USING TypeReader Pro 6.0 FROM THE KEYBOARD TO READ PRINT BY JOHN WILSON Copyright 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Restrictions Available Manual Formats TypeReader Versions Conventions Section 1: Introduction. What is OCR? Stages of OCR. Section 2: Before Installing TypeReader. System Requirements. Important Interface Software Note. Section 3: Types of Scanners. Main Scanner Standards. Which Scanner to Buy and Where From? Section 4: Downloading and Installing TypeReader Pro 6.0. Downloading the Demo Version. Installing the Demo Version. Installing the CD-ROM version. Section 5: TypeReader Pro 6.0 Capabilities. Input and Output Formats. Page Types. Scanners Supported. Specialist User Dictionaries. Automatic Document Feeders (ADF). Document Colour Scanning Capabilities. Type Face and Size. Scanning Resolution. Languages Supported. Deferring Recognition by Batch Scanning. Scanning to E-Mail Section 6: Customising TypeReader for Visually Impaired People. Specific Customisation. General Customisation. Placing a Shortcut on Your Desktop from which to Launch TypeReader. Section 7: Using Automatic Scanning Mode. Pen-Picture of the TypeReader Screen. Selecting a Scanner. Example of Automatic Processing. Saving and Reading a Scanned Document. Saving Your Scanned Document. Reading from Within TypeReader Reading a Scanned Document in Your Word-Processor. Automatically Opening a scanned document in an Application. Section 8: Deferring Recognition by Batch Scanning Multiple Pages. Example of Multipage Deferred recognition Scanning. Scanning the Page Images. Recognising the Scanned Images. Section 9: Overview of Manual or Single Step Scanning. Section 10: Scanning to E-Mail. Section 11: TypeReader Help. Types of Help. Help Topics. Dialogue Help. Menu Help. Index Help. Appendix 1: TypeReader Sales and Technical Support. Appendix 2: List of TypeReader Shortcut Keystrokes. Appendix 3: Registering TypeReader Pro 6.0. Appendix 4: Speeding Up Older Hewlett Packard Scanners. Appendix 5: Other Manuals by this Author. ******** Foreword This manual is written for the use of visually impaired scanner and scanner software users. It uses keyboard shortcuts instead of a mouse whenever possible and a screenreader and speech synthesiser instead of a monitor. The guide assumes that the user is familiar with both the operation of Windows and their own screenreader. Whilst TypeReader is a fully functional electronic scanning and editing system (and VI persons can use it as such), the emphasis in this manual will be on capturing text from a flatbed scanner in order to read print and will include adjusting parameters, loading scanned documents into editors/word-processors, saving scanned text files, etc. ******** RESTRICTIONS I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TypeReader Versions This tutorial has been written for TypeReader Pro 6.0 which is the standard, purchasable version of the software. You can buy it from TekWare in the UK by phoning 01384 392121. When I phoned TekWare in August 2000, they advised me that to buy TypeReader Pro 6.0 directly from them, as a first-time OCR user, the price would be œ185 plus œ12 for postage (VAT included). If you have a registered older version of TypeReader or a registered version of any other of their competitor's OCR software, the upgrade or changeover price is œ85 plus œ12 postage (VAT included). For your money you get the software on CD-ROM and a print manual. TekWare's sales office is on the above number. There is a more expensive version of TypeReader, known as the Enterprise edition, but the only extra features which this contains are batch scanning and PDF file facilities. The basic scanning engine is the same as with TypeReader Pro 6.0. It costs over œ400. Typereader does not currently ship with or come bundled with any flatbed scanners. It is also not available from high street vendors. You can download a fully-featured try-and-die demo copy of TypeReader Pro 6.0 from the Expervision Website at: www.experexchange.com/download_tr6.htm See Section 4 below for how to do this. This demo will run for fifteen save operations before it stops operating for you to evaluate its performance and suitability for your requirements. Therefore, do not perform frequent save operations until you are satisfied that you know enough about the program to decide whether or not you wish to buy it. I have also written other manuals in respect of other leading scanning software programs, for instance, for TextBridge Pro 98 and Classic, TextBridge Pro 9, TextBridge Millennium, OmniPage Pro 10, ReadIRIS Pro 6.0, etc. ******** Conventions In the writing of this manual, terms have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the CONTROL key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the ENTER key. When a key combination such as ALT P (for Process), R (for recognise" is suggested to go into the "Process" menu and run the "Recognise" menu option, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key, right ARROW to the "Process" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Recognise" line is spoken, then press ENTER. ******** SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION What is OCR? OCR (optical character recognition) is computer software which allows you to scan and reproduce pictures and printed documents as image files, which can then be converted to text so they can be read with a screenreader and synthesiser and edited within TypeReader itself or by copying them into any text editor or word-processor. You can scan text and pictures or text only. You can keep the original layout of a document or choose to modify its layout, e.g. by having it decolumnised (which puts the left- column above the right-hand column so that your screenreder can read it intelligibly without it being interwoven). You can scan and recognise the print on ordinary letters, circulars, newspapers, FAX documents, photocopies, etc, and you can also import images from hand-held and flatbed scanners and from FAX modems. TypeReader can be used simply as a means of reading your black and white or colour mail, novels, bills, magazines, reports, etc, and/or as a means of capturing, editing and saving text on disk as an electronic filing system, in the same way as a sighted person in an office would. Stages of OCR The main stages TypeReader goes through (whether done automatically or manually) are: 1. Obtaining an image of the print or picture on a page or from a FAX MODEM. This is the "Get Page" stage. 2. Placing box-like lines around the various parts of the scanned image--Pictures, text and tables. These are areas of a scanned image on the screen, sometimes known as "zones". This is the "Locating" step. 3. The textual images within the locations or zones is then recognised and converted to text. This is the "Recognising" process, where the layout, paragraphing and font type can be retained. 4. Checking the accuracy of the recognised text and making any necessary corrections. This is the "Proofreading" stage but it is usually easier to turn this off and do any proofreading in your favourite word-processor. 5. The last step is the "Save As" stage where you save your work, which can be done in several different formats, such as Word, WordPerfect, text, Excel, etc. You can save pictures as well or have these omitted. ******** SECTION 2 BEFORE INSTALLING TypeReader System Requirements The minimum computer specifications you will need for TypeReader Pro 6.0 to run are: 1. A 486-based or Pentium PC. 2. A minimum of 16 Megabytes of RAM (memory). 3. MS Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT 4. 4. At least 30 Megabytes of free hard disk space. 5. A SCSI, parallel port or USB scanner attached to your PC (see "Types of Scanners" in Section 3 below). Important Interface Software Note It is important to understand the stages of the OCR process and the two types of software which will normally be running in tandem during scanning. Interface software (a type of large driver) is a program which is an integral part of the flatbed scanner's own scanning program. It acts as an intermediary between your mechanical flatbed scanner and your OCR scanning software. Therefore, there are three distinct elements in the scanning process: 1. the mechanical hardware flatbed scanner itself; 2. The interface software which came with the flatbed scanner; and 3. The Optical character recognition (OCR) software, such as TypeReader, which performs the text recognition and outputs the print for you to read. You will have to install the scanner interface software which comes with your scanner and ensure that the scanner is working prior to installing TextBridge Pro. To do this you will have to follow the instructions which came with your scanner set up software. These vary depending upon the scanner you have purchased. If you are new at this, you may be advised to recruit the help of a knowledgeable friend during the scanner interface software and Textbridge installations. Note: When running any scanning software which does not come with its own interface software (which includes most scanners), there may be steps in the middle of the scanning process which are controlled and dependent on the flatbed scanner's own software and not the OCR software itself. Whilst these intermediate steps will be similar in operation, you should note that there may be differences from those outlined in this manual. I have tested using a Microtek scanner which uses Microtek's own interface program, known as the Microtek Scan Wizard 32 Bit. The interface software you use, if you use a different flatbed scanner, may behave slightly differently, e.g. you may be using Hewlett Packard's own ScanJet interface program with HP scanners, the ScanWise interface software with Agfa scanners, etc. ******** SECTION 3 TYPES OF SCANNERS Main Scanner Standards For most Visually impaired persons I would recommend the use of a flatbed scanner. These are easier to use, scan a page in one pass and you do not have to see where you are moving the scanner head, as you do with a hand-held scanner. There are hundreds of different types of flatbed scanners but only