FSEdit is a word processing application that you can use to create and edit documents. Unlike Word Mobile or Notes, FSEdit was created specifically for the blind user. Among its friendly and convenient features, you will find FSEdit provides a robust editing environment, complete with a spell checker, and offers the facility to emboss all supported file formats.
The default location for FSEdit is the Programs submenu (Windows Key, P). In the Program submenu press F until you hear FSEdit and then press ENTER. When you first open FSEdit, it automatically creates a new document. If necessary you may also create a new document by pressing ALT and then ENTER on the File Menu. In the File Menu, press N and ENTER again. This will also create a new blank document.
To view all the commands available in FSEdit, please see Appendix A: PAC Mate Omni Commands.
If the file you want to save has the correct name, is in the correct file format, and in the correct folder, you can simply press CTRL+S and your file will be saved.
If, however, you want to save the file with another name, with a different file format, or in another folder, you will have to open the File Menu and select Save As. In the Save As dialog box you can change any parameter of the file. Use the TAB command to navigate this dialog box. Below lists the options available in each combo box in the Save As dialog box.
Folder combo box: The default is None, which means that your file will be saved in the default folder, My Documents. The other folder options, listed below, are subfolders of the My Documents folder.
File Type combo box: FSEdit offers a nice variety of file types that easily match your working needs. In addition, FSEdit’s own file type, .fsd, allows for synchronization to your PC, storage of additional information such as Grade of Braille (contracted or uncontracted), cursor location, mark location,and contracted back translation for easy conversion between the other file types supported by FSEdit.
Location combo box:
This menu item reloads the last saved version of the document and discards any succeeding editorial changes.
Note: FSEdit remembers the file and folder location after you open a file. This becomes the default, so that the next time you open a file, the Open File dialog box starts using this file and folder location.
To have two FSEdit files open simultaneously, you must have two FSEdit sessions open.
To open an FSEdit session and file, do the following:
To toggle between documents, refer to Switching Between Two Open FSEdit Files.
The following describes how to toggle between two open FSEdit files. For information about having two FSEdit files open, refer to Opening a Second Document.
If you turn on Braille input mode (INSERT+SHIFT+F9), when you open a new document, you are asked, “Would you like to make your new file a Grade 2 Braille document?” If you choose Yes, the file opens as a contracted braille document. At this point, you can write text in the current file using contracted braille. If you choose No, the file opens as a Computer braille document and you must write in computer braille even though you can use contracted braille in other applications.
If you later wish to make it a grade 2 document, do the following:
Use Continuous Braille mode when layout and formatting are not important to you, such as when reading an e-book. Continuous Braille mode ignores hard carriage returns within a paragraph. It shows the carriage return as a blank space and continues the flow of text instead of leaving the remainder of the braille display blank.
To turn on Continuous Braille mode, press CTRL+R.
(Bookshare.org users should remember that a free utility to unpack Bookshare books on the PAC Mate Omni can be downloaded from the Freedom Scientific Web site at: http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/PACmate_BookShare_Unpack.asp)
Before you can emboss a document, you must first select your embosser type in the Properties dialog box, which is accessed from the Emboss dialog box.
When you select your embosser, many of the fields in the Properties dialog box automatically populate with your embosser’s default settings. This means you can immediately begin embossing your document or you can change the embossing settings.
To launch the Properties dialog box:
Embossing a document is initiated from the Emboss dialog box. To launch the Emboss dialog box you must open the File Menu and select Emboss (E). With the Emboss dialog box open, you have several controls that allow you to change the way your document is embossed. If you do not want to change any of the parameters and are ready to emboss, press TAB until you reach the Ok button and then press SPACEBAR.
Unless you specify the number of copies embossed, FSEdit will only emboss one copy of a document.
To emboss more than one copy of a document:
Depending on your needs, you may want to emboss on different size paper. Changes made to the embossing settings are retained until you change them or reset them to their defaults.
For 8.5 x 11 inch paper, use the following settings:
Cells Per Line: 34
Lines Per Page: 25
Top Margin in lines: 0
Max Cells Per Line of Embosser: 34
Max Lines Per Page of Embosser: 27
For 11.5 x 11 inch paper, use the following settings:
Cells Per Line: 40
Lines Per Page: 25
Top Margin in lines: 0
Max Cells Per Line of Embosser: 42
Max Lines Per Page of Embosser: 27
In order to emboss to a Braille device from your PAC Mate Omni using infrared data transfer, you will need to obtain a powered, IRDA-compliant printer adapter. In addition to the power connection, this adapter will have an infrared port on a cable that you can locate in a convenient place. You can connect the adapter to any of the Braille embossers supported by the PAC Mate Omni.
