What's New
Version 1.3 Released 02 June 2008
- dramatic speed improvements when opening a book—takes 1/6th the time it used to take
- new option to customize the text view by using the button or Font menu
- new option to reset your view changes to default values under the Font menu
- view changes are remembered and restored at next launch
- view changes happen immediately without having to select the text first
- lots of other code improvements
About The Reader
The Reader's main purpose is to make it easy for you to read text formatted books (files with a “txt” file extension). Many books of this type can be found on the internet. The Reader will also speak the text of the books to you if you wish. You can even put The Reader into automatic mode and let it read entire books to you. The Reader is meant to help you easily read text books but can also be used as a tool to help a person learn to read better.
What are the computer requirements?
The Reader is designed for the Macintosh computer platform. This program will work on Macs with system software MacOSX 10.3.9 and higher.
Where can I find books in text format?
There are many places on the internet where free text books can be found. A quick internet search turns up many listings. My personal favorite is at The Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.net.
How can it help me improve my reading?
The reader has many functions which can aid a person in becoming a better reader. If you do not understand a word on the screen you can highlight the word and see the definition of it or find other words that are similar to it. If you are unsure of how to say a word you can have The Reader say the word to you so you can learn to pronounce the word better. You can also read along with the book while it is spoken to you. Start out at by having The Reader speak slower so you can read along with it at a comfortable pace. As you become better at reading you will find that you can speed-up the speed of the spoken text.
How does The Reader work?
Opening and controlling a book
All of the controls needed to operate The Reader are built right into the interface, so you do not need to use the menu items. To open a book, just click on the "New Book" button in The Reader. You can then select the text file of the book to open.
The Reader will search through the text file and make some formatting changes to make the text more readable on The Reader's screen. The Reader will not change the actual text file of the book. The formatting only takes place within The Reader itself. The first page of the text of the book will then appear on the main screen of The Reader. The title of the book will appear at the top of the screen. The title is gleaned from the file name of the book in the Finder, so make sure you use descriptive names for the book's file.
The Reader will display the first page of the book. A page is defined as 1000 characters of text. Use the "Next" and "Back" buttons to go forward and back through the pages of the book. The Reader will always display one page of the book to you at a time.
Using The Reader to read a book to you
Speech capabilities are built into The Reader. This makes it easy to have the book spoken to you. The Reader leverages the Macintosh's built-in speech capabilities, so you can use the "Speech" preference pane to choose the speaking voice and set the pace at which the speaking occurs. When The Reader is used as a learning aid a student can read along while the computer is speaking the text. In these cases you should set the speech at a slower pace.
At any time you can have The Reader read the current page of text to you by selecting the "Speak Text" button. It's that simple! There are 2 advanced options for the speech capabilities and are enabled with the 2 check boxes at the bottom of The Reader.
The "Automatically Speak Text" check box, when selected, will automatically speak the pages to you as you use the "Next" button to go to the next page in your book. The "Auto Advance Pages" check box, when selected, will automatically advance The Reader to the next page in the book when the speaking of the current page has finished. With this feature you can have The Reader speak entire books to you without any interaction. Just set it and let it go. Note: the "Auto Advance Pages" feature only works when the "Automatically Speak Text" check box is selected.
You can have The Reader speak highlighted text too. Just highlight some text on the screen then click the "Speak Text Highlighted" button. The Reader will say just the text that is highlighted.
You can stop the speech at any time by pressing the "Stop Speech" button.
Extra Features
What is the Drawer?
The drawer is a side panel attached to The Reader that has extra features. To open and close the drawer click on the "Open/Close Drawer" button. The drawer does 3 things. First it helps you manage your saved places in books. Second, it allows you to jump to specific pages in a book which makes it quicker to go to a specific page as opposed to using the "Next" and "Back" buttons to move one page at a time. And third, you can view the total number of pages in a book and which page of the book you are currently viewing.
Saving your place in a book
You will want to save your place in a book so you can quit The Reader and resume reading the book at some time in the future. To save your place just click the "Save" button. The Reader will ask for your name and save your name along with the book title and the page number you are currently reading. Your name is used so others can also use The Reader. This allows you to distinguish between your place in a book and another user’s place in the same book. The saved places can be viewed in the drawer of The Reader.
Returning to your saved place in a book
To open a book at a place you have saved, you need to open the side drawer in The Reader. Find your name in the Saved Books list and choose one to open. After selecting a book you will be able to use the "Open It!" button to open it. The Reader will then display your book in the main window and open it to the page where it was saved so you can continue reading right where you left off.
Sorting the Saved Books list
To help you find books easier in the Saved Books list, you can sort or switch around the columns. By clicking on a column header you can sort the list by that column alphabetically. Clicking the column again will reverse the sort order. You can also drag the columns left and right to change the positions of the columns.
Using the Dictionary and Thesaurus
If you highlight a word in The Reader, you can control-click (i.e. right-click) on the highlighted word to see a pop-up menu with some choices. Choose "Look Up in Dictionary" to see a definition of the word. You can also change the Dictionary to a Thesaurus in the window that opens.
Changing the colors and text on the screen
You can have the book text displayed to you however you like. Click "Customize View" button and go crazy! You can change everything about the display, the color, text size, font, background etc. The changes you make are remembered the next time you launch The Reader. The default settings can be restored any time under the Font menu.
Changing the speaking voice and speed
Clicking the "Customize Speech" button will open the System Preferences and take you to the Text to Speech tools. Here you can change the voice and speed of the voice. The changes will take place the next time you press the "Next" button in The Reader.