a few scanner standards. Main scanner types SCSI--This is an older type of standard but which still works well if a good quality SCSI card is used. A card has to be fitted on your computer's motherboard and the scanner attached to this. Fitting such a card may be difficult for a visually impaired person and so one of the below alternatives may be preferable. Such scanners may also cost more than the other types. Parallel Port--These scanners run from your parallel port at the back of your PC. They just plug in and if you need to run your printer from the same parallel port you can normally just plug it into the back of the scanner and still use it as part of a chain of computer peripherals. USB (universal serial bus)--This is similar to parallel port in that it plugs into a socket in the back of your PC (if it is a modern computer and has one). This type of interface is quicker than parallel port and the scanners usually cost less. Note: Some scanner vendors now only supply USB scanners and some only supply scanners which work with Windows 98 upwards, not with Windows 95, so check this carefully before you buy. Which scanner to buy and Where From? If you know the type of scanner you like from past experience or have a knowledgeable friend to advise you, feel free to follow your own instincts. There is no one best flatbed scanner, only what you may prefer or what may work adequately enough for you, depending on your available budgetary wherewithal. However, for the uninitiated the following ideas may be of assistance. These facts were obtained in August 2000 directly from the manufacturers' UK suppliers but most of them will not sell directly to the public. If you want more information, phone them and if your local high street shop does not sell any particular scanner, ask the manufacturer where to buy from. Epson UK Ltd--The Epson 120 0Costs about œ150 for the USB version or œ190 for the SCSI version. This scanner is said to ship with the classic version of TextBridge 98. For more information phone: 01442 261144. Hewlett Packard--The HP 5200C is still available in some shops at about œ110 and can be obtained both in parallel port and USB versions. It runs on Windows 95, 98 and NT 4. It comes with OmniPage 8 Limited edition. The HP 5300C is one of the current models and comes with an older version of ReadIRIS, at a cost of around œ130. Both can be purchased from PC World. For more information phone: 020 75507900 or phone your local branch of PC World. Canon UK Ltd--The Canoscan FB300P costs around œ60 and is a 300 by 600 DPI scanner. The FB630P cost around œ80 and is a 600 by 1200 DPI scanner. They are both parallel port scanners and come with limited versions of OmniPage 5.1. For more information phone: 01737 220001. Agfa--The Agfa Snapscan 1212P is an older machine but is still selling. It comes with OmniPage limited and works from the parallel port. It costs about œ70and works with Windows 95, 98 and NT 4. Their newer basic spec scanner is the Agfa E40 at around œ150 but will only work with Windows 98 or above. It is USB only and is shipped with a version of ReadIRIS. For more information phone: 0870 0134271. Note 1: I have not tested the above scanners personally. They are simply manufactured by well-known and generally respected companies. As this is not an indorsement of any particular scanner, you must use your own judgement about which, if any, to buy. Note 2: Appendix 4 gives details on how to make an older Hewlett Packard scanner work faster by using an ISIS instead of a TWAIN driver. ******** SECTION 4 DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING TypeReader Pro 6.0 Downloading the Demo Version 1. To obtain a demo copy of TypeReader 6.0, which will run and allow you to save fifteen times before becoming disabled, go to the following Internet address: www.experexchange.com/download_tr6.htm 2. The "Free Trial Download" page will open, when you should TAB down to "Downloads" and press ENTER. 3. The "Expervision download Centre" will load in, so TAB or ARROW down to a heading entitled "Free Download" and then go down to the "TypeReader Professional 6.0" link and press ENTER. 4. TAB down to a form to complete with your personal details before you can commence the free download. This is a straightforward Web form requiring firstly your first name, then TAB to second name, organisation name, address, etc. complete all fields, even if you have to put "None" in some to ensure that the form is not rejected because some fields have been left blank. Then press ENTER on the submit button. 5. On the next page which opens, you should TAB several times down to the "Click hear to Launch the Download" link and press ENTER. 6. You will be offered a filename such as "TR6lock.zip", which you can change by typing another filename of your choice in if you wish. Then press ENTER to commence the download. 7. Your screenreader should count down the number of bytes as they are downloaded. This download may take one to two hours with a 56K PC and a Pentium computer. Installing the Demo Version Once downloaded, with your scanner connected and turned on, go to the compressed zip file with Windows Explorer to use the Windows Run facility and plot the path to the zip file or browse to it. You will need to have a copy of Winzip or PKZIP on your computer to open the zip file. If you do not have these, you can obtain a demo copy of Winzip from the Winzip site at: www.winzip.com Once you have located the "tr6lock.zip" file, say with Windows Explorer, press ENTER on it to get it unzipped. The installation will then start as follows: 1. Accept all of the defaults offered by the installation program, such as the place TypeReader will be installed and the offer to place a shortcut icon on your Desktop. Just press ENTER on the "Next" buttons which come up. 2. You will be presented with a personal information screen, so enter your name (if it is not already there) and insert your company name (or type in "None" if you are not a company). Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. The installation is then complete and you will be informed of this. You should then close all running programs and reboot your computer before running TypeReader. 4. The TypeReader program will have been copied into the folder at: c:\Program Files\Expervision\TypeReader Pro 6.0\ and the executable file which runs TypeReader is called "tr.exe". 5. When you launch the demo version, from the shortcut icon on your Desktop (get to it with Windows LOGO key M and press T until "TypeReader Pro 6.0" is highlighted), a dialogue box will appear with options such as "Lock Number", a "Buy Now" button", a "Try First" button, etc. You should press ENTER on the "Try First" button to open up the standard Typereader screen. Do not use the "Buy Now" button at all. This invites you to pay by credit card over the Web in US dollars and will cost you more than you will pay by buying from the UK vendor who is TekWare (see "TypeReader Versions" above). Installing the CD-ROM Version To install TypeReader, with your scanner connected to your computer and turned on: 1a. Place the CD disk in the CD-ROM drawer and close it. The setup.exe program should run automatically. 1b. If the setup.exe program does not run automatically, you can run it by Pressing Windows LOGO key followed by R (for run) and then by typing in the editfield which comes up: D:\autorun.exe (Assuming, of course, that your CD-ROM is on the d: drive). 2. Follow the on-screen instructions. They will be more or less the same as those in the "Installing the Demo Version" above, in steps 1 to 4.. ******** SECTION 5 TypeReader Pro 6.0 CAPABILITIES Input and Output Formats TypeReader can import (accept from other sources) several formats such as tiff files, bmp files, JPEG, etc. You can then process and output these in many different formats. TypeReader can also output or save the product of its scanning to several file formats, such as Microsoft Word, TypeReader and TypeReader text only (its own formats), BMP, JPEG, TIF, HTML, AmiPro, Lotus 1-2-3, MS Excel, plain text, RTF and WordPerfect 5.1. If you want to reopen a file in TypeReader itself (with CONTROL O), you must have saved it in TypeReader's own TypeReader file format--you may wish to do this if you have scanned to an image only and later want to have it located and recognised. Page Types TypeReader can deal with several page formats which you place on your scanner flatbed, including: Single Column--A page with a single column only (sometimes known as simple galley form), e.g. a letter or memo. This is the default way TypeReader scans, unless you change this to "With Tables" or "With Multiple Columns" in the "Locate" property sheet of Process, Options (ALT P, O, and CONTROL TAB to "Location". Multiple Column--Pages in flowing columns, e.g. magazines, newspapers, etc. Use this when you want to decolumnise text so that the left-hand column will be placed above the right-hand column and your screenreader can therefore read it to you logically without text being interwoven. In the "Locate" property sheet "Custom Locate" should be checked for this to work (ALT P, O, and CONTROL TAB to the "Locate" sheet. Tables--Documents in cells or with tabbed column blocks such as spreadsheets which should be recognised as one block and not decolumnised. In this case, "Auto Locate" should be checked instead of "Custom Locate" so that both text and pictures are located together with any tables (ALT P, O, and CONTROL TAB to the "Locate" sheet. TypeReader will produce better results if you can tell it what the print quality or type is, e.g. poor quality, such as FAXES and faint text like some photocopies, when grey scale scanning will work best, normal quality, coloured pages, etc; and what the layout of the page is, e.g. single column, multiple column, table, etc. However, as a visually impaired person you may not be able to do this but TypeReader should still do a reasonable job and you can always rescan a page with different settings if the first attempt is not satisfactory. Note: Most FAXES have a standard quality and fine quality output capability, so if you receive regular