BEX's formatter controls what your output looks like. When you enter the appropriate commands into your text, the formatter follows these instructions to break text into lines, paragraphs, and pages, and to complete all other formatting tasks.
There are some terms and concepts you need to know, before beginning. BEX provides some default values for new lines, paragraphs and margins. You can always change them if you want to, or accept them by not specifying any others. A hard <CR> is one that you type into your text--a hard <CR> always causes a new line in your output. Don't type a <CR> after every line as you enter text in the Editor; enter <CR> only when there must be a new line in your output. The formatter automatically places soft <CR>s in the text as it prints. A soft <CR> is one that the formatter creates when it runs out of room on the current line, and must begin a new one. It is not always easy to change a hard <CR>; but BEX's soft <CR>s can easily change, depending on the carriage width of your printer or brailler.
BEX uses format indicators and format commands in different ways, even though you use both sets of commands to format your text. Indicators and commands are different in two fundamental aspects: First, format indicators serve as navigational units in BEX's Editor, while format commands do not. For example, you can enter control-A control-P to advance to the next paragraph indicator. Or, you can enter control-Z control-L to go to the beginning of the previous new-line indicator or hard <CR>.
Second, format indicators and format commands look
different. You enter format indicators into your text with exactly four
keystrokes. Format commands may be more or less than four
The new-line indicator is four keystrokes: space,
dollar sign, lowercase l, space ( $l ). (Note that
it is lowercase ell, not the digit one. Whenever there is a possibility of
confusing the two, we try to make the distinction clear.) Remember, the
parentheses are used to emphasize the initial and final spaces; do not
type these parentheses in your text. The ( $l ) functions
exactly the same as a <CR>, causing the formatter to start a
new-line of text. The Echo pronounces it as "dollar sign ell" no matter
what punctuation mode is set. It's also readable on a "linear
electronic braille device," such as a VersaBraille.
The carriage return <CR> also forces a new line.
On the Editor screen, the <CR> can appear in two ways. In any HI-RES
screen mode, <CR> looks like tiny uppercase C and
R jammed together. In 80 column or 40 column non-HI-RES
screen mode, <CR> shows as a small checkerboard. With voice output,
BEX makes a low boop as it goes over a <CR> character in your text.
When you arrow over letters, the voice pronounces a <CR> as
"return."
The paragraph indicator is four keystrokes: space,
dollar sign, lowercase people, space ( $p ). This
symbol is executed differently depending on whether it's sent to a
printer or brailler. You can also control how the ( $p ) symbol
is executed with several format commands.
Use ( $p ) at the beginnings of paragraphs,
and before any other text you wish to set off, such as headings and items
in a list. We advise you to use it instead of typing two hard <CR>s
and five spaces. It is more flexible and can be changed easily using a few
format commands. BEX changes its parameters All BEX's format commands start with two dollar signs.
BEX only recognizes the $$ format commands when they are typed in a
particular way.
All format command letters must be
lowercase. As an example, $$np starts page numbering. $$NP just prints two
dollar signs uppercase NP in your text. We've tried to make
the letters remind you of the command's function. More format
commands contain numbers; numbers must follow the letter, with no space in
between. As we introduce the commands, we'll use # (the number sign) in
place of a particular numerical value.
Every $$ command must be immediately preceded by one
of five choices:
The formatter recognizes that a space immediately
following a $$ command is not a real space. The formatter
throws this space away. When you have a string of format commands, you can
jam the commands together:
When the formatter encounters the commands in their
proper form, it doesn't print the characters. The formatter wakes up and
says "Wow! Time to execute this command." The formatter knows that print
and braille devices need to have some commands executed differently, such
as paragraphs. The formatter prevents any underlining commands from being
executed when printing to a brailler. Section 9 details how the Grade 2
translator uses the underlining commands to place the italics symbols in
braille.
You must place a format command before the text you
wish to affect. For example, you must place the centering command
immediately before the text you want centered. Some format commands take
immediate effect, like tabs and centering. Others, like margin commands,
influence the start of the next new line. Some, like page numbering, keep
on working, affecting the placement of information on every page.
The formatter, when preparing to print text, assembles
each line before it is actually put onto paper. We call the line being
assembled the current line. The current line contains all the
text from one soft <CR> to the next soft <CR>. Because the
formatter operates this way, it is important to place commands that create
new lines, such as the new-line ( $l ) and BEX has many, many format commands. We introduce some
fundamental ones at the Learner Level; you'll learn about others at the
User and Master Levels. All the commands introduced here are also listed
on the BEX Quick Reference Card.
Place $$c before the text you want to center. BEX
continues to center the text until it encounters a hard <CR>, or a
new-line ( $l ) or paragraph ( $p ) indicator. If your
text doesn't fit in one line, it centers on two or more lines.
Place a ( $p ) or ( $l ) indicator
before $$c to ensure that only the text you want is centered.
If you do not, BEX's formatter would also center the line of text
immediately before your $$c, as well as the text that comes after.
Place $$h before the text you wish to center and
underline. BEX continues to center and underline the text until it
encounters a paragraph ( $p ) indicator.
If you do not want to use a ( $p ) indicator
to end your heading, you must turn off underlining with, and the centering
with ( $l ). For example, you want the next line after your
heading to be a full line, and not indented, so you type:
Always precede the centered or centered-and-underlined
text with the ( $p ) indicator. Using the default inkprint
format, this creates a blank line between the previous paragraph and the
text of the heading, and insures that only the text you want is centered
and/or underlined. For example, if you do not have a ( $p )
indicator before your centered text you will get something like this:
The underlining commands must appear in
pairs:signals underline begin, and signals underline finish.
To prevent an inkprint printer from going crazy underlining, underlining
is also turned off by a ( $p ) indicator. Always enter five
characters: space, two dollar signs, lowercase us, lowercase
b or from. When you use the underlining commands
in this way, the Grade 2 translator can automatically insert italics signs
in the braille text where appropriate.
$$l# changes how far apart lines are on the page; it
changes the number of soft <CR>s between ( $l ) indicators
and hard and soft <CR>s. The default value for both inkprint and
braille is single spacing, or $$l1 (two dollar signs lowercase
like, digit one). $$l2 sets double linespacing, or one blank
line between every line of text.
$$s# sets the number of soft <CR>s the formatter
issues when it executes the paragraph ( $p ) indicator. $$s2
sets two <CR>s at each paragraph to create one blank line between
paragraphs. $$s1 sets one soft <CR>, or no blank lines between
paragraphs. When printing to an inkprint printer (or the screen) the
default value is $$s2 -- two <CR>s at each paragraph. For a
brailler, the default value is $$s1 -- one <CR> at each paragraph.
$$i# sets the paragraph indent. The value # can be a
positive or negative number: it always moves relative to the left margin,
discussed below. When the number is positive, the first line of your
paragraphs are shorter than the rest of the lines. When the number is
negative, the first line of your paragraphs are longer than the rest of
the lines. We call this outdenting. Outdenting is discussed
briefly below, and more thoroughly in Section 9, Part 4.
