Accessing Bookshare.org Books on the PAC Mate

On January 11, 2009, Bookshare.org changed the way books are searched, downloaded, and formatted. Bookshare.org material is no longer distributed in the BKS format. Instead, books are compressed and encrypted using the popular ZIP format which can be opened on most computers. This means you can no longer use the Bookshare Unpack Utility to open Bookshare.org books onto your PAC Mate.

In order to continue downloading and unzipping Bookshare.org books directly on your PAC Mate, you can download a third-party file-management utility called Total Commander. This free utility allows you to open the encrypted books from Bookshare.org. The following sections provide step-by-step instructions for downloading and installing Total Commander as well as using the program to unzip Bookshare.org books.

Downloading and Installing Total Commander

To download and install Total Commander, do the following:

  1. Download Total Commander version 2.51 and save the tcmdpocketarm.cab file to a folder on your computer that you can easily remember. You might choose to save it on the desktop, which is the Windows default.
  2. Locate the file and transfer it to your PAC Mate. You can choose to copy it to a storage card or to main memory, such as the My Documents folder.
  3. On your PAC Mate, navigate to the file and press ENTER to begin the installation. If a storage card is inserted, you are asked if you want to install to the device or the storage card. Use the arrow keys to make your selection and press F1 (F1+F2) to continue with the install to the selected location.
  4. After the installation completes, a confirmation message appears informing you that Total Commander was successfully installed. Press the CLOSE button (ESC) (F1) to close it.

Downloading and Unzipping a Bookshare.org Book using Total Commander

To unzip a book downloaded from Bookshare.org directly on your PAC Mate using Total Commander, do the following:

  1. Login to Bookshare.org and locate the book you want to download. Press ENTER on the appropriate link to download the book in DAISY or BRF format. A Download dialog box opens.
    Note: Since DAISY books consist of several files, it is suggested that you create a folder in the location where you will be unzipping your books, such as your storage card. Use the title of the book as the folder name and choose this folder when unzipping the book.
  2. Make sure the Open file after download check box is checked then choose Yes to save the ZIP file in My Documents. Choose Change if you want to save to a different folder.
  3. After several seconds, depending on the size of the book, Total Commander automatically launches and places you in a list of the files in the ZIP archive. If the book is in DAISY format, the archive will contain several files. Press CTRL+A (E CHORD, A) to select all. Otherwise, if you chose BRF format, the BRF file is already selected.
  4. Press ALT (F2), select File, then choose Copy/Move to select the folder where you want to extract the book. When this dialog box opens, select the Tree button then use the arrow keys to select a folder from the tree view and press F1 (F1+F2). You can also manually type the folder path instead of using the tree view if you prefer.
  5. Once you have finished selecting a folder, press F1 (F1+F2) and you are prompted to enter a password. Type your Bookshare.org member password, then choose OK to extract the book. Once the book is unzipped, you are returned to the list of files in the ZIP archive.
  6. To exit Total Commander once the book is extracted, press ALT (F2) and select File then Exit.

Once you have unzipped the book, if you do not want to keep the orriginal ZIP file, you must locate it using File Explorer or Total Commander and delete it.