After connecting the adapter and selecting your embosser, align the IR port of your PAC Mate Omni with that of the adapter and select Emboss from the FSEdit File menu. Your document will be transferred using the IR ports and embossed on the Braille embosser.
Notes: You cannot use infrared to transfer files to a Braille embosser if you are embossing over a network. Go to Connecting to an Embosser for more information.
Most IRDA-compliant printer adapters are pass-through devices; that is, once connected to the parallel port of your Braille embosser, you can then connect the cable from a desktop or laptop computer to the adapter and emboss from both that device and the PAC Mate Omni.
There are two ways to launch the print dialog box. The easy way is to press CTRL+P from within any document. The other way is to open the File Menu (ALT, ENTER) and select Print (P). Unless you want to change print parameters or you have more than one printer installed on your computer, you can immediately press ENTER or select the Ok button to print a single copy of your document. The default margin set for the top, bottom, left, and right page edge is 1 inch.
Unless you specify the number of copies printed, FSEdit prints only one copy of a document.
To print more than one copy of a document:
FSEdit supports a wide variety of printers. Depending on the printer you are using, you first need to select the appropriate printer type before you can print.
To change printers:
Currently the PAC Mate Omni supports printing to printers on a network, that are infrared or BlueTooth compatible, and that are attached via a USB connection. If you select network because you are printing to a network printer, you must enter the printer's UNC path in the Net Path edit field. You must also enter this information in File Explorer. When using a USB-attached printer, be sure to select LPT1 in the printer port list.
The default paper size setting for FSEdit is Letter (8.5 x 11 inches).
To choose another paper size:
The Print Range area of the Print dialog box is composed of two radio buttons: All and Selection. Use the arrow keys to select either radio button. Unless you specify a selection, FSEdit will print all pages contained within a document.
To specify a selection:
The Orientation area of the Print Setup dialog box is composed of two radio buttons: Portrait and Landscape.
To change the page orientation:
On by default, the Draft Mode check box in the Print dialog box uses less ink, but reduces the sharpness and quality of print on paper. To improve print sharpness and quality, press the SPACEBAR to uncheck this box.
Regardless of whether you created a Braille file or one of the other supported file formats, FSEdit's default setting sends text to your embosser in contracted Braille. If necessary, you can emboss a file in uncontracted Braille.
To emboss an uncontracted Braille file in uncontracted Braille:
Emphasis text is text that is bold, underlined and/or in italics. This item (enabled by default and only available when embossing in contracted Braille) indicates when text has emphasis.
While these two features, selecting text and marking text, use very different approaches, they do perform virtually the same function. The difference, however, is that with Marking Text you can accurately mark text and have the added advantage of being able to freely read your document until you find the word(s) you want to mark inclusively. Whereas when you select text, you must move linearly in a fixed increment until the block of text you want is selected. This may result in more editing, as some unwanted text might get selected.
On occasion you may find it helpful to review the information you have selected. Or you may find that you want to select text that is beyond the marked end. To do this easily, swap the position of the mark and cursor. You can find this feature in the Edit Menu or simply press ALT+E, W.
In addition to all the selecting commands available in the PAC Mate Omni, FSEdit has its own Quick Select commands. The Quick Select commands let you select text in five different increments. You can find these options in the Edit Menu under the Quick Select submenu or you can press the shortcut commands.
Cutting selected text places it on the clipboard and removes it from the document. Once you have selected the text you want to cut, press CTRL+X. If you are cutting text from a contracted braille document, it is placed on the clipboard as computer braille. You can then paste the text into another part of the open document, into a new document, or into another application such as Word Mobile.
If you would prefer to have the text placed on the clipboard as is, without any back-translation, press ALT, choose Edit, then select Cut. However, you should use the CTRL+X keystroke if you are cutting and pasting from a contracted braille document to a computer braille file.
Copying selected text places it on the clipboard without removing it from the document. Once you have selected the text you want to copy, press CTRL+C. If you are copying text from a contracted braille document, it is placed on the clipboard as computer braille. You can then paste the text into another part of the open document, into a new document, or into another application such as Word Mobile.
