Hello Virgie,
I have been preaching this for the last couple of releases, so I
am glad to see that others are now starting to publicly mention
it.
The more that say it, on this list, the more Humanware will see
the need for it.
Robert
----- Original Message -----
From: "VIRGIE UNDERWOOD" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]
Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:46:29 -0500
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and
other things
Hi Jonathan,
The one thing that Braillenote lacks is the ability to use Excel.
I would
like to see this feature added in the next upgrade. There are
many vendors
on this list and many more who are not part of the list that
could benefit
greatly from having good support and functionality forExcel. I
appreciate
the great job Humanware has done but we still have the need for
the ability
to really be able to use Excel. Thanks very much for listening
to your
customers.
Virgie Underwood
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and
other
things
Hi Tom, and thanks for your great feedback. In this message,
I'm going to
attempt to reply to your points as well as the points made by
others in
reply to your original message.
The issues you raise regarding Word support are issues which
concern us
greatly as well. KeySoft 6.11 made some strides to improving
the
situation. Prior to KeySoft 6.11, we did not support files
created in Word
beyond 2000. Now, we support all versions of Word. that said,
there are
characteristics that cause the Word converter to fall over and
crash not
very gracefully, irrespective of Word version. These include
the use of
formatting such as tables and bullet points. This isn't a
satisfactory
situation to us either, and I have in fact authorised funding
for a
project to research fixes to this issue.
One of the issues we face is that we as blind people use our
BrailleNotes
quite differently from how many sighted people use their PDAs.
A PDA for
the sighted has a small screen, and it's not common for people
to do very
complex editing in that environment. For this reason, it may be
that the
conversion utilities available to us as part of what comes with
Windows CE
need to be replaced with a third party product that will offer
much more
advanced Word support. We're actively investigating this now,
but at this
stage it's too early to give any kind of indication as to when
you might
see the results of this. However, this is one of the nice
things about
KeySoft. We can take the bits of Microsoft code that work for
us, and
replace others that offer more functionality. We've done this
for example
in the case of our Media player which streams more formats than
Pocket
WindowsMedia Player, and with our Download Manager.
I would have to take issue with those who have described the
feature set
of KeySoft 7 as fluff. BrailleNote and VoiceNote mPower is now
the only
portable product in the market offering you a choice of speech
engine. We
have a powerful database manager already being used to assist
people with
everything from running their businesses to cataloguing home
inventory.
The fraction functions in the calculator are a big feature for
students.
While much as been made of the games, keep in mind that a huge
number of
BrailleNotes find their way to the education sector. The text
adventures
assist with literacy because they encourage kids to use the
machine more.
They also assist with orientation, because most of these games
use compass
directions, teaching blind children to retrace their steps and
assisting
them to develop a sense of spatial awareness. And yes, they're
also good
fun. The changes to Bluetooth are particularly huge in the
education
market because of the visual display functionality. The FM
radio is
consistent with our intent, over time, to have the BrailleNote
replace as
many of those other devices you have to carry around with you as
a blind
person who travels.
All that being said, you'll get no argument from me about the
substantive
issue you raise, and we are certainly actively working on the
issue.
Jonathan Mosen
BrailleNote Product Marketing Manager
HumanWare
DDI: +1-925-566-9265
http://www.humanware.com
"Tom Lange" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
03/02/2006 02:57 p.m.
Please respond to
Braillenote List <[email protected]
To
"Braillenote List" <[email protected]
cc
Subject
[Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and other things
Hi list and Humanware support staff,
There are times when I have to vent and get something off my
chest, and
this
is one of them.
Today I encountered two problems with a Word document that I
downloaded
from
the Project Assist web site in connection with a course that I'm
taking.
First, after downloading the document to my PC and transferring
it to a BN
Classic running Keysoft 6.11 build 26, I attempted to open the
file in
Keyword, at which time I got the "review options?" prompt. So
far, so
good,
but when I pressed Enter on that prompt I was told that the file
was not a
recognized Word document. I re-saved the file on the PC as a
Word 97
file,
transferred that one, opened it and it worked fine. As it
turns out, I
couldn't open the original file until I did a 1-2-3 reset, then
all was
well. However, that led to a second problem.
The Word file in question contained a number of web addresses
which I
needed
to visit in order to complete a class assignment. Though I
could see them
quite clearly when viewing the Word file on the PC, they were
omitted
entirely from the document when viewing it in Keyweb. I was
unaware that
Keyweb wouldn't display embedded hyperlink fields in a Word
document, so,
frankly, I was a little surprised, and, a tad bit annoyed.
My Braille Note is on its way back to me, having been upgraded
to an
MPower
which should be running Keysoft 7, and I'm really excited about
that.
Having
heard about all the neat functionality built into Keysoft 7 and
the MPower
platform, I can't wait to take the unit for a spin.
However, I need to reiterate and expound on something that I've
been
saying
for a long, long time. Humanware development managers have been
very
responsive to the needs and wants of the customers, and I extend
a hearty
thumbs-up for their efforts thus far to enhance the
functionality of the
product offering. Many folks, myself included, asked for a
faster
hardware
platform and got it, a newer version of Windows CE and got it.
Folks
asked
for enhanced media player support, streaming audio, database
functionality,
and the list goes on, and all of that is here now, and that's
great!
But what about the long-standing issues that still need to be
addressed?
Humanware needs to recognize and remember that there's a
significant
percentage of folks within the user population who, like myself,
use the
Braille Note for education and business as well as pleasure on a
day-to-day
basis, so special consideration must be given to ensuring that
those
applications that can be used for education and business have
the best
possible support that the platform will offer. This means that
Keyword,
for
example, needs to be able to handle any Word document version
that's
thrown
at it, and that in the interest of being fully and seamlessly
integrated
into education and business-related activity, it needs to, among
other
things, be able to handle fancier formatting such as tables
without
crashing and handle markup such as embedded hyperlinks without
omitting
the
associated information. It also means that those memory
glitches which
cause critical documents to mysteriously disappear into the bit
bucket
need
to be isolated and dealt with in no uncertain terms. Yeah, I
ran across
that one a couple of weeks ago and let me tell ya, folks,
re-creating my
data wasn't much fun.
These issues still haven't been fully addressed in years, and
it's become
apparent that those of us who are concerned about them just
haven't "made
enough noise" by submitting formal requests to Humanware
development or
the
support team. So I urge those who feel as I do, stand up and
be counted.
Voice your concerns on the list yet again, and write to
Humanware support
directly as I'm doing at this very moment, so that Humanware
development
managers can see the numbers and know that we're out here
clamoring for
resolution of these issues.
Okay, time to get off my soapbox. No flames, please. See y'all
later.
Tom
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