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Orbit Reader 20: Reading and Working in Files
This third installment will focus primarily on reading files loaded onto the SD card for the Orbit Reader 20.
In the first article in this series, we introduced the layout of the Orbit Reader and proceeded into the basic menu structure. In the second article, we focused mainly on the file structure. This time, we’re going to take a look at reading and working in files loaded onto the Orbit as well as those we may have created ourselves. The next article in this series will concentrate on editing and printing files on the Orbit Reader.
Reading Commands and Navigation Within a File
As previously mentioned, the last article focused on navigating the file structure of the Orbit Reader. This means you should be able to use that information to navigate to a file or folder you’d like to open. Once you are focused on a file you wish to open, press the “enter key” (dot eight)
The Orbit Reader will support both it’s own set of reading commands as well as any reading commands you may be familiar with using on other units. So as we proceed, you will be presented with both options.
Navigating Character by Character
- Right select arrow to move one character to the right and left select arrow to move one character to the left.
- Space with dot six to move one character to the right and space with dot three to move one character to the left.
Navigating Word by Word
- Right select arrow with space to move one word to the right and left select arrow with a space to move one word to the left.
- Space with dot five to move one word to the right and space with dot two to move one word to the left.
Navigating Line by Line
- Down select arrow to move to the next line down and up select arrow to move to the previous line.
- Space with dot four to move to the next linet and space with dot one to move to the previous line.
Move to Top of File
- Dot four alone.
- Space with dots one, two, and three.
Move to Bottom of File
- Dot one alone.
- Space with dots four, five, and six.
Move Forward by Page OR “Form Feed”
- Dot six moves forward by page or power move
- Dot three moves backward by page or power move.
What is Form Feed?
Previously, you may have noticed the words “form feed” in our article. That’s because many files that are not marked with page numbers may need to be navigated and doing a power move (see the heading below) is moving too much at a time.
Files not marked with page numbers may be navigated using “form feed”, that is moving by 1,000 characters. An important thing to note is that if a file is marked with page numbers and you perform this command, you will be moved to whichever comes first, the 1,000 characters or the page that is marked.
What is Power Move?
If you want to move a larger distance in a file to “skim” it over, you can perform a “Power Move”.
Dot eight with a down arrow moves you forward halfway between your current location and the end of the file. So if your cursor were placed at the top of file, and you did a power move forward, you’d be placed at the 50% point within the file. If you performed another power move forward, you’d be placed at the 75% point (since that is the halfway point between the starting cursor location and the end of the file). As you can see, as you move forward more times, the distance will decrease since the amount of space between your current location and the end of the file continues to shrink.
Dot eight with an up arrow moves you backwards in a power move. If you are placed at the 75% location in a file, and performed a power move backaward, you’d be placed between 37% and 38% points in the file.
As you can imagine, moving in this way can be confusing, so keeping an eye on where the Orbit says you are located in a file (percentage-wise that is) is important.
Searching for Text
Sometimes you simply want to find text that appears in your file, which may be a name, phrase, or quote. Search terms can be up to 255 characters long and are generally not case sensitive (for example. capitalization of the search term is not necessary so searching for “Bonobo” and “bonobo” will yield the same results).
To find a string of text:
- Type a space with the letter F (dots one, two, and four).
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Once you have entered the text you want to find, press dot eight.
- If you have searched for text at any point before now, that text will be in the edit box, but if not it will be blank. If needed, you can simply press dot seven until the old search term is erased. At that point, you may enter a new search term.
- To move to the next occurance of the text you want to find, press the right select arrow with the dot eight.
- To find the previous occurrence of the text you want to find, press the left select arrow with a dot eight.
Based on the file type you are in, there are a few things you need to remember:
- If you are in a text file you must search in uncontracted braille. This is because, as you might remember, the Orbit Reader does not have its own internal translator.
- If you are in a .brf or .br. file, you have to enter text exactly as it is in the file, including the correct use of contractions as well as the correct translation of the braille (UEB or EBAE). If you do not use the correct grade of braille and all appropriate contractions, the Orbit will not be able to find a match to your search term.
Bookmarks
Placing a bookmark is important if you need to quickly navigate to a specific place in a file you are reading. To place a bookmark, use the key combination Space + M (dots one, three, four). The same key combination is used to remove that bookmark.
Note that you can place more than one bookmark in a file. To move to the next bookmark within a file, press dot five. To move to the previous bookmark, press dot two.
Next Installment
The next installment of this series will focus on writing in and printing files as well as note some caveats when working in the stand-alone mode to create files you wish to share with others.
Resources
Want more resources? You can view the Orbit User Guide here.
Also, there is a YouTube playlist under development on the Orbit by yours truly (yes, I do realize that’s a pretty shameless plug). See video below: Part Four focuses on reading and working in files.
By Snowflake_tvi
