Hi, Sharon,
To assign a dot pattern so characters can be read on the braille display:
1. Press function with x to bring up the unicode table.
2 Look for the character you want to assign dot pattern.
3. When you find the character, press control d.
4. If the character has never been assigned to anything, you will get the
message: "character displays as nothing. option?"
5. Press the letter a to assign a dot pattern.
6. Type the dots you want to see the character displayed. The QT keyboard
becomes a braille keyboard so f is dot 1, d is dot 2, s is dot 3, j is dot
4, k is dot 5 l is dot 6 a is dot 7 and semicolon is dot 8.
Now, Here's a secret so you can see all of the special characters in a
foreign language in braille without needing to assign a dot pattern to every
character: change the computer braille table to the foreign language's
table. To change the computer braille table to Spanish computer braille, go
to the
braille options menu by pressing function with o. Space until you get to
"computer braille table?" Press control space until you get to "Spanish
computer braille." Press enter. Be sure to cycle through the options until
you get to "display computer braille using 6 or 8 dots." Press 8 so the
computer will display as 8 dots.
Here is how to create a macro for writing characters:
1. Press function with x and find the character you want to write, for
example a acute, but
don't press enter yet.
2. Press control k. The message "a acute is unassigned. option? appears.
3. Press the letter a to assign a macro.
4. The message "macro to assign a acute?" appears.
5. Type a character or more than one character then press enter. For
example, you could type aa for a acute.
6. You will get the message: "asign function with c, then aa to a acute?"
Press y for yes.
7. To write a acute using the new macro, press function c. At the prompt,
"unicode macro?" type aa and press enter.
There are two secrets for writing foreign languages without going through
the hassle of finding unicode characters and creating macros:
1. Connect an external Qwerty keyboard to the BN. Turn numlock on. Hold
down
the left alt key on the external keyboard and type the unicode character's
number
using the external keyboard's numpad. For example, to write a acute, hold
down the alt key and press 225.
Here are the numbers for the Spanish characters:
a acute 225; e acute 233; i acute 237; n tilde 241; o acute 243; u acute
250; inverted exclamation mark 161; inverted question mark 191; cap A acute
193; cap E acute 201; cap I acute 205; cap N tilde 209; cap O acute 211; cap
U acute 118.
(It's been so long since I've studied Spanish I can't remember if they used
cap acute letters. I don't think they did, but I included them anyway.)
By the way, you can enter these numbers using the BN's QT keyboard, but you
always have to press function with x first. This step isn't necessary with
an external QWERTY keyboard.
2. Another way to write Spanish quickly is to change the keyboard type and
braille grade in use to computer braille and
write them in braille. To write an a acute, you would press dots
1,2,3,5,6,8. You must have Spanish computer braille table loaded and you
must have 8 dot braille turned on. Note: All of the Spanish accented
characters and inverted question mark and inverted exclamation mark use the
same dots as US Spanish braille but you add dot 8. For example, e acute is
dots 2,3,4,6,8 the inverted exclamation mark is dots 2,3,5,8 inverted
question mark is 2,6,8 acute i is 3,4,8 acute o is 3,4,6,8 acute u is
2,3,4,5,6,8 n tilde is 1,2,4,5,6,8. Note: If you don't mind using the QT
keyboard in braille mode, you could write all of your Spanish using braille.
I'm telling you about these methods for writing Spanish because when I took
Spanish many years ago, I had to take high speed dictation using a Perkins
brailler. If I had had to go through all the steps of writing the
characters by pressing function with x followed by the number, I would never
have been able to keep up.
Note: You can always change back to US computer braille when you don't need
to write Spanish. Note that the numbers in the Spanish computer braille
table are different from the numbers in the US table.
I hope these instructions are helpful.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Terri Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA.
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