Support

Using Bookshare.org Books With WYNN

Before getting started, your computer should have WYNN Wizard 3.0 or WYNN Reader 3.0 or later and the Bookshare.org Unpack Tool installed. The Bookshare.org Unpack Tool can be downloaded from the Bookshare.org website by visiting the "Download Tools" link in the navigation area on any page.

Bookshare.org has two types of books: Public Domain books and copyrighted books. Public Domain books can be freely downloaded by any visitor to the website, and are available for download in a range of formats. Copyrighted books require a Bookshare.org membership, and are only available in the legally required "specialized formats for the disabled": DAISY and grade 2 digital Braille. Because of the different formats, the method to open these two types of books using WYNN is slightly different.

Public Domain Books

Most classic literature is in the public domain. For example, an author search on "Shakespeare" results in many public domain choices.

1. Download the text format (ASCII) of the book.

   Save the book on your computer in a folder of your choice. WYNN 3 users should save it in the folder WYNN3\users\[your login name]\docs. The file will have the extension ".bks". This is the compressed or "zipped" book.

2. Unpack the book using the Bookshare.org Unpack Tool.

   First check to see what file extension the downloaded file has. If it has the extension .bks, you can either double click on the book itself, or start the Bookshare.org Unpack Tool directly from the Start / Program / Bookshare.org menu in Windows. From within the Unpack Tool, you will need to select the directory in which you want to save the book.

   Note: on some computers, if there is a zip application installed, your computer may have added a ".zip" extension to the book when you downloaded it. If this is the case, you can open it using the Unpack Tool by selecting the file type ".bks.zip" in the Open Book dialog. Or, you can unzip the book using an installed zip application like WinZip or PKZip.

3. Open this text (ASCII) file from within WYNN.

   You can now use all of the great WYNN functions with this book.

Copyrighted Books

1. If the book is copyrighted, there is no text (ASCII) format available. Instead, download the DAISY format of the book.

   Save the book on your computer in a folder of your choice. The file will have the extension ".bks". This is the extension of the encrypted or "packed" book.

2. Unpack the book using the Bookshare.org Unpack Tool.

   You can either double click on the book itself, or start the Bookshare.org Unpack Tool directly from the Start / Program / Bookshare.org menu in Windows. From within the Unpack Tool, you will need to select the directory in which you want to save the book.

   You will be asked for your member password during the Unpack process. This is the password you use to login on the website.

3. Because this is a DAISY format book, during the Unpack process, you will be asked if you want to save an additional copy of the book in HTML format. Choose "Yes" to this option.

   Tip: You can set the Unpack Tool to always save an HTML copy by selecting the checkbox "Do not ask me this again. Set my preferences to always behave this way."

4. From within WYNN, open the HTML copy of the book. You will notice that the writing functions are not available because WYNN thinks this file is a web page (because web pages are also in the HTML format).

   From within WYNN you can view HTML files in either "Text View" or "Exact View". For copyrighted Bookshare.org books, Text View will be more responsive and more flexible environment than "Exact View".

5. After switching to Text View, save a copy of this file in the WYNN format (.wyn). If the "Save As" command is not available, switch to the text view before saving the file.

6. Close the file, then re-open the WYNN format copy. You can now use all of the great WYNN reading and writing functions with this book.

Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization, and is Bobby-approved.
Copyright © 2001-2008, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective manufacturers.

The Bookshare trademark is used under license from its registered owner, Follett Library Resources division of Follett Corporation.