Hi.
Below is a message I posted late last august about unzipping zip
files on the Braillenote. Hope it helps.
Aman
Hi, all.
From time to time, I have noticed people on the list asking for an
unzip utility for the BN/VN. The new bookshare unpack utility included in
version 5 will, in many cases, serve as such a utility. To use the unpacker
as an unzipper, you might like to do the following.
First, the Braillenote or Voicenote must be running version 5 of
Keysoft. It doesn't matter if it's a BT or QT unit. I thank Roselle for
testing this on a BT unit, to which I don't have access. Secondly, you must
have the zip file on the unit in some way. That is, it must be on the flash
disk, a compact flash or storage card, or the Keysoft disk.
The zip file should first be renamed, through the file manager, to
have a .bks extension. That is, file.zip should be called file.bks. This can
be done through the rename function of the file manager. Once the renaming
has been done, you can go to the book reader and open the book as you would
any other book. That is, select the bks file like any book you wish to read.
Once you've hit enter on the BKS file, you will be asked for the drive you
want the unpacked bookshare book stored in. Select a drive. You will then be
asked for a folder where the unpacked book is to be placed. Select a folder.
You will then be asked to enter a password. If your zip file has password
protection, enter the password. If the file has no such protection, simply
press enter. You will be told "please wait". The machine will unzip the file
and place the unzipped files in the directory you chose. You will be asked
if you wish to delete the original packed bookshare book. Answering yes will
delete the zip file, while answering no will keep it in place with the BKS
extension. Remember that the file can be renamed with a .zip extension, and
then sent to an email recipient or transferred to the PC. It should then be
possible for any unzip program for the PC that handles zip files to work
with the file.
After you're asked about the deletion of the original file, you will
be given one of the names of the files in the zip file. That is, you will be
told that the book is called filename.ext, where filename.ext is one of the
files in the zip file. The book reader will attempt to open this file, as it
would with a bookshare book. I've found the best way is to allow the file to
be opened, and then to close the book reader. This may be avoidable, as
there is a bksunpackce.exe file in the windows directory of the flash disk.
This file is, apparently, the bookshare unpacker. If command line options
for this file are available, one could run it from the utilities menu and
decompress zip files without using the book reader.
You can now work with the unzipped files on the unit as you would
any other files. Note that, if the files are not of the type shown in a
normal directory, you will have to hit read with X (space with X on a BT
unit), to show all, including hidden, files in the directory. In this
respect, the unpacked files act like any other files on the machine.
I should probably point out a few things before I finish. First, this method
of using the unpack utility is not supported by PDI. It should do no damage
to the machine, and it seems to me that the worst that could happen is that
the unpack utility could refuse to unpack the book, but problems caused by
this method are probably not going to be supported by PDI. Further, though
this method has been tested on two machines with quite a few zip files, I
can't guarantee that the method will be free of errors, that it will work,
or that it will do no damage to the machine. I'd recommend this method for
intermediate or advanced users of the unit, and those users should
understand that they're using the method at their own risk.
It should also be noted that if you're using this method to unpack
zip files, you can fill a disk very quickly. Zip files which contain
programs for the PC or large numbers of files should probably not be
unpacked on the flash disk. These disks are small, comparatively speaking,
and will be filled rapidly by a zip file with a large number of files, or
files of a large size, in it. If the machine has a storage card or compact
flash card, it may be a good idea to unzip the files on that card.
Finally, the unpack utility has been tested with zip files created
by Winzip and Ultimate Zip. It has worked on all files except those which
have folders in them. That is, if a zip file contains folders with files in
those folders, the BN will not unzip the file. The files must be in the root
of the zip file to be unzipped. The method hasn't been tested with files
created by other zip programs. If anyone finds a program that creates zip
files which certainly don't work, I'd be grateful to hear of it.
HTH.
Aman
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gary ODonoghue
Sent: May 21, 2004 9:03 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Braillenote] Zip files
This issue may have been discussed before so apologies if it has. But
does any one know whether there's been any thought put to giving the
Braile note the capacity to unzip standard zipped files? There are unzip
progs that run on the Windows CE platform as I understand it. I get
quite a lot of newspapers delivered by email and they're zipped. Would
be good if I could simply unzip these directly on the BN without having
to transfer the file back and forth to the PC.
Gary
Gary O'Donoghue, BBC Political Correspondent
Tel: +44 (0)207 9736007
Mob: 07802 232212
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ - World Wide Wonderland
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