Using ZoomText Xtra! with shortcut keys

Turning speech output on and off

About speech output

Selecting levels of use and reading options

Turning speech output on or off

About speech output:

ZoomText Xtra! Level 2 has a built-in screen reader, which will speak automatically as you run a Windows program, and tell you what is happening in the program.

There are three types of screen reading:

1. GUI Reading - Reads all parts of the Windows environment: menus, dialog box controls, window titles, and text in message boxes.
2. Caret Reading - Allows the speaking of characters, words, or entire lines of text by moving the caret. The caret controls where typed characters will be inserted into a document.
3. Typing Echo - Allows text to be spoken as it is being typed into a program.

For additional speech output, ZoomText Xtra! also uses DocReader, which reads text from any Windows application. At the same time, it shows the text magnified and on the full screen. Text is captured from the selected program, and is then read automatically. Each word is highlighted as it is spoken. Note that speech output in DocReader is only available in Level 2. For information on using DocReader, please see "Using DocReader to read a document."

Selecting levels of use and reading options:

To use speech output, select Level 2, the screen-reading level. This takes three steps:

1. With the ZoomText Xtra! user interface on and active, press ALT+X to open the Xtra menu.
2. Press the up or down arrows until Level 2 is highlighted.
3. Press ENTER to select Level 2. The Level 2 toolbar will appear.

If the reading option you wish to use is already selected, it will appear on the toolbar as a lighter gray with a checkerboard design. If not, to select the desired option or options:

• Press ALT+SHIFT+G to select GUI Reading. The GUI Reading button is the one in the top row with "OK" on it.
• Press ALT+SHIFT+C to select Caret Reading. Caret Reading is the middle button in the top row, with "abc" on it.
• Press ALT+SHIFT+T to select Typing Echo. The Typing Echo button is the one in the top row with a "T" on it.

Note that, as you press the shortcut keys for the desired options, the appropriate buttons on the toolbar will turn into the lighter gray/checkerboard design which indicates that they are selected.

Turning speech output on or off:

There is one step to enable or disable all speech output:

1. With the level 2 toolbar selected, press ALT+SHIFT+S, the Speech Shortcut key.
   • The Speech button will be turned on, will have the grey checkerboard pattern, and will show an icon of a face with an open mouth and three arcs by the mouth to indicate speech.
   • If the Speech button was already turned on, pressing the above Shortcut keys will disable speech output and the Speech button will be turned off.

Once speech output is enabled, there are three steps to speak text:

1. Press ALT+SHIFT+I, the Speak-It Tool Shortcut key. The cursor changes to the Speak-It Tool - the white cursor arrow with three arcs to its right.
2. Press the up, down, left, or right arrows to position the Speak-It Tool at the beginning of the word or phrase to be read.
3. Press ENTER to have the word spoken.

Contact us at infotechaccess@server.rehab.uiuic.edu

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