3 Reading This chapter contains the following topics: Reading in Kurzweil 1000. Accessing Reading Commands. Basic Reading Functions. Reading Navigation Tools. Reading Shortcut Keys. Reading Newly Recognized Pages. Reading Tables. Displaying and Reading Images. Reading in Kurzweil 1000 There are all types of material you can have Kurzweil 1000 read: • Print documents that you’ve scanned in. For information on scanning, go to Chapter 8, Scanning and Recognition. • Electronic documents that you’ve imported or opened using the KESI Virtual Printer from another application. For information on importing files or opening files using the KESI Virtual Printer, go to Chapter 13, Files and Folders. • Electronic documents that you’ve downloaded from an online source. For information on online files go to Chapter 15,Online Material. • Or documents that you’ve created in Kurzweil 1000. For information on creating documents in Kurzweil 1000, go to Chapter 9, Editing Text and Formatting. As soon as you scan or open a document, Kurzweil 1000 begins reading. Kurzweil 1000 uses the Reading Voice to read most of the text in a document. However, it switches to the Message Voice when announcing, for example, menus and menu commands. Additionally, Kurzweil 1000 uses an emphasis method when reading "emphasized" text, such as italic, bold, or underline, or when announcing your position within a table. The emphasis method may be either a different voice, or a change in pitch of the current reading voice. You can disable these features to have Kurzweil 1000 read all text using just the reading voice. Go to Chapter 12, Working with Settings, for more information. In addition to simply reading through a document, you can use a variety of tools related to the reading function: • Reading navigation tools such as the Rewind and Forward functions. For additional detail, go to the section, Using Reading Navigation Tools, in this chapter. • Document navigation methods, such as Bookmarks, Links and Go To Page, enable you to go to specific places in the document. For more information, go to Chapter 5, Document Navigation Tools and Methods. • Document overview methods, such as Layout Exploration, which quickly tells you the different regions on a scanned page, Browsing, which lets you hear the first and/or last sentence in each paragraph, and Summarization, which creates an overview of a document based on key words or bookmarks. For more information, go to Chapter 4, Exploring Documents. Summarization is also useful as a study tool, go to Chapter 7, Annotations, Outlines and Other Study Tools for more information. • Reference tools let you look up the definition or synonyms of a word, as you read. You can also hear words spelled letter-by-letter, or with a word alphabet (alpha, bravo, and so on). In addition, you can obtain background or related information from online encyclopedias. For more information, go to Chapter 6, Reference Tools. Numerous reading settings provide options for enhancing your reading ability and enjoyment. These include reading by units and avoiding headers, as well as Word Spacing, which increases the space between words. These features are available from the Reading Settings tab page. You can find more information on Reading settings in Chapter 12, Working with Settings. At any time during reading, you can hear the reading status, which includes: • The names of the current reading and scanning documents. • The page number in the current file. • The reading speed and unit. • The status of a number of reading settings, such as column identification and white on black recognition. For details about Reading settings go to Chapter 12, Working with Settings. • The software version number and information about how to reach technical support. Accessing Reading Commands Reading commands are available from the Read menu, and by using shortcut keys. You can also access many reading commands from the keypad. For more information, you can either download the document, Using the Keypad to Access Kurzweil 1000, from the Kurzweil Educational Systems website—www.kurzweiledu.com, or refer to Appendix E, Using the Keypad to Access Kurzweil 1000 in the Online Manual. The Read Menu The Read menu is located to the right of the Scan menu when a document is open. As with all menus, each menu item has a corresponding mnemonic and some have keyboard shortcuts. To open the Read Menu: Use one of the following methods: • Press ALT, then the RIGHT ARROW key until you hear the name of the menu. • To use mnemonics, press ALT+R. To