© 1987 by Raised Dot Computing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Madison Wisconsin 53703
General: 608-257-9595
Technical: 608-257-8833

Part 1: Working with Chapters

Chapter Facts

• Chapter names up to 25 characters long
• No periods, colons, commas, or semicolons in chapter names
• BEX chapters contain one to 30 BEX pages
• 4095 characters maximum per BEX page
• Maximum 30 BEX chapters per disk

Specifying Chapters

Enter ? <CR> at Drive number or chapter name: prompt for your choices. They include:

• 1 <CR>: Present numbered list of chapters on drive 1
• 2 <CR>: Present numbered list of chapters on drive 2
• NAME <CR>: Use single chapter NAME on default data drive; drive 1 for one-drive system; drive 2 for two-drive system
• 1NAME <CR>: Use single chapter NAME on drive 1

Target Chapter Naming Methods

When creating a single chapter, you type the chapter name (preceded with 1 to write on drive 1). When creating more than one chapter, BEX prompts for Target chapter naming method: Enter ? <CR> for summary of choices. (Details in Section 11)

• I <CR>: You will individually type target chapter names, write target chapters on default data drive
• 1I <CR>: You will individually type target chapter names, write target chapters on drive 1
• S <CR>: BEX uses same name for target chapters as source chapters; writes target chapters on default data drive
• 1S <CR>: BEX uses same name for target chapters as source chapters; writes target chapters on drive 1
• AXYZ <CR>: BEX adds characters XYZ to make target chapter names; writes target chapters default data drive
• 1AXYZ <CR>: BEX adds characters XYZ to make target chapter names; writes target chapters on drive 1
• LX <CR>: BEX changes last character of source chapter names to character X to make target chapter names; writes target chapters default data drive
• 1LX <CR>: BEX changes last character of source chapter names to character X to make target chapter names; writes target chapters on drive 1

Part 2: BEX Editor Commands

All Editor commands start with a control character. The numbers shown here are just examples; for control-A 17 <space> you may substitute any number you wish for the 17.

Page Selection

• Control-P 0 <space>: Save current page, return to character position 0
• Control-P 3 <space>: Save current page, move to or create page 3
• Control-C control-P: Cut page at the current cursor, making two pages from current page. Cursor ends at position 0 of newly-created second page
• Control-P <space>: Cancel page selection command
• Control-Q: Quit the Editor, save current page, return to Main Menu
• Control-W P: Announce character at cursor, current page number, and number of pages in chapter. Press any key except P, C, B, or A to return to Editor

Silent cursor movement

• Control-A <space>: Advance cursor to end of page
• Control-Z <space>: Zoom back cursor to start of page, character position 0
• Control-A 17 <space>: Advance cursor 17 characters
• Control-Z 2000 <space>: Zoom back cursor 2000 characters
• Control-A control-P: Advance cursor to initial space of next ( $p ) paragraph indicator
• Control-Z control-P: Zoom back cursor to initial space of previous ( $p ) paragraph indicator
• Down Arrow: Move cursor down one line on screen
• Up arrow: Move back one line on screen

Talking Cursor Movement

• Left Arrow: Move cursor back one character to left and speak it
• Right Arrow: Move cursor ahead one character to right and speak it
• Control-G: Go ahead one word and speak it
• Control-R: Reverse cursor one word and speak it
• Control-T: Talk to end of sentence, advancing cursor. Stop cursor movement and speech with <space>
• Control-O: Advance cursor with speech to end of BEX page. Stop cursor movement and speech with <space>

Locating Text

We use [string] to represent what you're looking for. You may locate for any characters in the Editor; you can only use left arrow to edit [string] as you're typing it. Maximum length for [string] is 32 characters. Uppercase and lowercase are significant. [string] is remembered until new [string] is entered. When [string] is found, BEX moves cursor to new character position and announces it; high beep if not found. To cancel locate as you're typing [string] press control-N

• Control-L [string] control-A: Locate [string] in advance of current cursor
• Control-L [string] control-Z: Locate [string] zooming back from current cursor

Inserting text

• Control-I: Insert characters from keyboard before current cursor; characters in front of cursor temporarily change to underbar; finished by every control character except left arrow, control-C and <CR>
• Control-N: Complete keyboard insertion

Block Commands

• Control-B S: Set marker to current cursor; only one marker may be set at a time
• Control-B L: Locate block marker, moving cursor either forward or back to current marker
• Control-B D: Delete block of text forward from marker to character before cursor
• Control-W B: Announces current character, clipboard size and marker position. Press any key except P, C, B, or A to return to Editor

Deleting text

• Control-D <space>: Delete one character at current cursor
• Control-D 0 <space>: Delete zero characters, canceling current deletion
• Control-D 40 <space>: Delete 40 characters
• Control-D control-W: Delete one word at current cursor
• Control-D control-P: Delete from cursor to initial space of next paragraph ( $p ) indicator
• Control-B D: Delete block of text forward from marker to character before cursor

Set Editor environment

• Control-S A: Voice all keystrokes toggle (default off)
• Control-S L: Lock out changes toggle (default off); makes every keystroke a nondestructive control character

Status information: Where am I?

