User Manual and Directions
For Using Proportional Reading Software
(System Requirements: Section 16)
Table of Contents
1. What Does Our Software Do?
2. Who Needs Our Formatting Software?
3. Is Special Software Necessary to Buy to Read with PR on IOS or Mac
Devices, Using Interactive Computer-Voice Assistance at Variable Speed?
4. Who Are the Major Users of Our Software?
5. What Are the Major Ways Our Software Formats Text?
6. How Does Our Software Work?
7. Sizing, Justifying (optional), Shading, Titling and Saving Articles in Text Edit
8. What Free Application Do You Need to Download?
9. How Do You Prepare Text For Our Software?
10. How Do You Clean Up Text to Remove Ads and Other Junk?
11. How Do You Format an Internet Article?
12. How Do You Format a Free Book From the Gutenberg Press?
13. How Do You Remove DRM From E-Book Purchase on Amazon or Elsewhere?
14. How Do You Change Text Formats?
15. How to Use Dropbox to Share Your Reformatted Books and Articles
16. What Are the System Requirements For Our Software?
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17.What Does Our Software Cost?
18. How to Download Our Software
19. What are The Basic Ways to Read with this Software?
Once you have gone through this process a few times, it will become second nature, and you will have a valuable skill for the rest of your life, which you will never forget, and which you can show to others.
1. What Does Our Software Do?
Proportional Reading reformats and paginates text so that it is easy to read on any of a number of devices, Apple or PC. If you are using an iOS Device, or Mac Laptop or Mac Desktop, you can also use interactive computer-voice assistance at variable speed. This is the recommended approach for maximum speed, comprehension, ease and benefit.
Our software helps students and adults read and enjoy what is assigned and what they want to read, and to improve their reading skills in the process.
Once text is formatted, it can be read on the Internet, or with a browser as a separate file. Alternatively, it can be sent to Dropbox and played on student’s iPhone, iPad, iPad mini, iPod Touch, Mac Laptop or Mac Desktop. Using Dropbox, teachers can easily send formatted material to all their students, who do not in turn need any additional software to read it. Presentations can be read online or offline.
Please note no words are altered or changed, just the formatting and pagination of the text.
Our software makes long paragraphs and difficult text much easier to read by increasing font size, and adding blank lines between sentences, or additionally between Punctuation Intervals, and/or phrases. In addition, any section of text can be gone through a word at a time, with that word repeated as often as necessary.
A Punctuation Interval is defined as all the text from the beginning of a sentence to the first comma or other punctuation mark. The next Punctuation Interval begins with the following word and continues to the next punctuation mark, or end of the sentence.
Thus, our software allows readers to go from shorter to longer cognitive intervals, from a word, to a phrase, to a punctuation interval, to a sentence at a time.
In addition to reformatting text, our software paginates pages of text in two important ways. First and most important, our software changes the background color of the page to a shade of gray. This greatly reduces the tendency to fall asleep from too much brightness on the computer screen, and too much contrast between the foreground color (that is the color of the print) and the background color, which is usually white. The degree of shading used can be adjusted.
Second, as an optional feature and only if desired, our software will center justify the presentation of words or phrases.
The teacher, parent, or individual chooses whether he or she wants to format the text by phrase, by punctuation interval, by sentence, by paragraph, or by book.
Within about 10 seconds after making a choice, the selected text is all formatted, with the title ready to be typed by the user. At this time the user directs where the reformatted text is to be saved: in Dropbox, on the desktop, in Documents, or in some other place or folder.
Our software reformats and re-paginate’s actual text. We assume that all the junk advertisements have already been removed from the text before our software is applied to the text. Learn how to do this in Section 10.
Many separate articles can be added into one file and formatted all at once. This will save a great deal of time.
