Written by the Kurzweil Blog Team

One of the many benefits of subscribing to Kurzweil 3000 is you get instant access to new features and updates at no cost. We’re pleased to share five enhancements released in April that you’ll want to check out.

Update 1: Cross-out Text

A new addition to our reading and writing tools for April is the new Cross-out text feature. The result is this effect. Click on the highlighter feature in k3000 Windows to try it. Cross-out is a typographical appearance of words with a horizontal line through the center. The Cross-out feature can be used to editing or for eliminating "incorrect" answers in assignments and tests. Unlike redacted or censored texts, the words remain readable. When writing, the Cross-out feature can be used to indicate recently deleted information. It can also be used as a creative application of an epanorthosis; i.e. "There were hundreds thousands of fans flocking to the impromptu free concert."

Update 2. Open directly from Google Drive…ok I knew about that. Wait on a Mac?

Data shows 67 percent of K-12 school districts have a one-to-one (1:1) computing policy, 71 percent have a 'Bring-Your-Own-Device' (BYOD) policy, and 44 percent have or plan to implement both of these policies. This verifies we have a multi-platform learning environment. Students are using a variety of devices. Good news here is that with our latest release for the Mac web license, users will be able to open from Google drive. We know many educators are using Google drive for storing lessons so this new ability looks to further integrate our users with the systems they’re using

Our Kurzweil 3000 Mac subscription users now have easy support opening files from Google drive. One click delivers direct access to documents saved in Google Drive. A great feature for the many schools and school districts who have implemented Google Apps for Education (GAFE) or Google Drive to share curricular documents.

There is a new zone editing feature that allows the user multiple edits. This can be helpful for users who scan in books for their learners. Zone editing allows you to specify how Kurzweil 3000 handles blocks of text, or zones, in an image document. You can use zone editing to change the order in which portions of text are read or to eliminate some portions. For example, it may be helpful to your students if you designate photo captions, graphs, sidebars and page numbers as secondary text, which Kurzweil 3000 reads only when a reader clicks on it.

Using the Zone Editor, you can:

• Change the properties and reading order of zones
• Adjust the size of a zone to determine how much text it encloses
• Add new zones
• Delete zones (removes the zone definition and the underlying text, but not the image you see on the screen)
• Delete all zones

Zone editing is available for scanned documents, image files you open into Kurzweil 3000 and documents brought in using the KESI Virtual Printer.

Update 4: Add and delete folders in the Kurzweil 3000 web app

The last update to mention pertains to the Kurzweil 3000 and is a great "tidiness" addition. It permits users to add and delete folders in the online library while they're in www.kurzweil3000.com. This lets you stay on top of keeping a clean library on the go.

There’s more!

These are just a few of the updates made in April. You'll also notice a change to multiple-word definitions, new details in reporting, selecting PDF page ranges using bookmarks, and Kurzweil 3000 now supports PNG format. Don't be a stranger, contact us to get a refresher on all recent changes or get a guided tour of Kurzweil 3000.

Take Kurzweil 3000 for a spin today. Sign-up for a 30-day free trial or contact us for a guided tour.