When printing to an inkprint printer (or the screen)
the default value is $$i5 -- indent five spaces at the start of each
paragraph. For a brailler, the default value is $$i2 -- indent two spaces
at the start of each paragraph.
$$ml# (lowercase m lowercase
like) sets the left margin. The value of # ranges from zero
to your carriage width. $$ml# sets the margin at a definite
position on the line. $$ml2 means establish a left margin at
position 2. The default for $$ml# is position zero.
$$ml# and $$i# work as a team. The left margin defines
where every line of text starts, except for the first line of a paragraph.
The first character of a new paragraph is placed using the combined values
of $$ml# and $$i#. The default for both commands are $$ml0 $$i5. Indent
always moves relative to left margin. If you set $$ml5 and do
not set a The left margin uses up space from your carriage width
(horizontal line length). When you define a printer with carriage width
72, and then establish a left margins with $$ml5, characters can appear
from position 5 to position 71. If the place the printhead returns to on
your printer is too far to the left for your taste, you can always use a
margin command to move text further right.
Suppose your printer has 12 characters per inch. We
advise a carriage width of 72 characters to yield six-inch lines of text,
with a three-quarter inch margin on either side. Unfortunately, when you
just turn the printer on, the printhead is positioned 1/4 inch from the
left hand edge of the paper. You want to move the place the printhead
returns to one-half inch to the right. Twelve times one-half is six, so
setting a margin with $$ml6 will do the trick. Seventy-two plus six equals
78, so define a carriage width of 78 in your configuration to get
approximately equal white space to the left and the right of your text.
Part 4 shows how the ever-resourceful Macalaster J Prude handles a
similarly repetitive format requirement.
$$mt# sets the top margin of your paper. The value #
is equal to the number of soft <CR>s added after a form feed. The
default value is zero. This command does not change the number of lines of
text printed per page. When you define a form length of 56, you get 56
lines of text whether you use $$mt# or not. What changes is where the text
starts on the page. You can't use a negative number with this command.
Section 5, Part 3 discusses the horizontal and
vertical grid chapters, which assist you in establishing left, right, and
top margins, and carriage width for your printer.
To number pages, use $$np. Where the page number
appears depends on whether you are printing to a "printer" or a
"brailler." The print format is the word "Page" followed by the
appropriate number, centered on the bottom line of each printed page; the
line above the page number does not contain text. The braille format
places the page number, preceded by at least three spaces, on the
right-hand margin of line 1.
BEX's tabs operate differently than tabs on a
typewriter. There are many situations in BEX where the right command for
the job is the left margin command, not the tab commands you might use on
a typewriter. You have to establish values for tabs; none are set when you
start out. There are many ways to specify where a tab should be. You can't
clear just one tab; you have to clear all of them at once. And you can't
use the key marked Tab on the Apple IIe, IIc or IIgs keyboard to move to
tabs (see Section 4, Part 9 for uses of the Tab key.)
Use $$t# where # is the number of the position where
you want the tab stop established. The value # can be any number from zero
to one less than your carriage width. For example, Use $$tc to clear every tab you've set.
To set text to begin at the next tab stop on the line,
you enter four keystrokes: <space>, dollar sign, dollar sign,
<space>. Since the leading and following spaces are integral parts
of this command, we show this command as (#[_$]#$$#[_$]#).
The tabs stops are completely independent of the
margins. When you want to advance to the next tab, enter (#[_$]#$$#[_$]#).
To advance two tab stops, enter two of these commands:
(#[_$]#$$#[_$]#$$#[_$]#). Notice that the final space of the first
advance-to-the-next-tab command can also serve as the initial space of the
second advance-to-the-next-tab command. When (#[_$]#$$#[_$]#) appears
after the tab, then BEX separates your text with just one space. For
example, you set a tab at position 10. You type this text:
Use $$d to reestablish the print or braille defaults:
no page numbering, no margins, no tabs, line spacing at single space,
paragraph format as appropriate for print or braille.
Each time you press P to print chapters, the formatter
resets to default. However, when you print two chapters with different
format without going back to the Main Menu, as when you scan for chapters,
you may run into format problems. If you do not have $$d at the beginning
of the second chapter, that chapter would be printed in the format of the
chapter printed before it. For example, suppose you set $$l2 for double
Therefore, we recommend you place a $$d command at the
start of every document, which may be one chapter or several. That way,
you ensure your chapters will be printed correctly no matter if you print
them one immediately after the other, or by returning to the Main Menu and
pressing P for each one.
There are two chapters called Notice that the LETTERHEAD chapter starts with $$d.
This ensures that the formatter is set to default parameters, so that the
following format commands are executed correctly.
The next command is $$t40, which sets a tab stop at
position 40. Mr. Prude uses this tab stop for positioning the date and the
complimentary close.
Next comes $$l2 (dollar sign, dollar sign lowercase
l digit two), which sets double spacing. The default value
for the paragraph ( $p ) indicator is also double spacing, and
Mr. Prude wants the first three lines of his letterhead to be equally
spaced.
Mr. Prude wanted a spiffy-loooking letterhead, so he
decided to center and underline his name, and center his address. This
The first seven characters are a paragraph indicator
and an advance-to-next-tab format command. Notice that while both of these
commands require leading and trailing spaces, the trailing space in the
( $p ) and the leading space in the (#[_$]#$$#[_$]#) are
actually the same space. Remember that whenever a command requires a
leading or trailing space, that space can be shared with other commands.
Mr. Prude didn't have to reestablish a tab stop, because the tab at
position 40 from the LETTERHEAD chapter is still in the formatter's
memory. Because of the ( $p ), the date appears on line 7.
After the date, Mr. Prude uses a new-line
( $l ) indicator. (A <CR> would have the same effect.) If
he used a ( $p ) indicator, Joan Hackney's name would be
indented 5 spaces, which he doesn't want. Her name appears on line 9.
After the last line of Joan Hackney's address, there's the $$l1
(dollar sign, dollar sign, lowercase l digit one) command,
which resets the line spacing to single-space. This line finishes with a
( $p ), so his salutation is nicely indented 5 spaces. It's
been double-spaced up to this point, so the Dear Joan appears
on line 15. The ( $p ) after the salutation moves the start of
the first paragraph of text to line 17, and the start of the subsequent
line is line 18. Mr. Prude hasn't changed the line spacing at
The second sentence in the first paragraph contains
some underlining. Notice that the underline begin command,andthe
underline finish command, stand alone as words surrounding the text
they underline. The formatter automatically throws away the space
betweenandthe word was, as well as the space between
the and the word surprised. The printed output is
correctly underlined: there's just one space between the words
and and was as well as the words
surprised and at. After the third paragraph,
Mr. Prude uses the tab at position 40 again. Notice that it doesn't matter
whether a line begins with a ( $p ) or a ( $l ) as far
as the tab goes. Mr. P uses two ( $p ) indicators in a row to
make four blank lines where he can sign his name. There are several other
ways he could create the same four blank lines: either four
( $l ) indicators or four <CR>s would do the same thing.
