Chapter 6

Reading Text Out loud

Truly one of the most wonderful features of Proportional Reading is the ability to have any text read out loud at normal speaking speed, and to have this sound accompany visual display of the text on the screen. This can be done in a number of different ways.

This approach is ideal for any beginner. It is also ideal for anybody to use to read a difficult passage of text, or for dyslexic and learning disabled students to use to keep right up with other students. You can also use this tool to edit a paper you have just written by having it read out loud. In addition, you can take notes on the same screen while you watch and listen to the "Lecture", stopping, pausing and repeating material whenever and as often as you wish. If you wish, you can have the text spoken with just a synthesizer.

In addition to playing text on computers, VIDEOS of voice and text presentation of actual classroom reading can be easily made and loaned out from the "library" to teachers and students for individual classroom or home use on VCR. Each student can easily get 1,000 hours of extra voice and text instruction per year this way at almost no cost to the school or student. The same tapes can be used in schools throughout the school district and over a number of years; and they can be used at home in evenings, weekends and on holidays and during vacations. Frankly, this is a major breakthrough.

You can hear text read out loud one word at a time as it is displayed on the screen, one word at a time, center justified; no eye movement is required.

You can also choose to have text displayed one sentence at a time and simultaneously read out loud with real human voice or synthesized voice at slow speaking speed. Each word in turn is highlighted as it is read out loud. This is ideal for all very new readers (elementary and adult beginners).

Third, you can have text read out loud one line at a time with synthesized voice.

Fourth, you can have text read out loud with just a synthesizer as it is presented one sentence at a time. With the text read out loud a sentence at a time in synthesized voice, the reading speed can be varied up to about 300 words per minute.

With text displayed on the screen either one word at a time or one sentence at a time and read out loud one word at a time with either human voice or synthesizer, you can choose to have only words longer than a certain number of letters read out loud. The words that are not read out loud are read silently or spoken out loud by the reader. This process provides a sense of student acheivement and empowerment. The setting 0 means that all words are read out loud, because all words have at least one character. The setting 1 means that the words "I" and "a" are displayed but not read out loud. The setting 2 means that the words "we", "us", "to", and "no" are displayed but not read out loud in addition to "I" and "a". The setting 3 means that the words "you', "not" and "yes" are not read out loud in addition to the words "we" and "a".

This feature provides a progressive tool to match each student's ability as he or she progress in learning words. Note: to look up an individual word and hear it pronounced go to Chapter 5, "Looking Up Words".

You can also vary the amount of pause time after a word is presented and before it is read out loud. A modest amount of pause time at this point is very helpful for many students. Providing a large amount of pause time here enables students to try to say the word out loud before they hear it read out loud. Many students need and want this amount of pause.

Thirdly, you can add pause time after the word is spoken and before the next word comes on the screen or is highlighted. This feature enables students to echo the correct pronunciation if they have mispronounced the word.

There are many additional applications of these features for ESL students, visually impaired students and all kinds of speech and hearing problems.

Note: Your Proportional Reading software enables you to immediately play out text with the built in Macintosh synthesizer. If you want to read out loud with real human voice then you need to also have the Voice Library on your hard disk. The Voice Library requires a Power PC Macintosh.

Two Sets of Programs for Having Text Read Out Loud

Proportional Reading provides two different sets of programs for reading text out loud. The first set of programs work on WordPerfect documents and instantly read text out loud or pronounce individual words. These programs begin to read very quickly. They use synthesized speech. There is only one speed of speaking. Stopping, pausing and restarting at any point is very easy. You can have text read out loud and displayed by paragraph, sentence, phrase or by one word on the screen at a time.

This set of programs enables you to select and change the colors of the foreground (type), background and highlight. This feature enables one to greatly reduce screen brightness and contrast between black and white. Doing this is often essential for successful reading. One effective combination is reversed type with a light gray highlight shade. This highlight shade may be changed to red or green or any other color as often as desired. Because brightness and contrast can be so effectively controlled with these programs, they are the ones recommended for video taping.

