Hi all.
Any tips for learning braille tables? I've got input set to US English contracted and output to UEB uncontracted. Do I need to just match them, and it will translate, e.g. if I'm sending a message? Right now if I try to enter an email address, dot 4 is the at symbol, except if I move off of it, it seems to turn it into a percent. 2-5-6 is given as the 'dd' contraction, not a period, and I think 4-6 is underscore.
I thought the at symbol, for instance, was dot 4 followed by dot 1. But IIRC that did @a. If I set input and output to US English contracted, any tips on what some of the more obscure punctuation is, or how to find out? Also not sure how it distinguishes between things like a slash character or na 'st' contraction.
Oh, while I'm asking questions, landscape orientation, does direction matter? I thought it wanted charge port to the left but it didn't give me a message about it this time.
Thanks in advance for any help, really appreciate it. I figure it's finally time to get to grips with this, since people seem to love it so much.
Comments
Some Tips
To answer your last question first, the phone's orientation doesn't matter As long as you have BSI orientation unlocked. To toggle the lock, swipe down with three fingers. It seems that the extra info given when switching orientation is controlled by VoiceOver hints, so if you have those off, you'll hear only "landscape" or similar. I would recommend figuring which way to hold your phone is most comfortable for you and then locking the orientation there, but of course that's up to you.
As for translation, I keep my input and output tables matching, and I use UEB contracted almost exclusively. Though UEB is a little bit to learn if you don't know it already, I find it makes typing certain symbols easier, whether I'm using BSI or a Braille display. It's been so long since I've used US Braille that I honestly can't recall how to make these symbols there. Hopefully someone else can help you with that if you'll prefer US.
A few symbols, in UEB contracted:
Ampersand (&): 4,1-2-3-4-6
Asterisk (*): 5,3-5
At symbol (@): 4,1
Caret (^): 4,2-6
Colon (:): 2-5
Dollar sign ($): 4,2-3-4
Exclamation mark (!): 2-3-5
Number sign (#): 4-5-6,1-4-5-6
Percent (%): 4-6,3-5-6
Period (.): 2-5-6
Reverse solidus (\): 4-5-6,1-6
Solidus (/): 4-5-6,3-4
Tilde (~): 4,3-5
Grouping symbols are all made via 1-2-6 and 3-4-5 with a prefix. For example, left paren is 5,1-2-6, and right paren is 5,3-4-5. Angle brackets are prefixed with a dot 4; square brackets with dots 4-6; and curley braces with dots 4-5-6.
You can find more complete UEB references on the web via a Google search. I hope the above is enough to get you started, assuming you'll try UEB.
To add to the confusion
I've not tried mixing input and output tables with Braille screen input. I can say from experience that mixing them with a Braille display can cause bad input as the VoiceOver Braille translator mangles the input. For example, I often quick switch input to 8 dot to write an email address. But if I forget to change the output table, the input gets entirely mangled. As I said I've not tried this with Braille screen input, however I suspect it will have the same problem. SO I would advise to not use two different tables with it either.
UEB is probably the best for writing as they tried to account for symbols. I guess I should get in the habit but I know 8 dot (computer Braille) already just let me use it quick.