Now that you've taken an in-depth look at these two
chapters, try proofreading them. At the Main Menu, press P. When BEX
prompts for drive number or chapter name, enter the drive number where the
BEXtras disk is. Choose LETTERHEAD and JOAN by number. When BEX prompts
You'll notice that words are not broken between lines.
How many characters fit in one line depends on the screen mode you've
defined in your configuration. The Echo pauses slightly at the end of each
line. If you want to hear all the spaces, set the Echo to All
punctuation mode with the Echo command control-E A
Whenever you add Echo output to a printer with
Use option P - Print at the Main Menu. When BEX
prompts for drive number or chapter name, enter the drive number where the
BEXtras disk is, and choose LETTERHEAD and JOAN by number. Press
<CR> when BEX asks for drive or chapter the third time. When BEX
prompts You hear clicks as the review printer prints each line
to the screen. When the clicks stop, the first 24 lines of text are on the
screen. Enter Control-L to begin line review. Press a letter between
A and X to read lines one through 24. The Echo
will read first the two digit line number, then the text on that line. You
can use the left and right arrow keys to examine the text word by word,
and the up and down arrow keys to move line by line. Any keystroke but
<space> shuts up the Echo.
This chapter is also on your BEXtras disk--it's
the same one you used in the Exploratory Trip in Section 2. It's four
pages long. When you Edit page 1, you see that the first two "words" are
format commands. First off is our friend $$d to reset the formatter to
default. Next comes $$np which establishes page numbering. Then
there's a <CR>. The format commands at the very start of the
chapter do not "use up" room on the page when printing. However, there are
two reasons why placing a <CR> right there is a good idea:
First, you must place format commands before the text
you wish to format. Many format commands influence behavior at the
beginning of a line. Placing <CR> or a ( $p ) indicator
after a group of format commands and before the start of the text insures
that the commands take affect. Second, the <CR> means that line 1 on
the page will not contain text, which makes the title stand out in
inkprint.
The article's title is all uppercase, centered
and underlined with $$h. The author's names and all subsequent
sub-headings are centered with $$c command, and each is preceded and
followed by a ( $p ) indicator. Again, this makes one extra
blank line before and after the heading, which is more legible in
inkprint.
Examine the chapter carefully for further ideas about
how format commands and indicators work with your text. Experiment with
the new format commands you have learned. Try several different number
values with $$ml#, $$i#, $$s# and $$l# to change the shape of the
paragraphs and line spacing. Some ideas: create block-style paragraphs,
with single- Manually transcribing inkprint to braille is a complex
task. Fortunately, BEX automates almost all of it. For most reading
material, you change inkprint to braille by following the rules for
what's called literary, contracted, or,
most commonly, Grade II braille. This Section provides a very
basic, step-by-step understanding of how to do braille translation with
BEX. Section 8 explains how you send your translated text to an embosser,
and Section 9 deals with some basic format issues.
Because most voice synthesizers pronounce the Roman
numeral II as "aye," BEX's prompts refer to the Grade
2 translator; we use that nomenclature from here on in.
We suggest that you always name your translated
braille chapters by adding the digit 2 to the name of the print original.
BEX doesn't demand that you name your braille chapters this way, but it is
crucial that you develop some system that clearly
distinguishes braille from print chapters. (At the User Level, we explain
how you can select chapters based on the last character of a
chapter's name.)
Here's why it's so important: BEX has no way
of knowing if a print chapter is sent to a braille device. It's your
responsibility to make sure that the text matches the type of printer. If
you send a braille chapter to an inkprint device, the screen
braille result doesn't make a lot of sense--in fact, it looks like
garbage. If you send a print chapter directly to a braille device, the
result is not grade 2 braille.
Instead, this untranslated braille uses one braille
cell for every print character. Untranslated braille requires more space
than grade 2 braille. That's because grade 2 translation involves
many contractions, where common letter combinations and whole
words are represented by one or two braille cells. For example, the word
the is just one cell in Grade 2. Another You find option G - Grade 2 Translator on the Main
Menu. You provide BEX with the names of one or more inkprint
source chapters. You tell BEX how to name the grade 2
target chapter or chapters. The grade 2 target chapter is a
modified copy of the inkprint source chapter. If you use the same name for
your inkprint source chapter and your braille target chapter, you would
lose your print original.
Once you supply the names of the chapters, you sit
back and wait for BEX to do the work. The following sample shows the
step-by-step dialogue for translating the When the translator encounters a word that begins with
two dollar signs, it recognizes a BEX format command. The translator does
not try to translate these commands. In Section 4, Part 4, we defined a
BEX word as any group of characters that begins and ends with
either a space or <CR>.
But when you don't include a space between the
centering command and the first word, and your inkprint looks like this:
In the QUANDARY sample, you only translated one
chapter. You can also translate many chapters at once. Instead of typing a
chapter name at the When you want to translate every chapter, type Grade 2 braille is the standard for braille production
because it saves space. In some rare situations, you may wish to create
uncontracted or grade 1 braille. Grade 1 braille does not use
grade 2's word and letter-combination contractions. Grade 1 does use
special symbols for capitalization, underlining, and numbers. Sending
inkprint chapters to a braille device does not create grade 1
braille, except if your braille embosser has software in it that
translates from inkprint to grade 1. User Level Section 9 discusses
changing between grade 2, grade 1, and untranslated braille within a
document.
Once you have translated material from inkprint to
grade 2, the grade 2 chapter is ready to be embossed. However, before you
do this with BEX, you must define a configuration that
includes a braille embosser.
BEX sends formatted information to many different
devices, and not all of them are literally "printers." How you tell BEX
which chapters to print is the same, no matter what the output device is.
You use Print chapters to send formatted information to an inkprint
printer, a braille embosser, a serial voice device, the Echo, or an
electronic braille device. Exactly what BEX sends to the device depends on
how you define it in your configuration.
BEX can communicate with every computer-driven
embosser made. However, some embossers require that BEX send data in a
particular fashion. We did not include a braille embosser in our supplied
configurations because we can't know which kind of embosser you have.
The Interface Guide contains detailed information
about how to set switches and other embosser-specific items. Section 3 in
the Learner Level gives step-by-step examples of establishing a new
configuration. In the configuration process, you have an opportunity to
define up to four different printers. For each printer, BEX asks you what
class the printer belongs to. All embossers are class B -
Braillers. Once you tell BEX that a particular printer is a brailler, then
BEX asks you to enter a numerical brailler code. You can
press <CR> to see the entire list of codes. Numbers 1 and 2 are
braille previewers, discussed in detail in User Level Section
6. The rest of the list are actual braille embossers.
If your embosser is not on the list, try
configuring it as number 5 - Thiel. If this does not work, call the RDC
Technical Hotline 608-257-8833 for assistance.
In Section 5, we explained how to use option P - Print
chapters on the Main Menu. The general procedure is the same whether you
are sending inkprint text to a printer or sending grade 2 braille text to
a braille embosser. Here is an example of printing the QUANDARY2 chapter
you translated in Section 7. Your BEX disk is in drive 1; the data disk
with QUANDARY2 is in drive 2.