Enter control-W; character at cursor is announced; screen clears for ? prompt. Press A, B, C, or P; any other key exits to Editor

• Control-W A: All status information shown below
• Control-W B: Block marker position
• Control-W C: Cursor position and page size
• Control-W P: Page number and total number of pages

Crashing and Recovering in the Editor: RUN 999

To "crash" out of the Editor and recover the page buffer, follow all steps. BEX automatically performs first three steps if BEX can't write to disk when moving between pages in Editor. More details in Section 13.

• 1. Depress the Caps Lock key
• 2. Press Control-Reset. To re-link Echo voice, type: PR#0 <CR>
• 3. Type RUN 999 <CR> The disk drive whirs for a minute; BEX saves 4095-character page buffer in chapter named SAVE on drive 1
• 4. At the BASIC ] prompt, type: RUN <CR>
• 5. Release Caps Lock and edit chapter 1SAVE Delete garbage characters, then use option G: Grab pages from another chapter to place the data in SAVE back into the correct chapter

Part 3: Format Commands

These commands must be preceded by a space; a <CR>; the very beginning of a BEX page; or another format command. Command letters must be lowercase. We use parentheses to show spaces you must enter in your text; do not type the parentheses themselves. The numbers here are samples; when you want triple-spaced lines, you can enter $$l3. See Section 6 for details

Paragraphs

• ( $p ) paragraph indicator (four keystrokes: space, dollar sign, lowercase p, space) create a new paragraph as appropriate for print and braille. For print, the built-in value is $$i5 $$s2; for braille, it's $$i2 $$l1.
• $$s2 double line space at each paragraph; set number of <CR>s for ( $p ) indicator
• $$i5 paragraph indent (the position on the line for the first character of a new paragraph). Indent each paragraph 5 characters to the right of the current left margin
• $$i-5 outdent each paragraph 5 characters to the left of the current left margin
• $$ml6 (lowercase m, lowercase l), set left margin at position 6 on line

New Lines

• <CR> carriage return creates new line starting at margin
• ( $l ) new line format indicator (four keystrokes: space, dollar sign, lowercase l, space) Functions exactly like <CR>; less ambiguous for electronic braille display
• $$l2 (lowercase l, not digit 1.) double space lines; set number of <CR>s at the end of each line

Centering

• $$c center text from previous ( $p ), ( $l ), or <CR> up to next ( $p ), ( $l ), or <CR>
• $$h center and underline text to make a heading from previous ( $p ), ( $l ), or <CR> up to next ( $p ), ( $$uf$l ), or $$uf<CR>

Tabs

• $$tc clear all tab stops
• $$t20 set a tab at absolute character position 20
• ( $$ ) advance to next tab stop (four keystrokes: space, dollar sign, dollar sign, space)

Miscellaneous

• underline begin for print; signals Grade 2 translator to place italics signs
• underline finish for print; signals Grade 2 translator to finish placing italics signs
• $$mt3 establish top margin of 3 lines; BEX moves down 3 lines before printing line 1 on each output page, without affecting form length
• $$d reset formatter to default: clear tabs and margins, single line space, paragraph indent and line space as appropriate for print and braille
• $$np start numbering pages at 1; for print, the word "Page" followed by the number centered on the bottom line of each output page; for braille, page number at end of line 1, preceded by at least 3 spaces

Part 4: Echo Commands

See Section 10 for more details

Controlling speech quality

• Control-E C: Compressed (fast speech)
• Control-E E: Expanded (slow speech)
• Control-E # D: Delay (lag time) between individual words. # ranges from 0 to 8; default 0
• Control-E # P: Pitch with intonation. # ranges from 1 to 63; default 21
• Control-E # F: pitch with Flat intonation. # ranges from 1 to 63
• Control-E W: pronounce Words (default)
• Control-E L: pronounce Letters
• Control-E S: Some punctuation mode (default) pronounces these symbols: number sign, dollar sign, percent, ampersand, equals, at-sign, plus, greater than, less than, slash, and "ready" (right bracket)
• Control-E M: Most punctuation mode pronounces everything except <CR> (return); Control-J (line feed); and space
• Control-E A: All punctuation mode pronounces everything
• Control-E # V: adjust Volume. # ranges from 0 to 15
• Control-E # R: Repeat filter. Suppress pronunciation of punctuation or control characters appearing more than # times consecutively. Default 2; # ranges from 0 to 99
• Control-X: stop Echo voice until Apple requests next input. Disabled in Editor.