2. Who Needs Our Formatting Software (PR Software)?
If text has been formatted with our software and then published to students either on the Internet or in Dropbox, students do not need our software to read this text. Students already have all the necessary software on their iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, iPhone Touch, Mac laptop or Mac desktop, or PC to read PR formatted text. They just need to learn how to set up and use what they already possess. In addition, students using iOS or Mac devices are already set up to read with interactive voice assistance.
One person in a public school or college can format text, using our PR Software, for many teachers or professors to present to their individual students on the Internet or through Dropbox.
Any parent can easily prepare text for their child to read, using our PR Software.
Any teenager, college student or adult can instantly format any book, Internet article, or other selected text for their own personal use as needed.
Any Internet article or book or chapter can be reformatted with this software.
The specific users of our software are listed in section 4.
3. Do You Need to Buy Special Software to Read with PR on IOS or Mac Devices, Using Interactive Computer-Voice Assistance at Variable Speed?
No.
Students already have all the necessary software on their iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, iPhone Touch, Mac laptop, or Mac desktop to read PR formatted text with voice assistance (called VoiceOver). They just need to learn how to set up and use what they already possess. However, for maximum speed, ease and benefit, you will need a Bluetooth keyboard to use with your iOS device.
All text that has been PR formatted is ready to read on the above devices without any additional software. Reading text with VoiceOver is a separate operation from formatting the text to read.
This is not just a semantic issue. Since almost every student in middle school, high school or college already owns an IOS device or Mac laptop or desktop, or has access to one, the cost for software and hardware to deliver this technology to students already exists, and at no additional cost to schools. This is a tremendous saving to K-12 schools and colleges.
In addition, depending on your needs only certain text needs to be reformatted. As you will learn, many short articles are written with paragraphs that are no longer than one or two sentences at most, and the sentences tend to be very short. Short news articles fall into this class. These articles usually do not need to be reformatted in order to be read with the Proportional Reading approach by students in middle school, high school, or college.
4. Who Are the Major Uses of Our Software?
All persons who have to read long paragraphs and serious writing.
All slow readers, advanced Dyslexics, advanced ADHD students, and average ESL students in middle school, high school and college are able to immediately read assigned reading at grade level (speed and comprehension), using text formatted by punctuation interval or by sentence.
Secondly, all average readers In middle school, high school and college and adult life are able to quickly increase their speed to 350 words per minute with these same techniques, while improving comprehension. This means that many students in high school and college are able to complete reading assignments.
All good readers in middle school, high school and college are able to become excellent readers. This includes all gifted and talented students in elementary and middle school. Good readers can easily boost their reading speed to 500 words per minute and above with excellent comprehension.
Students at all levels are able to eliminate reading anxiety, reading frustration, and reading avoidance. Reading enjoyment greatly increases.
Many students facing a wide range of mental challenges also benefit.
As you read your assigned reading with the PR approach, you develop transferable skills for reading regular text without voice assistance. The PR software paces you to continually improve.
Any serious article, chapter or book will benefit by reformatting the text. Please note no words are altered or changed, just the formatting and pagination.
Many other groups benefit by having the text broken down into phrases, which can be presented on the screen either left justified or center justified.
These groups include all elementary grade students learning decoding, automaticity, and fluency. These students have the ability to try and read each phrase before they hear it read out loud, or simply to echo what they just hear and see. With either approach, students are optionally able to go through any phrase just one word at a time, repeating each word as often as desired. Once a sentence has been read through by phrases, one phrase at a time, the student can reread the entire sentence smoothly, using everything that he or she has just learned.
Special Ed Students. In addition to all regular elementary students, this approach is ideal for severe Dyslexics, severe ADHD students, students with Autism, and low level ESL students.
The PR software allows students to progress through different levels of accomplishment. Each student begins with just the right approach for where he or she is at and progresses forward.
Readers with Macular Degeneration, Retinitis Pigmentosa, or wandering eye movement additionally find that center justifying text formatted by phrase, which is an option, greatly enhances their ability to read with comprehension and enjoyment. Almost no eye movement is required, and there is optional computer-voice assistance at adjustable speed.