The second set of programs also format selected text. They operate by your choice of control panels. Text takes longer to format this way. However, text can be read out loud in real human voice and you have tremendous control over many aspects of individual presentation. Furthermore, when you use these programs to read text out loud a sentence at a time, talking speed can be easily increased to very high speed. This is ideal for college and graduate school students faced with lots of reading to do. Finally, you use these programs to have text read out loud as it is displayed while you simultaneously view pictures or text on another file also visible on the screen. As you see and hear the text read out loud you can scroll up and down the second file. You can also in addition, or instead, simultaneously type notes on another file.

The combined set of programs provide incredible empowerment for a struggling reader. At any point in either program you can start, stop, pause, continue or repeat reading out loud.

Hearing Text Read Out Loud In WordPerfect

Reset Automatic Backup

If you are having text read out loud and WordPerfect tries to automatically backup up your text, the computer may crash as it can't do both actions simultaneously. To avoid this problem, turn automatic backup off. However, do remember to frequently manually save your typing as you go along.

To reset WordPerfect automatic backup, pull down the File menu to "Preferences", then select "Environment". Make sure there is no x in the box called "Backup Every". Click on "OK" and close windows. You only need to do this once.

Close Find/Replace Window If Open

Make sure the Find/Replace window is closed. If this window is open, you will probably not be able to have text displayed correctly as it is read out loud.

Choose Which Way You Want Text Read Out Loud

First, decide which way you want to have the text read out loud.

If you want a selection of text (selected and copied) enlarged and read out loud sentence by sentence, with space between sentences, type: Command+F1.

If you want a selection of text (selected and copied) to be enlarged and read out loud by phrase (i.e., one line at a time), type: Command+F3.

If you want the selection of questions and answers or math drills (selected and copied) to be enlarged and read out loud line by line with a pause at the end of each line (after question or answer), type: Command+F4. Note: Answer should be on separate line from question. For example,
2x2=
4

If you want a selection of text (selected and copied) to be enlarged and read out loud word by word with the sentence showing, type: Command+F5.

If you want a selection of text (selected and copied) to be enlarged and read out loud word by word with several words in a phrase on the screen in one line of type, and only one line of type visible at a time, type: Command+F6.

If you want a selection of text (selected and copied) to be enlarged and read out loud word by word with just one word visible at a time, type: Command+F7.

Reading Text From The Internet Out Loud

You can select and copy text from the internet, or any online service, or any other word processor and then activate WordPerfect to have the text read out loud with the techniques described above. One easy way to activate WordPerfect is to pull down the Apple menu to "a1 Open WordPerfect alias". You can also click on a WordPerfect window if one is visible, or you can pull down the application window to WordPerfect if the application is open but not active.

To Pause Reading Out Loud

To pause the presentation at any point type: `. To restart the presentation, type ` again.

To Stop Reading Out Loud

To stop the presentation at any point type: Command+period.

To Restart Reading Out Loud

If you want to hear the text, as is, instantly read out loud with synthesized voice by paragraph, press F1 and the text will start to read out loud.

If you want to hear the text, as is, read out loud instantly word by word, press F2.

If you want to hear the text, as is, read out loud instantly line (phrase) by line, press F3.

If you want the existing selection of questions and answers or math drills read out loud line by line with a pause at the end of each line (after question or answer), type: F4.

Typing Notes From Stop

With the reading out loud programs stopped, you can easily type a note and then restart the reading out loud.

Usefullness for Video Taping

These programs on WordPerfect are designed for optional use with video taping. They are desirable because the foreground, background and highlight hue can be selected and matched for optimum results. The control panel programs do not have this extent of brightness and contrast control.

Limitations of These Programs

These programs on WordPerfect are not designed for you to switch between documents while the text is being read out loud. Often the system will freeze if you try to do this. To switch between documents as text is read out loud, use the second set of reading out loud programs, described below. In these programs the reading out loud is designed to be seen and heard as a background application, so you can easily switch between different windows and different applications at the same time.

Changing Colors

To change highlight color as well as the colors of the foreground and background, type: Option+Command+h to bring up the color window. Make your selections and click on "Ok". If you press one of the four basic brightness and contrast settings, the highlight color will be automatically reset. Then you can also type: Shift +F9 or F10 or F11 or F12 to automatically change the highlight color to red, green, blue or purple.

