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January 22nd, 2025 BT Speak® System Upgrade Posted By: BT Development Team

Introduction

Blazie Technologies is excited to be releasing the first update for BT Speak in this new year, which is free for all BT Speak owners. The following documents its new features and enhancements.

Stopping speech during a continuous read now places you on the last spoken line

Previously, interrupting a continuous read (dots 1-2-4-5-6-chord or ER-chord) would leave the cursor at the point where you began reading, making it difficult to resume working where the reading stopped. With this update, the cursor now moves to the line which was last spoken, making it easier to resume reading where you last stopped.

This feature currently works in the editor and in the welcome screen. It is not available in help topics at this time.

If you switch to any text to speech voice which is run through Speech Dispatcher (including Vocalizer, RH Voice, Festival, or Pico), you will find that ER-chord in the editor now tracks the most recently spoken line while reading through your file. Pressing either dot 8 or the space key during a continuous read will stop speech and your cursor will be on the beginning of the line. Please note that if you are using the classic eSpeak voices, you will need to switch to eSpeak’s Speech Dispatcher version to enable this feature. Please note that this feature is currently not available for the Dec-talk voices.

Transfer Files Wirelessly Using the SMB Protocol

This update improves wireless access to your BT Speak's files using the SMB file sharing protocol. This allows seamless file transfer without needing a physical connection to your PC or Mac. Simply ensure both devices are on the same network.

To enable wireless file sharing, ensure that SMB is activated on both your BT Speak and your computer.

How to Enable SMB on Your BT Speak

  1. Press O-chord to open the Options menu.

  2. Press O for Operating System.

  3. Press S for System Administration.

  4. Press A for Advanced System Administration.

  5. Press S for System Services.

  6. Press F for File Sharing.

  7.  If BT Speak announces “File sharing is enabled, but not running”:

  • Press Enter (dot 8) to first disable file sharing.

  • BT Speak will say “file sharing is disabled.” Press enter.

  • Then press Enter again to enable it.

  1. BT Speak will say, “Enabling file sharing.” After a few seconds, it will announce, “File sharing will now be started when the device is started.”

  • Press enter and BT Speak will ask “shall file sharing be started right now?”

  • Press Y for Yes, followed by Enter.

  • BT Speak will say : “File sharing has been started.” Press enter to dismiss this message.

How to Enable SMB on Your Computer

For Windows

  1. Open the Control Panel and go to Programs and Features.

  2. Select Turn Windows Features On or Off.

  3. Locate SMB Direct in the list of components.

    1. If SMB Direct is already enabled, close the window with Alt+F4.

    2. If it’s disabled, press Space to enable it, followed by Enter to install the SMB component. This process takes 5–10 seconds.

  4. Close the installation window by entering Alt+F4.

For Mac

  1. From the Apple menu, open System Settings.

  2. Select General in the sidebar and then Sharing.

  3. Under Content & Media, activate the Info button next to File Sharing.

  4. Turn on File Sharing and activate Options.

  5. Enable Share files and folders using SMB, then activate Done.

Accessing BT Speak from your computer

On a Windows PC

  1. Open the Run dialog by pressing Windows + R.

  2. Type your BT Speak’s IP address or hostname (see Note below) in the format:

    1. \\[IP Address] (Example, \\10.0.0.22)

    2. \\[Hostname].local As an example, if your BT Speak’s host name is BTSpeak123, you would type \\btspeak123.local.

  3. Press Enter.

Note: You can find your BT Speak’s IP address and hostname by going to Options > Operating System > About This Device.

On a Mac

  1. From the Finder window, open the Connect to Server dialog by pressing Command + K.

  2. Enter the address in the format: smb://[hostname] (e.g., smb://btspeak123.local).

  3. Note: You can find your BT Speak’s IP address by going to Options > Operating System > About This Device.

  4.  After connecting, your BT Speak will appear as a network location in Finder. Type Command + Shift + C from the Finder window to view all drives and network devices, including your BT Speak.

New Media Speed Controls

When listening to media, such as a wav or mp3 file, you can now adjust the speed of media (playback rate) with the following global commands.

