Congratulations on your purchase of the PAC Mate Omni BX400. The BX400 is a Personal Data Assistant designed and developed by Freedom Scientific. The BX400 uses X-scale technology for higher performance and lower power consumption that results in a longer battery life.
The PAC Mate Omni line of computers combines the Windows Mobile® 6.0 operating system with JAWS® screen reading technology. It offers the latest in mobile technology making it a powerful portable information management tool. The combination of blindness-specific features written by Freedom Scientific, the rich suite of information management tools provided by Microsoft, and the ability to install a wide range of Windows Mobile applications makes the PAC Mate Omni the ultimate PDA for blind people.
Key features include:
Using Windows Mobile with the PAC Mate Omni is quite easy once you master the basic skills. It is recommended that you read and learn this section as it teaches you basic PAC Mate Omni skills needed to operate Windows Mobile.
Before you start your PAC Mate Omni for the first time, plug the AC adapter into a wall plug and then plug the other end into the PAC Mate Omni's power jack found on the right back side of the unit. Next, press the On/Off switch, which is next to the power jack. To indicate that it is on, the PAC Mate Omni uses an audible low high sound and to indicate that it is off, it uses a high low sound.
After a few seconds you will hear, "JAWS for Pocket PC is ready."
You can immediately start using your PAC Mate Omni while it is charging, but charge the battery for at least three hours before using your PAC Mate Omni without the AC adapter.
The PAC Mate Omni BX keyboard consists of a Perkins style keyboard, a spacebar, eight function keys, and the cursor cross. The eight Braille keys from left to right are: 7, 3, 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8. Located between keys 1 and 4 is the cursor cross. The cursor cross is equivalent to the arrow keys on a QWERTY keyboard. Above each Braille key are eight corresponding function keys. From left to right, they are: F7, F3, F2, F1, F4, F5, F6, and F8. The spacebar is found below the cursor cross. Use the spacebar in combination with any of the Braille or Function keys to create a chorded command.
Tip: You can learn about each Braille
or Function Key by using Keyboard Help ( DOTS 1-4-5-6-8 CHORD). To
exit Keyboard Help, press DOTS 1-4-5-6-8 CHORD again.
Note: A CHORD is created anytime you press the SPACEBAR in conjunction with a keystroke.
In addition, many of the PAC Mate Omni menus allow first letter navigation.
For more information on commands, please see Appendix A: PAC Mate Omni Commands.
Another command you should get familiar with right away is the F2 CHORD. This command activates the Context Menu, which allows you to quickly perform an action on an item. For example, you can use a Context Menu to cut, copy, select all, paste, delete or create a new folder. To access a Context Menu, select an item such as a word in a document, a date in the Calendar View, or a file in a list view and press F2 CHORD. A menu opens with a variety of commands, select a command with the cursor cross and press DOT 8. Or press F1 to escape the menu without performing the action.
Soft keys are available in many Windows Mobile applications, so it is important to understand how they work as you will use them extensively on the PAC Mate Omni. The left and right soft keys are virtual keys that perform different functions depending on the program being used. Soft keys generally are assigned to the most common action based on the current screen. For example, in most programs, the right soft key opens the menu while the left soft key may perform some common action such as starting a new document, replying to an e-mail message, or going to the previous Web page. Once you become familiar with the various actions the soft keys perform, you will find they are extremely convenient to use.
As soft key assignments change based on the currently active screen, the PAC Mate Omni will automatically announce the current soft key assignments when a screen first opens. For example, if you go to the Today screen from another program, you will hear "Today," followed by "left soft key is Calendar right soft key is Contacts." If you open an application or screen and receive no soft key announcement, this means that soft keys are not available in the particular program.
Use F1+F2 to activate the left soft key and F4+F5 to activate the right soft key. In addition, use the command F1+F4 at any time to have the PAC Mate Omni announce the current soft key assignments. If soft keys are not available, you will be told this as well.
Once you become more familliar with using soft keys and the various functions they perform, you may decide you no longer wish to hear an announcement each time they change. To turn off the automatic announcement of soft keys, do the following:
Remember: Even if you choose to not have soft keys announced, you can still use F1+F4 at any time to hear the current soft key assignments.