hear the menu items, use the UP/DOWN ARROW keys. Basic Reading Functions This section provides menu-based instructions for basic reading operations. Starting and Stopping Reading Use one of the following methods to start or stop reading: • Open the Read menu and choose Start or Stop Reading. • Or press ALT+R +S. • Or press F5. Another way to stop reading is to press any key on the keyboard. Notes: Be careful not to press any other key if you are using the CONTROL key. Also, pressing CONTROL does not resume reading. Adjusting Reading Speed Use one of the following methods to change the reading speed: • Open the Read menu and choose Increase Reading Speed or Decrease Reading Speed. • Or press ALT+R, then N for increasing reading speed; ALT+R, then E for decreasing speed. • Or press F12 for increasing reading speed; F11 for decreasing reading speed. The Increase Reading Speed and Decrease Reading Speed menu items change the speed of both the reading and message voices. To specify speeds for each voice separately, use the Voices Settings dialog. For more information, go to Chapter 12, Working with Settings. Reading Selected Text 1. Select the text you want by placing your cursor at the starting point for the selection. Then, hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard and use the ARROW keys to move over the text. 2. Do one of the following: • Open the Read menu and choose Say Selection. • Or press ALT+R +Y. • Or press CONTROL+Y. Notes: You can also use CONTROL+Y to speak selected text in text boxes and lists in dialogs. To hear the spelling, press CONTROL+SHIFT+Y. Hearing the Time and Date To hear the time: Open the Tools menu and choose What Time Is It? or press CONTROL+T. To hear the date: Press CONTROL+T twice. To insert the current time and/or date into your document: Listen to the time and/or date, then use CONTROL+C and CONTROL+V. Obtaining Reading Status To hear status information about reading, open the Help menu and choose Reading Status (ALT+H, then R). To quit status information, press ESCAPE. Reading Navigation Tools This section describes how to access menu items for finding your current place in a document and for moving around in a document using reading units. Determining Your Place in a Document It’s often helpful to determine where your cursor is located. To find out the current line number, the page number, and the document name, press SHIFT+F1 on the keyboard. If your page has layout information, you can find out the location of the current word in the original scanned document by pressing CONTROL+F1. Moving by Reading Unit To read by unit, do one of the following: • Open the Read menu and choose Rewind by Unit (ALT+R, then R) or Forward by Unit (ALT+R, then F). • Or press F6 for Rewind by Unit; F8 for Forward by Unit. Reading begins automatically at the new location. You can also skip forward or backward one unit when reading continuously: To skip forward, tap the right SHIFT key or use the F8 key. To skip backward, use the left SHIFT key or F6. To read the current unit, do one of the following: • Open the Read menu and choose Read Current Unit, (ALT+R, then C). • Or press F7. Kurzweil 1000 remembers the original layout of a scanned page, although lines may wrap differently on screen, depending on the value of the Line Endings setting in the Reading Settings tab. When you choose Line as the reading unit, Kurzweil 1000 uses the lines in the original document. Selecting a Reading Unit 1. Open the Settings menu and choose Reading. The Reading Settings dialog opens with your cursor in the Reading Unit list. You’ll hear the current unit setting. 2. Use the UP/DOWN ARROW keys to select the desired unit: You can opt for Line, Sentence, or Paragraph. 3. When you hear the unit you want, press ENTER to accept your selection and close the dialog. Reading by Alternate Reading Unit Kurzweil 1000 provides an alternate reading unit. You might want to use the alternate unit as a navigational tool that allows you to move backward or forward more quickly through documents. When the Reading Unit option in the Reading Settings tab is set to anything other than By Paragraph, the alternate unit is By Paragraph. When the reading unit is set to By Paragraph the alternate unit is By Sentence. Use ALT+F6 to rewind by the alternate unit, use ALT+F7 to reread the current alternate unit, and use ALT+F8 to move forward using the alternate unit. Moving by Region If the page you are reading has layout information, you can move forward or backward by region. SHIFT+F6 moves the cursor