5. What Are the Major Ways Our Software Formats Text?
By Word (center justified)
By Phrase (left justified or center justified).
By Punctuation Interval.
By Sentence.
By Paragraph.
By Book.
6. How Does Our Software Work?
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a.Software Parts
Our PR software is actually a collection of several separate programs called applets. You select the applet that formats the text the way you wish.
PR Level 1 (PR1) means text is formatted by word (one word per line), center justified, single spaced, with a blank line between sentences. Paragraph changes are introduced by two single hyphens, center justified, on a line.
PR Level 2 formats text by phrase. Justification can be either left justified (PR2), or center justified (PR2C). There is a blank line between sentences and paragraphs. The first word of each new paragraph is indented if left justified. If the phrases are center justified, paragraph changes are introduced by two single hyphens, center justified, on a line.
PR Level 3 (PR3) formats text by punctuation interval. There is a blank line between sentences and paragraphs. The first word of each new paragraph is indented.
PR Level 4 (PR4 or PR4S) formats text by sentence. Sentences are either separated by blank lines (PR4S), or they have a hard return at the end if they are within a paragraph (PR4).
PR Level 5 (PR5) formats text by paragraph. There is adjustable pausing after commas, semicolons and sentences.
PR Level 6 (PR6) formats text by book (adding automatic pausing between paragraphs to paragraph formatting).
All of our programs are in a folder called PR software.
Each of our programs is called an applet. When you double-click on the applet a series of commands are sent to a special word processor which executes these commands, copies the result to the clipboard, and then closes down the working window.
The prepared text is then sent to the Text Edit application where it is titled with the name you wish, and shaded as you wish, and saved as an HTML document, at the location you order. Note: at this point you also save specially prepared, center-justified text as center justified.
b. Basic Process
1. Select and copy the e-text you wish to format. This can either be a whole book, a chapter of a book, or an Internet article, an E-mail, or something you have written.
2. Make sure that the TextEdit application and the TextWrangler application are both open. Neither one needs to be active. No window from either application needs to be open or frontmost. You can check this easily by just looking in the dock to see if these two applications are both open.
3. Select and copy what you want to format. Then paste this text into a new TextWrangler file and save it with the title: “New Text.txt” make sure you save it this exact way (without quotes) and save it to the desktop. After you press save, you will be asked if you want to replace the existing file. Say, yes.
4. Click once on the applet corresponding to the way you wish the text to be formatted to select it. Once it is selected, double click on the selected applet to run it .
5. After about 5-10 seconds you will see the formatted document as a file in TextEdit ready for you to size, center justify (optional), shade, title and save as .html, and at the location you order. This process is explained in depth in the next section, Section 7.
Note: this same basic process is used over and over again. After you do it four or five times it will become second nature, and you will never forget the process for the rest of your life.
6. After you save the TextEdit file as a .html document, close the TextEdit window. Open up the document as a .html file from the desktop, or documents, or Dropbox, and read it with your Safaris browser with VoiceOver.
7. Sizing, Centering (optional), Shading, and Saving Articles in Text Edit (Three Approaches)
a. Size the text. After the applet runs there will be a blank window. Press Command and V to paste in what is stored in the clipboard. Then select all this text by pressing Command and A. Now size the text by choosing 24 in the font size window of the TextEdit window.
b. Center justify the text if you are formatting PR1 or PR2C. Do this by picking the center justify option in the TextEdit window with the text still selected.
c. Getting the right foreground color and background color for your specific needs is important to keep you from getting hypnotized and from falling asleep as you read with VoiceOver. Pick the approach which is right for you.
To shade just the background color of your document you want to press Command-T and a formatting window will appear titled “Fonts”. You want to click on the fourth square from the left, at the top of this window. This is the window for formatting the color of the background. When you click on this window a color panel will show. If the color shown is not already the greyscale, click on the center of the color wheel to get white. Move the slider on the right side to adjust the white from white to black. You want to select a gray scale shade of 75%. Next move this color down to one of the small white squares at the bottom of the color wheel to save this shade for instant use (by just clicking on it). Repeat these steps for the total black color.