  • Decrease Speed: dots 2-3-6-7-chord

  • Increase Speed: dots 2-3-6-8-chord

  • Reset to Normal Speed: dots 2-3-6-7-8-chord

These new controls will work with all media files, including voice notes and our Getting Started audio tutorial. However, we do not recommend adjusting the playback rate of live content, such as a radio station.

New word deletion commands in the Editor

There are new keyboard commands for deleting backward to the start of the current word and deleting forward to the start of the next word.

You may already know that typing dots 2-5-6-chord (low d) deletes the character that the cursor is on (editor command is Control D).

These new commands extend this functionality by incorporating dots 7 and 8 into the low D-Chord:

  1. 2-5-6-7-Chord (low D with Dot 7):

    • Deletes backward to the start of the current word.

    • Editor equivalent: Meta 1.

  2. 2-5-6-8-Chord (low D with Dot 8):

    • Deletes forward to the start of the next word.

    • Editor equivalent: Meta 2.

 You can also access these commands from the Delete Menu by typing D-Chord.

  • Delete word forward to the start of the next word: W

  • Delete word backward to the start of the current word: B

New Markdown Heading Navigation Support in the BT Speak Editor

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a simple way to structure documents using plain text with ASCII symbols.  It allows you to create:

  • Headings

  • Bullet Points

  • Emphasized Text

  • ​

Markdown is widely used for its simplicity, and now its benefits extend to documents in the BT Speak editor. Its advantages include:

Effortless Navigation by Headings

  • Markdown headings in text or Braille files are now supported in the BT Speak editor. These include # for a level 1 heading, ## for a level 2 heading, ### for a level 3 heading, etc.,

  • Navigate forward or backward by heading, making it easy to move through sections of your document.

Automatic Formatting for Notes

  • The Quick Text and Quick Braille Notes features in the E-Chord Editor Menu now automatically format time and date stamps as Level 2 Markdown Headings.

  • This is especially useful for jumping between entries in journals, logs, or notes.

Headings That Persist

  • Unlike temporary anchors, Markdown headings remain part of your document even after closing and reopening.

  • This ensures consistency and enables ongoing navigation across editing sessions.

  • For instance, you could begin a document by writing three or four section headings, then skip between sections and fill in more details, returning to another section or reference to ensure consistency. If you load a book or document into the editor, which is formatted in Markdown, you can quickly navigate between sections and sub-sections.

Managing and moving between Markdown headings

Using the Navigation Menu (activated by pressing N-Chord):

Insert or Remove a Markdown Heading

  • Press i from the Navigation menu to toggle a Markdown heading (insert or remove it) at the current cursor position.

  • Note: I-Chord is a toggle. If there's no heading markup on the line, it creates it. If heading markup is found, it deletes it. The I-Chord command always informs you of the action that it performs.

  • This command works anywhere on a line. On a blank line, it creates a heading. On a line with text, it inserts the heading markup at the beginning but leaves your cursor at the same position before the command. If you're on a line with a heading, it removes the heading markup and leaves your cursor at the same character position.

  • In Markdown, the heading level is represented by one or more # number sign symbols and a space, at the beginning of a line. Since the # number sign symbol varies depending on your Braille table, I-Chord automatically inserts or removes the correct heading markup for your current Braille table.

  • If you're on the first line of the file, I-Chord creates a level 1 heading. On any other line, it creates a level 2 heading. When you use I-Chord to create a heading, it announces the heading level being inserted, for example, "H2 inserted."

  • In Markdown, two number signs indicate a level 2 heading, three number signs indicate a level 3 heading, and so on. It's customary to have only one level 1 heading per document; a level 2 heading is the most commonly used heading level to separate a document into sections.

Two variations of the insert heading command:

  • To decrease the current Markdown heading level and announce the new level, press I-Chord with dot 7. For instance, a Heading 2 is converted to a Heading 1, and H1 is announced.

  • To increase the Markdown heading level and announce the new level, press I-Chord with dot 8.

  • Additionally, I-Chord with dot 8 can be used to quickly insert a Heading level 1 on any line that doesn't already contain a heading.

From the Navigation Menu (N-chord)

  • Press h to jump forward to the next heading in your document.

  • Press g to move backward to the previous heading.

Using the Navigation Menu (activated by pressing N-Chord):

  • These two new keystrokes can be thought of as extensions of the jump to the previous and next block of text commands, simply adding an extra dot.

