Hi Sarah,
No, I am definitely not offended at all. I was just curious because I
thought you had a problem with us for asking questions. Now that I
understand what you are saying that is all cleared up. Thanks very much for
your explanation now it makes sense to me.
Have a great day!
Virgie and Hoshi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Cranston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 9:12 AM
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and other
things
Hi Virgie,
I don't have a view. <Smile> At this point in my working life I have no
need for Excel, hence my questions. BTW, I'm still curious if anyone has
tried the CSV option and if so, what were the results. I see nothing wrong
with suggesting features, my only thought on the subject was, why not use a
method that is already available on the BN, instead of waiting for an
upgrade? I apologize if I offended with my previous post.
Sarah
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of VIRGIE
UNDERWOOD
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 6:12 PM
To: Braillenote List
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and other
things
Hello Sarah,
I respect your views but I really do not see anything wrong with asking for
important features that will help us on the job. Smile!
Virgie and Hoshi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Cranston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 3:24 PM
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and other
things
What ever happened to importing CSV files into KeyBase? Has anyone tried
it, especially someone with a need for spreadsheets? If I were more
familiar with Excel, I'd try it myself, but I'll leave that to the experts.
<Smile> Still, I wonder if this should be at least attempted before asking
for a very major addition to KeySoft, such as Excel. Just a few thoughts.
Sarah
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Bray, Terry
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 2:08 PM
To: Braillenote List
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and other
things
Hi:
I have to second this Databases are databases and spreadsheets are
spreadsheets. Even a stripped down version of excel like the one for
PDA's is better than none. When I am in a meeting I need access to the
same information as my sighted co-workers and can't use my BrailleNote
so I need to carry my laptop not always so convenient.
Terry Bray
System Support Analyst
Adaptive Technology Services - Strategy and Planning Desktop Planning &
Design
ENTERPRISE INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATIONS, Technology & Solutions
Phone 416-549-6190
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of VIRGIE
UNDERWOOD
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 2:46 PM
To: Braillenote List
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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