FAXES from a particular source, you may be able to ask the sender to choose the fine quality (200 DPI) setting before sending them to you. These will scan more easily and accurately than the standard quality. Scanners Supported TypeReader supports dozens of scanner makes and standards, for instance, ISIS, TWAIN, Epson, Hewlett Packard, Cannon, Agfa, Panasonic, Microtek, and many more. If your scanner does not work with TypeReader straightaway, contact their support line for assistance and/or a file fix for the problem. Specialist User Dictionaries It is possible to create specialist user dictionaries with things like acronyms, proper nouns, scientific and technical words to load before a scanning session to improve recognition accuracy. However, if you are only scanning standard print material, such as newspapers, letters, novels, etc, this is not necessary. It is also unlikely that a visually impaired user would be able to see sufficiently to carry out the visual processes which are required to create such a specialist user dictionary. Nonetheless, if you do scan unusual material and you can get sighted help to create user dictionaries, you can find the instructions in the available online help files by pressing ALT H, press ENTER and CONTROL TAB to "Index" and type in something like "user dictionary". Automatic Document Feeders (ADF) If you have a sheetfeeder you can scan the front sides of pages (odd pages) first and then the back of the pages (even pages) second and TypeReader will interleave them automatically so that they save in the correct order. You should know, however, that sheetfeeders often cost several times more than the basic scanner itself, so I will not go into this aspect of scanning here. You can find out more from the TypeReader help system. Document colour Scanning capabilities TypeReader is capable of scanning and recognising black and white pages, grey scale pages (shades of white and black at various levels of darkness between black and white) and colour pages. However, it is my experience that the better the black on white print the better will be the scanned result and reasonable black on white print will produce better recognised results than will grey scaled print and print in colour or black print on a coloured background. moreover, scanning in the grey scale and colour settings takes longer than black and white scanning. The grey scale feature is primarily for pages with poor quality or difficult to recognise text. Depending on the design and age of your scanner, you may or may not be able to colour scan. Type Face and Size TypeReader purports to be able to recognise over 2,6000 kinds of type face/font. This means that it does not have to incorporate a "training" facility. This is a distinct advantage for visually impaired people, as training and font matching are not something most visually impaired people can do, because they require you to be able to see the unrecognised word and/or font type to tell TypeReader what it should have done. Most other OCR packages are able to automatically recognise fewer fonts and compensate for this by providing a training facility which requires good sight to use. Scanning Resolution TypeReader scans all text at 300 dots per inch (DPI), which is invariably the recommended resolution for text scanning. It scans grey scale and colour images at a lower resolution. If print is smaller than 10 point, you may obtain a better scan if you do it with a resolution of 400 DPI. Languages Supported TypeReader can scan pages with many languages on them, including English, French, Dutch, Danish, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwigean, Sweedish and Portuguese. Deferring Recognition by Batch Scanning This is the process of quickly image scanning a multipage document and then leaving the time-consuming recognition, locating and formatting until later, when your away from your desk or while your doing something else not computer-related (see Section 8 for how to do this). Scanning to E-Mail You can output the product of your scans directly to common e- mail programs, such as Outlook Express (see Section 10 for more details on how to do this). ******** SECTION 6 CUSTOMISING TypeReader FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE (As customisation is not essential for TypeReader to function for visually impaired people, but is rather desirable for maximising accessibility and simplicity, you may wish to jump straight to Section 7 and run a scan of a page in automatic mode before tackling customisation. That way you will have an idea what the reasons for customisation may be. Then come back to this section and make any suggested changes which suit your needs. However, have a quick look at this now for a general idea of what is proposed.) In order to enhance TypeReader's performance as a print scanner for visually impaired people, make the screen less cluttered and make it easier to use, you may find some of the below suggestions worthwhile. Specific Customisation Go into the View Menu by pressing ALT V and: 1. Press ENTER on "Toolbars". To reduce the clutter on the screen, unless you can benefit from these toolbars, of course, uncheck Format", "Locate", and "Thumbnail". Ensure that "Standard" and "Status" are selected.Each time you turn one of these on or off you will have to come back into the View Menu again with ALT V. The "Status" line shows things like the number of suspect and illegible words on the current scanned page and the percentage of progress which has been made on each page as it locates/recognises it. 2. Re-enter the View menu and press ENTER on "Text View" to select this. 3. Re-enter the View Menu and ARROW up to "Scale to Grey" which is likely to be selected. If you read your text visually, you may wish to experiment with this. When checked it displays the text in shades of grey; when unchecked it displays in black text on a white background. 4. Press ALT V, Z (for zoom) and ensure that 25 per cent is selected. This is best if you want the maximum text on the screen for reading via a screenreader. However, you may wish to change this to 200 or even 400 per cent if you read from the screen visually to double or quadruple the text size respectively. Go into the Process Menu by pressing ALT P and you will enter a block of five property sheets which you can move between by pressing CONTROL TAB. These are: 1. In the "Get Page" sheet, make the following changes if they suit your requirements (as a none visual document reader or as someone who uses the screen). Use your TAB key to move through the options in each Property sheet. A. Select (by pressing SPACEBAR( "Enable Auto OCR Dialogues". B. Select "Auto Straighten" (so that the page will be straightened by TypeReader up to 15 per cent if you put it on the scanner a little crooked. C. Select "Auto Orientation (so that if you get the page on the scanner upside down or sideways it will still be able to scan it). D. Select or deselect any of the other options which might meet your personal likes or dislikes. 2. In the "Locate" sheet: A. Ensure that "Custom Locate" is checked, unless you are scanning tables or spreadsheets, when "Auto Locate" should be selected instead. B. Unselect "With Pictures" (unless you can benefit from icons and pictures in your document or you are scanning for someone who can). C. Select or unselect any of the other options according to your requirements, e.g. check "With Multiple Columns" if you are to scan magazines, newspapers, and the like, regularly and want things decolumnising. 3. In the "Recognise" sheet: A. You will be on "Normal" quality print but if you usually scan draft quality, ARROW down to this before TABBING on. B. Observe your "Default Language" and change this with the AERO keys if you wish. C. Have "Display Recognition Complete Dialogue" checked (at least initially). D. Uncheck "Whiteout Text in Pictures". 4. In the "Display" sheet: A. You can TAB to and ARROW up and down various lists of fonts which your scans will output in. If this is of any use to you, highlight any of these which suit you, e.g. press A until you get to Ariel if this is what you can see best. B. In "Display Pictures" press SPACEBAR to deselect this. C. TAB to "Scale to Grey" and experiment with this if you read from the screen--with it on you will get a various shades of grey output and with it off you will get black text on a white background. 5. In The "Proofing" sheet, uncheck all of these options if you cannot see to proofread/spell-check in the TypeReader environment. I recommend that you leave proofreading for your favourite word-processor. 6. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to save all of the above changes simultaneously. Remember, you can always go back and alter any of these to your own likes, which may change as you get more used to the program. General Customisation The following settings details are equally useful to and usable by sighted and visually impaired users. Go into the scanner settings dialogue box and observe the following set up and make changes as suggested or in any other way which suits your particular needs: 1. Press ALT P (for process) and then O (for Options) and the options multipage dialogue will open, which has been mentioned above. 