Braille chord commands are issued by pressing the space bar in combination with Braille dots. By "space bar", we mean the one associated with the Braille input keyboard, which will be the standard computer keyboard space bar if you are writing Braille with a Braille input configuration on the main keyboard. If you are using a Braille keyboard provided with supported Braille display hardware, there will be a space bar on the Braille unit.

A complete list of Braille chord commands is presented in the next section. The dot combinations in Braille chord commands are independent of the active computer Braille translate table, the same chords always perform the same functions. The chord commands are used primarily to provide convenient access to Windows and application features from the Braille keyboard, as well as to facilitate capitalisation and the use of Control and Alt.

Some people experience problems with Braille chords because they can be too easy to trigger accidentally. A common problem is to "slur" the space bar with the last letter or a word and end up issuing a command instead of simply spacing after the word. WintextCom Personal Information Manager(tm) allows you to disable Braille chords in situations where the problem of accidentally pressing the space bar with Braille symbols outweighs the usefulness of the commands. If chords are disabled, pressing the space bar in conjunction with a Braille character causes the character to be typed first, followed by a space, providing the equivalence of typing a character then pressing the space bar on its own.

To disable chording, include the "n" option in the driver configuration string.

Braille chords are enabled by default. You can explicitly enable them with the driver configuration "C" option (uppercase).

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Braille Chord Commands