When you turn the PAC Mate Omni on, your Today Screen is immediately available. On your Today Screen are nine default items: the system time and date, Owner's Information, E-mail Messages, Tasks, Appointments, Windows Live sign in, Live Search, and Battery Charge. You move to these items using the UP or DOWN ARROWS on the cursor cross in the center of the keyboard. You handle all menu navigation, including the Start Menu, in this manner as well. To activate any of the items on the Today Screen and on the menus, press DOT 8. When you press DOT 8 on Live Search, you are placed in an edit field where you can type in a search string. If your PAC Mate Omni is connected to the Internet, pressing DOT 8 will open a page in Internet Explorer Mobile containing a list of search results.
Note: The "Sign into Windows Live" option is different from Windows Live Messenger. Using this item allows you to directly sign into the main Windows Live service. However, if you have a Windows Live Messenger account, your same username and password will work here as well. For more details on Windows live, visit the Windows Live Web site.
To refresh the Today Screen so that it reflects the most current information, press F1 CHORD.
For those items on the Today Screen that open to a dialog box or list view, press F1 to close the item and return to the Today Screen.
Customizing the Today Screen to show only those items that you use often is an option available in the Today dialog box, which is in the Settings list view under the Personal page.
From the Today Screen, you can quickly access your Contacts and Appointments with a single keystroke. Press F1+F2 to open Calendar or F4+F5 to open Contacts.
Regardless of where you are or what you are doing on the PAC Mate Omni, the Start Menu is always accessible with the F4 key.
Note: As you explore your PAC Mate Omni, you will occasionally come across unsupported features or phrases such as the words, "tap here" or "tap and hold." For the instance of "tap here," press DOT 8. For the instance of "tap and hold," press F2 CHORD.
Typically, most programs have a menu with items such as New, Edit, or Tools. In programs that use soft keys, the right soft key or F4+F5 will usually open the menu. In applications that do not use soft keys such as FSEdit, the command to access the menus is the F2 key. Press DOT 8 on the menu item you want to open.
Many menus have submenus, which frequently are announced. To open a submenu, you can press DOT 8 or the RIGHT ARROW to open the submenu and use the LEFT ARROW to return to the previous menu.
Note: In programs where the right soft key F4+F5 opens the menu, you can still use the F2 Key to open the menu as well. In this situation, pressing F2 brings up a small menu containing the left and right soft key assignments. DOWN ARROW to Menu and press DOT 8 TO OPEN THE PROGRAM'S MAIN MENU. In most cases however, it is much faster to just use F4+F5 when available.
dialog boxes are smaller windows that usually appear from a menu choice. They contain controls used to configure various settings.
There are many types of controls in a dialog box, such as edit fields, combo boxes, and slide controls.
In dialog boxes, DOTS 4-5 CHORD moves you forward through the controls, while DOTS 1-2 CHORD moves you backwards.
A Multi-Page dialog box is a dialog box with multiple pages. When you open a multi-page dialog box, the name of the current page is announced after the name of the dialog box. For example, "Sounds and Notifications, Sounds page."
To quickly move between pages of a multi-page dialog box, press DOTS 5-6 CHORD or DOTS 2-3 CHORD.
When you press DOTS 5-6 CHORD or DOTS 2-3 CHORD, you are first placed on the name of the currently active page. Continue pressing these keystrokes to move through the pages until you hear the one you want, then press DOTS 4-5 CHORD to move to the first control on the page.
Windows Mobile uses HTML dialog boxes, better known as Information Bubbles, to display information in HTML text, hyperlinks, and buttons. Typically these dialog boxes are available only with software and hardware devices that support this type of dialog box. Use the cursor cross to navigate this dialog box and use DOT 8 to activate a button, hyperlink or radio button.
Radio buttons are presented in a dialog box as two or more small circles. This control type allows exclusive selections in that only one radio button in a group can be selected. Use DOWN ARROW to move through the radio buttons, and when you land on the appropriate choice, press DOTS 4-5 CHORD to move to the next control.
Note: Only one radio button in a group can be selected at a time.
Edit fields are similar to the edit fields in word processing programs. You can type text into an edit field and use any of the Reading Commands to move about your typed text. A multi-line edit field allows you to type more than one line in an edit field.
An edit combo box is a combination of two controls: an edit field and a list box. You can either type in a value or press DOT 7+DOWN ARROW to open a list box. The list contains suggestions for the contents of this field. Use the UP and DOWN ARROW, keys to move through the list, and use DOT 7+UP ARROW or F1 to close the list box. If you do not find your choice in the list box, type it in the edit field.
A plain combo box differs from the edit combo box. You must make your selection from suggestions provided by the program. Either press DOWN ARROW to move through the choices, or press the first letter of the choice you want to make.
