User's Manual

BrailleNote Apex QT User Guide
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4.10.1 How Books from Bookshare work.
When first downloaded from the site, Bookshare books are "packed" into a special compressed
format. This compressed file will have a .bks, .bks2 or .zip file extension, regardless of what book
format you have chosen.
Once the book is downloaded, it is then possible to "unpack" the compressed file into its normal
format such as .brf or .txt. Once this is done, you can then delete the compressed file (.bks, .bks2, or
.zip). To make this clearer, you could think of the compressed file as the bag that Bookshare put
your book into, and once you have taken it out of its bag, you can throw the bag away.
All copyrighted Bookshare books are password protected to help prevent them from being used or
distributed in ways contrary to the terms and conditions of membership. To unpack the book, you
need to enter your password. Books that are in the public domain, that is, out of copyright, do not
require a password even though the prompt will still come up. In these cases, you can still enter
your password, or just press ENTER to pass over the field.
4.10.2 Supported formats.
Bookshare has books in several electronic formats, some titles in more than one format. The
BrailleNote QT supports books in brf, txt and DAISY formats, but not HTML format. If you
download a book in an unsupported format, KeyBook will allow you to unpack it, but before the
process is complete, it will prompt to say that the format is not available. Books can only be
"unpacked" in KeyBook.
4.10.3 Bookshare Favorites.
The Bookshare.org home page is already set up as a favorite in KeyWeb. However if you intend to
use Bookshare regularly, it might pay to set up the login page as a favorite instead. For information
on how to do this, refer to 12.8.1 Adding a Favorite page.
4.10.4 Existing Bookshare books.
If you are already a Bookshare member and have packed or unpacked books on your PC, you can
simply transfer them to your BrailleNote QT via ActiveSync, and open them in KeyBook. The only
difference to the procedures below is that when you open KeyBook, you will have to select a folder
or drive in the usual way, as it will not default to the correct location.