You may have created other chapters on this disk. If
so, then your screen display is different: the numbered list contains more
than one chapter. You just want to print the QUANDARY2 chapter, so you
would press <CR> to accept the N - default at the Once you have supplied BEX with the chapters you want
to At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is
just an example. In this case, the appropriate printer
destination is printer number 1, the brailler in slot 4. The printer
number does not refer to the slot for the embosser's
interface card. The printer number refers to the order you defined the
printers in your configuration. Which printer number is the appropriate
destination depends on which number you configured as a class B -
Brailler.
When you press the printer number followed by
<CR>, BEX starts sending text to the embosser. You can always cancel
printing by pressing <ESC>.
The $$ format commands introduced in Section 6 are
also used to format braille output. For more details about any of the
commands discussed here, see Section 6. As we mentioned there, BEX's
formatter uses different default values for print and braille output. The
grade 2 Translator recognizes that a group of characters that begins with
two dollar signs and ends with a space or <CR> is a format command;
it doesn't try to translate it.
The main rule in formatting braille is to conserve
space wherever possible. Blank lines are only used to signal
major divisions in the text. The braille line is a lot
shorter than the print line; the maximum carriage width for an embosser is
around 41 cells. Standard braille paragraphs do not skip a line; the
indent is just two blank cells. BEX takes care of this automatically.
Underlining in the way inkprint documents are
underlined is not possible in braille. The braille cell is always three
dots high; you can't add extra dots beneath the cell to show that
something's underlined.
When you create print with a typewriter or computer
printer, underlining shows emphasis. It's also used for the titles of
books. When you typeset print, you don't use underlining, you
use italics. Braille also has a way to indicate italics. The
Grade 2 translator uses the presence of BEX's underline beginand
underline finish command to place braille italics signs as it
translates.
Since the Grade 2 translator ignores most format
commands, you can format your text in print before you translate it. This
is easier for people who are not braille readers.
When you create print documents with a typewriter, you
usually space twice at the end of a sentence. In both braille and
BEX's formatter tailors the execution of some format
indicators and format commands differently for print and braille. The
formatter does not analyze the text within the chapter; it's relying
on you to send braille text to a braille device. The only way that the
formatter knows that text is "braille" is when you specify a printer that
you have configured as a class B - Brailler.
To ensure appropriately formatted grade 2 braille
output with BEX, you must do three things:
In Part 3, we explore how each of the basic $$
commands are executed for a braille device. When you send text to either a
printer or brailler, BEX uses default values for paragraphs,
underlining, and page numbering. You can easily override these default
values by entering $$ commands in your chapters. When the $$ commands you
enter create values that are inappropriate for braille, make sure they are
removed from the braille chapter before you emboss it.
You can either delete the commands in the print
chapter before translating it, or you can delete the commands in the
braille chapter once it's translated. Since the Grade 2 translator
doesn't change the $$ format commands at all, they look the same in both
print and braille chapters. When you are creating print and braille
versions of the same text, it's faster to delete the $$
As mentioned in Section 6, it's important that
you precede and follow yr $$ commands with a space or <CR>. When you
do, the translator translates your text but leaves the format commands
untranslated.
When you print a braille chapter like
When $$ub and $$uf commands are present in your
inkprint source chapter, the Grade 2 translator places italics signs where
appropriate in your grade 2 target chapter. There are two forms for the
braille italics sign: single and double. The single italics sign is dots
4-6, shown in screen braille by the period. The double italics sign is
two dots 4-6, or two periods in screen braille. When an
italicized passage is three or fewer words, each word is preceded with the
single italics sign. When the italicized passage is more than three words
long, the initial word is preceded by the double italics sign, and the
last word is preceded with the single italics sign.
Here's a silly inkprint sentence showing how
italics signs work:
As mentioned in Section 7, viewing screen braille can
be a little disconcerting at first. In this sample, when the brailler gets
the exclamation point, it embosses dots 2-3-4-6, the grade 2 contraction
for the word the. The exclamation point is preceded
Both of the last two words are preceded by a single
italics sign. The dollar sign in Place $$c before the text you want to center. A
typical carriage width for inkprint is 72 characters; for braille
it's 40 or 41 cells. The centering effect of $$c continues until a
( $l ), ( $p ), or hard <CR>. A heading that
centered on one line in print may require two or more lines to center in
braille; BEX takes care of this automatically.
As mentioned, BEX suppresses underlining when sending
text to a brailler. When printing to a brailler, BEX executes the $$h
command exactly the same as a $$c command. The $$h command does not signal
the start of braille italics; the translator only usesand to
place braille italics.
Braille text is always single spaced, BEX's default
value for both inkprint and braille. If at some point in your inkprint
chapter you have increased the line spacing with a $$l# command, remember
to remove the $$l# command before embossing the grade 2 version.
BEX's default value for braille paragraphs is one
<CR> at each ( $p ). If you have increased the paragraph
line spacing witha $$s# command, remove the $$s# command before embossing.
BEX's default value for braille indenting at
paragraphs is 2 spaces. The $$i# command allows you to change where the
first line of a paragraph starts. The value # can be either negative or
plain: it determines where the first line of a paragraph appears
relative to the existing left margin. BEX defaults to no
margins, either right or left. When you want to change how paragraph
( $p ) indicators are executed, you must place the $$i# command
before the first paragraph indicator you want to affect. All subsequent
( $p ) indicators use the new value until you change it with
another $$i# or reset to default with $$d. In Part 4, we show how you
combine a negative indent with a positive left margin to create
outdenting.
You set the left margin with the $$ml# command,
lowercase more, lowercase like, followed by a
number. The default for $$ml# is position zero. $$ml2 means
establish a left margin at position 2; $$ml10 means establish a left
margin at position 10.
The left margin defines where every line of text
starts, except for the first line of a paragraph. The first character of a
new paragraph is placed using the combined values of $$ml# and $$i#:
Indent always moves relative to left margin. The default value for braille
is $$ml0 $$i2, so the first line of a paragraph starts at position 2 and
all subsequent lines start at position zero. means that the first line of
a paragraph starts at position zero and all subsequent lines start at
position 2. This is discussed further under "Outdenting," in Part 4.
Enter $$np in your chapters to number pages in either
print or braille. When BEX outputs to a brailler, the page number is
placed at the right margin of line one, with at least three preceding
blank cells.
You use tabs identically with print and braille
material. It is important to keep in mind the different carriage widths of
the two formats. The grade 2 version of a word is usually shorter than the
inkprint version. When representing columnar material in braille, you
usually have just two blank cells between columns. RDC'S TranscriBEX
software, an add-on module to BEX, includes extensive systems for
transcribing columns and tables.
To establish a tab stop, you use $$t#. The value for #
corresponds to that position on the line. $$t10 sets a tab at position 10,
and $$t28 sets a tab at position 28.
Establishing a tab stop does not clear any other tab
stop. You can only clear all the tab stops at once with $$tc.
Generally, you should enter $$tc immediately before you establish new
tabs.
Move to the next tab stop with (#[_$]#$$#[_$]#). The
leading and following spaces are integral parts of this command.