Note: When you encounter a combo box you may need to press DOWN ARROW twice in order to move to the next item.
The edit spin box is also a combination of two controls. You can type in this field, or use the cursor cross to move through the list of suggestions. Edit spin boxes are common for fields that require numeric values.
Left/right sliders are oriented horizontally. You can use your LEFT and RIGHT ARROW keys to adjust this control. For some left/right slider controls, the commands, DOT 2+UP ARROW and DOT 2+DOWN ARROW, are implemented so you can move by larger increments.
A check box can be checked or unchecked. The PAC Mate Omni announces the current state of a check box when you move to it. Press SPACEBAR or DOT 8 to check or clear a check box.
In an extended select list box, use the arrow keys to navigate the list of options that have check boxes related to them, and press SPACEBAR or DOT 8 to check or clear the check boxes.
Buttons are common in dialog boxes and in the Windows Mobile environment require special consideration. In most dialog boxes, pressing DOT 8 activates a button.
In dialog boxes that contain OK and Cancel buttons, you can not press DOT 8 while on another control and have the OK button activated as you can with Windows dialog boxes on the desktop. You must press DOTS 4-5 CHORD to move to the OK button and then press DOT 8 to activate it and close the dialog box.
In dialog boxes that do not contain OK and Cancel buttons, you must press F1 to exit the dialog box. If you have made any changes, they are automatically applied. Otherwise, the dialog box is simply closed.
This control lists items such as files and folders, and may contain several columns of information. To hear the available items in a list view, press UP or DOWN ARROW. As you move through the list, the first column of information is read. To hear information from all columns for the current item, press DOTS 1-4 CHORD, the Read Current Line command.
In a list view, the current item is selected. You can select multiple items either one after the other or non-contiguously. To select items one after the other, press and hold the SPACEBAR, then press the UP or DOWN ARROWS to select the previous or next items respectively.
To select items non-contiguously, press and hold DOT 7 and press F1 or F4 to move up and down through the list. Press F5 to select or unselect an item. As you move through the list, JAWS says "not selected" for items that you have not selected.
In a tree view, items are presented in a hierarchical format, which is organized vertically on the screen. Press UP or DOWN ARROW to move through the tree view. When you hear, "level zero closed," you press RIGHT ARROW to open that level. You are then presented with more information beneath it. Press DOWN ARROW to move through the next level. One of those items may also be closed so you would press RIGHT ARROW again to open that item. If you want to close a level, press LEFT ARROW or DOT 7.
Note: The PAC Mate Omni only announces the level number when it changes.
File Explorer, like Windows Explorer, gives you access to all the files on your PAC Mate Omni. To open File Explorer, go to the Start Menu (F4), press P to open the Programs submenu, then press F followed by DOT 8.
When you first launch File Explorer, you hear "My Documents list view, Business folder, one of six." The phrase, "My Documents list view," means that the My Documents folder is open listing all of its folders and files. The phrases, "Business folder, one of six," means that the Business folder is selected and it is one of the six subfolders in the My Documents folder.
To view all the files and folders on your PAC Mate Omni, from the list view press F2. Move to Show By and press DOT 8. Then move to My Device and press DOT 8 again.
To navigate among the folders and files, use these commands. To open a file or folder, select it from the list view and press DOT 8.
To quickly delete, rename, copy, or move a file or folder, select it from the list view by pressing the SPACEBAR and open the Context Menu with F2 CHORD and choose the action you want. To select multiple items, use DOWN ARROW CHORD. You can also select non-contiguously by holding down DOT 7 while using F1 and F4 and pressing F5 on the files you want to select.
Here are some examples of how File Explorer can help you maintain and manage your files.
Anytime you want to access a network device with your PAC Mate Omni, you must enter the network path and then log on with a username and password. In the following directions, a network embosser is used as the example.
If you choose to save your password in File Explorer, you will not need to open File Explorer each time you want to emboss to a network embosser.
Tip: Once you have opened a network path for the first time, it is automatically saved to the Open Path submenu. The next time you want to open a previously used network path, press F4+F5, select Open Path, and choose the network path you want from the submenu.
Tip: If you have looked for this text before, press DOWN ARROW in the Find box and select the name from the list.
Press DOTS 4-5 CHORD to move to the Results list, use the cursor cross to select what you are looking for and then press DOT 8 to open it.
If you are a person who will be using your PAC Mate Omni in public places, then this section will be important to you because it discusses how to personalize, password protect, and identify your PAC Mate Omni.