2. In "Get Page",tAB to "Advanced" and press ENTER to reveal another dialogue of specific scanner settings. The most interesting of these are: A. The "Black and White" scanning option, where you can then ARROW down to select "Grey Scale" or "Colour" if you know you are about to scan this type of hard copy or if a just finished scan is not good enough--it may be that the page was of poor quality or in colour so a second scan with one of these settings may provide the desired results. B. TAB to "Brightness" and the "Manual" button is likely to be checked and the brightness set to 50 per cent. You can lighten this by ARROWING up or darken it by ARROWING down to try to improve a scan--make it darker if a page has light text on it or is shiny, lighter if the page has darker than normal text on it (if you are able to discern this) or just experiment if a first scan is not good enough. There is also an "Auto" button here and if you check this the software will do its best to find the correct brightness setting for each page (note that not all scanners are capable of supporting an "Auto" setting). C. TAB to "Contrast" and observe that the options and settings are the same as in "Brightness". However, this is useful if you are scanning pages with shaded or coloured backgrounds. D. TAB (or SHIFT TAB) to "Page Size" and it is likely to be on letter size. ARROW down and look at the choices. Leave it on the type of pages you normally scan or, if you scan many sizes including foolscap, leave it on "Scanner's Maximum" so that the whole flatbed is always traversed during a scan. You can also define your own page size, if you wish, with "User Define". E. TAB to "Resolution" and it is best left on 300 DPI. You might want to change it (by ARROWING up and down) to 400 DPI for text smaller than 10 point but afterwards change it back to 300 DPI. F. TAB to "ShowUI" and uncheck this if your scanner works better this way. You may be able to get rid of the interface software "Scan" and "Preview" or similar buttons if your scanner driver creates these. G. The "Portrait" and "Landscape" options will be subordinated to your "Automatic Orientation" setting if you chose this above, so leave this as it is. G. After making any changes, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. Then TAB again to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. Placing a Shortcut on Your Desktop from which to Launch TypeReader If the TypeReader installation automatically created a shortcut on your desktop you will not need to consider the below but, just in case it failed to do this, here is what you would do. To place a shortcut icon on your Desktop for quick and easy launching of TypeReader: 1. Press Windows LOGO key followed by the letter S, then press T. 2. Then press CONTROL TAB to the 'Start Menu Programs Property Sheet'. 3. You will and on the 'Add' button, so press ENTER. Then tab to the 'Browse' button and press ENTER. 4. You will be asked for the executable filename, so type in "tR.exe" and then TAB to the list of folders on your c: drive underneath the 'Look In' line. Press P until 'Program Files' is spoken and then press ENTER. 5. Then press E until Expervision" is spoken and press ENTER. 6. Press O until TypeReader pro 6.0" is highlighted and then press ENTER. 7. Now press T until "tr.exe" is spoken. 8. Press the TAB key to the 'Open' option and then press ENTER. 9. Then TAB to the 'Next' button and press ENTER. You are asked where you want to place the shortcut, so ARROW up to 'Desktop' and then press TAB to 'Next' and press ENTER. 10. You are asked to select a name for the shortcut and given "TypeReader.exe" as an option. If you want to change this, just type over it, e.g. with "TypeReader Pro 6.0" and then press TAB to the 'Finish' button and press ENTER. 11. Now press TAB to the 'OK' button and press ENTER to complete the procedure. 12. You can now, in the normal Windows way, go to this shortcut on your Desktop by pressing Windows LOGO key M followed by O until "TypeReader Pro 6.0" is spoken and then press ENTER to launch it. ******** SECTION 7 USING AUTOMATIC SCANNING MODE Pen-Picture of the TypeReader Screen With only the Standard toolbar, Gallery toolbar and status bars turned on in the View Menu, the screen holds a typical Windows layout. At the very top is the Title Bar with the word TypeReader 6.0 on it and, as soon as you have done a scan, it will also hold the word "Untitled.*", until you give the scanned document a title, when that name will then appear here. Under this is the Main Menu, with File Menu, Edit Menu, View Menu, etc. Under this comes a line of buttons with such as "AutoStart", "Get Page", "Export", etc (but this toolbar can be switched off). Next, underneath, comes the common row of quick click options, such as "Open", "Cut", "Copy", etc (you can also disable this if you want to further reduce clutter on the screen). Below these is the main area of the screen holding the image view (if you have this enabled--I suggest that you do not have it enabled) and the text view where the recognised print will appear. The text view will take up the whole middle area if image view is disabled. At the bottom of the screen appears the status line saying "for help press F1" and it shows how many pages have been scanned and which page you are currently on, e.g. "Page 4 of 9". Selecting a Scanner After you launch TypeReader for the first time you should not immediately try to scan a page. Instead, you should first get your scanner and its interface software recognised. Do this by: 1. Start TypeReader with the scanner having been turned on before the computer. 2. Press ALT P (for process) and ARROW up to "Options" and press ENTER. 3. If you are not already on "Get Page", Press CONTROL TAB (or SHIFT CONTROL TAB) to get to it. 4. TAB to "Select Scanner" and press ENTER. 5. in the "Sources" box your scanner interface driver should show up, so, if there is more than one, ARROW to it and then TAB to the "Select Scanner" button and press ENTER. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. You should be returned to the "Get Page" dialogue, when you then SHIFT TAB to "Advanced" and press ENTER. You should be told that the scanner is being initialised. 7. Your scanner should now be configured and set up and you should then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. The process should be complete and you should now be able to scan with any of the below methods. Note: If your scanner is not recognised the first time you do the above, try it again--it can be a little temprimental. If you have several interface drivers on your system they can interfere with one another, so, if the others are not essential, you may obtain success by deleting the unwanted ones by pressing DEL on them in stage 5 above. If you still have scanner configuration problems, you may need a more up-to-date driver or a fix/patch from Expervision. e-mail their support team about this. They are at: support@expervision.com or phone one of the numbers in Appendix 1. Example of Automatic Processing Automatic processing is the recommended way to use TypeReader. You start the scan job after selecting the settings you want to apply. The page will then be scanned, located and recognised automatically and as many pages as you like can be scanned one after the other. 1. The scanner should be switched on before the computer and then TypeReader launch by either: A. Pressing ENTER on it on your Desktop; or B. Using the Windows Run command by pressing Windows Logo key followed by R (for run) and then typing in the path to the executable file, which is: c:\Program Files\Expervision\TypeReader Pro 6.0\TR.EXE C. Or you can, if you wish, browse to it in Windows Explorer in the normal way. 2. Press the F5 key to start the scanning (or press ALT P, A) and the scan will commence (or you may have a "Scan" or some other similar button to press ENTER on, depending on your scanner interface software; but do not select the "Preview" button, if there is one). Note 1: At this stage your speech synthesiser may stammer, because the scanning process takes all of the computer's memory and CPU time, leaving little or none to run the speech. Note 2: Depending on your scanner interface software, you may be able to bypass the "Scan" and "Preview" buttons (if you get them at all) in step 2 by pressing ALT P (for process( O (for options), TABBING to "Advanced", then press ENTER and then TAB to the "ShowUI" button and press SPACEBAR on it to uncheck it. This will then be a permanent setting change. 3. After the first sheet is scanned you will get a "Continue scanning" message and a "Yes" and "NO" button. If you have no more pages to scan, press N (for no); if you have more pages to scan, either press Y (for yes) or just press ENTER. The next page will be scanned as in 2 above. 4. Continue in this way until all pages are scanned. 5. When finished, press N (for no) and each page scanned will be separately located and recognised. 6. After location/recognition is complete you will land on an "OK" button, so press ENTER to finish the scanning stage.However, before you press ENTER on "OK", if you go into navigation/mouse mode at this stage, you will be able to observe the settings which the scan was done using, plus the number of words in the current page, the number of suspect/unrecognised words, etc. If you press CONTROL TAB you will obtain this same type of information but this time relating to a whole multipage document. Note: If you wish to omit the "OK" step in 6 above, you can turn it off by pressing ALT P (for process) O (for options) and then CONTROL TABBING to the "Recognise" property sheet and unchecking "Display Recognition Complete Dialogue Box". Saving and Reading the scanned Document Reading from Within TypeReader 7. At this stage you can either read the document in the TypeReader text screen or save it and then read it in your word- processor or text editor--or do the former before deciding whether to save it or just delete it. To read the scan job within TypeReader you will not have full line-by-line reviewing facilities (unless you go into navigation or mouse mode in your screenreader) but you can use the following reading keystrokes: Press CONTROL HOME--To go to the first page in a scanned document. Press CONTROL END--To go to the last page in a document. Press CONTROL PAGE UP--To go to the previous page. Press CONTROL PAGE DOWN--To go to the next page. Press PAGE up or PAGE down--To move back or forward in the text on the current page and get it read out. Press CONTROL G--To fall on an editfield where you can type in the number of the page you wish to jump straight to for reading and press ENTER on "OK". Press CONTROL M--To move the page you are currently on to another page location, e.g. if you have 10 pages and you are on page 8 and want to move it to the location of page 3, type 3 in the editfield you fall in and then press ENTER on "OK". However, you are likely to be best advised to make editing changes of this type in your word-processor. Press ether CONTROL up ARROW or down ARROW--To get the speech speaking if it does not speak immediately. Note: This will not work if you have "Style Gallery" turned on and the standard Windows navigation keys do not work in this environment, such as ARROWING up and down individual lines, CONTROL ARROWING through individual words, etc. Furthermore, some screenreaders cannot read what is in the text view on the screen at all in this way. If yours cannot, see how to read the scanned document from step 12 below. Saving Your Scanned Document 8. To save the scan job, press ALT F, A, and note that TypeReader gives all previously unsaved scan jobs the name "Untitled.