Note: This page of text is formatted with black letters and gray background.
Note: you can pick and make a different shade setting to fit your exact preference if you wish.
Reversing both text and background colors of a specific document: Many people find that even the gray background provides much too much brightness. These people benefit by having the background color black and the letters grey. If you just use the preference option for inverting colors, the black letters will come out bright white. This in turn often provides too much contrast with the black background. Also, inverting colors as a preference in VoiceOver inverts colors for everything on your computer, until you change it back.
Creating black background and grey letters is easy to do. When you are ready to save your document in TextEdit Press Command+T to bring up the Fonts window. Now select all the text in the document. Next, go to the third box from the left at the top (often green). This is the box to change the color of the selected text. Click on the small grey square you have placed at the bottom of the color wheel and the color of all the text will turn grey. Now turn the background to black. Do this just as before, but click on the small black color you have put on the bottom of the color wheel.
To just invert colors as a VoiceOver preference, you do not have to make any individual color adjustments to the text color or background color. Just go to the VoiceOver Preferences and chose invert colors. Note: As stated earlier, doing this often provides too much contrast with the black background and the bright white text letters. Also, inverting colors as a preference in VoiceOver inverts colors for everything on your computer, until you change it back.
d. To Title the document, press Command-S and enter a title. The title should always contain how you formatted the text (PR1- PR6),
Next, choose a place to store the document by choosing the place in the normal spot just below the title area. I suggest choosing Dropbox or Desktop.
Now, and most important, go to the file format window and choose the third item which is called “Web Page (.html)”. This option is easy to remember as it is the only one with .html in the name. Also make sure the “hide extension” box is not checked. Your title and saved article should end in .html. This will make it easy to identify.
Now Click on the Save button.
You can close the TextEdit window as it is no longer used. There is no reason to save it. What you want to save and read is the .html document you just created.
e. To change the settings in a document, select all the contents and then paste them into a new TextEdit document and proceed with the saving steps all over again, making the changes you want.
8. What Free Application Do You Need to Download?
a. You need to download the free application called “Text Wrangler” From Bare Bones Software. Go to http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/download.html.
This is something you do just once.
b. The next thing you need to do is to create a file in Text Wrangler and save it with a specific name. To do this open a new file, hit the space bar once to put something on it, and then save it on the desktop with the following title: New Text.txt
Be sure to type the title exactly as written above, with the same spaces and capitals. Be sure to save this file on your desktop and do not remove it. This file is used over and over again to work on text. Each time the text is cleared before reuse.
If you accidentally trash this file you can recover it from the trash, or recreate it again.
Our software will not work if you do not have this file on your desktop.
9. How Do You Prepare Text For Our Software?
a. You clean up the text, removing all the junk adds and links. See section 10 for how to do this.
b. If you are preparing an Internet article to format with PR software, see Section 11 for additional details.
c. If you are trying to format a Gutenberg free text, you need to do four things which are explained in Section 12.
d. If the text you are wishing to format is a book protected by DRM, then you remove the DRM as explained in Section 13.
e. Then you convert the Moby format (or another format) of the book to text format, as described in Section 14.
10. How Do You Clean Up Text To Remove Ads And Other Junk?
Here are the two main approaches to use:
a. Open an Internet article in Safaris. Then click on the Reader icon (just to the left of the URL box) to show the article all cleaned up in Reader. Then select all and copy. Now you are ready for our software.
b. Save an article to Pocket, either by clicking on the Pocket icon (as on Zite or Flipboard) or e-mail the link to Pocket. Now go to Pocket and open the article and then select all and copy. Now you are ready for our software.
Note: in either case you do not have to select everything if you want to cut out some or all of the self-serving credits at the bottom of the article.
