Florida Department of Education
Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Impaired (FIMC-VI)
TOOLS FOR ACCESSING DIGITAL MEDIA
BOOK PORT DESKTOP (BPDT)
UNIT TWO GETTING TO KNOW YOUR BOOK PORT DESKTOP
Activity One: Turning on the Book Port Desktop
1. Locate the power button, which is the large, round button near the right edge of the unit. Press and hold it for about two seconds to turn on the player. It responds with a musical fanfare and a "Please Wait" message followed by a series of musical tones indicating that the unit is busy.
2. The first time you turn on the Book Port DT, it must boot up. This can take several seconds. When it finishes the boot process, it announces the first book in the Title list.
3. After this initial start-up, subsequent start-up times are much shorter and begin with the unit announcing the current time followed by the busy tones followed by announcement of the last title accessed.
Activity Two: Using the Masked BPDT
1. Turn on the BPDT.
2. Press and hold the Play/Stop key until the player announces “help on.” The user’s guide will start to play.
3. Use the tone and volume controls to adjust these parameters, including returning them to their default settings.
4. Use the Rewind and Fast-Forward keys to skip backward and forward through the text. Press and hold each control to rapidly move through the text in increments of five sentences.
5. Press the Play/Stop key to stop playback. Use the Rewind and Fast-Forward controls to explore the text character by character.
6. When you are comfortable with the location and use of these controls, press and hold the Play/Stop key until the player announces “help off.”
7. Use the Previous and Next title keys to explore the selections stored on the unit’s internal memory.
8. Select either a text or DAISY title and press Play/Stop to start playback.
9. Repeat steps 4 and 5 above. Note the differences in the way the Rewind and Fast-Forward keys work in a DAISY audio file versus a text file.
10. Press Play/Stop to stop playback.
11. Continue practicing with various files until you are comfortable with the operation of all the keys including playback, title selection, tone and volume controls.
NOTE: The Book Port DT must have the mask removed for the remaining activities.
Activity Three: Key Describer
1. Locate the Menu key (the oval-shaped button near the upper left corner of the device). Press and hold the menu key for about 5 seconds until the player announces “Key Describer on.”
Note: If you accidently release the Menu key prematurely, you will enter the menu system. Simply press the Menu key a second time or the asterisk key on the numeric keypad to exit the menus and try entering Key Describer again.
2. Press another key on the player to hear a brief announcement of what the key does without performing the action described.
3. Continue pressing and listening to the descriptions of all of the remaining keys (including the menu key) until you are familiar with the locations and functions of all of the keys on the BPDT.
4. When you have finished, press and hold the Menu key until the player announces “Key Describer off.”
Activity Four: Navigational Keys
1. Press the zero key on the numeric keypad to enter “help” mode. The user’s guide will begin to play.
2. Use the 1, 3, 4 and 6 keys on the numeric keypad to skip backward and forward through the text by various increments. Perform these same actions with the Rewind and Fast-Forward keys to re-familiarize yourself with these controls and to note the differences in movement units between the three different sets of movement keys.
3. Press the Play/Stop key to stop playback. Use the 1 and 3 keys to explore the document word by word. Use the 4 and 6 keys to explore the document line by line.
4. Use the 7 and 9 keys to skip backward and forward by DAISY section headings. Note that these keys move to and announce the title of the next section in the document regardless of size but does not begin to play unless you press the Play/Stop key.
5. Press Play/Stop to start playback of the user’s guide. Use the 7 and 9 keys to skip backward and forward through the document section by section. Note that each press of these keys moves to the previous or next section, announces the title of the section and automatically resumes playback from that point.
6. Press Play/Stop to stop playback of the user’s guide. Press zero on the numeric keypad to exit help mode.
7. Using the Previous and Next title keys, select one of the text documents stored in the player’s internal memory. Press Play/Stop to begin playback of your selection.
8. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above to continue familiarizing yourself with the text movement controls. Note that the text documents shipped on the player contain no DAISY markup so pressing either the 7 or 9 key will result in an error tone sounding. Playback will resume from the point at which the key was pressed.
9. When you have finished practicing with the navigational controls, press Play/Stop to stop playback of the document.
Activity Five: Navigation in Audio Files
1. Use the Previous and Next title keys to locate the DAISY audio file stored in the player’s internal memory. At this writing, it is titled “History in the Making: The Story of the American Printing House for the Blind, 1858-2008.” Press Play/Stop to begin audio playback.
2. Use the Rewind, Fast-Forward, 1, 3, 4 and 6 keys to skip backward and forward through this book by various time intervals. Note the differences in movement between text and audio files.
3. Use the 7 and 9 keys to skip backward and forward by DAISY headings. Note the similarity in DAISY navigation between text and audio files.
4. Press the Play/Stop key to stop playback.
Activity Six: Changing Settings
1. Use the Previous and Next title keys to select either an audio or text file from the unit’s internal memory. Press Play/Stop to begin playback of your selection.
2. Use the Tone, Volume and Speed toggle controls to explore the ranges of these parameters as well as to set them to your preferences. Remember that pressing the up and down portions of a control simultaneously will reset that parameter to its default setting.
3. Press Play/Stop to stop playback. Again, use the toggles to adjust the tone, volume and speed parameters. Note that if playback is stopped the value of the parameter is announced each time the toggle is pressed, e.g., “Volume plus 3” or “Speed normal.”
4. Press and hold the 2 key on the numeric keypad. Use the volume and speed toggles to adjust these parameters for the player’s guide voice. Note how these adjustments effect the announcement of the parameters’ values.
5. Press the Information key and listen as the player’s status as well as specific information regarding the selected title is spoken. Press the Information key repeatedly to skip through this information section by section.
6. Repeatedly press the Sleep Timer key to cycle through the available values for this parameter. Be sure to continue pressing the key until you hear the player announce “Sleep timer off.”
7. Press and hold the Power key until the player announces “Power-save mode,” turning the player off.
Summary:
This unit has been designed to provide a general introduction to the Book Port DT and its basic playback functions as well as briefly introduce some more advanced features. Upon successful completion, you should be able to:
· identify the two main functions of the BPDT
· identify the types of files or materials that can be used on the BPDT
· identify all of the jacks and interfaces located around the edges of the device
· locate and understand the functions of all of the basic controls available when the unit’s mask is in place.
· turn the unit on and off
· adjust the unit’s tone and volume
· enter and exit the unit’s help system through use of the Play/Stop key
· select either a text or audio title from the selection stored in the internal memory
· play a selected title and skip backward and forward through the file using the Rewind and Fast-Forward keys
Additionally, you should be familiar with the following more advanced controls and concepts:
· all of the keys on the BPDT as revealed by removing the mask
· entering and exiting “Key Describer” mode through use of the Menu key
· Enhanced navigation, including basic DAISY navigation
· Adjusting playback speed
· Adjusting the volume and speed of the guide voice
· Use of the Information key and Sleep Timer
ACTIVITIES—Unit Two Getting To Know Your Book Port Desktop