*". You should type over this with the filename you want, e.g. Report1. 9. You can now TAB once to "Save" and press ENTER to complete the save operation. However, there are several other options in this save dialogue box of interest: A. Press TAB to "Save as Type" and ARROW up and down to make your format save choice, e.g. plain text, MS Word, WordPerfect, MS Excel, etc. for this example choose "Plain Text" by pressing P. B. TAB to "Options" and press ENTER and you can then make more formatting changes by TABBING through and pressing SPACEBAR on any option you want on or off. I suggest you have "Preserve All Formatting" unchecked to help with decolumnisation unless you know you are not scanning flowing columns; have "All Pages in One File" checked; and make up your own mind on any of the other options depending on what you are scanning and your own personal preferences. Then press ENTER on "OK" to get back to the save dialogue box. 10. TAB to the next line which will show where your files will save. The default is in the "DCR" subfolder and the path will be something like: C:\Microtek\DCR\Report1.txt (This is where my files would save as I use a Microtek scanner and interface software. Yours is likely to save into a similar sub-folder in your scanner's interface software folder, unless you change this.) Change this path to wherever you like if you wish in the normal way by ARROWING up and down the folders and pressing ENTER on any of them to navigate to where you want to be, e.g. make it your "My Documents" folder in Word if you have one. If you change the save location, this will be remembered by TypeReader and future saves will automatically go there. 11. Then TAB on to "Save" and press ENTER to finish. The demo version will tell you how many saves you have left before it stops working--you can press Y to save or N to abort saving. This will not happen with the registered/purchased version. Reading a Scanned Document in Your Word-Processor 12. Launch the word-processor or text editor you intend to read your scan jobs in. For this example make it Notepad, which comes with Windows 95 and 98. 13. In the normal way, either: A. press ALT F, O, and type in the path to the scanned document file, e.g. C:\Microtek\DCR\Report1, or c:\ScanWise\DCR\Report1, or C:\My Documents\Report1, or wherever you chose to save it; or B. Navigate to the "report.txt" file in Windows Explorer and press ENTER on it, when Notepad will open up and display the document. 14. You can now read, edit, resave under another filename, etc. Automatically Opening a scanned document in an Application TypeReader provides a facility whereby, after you have scanned some pages, you can then save them and then automatically have then output to you in either MS Word, MS Excel or have them Pasted into your e-mail program, e.g. Outlook Express. Unfortunately, expervision have not provided any shortcut keystrokes or menu methods by which to do this. All that there is is an arrow icon just to the right of and slightly above the level of the "Export" button on the Gallery. You therefor have to have the Gallery open (ALT V, T, and press ENTER on "Gallery") to be able to achieve this and even then it is not easy. Your screenreader will have to be able to label graphics for you or you will have to follow the below directions exactly (all of this may be more trouble than it is worth). To locate the "Send To" drop down menu in order to label it and then be able to go to it, or to go to the arrow graphic "blind" and press ENTER on it to open the menu: 1. With the Gallery toolbar open, go into navigation or mouse mode and locate the "Send To" drop down menu graphic by: A. Come down from the top of the screen to the line which contains the "Export" button. B. ARROW right to the "T" of Export and then ARROW right four more times, followed by ARROWING up once. You are now over the appropriate icon but nothing is likely to speak. C. Use your screenreader's graphics labelling facility and call the graphic something like "Send to Menu". 3. You can now locate this "Send to Menu" in mouse mode and press ENTER on it. 4. The "Send to" drop down menu will open up and you can ARROW down the options, which include sending to Word, Excel or e-mail. Double click your left mouse simulation key to choose one of these export to options and the sub-menu will close and a mini icon will appear on the "Export" button, e.g. a "W" if you selected Word (your screenreader will not be able to read this). 5. Then, in mouse mode, go back to the "Export" button and double click the left mouse simulation key to complete the save and open in MS Word operation. You will be asked to give the file a name during this process. Note: All of this is not easy and may be impossible if your screenreader does not have a graphics labelling feature. Even if it does, you will probably find it quicker and easier to simply open your scanned files in the normal way in Word, Excel, etc, as indicated in 12 above. SECTION 8 DEFERRING RECOGNITION BY BATCH SCANNING multiple PAGES To save processing time you can scan long documents to image files without waiting for them to be recognised immediately on a page-by-page basis as usual. You can then have them recognised immediately in one block after you have scanned all pages in or later when you are at lunch, have gone home at night, etc. This can be a useful time-saver, particularly if you have a slow computer. The below deferred recognition scanning procedure is not, strictly speaking, TypeReader's own specialised batch scanning process, as this is only available with the more expensive Enterprise edition of TypeReader, but it has the same deferred recognition effect. Note that the two "batch" options in the File Menu are perpetually disabled in the standard TypeReader Pro version. Example of Multipage Deferred Recognition Scanning Scanning the Page Images With your scanner switched on before you boot up your computer: 1. Launch TypeReader (see step 1 in "Example of Automatic Processing" in Section 7). 2. Press F6 (or ALT P, G) to get a single page. If your scanner interface software comes in here, such as with a "Scan" or "Preview" button, press ENTER on "Scan" (but see "Note 2:" in section 7 above for how to disable this if you wish). The first page will be scanned, orientated and deskewed (if automatic orientation and deskewing are switched on) but you will not have to wait for the locating and recognising stages to be performed. 3. Place page two onto the scanner and press F6 again to get this scanned as in step 2 above. 4. Continue in this way until all pages have been scanned. 5. When you have finished save the file by pressing ALT F (for file) A (for save as) and in the editfield which you fall in, type your preferred filename, e.g. report1.tif ("tif" is an image saving format but you could also choose such as jpeg, bmp and TypeReader's own format but the latter would only be openable with TypeReader itself). 6. TAB to "Save" and press ENTER to complete the save process. 7. There are other options in the above save dialogue which you could also adjust if you want, such as "Options" where you can stick with the default choice of all pages being saved to one filename or change this to require a separate filename for each scanned page, etc. Getting the Scanned Images Recognised You can now, just prior to going to a meeting, lunch, going home, etc, open this multipage image file and have it located and recognised while you are doing something else by: 1. Press CONTROL O (for open) and type the filename, e.g. report1.tif, in the editfield. 2. TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 3. The document image file will be found and opened. 4. Press F9 (or ALT P, F) to finish the processing. The location/zoning and recognising will then be carried out while you are away--these two processes typically take up most of the OCR processing time. 5. You will end up on the "Current Page" "OK" button (if you have not disabled this as suggested in Section 7 above), so just press ENTER to finish and be able to CONTROL PAGE up and down to read the text or resave it to your word-processor or wherever you wish. Note: There may be little or no saving in time by adopting this batch-style deferred method of scanning if you have a fast pentium PC but time savings can be made with slower computers such as 486 machines. ******** SECTION 9 OVERVIEW OF MANUAL OR SINGLE STEP SCANNING In one step mode you take TypeReader through the various stages of OCR yourself so that you have access to methods of fine-tuning the results. However, for most visually impaired people this may not offer much additional flexibility, as such features as locating, proofing and creating user dictionaries require sight to perfect. You have to be able to see which word on a page TypeReader has made a hash of to be able to instruct it as to what the word should have been and you have to be able to draw lines around areas of text on the screen to be able to advise TypeReader where you want location zones to apply. For this reason, I have not gone into detail in respect of this method of scanning in this manual. The above two alternative methods of scanning are both easier, faster and more convenient than manual scanning. It is no coincidence that specialist scanning programs for visually impaired people do not offer training or zoning as part of their repertoire of features. Just for interest's sake you would start a manual scan by going to "Get Page" in the "Process" menu and you would