Knowledge base

The Grid 1 Knowledge Base

The Grid 1 was first released in 2000 and was supported until the release of The Grid 2 in 2006. Below is an archive of the support answers for anyone still using The Grid 1. Please note we no longer support The Grid 1 and it is not compatible with Windows systems beyond XP. These articles are provided for reference only, and there is a chance that links to external websites may no longer work.

 

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Different keyboard layouts in The Grid 1

There are a number of different keyboard layouts you could use for text entry, and several of these are supplied in the demo grids with The Grid and WordWall.
There is nothing special about these keyboard grids – you can recreate, modify (or delete) them as you see fit! It is very unlikely that the exact configuration you require will have been created already, so make a copy of an existing one and modify it to your needs.

Combine common letter pairs

There are two pairs of letters that are very often used together, ‘qu’ and ‘th’, and having these pairs in the same cell reduces the required number of selections.
Replacing ‘q’ with ‘qu’ means that if a ‘q’ is required on its own, the user must select ‘qu’ and then backspace, but this is a rare occurence.
Replacing ‘t’ with ‘th’ is less convenient, but an additional ‘th’ cell could be added next to ‘t’.

Arranging the keys for the direct input

For direct input with a mouse (or headmouse, touch screen or other pointer device) the primary concern is a finding the keys easily. If the user is familiar with a qwerty keyboard, then this may be a good layout to use. Alternatively, and alphabetical order may be easier for them

Arranging the keys for scanning

Scanning starts at the top left, so placing the most common letters near the top left corner makes typing quicker. If you use block scanning, you can also arrange common characters near the top left of each block.

Arranging the keys for audible scanning

Users requiring audible prompts may find that arranging the keys in logical rows makes finding keys easier. When scanning rows, the first cell in each row is read aloud, so this cell acts as a ‘description cell’ for the row. In the example to the right, these are the vowels a, e, i, o, u, and then ‘space’ (to indicate the punctiation row) and ‘back’ (to indicate the jumps).
There is no prediction on the sample of this grid becuase the audible scanning reads the first cell in each row when scanning rows. You can help the audible prompting by providing careful descriptions of cells (e.g. the ‘qu’ cell has ‘q u’ as the description to make the letters pronounce separately).

Smart punctuation

The punctuation can be done in one of two ways: ‘smart’ punctuation or normal punctuation. If you enter ‘{.}’ rather than ‘.’ as the type text for a cell, it will do a ‘smart full stop’. This means that the last space will be erased (if there was one), a space will be added afterwards and shift will be put on for the next character. Smart versions are available for: full stop, comma, question, exclamation, semi-colon and colon punctuation marks.

The need for numbers

Most people will not type in numbers very often, so these are usually relegated to a secondary grid. If you are entering numerical data or using a calculator this is usually more useful anyway. Note that the dot (full stop) on a numerical grid should not be ‘smart’.

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Edit your own grids in The Grid 1

It is possible for advanced users of The Grid 1 to edit their own grids, modifying or creating grids, and change other program settings without intervention from a helper.

Launch the ‘slave’ copy

To do this, you need to modify a cell so that it launches a ‘slave’ copy of The Grid

• Choose a blank cell and right-click to display the cell properties.
• Click the ‘Show Advanced’ button.
• In the box next to the ‘Run A Program’ button enter (without quotes):
• “C:Program FilesSensory SoftwareThe GridTheGrid.exe /e”
• Click Ok.

The cell you have created will have The Grid’s icon as its symbol. When you select this cell The Grid will run in ‘edit mode’ (if it does not run then make sure that it was installed to the location specified above, and that you are in on-screen keyboard mode (output to Other Programs)).

Using The Grid in edit mode

When The Grid runs in edit mode it will not respond as normal. Only the keyboard or mouse pointer can be used to highlight cells, and the only cell functions that are effective are jump and quit.
Use the original (master) copy of The Grid to send arrow keys to move around and enter to select. ‘E’ will launch the cell properties and then the cell editing works as for any other application.
Pointer input users can also use the mouse to right-click on a cell to get the properties.

