference grids that help visually impaired people set up their printer output correctly. Interface Guide Section 4 discusses printer interfacing.

Braille embossers

BEX attempts to support every braille embosser manufactured. To generate Grade II, or literary braille, you need to have a translation program that creates the appropriate computer signals for braille embossers to generate braille. BEX translates from print to Grade II and vice versa. BEX has special drivers for braille embossers that need them. In addition, BEX supports Dipner Dots, a technique for generating draft-quality braille on a daisy-wheel inkprint printer. Information on Dipner Dots and interfacing braille embossers to your Apple is supplied in the BEX Interface Guide.

Large print printers

BEX creates large print output when you have the right combination of interface card and dot matrix printer. The list of supported printers and interface cards is found in Section 4 of the Interface Guide. BEX has two large print fonts: 14 and 18 point.

Voice device as a printer

It's possible to send formatted output to any voice device. The higher quality speech synthesizers can be recorded as they are printing.

Speech synthesizers

There are two basic types of speech devices: integral and serial. BEX works with both types of devices; the integral type offers more features to blind users.

The Echo and Cricket family

Street Electronics manufactures and supports four integral speech synthesizers: the original Echo II; the Echo Plus; the Echo IIb; and the Cricket. (The Echo II is no longer manufactured.) As far as you are concerned, BEX handles all four devices identically; all references to the Echo in this manual apply equally to all four devices. Please note that the Echo GP is not on this list; it's a serial voice device.

The Echo uses various programs. The TEXTALKER program makes the Apple accessible to blind users. The disk supplied in the box with the Echo Plus or Cricket does not contain TEXTALKER; the disk in the Echo IIb does contain TEXTALKER. The BEX program disk (and most other Apple software for blind users) includes TEXTALKER.

TEXTALKER not only allows the Echo to speak any word it encounters, it also provides screen review ability. Screen review lets you randomly examine the contents of the computer screen, so you are not limited to hearing something once and trying to remember it. Because of TEXTALKER'S power, and because the Echo is very reasonably priced, BEX has particularly good support of the Echo's features.

SlotBuster II

Manufactured by RC Systems, the SlotBuster combines speech synthesis with a variety of other functions. You decide what functions you want when you buy the device; they include parallel and serial printer interfaces, a modem port, and a BSR X-10 controller. Because the SlotBuster supports many different functions, it requires more computer sophistication to operate successfully. The BEX program disk contains the SCAT software, which provides the SlotBuster with screen review capabilities slightly superior to TEXTALKER'S. Appendix 2 discusses the SlotBuster II commands.

Serial Voice Devices

At the User Level and Master Level, BEX supports serial voice devices like the Echo GP, DECtalk, Votrax, and others.

Screen Display Options

You can connect either a computer monitor or a TV set to your Apple. If you can't see the screen at all, you only need to connect a voice device; you don't need to connect a monitor to the Apple. Whenever a program interacts with the "screen," it's actually interacting with a part of the Apple that controls the screen. The Apple doesn't know or care if you have a computer monitor or TV set plugged in.

Monitors come in a dizzying array of different sizes and colors; monochrome screens can have white, green, or amber characters. The size of letters on the screen are expressed as some number of columns, or how many characters fit on one line. The actual size of the letters depends on the size of the screen. Forty-column letters are much larger on a 24-inch monitor than on a nine-inch monitor, because the line is longer.

BEX can display text with 80, 40, 20, 10 and 5 column sizes. The 20 column screen shows 160 characters at once; the 10 column screen shows 40 characters at once, while the 5 column screen display only shows 10 characters at a time. Section 3, Part 4 explains how you control the speed of large print screen display with the open-Apple (or command) and solid-Apple (or option) keys.

() Warning! As the screen display changes, the 5 column characters make large areas of light and dark. This strobe effect may cause seizures in persons who are prone to them. If you use the 5-column display, we strongly urge you to reduce the contrast and brightness of the screen output and test the 5 column display gingerly.

Instead of or in addition to using BEX's large print, you can use a large print screen access device. One example is VTEK'S DP-10, consisting of a circuit card and a large monitor. The circuit card grabs all information on the Apple screen and enlarges it.

Braille Screen Access Devices

At all levels, BEX supports many braille devices as printers. As opposed to formatted output to a braille device, it is also possible to use a braille device to gain access to the information on the computer screen. The Learner Level of BEX does not support using a braille screen access device in this fashion. Using a serial braille device, like either VersaBraille, the Braille Display Processor, or the Cranmer Brailler, is supported by BEX's User Level and Master Level, but may not be the most efficient way to use BEX.

Part 4: Foreground Information

In this Part, we briefly discuss some basic features of the Apple computer. If you are familiar with the Apple's keyboard, know what booting and DOS mean, and understand how to communicate with the Apple through menus, then you can skip the rest of the Section and move to Learner Level Section 2.

Appendix 5 contains names and addresses for publishers of accessible computer materials. In addition to the resources listed there, check out local Apple user groups in your area. You can find where and when they meet by asking at an Apple computer dealer; their members include both newcomers and experienced Apple users eager to help newcomers out.

The Cursor

This is a special symbol that marks your place. In BEX, the cursor is a square blob of light. When you type characters on the keyboard, they appear at the cursor. You can move the cursor to cover existing text; it changes from a square blob to a reversed picture of the character it's covering. When you use screen review software with the Echo, you can have two cursors. In addition to the screen cursor, you can control an audio cursor that marks where the next text is spoken. The audio cursor is not shown by a blob of light; you can command the Echo to speak the position of the audio cursor.

Apple Keys You Must Know

Locate these keys on your Apple keyboard so that you can issue commands to the Apple and BEX. Every Apple has a slightly different keyboard layout. Complete keyboard maps for every Apple model are provided in Part 5.

Booting the Apple

Some programs are built in to the Apple--when you turn the machine on, they are waiting to be used. One is the programming language called Applesoft BASIC. You may wish to explore programming in BASIC yourself, but you don't have to know a thing about it to use BEX.

More importantly, there's one little routine inside the Apple that lets you get started. When you first turn the Apple on, it knows just enough to look for a disk drive controller card. If it finds one, it says to the card: "OK, start spinning the disk in drive 1 and see if you can find a program to tell me what to do next." When it finds this information it's automatically loaded into the Apple's memory for use until you turn the machine off again.

The Apple is smart enough to pull itself up by its own bootstraps. That's why this process is called booting the Apple, or sometimes, booting a disk.

There are two ways to boot the Apple. A cold boot means you start with the power off. You insert a disk in drive 1, close the drive door, and turn on the power.