To reestablish braille default values, use $$d. This
clears all margins, page numbering, or tabs, sets line spacing to single
space, and paragraphs to single spaces with an indent of two.
In Section 7, we use the The QUANDARY chapter begins with
We use the word outdenting to describe a
situation where the first line of a paragraph is further to the left than
the start of all subsequent lines in that paragraph. Another term for this
format in print is a hanging indent. Outdenting is frequently
used in braille for lists of things. Braille transcribers would use the
phrase indent to cell one, runover to cell three to describe
the format we establish here.
There is one place in the QUANDARY article where
outdenting would be good: the list of four things for
training centers to ponder that appears at the end of BEX page 2.
To establish outdenting, combine a negative
value for # in the You always place format commands before the text you
wish to format. The margin command influences how the formatter handles
the start of the next line. The indent command influences how the
formatter handles the start of the next paragraph. To start outdenting,
place immediately before the first ( $p ) indicator where
outdenting commences. To restore normal braille paragraphs, place before
the first ( $p ) indicator where standard braille paragraphs
recommences.
Edit page 2 of the QUANDARY chapter. The paragraphs
under discussion all begin with a dash, shown by two hyphens. Press
control-L to begin locating, then type
When you are doing a lot of braille transcribing, you
will encounter a number of code books that dictate more sophisticated
braille page formats and subtle braille translation issues. The
TranscriBEX module is an enhancement of BEX that provides you with the
tools to create perfectly formatted and translated braille in accordance
with English Braille--American Edition, the Code of
Braille Textbook Formats and Techniques, and the Code for
Computer Braille Notation. Contact RDC for more information about
TranscriBEX.
At the Learner Level, BEX supports two
integral voice devices: the Echo family, and the SlotBuster
II. This Section focuses on the Echo. Most of the strategies discussed
here are equally appropriate for SlotBuster users; the actual commands
differ. Since the SlotBuster is a multi-function circuit card, it requires
more sophistication to operate. You have to know when you want to send
text to the SlotBuster for talking, and when you send text for printing. A
concise summary of SlotBuster commands is provided in Appendix 2. RC
Systems also distributes a talking SlotBuster manual on disk.
Street Electronics has manufactured four different
devices: the Echo II, Echo Plus, the Echo IIb, and the Cricket. We refer
to them all as Echo because BEX treats them identically. When
the Echo speaks, it's a cooperative effort between a circuit card,
BEX, and the We've chosen to standardize on the Echo family because
it has many wonderful features. The Echo's speech output is flexible:
you can enter commands to control the pitch, how fast it speaks, which
punctuation is announced, and the delay between words. You can change
these parameters at any time within BEX.
The TEXTALKER software enables the Echo to speak any
possible combination of letters and words. TEXTALKER also allows you to
review the contents of the Apple screen. It does require some practice to
understand the Echo speech. Because the Echo is designed for a mass
market, it is relatively Included in your BEX package are two flippies called
the Echo/Cricket Training Set. One side is the Echo/Cricket Lessons Disk.
These lessons are aimed at the novice computer user: we strongly recommend
these lessons to familiarize yourself with all the Echo's features.
As you boot BEX, it scans your Apple system looking
for an Echo II, Echo Plus, Echo IIb, or Cricket. BEX can only recognize
the Cricket when it's turned on before you boot BEX. When BEX locates
the Echo, it automatically loads the TEXTALKER software into the
Apple's memory.
When BEX recognizes an Echo in your system, then BEX
speaks the first Two chapters on the Main side of your BEX disk can
turn the Echo voice off and on automatically. These chapters are examples
of automatic procedure chapters, which you learn how to
create at the Master Level. An automatic procedure chapter contains
instructions for BEX to do a series of actions without you having to type
them. You can use automatic procedure You don't need to use an automatic procedure chapter
when you just want to silence the Echo temporarily: Part 6 explores the
various ways you can suppress Echo speech. Turning the voice off and on is
handy when sighted and blind computer users are sharing a system. Use this
feature when you have configured without Echo speech and want it, or
configured with Echo speech, and don't want it. Here's how:
Sit back and watch the fireworks! BEX is reading
keystrokes from the chapter you specified. When the automatic procedure is
finished, you are back at the Main Menu prompt.
When you know what Echo features BEX provides, you can
better understand how to use the Echo without BEX. We've designed BEX to
make word processing with voice output efficient. Program prompts are
concise to speed access time. You can press <CR> for
the list of options at a menu, or scan a drive for all the chapters on the
disk. But when you know exactly what you want, you save time by just
typing it in. The software makes various signal tones with the
Apple's speaker to distinguish program parts. A low beep signals menu
announcements; a high beep signals errors.
Many Editor commands are designed for voice output.
These were mentioned in Section 4, but are repeated here for ready
reference.
You can add Echo output when BEX prints to any
printer. Add the two characters You can set and change many parameters for the Echo
family of synthesizers. The best way to discover how these changes work is
to play around with them. The Quick Reference Card contains a summary of
all Echo commands. Two commands are disabled in BEX's Editor; several
commands are not useful with BEX.
All Echo commands begin with the Echo's
command character, control-E. Some commands have a numerical
value; we show a The Echo has three different punctuation modes. When
you're reading a document for content, you may not want to hear every
apostrophe and period. But when you're carefully proofreading your
sentence structure, you probably do. TEXTALKER names some punctuation
marks differently than your English teacher; you hear this version when
you move the cursor by words or sentences. BEX has a special vocabulary
for pronouncing punctuation when you arrow left and right in the Editor.
Most of the names there are what your English teacher prefers; we
shortened the name of the The Echo parrots most of the letters you press at
a menu, depending on punctuation mode. For example, when you are in Some
punctuation, the Echo does not speak when you press question mark. We
don't recommend using All punctuation mode unless you really
need it. If you used this mode in BEX's Editor, you would hear a
<CR> between each word. Those Returns are not in your
text. BEX sends a <CR> after each word Most of the time, you want the Echo to speak words.
When you are reviewing grade 2 braille text in the Editor, however, word
mode is very difficult to understand. Two commands control this function:
When you create text that contains more than two
punctuation characters in a row, you probably will encounter
TEXTALKER'S repeat filter. For example, you might want to create a
letterhead that centers 12 asterisk characters under your name. When you
control-G over this word, you only hear "star star."
TEXTALKER has a repeat filter that
suppresses pronunciation of punctuation and control characters when the
same character appears more than two times in a row. In BEX, the repeat
filter is active when you're printing to the Echo with BEX's screen display doesn't contain any
ornamental characters. We've pared it down to show only the information
you need to hear. Software mainly designed for sighted people
is quite different: frequently the screen is decorated with all manners of
punctuation. The Echo's repeat filter makes using software like this
bearable.
When you first use the Echo, it can be hard to
understand. Use these commands to slow down the Echo:
You use the same commands in BEX's Editor and at
menus. However two Echo commands are disabled in the Editor: control-X (to
temporarily turn off the Echo voice) and control-L to enter Echo line
review mode (detailed in Part 7). However, BEX provides you with workable
alternatives: many commands let you review text, and you can use
<space> to stop Echo speech.