Creating a grid for editing

You may wish to create a custom grid in order to make editing easier, such as the one shown on this page. Useful cells are the arrow keys (for selecting a cell), Enter to select a cell, ‘E’ to edit a cell and a jump to a keyboard and/or menu control grid. Tab is also useful for moving around the edit dialog box once it is shown.

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Grid for SMILE software

SMILE Mathematics are creating free access grids for their MicroSmile educational software to enable access for switch users. As this requires adding keyboard shortcuts to their software, this is being done as each title is released or revisited.

The Probability grids will create a grid set called “Probability” containing the grids needed to access that title.

If there are any other educational titles that you would like to see switch access grids for, please contact either the software authors or Sensory Software, and we will do what we can.

Useful links

Smile website

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How to download grids

We have a few grids on our website available for download, and we hope to add more in the future. Here are some general instructions for downloading these grids and importing them into the grid set you use.

Note that there may be specific instructions for the grids you download – check the appropriate page for details.

These instructions are for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Other internet browsers may handle the download differently.

Downloading and saving the grids

The first step is to download the grids. Click on the link, which will usually have a download icon next to it.

The grids are stored in a self-extracting compressed file. What this means is that they are bundled into one file, and this will extract the various grids and save them on your computer.
You will be asked if you want to Open or Save the file you download. Choose Open to extract the grids onto the computer you are using. If you wish to use the grids on a different computer, choose Save, and save the file onto a disk. This can then be run on the computer you want to use the grid on.

Extracting the files

You will be shown a message showing the location that the files will be extracted to. If you installed The Grid into the default directory, then you do not need to worry about this.

When you click on Ok, you will see the window below. If you did not install into The Grid to the default location, amend the path to specify where you want the grids to be extracted to.

Click on Unzip when you are ready.

Importing the new grids into your working grid set

If you have downloaded a complete set of grids for standalone use then they will be in their own grid set, so you should change to this grid set by choosing User Settings > Grid Set from the menu in The Grid.

If you have downloaded a few useful grids then they will have been saved in a grid set called “Downloads”. You will need to import them into your grid set to use them and link to them from your grids.

Choose File > Import > Grids from the menu in The Grid, and locate and select the downloaded grids from the grid set “Downloads”. Click on Import to copy these grids into your grid set.

Finally, choose a blank cell to make a jump to one of the downloaded grids. Choose the new grid as the “jump”, and set the cell text to reflect what the grid is for.

You should now be ready to use the downloaded grids.

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Grids for Media Player 9

Microsoft Windows Media Player is a popular way to play videos and CDs, and access media on the Internet.

The Media Player Grids are designed for Media Player version 9. You can download this version from the Microsoft Website. The grids are designed to be included in an on-screen keyboard grid set.

A grid set called “Downloads” will be created for these grids.

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Grids for MS Messenger

Microsoft Messenger is a popular way to communicate with other people around the world.

These grids are designed to be added to an on-screen keyboard grid set, giving access to Messenger for switch users. They’re for the Messenger versions indicated, but can be easily modified to work with other versions too:

MSN Messenger 6.0 grids

Windows Messenger 4.7 grids

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Grids for XP Games

Microsoft Windows XP comes with a collection of Internet Games:

• Internet Hearts
• Internet Chequers (Draughts)
• Internet Backgammon
• Internet Spades
• Internet Reversi (Othello)

The Windows XP Games Grids are designed to allow switch users to play these games quickly. Note that a grid set called “Downloads” will be created for them.

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How to make a Grid Set for distribution

There are a few features in The Grid that are particularly useful to people designing grid sets:

Choosing grid names and pictures

Giving the grids intelligent names and pictures makes it much easier for users to modify the grid set to link in their own vocabulary. When a cell is edited to jump to a grid, the name of that grid becomes the cell text, so it makes sense to use names that can appear unmodified – try to avoid abbreviations or punctuation that might trip up speech synthesisers.
Similarly, if a grid has a picture assigned to it then this picture will appear for all jumps to that grid, helping consistency and speeding up creation of new jumps. Assign a picture when you create the grid, and you can always change it later if you need to!