  • Go to the next heading: dots 3-5-6-Chord

  • Go to the previous heading: dots 2-3-6-Chord

  • Note that the "move to next heading" and "move to previous heading" commands support Markdown headings of all levels.

  • Current Limitations:

  • Currently, only text files using the three English literary Braille tables (UEB, UK, and US Literary), as well as French and German literary Braille tables are supported.

  • Please note that if using the US literary Braille table, Liblouis doesn't back-translate one or more # number sign characters as expected. Consequently, your back-translated file will not currently contain Markdown headings. We hope to remedy these limitations in a future update.

Enhancement to the File Browser

  • When you enter the file browser by typing O-chord followed by F, you will now be pointing to the title of the currently open file. This will make it easier and much faster if you want to perform a task with the open file, such as protecting, renaming or deleting it. Instead of having to navigate through the file list to find the file’s title, in most cases you’ll be pointing to it as soon as you open the file browser.

  • This capability currently has some limitations.

  • When you first power on your BT Speak into a file, the file browser will behave as it did in previous updates.

  • When opening a file by typing in the file’s name via the Open command, the file browser will not point to the title of the open file when you press O-chord followed by F. However, if you open a file by pointing to it and then pressing enter, this will cause the file browser to point to the current file when you next type O-chord, F.

Enhancements to the WH-chord (Where Am I) Command

  • When in the BT Speak editor, WH-Chord will now announce the line and column your cursor is on. It will leave out the column number if you are at the start of the line for brevity. It will then speak the file name.

  • For example, it might say:

  • "At line 3, in Welcome Screen." or

  • Line 5, "Column 18, in Welcome Screen"

  • If a mark is set in the file, WH-Chord will let you know a mark is set and announce how many lines or characters are between the mark and the cursor, essentially describing the extent of the selection. It also informs you of whether the mark is above or below the cursor.

  • For example, it might say:

  • "Mark is 21 lines above. Cursor at line 22." Or "Mark 37 characters to right. Cursor at line 1."

  • More work is needed around mark and block operations in the editor, but these initial changes should provide greater confidence about where you are and what text is selected in the editor.

Miscellaneous Changes and Improvements

  • We have made improvements when pairing your BT Speak to Bluetooth devices. The process of pairing with devices such as speakers and headphones should be much easier and the connection should be more stable. However, at this time it is advised to not attempt to pair two audio devices at the same time, as there are issues when attempting to do this. A fix for this issue will be released in a future update.

  • If you do encounter difficulty with connecting to Bluetooth devices, it is now possible to perform a complete Bluetooth reset. This reset erases all established Bluetooth connections in the device list, allowing you to start over and reconnect your devices.
    There are two ways to get to the Reset Bluetooth setting. You can get to it by going to Options > Operating System > System Administration > Bluetooth Administration > Reset Bluetooth. You can also get to it by going  to Options > Operating System > System Administration > Advanced System Administration > Reset > Reset Bluetooth.

  • When exiting speech controls or review mode, BT Speak now says “exit” instead of “default bindings.”

  • The AI Chat app will now start much faster.

  • The Braille translation table for UEB has been updated. We hope this will result in more accurate translation.

  • The Reboot option is now called Restart. You can get to this via the Options menu, Operating System, System Administration, Restart the Device.

  • The help file for the Boot menu has been updated.

  • The Print command has been moved to the Edit menu (E-chord.)

  •  Previously, any variables you saved while using the calculator would be lost as soon as you exited the app. Now, the calculator automatically saves and restores all variables, allowing you to continue using them seamlessly across sessions. For the curious, the data is written to a file named calculator_history.txt located in your BTSpeak folder.

  • This update includes extended audio support For .m4r and .caf audio files from the file browser. When you open an audio  file with one of these extensions, our media player will now play the audio.

  • When opting to forget a Wi-Fi network, you now receive a confirmation prompt asking you to confirm this action.

  • We fixed an issue where a crash occurred while playing a game in BT Learn.

Conclusions

We welcome your questions and feedback regarding this update or any of the BT Speak’s features. Please feel free to reach out to us.

Phone: (772) 214-1616

Email: support@blazie.net

Contact Us: 772 214 1616 (US)
+44 1642 929747 (UK)
5605 SW RANCHITO ST PALM CITY, FL 34990

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