Version 1.3 Released 02 June 2008
- dramatic speed improvements when opening a book—takes 1/6th the time it used to take
- new option to customize the text view by using the button or Font menu
- new option to reset your view changes to default values under the Font menu
- view changes are remembered and restored at next launch
- view changes happen immediately without having to select the text first
- lots of other code improvements
About The Reader
The Reader's main purpose is to make it easy for you to read text formatted books (files with a “txt” file extension). Many books of this type can be found on the internet. The Reader will also speak the text of the books to you if you wish. You can even put The Reader into automatic mode and let it read entire books to you. The Reader is meant to help you easily read text books but can also be used as a tool to help a person learn to read better.
What are the computer requirements?
The Reader is designed for the Macintosh computer platform. This program will work on Macs with system software MacOSX 10.3.9 and higher.
Where can I find books in text format?
There are many places on the internet where free text books can be found. A quick internet search turns up many listings. My personal favorite is at The Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.net.
How can it help me improve my reading?
The reader has many functions which can aid a person in becoming a better reader. If you do not understand a word on the screen you can highlight the word and see the definition of it or find other words that are similar to it. If you are unsure of how to say a word you can have The Reader say the word to you so you can learn to pronounce the word better. You can also read along with the book while it is spoken to you. Start out at by having The Reader speak slower so you can read along with it at a comfortable pace. As you become better at reading you will find that you can speed-up the speed of the spoken text.
How does The Reader work?
Opening and controlling a book
All of the controls needed to operate The Reader are built right into the interface, so you do not need to use the menu items. To open a book, just click on the "New Book" button in The Reader. You can then select the text file of the book to open.
The Reader will search through the text file and make some formatting changes to make the text more readable on The Reader's screen. The Reader will not change the actual text file of the book. The formatting only takes place within The Reader itself. The first page of the text of the book will then appear on the main screen of The Reader. The title of the book will appear at the top of the screen. The title is gleaned from the file name of the book in the Finder, so make sure you use descriptive names for the book's file.
The Reader will display the first page of the book. A page is defined as 1000 characters of text. Use the "Next" and "Back" buttons to go forward and back through the pages of the book. The Reader will always display one page of the book to you at a time.
Using The Reader to read a book to you
Speech capabilities are built into The Reader. This makes it easy to have the book spoken to you. The Reader leverages the Macintosh's built-in speech capabilities, so you can use the "Speech" preference pane to choose the speaking voice and set the pace at which the speaking occurs. When The Reader is used as a learning aid a student can read along while the computer is speaking the text. In these cases you should set the speech at a slower pace.
At any time you can have The Reader read the current page of text to you by selecting the "Speak Text" button. It's that simple! There are 2 advanced options for the speech capabilities and are enabled with the 2 check boxes at the bottom of The Reader.
The "Automatically Speak Text" check box, when selected, will automatically speak the pages to you as you use the "Next" button to go to the next page in your book. The "Auto Advance Pages" check box, when selected, will automatically advance The Reader to the next page in the book when the speaking of the current page has finished. With this feature you can have The Reader speak entire books to you without any interaction. Just set it and let it go. Note: the "Auto Advance Pages" feature only works when the "Automatically Speak Text" check box is selected.
You can have The Reader speak highlighted text too. Just highlight some text on the screen then click the "Speak Text Highlighted" button. The Reader will say just the text that is highlighted.
You can stop the speech at any time by pressing the "Stop Speech" button.
Extra Features
What is the Drawer?
The drawer is a side panel attached to The Reader that has extra features. To open and close the drawer click on the "Open/Close Drawer" button. The drawer does 3 things. First it helps you manage your saved places in books. Second, it allows you to jump to specific pages in a book which makes it quicker to go to a specific page as opposed to using the "Next" and "Back" buttons to move one page at a time. And third, you can view the total number of pages in a book and which page of the book you are currently viewing.
Saving your place in a book
You will want to save your place in a book so you can quit The Reader and resume reading the book at some time in the future. To save your place just click the "Save" button. The Reader will ask for your name and save your name along with the book title and the page number you are currently reading. Your name is used so others can also use The Reader. This allows you to distinguish between your place in a book and another user’s place in the same book. The saved places can be viewed in the drawer of The Reader.
Returning to your saved place in a book
To open a book at a place you have saved, you need to open the side drawer in The Reader. Find your name in the Saved Books list and choose one to open. After selecting a book you will be able to use the "Open It!" button to open it. The Reader will then display your book in the main window and open it to the page where it was saved so you can continue reading right where you left off.
Sorting the Saved Books list
To help you find books easier in the Saved Books list, you can sort or switch around the columns. By clicking on a column header you can sort the list by that column alphabetically. Clicking the column again will reverse the sort order. You can also drag the columns left and right to change the positions of the columns.
Using the Dictionary and Thesaurus
If you highlight a word in The Reader, you can control-click (i.e. right-click) on the highlighted word to see a pop-up menu with some choices. Choose "Look Up in Dictionary" to see a definition of the word. You can also change the Dictionary to a Thesaurus in the window that opens.
Changing the colors and text on the screen
You can have the book text displayed to you however you like. Click "Customize View" button and go crazy! You can change everything about the display, the color, text size, font, background etc. The changes you make are remembered the next time you launch The Reader. The default settings can be restored any time under the Font menu.
Changing the speaking voice and speed
Clicking the "Customize Speech" button will open the System Preferences and take you to the Text to Speech tools. Here you can change the voice and speed of the voice. The changes will take place the next time you press the "Next" button in The Reader.
Download: The Reader Install.dmg
Purchase:
$14.95 US
$14.95 US