Action pictures

You can specify the action pictures (speak, erase, print, etc) to give consistency across the grid set. It is good to supply any pictures you have created for the grid set so that people can maintain consistence when expanding the grid set.

Grid set colours

(Applies to The Grid 1.1.0, WordWall 2.1.0 and later versions)

You can assign default colours for a grid set. When a user changes to that grid set, their action colours and user assigned colours (the bottom row of the palette) are overwritten with those that are defined for the grid set.

The user can then change these colours and the user’s new colours will be saved for that user. The grid set default colours overwrite the user’s colours only when the grid set is selected via the User Settings > Grid Set menu item.

There is no way to assign the grid set default colours from within the software. The colours are stored in the file initial.grd, in the root of the grid set. You will need to load this into a text editor, such as notepad. Below is an example of an initial.grd file containing colour information:

[grid set]
initial =Demo Start[colours]
cellColour = 1
backgroundColour = 14737632
normalColour = 2023
talkColour = 8454143
jumpColour = 14467488
repeatColour = 16619887
ecuColour = 12632319
highLightColour = 255
sentenceCellColour = 16777215
sentenceBackgroundColour = 16744576
actionColour = 8421631Custom Colour 1 = 10281174
Custom Colour 2 = 10024327
Custom Colour 3 = 2023
Custom Colour 4 = 14467488
Custom Colour 5 = -2147483643
Custom Colour 6 = -2147483643
Custom Colour 7 = -2147483643
Custom Colour 8 = -2147483643

The colours are in heidecimal. The easiest way to specify them is to choose all the colours you want for your current user, and then copy the appropriate lines from your user.ini file (where your current settings are stored). You do not need to specify every colour – only the colours you specify will be loaded.

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How to send SMS with The Grid 1

Sending a text message with an on-screen keyboard is very easy, and is no different to using any other software. In fact, it is very much the same process as creating a document in a word processor and printing it. You start by launching the program, then open a document to edit, and finally “print” it to your mobile phone.

What you need

A phone

First of all, you need a mobile phone that supports Bluetooth. Most of them do these days, but we made our tests with the Nokia 6310i.

An adaptor

Next you need a Bluetooth adaptor for your computer. There are various adaptors available – we used the TDK model, which connects to the USB port of the computer.

Some software

Do not bother installing the software that comes with your phone. The CD that comes with the USB adaptor does all that you need. The important part is the TDK Mobile program that talks to your phone. We suggest that you go to the TDK web site and get the latest version (3.4 at the time of writing). You will need to do this anyway for newer phones such as the 6310i. The program may be downloaded from http://www.tdksystems.com

A custom grid

To make the program easy to control with The Grid, we have designed a custom grid.

Getting Set up

Install the driver

The CD that comes with the Bluetooth adaptor will install the driver that allows the Bluetooth adaptor to work with your computer. It also installs some applications.

Install TDK Mobile

This is the program that you will actually use to control the phone. This is the program downloaded from the TDK website.

Get linked

You should now have a new icon on your desktop called My Bluetooth Places. Switch on your phone and use the menu to ensure that Bluetooth is ON in your phone. The phone should then be visible in My Bluetooth Places. Run the TDK Mobile software and you will see the connection screen. Select your phone and click the Pairing Wizard button. This will set up a partnership between your computer and your phone.

You will be asked to enter a password (numbers only) on both the phone and the computer. A single number is enough.
Sending a text message with an on-screen keyboard is very easy, and is no different to using any other software. In fact, it is very much the same process as creating a document in a word processor and printing it. You start by launching the program, then open a document to edit, and finally “print” it to your mobile phone.

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Keyboard Shortcuts for The Grid

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used on any grid, with the exception of when you have the cell editing window open. The Ctrl-Alt-Key combinations have been chosen because it is very difficult for a user to accidentally press these combinations.

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Upgrading from HandsOFF and Windbag

The Grid 1 uses a new location for shared files and resources. If you are upgrading then you can make a copy of your existing files for use with the new software.