back to the beginning of the previous region. SHIFT+F8 moves the cursor forward to the beginning of the next region. Reading Shortcut Keys There are keyboard shortcuts that you can use to hear contextual text. Your cursor position does not change when you use these shortcuts. CONTROL+SHIFT+U reads the previous line. CONTROL+SHIFT+I reads the current line. CONTROL+SHIFT+P reads the next line. Holding down the CONTROL and SHIFT keys while pressing any of the following word keys twice lets you hear the word spelled out. Press a sequence three times to hear the word spelled mnemonically. For instance, for the word "go" you would hear, "go, golf, oscar." CONTROL+SHIFT+J reads the previous word. CONTROL+SHIFT+K reads the current word. CONTROL+SHIFT+Semicolon (;) reads the next word. Holding down the CONTROL and SHIFT keys while pressing any of the following character keys sequences twice lets you hear the character in mnemonics. For instance, for the character "g" you would hear, "g, golf." Press a sequence three times to hear the decimal value of the character. For instance, for letter c, you’d hear the number 99. CONTROL+SHIFT+M reads the previous character. CONTROL+SHIFT+Comma (,) reads the current character. CONTROL+SHIFT+Period (.) reads the next character. The lines here are the lines in the document window. This differs from the reading unit definition, which uses the line breaks in the original scanned document. Reading Newly Recognized Pages It's often helpful to be able to listen to pages as you scan, for example when you are sorting through the mail or when trying to get a quick idea of the contents of multi-page material. To set Kurzweil 1000 in this mode, go to the General Settings tab, ALT+T, then G. In the General Settings tab, press ALT+R to go to Read Newly Recognized Pages and use the DOWN ARROW to Enable the setting. If this is a feature you would use often, consider saving the setting. For information on Saving Settings, go to Chapter 12, Working with Settings. Reading Tables Many kinds of printed material contain tables. The Table Recognition feature can recognize and read tables, although it assumes that the tables have a certain format, that is, the cell at row 1, column 1 is empty, and subsequent cells across row 1 contain column headings. Similarly, all the cells in column 1, except the first cell, contain row headings. Each body cell in the table would then represent the intersection of a row and column. Suppose you have a table with the column headings “Books” and “Cards” across the first row. Now let the headings down the first column read “January,” “February,” and “March.” Each body cell of the table could then represents the number of books or cards sold in a given month. In this format, row 1, column 1 is empty. Row 1, column 2 contains the heading “Books,” and Row 1, column 3 contains the heading “Cards.” Row 2, column 1 has the first month heading “January.” Row 2, column 2 contains the number of books sold in January, and row 2, column 3 contains the number of cards sold for the month. Row 3 has similar information for February, row 4 for March, and so on. In reading this table, Kurzweil 1000 would start with row 2, column 2 (the number of books sold in January). You would then hear the row heading for that information, “January,” followed by the column heading “Books,” then the number again. Kurzweil 1000 reads across the row, speaking the column heading followed by the cell contents. When it moves to the next row, it will speak the row heading, then each column heading and the cell contents. To use Table Recognition, be sure that the Table Identification option is enabled in the Reading Settings tab. Go to Chapter 12, Working with Settings for instructions on changing these settings. Also, you should specify an Emphasis Method in the Voices Settings tab. Kurzweil uses the emphasis method to announce the presence of tables and your cursor’s position in them. You can set the emphasis method so that it either causes Kurzweil 1000 to switch to a different reading voice or to change the pitch of the current reading voice. General Table Reading Functions To read a table row by row, press F5. To read a table column by column, press SHIFT+F5. To read the first row of a table without changing the cursor position, press ALT+Grave Accent. This is helpful for reading the header row when you are deep in a table. To read a table row without changing the cursor position, press C ONTROL+SHIFT+W. To move the cursor up to the previous row and read, press CONTROL+ALT+UP