11. How Do You Format an Internet Article?
a. Remove the junk, as explained in Section 10.
b. Select all the text by pressing Command A.
c, Copy the selection to the Clipboard by pressing Command C.
d. Double click on the PR Applet of your choice.
e. In about 10 seconds or less, title the text, shade it, and save it, etc., as described in Section 7.
12. How Do You Format A Free Book From the Gutenberg Press?
If you are trying to format a Gutenberg free text you need to do five things:
a. The first thing you have to do is look it up on the Internet and downloaded it in text format. All Gutenberg options are available to download in text format. Files for downloading in text format have the ending .txt.
b. The next thing you have to do is to select and copy the entire text and paste it into Text Wrangler.
c. After doing this, you want to remove the legal copy at the beginning of the book, and at the end of the book. A series of stars ends the initial section of legal text at the beginning of the book, and also begins the final section of legal text at the end of the book. Just select and cut out these sections of legalize.
d. The next thing you need to do is to check to see if your particular Gutenberg text has hard returns at the end of each line. If so, you need to remove these hard returns.
You can easily tell if your text has hard returns (paragraph breaks) at the end of each line, which must be removed. To determine the answer to this question, simply move the boundaries of the window in. If the text does not wrap around smoothly and re-format in the narrower space, but instead, does not change at all, or shows a large number of new hard returns, then you know you have a problem.
Another way to do this is to copy the first few paragraphs of text onto the clipboard and paste them into Pages then pull down the View menu to “Show Invisibles”. If you see a paragraph sign at the end of each line, you know you have a problem.
If you do have a problem, you can fix it easily. Add a blank line to each item in the table of contents, if there is not one already there. This will keep the table of contents from running together. Then pull down the Text menu in Text Wrangler to “Remove Line Breaks” to select this item. This is about 11 lines down. Release your finger and your line returns will disappear. Now select and copy your text and it is ready for our software.
e. If you have a long text, the last thing you need to do is to break up long text into sections no longer than about 50 pages (anywhere from 45-60). Otherwise, there is just too much text for VoiceOver to keep track of for fast operation. Copy and paste all the text from the TextWrangler document into a new Pages document and draw down the view menu to “Show Page Thumbnails” if they are not already showing. This will give you the number of total pages, and let you easily go to any particular page. Once you know the total number of pages, you can divide by 50 to get an approximate number of sections to make.
At the top of the Page Thumbnails column is an enlargement window, which is usually set at 125%. Change this setting to 100% so you see all of each page when you click on a thumbnail.
Next, note how the text is divided. Is it by consecutively numbered chapters, regardless of Book Parts, or does each Book Part start with new chapter numbering? If the former, you can just use chapter numbers. If the latter, you need to include the part number and chapter number like this, for example: “XYZ P1 Ch02-15 PRL2”, where XYZ is the book name and P stands for Book Part # and Ch02-15 stands for Chapters 02-15 within that Part of the Book. The last part “PRL2” indicates that the you have formatted that part of the book by Punctuation Intervals. Note: always use a 0 before numbers 1-9 or they may not line up in order.
It is very easy to break up any book into sections. Start at the top and go down about 50 pages and look for a chapter number, using the Page Thumbnails. Then move the cursor just above this chapter number. Press down the shift and home keys and everything above the beginning of the next chapter, up to the top will be selected. Now press command and X to cut this text, and in so doing place this text on the clipboard. Now double click on the Applet of your choice and this section of text will be formatted just the way you want. Just title this section of text appropriately as described in the paragraph above. Always try to select to the end of a chapter, if possible.
Note: Never mix up two different parts of a book, even if a book part only has a few chapters. Also note that in some books, the parts of the book are called Book I, Book II, etc. instead of Part One, Part Two.
Now repeat this process with the next section of text, and so on to the end of the book. You will note that you automatically start on page one of the remaining text. Just go down about 50 pages and repeat the process. Many chapters in text books are about 40 pages, so a chapter at a time is often a good rule of thumb for textbooks. Selecting a chapter at a time also makes reading textbooks easy.
