What's a PortaBook?

PortaBooks are books on disk or CD in a contracted - or Grade 2 - braille format.

Almost all of our books are available as PortaBooks (see All Books)

And now, you can instantly download many of our books in PortaBook format! See instructions here.

PortaBook Frequently Asked Questions

A PortaBook is a braille file on disk (in contracted, or Grade 2, braille). All our current titles, and most of our past ones, are available in PortaBook format, except those with tactile graphics. PortaBooks are designed primarily to be read on a portable braille reading device, but they can also be embossed with a braille embosser, or accessed with a computer and braille display or braille-aware notetaker.

Every PortaBook contains the following:

• A separate file for each volume of the book.
• A ReadMe file that includes this FAQ.

You need one of the following:

• A notetaker with a braille display, such as a Braille Lite or BrailleNote.
• A notetaker that can speak braille files, such as a PAC Mate, Braille 'n Speak, Type 'n Speak, or VoiceNote.
• A computer with either a braille display or version 6 or later of Kurzweil 1000 or OpenBook 7 adaptive scanning software.
• A braille reading device, such as a Bookworm.

You load it the same way you would a text or Web-Braille file. Here are some possible scenarios:

• If you're using a notetaker and have a disk drive designed to work with it, you can put the PortaBook disk in the disk drive and copy the file you want into your notetaker's memory.
• If you're using a notetaker but don't have a specially designed disk drive, you can put the PortaBook disk into a computer's disk drive, attach the notetaker to the computer, and use a terminal program to copy the file you want into your notetaker's memory. Terminal programs you might use include Windisk, PCDisk, ActiveSync, HyperTerminal Private Edition, and Commo.
• If you're using a Bookworm, you can put the PortaBook disk into a computer's disk drive, attach the Bookworm to the computer, and use the download program that came with the Bookworm to copy the file you want into your notetaker's memory.
• If you're using a computer with a braille display, you can put the PortaBook disk in its disk drive and open the file you want in a word processor like WordPad, Microsoft Word or WordPerfect 5.1.
• If you're using a computer running an adaptive scanning program, you can put the PortaBook disk in its disk drive and open the file you want in that program.

No. PortaBooks are in a plain braille format; the only symbols they contain are braille characters, carriage returns, and spaces. As long as your notetaker can handle braille files, you will be able to read PortaBooks. If you are using a PAC Mate, open the file in the FS Editor, not Pocket Word.

No. PortaBooks are in a plain braille format; the only symbols they contain are braille characters, carriage returns, and spaces. If you're using a computer with a braille display, you can open and read PortaBooks just fine in most word processors, including WordPad, Microsoft Word, and WordPerfect for Windows or DOS. If your braille display or screen reader normally translates text on your screen into contracted braille, just remember to turn this feature off (see the next question for more details).

Yes. If you own version 6 or later of either Kurzweil 1000 or OpenBook 7, simply open the PortaBook in either of these adaptive scanning programs.

Without such a program, PortaBooks sound garbled if you try to listen to them with a screen reader. They are written in contracted braille, not text, so your screen reader has no way of knowing, for example, that when it sees the letter "C" all by itself, it should read it as "can." If you're using a braille display, however, the file will appear on the display in contracted braille and you will be able to read it. Just be sure that if your display or screen reader has a feature that translates text into contracted braille, this feature is turned off when you read PortaBooks. The file is already in contracted braille, so if your display tries to translate it into contracted braille, you will see gibberish.

There is no difference. Previously PortaBooks contained some specialized formatting; they are now formatted exactly like Web-Braille books.

It depends on the book. A short book, like Who Moved My Cheese, is 70K (kilobytes), while our longest, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is over a megabyte long. Except in rare instances, no PortaBook volume is over 125K.

All our current titles (and most of our past ones) are available, except those that include a significant number of tactile graphics, like Touch the Stars.

If you have other questions that we did not answer here, please call our customer service department at 800-548-7323, or (617) 266-6160 x 520.