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User manual Web2Speech

Instructions

A small introduction video.

Welcome to the Web2Speech tutorial to learn how the web reader works. In this tutorial, you will learn about the many features of Web2Speech including reading aloud, translating, looking up words, making sound recordings, as well as highlighting and summarizing text. You will also learn how to adjust the settings.

1. Starting up

Start Web2Speech by clicking on the W2S icon in the top right corner of the Chrome menu bar. Log in with the login details of your Alinea or Kurzweil 3000 (read aloud) software.

Logging in with your own Google, Microsoft or Smartschool account is possible thanks to the Single Sign-on function. You can link your login to your account at https://lic.sensotec.be. Log in the first time with your username and password from your license. Then click at the bottom of your profile on one of the SSO links with which you want to log in from now on:

If you are already logged in on that server (e.g. your Google account) then the link is immediately made. If that is not the case, you will first be asked to enter your username and password. The icon will then get a brighter color.

Now you can log in to the web app with the Google, Microsoft or Smartschool login, depending on which SSO link you have made.

2. Setting up

Moving the toolbar: the position button:
The Web2Speech toolbar is very easy to move around the screen by using the position button on the left of the bar. Click the toolbar and drag it to the desired location.

Adjusting the color of the toolbar: the contrast button:
By default, the buttons have a dark background color. However, when reading or working with a dark background, the color of the toolbar can be adjusted by clicking on the contrast button. This allows you to change the toolbar color from dark to light.

Changing the settings: the settings button:
You can set your preferences using the Settings button:

The General tab: has more features, enabling you to fine-tune your preferences:

  1. Choose the desired audio format for creating a sound file: MP3 or WAV.

 

The Speech tab: shows the playback settings:

  1. By default, the language of your browser is set as the reading language. There are 10 languages to choose from.
  2. Both female and male voices are available for each language.
  3. The read speed can be adjusted from very slow to very fast.

 

The Navigation tab: select your preferences forreading functions:

  1. Set the read unit: Read by sentence or word.
  2. Set the read mode: Either continuous or interrupted reading (reading pauses after each reading unit).
  3. Choose your preferred highlighting color for the word and read unit. By default, the highlight color is yellow for sentences and green for the highlighted word. An example of the chosen colors will be instantly displayed.
The Layout tab: Customize the toolbar to suit your preferences. For example , You can make the toolbar either large or small. You can also chose between the complete toolbar and the compact one. The user interface can be displayed in 4 different languages.

Adjusting the color of the toolbar: the contrast button:
By default, the buttons have a light background color. However, when reading or working with a light background, the color of the toolbar can be adjusted by clicking on the contrast button. This allows you to change the toolbar color from light to dark.

3. Functions

Tools: Create audio files and have screenshots read out to you

    1. Creating an audio file: By using the MP3 button, you can create an audio file of the selected text using the pre-set reading language and reading speed. The audio file will be saved in the Downloads folder in either MP3 or WAV format (depending on the settings selected using the Settings button, General tab).
    2. Screenshot reader: With the screenshot reader, you can easily recognise and read out text in a self-drawn frame. You can also indicate text on an image so that it can be read out loud.

Speech recognition (only in Chrome): You can now dictate texts. Both in search fields and forms you can dictate texts via the microphone in 10 different languages. On any website with a field where you can place your cursor, you can dictate texts instead of typing.

Highlighting and summarizing: You can now also highlight and summarize with Web2Speech. There are 5 color options. Select a color and double-click to highlight 1 word, or drag the mouse over the text to highlight multiple words. You can also erase the highlighting in the same way. To create a summary of the highlighted text, click the summary button.

    1. A new tab will open, displaying your summary. You can sort the highlighted text by the sequence in which they were selected, or they can be grouped together by color. The URL of the website where the summary was sourced from will appear at the bottom of the text block.
    2. Now, several options will appear:
      1. You can save the summary, with or without the highlighted colors. To do this, click on the save button at the bottom right.
      2. You can add additional items to this summary by browsing the same page or a new web page and clicking the summary button again after highlighting the text. The summary of the additional text will then be added at the bottom of the current summary
      3. You can also add a previously saved summary to the current summary. Click on the insert button at the top right to select an existing summary. This will then be added above the current summary.
      4. You can have the summary read out loud by clicking on the Play button.
      5. You can copy the summary to your clipboard by clicking the copy. For example, you then can  use this to paste the summary into a Word document.
      6. You can delete the summary by clicking on the garbage can.

 

Read aloud: The orange read aloud button is located in the middle of the toolbar. Click this button to have the text read out. During reading aloud, this button changes to a pause button. Click the pause button to pause reading aloud.

Text selection: Use the selection button to choose how you want the text to be read. 5 selection functions now enable you to read any text on a page.

      1. At each selectionsetting: Hover over a link and it is read aloud, often the tool tip is also read aloud.
      2. By default, click in the text and click the Play button. The reading starts from the cursor.
      3. If you click on the rose with arrow, the reading starts automatically where you click.
      4. You can use the hand button to read the text under the mouse pointer. This is ideal for reading out hyperlinks, buttons or frames.
      5. If you select the A button, you can have a selection of text on the web page read out loud.
      6. If you select the frame, you can indicate an area where the text should be read out loud. Ideal for reading tables or glossaries.

Lookup: You can look up words by clicking on the dictionary button. When selecting a word, it is automatically entered in the search field, but words can also be typed in. The result will be displayed after pressing enter, or clicking on the magnifying glass.

      1. The available dictionaries are displayed on the right.
      2. The text or translation can be read aloud by using the read aloud button at the bottom right.
      3. At the bottom of the window you can also see whether the searched up word has a homophone, that is, when two or more words have the same pronunciation but different meanings or spelling, depending on the context.

You can search for an image by using the Image Dictionary tab.
When looking for a verb, you can consult all conjugations in the next tab.

 

Translation: The translation button lets you translate your selected text with Google Translate into the desired language. The source language is the playback reading language, the preferred language is the display language that has been selected. These default settings can be temporarily adjusted inside the Google Translate window.

We believe that you are now familiar with all of the new features of Web2Speech.

View the technical release notes of Web2Speech here.

We wish you lots of reading (out loud) and learning pleasure!

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