All of the above commands, using the same syntax, are
available plus three more. You don't need the following three commands
inside BEX, because BEX takes care of all input and output itself.
One of the most important features for any voice
device is shutting it up. There are several different ways to do this. In
the Editor, you press <space> to silence the Echo for control-T and
Control-O. There's also an explicit Echo command that
only shuts up the Echo: control-X. The drawback to control-X
is you must wait for the Echo to finish speaking "silently" to itself.
TEXTALKER also shuts up whenever you press
any key except <space> while the Echo is talking. This
is a wonderful feature once you know your way around BEX. For example,
while printing a chapter, you want to be reminded of which printer number
corresponds to your inkprint printer. You specify the list of chapters to
print. Then, when BEX prompts Here's an example in the Editor. You want to
locate the third $$c centering command in a page. Enter control-L $$c
control-A and the Echo announces the character position of the first $$c
command. You don't have to listen to the entire number; when you enter
control-L control-A to locate the next occurrence, the Echo shuts up.
However, the Echo's instant silence response can be a little
confusing in the Editor.
When you issue an Editor command while the Echo is
talking, that command may shut up the Echo. But in some
situations, it may not. The problem boils down to a "battle of the
buffers." TEXTALKER has a buffer that can store approximately 128
characters. This buffer is crucial to TEXTALKER'S ability to inflect
sentences. TEXTALKER accumulates a bunch of characters in its buffer,
analyzes the punctuation, and tries its But that's not all! BEX's Editor
also has a buffer: the keyboard buffer, which holds up to
256 keystrokes. BEX regulates how fast keystrokes are passed from the
buffer to the Apple. BEX knows that TEXTALKER'S buffer can hold only
128 characters, so BEX makes sure that TEXTALKER'S buffer doesn't get
overloaded. If you hold down control-G for a count of three seconds and
then let go, you have an opportunity to hear the battle of the buffers at
its most confusing. As long as you're holding down the control-G command,
each control-G starts the Echo talking a word, and then interrupts that
word and starts it talking the next word. But once you lift your fingers
from the keys, BEX starts storing the control-G commands in the keyboard
buffer. BEX slows down the stream of control-G commands to the point where
TEXTALKER has time to fully pronounce each word.
The Echo's line review feature
allows you to randomly read any material on the 40-column and 80-column
Apple screen. (Some people call this feature "screen review.") You cannot
use line review in combination with BEX's large print screen display at
menus. BEX large print is a graphics display; TEXTALKER can never review
graphics. By the way, you don't need to plug in a computer monitor to use
line review. TEXTALKER uses the information in the Apple's screen
memory to show you what's on the screen. The Apple doesn't know or
care if there's a monitor plugged in.
Echo line review is not available in the Editor; you
can use Echo line review in combination with a Review class printer to
proofread your work. When something interrupts you as you're working at a
BEX menu, Echo line review is a handy way to see what's on the screen
and what you last did.
Line review mode creates a separate audio
cursor. The position of the audio cursor determines what the Echo
speaks. You move the audio cursor around the screen with the line review
Control-L enters line review mode; the Echo says
Review. You can press control-L when the Apple is waiting for
input, or you can enter line review while the Apple is outputting
characters. In the second case, control-L freezes the Apple temporarily.
When you exit line review, the Apple resumes whatever it was doing (before
it was so politely interrupted).
The 24 lines on the Apple screen are labelled with the
letters A through It: line 1 is A,
line 2 is But, up to line 24 which is X. The
first step after entering line review is choosing a line to read. When you
press a letter between A and X, the Echo immediately begins speaking that
line. When you press Z the audio cursor moves to the same line as your
true cursor. After you press Z, press <CR> to read that line.
Once you have specified the first line to read, you
have a wealth of choices. Press <space> and the Echo announces the
position of the audio cursor. Press <CR> to reread your current
line; your audio cursor ends up at the start of the line. Use right and
left arrows to read word by word. You can change to letter-by-letter mode
by pressing L; when you do then right and left arrow read
letter-by-letter.
After you have specified the first line, you don't use
A through X to position the audio cursor. Instead, press the up and down
arrows to move your cursor to a new line and start talking it.
Instead of reading one line at a time, you can read
several. The comma key is the through key used to separate
the first and last line to read. When you first enter line review mode and
press You leave line review by pressing <ESC>; the
Echo says "Exit." You can also issue many Echo commands in line review
mode, but the syntax is a little different. You don't use the
Echo command character control-E. When you are in line review mode, the
Echo is already paying attention to all your keystrokes. The changes you
make to the Echo's parameters in line review do not affect the
Echo's parameters at menus and in the Editor.
In addition to reading the entire screen line, you can
divide the Apple screen horizontally into up to nine columns. Each time
you load TEXTALKER into memory, you start out with nine default columns,
labelled, logically enough, 1 through 9. Each
column is 5 characters wide: column 1 contains the characters in position
01 through 05; column 2 is 06
through 10, and so forth up to column 9 at 41
through 45.
The first time you enter line review, you default to
the entire screen: 00 through 40 or
80, depending on which screen you You can hear the entire line by choosing column 0; but
if you don't want to leave your column, you can press the letter R. This
reads the entire line without escaping from your chosen column. As always,
<CR> repeats the chosen text, whether it's a full line or a
columnar portion of it. When you exit line review, TEXTALKER remembers
your last column. The next time you enter line review, you'll be in the
same column.
While the nine default columns may suit your needs,
it's always nice to be able to customize your operating environment.
Each column is an independent entity; column boundaries may overlap. If
you wish, you could define column 1 as positions 02 through 39, column 2
as 04 through 09; column 3 as 00 through 31. We explain changing column
boundaries in a minute.
Whichever column you're in, you get a low boop when
you attempt to move past its edge. (It's the same low boop you get
when you reach the edge of the screen on a full line.) Press <space>
to find out your current cursor. (It may be easier to interpret portions
of words when you change to Letter mode at this point.) Moving the column
boundaries is similar to setting margins on a typewriter.
The combination of open-Apple and left arrow keys is
like the left margin release on a typewriter. When you
decrease the left column boundary (move it to the left) you
use the open-Apple and left arrow combination. Similarly, the open-Apple
combined with the right arrow is like the right margin
release. To increase the right column boundary (move it to the
right) you use the open-Apple and right arrow combination.
Suppose you want to change column 2's default values;
its left edge is position 06 and its right edge is position 10. You want
to make column 2 encompass positions 00 through 09. Here's how you
proceed.
Enter line review, then press A to choose a line.
Press 2 to shut up the Echo and enter column 2. The Echo reads the five
characters from 06 to 10; your audio cursor ends up at A, 06. Press
<space> to confirm this. Press the left arrow and the boop signals
the left edge of column 2. Hold down the open-Apple key while pressing the
left arrow, and you're moving the left edge of the column as you go. Each
left-arrow press is acknowledged with a boop; six presses gets you to
position 00. Press 2 now and you hear the text between 00 and 10. The
open-Apple right arrow combination can not move the right edge of the
column to the left. In this example, move your audio cursor
right with the right arrow key until the Echo announces A, 09, when you
press <space>. Now press the equals key to set the right column
edge.