Reading PR Document Out Loud

To read out loud a PR document one word at a time, proceed as follows. Place the cursor where you wish to begin reading and type F2. When you are finished reading the document out loud, you can read it silently.

Progression of Approach

These tools enable a reader to have text read out loud by word, then by phrase, then by sentence, then by paragraph. After some or all of this has been done, the same passage can be read silently.

Note: It's much quicker to format a selection of text to be read out loud with F7, than to first Proportionalize the selection of text (F2). However, the Proportionalized text has the ability to be read silently at 14 different speeds as well as read out loud. Text formatted with F7 is not designed to be read silently.

To Remove Selection Shading

To remove selection shading from original document, click on the document after you have copied it and just before you choose how to have it formatted and read out loud. If you do not want to see the original document at all, press Command+w after you have copied the selection and you will close the original document.

Add Blank Lines for Vocabulary and Poetry

If you wish to start off a reading with some vocabulary words, place them in a list with a blank line between them. This way they will be formatted one word on a line and there will be a pause between words. Poetry should also have a blank line between each line of poetry to keep it formatted as individual lines. An easy way to add blank lines automatically is to select the text you want treated and type: Control+Option+Command+L. Alternatively, pull down the Macro menu to "ab) Add Bl Ln w Sel".

To Make a Video of Voice and Text Presentation on Screen

To make a video of voice and text presentation on screen, you must have a scan converter (about $300) hooked between your monitor and your CPU. The video output from this box goes to your VCR. Take the sound output from your power speakers so the sound will be amplified and use this as the sound input for the VCR. Note: If you don't have power speakers you may need a small audio amplifier to boost the original sound signal. Use a distribution amplifier if you wish to make multiple VCR copies at the same time, all first generation, right from your computer. Otherwise, make just one video or record onto SVHS tape and later make as many copies as you wish from this master.

Choose to have the text enlarged and formatted before video taping. Regular size type won't be readable on a video. Use 30 point type for phrase and sentence display; this is what we use. Make sure any screen saver program is turned off. Also make sure the Find/Change window is closed.

It is most important that you set the foreground, background and highlight hue to the right settings before video taping. Otherwise, the TV will be too bright to watch, and/or the contrast between foreground and background will be so much that you will quickly fall asleep. This is not a joke or a minor consideration. Do not ignore this step. The proper setting for video taping is achieved by typing: Control+Command+b.

Having Text Read Out Loud with Control Panels

If you want to have text read out loud in real human voice, or change the speaking speed, or switch between different documents and applications while readiong out loud is going on, preparation takes a little longer, but sound and options are vastly greater. Decide whether you want the text read out loud a sentence at a time or a word at a time. Select the text and copy it to the clipboard. Then get into WordPerfect and type: Command+F8 to have the text formated for reading one sentence at a time, or type Command+F9 to have the text prepared to be read out loud one word at a time.

In a few moments a screen will appear with options to choose. Type "a" or click on "a".

A moment later you will see a little window called "Line #" opened and positioned on the bottom left of the screen. This window can be positioned anywhere you wish and lets you know what word you are currently on. You can type whatever word number you wish on it and the program will start at this point in the text. It is initially set automatically at word 1, the beginning of the document.

The formatted text is also copied to document called "Text" which is also collapsed. This collapsed file is located on the bottom right of the screen. Words form this "Text" file are taken one at a time or one sentence at a time for display in the display window. The text file always needs to be called "Text" for actual reading so the comoputer knows where to go to get text. This is why after you open a file that has formatted text for reading out loud with these programs, you change the title on the open document to "Text". In just a moment we will see how to do this automatically . Note: the saved file can keep its full descriptive title.

Finally, a display window appears in the middle of the screen. You can position this window anywhere you wish also. Once you see the "Line #" window set to 1, you are ready to read out loud.

Now choose the control panel for how you wish to read. In order to do this you have to make two decisions. First, do you want the text read out loud a sentence at a time or a word at a time? And second, do you want the text read with real human voice (accurate but not too fast), or synthesized voice (can be very fast)?