then select the separate steps of OCR from that menu in turn--locate and recognise. This is labour intensive and not necessary for straightforward and medium complexity documents of reasonable quality. If you want to examine the options available in one step Manual mode scanning, see the relevant sections of the online manual by pressing ALT h and CONTROL TABBING to the "Index" and then type in "single step operation" and then press the TAB key once and ARROW up and down the various manual ways to do things. Then TAB to "Display" and press ENTER to open up one of the explanations in respect of this form of scanning. TypeReader also has a manual "Finish Processing" feature in the Process Menu, which gives more flexibility in making corrections and adjustments to scanned multipage documents, such as differing brightness on some sheets than that on others, type face changes, orientation, redrawing location lines, etc; but, again, to make use of this you would have to be able to see the image of the scanned pages on the screen clearly to effect changes in such things on selected and clearly seen page images. ******** SECTION 10 SCANNING TO E-MAIL You can output the product of your scans directly to common e- mail programs, such as Outlook Express, CC Mail, etc. Your e-mail program will open up and you can complete the normal fields, e.g. "To:", "CC:", "Subject", etc, and the scan job will automatically be appended to the e-mail message as a standard attachment. However, the current version of TypeReader makes this so difficult to achieve, you are probably best advised to scan as normal, save your scan as a text file, then open it in a text editor such as Notepad and copy it to the clipboard for pasting into Outlook Express for sending in the normal way. Example of Scanning to mail With your scanner having been switched on before your computer, scan to mail by: 1. Scan a document as normal. 2. In mouse mode, go to the "Send to Menu" next to the "Export" button in the Gallery and double click on this (see "Automatically Opening a scanned document in an Application" in Section 7 before going any further). 3. ARROW down the send to options and double click on the one you want, e.g. send to Word. 4. In mouse mode, go to the "Export" button again and double click on it. 5. your e-mail program will load, e.g. Outlook Express, and you will be in the "To:" editfield to enter the e-mail address you want to send the scanned document to. Then TAB to "Subject:" and complete this as normal, then TAB to the message field and type your covering note to whoever you are sending the scanned document to. 6. The scanned document will have been attached to the e-mail message as a standard attachment with the same filename which you gave it when you scanned it. 7. Give the usual command to your mail program as you would to send a standard e-mail message, e.g. ALT S, and the cover message and attached scanned document will be sent via your modem after you have been taken on line. Warning: If your e-mailed scan contains any form of graphics or pictures, it may become a sizeable file to transfer and could take much longer to e-mail than would a straightforward text file. ******** SECTION 11 TypeReader HELP The TypeReader help system provides general and specific help topics on how to use the program from a monitor and mouse point of view. However, it will provide an insight into what sighted people chiefly use TypeReader for--not reading print but, rather, capturing it for editing, reprinting, creating a filing system by saving documents after scanning them, etc. The TypeReader help system is very user-friendly as it is self-contained and does not use Adobe PDF files. Types of Help Help topics If you press ALT H and ENTER on "Help Topics", you will land in the "Contents" TAB and will be presented with a hierarchical list of help topic books. These are "Introducing TypeReader", "Getting Started" . . down to "Menu Commands". ARROWING down to any one of these "books" and then TABBING to "Open" and pressing ENTER will open up another list of topics, which are subsections of the main topic. ARROWING down and highlighting any one of these sub- topics and then pressing TAB to "Display" will read out a full page of help text (press the PAGE DOWN key to hear the next page) or bring up yet another list of sub-sub-topics to open and then display . After listening to the help text, press the ESCAPE key to close help. Some of the help screens have related help topic buttons at the bottom of them which you can press your TAB key to move through and then ENTER to open any one of them. In the above "Contents" sheet there are also "Close" buttons to close an opened book of topics and "Print" to have the contents of a displayed topic sent to your printer. Dialogue Help When in a dialogue box you can put the system focus on the specific item you want details about (ARROW OR TAB to it) and then press F1, when a short help message explaining what this item in the dialogue box is for will be spoken. Press ESCAPE to return to the dialogue. Menu Help In a similar way to dialogue help, if you are on any menu option, you can just press F1 to get a short explanation of what that menu command does, e.g. press ALT F, ARROW to "Close" and then press F1 to obtain the explanation, then press ESCAPE to leave help. Index Help If you want to know what a particular technical word or phrase means, press ALT H, press ENTER on "Help Topics" and then press CONTROL TAB to move to the "Index". You will land in an editfield in which you can type the word you want help on. You then press TAB to a list of help topics containing that word, ARROW up and down these to the one you want and then press TAB to the "Display" button. Pressing ENTER on this will either bring up a page of help information or take you to another list of sub- topics to select from and then press TAB to "Display" again and press ENTER for the information. You may have to press the F6 key to get the help text spoken. Press ESC to leave help. For example, with the focus on the Index tab, type in the editfield "Installing" (without the quotes) and then TAB to the list of found matches. "Installing TypeReader Pro" will be there, so TAB again to "Display" and press ENTER. You will be given installation instructions for TypeReader. You may find finding help information easier in the "Index" tab rather than in either of the main help "Contents" or "Find" facilities. If so, you can view everything in the help file simply by not typing anything in to the first field you drop in when you enter the index, instead just TAB once and you will be at the very beginning of every topic which the index covers. ARROW down this alphabetical list and if any topic interests you, press ENTER on it to have it opened up and read to you. The Help Menu also contains an option to register your copy of TypeReader online to obtain future advice of new releases and you can always go to the Expervision Website for information, FAQs (answers to frequently asked questions) and many more facilities. It is at: http://softwarecenter.com/companies/expervision/tReader.htm Or if this has changed by the time you read this manual, the home page can be found at: www.expervision.com ******** APPENDIX 1 TYPEREADER SALES AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT To order a copy of TypeReader Pro 6.0 in the and for queries about features and upgrades contact: UK supplier is Tekware: Phone: 01384 392121. E-mail: sales@tekware.co.uk US HQ and supplier is 800-732-3897. Address: Expervision Inc, 43138 Christy Street, Suite 106, Fremont, CA 94538. Technical support hotline: Phone 510 623-7177. FAX: 510 623-9290. E-mail: support@expervision.com Website: www.expervision.com ******** APPENDIX 2 LIST OF TYPEREADER SHORTCUT KEYSTROKES (Whilst most of the below shortcut keystrokes are usable by visually impaired people, a few of these may not be practical but they have, nonetheless, been included for completeness, e.g. if your screenreader cannot read found words in searches to you within the TypeReader proofing environment, the CONTROL F AND H commands may be of little use to you.) Press F1--To obtain an explanation of the control or menu command you are currently on. Press F5--To start an auto scan. Press F6--To get a single page at a time scanned but not located or recognised. Press F7--to locate zones on a page manually. Press F8--To get a scanned and located page recognised. Press F9--To finish a partly done scan. Press ALT F4--To shut down TypeReader. Press CONTROL END--To jump to the last page in a scanned document on screen. Press CONTROL HOME--To jump to the first page. press CONTROL PAGE UP--To go to the previous page of a multipage document scan in the TypeReader text window. Press CONTROL PAGE DOWN--To go to the next page in a multipage scan. Press CONTROL up ARROW--To zoom in. Press CONTROL down ARROW--to zoom out. Press CONTROL 1--To zoom the text in the text window to 25 per cent of normal size. Press CONTROL 2--To zoom to 50 per cent text size. Press CONTROL 3--To zoom to 75 per cent of normal text size. Press CONTROL 4--To zoom to normal text size. Press CONTROL 5--To zoom to 125 per cent of actual size. Press CONTROL 6--To zoom to 150 per cent of normal size. Press CONTROL 7--To zoom to 175 per cent of actual print size. Press CONTROL 8--To zoom to double size print. Press CONTROL 9--To zoom to 400 per cent print size. Press CONTROL 0--To zoom to pixel to pixel view. Press CONTROL A--To select all (the whole document). Press CONTROL B--To make text bold. Press CONTROL C--To copy selected text to the clipboard. Press CONTROL D--To add the highlighted word in proofreading to the user dictionary. Press CONTROL F--To find a word or string in the text view on the screen. Pressing F3 finds the next instance of the word. Press CONTROL G--To go to a specific page in a scanned document. Press CONTROL H--TO effect a search and replace function. Press CONTROL L--To italicise text. Press CONTROL M--To move a page to another position in the document. Press CONTROL N--To clear the screen ready for a new scan (if you have an unsaved document on screen, you will be asked for a filename for it). Press CONTROL O--To open an image scan of a document or a FAX file image. Press CONTROL R--To show the on-screen verifier. Press CONTROL S--To resave the current file over itself. Press CONTROL T--To format a document in plain ASCII text with no bold, italic, etc, attributes. Press CONTROL U--To underline text. Press CONTROL V--To paste from the clipboard to the current position. Press CONTROL Y--To redo your last mistaken undo. Press CONTROL X--To cut text (move it) to the clipboard. Press CONTROL Z--To undo your last action. ******** APPENDIX 3 REGISTERING TYPEREADER To receive periodic notifications of product upgrades and technical notes from Expervision, you are encouraged to register the software. Currently the only method of registration is to complete the registration card which comes with the CD-ROM and user manual and return it. ******** APPENDIX 4 SPEEDING UP OLDER HEWLETT PACKARD SCANNERS {The below is an e-mail I received from a very helpful American Web surfer. As I do not own an Hewlett Packard scanner, I cannot test these instructions but the authors, bill Cammeron and his unnamed friend, seem to know what they are talking about. I have reproduced Bill's e-mail instructions verbatim (except for changing some American to English spellings and some spacing) for your consideration. If you require more guidance or explanation, please contact TypeReader technical support.