A warm boot means that the power is already on. You insert a program disk in drive 1 and close the door. You press three keys for a warm boot in a particular sequence. Press Open-Apple, then Control, then Reset; and then release these in reverse order: release Reset, then release Control, then release Open-Apple. The disk in drive 1 starts spinning.

If you turn off the power and then immediately turn it back on again, the Apple may not boot correctly. There's a lot of electrical energy that's stored in the Apple, and it takes at least 30 seconds for the energy to dissipate. For a successful cold boot, turn off the power and then wait 30 seconds before turning the power back on again.

What DOS does

All computers use a Disk Operating System, abbreviated DOS. (It rhymes with toss.) DOS controls how the computer handles information. DOS provides instructions for the computer to use in reading and writing data and programs from disk; interpreting input from the keyboard and other places; and displaying characters on the screen, to printers, to voice devices, to braille devices, etc.

DOS is what the Apple loads into memory when it boots. The DOS on BEX's boot disk is called ProntoDOS, which RDC Inc. licenses from its creator, Tom Weishaar. It's a quicker version of the older Apple operating system called DOS 3.3.

Not every disk has the DOS software on it; if you try to boot a disk that doesn't have DOS, the disk just spins endlessly. Placing DOS on a disk uses some space. BEX lets you prepare disks to store data by initializing them. BEX does not place DOS on these disks, so you have more room for your text.

The BASIC Prompt

BEX issues DOS commands that tell the Apple to load information from the disk into the Apple's memory. You can also temporarily quit BEX and issue DOS commands. The Apple lets you know that it's ready for DOS or Applesoft BASIC commands with a single ] character on the screen; we refer to this character as the BASIC prompt. The TEXTALKER software makes the Echo pronounce the right square bracket as ready, since the BASIC prompt means the Apple is ready for your commands.

Even if you don't plan on doing any Applesoft BASIC programming, the BASIC prompt is important to recognize. Many times when something unexpected happens in BEX, you recover by crashing the program. Crash is a dramatic word, but don't be frightened: all you do is temporarily stop BEX dead in its tracks. You then receive the BASIC prompt. You depress your Caps Lock key, type RUN <CR> and you're up and running again. Details in Section 13.

Part 5: Keyboard Maps

Throughout this Manual and the following keyboard maps, we use the official, dictionary names for all punctuation characters. Many voice devices use different terms when describing punctuation. The following list shows the seven terms where the Echo's vocabulary deviates from the standard names.
Character    Official Name    Echo Calls It
^    caret    up arrow
&    ampersand    and
*    asterisk    star
_    underbar    underline
|    vertical bar    vertical line
-    hyphen    dash
]    right bracket    ready

Apple IIgs

The Apple IIgs has five rows of keys in the main keyboard, plus a numeric keypad on the righthand side. Main keyboard:

The Reset key is a long rectangle parallel and above the 5 and 6 keys; it's labelled with an incised triangle pointing left.

The numeric keypad has five rows: Top row is Clear; equals sign; slash; asterisk. Second row is digits 7; 8; 9; plus sign. Third row is digits 4; 5 (has raised dot); 6; hyphen. Fourth row is digits 1; 2; 3; and top half of Enter key. Bottom row is double-width zero, period, bottom half of Enter key.

Eight keys on the Apple IIgs are single-character control keys. Escape is the same as control-left bracket. Tab is the same as control-I. Both Enter and Return are the same as control-M. Left arrow is the same as control-H. Right arrow is the same as control-U. Up arrow is the same as control-K. Down arrow is the same as control-J. Clear is the same as control-X.

Apple IIe with numeric keypad

The keyboard layout of the Apple IIe changed in 1987. The newest models have numeric keypads; if yours doesn't, see the next map. Apple IIe has five rows of keys in the main keyboard, plus a numeric keypad on the righthand side. Main keyboard:

The Reset key is a slightly recessed square above the top row, halfway between the Escape and digit 1 keys; it's labelled Reset.

The numeric keypad has five rows: Top row is Escape; equals sign; slash; asterisk. Second row is digits 7; 8; 9; plus sign. Third row is digits 4; 5 (has raised dot); 6; hyphen. Fourth row is digits 1; 2; 3; and top half of Enter key. Bottom row is double-width zero, period, bottom half of Enter key.

Seven keys on the Apple IIe are single-character control keys. Escape is the same as control-left bracket. Tab is the same as control-I. Both Enter and Return are the same as control-M. Left arrow is the same as control-H. Right arrow is the same as control-U. Up arrow is the same as control-K. Down arrow is the same as control-J.

Apple IIc and pre-1987 Apple IIe

The keyboard layout of the Apple IIe changed in 1987. The newest models have numeric keypads; if yours does, see the previous map. Apple IIe and IIc keyboards are identical except for the position of the Reset key. There are five rows of keys:

Section 2: An Exploratory Trip through BEX

This Section takes you on a guided tour of the most important BEX functions. The BEX program disk is a flippy disk; it contains programs on both sides. One side is labelled Boot; it contains the information the Apple needs to get started running BEX, plus the Starting Menu. As we explore the Starting Menu, we show you how to make backup copies of your BEX disks, and other useful tasks.

The other side of the BEX disk is labelled Main and contains the bulk of the program: the Main, Second, and Page Menus. In this trip we demonstrate BEX's Editor and Print formatter, found on the Main Menu. We explore some options on the Second and Page Menus as well. Along the way, we provide definitions for words that have special meanings in BEX.

Part 1: Are You Ready to Go?

To take this exploratory trip, you need to set up your Apple system and have the right materials. Gather together your two-sided BEX program disk and the BEXtras disk. One of the first things we'll do is make backup copies of your BEX disks, so you'll need at least four high-quality blank disks.

There are several sources of help for setting up your Apple system. First off, check the Owners Guide that came with your Apple--it does an excellent job of explaining the basics of your computer. (See Appendix 5 for organizations that supply Apple manuals in large print, audio tape, and braille.) The BEX Interface Guide provides details on installing special devices, like voice synthesizers and braillers. Finally, Apple computers are very popular in schools. Chances are excellent that you can find a technically-adept high school student who can set up your system if you are having trouble.

When you have an Echo II, Echo Plus, or Echo IIb, you should install it following the instructions in the Interface Guide. Always turn off the Apple's power when you install or remove a circuit card, or you'll fry your Apple! Make sure that the volume knob on the Echo circuit card is not turned all the way down. Plug the speaker into the jack on the circuit card.