Grid Sets

The grids are now grouped into ‘Grid Sets’ to allow more than one user to be supported from the same computer. You can use the Import function in The Grid or WordWall to copy your old grids into a grid set:

First new create a grid set, and then import the grids into that set:

Right-click on any cell.

Select User Settings > Grid Set from the menu.

Choose ‘New..’ from the list of grid sets to use.

Enter a name for the new grid set, e.g. ‘Old Grids’

Click Ok to create the new grid set, and then select the new set from the list.

Click Ok to return the the Cell Properties windows, and select File > Import > Grids from the menu.

Use the file tree on the left to locate the original grids, stored in ‘C:SensoryGrids’. The list on the right will list all the grids in a folder.

Choose ‘Select All’ to tick all the grids in the set.

Choose Import Grids to import all the grids.

Finally, return to the Grid Sets window, and select the grid you want to use as your start page.

Copying files manually.

For the old titles, the grids were stored in ‘C:\Sensory\Grids’, and the new titles store the grids in ‘C:\Program Files\Sensory Software\Common\Grid Sets’ (unless you installed the software elsewhere). Create a new folder in the Grid Sets directory called ‘old grids’, and then copy all the files and directories from ‘C:SensoryGrids’ into the new folder.

Then run the program and specify the grid set and start grid from the Grid Sets window (right-click and then choose User Settings > Grid Set from the Cell Properties menu).

Prediction files

You can transfer your list of prediction words, but the information on word pairings and frequency of use will be lost.
First locate the file in which the language data is stored. If you are using English (UK), it will be:

‘C:\Program Files\Sensory Software\Common\Language\English (UK)

Make a copy of the file ‘predict.wds’ from ‘C:SensoryUser’ in this folder, renaming it ‘oldpred.wds’. Do not copy the files ‘predict.dta’ and ‘predict.dat’ – the prediction system will create new versions of these files.

Now run the software you wish to use and select the prediction dictionary. In The Grid and WordWall:

Choose User Settings > Dictionaries from the menu.
Select ‘Prediction’ and click on Modify.
Choose the new prediction file from the list.

 

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Upgrading to The Grid 2

If you are already using The Grid and are considering moving to The Grid 2, we’ve made it easy to migrate to the new software.

There are a few questions that have come up, so here are the answers for you.

Can I use my old grids in The Grid 2?

Yes! The Grid 2 has an importer for bringing all your grids across. 99% of the features from The Grid are present in The Grid 2, so your grids will work immediately once imported. Of course, you may wish to update them to take advantage of new features (such as pretty cell styles and the new workspaces), but that can be done later.

To import your grids, follow these steps:

Ensure that you know which user in The Grid 1 you want to import. Check that when that user is loaded in The Grid 1 the correct grids are displayed.

Close The Grid 1 and start The Grid 2.
If The Grid 2 does not start with Grid Explorer, go to the menu and select File > Grid Explorer, and then select click on Users in the toolbar.

In the bar on the left is an item Import from Grid 1. Click on this and select the user you wish to import.

The grids and user settings will be imported into The Grid 1.

Can I use The Grid 1 and The Grid 2 side-by-side?

Yes, both programs can be installed on the same computer. When importing a user (as described above) the user is copied to The Grid 2. This means that you can still use The Grid 1 and make changes there (without affecting The Grid 2). Furthermore, any changes made in The Grid 2 will not affect the original grids and settings in The Grid 1.

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Usage data from The Grid

The Grid 1 can store information about the activities of the user, allowing you to analyse the effectiveness of different setups. For example, you could compare the number of jumps required to build the same sentence with different vocabularies, or find out which cells the user is using often and move them nearer to the start page.

Before you start: A note on privacy

Using the Data Logging features of The Grid allows all of a user’s conversations to be replayed. There are clearly some privacy implications, so please consider asking the user for permission, only using the data logging during certain sessions and limiting the distribution of the log files.

Retrieving data from The Grid

To enable Data Logging in The Grid, you will need version 1.1.8 or later. If you do not have this version, please contact your supplier for an upgrade.

You need to create a shortcut to The Grid. To do this, open My Computer and navigate to the following folder:

C:Program FilesSensory SoftwareThe Grid
Next, right-click on the icon for The Grid (the file TheGrid.exe) and choose “Create Shortcut” from the menu.