} Bill's Message "here are instructions for you to publish for others. author has no problem with sharing. before you read this document if you have text bridge millennium remember that ises is directly supported and best instructions for installing ises drivers for your hp scanner can be obtained from text bridge tec support. it will require using tec support because it will not automatically load ises driver like it did in earlier versions of text bridge. using the ises driver should cut scan times in half. read on what a hp 6200 scanner user says below about how he picked up speed despite his scanner not being listed in the list of supported scanners for the ises driver provided. plus steps for omni page 10 with the ises driver set up. I've done a little investigating and experimenting since Friday night regarding this subject and here is what I found. First, I found that I do have a PIXTRAN folder within the Windows folder with tons of drivers, including a SCANJET and a SCANJETX. However, only a few of these appear to have come from OmniPage 10. I have had previous versions of OmniPage on this machine, so some may have come from a previous version. of course all this means little to a new user. new users can though create their own folder and place the proper driver into it if necessary. because most h p scanners now being maid are not scl most ocr packages install twain instead. most newer hp models now use twain by default even if they are scl scanners like the 6200 models, all three of them, and the 6300 series. only scl scanners from hp can improve performance when using the ises drivers. hp scanners with no scl are better sticking to twain like the 4200 model. the generic ises driver that comes with ocr packages is best suited to models, 2p, 3p, 4p, 5p, 2c, 2cx, 3c, 4c, 6100 and 5200 models. remember you may also need to buy a adaptec p c i scsi card to get older hp scanners working in 98. 98 p n p will recognize the adaptec 2906 p c i card. plug in scanner and 98 p n p will load its driver as well. much easier installed than h p with out adaptec card. However, it appears that the SCANJET.PXW driver came from TextBridge Millennium. it is also in omni page 9 for certain. also in type reader 5 for certain. text bridge millennium also does not install ises for h p scanners by default, no it picks twain like omni page 10 does. The SCANJET.PXW is on the installation CD-ROM but it is contained within the DATA.CAB compressed cabinet file so it would need to be extracted. TextBridge Millennium as Ii installed it uses the TWAIN driver, even though it contained the above-mentioned ISIS driver. i would think these drivers are included in the downloadable demo of text bridge millennium. That might be a cheap way to get them for someone who doesn't have the driver already. I tried the ISIS driver, SCANJET.PXW, with OmniPage 10, even though my scanner was not mentioned. There were a number of HP scanners mentioned such as the 5200 and 6100 that made me think it was worth a try. At this point, the ISIS driver does seem to work and it is definitely faster. It seemed to work fine with the USB interface. also of note even text bridge 98 ises driver supported u s b. By the way, when you select a scanner from within OmniPage 10, a screen of information appears that lists the scanners that are supported. Also, to get a scanner driver installed, you must use Caere's SCAN manager in CONTROL Panel and you must "ADD Scanner. Also, even though I could select that option with the arrow keys, I had to route and click the mouse pointer to actually execute it. I also tried the SCANJETX.PXW driver and it did not work. It appears to support fewer scanners than the SCANJET.PXW driver, though, so this makes sense. It eventually caused a system crash. end of story of a 6200 hp scanner user." "omni page tech support told me it is in their in version 10, just hidden away like it was in version 9. can not seem to find it. though it is possible the omni page tech could have been confused and may have remembered it was hidden in version 9 and maybe 10 does not have the driver. if not a old version of omni page or a copy of text bridge can solve that problem. here are the instructions for doing exactly that. they do conclude you have driver in the proper folder as discussed above. Hi john, Here is what I did to add the ISIS driver for my HP 6200C to OmniPage 10. This assumes that the driver already exists on the hard disk. I believe my ISIS drivers came from a version of TextBridge. Go to Settings, then Control Panel. Arrow down to Caere Scan Manager and press ENTER. You should now see a list of the scanners that have been installed. There may only be one scanner. There is one additional item at the top of the list that says "Add Scanner." Going to the "view" menu and selecting "list" will make this box respond to the UP and DOWN ARROW keys. You can view the properties of an installed scanner, delete it or rename it as well from the FILE menu when that scanner is selected. However, to add a new scanner, I found I had to double-click the "add Scanner" item with the mouse and a wizard was started. When the wizard starts, I found a list of scanners. This is a tree view, so as I moved through the list of scanners, the right side changed. The first scanner on the list was "generic". With "Generic" selected, I tabbed one time to a list of choices for "generic," and I selected the ISIS option. I then tabbed to "next" and pressed ENTER. The next step asked me to name the scanner, and gave me options to make that scanner the default with "yes" or "no" radio check boxes. I chose "no" and pressed "NEXT." The next box lists all of the ISIS drivers. I chose SCANJET.PXW and pressed "NEXT" and that was about it. When I next went into OmniPage, there were two scanners from which to choose in the "tools", "Options" "scanner" dialogue. When you use the arrow keys to select the ISIS scanner, some information about the driver automatically appears. You may need to press OK when you select it for the first time. before you do above locate driver and see if on system. location of ises in omni page 10 The Isis driver is scanjet.pxw. I don't know if it is included with Omni Page 10. It was on the Omni Page 9 CD. You would need to look in the c:\windows\pixtran subdirectory. to verify if it is their. if not their create the pixtran folder under windows and place driver into that folder. if you have a 6200 scanner you can actually purchase a driver specifically for your exact model. no idea if this adds much in the way of performance, but the company lets you try a trial copy of driver if you contact them. here is contact info, but be aware this will cost a pretty penny. Dear Pixel Translations Customer, here is a e mail address for contacting us. kwille@pixtran.com the driver will be compressed into a self-extracting ZIP file along with other files that you will need. Please create a temporary directory and place the attached file into it. Then run the file to extract it's contents. After doing this, please view the contents of the README.TXT file, which will contain further installation instructions. Pixel Translations" APPENDIX 3 SPEEDING UP OLDER HEWLETT PACKARD SCANNERS The below is an e-mail I received from a very helpful American Web surfer. As I do not own an Hewlett Packard scanner, I cannot test these instructions but the authors, bill Cammeron and his unnamed friend, seem to know what they are talking about. I have reproduced Bill's e-mail instructions verbatim (except for changing some American to English spellings and some spacing) for your consideration. If you require more guidance or explanation, please contact Scansoft technical support. Bill's Message "here are instructions for you to publish for others. author has no problem with sharing. before you read this document if you have text bridge millennium remember that ises is directly supported and best instructions for installing ises drivers for your hp scanner can be obtained from text bridge tec support. it will require using tec support because it will not automatically load ises driver like it did in earlier versions of text bridge. using the ises driver should cut scan times in half. read on what a hp 6200 scanner user says below about how he picked up speed despite his scanner not being listed in the list of supported scanners for the ises driver provided. plus steps for omni page 10 with the ises driver set up. I've done a little investigating and experimenting since Friday night regarding this subject and here is what I found. First, I found that I do have a PIXTRAN folder within the Windows folder with tons of drivers, including a SCANJET and a SCANJETX. However, only a few of these appear to have come from OmniPage 10. I have had previous versions of OmniPage on this machine, so some may have come from a previous version. of course all this means little to a new user. new users can though create their own folder and place the proper driver into it if necessary. because most h p scanners now being maid are not scl most ocr packages install twain instead. most newer hp models now use twain by default even if they are scl scanners like the 6200 models, all three of them, and the 6300 series. only scl scanners from hp can improve performance when using the ises drivers. hp scanners with no scl are better sticking to twain like the 4200 model. the generic ises driver that comes with ocr packages is best suited to models, 2p, 3p, 4p, 5p, 2c, 2cx, 3c, 4c, 6100 and 5200 models. remember you may also need to buy a adaptec p c i scsi card to get older hp scanners working in 98. 