Acorn User 10/AU_CD10.iso/Archived/Internet/Demos/Pluto/demo2/Docs_!Speak

Text File | 1997-04-18 | 14.1 KB | 413 lines

!SPEAK
======

The !Speak text reader is an application which uses the Speak module.
It is a simple scrolling text editor which provides speech facilities.

Text within the editor can be spoken, either continuously, or step
by step, a word or a sentence at a time.  Individual words can
also be spoken by clicking on them with the mouse.  A variety of
talk-as-you-type options are provided which speak letters,
words, or sentences as text is typed from the keyboard.

Although it provides simple editing facilities, the text reader is
NOT intended as a full word processor.

You are advised to save any text which you edit regularly, in case of
failures.

To run the text reader, double click the !Speak application to
install it on the iconbar.  Drag a text file onto the icon
to load it into the text reader.


Control of Text Reading.
=======================

The Play button starts speaking the text from the cursor position.
The cursor moves from word to word as they are spoken.

The Stop button stops the speaking.

Clicking the Pause button temporarily halts the speaking, and
the Pause button is highlighted, to indicate that Pause is on.
Clicking again on the Pause button will resume the speaking
from the paused position.  Note that the speaking will resume
from the start of the clause.

The ESC key can also be used to toggle the pause button on and
off.

Note that the iconbar menu also has options for Play and Pause.
These can be used to control the speaking even when the
TextReader window is not open.

While the cursor is following the words which are being spoken,
the Caret icon is highlighted.  If you move the cursor yourself, by
clicking with the mouse,  or using the arrow keys, the cursor will
no longer follow the speech, but will stay where you put it, so
you can edit the text while it is still speaking.  When this
happens, the Caret icon will no longer be highlighted.

You can return the cursor to follow the speech by clicking on the
Caret icon to highlight it again.

F1 also returns the cursor to follow the speech.


Function Keys for Speaking Control
==================================

You can use function keys to speak the text step by step.

F6      speak word at cursor.
F7      speak clause at cursor.
Shift-F7  speak paragraph at cursor.
F8      speak text from cursor onwards.

F9   position cursor to the start of the last unit to be spoken
(word, clause, paragraph, depending on whether F6, F7, or
Shift-F7 was used).

If you want to speak the text a word at a time, for example, just
press F6 repeatedly.  If you want to repeat a word, press F9 then
F6 again.

To speak the text a clause at a time, press F7 repeatedly.  To
repeat a clause, press F9 to move the cursor back to its start, then
F7 to speak it again.

Shift-F7,  SPEAK PARAGRAPH, is useful to hear a paragraph
that you have just written.


Editing
=======

The TextReader provides simple text editing functions.  These
are intended to allow text to be edited, to correct mistakes and
omissions while proof-reading.  It is not intended to be a full
word-processor.

Cursor Movement
===============
The standard cursor movement keys are provided:

Right.     Move one character to the right.
Left.      Move one character to the left.
Up.        Move up one line.
Down.      Move down one line.

Shift-Right.   Move to start of next word.
Shift-Left.    Move to start of word, or if already there, then to
                start of previous word.
(Note that if the "Speak on Click" option is on, then Shift-Right and
 Shift-Left will cause each word to be spoken in sequence as the
 cursor is moved forwards or backwards through the text).

Shift-Up.      Move up one screenfull.
Shift-Down.    Move down one screenfull.

Ctrl-Right.    Move to end of line.
Ctrl-Left.     Move to start of line.
Ctrl-Up.       Move to start of whole text.
Ctrl-Down.     Move to end of whole text.

Home.          Move to start of whole text (same as Ctrl-Up).
Page Up.       Move up one screenfull (same as Shift-Up).
Page Down.     Move down one screenfull (same as Shift-Down).


Simple Editing.
==============
Backspace.    Delete character to the left of the cursor.
Delete.       Delete character to the left of the cursor
                (same as Backspace).
Copy.         Delete character to the right of the cursor.
CTRL-U.       Delete the whole line which contains the cursor.