The 20, 10 and 5 column screen display draw letters on
the Apple's screen, and TEXTALKER can't read graphics. You can review
the 80 and 40 column screens. When you are interrupted while working with
the Apple and want to know where you left off, use line review to find
out. Enter control-L Z R. Control-L enters line review mode; Z places your
audio cursor on the same screen line as your true cursor; and R reads that
line. You hear what BEX is prompting for. You can then use the up and down
arrows to see what else is on the screen.
You can also use line review to examine text you print
to the 80 or 40 column screen, or to a Review class printer.
The New-Line Indicator
The Carriage Return
The Paragraph Indicator
Case and space rules
() Caution! Format indicators must be typed
precisely as discussed here. Case is important for format indicators:
( $p ) signals a new paragraph.
$P
just prints
dollar sign uppercase P in your text. Always enter the format
indicators with four keystrokes; the initial and final spaces are integral
parts of the ( $p ) and ( $l ) indicators.
Part 2: Overview of Format Commands
or you can type spaces between them:
$$p-1 $$s2 $$l2 $$i5 $p
Both have the same effect. However, for isolated
format commands, we advise you to put spaces before and after them. We
find that adding the spaces makes the commands easier to work with,
because each command becomes a BEX "word." Following each $$ command with
a space ensures that the Grade 2 translator correctly translates the word
following a format command.
How Format Commands Work
When Format Commands Take Effect
The current line
Part 3: Format Commands in Detail
Centering
Center and Underline Combine to Make a Heading
to get: CBC emphasis indicators show underlining in
following sample
$$c Heading
The next line begins here.
() Caution! $$h does not initiate placement of
braille italics signs. Use the underline commands (explained below)
instead.
Make your headings into paragraphs
$$ve end of the line. Centering starts here
Place a ( $p ) before the $$c to solve this
problem:
the end of the line.
cannotentering starts here
Underlining
Line Spacing
Paragraph Indent
Left Margin
Left margin and carriage width
Top Margin
Simple Page Numbering
Tabs
Setting Tab Stops
Clearing tab stops
Advance to next tab
Using BEX tabs
#[_$]#$l#[_$]#Year to date earnings: $$ 5,000.00
The first four words occupy positions 0 to 21. There
isn't a tab stop for BEX to place the $5,000.00
at, so
there's one space between the colon and the dollar sign:
Year to date earnings: $5,000.00
Reset to Default
The importance of $$d
Part 4: Putting Format Commands to Work
LETTERHEAD
and JOAN
on your BEXtras disk. Together, they form a sample
letter that shows how to put some of these format commands to work. The
format commands and text in the LETTERHEAD chapter can be used over and
over again. Because the boundary between two BEX pages need not define any
boundary in your output, you can make one letter out of two chapters.
Insert your BEXtras disk in your data drive, and use the Editor to examine
these chapters.
Inside the LETTERHEAD Chapter
Inside the JOAN Chapter
Using Underlining
Using the Screen and Echo to Proofread
Chapter number:
for the third time, press <CR> alone.
When BEX prompts Which printer:
enter S+V
<CR>
and the text of these chapters is printed to both the
screen and the Echo.
+V
() Large Print Screen: When you request 20-column or
larger screen display and print LETTERHEAD and JOAN to the screen, you run
into a problem with the default margins set for the screen mode and the
tab stops set in these chapters. Because the tabs are set to stops greater
than the screen SL margins, BEX has trouble coping. After BEX is finished
printing the two chapters, it pulls in random text from memory to print to
the screen. The result is much more text printed to the screen than are in
the LETTERHEAD and JOAN chapters. This does not harm your data or your BEX
disk. After you see the sentence
Give all my love to the kids and
dog
simply press <ESC> to cancel printing.
Using a Review Class Printer to Proofread
Which printer:
enter the printer number for your
Review class printer. Enter ? <CR>
when you are not
sure of the printer number. Remember that any Review class printer must be
configured in slot 3. Enter the printer number, and not the slot number to
get the printer to work correctly.
Inside the QUANDARY Chapter
Part 5: Troubleshooting Format Problems
Part 1: Distinguishing Between Braille and Print
Chapters
() Hint! The relationship between inkprint
characters and braille cells is standardized. The nitty-gritty details are
discussed in Appendix 1. We use the term screen braille to
describe viewing grade 2 braille through an inkprint medium, such as a
computer screen. Accept it on faith for now that the crazy-looking screen
braille that you encounter when you edit a braille chapter indeed make
wonderful braille when you send the text to a braille device.
Part 2: Using the Grade 2 Translator
() Large Print Screen: The software that BEX uses in
braille translation occupies the same memory space as the software that
draws the large letters on the screen. When you use the Grade 2
translator, you temporarily lose large print screen display. This is
normal. As soon as the translation is finished, the letters on the screen
return to the size you defined in your configuration.
QUANDARY
chapter
from your BEXtras disk in drive 2 to a to a different data disk in drive
1. You need to have an initialized data disk. Start out with the BEX
program in drive 1 and the BEXtras disk in drive 2.
Enter Option: G
Grade 2 translator
Drive number or chapter name:
At this point, BEX has loaded the Grade 2 translator
software into the Apple's memory. You are now free to remove your BEX
disk from the program drive. Insert the data disk in drive 1. Now you
provide BEX with the name of the inkprint source chapter:
Drive number or chapter name: QUANDARY <CR>
Target chapter name:
Following the suggestion above, we name the grade 2
braille version by adding the digit 2 to the inkprint chapter
name. The BEXtras disk is quite full, so there wouldn't be room to write
the translated chapter on the BEXtras disk. Tell BEX to write the
translated chapter on drive 1 by preceding the target chapter name with
the digit 1.
Target chapter name: 1QUANDARY2 <CR>
Starting to translate.
That's all there is to it! Now you sit back and
wait. How long translation takes depends on how many characters are in
each page and the total number of pages in the chapter. BEX reads each
page of the print original into the page buffer, performs a large number
of computerized tricks on it, and then writes the translated text into the
corresponding page of the target QUANDARY2 chapter. The QUANDARY chapter
takes a little under three minutes to translate from print to grade 2
braille--around 70 characters per second. When BEX is finished
translating, it announces Chapter QUANDARY done
and presents
the Main Menu prompt.
How format commands are translated
$$p-1 $$c Computer Literacy
There's one space between the centering command
and the first word, so it's correctly translated to:
$$p-1 $$c ,-put] ,lit]acy
As promised, screen braille (looking at
grade 2 text through a print medium) can be a little strange at first. The
comma at the beginning of both words is a cap sign, showing
that the initial C and L are uppercase. The
hyphen stands for the three letters com, and the right
bracket stands for the two letters er.
$$p-1 $$c Computer Literacy
the translator leaves the entire first word
untranslated. The inaccurate result is:
$$p-1 $$c Computer ,lit]acy
The moral is, make sure you put spaces after your BEX
$$ format commands.
