Scrivener and Alphasmart

Scrivener
21

I was having a lot of corruption with Scrivener so I did the import using Ommwriter which was far better but still had 1 garbled paragraph(out of 100s).

22

Regarding transferring text to and from Neo, the best tool for Mac OS X that I’ve found is Alphasync. It’s fast, reliable and intuitive, as Mac app should be. Best of all, it’s freeware. Download from here: http://www.alquanto.com/download/alphasync1.0-rc1.dmg and see more details here: http://www.alquanto.com/download/alphasync1.0-rc1-readme.pdf.

Cheers, Mike

23

I broke out my new alphasmart yesterday, although I wasn’t supposed to get it until Santa made his drop off until Dec. 25th. Anyway it arrived without the manager CD or a USB cable.

Can I use a standard USB transfer cable with the alphasmart, or do I need to buy one from the Alphamart store? I’ve asked the store to send me out a cable and CD, but I’m figuring out a backup plan just in case. Does anyone know how I can get hold of a CD if they don’t send me one out? I’m in the UK, in case that makes a difference!

I’m loving Alphasmart so far though. Now I just need a USB cable to transfer it to Scrivener!

Thanks in advance.

24

Yes, it’s just a standard “flat to square” USB cable, nothing special about it. On the CD, the only thing you really could make use of is the Manager and the documentation PDF. Both of these can be downloaded from their website.

25

Thanks Ioa! I’ll see if I get a reply to my email tomorrow.

26

I just wanted to check that this is the kind of USB cable that I will need.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.208-1507.aspx

I wish retailers would use pictures that clearly showed the connections of the cables.

Thanks in advance.

27

Yeah, it’s really hard to tell. From that picture, it almost looks like the extremely tiny USB connector used for many cell phones, digital cameras, and such. The connector on the NEO side needs to be the roughly square shaped one, maybe a little less than 1cm across. It’s called a Standard-B connector type. Standard-A are the flat ones you see most on the computer itself.

28

This one is better to see.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-9975.aspx

29

Yup, that’s the one!

30

You are a star! Thank you. x

31

I really like the default Alphasmart Neo font. The 3-4 lines one. Really would like to use it on my laptop for writing in Scrivener as it is really clear to see. What’s the closest alternative for Windows OS? Bear in mind that I am on a tight budget.

Thanks in advance.

32

Well, I’ve just checked in my handbag, Stacey, and I reckon it’s standard Post Office Till Receipt 14pt. :open_mouth:

cw

33

Searching for ancient bitmapped fixed width fonts will probably unearth some equivalents. The tricky part will be anti-aliasing. Even if you find a good font for this, the OS might try to smooth it over and reduce the retro clarity of it.

34

Ha ha that made me laugh. :smiley: Thanks.

35

Thanks Ioa.

36

I did not upgrade to Lion yet but this week I downloaded five of the Apple software updates. Today when I tried to send over my text via usb the customary select-your-keyboard assistant did not show. I tried pressing Send anyway but nothing happened.

Of course this could be just something peculiar to my system. I’m looking into this more today and will post updates.

37

I’ve just sent a test-file from AlphaSmart to Scrivener via USB and it worked perfectly, as always. I’m using Leopard with all the latest updates. Hope you manage to sort it out, Geef.

cw

38

I’ve upgraded to Lion too, and I just hooked my AS-3000 up. There weren’t any problems transferring text, not even the usual fumbling keyboard install silliness. There was no keyboard install prompt. The text just went through when I pushed Send. That must mean that my version of Lion remembered this keyboard from Snow Leopard.

One suggestion. I used the latest version of Migration Assistant, one just released for Lion, when I upgraded. If you’ve not done that, you might want to try it. There might be one obscure little file that tells OS X about this keyboard. Migration Assistant knows about that sort of thing.

If Lion itself has a problem seeing AS keyboards, I’m not sure what we can do if we get a new Mac with Lion. Someone who has one of the new Macs that ships with Lion might want to check that out. If it doesn’t install the keyboard, file an OS X bug report at:

apple.com/feedback/

Stress that a lot of schools use Alphasmarts.

–Michael W. Perry, Untangling Tolkien

39

I’m having trouble getting the Neo Manager to recognise my Neo 2. I’ve updated to the latest version and installed 64 bit drivers but I’m having no luck.

I’ve filed a support request with Renaissance Learning but has anyone else run into this problem, and can offer suggestions?

Thanks. I’m a bit stumped.

40

Hi Stacey,

It’s a good while since I’ve used my Neo. But from what I remember, you don’t have to use Neo Manager (and some Neo users used to recommend that you didn’t). I seem to recall that there’s a simple procedure for ‘printing’ from the Neo to applications such as Scrivener via a USB cable. I remember that this was quite a cool procedure: the words from the Neo appeared in Scrivener at a satisfactorily fast typing speed. I expect there may be more in Scrivener threads from two or three years back, when Neos were more popular, or in posts on the Alphasmart user group on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/alphasmart/

Edit: hmm, this was in the days before Scrivener for Windows, and so I was using a Mac - but even so, I’d be surprised if the procedure didn’t work with PCs. The computer ‘sees’ the Neo purely as a keyboard.

H