When you have a Cricket, you must plug it into port 2 on the Apple IIc (on the right-hand side). The Cricket must be turned on before you start using BEX. Check to make sure that the Cricket volume knob is not turned all the way down.

When you have an inkprint printer, plug it in to slot or port 1. This exploratory trip assumes that your printer is plugged in to slot or port 1. Section 3 discusses how you tell BEX where to find your printers and braillers.

Part 2: Get Started by Booting Up BEX

Turn off the power to the Apple. Insert the BEX program disk into disk drive 1, with the side labelled BEX boot facing up. Turn the Apple on. When everything goes well, the disk drive whirs for around 20 seconds, and then BEX prompts: Enter configuration: and beeps. When you have an Echo or Cricket connected properly, then it should also speak the Enter configuration: prompt.

If you don't get this prompt in 20 seconds, try it again. Turn off the Apple's power and wait for 30 seconds, then go through the same routine. If your Echo or Cricket didn't speak, check to make sure all the connections are secure and the volume knobs are turned up.

If you turn on the power and then start hearing annoying loud blaaats like a submarine diving, it means that you inserted the Main side of BEX instead of the Boot side. You must always start with the Boot side. Turn the Apple off to stop the noise, then flip the disk over, and try again.

Part 3: Get Started with a Supplied Configuration

A configuration is a file on the Boot side of your BEX disk that lists your equipment preferences. BEX can work with many different devices, and the Boot side of BEX contains programs for working with large print printers, large print screen display, the Echo, 16 different braillers, etc. All these programs can't fit in the Apple's memory at once. You supply BEX with a list of your preferences, and BEX makes sure that the appropriate programs are there for you to use.

In Section 3 we describe how you set up a new configuration. We have supplied six configurations that allow most people to get access to the Apple and explore. The supplied configurations are very limited. None of the supplied configurations include a braille embosser. As soon as you've taken the exploratory trip, you should establish a configuration that describes your equipment. If none of the supplied configurations matches your situation, read Section 3 to see how to set up your own configuration.

The names of the supplied configurations are each two characters long. To tell BEX to use one of the six existing configurations, you press three keys: a letter, the number of disk drives you have, then the carriage return key.

When you can see the regular screen, and have

When you want Echo or Cricket output, and have

When you want 20-column large print screen display, and have

After you press <CR>, BEX reads the information in the configuration file on disk. Then, BEX displays its owner's name, zip code, and a six to ten digit serial number. Make note of this information: we'll ask you for it if you call for Technical Support.

() One Disk Drive Throughout the Exploratory Trip, we provide details on how you use BEX with one disk drive. In the rest of the Manual, however, we assume you have two disk drives. Further details on BEX with a one-drive system are supplied in Appendix 3.

After BEX displays the serialization information, the disk whirs for a moment and BEX announces:
Starting Menu
Enter Option:
You have arrived at the Starting Menu prompt. Whenever a computer asks you for information, it's called a prompt. Some prompts are like English questions, for example Do you want to continue? Other prompts are much shorter. When BEX asks a yes or no question, it prompts with just the first letter Y or N.

Part 4: Explore the Starting Menu

At all four BEX menus, pressing <CR> gives a list of the available options. Do this now and you see the Starting Menu's options. At all BEX menus, you choose an option by pressing one letter. No <CR> is required or expected after the one letter choice at a menu prompt.

Some BEX options are available at all menus, while some are only available at particular menus. We will explore some of the more important options on each of BEX's four menus in this trip.

Controlling large print letters

When you are using the L2 or L1 configuration, BEX makes 20-column letters on the screen. You can control how fast these letters appear with the open-Apple (or Command) and solid-Apple (or Option) keys. Whenever you depress just the open-Apple key (or Command) key, large print scrolling freezes. Release the key to allow scrolling to continue. Whenever you depress just the solid-Apple (or Option) key, large print scrolling slows to a crawl. When you release the key, scrolling resumes. We explore these issues in detail in Section 3, Part 4.

Controlling the Echo

You can issue Echo commands at all BEX menus, including the Starting Menu. We discuss Echo commands in detail in Section 10. The configurations we supplied establish a particular set of Echo parameters: how fast the Echo speaks, what punctuation it pronounces and what punctuation is silent, and how loud it is. It takes some time to get used to the Echo speech.

One Echo command adds a pause between every word; this can make it easier to decipher what the Echo's saying. The delay command is three keystrokes: control-E, a number between zero and eight, then D. The Echo starts out at zero, meaning no delay between words. To add a medium-length delay between words, enter control-E 4 D at the menu prompt.

BEX Disk Catalogs and BEX Pages

Option D - Disk catalog is available at all four BEX menus. When you press D, BEX prompts Which Drive? followed by a number. This number is either 1 or 2. It shows the disk drive where your data is usually read and written. This number is an example of a default response. Many times BEX supplies you with a possible choice. You can accept this value by pressing <CR>, or you can change this default by typing a different number and pressing <CR>.

Insert your BEXtras disk in drive 2. Press D, then acknowledge the default drive number by pressing <CR>.

() One Disk Drive When you press D, BEX prompts you to swap disks with the Insert data disk prompt. Remove the BEX program from your drive and replace it with the BEXtras disk.

After you press <CR>, BEX reads the disk and presents you with a list of chapters. A chapter is BEX's basic unit for text. You edit text in a chapter, one chapter at a time. For most other BEX options, you can work with many chapters at once. BEX uses the chapter's name to organize information on floppy disk.

A chapter is subdivided into pages, and each page is stored as one file on the disk. How text is divided between BEX pages on disk is completely independent of how many output pages the text fills when printed or embossed. To help you remember this independence between pages on disk and pages when printed, we always talk about a BEX page or an output page. A BEX chapter can contain one character on one page, or up to 112,000 characters on 30 pages. A BEX data disk always contains many more files than BEX chapters.

After BEX presents the list of chapters on the BEXtras disk, BEX prompts: Press space for DOS catalog and pauses. When you press any key except <space>, you return to the menu prompt. When you press <space>, you see a list of every file on the BEXtras disk. DOS displays 24 files at a time and pauses to give you a chance to review the names. When there are more than 24 files, you press <space> to see another group of 24 files. Once all the files on disk are listed, BEX automatically brings you back to the Starting Menu prompt.

() Caution! You should not press <space> at the last screen of filenames. When you press <space> at the Starting Menu, you move to the Main Menu. If you pressed <space> at the last screen of filenames, then the Apple would hold on to that character and pass it to BEX at the Starting Menu prompt. Because the Boot side of BEX is still in drive 1, BEX would beep and complain that it can't find a program it needs on disk.