Note: It is often very helpful to write down how many chapters are in each book part before beginning the division process. This will help you always know what section you are in as you move through the Page Thumbnails.
All the different files should be put in one folder labeled with the book title. The whole folder can then be put in Dropbox.
13. How Do You Remove DRM From E-Book Purchase on Amazon or Elsewhere
In order to work with purchased e-books that contain DRM, you will need to purchase a DRM Removal program. We suggest getting it from Epubor on the Internet. It costs about $50.00 for the version with unlimited updates, which is what you want.
You will also need to download the free program called Calibre which lets you change formats of documents.
The goal is to first clean off the DRM from the text, and then to convert the format to .txt format.
Here are the directions to follow, assuming you have downloaded the two programs listed above.
1. Download an eBook from Amazon. Note: In order to do this, you will first need to install Kindle for Mac on your Mac laptop or desktop, and then register this app with Amazon. Note: When you first set up your Kindle for Mac, you need to create a file called “My Kindle Content” and put it in your documents folder. Then open Kindle for Mac and go to Preferences and make sure the pathway to “My Kindle Content” has been selected. After you buy a book on Amazon search your orders, then your Kindle Orders, or search for Kindle e-Books. Then pick “Manage your Content and Devices” (formally called Manage your Kindle). This option is often listed at the far right at the top of the page. The books you have purchased will show up. Click on the book you just purchased to select it, and then click on actions and the Kindle device on your laptop or computer you want the book delivered to. Then click on deliver. Note: You must be sure to deliver your books to your Mac Kindle, or they will stay in the Kindle cloud. Alternatively, you can go to your account (just below your name), and then pick “Manage your Content and Devices” (formally called Manage your Kindle) from your account submenu.
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2.Open up Kindle for Mac on your laptop or desktop and refresh the contents, so all book(s) just bought will appear. To do this click on the refresh button next to the word library in the left column. You should see the book you just purchased in the list of books on your Kindle device. However, the book you just purchased will not be actually downloaded to your Mac until you click on its icon and open it. After doing this you will see a date appear up at the top right; now you know that it has been downloaded and put in your file called My Kindle Content in your documents.
Now you know the book you just purchased is on your computer.
3. Go to where the kindle Library is located on your Mac. This may be found often by going to you user name, then documents, then My Kindle Content.
4. Open up the DRM removal program. In the middle of the screen you will see the words “Setup”. Click on this and make sure the folder for getting the Kindle books is the same as listed in 3. above. Choose to send the output to the same location, or another place if you prefer. You only have to set this up once. Click on the book file (from My Kindle Content) and press remove DRM.
A clean copy will be added back to the My Kindle Content with the tag .nodrm.
5. Open up Calibre and click on “add books” and add the above clean file. Then select convert books. Choose to convert to .txt from the list of options on the far right. Calibre will convert the text to .txt format. Calibre will add this document to its library, which is located in the first level after you select your user name, You will see it located above Desktop.
Now your file is ready to work with like any regular file.
14. How Do You Change Text Formats?
To change text format from Mobi to text (.txt) you want to use a free program called Calibre.
Look up Calibre on the Internet and download this free program.
Then follow the directions to change text from one format to another (.txt).
Specifically, open up Calibre and click on “add books” and add a clean file (no DRM). Then select convert books. Choose to convert to .txt from the list of options on the far right. Calibre will convert the text to .txt format. Calibre will add this document to its library, which is located in the first level after you select your user name, You will see it located above Desktop.
15. How to Use Dropbox to Share Your Reformatted Books and Articles
Once you have formatted text it should be saved as an .html file. If you just want to read it on your computer, than just save it on your desktop.
On the other hand, if you want to send it to your iPhone, iPad, etc, (or to students) then save it on Dropbox.
Note: Dropbox for iOS7 will allow you to easily pick up where you left off, or scroll to where you left off reading and then, in either case, turn VoiceOver on at this point.