Marked Sections.
===============
A section of text can be marked by either dragging the cursor, or clicking on its start with Select and its end with Adjust.
The selected text is highlighted with a black background.  The end
may be moved by clicking with Adjust again.

The whole of the text in the TextReader can be selected by CTRL-
A.

The following operations are available on the selected text.  They
are similar to the operations provided by the !Edit application.

CTRL-C.  Copy the marked block to the cursor position
          (leaving the marked block in place).
CTRL-V.  Move the marked block to the cursor position
          (and delete it from its original place).
CTRL-X.  Delete the marked block.
CTRL-Z.  Un-select the block.

The marked block can be saved as a file, or exported as text to
another application by using the Save operation (function key
F3, or click on the “floppy-disc” button).  If a block of text is
marked, the Save dialogue box will allow an option to save only
the marked block.


Goto and Find
==============

F4      Find text string.  This can search forwards or backwards
through the text for a specified text string.  The search can be
either case sensitive, or not.

F5      Goto line number.  This shows the current line and word
position of the cursor, and the total number of lines and words in
the text.  You can specify a line number for the cursor to be set to.
The text will then scroll to show this specified line.


Import and Export of Text
=========================

The TextReader only recognises plain text.  It does not recognise
formatting and highlighting effects of various word processors
(eg. paragraph styles, bold, different fonts etc.).

If you want to proof-read text which has already been produced
with such effects in a word processor, you can load a copy as plain
text into the TextReader, start it speaking, but make corrections
directly into the text in the word processor (i.e. have the word
processor window open while the text is being spoken).  You can,
if you wish close the TextReader window while it is speaking.
It will continue to speak.  Pause can be operated from the iconbar
menu.

To load a text file into the TextReader, drag its file icon onto the
!Speak (lips) icon on the iconbar.  Similarly, text from another
application can be loaded into the TextReader, by dragging the
file icon from a save box onto the !Speak iconbar icon.

If the text is dragged into the open TextReader window, it is
inserted at the cursor position.

Text is saved from the TextReader either to a file, or into another
application by clicking on the “floppy disc” button, or pressing
the F3 (Save) key.  If there is a marked block of text in the
TextReader, the “Selection” option can be selected to save just this
marked block.


SPEECH OPTIONS
==============

Click on the “lips” button on the button bar to open the “Speech
Options” dialogue box.


Speak as you Type
=================
There are five “Speak as you Type” options which can be
selected.

Letters.    Speaks the name of each letter as it is typed.

Sounds.     Speaks the “sound” of each letter as it is typed.

Partwords.  As each letter is typed, the whole of the word so far
is spoken.  For example, as the word “rope” is typed letter by
letter, the following will be spoken:
            “re”, “ro”, “rop”, “rope”.

Words.      Each word is spoken when it is completed.

Sentences.  Each sentence is spoken when it is completed.

Note that only one of “Letters”, “Sounds”, and “Partwords” may
be selected at any time, although you can select for example, both
“sounds” and “words”.


Speed.
=====

Five preset speeds are available for the speech.

1.   The slowest.  Each word is spoken slowly and separately,
     with a gap between each word.

2.   Not quite as slow as (1), and with shorter gaps between the
     words.

3.   As Normal (4), but ensures that there is always a slight gap
     between each word.  This prevents words from being run together,
     and may be clearer in some circumstances, although it will sound
     less natural.

4.   Normal Speed.  This is the speed recommended for normal use.

5.   Faster.  This speaks a little faster than Normal (4).  It may be
     useful for reading passages of text, once you are used to it.


Text Reading Options
====================

Speak on Click.  If this option is set, a word will be spoken
     whenever the cursor is clicked on it.

Punctuation.  When this option is set, the names of punctuation
     characters will be spoken while the text is being read.

     It also causes punctuation characters to be spoken as they are
     entered from the keyboard if either the "Speak words" or "Speak
     letters" options are set.