You now need to edit the properties of the shortcut. Right-click on the new shortcut and choose “Properties…”.

Edit the Target, and add /logusage to the very end of the line (after the quotes, see picture below).

Now click on OK to save the changes. You can move the shortcut somewhere more useful if you wish (such as the Desktop or the Start Menu), and also rename it with a memorable name.

When The Grid is launched from the shortcut (rather than the usual icon) it will log data. Usage Logs are stored in the folder:

C:Program FilesSensory SoftwareThe GridUsage Logs
Each file is named according to the date and time that the session with The Grid was started.

Universal Logging Format for AAC

The format used for the data files is called the “Universal Logging Format for AAC”, which was supported by the Communication and Assistive Device Laboratory at New York State University and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. This format is designed for use on all AAC devices and as the use of Evidence Based Practise becomes more widespread, more tools and guidelines should become available for the analysis.

Interpreting the Information

There are several ways that you can analyse the information in the log files, but we recommend that you use a free program called ACQUA (Augmentative Communication QUantitative Analysis), which has been developed by Enkidu for this purpose.

If you do not wish to use ACQUA, you could use Excel or a statistical analysis package to analyse the files.

Links
http://www.enkidu.org/acqua.html – The ACQUA analysis software
http://www.enkidu.org/logfile.html – Guidlines to the structure of the file format used.

Taking it further

Please let us know if you use these tools, especially if there is anything that we could do to improve the system.
There are currently no manuals for ACQUA, although there is some online help. Enkidu have been responsive to requests for help with ACQUA in the recent past, and can be contacted directly (see the Enkidu website).
If you would like to analyse information from The Grid that is not being logged (for example, the number of switch presses), please contact us to talk about it.

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Use Notepad for quick phrases

UPDATE: The Grid 1 now has a dedicated ‘message mode’ for storing and retrieving phrases.

There are sometimes situations where an on-screen keyboard user will want to prepare a number of phrases, questions and sentences as preparation for a conversation.

If these are for a one-off use, an easy way to do this is to write them on different lines in Notepad (or another word processor) and create a grid for selecting and reading phrases.

How it works

To prepare for the conversation, the ‘Notepad’ cell launches and docks the text editor, and your favourite keyboard is then used to enter the sentences on separate lines.

To choose a phrases, ‘Previous line’ and ‘Next line’ move the cursor up or down and then select the line with the Home key, followed by Shift-End.
The line is then spoken with the ‘Speak selection’ cell, which copies the selection to the clipboard with Ctrl-C, and then uses a command to speak the clipboard.

Stage 1: Create the new grid.

Choose an empty cell for the link to the new grid, and right-click on it.

Choose the ‘Jump…’ button and then click on ‘New Grid’.

Enter a name for the Grid such as ‘Phrases’.

Choose a picture for the grid for the grid – I chose ‘Talk’ from the PCS sample pictures provided with the software.

Select 1 Row and 5 Columns.

Click on ‘Ok’ to make the grid, and then ‘Ok’ on the next two windows to make this cell jump to the new grid

Stage 2: Set up the cells in the new grid

The six cells are created with the following properties.

Description & prompt	Other properties
‘Previous line’	Type text: ‘{UP}{HOME}+{END}’
‘Speak selection’	Type text: ‘^c’ Command: ‘/speaksel’
‘Next line’	Type text: ‘{DOWN}{HOME}+{END}’
‘Keyboard’	Jump: ‘Keys – Qwerty’ Command: ‘/dock’
‘Notepad’	Run: ‘C:WindowsNotepad.exe’ Command: ‘/dock’
‘(previous)’	Jump: ‘(previous)’

Notes:

‘Quick text entry’ and ‘AutoFind as you type’ are for creating vocabulary cells quickly. For creating other cells such as these it is easier to turn these features off.

The decription and prompt (text that appears in the cell) should be set to the text indicated below.

The spoken text and type text should be blank unless indicated.

The quotation marks should not be included!