This section is also important if you want to purchase any of the off-the-shelf programs available for the PAC Mate Omni as it discusses how to locate hardware and software information.
You can enter this information in the Owner Information dialog box of the PAC Mate Omni.
To do this, from the Today screen, use the cursor cross to locate the item “Tap here to set owner information,” and press DOT 8. You can also access this dialog box by going to the Start Menu (F4) and pressing S. This opens the Settings multi-page dialog box. Use the cursor cross to move to Owner Information and press DOT 8.
When this dialog box opens, the Identification page is active for you to enter your personal information. You can press the SPACEBAR to check the "Show information when device is turned on" check box so that if you lose your PAC Mate Omni, it can be returned to you.
If you want to add any additional information, press DOTS 5-6 CHORD to move to the Notes page. Type in the information you want to add and press the SPACEBAR to enable the check box if you want to display this information when the PAC Mate Omni is on. Press F1 to save the changes and close the dialog box and once more to return to the Today Screen.
As you become familiar with your PAC Mate Omni and begin to truly use it as your personal data assistant, you may find that you are storing more and more personal or confidential information. For example, names and phone numbers of important contacts, credit card numbers, and work or school related documents. To protect you from data theft, your PAC Mate Omni allows you to password protect your information as well as encrypt any files you save to a storage card.
To set up a password, go to the Start Menu (F4), move to Settings and press DOT 8 or just press S. Use the cursor cross to move to Lock or just press L and then DOT 8.
In the Password Settings dialog box, use the SPACEBAR to select how long your PAC Mate Omni must be idle before the password is required check box. Use LEFT and RIGHT ARROW to choose the idle time. Press DOTS 4-5 CHORD and select one of the two radio buttons that indicates the type of password you would like to use: simple 4-digit password or strong alphanumeric password.
To type the password, press DOTS 4-5 CHORD to move to the Password edit box. If necessary, confirm the password. It is helpful to record this password and store it elsewhere for safekeeping.
You can also provide a hint in case you forget your password. From the Password Settings dialog box, press DOTS 5-6 CHORD to access the Hint page. Press DOTS 4-5 CHORD and enter your hint in the edit box.
Note: If you choose to use an alphanumeric password it must be at least seven characters long and contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numerals, or punctuation. Press and hold DOT 7 to type uppercase letters.
When you are done press F1 twice to return to the Today Screen. Now, when you turn your PAC Mate Omni on it will require the password to access it.
Caution: If you forget your password, you must perform a clean reset to clear the memory before you can access your PAC Mate Omni. This erases all files and data you have created and programs you have installed. For this reason, it is recommended that you use ActiveSync to regularly synchronize your data or use Sprite Backup to create a complete backup file of all of your programs and data so they can be restored.
To encrypt files saved on a storage card, go to the Start menu (F4), press S to choose Settings. Press DOTS 5-6 CHORD to move to the System page, then E to move to Encryption, and press DOT 8.
In the Encryption dialog box, press SPACEBAR to check the "Encrypt files placed on storage cards" check box. Since this is the only control in this dialog box, press F1 twice to return to the Today Screen. Now, any files that are located on your storage card, or any files that you save to your card in the future, will only be readable on your PAC Mate Omni. If your card is lost or stolen, none of your files will be readable on any other device.
The PAC Mate Omni serial number identifies your PAC Mate Omni in Freedom Scientific’s product database. This number, found in the center of the bottom surface, is printed and brailled. It may be helpful to record and store this number for safekeeping.
Anytime you call Freedom Scientific Technical Support, you will need to have your serial number and other information available. This information is found in the Version Information dialog box, which is accessed using the command I CHORD, A.
To learn more about your PAC Mate Omni system go to the About multi-page dialog box. Here you will find information on Windows Mobile software version, processor type, memory amount, device ID, and Copyright notifications.
To view this information, go to the Start Menu (F4) and press S to open the Settings multi-page dialog box. Press DOTS 5-6 CHORD to move to the System page. Press A to move to About and then press DOT 8.
When the About dialog box first opens, you are on the Version page. The PAC Mate Omni will automatically read the contents of this page, which includes software version, processor, memory, and expansion slot.
When you are done with this page press DOTS 5-6 CHORD to move to the Device ID page. On this page there is a "Device name edit field" and a "Description edit field." PAC Mate Omni uses the Device name to identify itself when connecting to other computers. If you cannot connect to a network because another device is already connected using the same name, type a new name in this edit field. You may include a description to go with the identification.
To read the copyright notice follow the steps above to move to the Copyright page.