The many filenames you see when you press <space> after a BEX catalog is exactly what you get when you type the DOS command CATALOG <CR> at the BASIC prompt, and that's why it's called a DOS catalog. An introduction to the DOS commands is presented in User Level Section 13.

Part 5: Initializing a Data Disk

Before you can save your text on a disk, you must initialize the disk. Initializing totally erases any existing data, and establishes magnetic pigeonholes for information storage. Placing an uninitialized disk in the drive is like not inserting any disk at all: BEX can't save data on it.

Prepare a data disk to use as you explore BEX. At the Starting Menu prompt, press I. BEX responds with three irritating beeps and Warning Warning Warning! We want you to be sure you want to erase all the information from the disk! BEX then prompts Do you want to proceed? and supplies a default yes response, the letter Y.

Whenever BEX asks yes or no questions, it just uses the first letter--when you supply BEX with a yes or no response, you only need to type Y or N followed by <CR>.

Your cursor is on top of the Y. When you press <CR>, you accept the default response. If you don't want to proceed, type N <CR> and you return to the menu prompt.

In this case, you do want to proceed, so press <CR>. Now BEX tells you to insert the disk in the drive. Insert a blank disk in drive 2 (drive 1 when you only have one disk drive). BEX asks you to press <space>. If you press any other key besides <space>, you return to the Starting Menu prompt. Again, you do want to initialize the disk, so press <space>. BEX then starts to initialize the disk. Whenever you initialize a disk, you hear a dramatic sound we call gronking. Don't worry--this is normal. After a few gronks, you hear a regular pattern of writing to disk.

If there's something wrong with the disk, then BEX won't be able to initialize it, and tells you so. Please don't try to economize by buying inexpensive disks. In our experience, it's worthwhile to pay a few extra dimes for a disk you can count on.

One of the next stops on our exploratory trip is making a working, or backup, copy of your BEX program disk. The BEX program is copy-protected; we only allow you to make three backup copies of your BEX disk. If BEX encountered a problem with a disk while it was copying the BEX master, you would lose one of your backup copies. To ensure that the disks for your backup copies will work, initialize them first. The BEX program disk has two sides, so you need to initialize two disks to prepare for making the backup copies. Use option I - Initialize disks now to initialize the two disks for your BEX program.

Flippies and floppies

The Master BEX disk is a flippy disk; both sides of the disk have been designed and tested for data storage. If you have flippy disks, you can make your backup copies on one flippy. Some people make a flippy disk from a floppy disk by just cutting another notch in the disk. We think this is a bad idea. If you use a paper punch or other tool to cut another notch in a floppy disk, the "new" side may be of very poor quality. If you want flippies and you can't find them at your local computer store, RDC sells flippy disks at a reasonable price.

Many disks are labelled double density or double sided. These words are often abbreviated to DD or DS. Don't confuse these terms with a flippy disk. Double sided means that both sides are certified for storing data. IBM disk drives can read and write from both sides of a disk at once. Apple disk drives can only read from the top side of a disk. Only use flippy disks manufactured with two write-enable notches.

Take care of your disks!

A floppy disk is a very handy item, but is quite vulnerable to damage when handled carelessly. Never touch the exposed surface of a disk. Insert the disk carefully into the drive, without bending or twisting. When a disk isn't in the disk drive, it should be in its paper jacket. Never write on the label of a disk with a ballpoint pen or pencil, as it can damage the surface. Keep your disks in the proper environment: between 50 and 125 degrees Farenheit.

We can tell you horror stories about the hours required to retype all the data lost when coffee dribbles onto a floppy disk. Unfortunately, this is one lesson most people learn the hard way. The most important rule for handling disks is never have your hands on the only copy! We tell you how to copy disks with BEX in just a few paragraphs. But more important than the technical details is that you should always make copies of any disk you care about. Making copies of your disk is so important that there's a word for it in computer jargon: backing up.

Part 6: Copying Disks

One Starting Menu option is C - Copy disks. When you press C, BEX confirms your choice with Copy disks and then tells you how the copy function works. BEX assumes that your original disk is in drive 1, and the duplicate disk you create is in drive 2. Once you place the appropriate disks in these drives, you press <CR> to start the copying process.

We practice copying disks with the BEXtras disk. At the start of the trip, you gathered four blank disks. In the previous part, you initialized three of these disks. The fourth disk has not yet been initialized; insert it in drive 2. Place your BEXtras disk in drive 1, and then proceed as follows:
Starting Menu
Enter Option: C
Copy disks.
Copy entire contents of disk in drive 1
on to disk in drive 2.
Press RETURN to begin copy. <CR>
BEX starts out by initializing the disk in drive 2, so you hear the same gronks as when you initialize. Then BEX reads some data from drive 1 and writes it to drive 2. It takes around two minutes to finish the copy; when it's complete BEX returns to the menu prompt.

() One Disk Drive BEX prompts you to alternate between your original disk and the duplicate disk you are creating. You must follow these prompts faithfully, or you end up with a mess. Here's a hint: when you remove the original from the drive, place it on the left side of your computer. When you remove the duplicate, place it on the right side. It's easier to keep track of which disk is which when you always reach left for the original and reach right for the duplicate.

You don't have to initialize every disk before you copy on to it, because Copy disks initializes as its first step. However, we do recommend that you initialize the disks for your BEX backups before you copy on to them, to ensure that you encounter no problems in the middle of copying your Master.

Part 7: How and Why to Copy Your BEX Disks

We hope we've convinced you that a floppy disk is a vulnerable item. We want you to enjoy using BEX for many years to come. If you always used your BEX Master disk, then an accident would mean you couldn't use BEX. To ensure that you always have a working copy, use option C - Copy disks on the Starting Menu to make backups of both sides of your BEX Master disk. Once you do, store the Master disk in a different and safe place, and always use the backup. Don't keep your BEX Master disk and your working backup in the same place. If you kept both Master and bakup in the same box, then you would be in deep trouble when the roof leaks on your disk holder. If your backup disk is damaged, you can then make another working copy from the Master.

Backups are for your use only

Because BEX disks receive heavy wear, your Master disk is programmed to allow you to make three backup copies of each side. Any attempt to make further backup copies will be unsuccessful. If you don't make a backup copy and always use your Master BEX disk, you are risking inconvenience if your pet rabbit chews your BEX master disk to pieces. If you do encounter problems with your BEX Master disk, contact the technical support staff at 608-257-8833.

We know that most BEX users are honorable people, and would not consider making a copy of BEX and giving it to someone who hasn't bought the program. Unfortunately, we have encountered a dishonorable minority who are willing to do just that. This is why BEX is copy-protected.