If you would prefer to have the text placed on the clipboard as is, without any back-translation, press ALT, choose Edit, then select Copy. However, you should use the CTRL+C keystroke if you are copying and pasting from a contracted braille document to a computer braille file.
Choose Paste when you want to insert text from the clipboard into your document. Find the location where you want the text inserted, then press CTRL+V. The text is inserted into the document. When pasting into a contracted braille document, the text is also inserted as contracted braille.
If you would prefer to paste the contents of the clipboard as is, without any translation, press ALT, choose Edit, and select Paste. When copying and pasting text between two contracted braille documents or within the same document, you should only use this method if you have selected Cut or Copy from the Edit menu, which places the text on the clipboard as it appears in the document without any back-translation. Additionally, if you are copying and pasting from a computer braille document into a contracted braille document, you should not use this method as no translation occurs and text is pasted as computer braille.
Unlike cutting selected text from a document, deleting does not copy the text to the clipboard. Once you use the delete command, the selected text is permanently deleted and cannot be pasted. Press CTRL+Z to undo the delete.
The Find feature is a very handy tool that lets you search for a word or phrase within an open document quickly. When you press ALT+E, F, FSEdit launches the Find dialog box with the cursor in the Find What edit box. Type in the word or phrase you want to find. Use the TAB key to navigate the dialog box. Other controls in this dialog box that are available are Find Whole Words Only, Match Case, and Search Direction.
When you are ready, press ENTER on the Find Next button.
The Replace menu item (ALT+E, R) is similar to the Find feature in that it searches for words or phrases within a document, but it has the additional feature of replacing words or phrases with alternative text. Its dialog box is similar to the Find dialog box but has two additional buttons. The Replace button, which replaces one instance of the word or phrase and the Replace All button, which replaces all instances of the word or phrase in the document.
FSEdit makes formatting a document very easy. Most formatting options available can be directly accessed from the two submenus in the Format Menu.
To format a document:
These two items can be found in the Insert Menu. To select a format for the Date/Time Stamp, go to the Tools Menu and select Options.
You can check the spelling of a specific word, or of all the words in a document. If a word is spelled correctly, but not recognized, you can add the word(s) to FSEdit’s online dictionary. To launch the Spell Checker dialog box, press F8. If you have selected one or more words, when you begin the spell check, selected text is checked first. When finished, you will be asked if you want to continue checking the rest of the document. Selecting Yes will continue with the spell check while selecting No will return you to the document.
Once the Spell Checker dialog box opens, your cursor is in the Change To field on a word from the Suggestions List. At this point, you have several options to choose from. Use the TAB key to navigate this dialog box and press ENTER on the button that performs the particular action you want. The following controls are available:
Note: Press INSERT+C while in the Spell Checker to have the PAC Mate Omni read the line containing the misspelled word so you can hear it in context.
Use the User Dictionary to store words that are not recognized by the Spell Checker but you know to be spelled correctly. To modify the dictionary, press ALT, T, navigate to Edit User Dictionary, and press ENTER. When this dialog box opens, the cursor is placed in the list of words. Press TAB to move through the controls in this dialog box.
To add a word, select Add. Type the word into the edit field and press ENTER to add it. New words are appended to the end of the list. To sort the list in alphebetical order, choose Pre-sort.
To edit the spelling of a word already in the dictionary, use the arrow keys to select the word and then choose Edit. Enter your changes and press ENTER.
To remove a word from the dictionary, use the arrow keys to select it from the list and then choose Remove.
Select Close when you are finished editing the dictionary.
When you want to know the number of words in a document, press ALT, move to Tools and press ENTER. Then move to and press ENTER on Word Count
The Cursor Position feature lets you hear the current location of the cursor by its line and column position relative to the total number of lines in the document.
To find the cursor’s position, use the CTRL+SHIFT+W keystroke.
The PAC Mate Omni reports the current line number out of the total number of lines in the document. It also lists the cursor’s column position. For example, you may hear the cursor’s position reported as line 11 out of 19, column 6.
The Move Cursor Position feature allows you to move the cursor forward or backward in a document based on character, line, or word position.
To move the cursor, type CTRL+SHIFT+G X Y,
where X is a negative number, indicating how far back the cursor will move,
or a positive number, indicating how far forward the cursor will move, and Y
is the letter C for character, L for line, and W for word, which indicates the
type of cursor movement.