AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO USING PERKY DUCK FOR THE BRAILLE MUSIC COURSE

Note to Experienced Perky Duck Users: If you have already installed Perky Duck on your
computer and have used it in the past, go to #4 Set the Margin and # 6 Save the File. You will
need to follow the directions in these two steps to meet Hadley's requirements for your course.

INSTALLING PERKY DUCK

If you are able to download the free Perky Duck program below onto your computer, you might be
able to convert your keyboard so that you can do braille like any other word processing program. The
advantage is the ability to correct your errors and not have difficulty with spacing and formatting as a
result. Also, you will always have a copy of your assignments.

Go to http://www.duxburysystems.com/freeware.asp#perky Once in the site you will see "Freeware"

on the left side of your screen. Click on that and when you are on the next page, scroll down to "Perky
Duck". Click on "updates" and follow the link from there.

You can also access the information by going to:

http://www.duxburysystems.com/product2.asp?product=PerkyGo to "Freeware" on the left side of
your screen and follow the links from there.

Perky Duck was designed with the sighted distance education student in mind. What happens is that
six keys on your keyboard are converted to the braille keys like those on the braillewriter. The keys
s,d,f and j,k,l become the keys for each dot and the space bar remains the same. Some keyboards
will not allow the six-key entry. It is usually the newer ones. Older ones usually do fine. So if your
keyboard does not work, it is possible to track down an older one at a resale shop or swap with
someone while you are taking this course, and use it instead. However, there is also a new version
of Perky Duck that allows this. In the new version you go to: global/preference/six key/key set and
switch to WEF JIO if the home row keys do not work.
HOW USE PERKY DUCK:
1. Go to Start in the bottom left-hand corner of the computer screen.

2. Go to Programs, then to the DBT Perky Duck icon . Click on the Perky Duck icon.
If you see this message: Cant find settings file, or file found is an incompatible version dont
worry. Just click on OK.

Perky Duck
icon

3. Perky Duck will create a blank window for you.

4. Set the Margins. If you do not do this, your formatting will be incorrect. Go to
Global View and select Embosser Setup

Go to the Menu Bar and pull down the

Global menu. Then select Embosser Setup.
You will not be embossing your assignment,
but the embosser settings need to be
correct for your instructor to see your work.
If the embosser settings are incorrect, your
instructor may be able to see only part of
the lines of your assignment.

Select Generic Brailler Device. Change the Characters per line to 40. Change the Lines per
pageto 25. The Top margin in lines and the Binding Margin in characters may be 0. Click
OK.This is the only time you will need to set your margins. All of your documents will now have a
maximum of 40 cells per line and 25 lines per page.

Characters per line

Lines per page

Set the margins by indicating the number

of characters per line and the number of
lines per page. The Hadley assignments are
formatted for a 40 cell line and 25 lines per
page.
 5. Start a New Document. Go to File and select New.

Go to FILE in
the menu
bar.

Then pull
down and
select NEW
 6. Save the File: A new white screen will open and you are ready to work. However, it is wise to
name the file and save it so you wont lose any work in case you are interrupted. Go to the FILE
menu and select SAVE AS. Youll see the SAVE AS screen. Write your name and the assignment
number in the File Name box. Pull down the on the SAVE as Type box and select Formatted
braille,USA encoding (*.brf). ClickSAVE. Now you will not lose anything in case you need to stop
working on this file and your instructor will be able to open the file.

Select
SAVE
AS

Step 3: Press SAVE

Step 1: In the FILE NAME box, type
your name and the assignment
number
Step 2: Pull down the arrow in SAVE AS TYPE
and select Formatted Braille, USA encoding
(*.brf) to ensure that your instructor can open
your file. Your instructor may not be able to
open an assignment saved as a different file
type
7. Get Ready to Braille:Now go to VIEW and make sure that SIMBRAILLE and 6-KEY ENTRY
are checked. Click on them if they are not checked. Notice that the name of your file is also checked.

SimBraille and 6-Key Entry

8. Begin Brailling. You can now write braille. Remember that each dot of the braille cell is
numbered.You can use the fds and j kl keys on your computer keyboard to write each dot. These
are the key-dot combinations: f = 1 4 = j
d=2 5=k
s=3 6=l

You will have to press multiple keys at the same time to form most of the braille letters. For example,
the braille letter o is written with dots 1-3-5o so you would press the f s k keys at the same time to
print dots 1 3 5 oThe spacebar on the computer keyboard produces a space, and the BACKSPACE
key deletes characters. You must use the ENTER key to produce a hard carriage return to go to the
next line. If you do not, the cursor will go to the next line but your formatting will be incorrect. This
will be counted as an error.
Note: Not every keyboard will work with Perky Duck. Older keyboards tend to work better with Perky
Duck. You can find out if your keyboard will work by opening a new Perky Duck document and
pushing the s d f j k l keys simultaneously. You should see = You can also test this by opening
your word processing program and pushing the s d f j k l keys simultaneously. If all six letters appear
in any order, your keyboard is compatible with 6-key entry in Perky Duck. If only some appear, you
will need to get a different keyboard.

9. When you are done brailling, remember to save your file. Go to FILE. Select SAVE.
10. To exit Perky Duck, go to the FILE menu and click EXIT.
11. To look at a Perky Duck document that you created, launch Perky Duck. You will see the
message, Perky Duck has found temporary files created by a prior run. Remove them? This is a
normal message. Click no or discard. Find your document. Go to MENU and select OPEN. Look
in your MY DOCUMENTS folder. Find the file that you created. It may have the suffix .brf. Highlight
the name of the document you want to open. Click Open.

J. Matsuoka& D. Hernandez/2011

Updated November 2012