The BEX program and all its documentation is copyrighted, as well as copy-protected. Our copyright on BEX means that you cannot make copies of BEX to give or sell to another person. You can only use BEX on one computer at a time. Treat BEX like you would treat a book. If you want to read a book at home and at work, you carry the book back and forth. You don't photocopy or thermoform the book and leave one copy at home and one at work.

When you need to use BEX on more than one computer at a time, you should contact RDC about legally obtaining multiple copies of the program. RDC offers special prices for bulk purchases. If you have four computers, do not make three backup copies and use them plus your Master disk. If you did, you would be violating our copyright and breaking the law. In addition to the moral problem, there's a practical risk as well--you should never use your Master BEX disk. RDC offers special prices for bulk purchases--contact us for more information.

Since your BEX backup copies will see heavy use, it's important that the disks you copy onto are high-quality disks. An easy way to make sure that your disk will work is to initialize it first, using option I - Initialize disks. If there is something wrong with your disk, BEX refuses to initialize it.

Backing up BEX step-by-step

Now that the lecture is over, it's time to make your working backup. Check to make sure your BEX Boot disk is in drive 1; place one of the pre-initialized blank disks in drive 2. Now press C and follow the instructions on the screen. When you press <CR>, BEX makes a loud gronking sound as it identifies your Master disk, and then reminds you to use a high quality disk for your backup. You must enter Y <CR> to start the copying process. Again, it requires around two minutes to finish copying. For a one-drive system, BEX prompts you to swap disks as needed.

When the Boot side copy is complete, you're back at the Starting Menu. Press C again. Remove your master BEX boot side from drive 1, flip it over to the BEX main side, and reinsert it in drive 1. Insert another high-quality, pre-initialized blank disk in drive 2, and go through this procedure again. If you have flippy disks, you can create a double-sided backup instead of two separate disks.

Once the Main side copy is complete, insert your backup BEX Boot disk in drive 1. Put your original BEX Master flippy and BEXtras disk in a safe place in another room.

We have finished exploring the Starting Menu. The other Starting Menu options are discussed in Section 3, Part 1. If you want to take a break, this is a good opportunity. Our next step is moving to the Main side of BEX and seeing what's there.

Part 8: Explore the Main Disk

If you paused at the previous Part, you should get BEX up and running again. Insert the backup Boot disk in drive 1 and turn on the power. At the Enter configuration: prompt, type one of the six supplied configurations names, and you arrive at the Starting Menu.

The BEX Boot disk contains the configuration programs and the Starting Menu. The rest of BEX is on the Main disk. Remove the Boot disk, find the backup of the BEX Main disk, insert it in drive 1, and press <space>. BEX announces:
Main Menu
Enter Option:
and you've arrived at the Main Menu program.

When you want to move from the Main Menu back to the Starting Menu, you use the same procedure. At the Main Menu, insert the Boot side in drive 1 and press <space>.

What's on the Main Menu

When you press <CR> for the list of BEX options, there are ten items on the list. S and Z let you move to other menus. D and # let you examine disk information. Four options form the heart of the Main Menu. Option E - Editor is where you type and correct text; we explore it soon in Part 11. When you want to send your text to a printer or brailler, you use option P - Print chapters; we show you how this works in Part 12. Option G - Grade 2 translator changes inkprint text into contracted grade 2 braille. A step-by-step sample of using this feature appears in Section 7. Finally, option R - Replace characters lets you alter your text in systematic ways. It's described in Section 12.

Moving Around on the Main Disk

Each of the three menus on the Main disk is accessible from every other. Press S and you move to the Second Menu. Press Z and you "zip" to the Page Menu. At both the Second and Page Menus, press J to "jump" back to the Main Menu. When you are already at the Main Menu and press J, BEX just repeats the menu prompt.

Some options are available at all menus. You can always get the list of options by pressing <CR>. You can always find out how much room is left on a disk by pressing the number sign. Pressing D always performs a Disk catalog, the list of BEX chapters. Finally, you can use control-E to send Echo commands.

Typing Your Part of the Dialogue so BEX Understands

When you communicate with BEX at a menu, every letter you type is interpreted as uppercase. It doesn't matter whether you use the shift key or depress the Caps Lock key. Of course, when you want to type a shifted character like the question mark in your chapter name, then you'd better use the shift key!

When you type your responses in the computer dialogue, you can't type very fast. The E1 and E2 configurations are set to Most punctuation, so the Echo speaks every key your press at menus except <CR>. When you are reading the screen, make sure that every letter you type appears there.

Part 9: Copying chapters

You are about to edit and modify an chapter named QUANDARY on your BEXtras disk. We use this same chapter as a sample throughout the Learner Level. To ensure that you have an original version of this chapter, you make a copy of it first with option C - Copy chapters on the Second Menu.

Make sure your BEX Main side is in drive 1, then press S. At all BEX Menus, you press a single letter to choose an option. BEX reads the Second Menu program from disk and presents the Second Menu prompt. Insert your BEXtras disk in drive 2; in drive 1, place the data disk you initialized earlier. You specify the chapter named QUANDARY on the disk in drive 2, and copy it to a chapter named MY QUANDARY on the disk in drive 1. Here's how this dialogue goes:
Second Menu
Enter Option: C
Copy chapters
Drive number or chapter name:
BEX allows you to specify chapters in two ways. You can type in the complete chapter name, when you know it. Or, you can scan a disk for chapters--we demonstrate this in the next Part. You know the chapter name, so you proceed as follows:
Drive number or chapter name: QUANDARY <CR>
Target chapter name:
The target chapter is what BEX calls the copy you are creating. Many BEX options allows you to create modified copies of chapters, so you will become very familiar with the Target chapter name: prompt.

You want to write the copy on the disk in drive 1. BEX always looks at the disk in drive 2 unless you tell it otherwise. To signal BEX to write the MY QUANDARY chapter on drive 1, you precede the chapter name with the digit 1, like so:
Target chapter name: 1MY QUANDARY <CR>
After you provide BEX with the target chapter name, it copies the text in the chapter from drive 2 to drive 1. When it's finished, it announces Chapter QUANDARY done and returns to the menu prompt. (Note that BEX uses the original, or source chapter name to tell you when it's finished.)

