Word Read PLUS single pages - Claro Software

Word Read PLUS single pages 25/4/06 9:29 am Page 1

Copyright Notice

Copyright ©2004 Claro Software LtdAll rights reserved

Any technical documentation either printed or in electronic form, made available by ClaroSoftware Ltd, is copyright to Claro Software Ltd. and is owned by Claro Software Ltd.

Trademarks

RealSpeak and Dragon NaturallySpeaking are registered trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc.

Microsoft, MSN, Windows, the Windows logo and Word are registered trademarks of MicrosoftCorporation.

Pentium is the registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

"WordReadPLUS" is a product developed and published by Claro Software Ltd.

Other product names mentioned in this User Guide may be trademarks or registered trademarksof their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.

Warranty The information provided within this User Guide is supplied as a guide. Claro Software Ltdmakes no warranty as to its accuracy or use. Any use of the information supplied herein is at therisk of the user. Documentation may include technical or other inaccuracies. There may also betypographical errors. Claro Software Ltd retains the right to make changes without prior notice.

No part of this user guide may be copied without the express permission of Claro Software. Fordetails refer to www.clarosoftware.com


1

To install WordRead Plus:

Insert the WordReadPLUS CD into your CD drive.

The installation process should start automatically and you will see aWelcome Screen.

Follow the on-screen instructions and click the Finish button whendisplayed.

Should WordReadPLUS fail to start the installation process automatically:

Click Start Menu from Windows and then Run and click Browse.

Select your CD drive and select the file called WordRead (or WordReadPLUS). Click OK and the installation will start. Follow the on-screeninstructions to complete the installation.

To install any additional RealSpeak voices you have purchased, insert thesecond CD called RealSpeak and the installation of the RealSpeak voice(s)will start. If it doesn’t start automatically, double click the Setup File on theCD and the RealSpeak Voice will install. This could take a few minutes, soplease be patient.

Installation


2

Welcome to WordRead PLUS

Welcome to WordRead PLUS. WordRead PLUS is designed to help makeyour computer easier to use, and contains innovative speech features.

WordRead PLUS adds powerful speech features which allow you tolisten to any information on your computer screen - documents, e-mails, web pages and more.

WordRead PLUS will work with any application or software program onyour PC.

WordRead PLUS MenuBar

WordRead PLUS Overview

WordRead PLUS provides a simple discrete toolbar that will lock ontoany Windows software application you have open and active.

The speech features of WordRead PLUS are powerful. One of the keybenefits of WordRead PLUS is that it can read back menus, button textsand tooltips, as well as any text displayed on screen. The program willalso instantly read back any text that you select using your mouse. It willalso read back characters, words and sentences as they are typed.



3

WordRead PLUS Toolbar Buttons

Play And Stop Buttons

Click on the Play button to start to read back text from anyMicrosoft Word document using the pre-selected text-to-speech voice. To use this feature outside of Microsoft Word,simply select the text you want reading with the mouse, andthen press the Play button. The selected text is read back.

Click on Stop to halt the text read back. By clicking on theSpeech Settings button you can choose to highlight words orsentences as they are spoken, as well as control the style ofspeaking. In other (non-Word) software applications, all youneed do to is highlight (select) the text you would like readback by using your mouse here. When you have finishedselecting, it will read the text back immediately.

Settings Button

The Settings Button brings up the Settings Menu


The WordRead PLUS MenuBar locks onto the current active Window,and will move around as you change the applications that you areworking in. If you don't see the WordRead PLUS MenuBar, afterProgram launch, click the current window to make it active. TheMenuBar will then appear.


4

WordRead PLUS' ability to make the computer talk is one of itskey innovative features. WordRead PLUS uses ScanSoft'sRealspeak Voices, which are high quality, human synthesizedvoices. However, WordRead PLUS may also work with any othertext to speech synthesizer voice that may be installed on yourcomputer.

With WordRead PLUS you have the following extensive range ofspeech facilities:

• Have text read from anywhere within Microsoft Word or Internet Explorer by simply clicking the cursor at the point you want to start, and clicking the Play Button or F7.

• Have any text read back instantly once selected by your mouse. Great for making web pages and e-mails talk.

• Echo back letters, words or sentences as they are typed intoyour computer in most applications. Great for positive confirmation that you have typed what you wanted to!

• Automatically hear "ToolTips" read by hovering the mouse over the tooltip.

Speech Features


5

• Automatically hear many Menu items and "objects" read by hovering the mouse over the item.

• Make Audio files from documents for listening to later on your PC. Or you could transfer the audio files from your computer to a portable audio device such as an iPod. (Using separate portable audio player software).

• Pause between words gives greater clarity of speech if needed.