Announce capitals.  When this option is set, capital letters in the
     text being read are indicated as follows:
         Single Beep:     Word starts with a single capital.
         Double Beep:     Word is all capitals.
         Double Low Beep: Word is mixed upper and lower case.

     If this option is on together with "Speak Letters" then capital
     letters entered from the keyboard are indicated by a single
     beep.

Voice.  This selects the voice to be used to speak the text.
     Click on this box to display a menu of available voices.

Sentence Pause.  If this option is set, then an extra pause will be
     given between sentences.

Repeat Cycle.  If this option is set, then when speaking comes to
     the end of the text, it will start again from the beginning,
     endlessly repeating the whole text passage.  This may be useful
     in demonstrations.

Annotations.
============

This box allows a single character to be specified, which can then
be used in the text to control various effects.

Obviously, the text should not contain this character, except when
it is being used as a control.

In the examples below, the backquote character is used.

Main Stress.
     The control character may be placed immediately in front of a
     word in the text.  This markes that word as having the main
     stress in the clause.

        eg.  This is `not the answer.
        Will cause "not" to be stressed, rather than "answer".

Intonation Type.
     If the control character is followed by a number (1 to 5) then
     as well as indicating the stressed word, it also specifies an
     intonation pattern.  The number may be preceded by + or - for
     further variation.  This feature is not fully implemented yet.

        eg.  This is `-1not the answer.
             This is `+1not the answer.
             This is `2 the answer.

Select Voice.
     The control character followed by ! and a one or two digit
     number specifies a voice to be used.  This is useful if you
     want to use different voices within a text.  The voice cannot be
     changed part way through a clause, so the effect begins from
     the start of the clause.

        eg.  `!4
        means use voice number 4.


Saving the Options Settings.
============================

The settings of the Speech Options are reset to their default
values whenever the TextReader is installed on the iconbar.  You
can, however, update the default settings from the current values,
by clicking on the “Save Options” item in the iconbar menu.



DISPLAY OPTIONS
===============

Clicking the “eye” button on the button bar brings up the
“Display options” dialogue box.



Text Type and Size
==================

All the text in the TextReader display is the same font type and
size, but this font type and size can be changed.

The Font box shows the name of the font. Clicking on this box
brings up a font menu, from which a new font can be selected.

The Size box shows the size of the font in “points”.  There is no
scaling of the display window, so this size determines directly
the size in which the text will appear on the screen.  In order to
show the text clearly on the screen, make sure that the system
configuration is set so that “Use anti-alias for font sizes up to”
includes the font size which is used here.

The Line Spacing box determines how close together the lines of
text are.  Increase this value to give more widely spaced text, or
decrease it to move them closer together.  The value is given as a
percentage of the text height, with a default value of 144%.


Window Width and Margins
========================
The Page width field determines the width of the text window.
The value is in OS units.  A value of 1240 causes the text window
to just fill the screen in screen modes such as mode 12, mode 20,
and mode 27.

The Margins Left and Right boxes give the width of the left and
right margins within the text window.  The values are in OS
screen units.  Increasing these values increases the amount of
blank space to the left and to the right of the text within the
window.


Saving the Options Settings
===========================
Changes which are made in the Display Options dialogue box
are not permanent.  They will be reset to their default values
whenever the TextReader application is installed on the iconbar.

To make the changes permanent, click on the Save Options item
in the iconbar menu.



BOOKMARKS
=========

‘Bookmarks’ allow you to save your position within a text file that
you are reading.  Up to four bookmarks can be set, each of which
remembers a file name (and path) and the position with that file.

To set a bookmark, click on the Bookmark icon to open the Bookmark
window.  Click on the ‘Set Bookmark’ button and the current file
name will be stored in one of the four spaces above it (if there
is one free).  The number to the right of the file name is the line
number within the file (although this may change if the font type
or size is changed).

To open a file text from a previously stored Bookmark, select an
entry in the Bookmark window, then click on ‘Open at Bookmark’.

The ‘Delete’ button in the Bookmark window will clear the selected
entry.