Copying chapters on a One-Drive System

Copy chapters on the Second Menu allows you to copy between two disks. The dialogue goes like this:
Second Menu
Enter Option: C
Copy chapters
Insert data disk
Drive number or chapter name: QUANDARY <CR>
Target chapter name: MY QUANDARY <CR>
You don't have to precede the chapter name MY QUANDARY with the digit 1, because BEX knows that you only have one disk drive. All data is always read from and written to drive 1. The dialog continues:
Copy to another disk? Y <CR>
Insert source disk
You then insert the BEXtras disk in your drive. When ready, press any key. BEX continues:
Insert destination disk
Insert the initialized disk in the drive; when ready, press any key.
Insert source disk
and so forth. It requires five disk swaps to copy the QUANDARY chapter. BEX can't tell the difference between the source and target disks. When BEX prompts to insert the source and destination disks, you must faithfully insert the correct disk.

Part 10: Exploring the Editor

Once you have made a working copy of the QUANDARY chapter, it's time to experiment with the Editor. The Editor is on the Main Menu. Insert your BEX Main disk in drive 1, then press J.

Word Processor vs. Typewriter: Some Important Differences

When you type on a typewriter, you use the spacebar, the return key, and the tab key to manually control where every character appears. You have to press the return key at the end of each line to move to the next line and return the carriage to the left margin. Unless you have a fancy electronic typewriter, you can't go back to change a line once you've advanced to the next line. If you want to fix a mistake, you have to use correction fluid or dusty white plastic slips. If you're visually impaired, there's no simple way for you to review what you've written. On the other hand, you can use a word processor or text editor like BEX, and have a lot more fun.

Typing text in the Editor is quite different from typing on a typewriter. First and foremost, when you make a mistake, it's easy to correct it. If you spell one word wrong, you can just fix that one word without having to retype an entire line or an entire page. That's because you don't manually format every line. Instead of using the return and tab keys to control where your text appears on the sheet, you use format indicators and format commands. These are characters you type in your text. The format indicator and format command characters control what happens when you send the text out of the Apple to a printer, brailler, or voice device. As you explore an existing chapter, you'll notice several strange combinations of dollar signs, numbers, and letters. These are the format indicators and commands, described in detail in Section 6.

Editing the MY QUANDARY Chapter

You are now at the Main Menu. To start using the Editor, press E, and BEX confirms your choice. Insert the disk with the MY QUANDARY chapter in drive 2. Instead of specifying this chapter by name, let's use the scanning feature. Here's how it goes:
Main Menu
Enter Option: E
Editor
Drive number or chapter name: 2 <CR>
There are 1 chapters
1 MY QUANDARY
Chapter number:
When you enter a disk drive number followed by <CR>, BEX reads the disk in that drive and presents a numbered list of every chapter on the disk. In this case, there is only one chapter, so it's numbered 1. BEX now prompts you to enter the number of the chapter you want to edit. If you just press <CR> at this Chapter number: prompt, you return to the Main Menu prompt. More details about scanning disks and selecting chapters from numbered lists appear in Section 11. To start editing the MY QUANDARY chapter, proceed like this:
Chapter number: 1 <CR>
There are 4 pages
Edit on page 1 <CR>

Once you supply the chapter number, BEX pauses a moment, reads the disk, and discovers how many pages the MY QUANDARY chapter contains. In this case, MY QUANDARY has four pages; BEX supplies you with a default value for where you want to start editing by prompting: Edit on page 1

You can start editing on any of the four pages. The beginning seems as good a place as any, so accept the default by pressing <CR>.

BEX now reads the disk file that contains the text of page 1. BEX copies this information to a particular place in the Apple's memory called the page buffer. When you use the Editor, you are always working in the page buffer. To store a lasting edition of your text, you copy it from the page buffer to your data disk. This happens automatically when you move between pages or quit the Editor.

Once BEX has copied the text of page 1 to the page buffer, BEX announces page 1 and you have arrived in the Editor. At the upper left hand corner of the screen, there's the little rectangular cursor. The character the cursor covers appears as a dark shape within a light square.

The cursor marks your place in the text. BEX has many commands that let you move the cursor: some move silently, and some talk as they move. As you type each letter, it appears at the cursor and the cursor moves over one to the right.

Using Editor commands

There are many Editor commands, but we'll just introduce a few here. Detailed explanations of several more Editor commands are in Section 4 of the Learner Level, as well as a summary that appears in the Quick Reference Card. All Editor commands start with a control character, so it's important to know how to enter them correctly. You enter a control character by depressing the control key, then pressing a character, then releasing both control key and letter key. We show the combination of the control key and the other character by joining them with a hyphen. There are some control characters which are also separate keys on the Apple.

You can move one word at a time using control-G and control-R. Control-G goes ahead one word and talks. Control-R reverses one word and talks. When you don't have a voice device, then control-G and control-R move your cursor silently.

A word in BEX is a group of characters without a space or <CR> in it. Control-G and control-R move word-by-word, so your cursor always moves from the space or <CR> that defines the start of the word to the space or <CR> that defines the end of the word. When your cursor is in the middle of a word and you type control-G, your voice device only pronounces that portion of the word in front of your cursor. Control-R acts differently; when your cursor is in the middle of a word and you type control-R, the entire word is spoken.

Try using control-G now: you hear "dollar sign, dollar sign, d" then a low boop. (When you don't have a voice device, your cursor moves and you hear the boop.) Whenever BEX finishes executing an Editor command, you hear the low boop. The first four words in the MY QUANDARY chapter are some of those format commands we mentioned earlier. Don't worry about what they mean right now.

Keep entering control-G. The first few real words are spoken in a high-pitched voice--that's because they are all uppercase words. Use the left and right arrow keys to move character by character in these words, and the Echo says cap Very, cap I, cap S and so forth. You can always use the arrow keys to find out the exact character. The Echo always pronounces the character when you land on it with the left or right arrow key.

Continue using control-G: the next words are spoken with a slightly lower pitch which indicates that they have an initial uppercase letter. Words that are all lowercase are spoken at the Echo's normal pitch. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move up and down lines on the screen. The up and down arrow keys are silent, except for the boop to indicate the execution of the command.

The keyboard buffer

When you are a fast typist, or when you use a large print screen display, you may hear little clicks from the Apple speaker as you type. BEX stores all the characters you type in a special place in memory called the keyboard buffer. BEX feeds each character from the keyboard buffer to the screen or to the Echo at a pace it can handle. Every time BEX hands over another character to the screen or Echo, you hear a click. Both the text you type and the commands you enter are stored in the keyboard buffer.

The keys on Apple II keyboards have an auto-repeat feature. When you hold down a key for more than a half-second, the character automatically repeats. For sighted users, don't hold down the left and right arrow keys to move your cursor forward several words. If you do this, the keyboard buffer stores more move-one-character commands than you expect, and your cursor overshoots. Use control-G and control-R instead.