ARROW. The cursor stays in the current column. To move the cursor down to the next row and read, press CONTROL+ALT+DOWN ARROW. The cursor stays in the current column. To read a table column without changing the cursor position, press CONTROL+SHIFT+C. To obtain Help information while working in tables, be sure the cursor is in the table, then press F1. To hear the contents of the current cell, preceded by the row and column number, press SHIFT+F1. To find out the size of the table, press SHIFT+F1 twice. To reread the contents of the current cell, press F7. To skip past a table, press CONTROL+SHIFT+Right Square Bracket. To move just above a table you are in, press CONTROL+SHIFT+Left Square Bracket. Note: You can search for tables in a document by choosing Find from the Edit menu (ALT+E, then F), and choosing Tables from the Find dialog’s Format list box. Hearing Specific Cells Without Moving the Cursor To hear the contents of the first cell in the current row, press ALT+LEFT ARROW. To hear the contents of the last cell in the current row, press ALT+RIGHT ARROW. To hear the contents of the first cell in the current column, press ALT+UP ARROW. To hear the contents of the last cell in the current column, press ALT+DOWN ARROW. Navigating and Reading Individual Cells When Kurzweil 1000 reaches a table, you can do the following: Move to and hear the next cell in a row, press F8 or to also hear the associated heading, press TAB. Move to and hear the previous cell in a row, press F6 or to also hear the associated heading, press SHIFT+TAB. Move to and hear the next or previous cell in the same column, press DOWN or UP ARROW. Read the table continuously by row, press F5. Read the table continuously by column, from left to right, press SHIFT+F5. The assumed format does not apply to every table. If you are reading tables with a different format, such as a table with no headings at all, you may get unexpected results. In this case, it may be better to use the TAB key, SHIFT+TAB, and the ARROW keys to read each cell individually. Displaying and Reading Images It is often useful to refer to an image of the original scanned page. This can be handy for diagnosing recognition problems, and for inspecting diagrams, charts, equations, and pictures. To keep the original image, enable the Keep Images option in the General Settings tab before doing recognition. Images are kept only in KES file format. If you save your file in any other format, that file will no longer contain images. Go to Chapter 12, Working with Settings for instructions on setting this option. To see an image of the current page, do one of the following: • Choose Show Images from the Tools menu. • Or press ALT+O+W. • Or press CONTROL+W. Kurzweil 1000 opens a full page dialog, showing the image of the page. The image of the current word is highlighted. You can press any of the following: F1 Help F5 Stop or Start Reading F6 Go Back One Reading Unit F7 Go to Start of Current Reading Unit F8 Go Forward One Reading Unit SHIFT+F6 Go to the Previous Region SHIFT+F8 Go to the Next Region CONTROL+I Invert colors CONTROL+UP ARROW Zoom In CONTROL+Plus Sign Zoom In CONTROL+DOWN Zoom Out CONTROL+Minus Sign Zoom Out CONTROL+L Spell the Current Word CONTROL+SHIFT+L Spell the Current Word Mnemonically ESCAPE Return to the editor Left or Right ARROW Move backward or forward by a word Home or End Move to the first or last word on a line CONTROL Home/End Move to the first or last word on a page Additional tips on reading images: • Use the UP or DOWN ARROW to move to the nearest word of the previous or next line. This can be handy if you are trying to read a table that was not well identified as a table, since only one word will be read when you press up or down arrow. • Sometimes it is handy to move the image around on the screen without reference to text. For example, much of the page may contain a picture with no text, and, at a high magnification level, you may need to scroll the image around in order to inspect all of it. To move the image without moving the text cursor, press the Scroll Lock key, and then press HOME, END, or the ARROW keys. HOME moves the image to the left edge, END moves it to the right edge. CONTROL+HOME moves it to the top, CONTROL+END to the bottom. • The state of the color inversion, as well as the magnification level, is kept from one use of show images to another, and can be saved in a settings file. When you return to the editor with the ESCAPE key, your cursor is positioned on the same word that was highlighted in this dialog.