Echo line review commands

• Control-L: enter line review. Disabled in Editor
• A through X: position audio cursor at corresponding screen line and read that line
• Z: position audio cursor at real cursor; press R to read
• Comma: join two letters to read more than oneline; B,G means read lines B through G

Once line is selected, you may enter the following commands:

• S: Some punctuation
• M: Most punctuation
• A: All punctuation
• E: Expanded speech rate
• C: Compressed speech rate
• L: Letter mode
• W: Word mode
• T: Toggle between word and letter modes
• <CR>: Repeat current line
• Up arrow: move audio cursor up one screen line and read it
• Down arrow: move audio cursor down one screen line and read it
• Right/left arrows: move audio cursor right and left on screen line
• <space>: announce current line letter and audio cursor position
• 1 through 9: Select column number, reads text on current line in selected column
• 0: (zero) exit column review, return to full line mode
• R: Read full line even in column review
• Open-Apple-Left-Arrow: move column boundary to the left
• -: (hyphen) set left column boundary at current audio cursor
• Open-Apple-Right-Arrow: move column boundary to the right
• =: (equals sign) set right column boundary at current audio cursor
• <ESC>: Exit line review
• X: Exit line review, moving real cursor to current audio cursor

Part 5: Starting Menu

Press <CR> for list of options at any menu. To choose an option, press the single character shown here

• C: Copy disks: Copy entire contents of source disk onto target disk. First initializes target disk. For two-drive system, copies from drive 1 to drive 2; for 1 drive system, prompts you to switch disks (See Section 2)
• D: Disk catalog: Lists BEX chapters on disk; press <space> for DOS catalog of every file on disk
• F: File Developer (FID): Copy, lock and unlock, rename, delete and verify any DOS 3.3 file. Not compatible with BEX large print; you must reboot BEX after using FID (See User Section 13)
• I: Initialize disks: Prepares blank disk for storing data; you must initialize a disk before you can write chapters on it (See Section 2)
• K: Kill a configuration: Permanently deletes configuration files from BEX boot disk
• Q: Quit BEX Temporarily: Issue DOS or Applesoft BASIC commands
• R: Recognition of cards: Teach BEX about circuit cards it doesn't recognize; see Interface Guide Section 15 before using!
• S: System Description for RDC: Creates disk files that may help RDC provide you with technical support
• U: Update date of this disk: Announces BEX Level and when BEX was last changed
• V: View a configuration: Presents numbered list of configurations on disk; choose one to see what devices are included (See Section 3)
• W: What is in this computer: Presents current configuration name; type of computer; how much memory it has; and what interface cards are in it (See Section 3)
• #: (number sign) Free sectors: Show free space on disk

To move from Starting Menu to Main Menu, insert Main disk in drive 1 and press <space>. To move from Main Menu to Starting Menu, insert Boot disk in drive 1 and press <space>

Part 6: Main Menu

Press <CR> for list of options at any menu.

• D: Disk catalog: List BEX chapters on disk; press <space> for DOS catalog of every file on disk
• E: Editor: Create and modify one BEX chapter (See Sections 2 and 4)
• G: Grade 2 translator: Translate print chapterggs) to grade 2 contracted braille chapterggs) (See Section 7)
• P: Print chapters: Format text in chapterggs) and send to regular or large print printer, braille embosser, or voice device (See Sections 6 and 8)
• Q: Quit BEX Temporarily: Issue DOS or Applesoft BASIC commands
• R: Replace characters: Use transformation chapter to change characters in chapterggs) (See Section 12)
• S: Second Menu
• Z: Zip to Page Menu
• #: (number sign) Free sectors: Show free space on disk

Part 7: Second Menu

• A: Adjust size of pages: Copy chapterggs) with different page boundaries
• C: Copy chapters: Make exact copy of chapterggs) with different name (on same disk) or same name (on another disk)
• D: Disk catalog: List BEX chapters on disk; press space for DOS catalog of every file on disk
• F: Fix directory file of chapter: Helps restore damaged BEX chapter, but may resequence the order of pages. Always type target chapter name (See Section 13)
• J: Jump to Main Menu
• K: Kill chapters: Permanently deletes one or more chapters
• M: Merge chapters: Copy specified chapterggs) to one big new chapter
• N: Name change for chapters: Change one or more chapter nameggs) without making a copy. Never change name of any chapter to name of an existing chapter on same disk
• R: Read textfile to chapter: Copy one or more ProDOS or DOS 3.3 textfiles into BEX chapter binary file format. Always use different names for textfileggs) and chapterggs), even when they are on different disks (See Section 12)
• Z: Zip to Page Menu
• #: (number sign) Free sectors: Show free space on disk

Part 8: Page Menu

All options in the Page Menu operate on a single chapter

• C: Change to another chapter: Select a different chapter on which to perform Page Menu options
• D: Disk catalog: List BEX chapters on disk; press space for DOS catalog of every file on disk
• E: Exchange pages: Specify two pages to swap
• F: File list of all pages: For each page of current chapter, presents page number, size, and the filename extension letter (that BEX adds to chapter name to create that page's filename on disk)
• G: Grab pages from another chapter: Copy one or more pages from another chapter into current Page Menu chapter; source chapter is unaffected by grab. You may create a new chapter this way. To clear current chapter, press C, then press <CR>
• J: Jump to Main Menu
• K: Kill pages
• M: Merge pages: Append second page to end of first page; these pages need not be consecutive
• R: Rearrange pages: Reorder pages by one of two methods. Default method rearranges pages by specifying old page numbers in new order desired. Rearranging by range moves a "range" of one or more pages to a position before a specified page
• S: Second Menu
• W: Whole disk catalog: Presents free sectors on disk and list of chapter name, number of pages, total characters in chapter and on disk
• #: (number sign) Free sectors: Show free space on disk