The auto-repeat feature also affects voice output users. Try holding down control-G for a few seconds. For the first few words, the Echo barely speaks the start of one word before it starts saying the start of the next word. After the first few strange-sounding words, the Echo returns to normal. Whenever the Echo receives a command, it acts on it immediately. If the Echo happens to be talking when it gets a command, it shuts up. That's what's happening for the first few words. As you become familiar with the Apple, you will grow to love this any-keystroke-silences-speech feature. It means you don't have to listen to the Echo saying familiar prompts.

The Paragraph Indicator

BEX uses a special combination of characters to indicate the beginning of a paragraph. It's always four keystrokes long: space, dollar sign, lowercase people, space. Because you must type the initial and final spaces for the paragraph indicator to work, we always show the paragraph indicator as ( $p ). Don't type the parentheses; they are just there to emphasize the initial and final space.

The Editor has a number of commands oriented around the paragraph indicator. You can move your cursor forward silently to the next paragraph ( $p ) indicator by issuing the Editor command control-A control-P. To help you remember the command, think of advancing a paragraph. After you press control-A control-P, press control-G. The voice says dollar sign people. Control-A control-P places your cursor on the initial space that defines the paragraph ( $p ) indicator.

Page 1 of the MY QUANDARY chapter has many paragraphs: enter control-A control-P five times and your cursor is at the beginning of the fifth paragraph. Try using control-R to Reverse your cursor back word-by-word. To return to the first character in the page, enter control-Z <space>. To help you remember this command, think of zooming back to the beginning. To advance to the last character of the page, enter control-A <space>.

Announcing All Keystrokes

If you are unfamiliar with the Apple keyboard, you can ask BEX to talk every key you press. Depress the control key, then press the letter So, then release the control key. Now press the letter A. You have just issued the Editor command control-S A which tells BEX to announce all keystrokes. Because the Echo stops talking every time it gets a new keystroke, you have to type fairly slowly to hear every key you type.

Many commands consist of a series of keystrokes, like control-S A. For easier reading, we put a space between the S and the A. Do not type this spaces. For some commands, you do press the spacebar; we write this as <space>.

When you don't want to hear every keystroke announced, you turn off this feature by pressing Control-S A again. When the same command turns something on and off, it's called a toggle. In the Editor, there are a variety of toggled commands like Control-S A. These commands change how you interact with the computer: we refer to these as environmental commands. MovingBetween Pages

Each BEX chapter is made up of smaller units called BEX pages. As mentioned earlier, a BEX page is just a collection of characters stored as one file on disk. A BEX page is independent of an output page. Now that you've explored page 1, let's move to another BEX page and practice typing text.

Whenever you move between BEX pages, the text in the page buffer is copied back to disk. Any changes you have made in the text are now saved to disk. Enter control-P 4 <space>. BEX pauses to write the page buffer to the disk file for page 1, then reads the disk file for page 4 and copies that to the page buffer. When this process is complete, BEX announces Page 4 and your cursor is at the start of that text.

Typing in text

Move your cursor to the end of the page by pressing control-A <space>. Whenever you start to type in the Editor, it's a good idea to check that the Caps Lock key (in the lower righthand corner of the Apple keyboard) is not clicked down. When this key is clicked down, every letter you type is uppercase. Most of the time, you want to type lowercase letters, and use the shift key to get uppercase letters.

Once you're sure the Caps Lock is up, type a paragraph indicator by pressing <space>, dollar sign (shift of digit 4), people, <space>. Now type your name, followed by the phrase edited this chapter on followed by today's date. To hear what you have just typed, you can move your cursor back to the paragraph ( $p ) indicator by pressing control-Z control-P. You've already seen that control-A control-P advances your cursor to the next paragraph. Just like control-A advances, control-Z zooms you back.

Your cursor is on the first <space> of the paragraph ( $p ) indicator. Press control-O and the Echo speaks what you just typed. The control-O command speaks all the text starting at your cursor forward to the end of the page. When your cursor lands on the end of the page, BEX boops once.

Leaving the Editor Safely

When you are ready to quit the Editor, press control-Q. This one command copies your current page buffer to disk and returns you to the Main Menu. Using control-Q is vital: if you don't enter control-Q, any changes you've made in the most recent page aren't saved to disk. Practice leaving and returning to the MY QUANDARY chapter. If you want to take a break, now is a good time to do it. Remove your BEX disk and data disk from the disk drives and turn off the power.

Part 11: Exploring Option P - Print chapters

If you paused at the previous Part, you should get BEX up and running again. Insert the backup Boot disk in drive 1 and turn on the power. At the Enter configuration: prompt, type one of the six supplied configurations names, and you arrive at the Starting Menu. Remove the Boot side and insert the backup Main side in drive 1, then press <space>.

If you have moved to another menu, press J to "jump" back to the Main Menu. You can use option P - Print to send formatted text to inkprint printers, braille embossers, large print printers, and voice devices. You tell BEX which chapters to print and which printer to send it to, and BEX does the rest.

Here's a sample dialogue when you print the QUANDARY chapter. Insert your BEXtras disk in drive 2.
Main Menu
Enter Option: P
Print
Drive number or chapter name: QUANDARY <CR>
Which printer:
For each configuration, BEX lets you define up to four printers, assigning each one a number. Section 3 explains how you define a printer when you establish a configuration. When BEX prompts Which printer: you can always type ? <CR> to see your choices. The supplied configurations all contain two printers. Here's what you get:
Which printer: ? <CR>
1 - Printer in slot 1 (72 by 58)
2 - Printer in slot 3 (72 by 58)
S = Screen output
Add +V for voice output
Which printer:

We defined printer number 1 as an inkprint printer plugged in to slot 1. We defined printer number 2 as a Review class printer. A Review class printer is a good way for both sighted and blind people to proofread their text before its committed to paper. It works will in combination with the Echo's screen review feature. We take a quick look at this feature in a minute. Section 5 discusses the Review class printer in detail. None of the supplied configurations include a braille embosser. When you want to braille materials, you must establish a configuration that includes an embosser--details in Section 3.

The number attached to a printer depends on how you define it in your configuration. Printer number 1 is 1 because we defined it first in our configuration, not because it's plugged in to slot 1.

In addition to the numbered printers, you have two other choices, S and ingV. When you enter S <CR> at the Which printer: prompt, BEX prints the chapter silently to the screen. What size letters appear on the screen depends on your configuration. For the supplied configurations S1, S2, E1, and E2, BEX prints to the 40-column screen. For L1 and L2, BEX prints to the 20-column screen.

