Hi Richard, no firm promises, but it is something we are actively investigating to possibly include in the next release.
Jonathan Mosen BrailleNote Product Marketing Manager HumanWare DDI: +1-925-566-9265 http://www.humanware.com "Richard Hutcheson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/02/2006 09:04 p.m. Please respond to Richard Hutcheson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Please respond to Braillenote List <[email protected]> To "Braillenote List" <[email protected]> cc Subject Re: [Braillenote] A Call for Better Keyword Support and other things Jonathan, a while back you mentioned a function which possibly could reduce mistyping errors on a BT. I have in mind a keystroke which would turn off chord commands typed accidentally on the keyboard when typing quickly. Any thing come of this idea? I find it is one of my most troublesome problems when taking notes at a meeting. Thanks. Richard Hutcheson 387 Savage Farm Drive Ithaca, NY 14850 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- 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 > > > > > ___ > To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit > http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote > > > ___ > To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit > http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote > > __________ NOD32 1.1395 (20060206) Information __________ > > This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. > http://www.eset.com > > ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