Pull the Apple menu down to "a4) Read Text w Human Voice alias" To have text read out loud word by word with real human voice, or "a5 Read Text w Syn. alias" to have text read out loud one word at a time with synthesized voice. Choose "a6 Read by W/Hum alias" to have text read out loud by one highlighted word after another with human voice as one sentence at a time is displayed. Choose "a7 Read by W/Syn alias" to have text read out loud by one highlighted word after another with synthesized voice as one sentence at a time is displayed. Choose "a8 Read by Sen. w Syn. alias" to have whole sentences read out loud with synthesized voice as they are displayed one at a time.

The control panel of your choice appears at the bottom of the screen. Note that the control panel has a start and stop button. Click on the start button to start and the stop button to stop.

Note: To remove selection shading from original document, click on the document after you have copied it and just before you choose how to have it formatted and read out loud. If you do not want to see the original document at all, press Command+w after you have copied the selection and you will close the original document.

OPERATING CONTROLS FOR READING OUT LOUD WITH CONTROL PANELS

TO START, PAUSE OR STOP

Press Run to start hearing text read out loud. Press Stop to pause the presentation. Press Run again to continue from where you left off.

To stop reading, click on the stop button. In actual practice, the way you do this is to click twice on the mouse just after a word is heard. The first click activates the control program. The second program activates the stop function.

When the AppleScript program is stopped you can do anything you like: look up a word, play text silently, move backwards or forwards, or quit.

Note: Do not cover up the AppleScript buttons. The only way to stop the reading out loud is to press the stop button or turn off the computer. If you loose sight of the control buttons go up to the application menu and pull down to "Script Editor". The control buttons will reappear.

ENDING READING OUT LOUD

When you get to the end of a section of text read out loud, the program won't be able to find any more text to read out loud, because there is none. The program will indicate this condition by opening up a window and asking you to click on the word "Stop" or "OK". Do this and the program will finish up.

TO CHANGE CHARACTER SETTING ON CONTROL PANEL

To speed up reading and to give students a chance to read the short words themselves, have only words longer than 3 characters read out loud. To do this, zoom out the control window by clicking on the little window box in the upper right corner of the window. The window will expand to fill the screen. Scroll up to the top of the document that appears. The top line says "set h to 0".

The setting 0 means that all words are read out loud, because all words have at least one character. The setting 1 means that the words "I" and "a" are displayed but not read out loud. The setting 2 means that the words "we", "us", "to", and "no" are displayed but not read out loud in addition to "I" and "a". The setting 3 means that the words "you', "not" and "yes" are not read out loud in addition to the words "we" and "a".

Change the number to whatever setting you wish. Three is the most popular number to use. Six is the highest number you will probably wish to use, however you can go higher if you want. Now click on the zoom box again to shrink the window. The programs are initially set to open up with a setting of 0, reading all words out loud.

TO CHANGE AMOUNT OF PAUSE BEFORE PRONUNCIATION

Some students need extra pause time after a word is presented and before it is pronounced. You can set this pause time the same way you set the character setting. Change the setting of "d" from 0 to 1000, 2000, 3000 or 4000. Settings can be changed as often as you wish. Find the right combination of settings for each reader.

Many students want to pronounce out each word before they hear it. These students need even longer pause time than the first group of students. You can make the delay number as high as you wish.

INCREASING PAUSE TIME AFTER PRONUNCIATION AND BEFORE THE NEXT WORD IS PRESENTED

It is a good idea for students to repeat the correct pronunciation of any word which they have not pronounced correctly. To do this set the variable "b" from 0 to 1000, or whatever number you wish.

SETTING DISPLAY TIME FOR NON-SPOKEN WORDS

Short words which are not spoken can stay on the screen for an adjustable period of time. If you make this time short, overall speed of the presentation will increase dramatically. This can be beneficial if a student wants to read these words silently. However, if the student wants to read these short words out loud, and most children do, than the short display time will frustrate the student greatly as there is not enough time to read the words out loud. For this student increase the display time to about 900. 900 is the default setting. To set this variable proceed as with the other settings, however set the letter "n".

MOVING THE DISPLAY SCREEN

You can move the reading out loud window anywhere you want on the screen while it is playing or during pause.

MOVING THE "LINE #" WINDOW

You can also move the "Line #" window into view so you can better see the current line number if you wish.

RESETTING THE "LINE #" WINDOW

From Stop you can reset the line number to go back as many words as you wish: Just delete the last digit or two and retype. Now press Run.