Note: if you are reading an HTML article on your computer with VoiceOver, you need to be using the Safari browser. If doing so, you can turn VoiceOver on, and then use the control-option-F key command to search for any place in the article and go there immediately and start reading with VoiceOver. IOS systems do not yet have this power.
16. What Are the System Requirements For Our Software?
a. Mac OS 10.9 or above (Mavaricks).
Please note, at the current time our formatting software works only on Mac laptops and desktops. The output (files) of our software can then be read on any computer or iOS device, via Dropbox.
One teacher or staff member, for example, could format texts sent to her from all the other teachers in a school, and then send each newly formatted text file back to the initiating teacher, who would then share this file with all her students through a shared folder on Dropbox. Alternatively, each teacher could do her own formatting.
b. You also must let us know your User Name and the name of your Hard Drive (which is normally called “Macintosh HD”).
c. Our software is a license for one user on one computer.
d. You also need to download the free application called TextWrangler and save a file to your desktop with a specific name. See section 8.
5. In addition, you will need to use TextEdit and Pages. These two programs are free with Mavaricks and come already loaded on new Mac Laptops and Desktops.
17. What Does Our Software Cost?
$100.00.
This is a license for one user on one computer. One person with our software can easily prepare material for a number of teachers or professors in a school or college.
Our software is designed to work on a Mac desktop or Mac laptop. From there the output can be sent via Dropbox and read on any iOS device, Mac desktop, Mac laptop, or PC.
We also offer one-to-one training if desired. We offer to train individual readers, or teachers and staff at schools and colleges.
We can also format your books for you, as a service, if you wish. Call us about this at 978-927-9234. This may be ideal for all K-12 classrooms in the world.
18. How to Download Our Software
Our software comes as one or more attachments in an e-mail sent to you, anywhere in the world. When you open up the e-mail, you will see the attachment. Press control and click on the attachment icon; then a small window will appear giving you the choice to save the attachment. Choose this option and save the attachment to your desktop. Then make an alias in your dock.
19. What are the Basic Ways to Read with this Software?
A. How much text to read at a time
B. Use voice assistance or not
C. Choose how to read with voice assistance
D. Choose how you want to add new text to the screen
E. Choose whether you want to proceed manually or automatically
The PR (Proportional Reading) approach is for all readers of all ages and all levels. Every student in every K-12 school and college can be helped by this approach. There are a number of progressive levels. As you get better, you move up to the next level. Each person starts on the level that is right for them and then moves up.
A. Choose How Much Text to Read at a Time
First, you can read by phrase, punctuation interval, or sentence. You can also instantly read any selection word by word.
B. Choice Whether or Not to Use Voice Assistance (Variable Speed, Computer-Voice)
Second, you can read with or without the interactive voice assistance (called VoiceOver by Apple). We recommend you use voice assistance.
Reading the formatted text by itself, without VoiceOver, will be very helpful just by itself. This can be done on any computer in the world: Mac, iOS, or PC. However, using interactive computer-voice with text is a much better learning and reading tool.
Our computer-voice and text program is for all iOS devices, Mac laptops, and Mac desktops. With our interactive computer-voice and text approach you can pause for as long as you want after a section of text is read out loud. You can repeat the sound of any section of text as often as you want. You can also adjust the basic reading speed from very low, to normal speaking speed, to very high (550 words per minute). Increasing the sound of the speed acts as a pacer to teach you faster reading, especially if you are reading the text silently just ahead of the sound.
Note: We strongly recommend that you navigate VoiceOver using keyboard strokes, rather than flick the screen or use a mouse. This means you need to use a keyboard.
C. Choose One of Six Interactive, Computer-Voice and Text Approaches:
If you are using interactive voice assistance, there are six basic ways to read, which are easy to switch between:
1) Read Out Loud Before Hearing. You can try to read out loud a section of text before you press a key to hear it read out loud. This is ideal for elementary students or beginning ESL students, or adult beginners. To read this way, turn the page (move to the next screen) when you get to the bottom of a screen, and read down from the top. Repeat each section of text out loud as often as desired before continuing.