98 p n p will recognize the adaptec 2906 p c i card. plug in scanner and 98 p n p will load its driver as well. much easier installed than h p with out adaptec card. However, it appears that the SCANJET.PXW driver came from TextBridge Millennium. it is also in omni page 9 for certain. also in type reader 5 for certain. text bridge millennium also does not install ises for h p scanners by default, no it picks twain like omni page 10 does. The SCANJET.PXW is on the installation CD-ROM but it is contained within the DATA.CAB compressed cabinet file so it would need to be extracted. TextBridge Millennium as Ii installed it uses the TWAIN driver, even though it contained the above-mentioned ISIS driver. i would think these drivers are included in the downloadable demo of text bridge millennium. That might be a cheap way to get them for someone who doesn't have the driver already. I tried the ISIS driver, SCANJET.PXW, with OmniPage 10, even though my scanner was not mentioned. There were a number of HP scanners mentioned such as the 5200 and 6100 that made me think it was worth a try. At this point, the ISIS driver does seem to work and it is definitely faster. It seemed to work fine with the USB interface. also of note even text bridge 98 ises driver supported u s b. By the way, when you select a scanner from within OmniPage 10, a screen of information appears that lists the scanners that are supported. Also, to get a scanner driver installed, you must use Caere's SCAN manager in CONTROL Panel and you must "ADD Scanner. Also, even though I could select that option with the arrow keys, I had to route and click the mouse pointer to actually execute it. I also tried the SCANJETX.PXW driver and it did not work. It appears to support fewer scanners than the SCANJET.PXW driver, though, so this makes sense. It eventually caused a system crash. end of story of a 6200 hp scanner user." "omni page tech support told me it is in their in version 10, just hidden away like it was in version 9. can not seem to find it. though it is possible the omni page tech could have been confused and may have remembered it was hidden in version 9 and maybe 10 does not have the driver. if not a old version of omni page or a copy of text bridge can solve that problem. here are the instructions for doing exactly that. they do conclude you have driver in the proper folder as discussed above. Hi john, Here is what I did to add the ISIS driver for my HP 6200C to OmniPage 10. This assumes that the driver already exists on the hard disk. I believe my ISIS drivers came from a version of TextBridge. Go to Settings, then Control Panel. Arrow down to Caere Scan Manager and press ENTER. You should now see a list of the scanners that have been installed. There may only be one scanner. There is one additional item at the top of the list that says "Add Scanner." Going to the "view" menu and selecting "list" will make this box respond to the UP and DOWN ARROW keys. You can view the properties of an installed scanner, delete it or rename it as well from the FILE menu when that scanner is selected. However, to add a new scanner, I found I had to double-click the "add Scanner" item with the mouse and a wizard was started. When the wizard starts, I found a list of scanners. This is a tree view, so as I moved through the list of scanners, the right side changed. The first scanner on the list was "generic". With "Generic" selected, I tabbed one time to a list of choices for "generic," and I selected the ISIS option. I then tabbed to "next" and pressed ENTER. The next step asked me to name the scanner, and gave me options to make that scanner the default with "yes" or "no" radio check boxes. I chose "no" and pressed "NEXT." The next box lists all of the ISIS drivers. I chose SCANJET.PXW and pressed "NEXT" and that was about it. When I next went into OmniPage, there were two scanners from which to choose in the "tools", "Options" "scanner" dialogue. When you use the arrow keys to select the ISIS scanner, some information about the driver automatically appears. You may need to press OK when you select it for the first time. before you do above locate driver and see if on system. location of ises in omni page 10 The Isis driver is scanjet.pxw. I don't know if it is included with Omni Page 10. It was on the Omni Page 9 CD. You would need to look in the c:\windows\pixtran subdirectory. to verify if it is their. if not their create the pixtran folder under windows and place driver into that folder. if you have a 6200 scanner you can actually purchase a driver specifically for your exact model. no idea if this adds much in the way of performance, but the company lets you try a trial copy of driver if you contact them. here is contact info, but be aware this will cost a pretty penny. Dear Pixel Translations Customer, here is a e mail address for contacting us. kwille@pixtran.com the driver will be compressed into a self-extracting ZIP file along with other files that you will need. Please create a temporary directory and place the attached file into it. Then run the file to extract it's contents. After doing this, please view the contents of the README.TXT file, which will contain further installation instructions. Pixel Translations" ******** APPENDIX 5 OTHER TUTORIALS BY THIS AUTHOR All of the below titles are available as plain text files as downloads from my Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard Tutorial titles and brief descriptions 1. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 1, covering Web and e-mail protocols, Web Search engines, navigating the Internet with Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5/6.0, e-mailing with Outlook Express 5.0/5.5/6.0, Downloading files and programs from the Net, using a range of Internet search engines, Joining Internet newsgroups with Free Agent 1.92, configuration and hints and tips for screenreader users, and much more. 2. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 2, covering hints and customisation, Download Managers, Online Auctions, Internet Chat Rooms, RealAudio, Internet Shopping and Internet Banking. 3. A selection of separate and individual manuals instructing visually impaired people how to use off-the-shelf print scanning/reading programs via screenreaders and the keyboard, including TextBridge Pro 98, TextBridge Pro 9 and Millennium, Omnipage Pro 10, 11 and 12, ReadIRIS Pro 6, TypeReader Pro 6 and Abby FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7. Each scanner tutorial is an independent manual in its own right. For example, the titles of the principal two of these scanner tutorials are entitled: "Using OmniPage Pro 10, 11 and 12 from the Keyboard to Scan Print" and "Using FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7 from the Keyboard to Scan Print". 4. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 1. This covers Easy CD Creator 4, Sound forge 4.5, Windows Media Player 6, Windows Recorder, Winamp 2.72, Freerip.mp3, RealPlayer 8 Basic, and much more. 5. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 2. This covers Winamp 5.0X, GoldWave audio editor 5.06, CDEX ripper 1.51, Basics of burning with Nero 5.5 and much more introductory and general sound-related information. 6. "Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4,5 and 5.5 from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 3.3 and Nero Media Player). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero Wizard, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 7. "Nero Burning-ROM 6 Ultra and Enterprise Editions from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 4). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero StartSmart interfaces, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions or folders to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, ripping sound files to MP3 or MP3 Pro files, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 8. "Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". This takes spreadsheet users from the beginner stages of Excel through much intermediate material and also covers a few more advanced features. It will give you the skills to use Excel for home accounting purposes, for keeping self-employed small business records and for use in the employment workplace. 9. "Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002/XP from the Keyboard". This is a tutorial instructing on how to use the richly-featured suite of programs which is a must for anyone seeking employment or wanting to do advanced e-mailing or calendar and other related tasks at home or at work. It covers all of the main features of MS Outlook and many other more technical topics. Covered is: E-mailing, Calendar, Journal, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, arranging appointments and meetings, searching, plus customising Outlook for visually impaired and blind users and appendices of Outlook general shortcuts and HAL, JAWS AND Window-Eyes hot keys and much more. 10. "Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". Available as a plain text file and instructs on how to use over 45 separate skills in these powerful leading word-processors for use at home or in the workplace to make you highly productive and efficient. ******** The End.