Many of these speaking features can be turned off if they are nothelpful to you, using the Speech Settings screen.

Speech Features


6

Making Word Documents Speak

Open Microsoft Word and open the Word document youwould like to have spoken. Alternatively, type some text. Clickyour mouse at the place in the document where you want thespeaking to start.

Press the green Play Button or F7 key.

The text will be spokenback to you, and alsohighlighted.

WordReadPLUS will carryon reading the web page until you press stop or F8.

Using Cursor(Arrow) Keys in Word

When you move around the text in Microsoft Word using theup/down/left/right arrows on your keyboard (instead of yourmouse) you can choose whether WordRead PLUS speaks byticking "Arrow Keys in Word".

When moving the Up orDown arrows, WordReadPLUS will speak the full lineof text. In this way, you canhave a document spokento you line by line, by usingthe Down Arrow key.

Pressing the CTRL and Leftor Right Arrow will speakthe next word from where the cursor is clicked.

Pressing the Left/Right Arrow will speak the next character inthe word.

Pressing the Shift and Down Arrow to select a number of linesof text in Word, will allow that block of lines to be spoken.


7

Making Web Pages Speak

WordRead PLUS allows most web pages to be spoken backeasily, especially when using Internet Explorer 6 or above.With Internet Explorer 6, load up the web page that youwould like to have spoken and open WordRead PLUS.

If you press the green play button or F7, the web page will bespoken from "top to bottom" in an order that is related to theway the web page is built.

If you click your mouseat the beginning of theweb page article thatyou would like to havespoken back, a "virtualcursor" will appear.

Pressing the green Play Button or F7key will start the readback, and the sentence will highlight in red.

WordRead PLUS will carry on reading the web page until youpress Stop or F8 key.

An alternate way of making hyperlinks and text in web pagesspeak within Internet Explorer 6 is to just "hover the mouse"over the text.

If you don't use Internet Explorer, or the web pages aren'tspeaking, simply select the text with your mouse and pressthe Play button. WordRead PLUS will read anything that youselect with your mouse.

There are some settings in Advanced Speech Settings thatcan control the speech when mouse selects the text, and thespeech in Internet Explorerwhen hovering the mouse.


8

Making Other PC Programs Speak

WordRead PLUS will speak back any text that you select withyour mouse. To do this, select or block some text with yourmouse.

The text will be spoken back immediately once you let go ofyour mouse. If you would like to have the text spoken again,press the green Play Button or F7 key on the WordRead PLUStoolbar and it will repeat the text.

If you don't want the text to be spoken when you select, youcan turn it off from within the Advanced Speech Settings.

To turn off the speech when selecting with the mouse, untickthe "Speak when mouse selects" tick box.

When this is turned off, you can still have text spoken backwhen selected. However, to hear the text you need to pressthe green Play button [or F7] on the WordRead PLUS tool bar.

To stop the speech at anytime, click the mouse, Press Stop orF8 key.


9

Speech Settings

The main Speech Settings screen allows you to choose thevoice that speaks the text back to you. You can also set thespeed of speech and volume for this voice. WordRead PLUS issupplied with ScanSoft's Realspeak Voices, but it may also workwith other voices installed on your computer. This will includethe Microsoft system voices, such as Sam, Mary or Mike.

Voice

WordRead PLUS installs the ScanSoft Realspeak Voices asstandard. Clicking the down arrow next to the currently loadedvoice will show you the range of voices available to be usedwith WordRead PLUS.

Speed & VolumeChange the speed and volume by moving the slider bars leftand right.


10

Speech Settings

Test Button

When you change the voice setting you can test the newsetting prior to clicking OK. Loading a new voice takes asecond or two, so please be patient! After it is loaded, you canthen test it. It will say "This is a Test".

Pause Between Words Setting

Ticking the Pause Between Words box willdeliberately separate each word when thecomputer is speaking the text. This may help with clarity forcertain users. If it is not ticked, the speech should flownaturally, and will take account of punctuation, certainabbreviations and other text details.

Pronounce Button

The Pronounce Button opens the text to speech pronunciationlist. Whilst the Realspeak Voices are incredibly accurate, thereare times when it may not pronounce words quite as you like.This could be, for example, names of people or place names.We built a tool to modify the voice to pronounce somethingthe way you want. You can do this by taking a "sounds like"approach.

Save as Audio File Button

It is possible to convert the text in an open Microsoft Worddocument or web page into an audio file to save on yourcomputer. The voice used for the conversion is the RealspeakVoice selected at the time. You can then listen to this audio filelater, email it to someone, or transfer it to a portable audioplayer using the software provided with that device.

Read the Save Text to Audio section to see the step by stepguide to making the conversion.