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Using Internet Explorer with a mouse

REVISED: The Grid now allows you to type into IE without problems. You need to ensure that your mouse input is set to “accept on release”.

The address bar in Internet Explorer is difficult to type into mouse input because each letter replaces the previous typed selection.

This is due to the way the IE tries to guess what you are typing, and reselecting the text each time you click on the keyboard grid.

We have introduced two special commands, which are demonstrated on the Internet Explorer demo grid (go to On Screen Keyboard from the start page, and choose Internet Explorer).

When you chose the cell to enter an address, a special address bar appears above the grid (this is the command ‘/gettext’).

Text entered goes into this window.

Once an address has been entered, the ‘Insert’ button sends:

An Enter key, the signal to close the special address window, copy the text to the clipboard and refocus on the program (IE).

An Alt-D to switch the focus to the address bar in internet explorer.

The ‘/pastetext’ command to paste the text into internet explorer.

The user then needs to send another Enter key (the ‘go’ cell) to make internet explorer search for the address entered.

 

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Using message mode in The Grid 1

Starting from version 1.1.8, The Grid 1 includes a message mode. This allows users to store messages. Users can search the messages and speak or edit them at a later date.

The message area is split into two regions: a text bar at the top for typing new messages, and a list of existing messages.

To search for a message, just start typing. The message list will display only the messages that contain the words you type. You can use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to change the selected message.

There are sample grids for the new message mode on the CD. If you wish to create or modify these grids, there are some new commands for controlling the messages.

Command	Action
/outputtype(6)	Puts The Grid into the Message mode.
/msg_add	Add the current text to the list of messages.
/msg_speak_text	Speak the text.
/msg_clear	Clear the text.
/msg_speak_msg	Speak the selected message.
/msg_delete	Delete the selected message.
/msg_edit	Edit the selected message (this will copy it to the text bar).

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Where is my workspace after importing from Grid 1 to Grid 2?

When you import grids from The Grid 1 to The Grid 2, the workspace (sentence bar) sometimes appears and sometimes it does not!

In The Grid 1, the workspace (sentence bar) is not part of the grid; it is “added on” later. In The Grid 2, the workspace is part of the grid; you select which cell(s) the workspace appears over.

When you import grids from The Grid 1 to The Grid 2, the software has to “decide” whether there should be a workspace above the grid. To do this, it checks the “start workspace” of the user in The Grid 1:

If your Grid 1 user starts with “On Screen Keyboard” then it does not add a workspace to any grids
If your Grid 1 user starts with anything else then a workspace is added to all grids

Ok, but I use both on screen keyboard and chat pages!

If you use a combination of grids with a workspace and grids without, don’t worry! You can import the grids twice, once with a workspace and once without, and then select the correct version of each grid.

Set your Grid 1 user to start with On Screen Keyboard.
Import to The Grid 2 as “My user OSK”.
Set your Grid 1 user to start with another workspace.
Import to The Grid 2 as “My user WORKSPACE”.
Make a new Grid 2 user called “My user”.
Use Grid Explorer to copy the correct version of each grid into “My User”. To do this, right-click on each user and select Explore. You can then drag grid(s) from one user to another.
Delete “My user OSK” and “My user WORKSPACE” from The Grid 2.

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Why do my switches not work in The Grid 1

Check your switch connections

• Check that the primary switch is connected to socket 1 (try the others to be sure!).
• Check that all the connections between the switch and the PC are firmly in place.

Check that you are in switch mode

• Right-click on any cell.
• Make sure that Input Device > Switch is ticked on the menu.

Check that you have the right connection specified

• Choose Input Device > Switch Settings from the menu.
• Click on ‘Configure Switches’
• Choose the appropriate input: serial, joystick or keyboard.

Check the test lights

• The numbered squares at the bottom of the Switch Configuration window will light up when the switches are pressed.
• If the squares do not light up then check that you have the right port selected for serial or joystick switches, or the correct keys allocated for keyboard switches. If the correct port is selected then check your cable connections and try another switch if one is available.
• If the squares do light up then The Grid is recognising your switches. If the switches still do not work then check that your switch settings are correct (see the manual for how to configure these)