Scanning a disk for chapters to translate
Drive number or chapter name:
prompt, you
can ask BEX to scan the disk. You enter a drive number followed by
<CR>, and BEX presents a numbered list of chapters. BEX then prompts
Use entire list? N
and gives you the opportunity to translate
every chapter on disk.
Y
<CR>
to change the default answer from no to
yes. When you only want to translate some of the chapters on the list,
press <CR> to accept the N default. BEX then prompts you to choose
chapters by entering their numbers.
Grade 2 and Grade 1 Braille
Part 1: Configuring an Embosser
Main Menu
Enter Option: P
Print chapters
Drive number or chapter name: 2 <CR>
There are 1 chapters:
1 QUANDARY2
Use entire list? N Y <CR>
This sample demonstrates how you tell BEX to scan a
disk by entering the drive number at the Drive number or chapter
name:
prompt. BEX presents a numbered list of chapters and allows
you to select chapters by entering their numbers instead of their names.
We're assuming that the QUANDARY2 chapter is the only chapter on the disk
in drive 2; the numbered list has only one chapter.
Use entire
list? N
- prompt. BEX then prompts you to enter chapter numbers.
You select the QUANDARY2 chapter by typing its number followed by
<CR>. BEX responds by parroting the name of the chapter you
selected, then prompts again for a chapter number. Entering <CR>
alone at this prompt signals BEX that you are finished choosing chapters.
Which printer:
BEX wants you to supply a printer destination. When
you are embossing braille, you must supply the printer number that
corresponds to your embosser. Enter ? <CR>
to get a
list of choices. Which printer number is the right choice depends on the
configuration you have established. Here's what appears for the
sample configuration shown in Section 3:
Which printer: ? <CR>
1 - Brailler in slot 4 (41 by 25)
2 - Printer in slot 1 (53 by 37)
3 - Printer in slot 1 (72 by 58)
4 - Printer in slot 3 (72 by 58)
S - Screen output - Add +V for Echo output
() Caution! As mentioned earlier, some embossers
require that BEX tailor output in a particular way. This special handling
is called a "printer driver" in computer jargon. One common embosser, the
Cranmer Brailler, requires a printer driver. When you print chapters to
the Cranmer, BEX needs to load the printer driver from the program disk.
If you don't have your BEX disk in drive 1, then BEX briefly reads the
disk in drive 1, then "hangs." Press control-Reset, then type
RUN
<CR>
to get back to the Main Menu. Insert your BEX Main side
in drive 1 and try printing again.
Part 1: General Braille Format Principles
Part 2: BEX's Automatic Braille Format
Part 3: Basic Format Commands for Braille
Underlining
QUANDARY2
to a device configured as a brailler, the formatter
does not execute the underlining for any $$ub or $$h commands.
Yesterday he purchasedThe Cat in the Hat
for his daughter, and she $$ub loved it. $$uf
When the chapter is translated, the result in screen
braille looks like:
,ye/]"d he pur*ased $$ub ..,! ,cat 9 ! .,hat = 8
dau<t]1 & %e $$ub .lov$ .x4 $$uf
.lov$
is the grade 2
contraction for the letters ed. The single letter
x
is the grade 2 contraction for the word it and
the final digit 4
is the grade 2 period.
Centering
Center and underline
Line spacing
Paragraph spacing
Left margin
Simple page numbering
Tabs
Part 4: Braille Format for QUANDARY
QUANDARY
chapter
to show how you translate inkprint to grade 2 braille. The QUANDARY
chapter doesn't contain any $$l#, $$s#, or $$i# commands, so BEX uses the
appropriate default values for braille line spacing, paragraph spacing,
and paragraph indent. There are two places where minor changes can improve
the format of the braille version. You can make these format command
changes in the inkprint version, before it's translated, or in the
final grade 2 version. If you want to make changes in the inkprint
version, you should make a copy of the QUANDARY chapter first--we use the
original version in several other samples.
Delete the <CR>
$l $$d $$np <CR> $$h
The <CR> makes line one on the page blank,
which sets off the title in print. For braille, the blank line here is
inappropriate; delete it.
Establish outdenting
<space>$p<space>--
to specify the start of the
outdented paragraph, then press control-A to move your cursor ahead to the
first of these paragraphs. Press control-I to start inserting. Type to
establish a 2-character outdent. Press control-N to finish the insert.
Part 1: Why the Echo?
TEXTALKER
software. TEXTALKER is on the BEX Boot
disk and the Echo/Cricket Training Set. This combination of hardware and
software integrates the Echo into the Apple's operations.
() Apple II Plus: Your computer uses a different
version of TEXTALKER, numbered 1.3. This version lacks many of the
features described here. More details appear in Appendix 4.
Part 2: BEX and the Echo
Enter configuration:
prompt. At this point,
you enter a configuration name. When your configuration includes Echo
voice, then the Echo continues to speak throughout the program. When your
configuration does not include Echo voice, the Echo is silent. However,
you can get BEX to speak even when you don't have Echo speech in your
configuration.
Part 3: Turn the Voice Off and On Automatically
Automatic procedure
chapter:
1VOICE ON <CR>
1VOICE OFF
<CR>
Part 4: Voice-Oriented BEX Features
Editor Features
Printer features
+V
to the printer destination
number or letter. The Review class printer is designed to work in
combination with the Echo's line review mode, which we discuss
further in Part 7 of this Section. Examples of using the Review class
printer appear in Section 2, Part 11 and Section 5, Part 5.
Part 5: Echo Commands
() Apple II Plus: Your commands are different; see
Appendix 4.
Controlling what characters the Echo speaks
$
character to dollar because you
use many dollar signs for formatting your text.
# $ % & = @ +> < / ]
The repeat filter
+V
or
when you issue a talking Editor command; the repeat filter does not work
in line review. The repeat filter only filters punctuation and control
characters. When a line contains 80 8s or Ms,
you hear every one. The repeat filter command is:
Controlling speed
Controlling pitch and volume
Echo Commands in BEX's Editor
General Echo Commands outside of BEX
Part 6: Making the Echo Stop Talking
Which printer:
you enter
? <CR>
for the list of printer numbers. Printer number
2 is the one you want; as soon as you hear that information, you can enter
2 <CR>
and BEX starts printing. As soon as you press 2
that keystroke shuts up the Echo.
Keeping track in the Editor
Part 7: Echo Line Review
Choosing lines to read
A,G
then the Echo reads the first through seventh line
on the screen. After you have selected the first line to read, then
comma, letter selects the current line through the letter you
enter.
Changing Echo parameters in line review
Column review
Changing column boundaries
Using Line Review in BEX
Do you want Echo
speech?
question; or Use the automatic procedure chapter
VOICE ON
described in Part 3.
PR#0<CR>
PR#0
<CR>
a sighted person wanders by and asks why characters are
not displayed on the Apple screen.
RUN <CR>
Your Echo will probably
make some strange noises at this point--don't worry! Use the Editor to
edit any chapter. As soon as you enter the page, leave it
with control-Q. Now control-X and control-L are properly re-enabled by
BEX.