Advanced Speech Button

There are a number of Advanced Speech Settings .


11

Text To Speech Pronounce

Whilst the Realspeak Voices are incredibly accurate, there aretimes when it doesn't pronounce things quite as you like.These could be, for example, names of people or place names.We built a tool to modify the voice to pronounce somethingthe way you want. You can do this by taking a "sounds like"approach.

To make a pronunciation list addition, type in the word youwant to change the pronunciation of in the "Word to Replace"box. Pressing the Test Button allows you to hear how theselected voice pronounces the word.

Type how it should sound in the New Pronunciation box. Youcan test the new pronunciation by pressing the Test Buttonprior to adding. Once you are happy that it sounds acceptable,press the Add/Replace Button to add it to the pronunciationlist. Whenever the original text is seen it will be pronouncedaccording to your replacement text.


Save Text to Audio Files

WordRead PLUS lets you save the text in Microsoft Worddocuments and text from any application selected and copiedto the Windows clipboard to audio (sound) files. The Save toAudio file formats are WMA, WAV and Ogg.

The Save to Audio can be a slow process on very longdocuments. There is a progress bar showing how much of theconversion is completed. The voice used for the audioconversion is the Realspeak Voice selected at the time in theSpeech Settings window.

To Convert text to audio files;

For Word documents: Open the Word document you wantto convert to a sound file.

For web pages and other texts: Go to the web page youwant to convert to a sound file. Select the text you want tohave saved with the mouse. Press Copy, which is normally inthe Edit menu, or Press the Control (CTRL) Key and the LetterC at the same time. The text will be copied to the Windowsclipboard. You cannot see this.

THENOpen the WordRead PLUS Settings Window.

Click the Save as Audio File Button

12


13

Advanced Speech Settings

The Advanced Speech Settings screen allows you to control theamount and type of speech that the computer reads to you.You can also modify the synchronised highlighting type andcolour that occurs when Microsoft Word documents arespoken by the computer.

AutoSpeak Settings

The computer will automatically speak back items underneaththe mouse, or echo text as you type it in. You can enable ordisable these features.


14


Speak When Mouse Selects

WordRead PLUS will speak back anything you select with yourmouse. This means that it will read virtually anything, and willbe particularly effective for use on the internet. You can turnthis feature off if required.

Speak Objects Under Mouse

WordRead PLUS will speak back any tooltips, menu items, webpage links, web page texts (with Internet Explorer 6 andabove) and text "objects" that it can access from the computeror web page. If you hover the mouse over a menu item, or apicture with a tooltip, it will speak the text to you. You can turnthis feature off if required.

Ticking the "All" box will speak All objects under the mouse.Ticking the IE box only, will only speak objects under themouse from web pages within Internet Explorer 6.

Speak Characters, Words and Sentences

When typing text, you can set WordRead PLUS to:

Speak back each character (letter or key) Speak back each word after it is created.Speak back each sentence as it is created.


15


This is very useful for checking spelling and grammar duringtext creation and for reviewing the sentences as they arecreated. Each one of these features can be turned off from thismenu.

Arrow Keys in Word

When you move around the text in Microsoft Word using theup/down/left/right arrows on your keyboard (instead of yourmouse) you can choose whether WordRead PLUS speaks byticking "Arrow Keys in Word".

When moving the Up or Down arrows, WordRead PLUS willspeak the full line of text. In this way, you can have a documentspoken to you line by line, by using the Down Arrow key.

Pressing the CTRL and Left or Right Arrow will speak the nextword from where the cursor is clicked.

Pressing the Left/Right Arrow will speak the next character inthe word.

Pressing the Shift and Down Arrow to select a number of linesof text in Word, will allow that block of lines to be spoken.

Large Buttons

You can increase the size of the WordRead PLUS Toolbar byticking the Large Buton Option.


16

Spoken Text Highlight Settings

When WordRead PLUS is speaking text from Microsoft Worddocuments, you can also highlight the text that is beingspoken. The voice is synchronised with the highlighted word orsentence, giving greater assistance in following the text.

You can choose to highlight each word as it is spoken, or eachsentence, or each paragraph. You can also change the colourof the highlighted text and the background using theHighlight Settings part of the Advanced Speech Settings Menu.

Keyboard Control

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that can be usedinstead of having to rely on the mouse. These shortcuts canalso be used by speech recognition software, to give fullervoice control over WordRead PLUS. The shortcuts are;

F7 KEY = Play Button

F8 KEY = Stop Button

CTRL KEY = MUTE SPEECH


Contact Us

Notes

We would like to thank you for using WordRead PLUS.

You can see more Claro Software products atwww.clarosoftware.com

If you have any queries, please contact us [email protected]

We value your feedback.
