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Help Contents
Contents

Overview

TextAssist TextReader

Working with TextReader

Launching TextReader

Selecting Text For TextReader

Understanding The TextReader Button Bar

Drag And Drop With The TextReader Button Bar

Using TextReader With The System Menu

TextReader Hot keys


TextAssist TextReader

The TextAssist TextReader is a powerful, yet easy to use tool that provides high quality continuous speech of selected text or selected documents, all at the touch of a button.

Once activated, the 'floating' TextReader button bar appears onscreen, ready for your use. Additionally, a cascading Reader menu will be added to the end of the System pull-down menu of your active application. Text can be read back to you by selecting Reader from your current application's System menu, or by pressing the TextReader's Hot keys.

Options to change the volume, rate, and pitch of the current TextReader voice are conveniently accessible via the TextReader button bar or the System menu. Finally, the TextReader button bar features full drag-and-drop support!


Launching TextReader

To launch the TextReader, double click on the TextReader icon. Alternately, you can launch TextReader from the Windows 95 Taskbar if you have installed the TextAssist software on that platform.

The 'floating' TextReader button bar will appear - simply click on the Play button to begin the text-to-speech process! You may also select to use the TextReader from the system menu of your current active (highlighted) application, or with Windows 95, you can click on the TextReader icon in the Windows 95 Taskbar with the right mouse button to bring up a list of TextReader options.


Selecting Text For TextReader

To select the text you want read back to you, follow these steps:

1. Use the mouse to highlight the portion of the text you want read.

2. Click on the Play button of the TextReader button bar. Alternately, you can select Play from the Reader cascading menu in your current text application's System menu.

3. The selected text will now be spoken by TextReader.

If you do not highlight any text in your current text application, then clicking on the Play button (or selecting Play from the Reader cascading menu) will cause TextReader to read out the entire document or text file.


Understanding The TextReader Button Bar

The TextReader button bar shown below is made up of 4 distinct parts:

Play/Stop button

Click on this button to start or stop the speech from the beginning of the selected text in the application.

Pause/Resume button

Click on this button to pause the speech. Click on it again to resume speech.

Controls button

Click on this button to adjust the volume, rate, and pitch of the voice currently used by the TextReader. The TextAssist Reader Controls dialog will appear:

Close button

Double click on this button to exit TextReader.


Drag And Drop With The TextReader Button Bar

The TextReader button bar supports the drag-and-drop of ASCII text files from the Windows 3.1 File Manager or Windows 95 Explorer. To try out this neat feature, simply do the following:

1. Launch TextReader.

2. Launch the Windows 3.1 File Manager or Windows 95 Explorer.

3. Search for the T_ASSIST directory folder and open it by double-clicking on it.

4. Click on the file greeting.txt with the left mouse button. Without releasing mouse button, "drag" the file over to the TextReader button bar.

5. When the dragged file is placed on top of the TextReader button bar, release the mouse button. The TextReader will automatically read out the contents of the text file.


Using TextReader With The System Menu

When you launch TextReader from the TextAssist program group, the System menu of your currently active application will be updated with a cascading menu option named Reader (see figure below). You can use this to control the TextReader's text to speech functions, as well as select other related options.

The Reader cascading menu consists of the following commands:

Play/Stop

Starts or stops the TextReader's speech.

Pause/Resume

Pauses the flow of speech from the TextReader. To resume speech, select this option again.

Controls...

Brings up the TextReader Controls panel. Any changes made are immediate - you are instantly able to hear the differences in the rate, pitch, or volume.

Note: The changes made to volume, rate, or pitch from the TextReader Controls panel remain valid until you choose to exit TextReader or switch to another associated application. Each time you launch TextReader, the settings for the TextReader Controls panel will return to its default values.

Launch TextAssist Control Panel...

Launches the TextAssist Control Panel, allowing you to change the voice settings for TextReader.

Dictionary...

Launches the TextAssist Dictionary. This allows you to customize the pronunciations of specific words according to your personal tastes.

Help...

Launches the Windows On-line Help system (this file) for TextReader.

Exit

Exits TextReader.


TextReader Hot keys

After launching TextReader, you can choose to activate its speech capabilities with the following keyboard "hot key" combinations:

<CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-A> for Play/Stop

<CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-Q> for Pause/Resume