Alternatively, you can zoom out and in the "Line#" window by clicking on the upper right box in the "Line#" window. Pause the program first by hitting the Stop button. Zoom out, type, Zoom in.

REMOVING THE BLINKING CURSOR

To remove any blinking cursor presence or any flashing on the display window or on the Line # window, just click once on the Text window in the lower right corner of the screen. This process is done automatically each time you start the reading out loud. However, if you have moved windows during a presentation, you will need to reactivate this lower right window to remove the cursor from the display window.

HIDING AND RESHOWING THE STOP/RUN CONTROL

If you wish to have the screen as clean as possible, you can hide the stop and run controls until you need them. After the text starts to run, go up to the application window and select "Hide Others". To make the control box reappear select the application: Script Editor.

Note: When you get to the end of the text the control panel will automatically reappear with a message that it could not continue. This happens because there is no more text. Click on "ok".

TAKING NOTES AS YOU TYPE

One of the best features of the reading out loud program is the ability to take notes as you type. Just open up a word processor document and type away as your text is read out loud. Use the tab key to heirarchiaze your notes as you read. You can make corrections as you listen.

SEEING ORIGINAL TEXT SIMULTANEOUSLY

You can also have a reduced window showing the original text in it. This text can serve as ongoing review, or you can mark it with F5(~) and/or F6 (~<:>) marks as it is read out loud and then proportionalize it and play it back silently as an interactive tutorial if you wish.

DISPLAYING PICTURES

If your original document has pictures in it and you have used WordPerfect to proportionalize the section which you are reading, you can display the pictures in the text as the text is read aloud. To do this just open up the original document and scroll through the pictures as text is read out loud.

MOVING BETWEEN PICTURES

At any time while the text is reading out loud you can go to the Word Perfect pr document or text file and move back and forth between pictures. To move forward one picture press Control and p. To Move back one picture press Shift+Control+p.

TAKING NOTES WITH PICTURES AND SPEECH

If you are using a WordPerfect document for notes you can also take notes as you watch the pictures and hear and see the text.

LOOKING UP WORDS

To look up a word, stop the program and double click on the word or drag on the part of the word you want to look up. Now copy it to the clipboard by typing: Command+c and pull down the Apple menu to "a2 Pronounce Any Word alias" or "a7 Dictionary alias" and proceed as before.

SWITCHING TO SILENT READING

After you have had text read out loud it is a good idea to read it silently at much faster pace. To do this just stop the reading out loud program and click on the WordPerfect pr document if it is already on the screen, Proportinalize it and read it using the silent reading controls.

NOTING WHERE YOU ARE FOR EASY RETURN

If you have to leave the reading out loud application, and want to return to reading out loud where you left off, just make a note of the line # you are currently on. Set the line # to this number when you return and then press run.

STAND ALONE APPLICATION

If you are just doing reading out loud, and there are no pictures, you do not need WordPerfect loaded. Just load in the ascii version of the formatted text and start it reading out loud. You could take notes on Simple Text. After selecting formatted text saved as ascii and copying it to the clipboard:

Select "A3 Prepare Selection alias" from the Apple menu.

DIVIDING UP A BOOK INTO SEPARATE FILES FOR INSTANT PLAY

A book can easily be divided up into different short sections, formatted and then saved in ascii (text) format with individual titles. This way sections can be instantly played out loud. Use the format "prv ----" where pr indicates that the text is formatted to read out loud word by word. Use the title form "prvs ---". to save text formatted to be read out loud a sentence at a time.

RETITLING UPLOADED TEXT

When you upload a formatted chapter or article, you will need to retitle the file because all files have to have the title "Text" when they are actually read out loud with the control panel. This is easy to do. Just pull down the Apple menu to a2 PR and then choose "a3 Retitle Document alias". The file will be automatically retitled.

CLOSING ONE FILE BEFORE OPENING ANOTHER

When you have finished reading an article or before you open another document to read out loud with the control panels, close out the three document windows already open: the Word # window, the Display window and the Text window. The easy way to do this is to pull down the Apple menu to "a2 PR" and then choose "a3 Quit STE alias". The three windows will be automatically closed.

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