When you want the Echo to speak every line as it's printed, add the two characters plus sign, letter Very, to whatever printer you have chosen. For example, to print to the screen with Echo voice, enter S+V <CR> at the Which printer: prompt.

BEX formats as it prints

No matter which choice you make, BEX formats your text when printing it. Every paragraph ( $p ) indicator is executed with two <CR>s and a paragraph indent of five spaces. BEX automatically breaks each line as required: the number of characters that fit on a line change depending on which printer you specify. Printer 1 is defined with 72 characters on each line; printer 2 also allows 72 characters on the line. The 40-column screen can fit 40 characters, and the 20-column screen can fit 20 characters on the line. When you want to make BEX stop printing before the end of the text, press <ESC>.

Because BEX takes care of breaking text into lines, you don't have to worry about ending every line with <CR>, like you would on a typewriter. In Sections 5 and 6, we explain how BEX adjusts the format of your text so it's correct in both print and braille.

Printing to the screen

When you tell BEX to print to the screen, each screen's worth of data is one output page. The QUANDARY chapter contains a format command that numbers pages. When you print to the screen, BEX centers the word Page plus a number on the last line of each screen. When the screen is full of characters, the display stops and you hear a boop. Press <space> to get the next page of text.

How many characters fit on one line of the screen depends on your configuration. When you are using L1 or L2, then the limit is 20 characters wide and ten lines down. With any of the other supplied configurations, it's 40 characters wide by 24 lines down.

Printing to a Review class printer

The Review class printer is a special way of printing to the screen, that lets you define a bigger page size than the screen allows. It's useful for people who can see the 80-column screen or who can hear the Echo. Printer number 2 is defined as a Review class printer 72 characters wide by 58 lines down.

Print the QUANDARY chapter to printer number 2. BEX displays the first 24 lines of the page, making a low click as it shows each line, then stops.

When you have an Echo, try this: when the clicks stop, press control-L. The Echo says Review, because control-L turns on the Echo's screen review mode. Now press B and the Echo starts speaking all the text on the second line of the screen. You can press the up and down arrows to read line by line. With a Review class printer, BEX puts a line-number on the left edge of the screen so you can tell where text appears on the page when printed. To exit from screen review mode, press <ESC> once.

() Caution! If you press <ESC> twice, you would stop the printing and return to the Main Menu. One <ESC> tells the Echo to exit screen review; the next <ESC> tells BEX to cancel printing.

To see more of the page, press down arrow. Each 58-line page is displayed in three parts. To see the next page, press <space>.

Printing to the Echo

There are two ways to get Echo output when printing: you can add the Echo to other printers, or you can print to the Echo alone. To add Echo to another printer, add the two characters plus sign, letter V to your choice. When you enter 1+V <CR> the Echo speaks each line as it's sent to the inkprint printer. You hear a slight pause at the end of each line. There's a longer pause for the blank line and five-space indent at each paragraph. When you enter S+V <CR> the Echo speaks each line as it's sent to the screen. Since the number of characters that fit on the line is different for printer 1 and the screen, the pause that signals the line's end appears at different places depending on whether you add the Echo to the screen or printer 1.

When you enter just +V the text is printed to the Echo alone. The Echo pauses slightly around every 120 characters to catch its breath. The Echo's pronunciation of underlined text depends on the Echo's punctuation mode. The supplied E1 and E2 configurations use Most punctuation, so you hear letter, underline, letter, underline, letter, etc. You can change to Some punctuation with the Echo command control-E S. Then underlined words are spelled out letter for letter.

Printing to an inkprint printer

Printer 1 is defined with a maximum of 72 characters per line. We defined printer 1 as an inkprint printer with continuous feed paper; BEX assumes that you don't have to pause at each page and insert a fresh sheet of paper. If your printer requires this pause on form feed, don't print QUANDARY to printer 1!

Part 12: Highlights of the Second Menu

Press S at the Main Menu or Page Menu, and you move to the Second Menu. Some Second Menu options are familiar, because they are available at all four BEX menus: option D - Disk catalog; option # - Free sectors on disk; and control-E for Echo commands. The unique Second Menu options are described in detail in Section 11; here are some highlights.

We have already demonstrated using option C - Copy chapters. Option N - Name change for chapters lets you change a chapter's name without making a copy. Option M - Merge chapters allows you to make one larger chapter from several smaller ones. Option K - Kill chapters permanently erases one or more chapters from disk. Option R - Read textfile to chapter copies information that's stored as a textfile on disk to a BEX chapter.

Part 13: Highlights of the Page Menu

Press Z at the Main Menu or Second Menu, and you "zip" to the Page Menu. The Page Menu allows you to manipulate pages within a chapter. All Page Menu options affect just one chapter. Option C - Change current chapter lets you specify which chapter you want to work with.

Insert your BEXtras disk in your data drive and press W. Option W - Whole disk catalog provides you with more information about a disk than you see with option D - Disk catalog. For each chapter on disk, Whole disk catalog shows the name, number of pages, and number of characters in each chapter.

Option F - File list gives you similarly detailed information about an individual chapter. Press F and BEX confirms your choice then prompts for the chapter you want to examine. Just like copying and editing, BEX announces Drive number or chapter name: and waits for you to type a name or scan the drive. Enter 2 <CR> and BEX presents a numbered list of all the chapters on the BEXtras disk. Choose the QUANDARY chapter by entering its number and pressing <CR>. BEX presents a list of the contents of each page file. In Sections 11 and 12, we demonstrate other options on the Page Menu.

() One Disk Drive Unlike the Second and Main Menus, BEX can fit all the Page Menu programs into memory at once. As soon as you arrive at the Page Menu, BEX prompts you to insert a data disk. Place your BEXtras disk in the drive and press W for a Whole disk catalog. To obtain a file list of the QUANDARY chapter, press F. When BEX prompts Drive number or chapter name: enter 1 <CR> to scan the disk for chapter names.

Bon voyage!

We hope you've enjoyed your exploratory trip through BEX. You've learned a lot of important BEX concepts that you will use daily. You have booted BEX, supplied a configuration name, and reached the Starting Menu. You have made a backup copy of your BEX disk, so you know that your BEX Master disk is safe. You've switched disks and reached the Main side of BEX, and moved around between the Main, Second, and Page Menus. You know how to copy chapters as well as copy disks, and you've been introduced to the target chapter concept. You've seen how you can specify a chapter by name, or by scanning a disk. You've played around a little in the Editor, and had a quick experience with BEX's Print option. We hope this is the start of a productive relationship with your computer. Enjoy your journey!