2) Read Silently with the Voice. You can read the text silently with the sound. This technique is for poor and struggling readers, remedial readers, and advanced beginners. Keep the pace of the voice at normal speaking speed. Repeat each section of text out loud as often as desired before continuing.
3) Read Ahead of Voice (For All Average and Good Readers). You read the selected text silently, just ahead of the sound, pausing at the commas for the sound to catch up; then continue on to the next punctuation mark and pause again, and so on until you get to the end of the sentence. This approach is best for average and good students in middle school, high school, college, graduate school and for average and good adult readers who want to advance. Set the pace of the voice anywhere from normal speaking speed (150-180 words per minute) up to 550 words per minute. Students can very quickly learn how to read at 350 words per minute. The speed of the sound acts as an adjustable pacer. Repeat each section of text out loud as often as desired before continuing.
4) Echo Mode. Special Approach for Severely Challenged Readers. There is a special fourth approach for Autistic students and other severely challenged readers. Here the student listens to a phrase at a time read out loud to give the student a “clue”, and then the student repeats what he or she has heard as they look at each word in turn. Alternatively, the student can read through the phrase a word at a time, hearing each word pronounced as he or she clicks on it. To read this way, turn the page (move to the next screen) when you get to the bottom of a screen, and read down from the top. Repeat each section of text out loud as often as desired before continuing.
5) Read by Centered-Justified Phrases. This is ideal for individuals with Macular Degeneration or wandering eye condition, and many other forms of low vision.
6) Combination Approach. If you are using a keyboard, you can combine using voice and not using voice. Turn voice assistance on (called VoiceOver by Apple), but turn the volume off. This enables you to press a single keystroke to turn the page, without having to touch the screen. Otherwise, this approach is just like reading silently. This enables you to read screen after screen of text silently, as fast as you want.
Note: If you are using a laptop or desktop computer, we strongly urge you to use a wired keyboard. This way you can have a separate “page down” key, rather than having to press “Fn" and down arrow on a laptop built-in keyboard, or option and down arrow on a Bluetooth keyboard. Furthermore, you can have the screen at one height and distance, and the keyboard at another height and distance. This is especially helpful for laptops.
D. Choose How You Want to Add New Text to the Screen
You can have the text advance from the bottom of the page, or you can “turn the page” (bring up the next screen) and read down from the top of the screen. You can vary this choice as you read and as often as you wish.
We strongly recommend you manually turn the page and read from the top down on everything except the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is the best way to prevent falling asleep, from the text constantly jumping onto the screen from the bottom.
When using an iPhone or iPod Touch in horizontal mode (for larger presentation than portrait mode), only one full sentence will often be all that fits on the screen. If you are just reading a phrase at a time in portrait mode then you could use page down to advantage. Use whichever mode is best for what you are reading.
When you get to the bottom of a page, press the “page down” key, if you have a wired keyboard. Alternatively, press the “fn” key and down arrow if you are the built in keyboard on a laptop, or press “option” and down arrow on a Bluetooth keyboard.
Note: Reading from the top down is mandatory for elementary students and beginning ESL students who need to read out loud a section of text before they hear it read out loud.
E. Choose Whether You Want to Proceed Manually or Automatically
So far we have been talking about proceeding manually through the text. Reading manually is best when you are beginning, or when reading difficult text like philosophy or law. Alternatively, you can proceed automatically through the text, pausing whenever you want. This approach is ideal for reading novels, or reading chapters of textbooks the second time through the text, or other review. Automatic mode is ideal for all light reading. You can instantly switch between the two modes as you read.
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Immediate Help for Falling Asleep, Reading Anxiety, Poor Comprehension, Poor Memory, Slow Speed, Dyslexia, ADHD, Low Vision, ESL, Autism, Brain Trauma, Dementia, and Other Challenges