System Features of the Kurzweil 3000

High Tech Center Training Unit

of the California Community Colleges at the

Foothill-De Anza Community College District

21050 McClellan Road

Cupertino, CA 95014

(408) 996-4636

www.htctu.net

URL to our CC license:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

Creative Commons website:

http://creativecommons.org

Kurzweil 3000 2 May 12, 2009

Kurzweil 3000 1

Network Edition 1

License-to-Go 1

USB Edition 1

Resources Available 1

Toolbars 2

User Files 2

Adjusting the Page View 3

Basic Functions 4

Reading 4

Study Skills 5

Writing 9

Read the Web 10

Kurzweil Taskbar 11

Opening TIFF files 12

Editing KESI Files 12

Set Page Numbers 12

Setting the Zones 13

Zoning/Editing Order 15

Edit Underlying Text 15

Headers and Footers 16

Creating and Taking Tests 18

Foreign Languages 20

Pronunciation 22

Saving Files 24

Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 25

KESI Virtual Printer 26

Virtual Printer with 1000 and 3000 27

Automater 28

Steps for Converting TIFF Files to KESI Files with the Automater 29

Finding E-text with Kurzweil 30

Other Sources to Check before Ordering Textbooks 31

Sources of E-text 32

Online Reference Resources 33

Kurzweil 3000 2 May 12, 2009

Kurzweil 3000

Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc.

100 Crosby Drive 800-894-5374

Bedford, MA 01730-1402 www.kurzweiledu.com

Kurzweil Base Pricing (as of June 11, 2013)

Kurzweil 3000 v13 for Windows $1395

Kurzweil 3000 v5 for Mac $1395

Firefly free iPad app

Note: Kurzweil Professional is required for scanning or reading TIFF or PDF files.

Network Edition

All Kurzweil 3000 products are available in network editions, where students can log on from any networked computer running Kurzweil 3000 and access their personal settings and files. Educators and network administrators can centrally track student usage and progress and control the number of licenses in use. The networked edition has floating licenses, so you can purchase only what you need.

License-to-Go

The Remote License-to-Go feature allows granting of licenses to users’ laptop computers, so users can access Kurzweil 3000 without being connected to the network. As a result, teachers and students benefit alike by accessing Kurzweil 3000 in or out of the classroom. For instance, if a teacher wants to take work home or have an IEP meeting with a student’s parents to show Kurzweil 3000, or if a student needs to do homework, Kurzweil 3000 is available whenever and wherever they are.

USB Edition

Kurzweil 3000 USB for Windows gives students and teachers immediate access to Kurzweil 3000 on any Windows computer without installing any software!

Resources Available

The Kurzweil site has quite a few resources (including instructional videos) available for students and teachers (http://www.kurzweiledu.com/research_resource.aspx).

Toolbars

Kurzweil now uses colored bars for each of the toolbars. Main toolbar is red. Reading toolbar is yellow. Study skills is green. Writing toolbar is blue. Click the colored bar to open or minimize the toolbar.

User Files

Under the Tools > Options (Ctrl + F1) > General Tab is a choice for “Ask for User on Startup” (under Miscellaneous). If this choice is checked, you can set up preferences for each individual user. Preferences will be saved locally on the computer.

Adjusting the Page View

The page of the document may not open at the size that is easiest for reading. There are a couple of different options for correcting this.

Under Options > General, one can select a standard value for zooming a page. The default is 100%. Using Ctrl + M when viewing a particular page will apply whatever value was set for “My Zoom.”

The keyboard can also be used to zoom the document: F7 makes it larger; F8 makes is smaller.

If you make changes to the settings for a particular page and you wish to have those same settings the next time the document is viewed, go under View > Page View and select Remember. Please note that you will have to save the KESI file when you exit it in order to save the page view.

The default setting at which documents are opened is set under Tools > Options > Image. Set the default fit to the page size that you would like to see.

Basic Functions

Reading

Tools > Options brings up a window that allows you to customize many features of Kurzweil 3000, including which toolbars to view. The settings below allow us to view the reading toolbar.

Tools > Customize > Toolbars allows you to customize the buttons on the reading toolbar.

Simply clicking in the text and then selecting the read button will enable the text-to-speech function in Kurzweil. Note that the user has control over how the text will read, including speed, continuously or in smaller increments, highlight color, etc.

Tools > Options brings up windows that allow full customization of settings, including the following:

· Speed and voices under the Reading option.

· Colored highlighting of text as it reads (reading bar) and when it is selected using the cursor (selection bar) both under the Image (i.e., the TIFF image) option.

Study Skills

Tools > Customize > Toolbars > Study Skills allows you to choose which buttons will appear on the Study Skills toolbar.

Study Skills includes four colors of highlighters that can be used to select various aspects of the text; for example, one might use yellow for the main idea, green for supporting details, and cyan (blue) for vocabulary words.

After marking a document, the highlighted text can be extracted (File > Extract) into a text document to use as an outline for writing or a summary for further study.

Sticky notes can be used by a student to make notes to themselves, or an instructor can set up a file with informational/directive sticky notes for the student.

If a microphone is available, it is also possible to add a voice note.

One can highlight text and create a bookmark. The bookmarks can be listed alphabetically or in reading order.

Note that bookmarks are notated with a book icon.

Writing

Tools > Customize > Toolbars > Writing allows you to choose which buttons will appear on the Writing toolbar.

Tools > Options > Text (i.e., text that the user creates) brings up a window that allows you to customize the view of text created within the program. The settings below control the look of text that is entered directly into the program.

File > New > Text File (or Ctrl + N) will create a new blank text file. File > Open (Ctrl + O) can be used to open an existing text file.

You can go under Window > Tile Vertically to have a Image file and a writing file open side by side. You can drag and drop text from the Image file onto the writing file.

Read the Web

Kurzweil allows you to read the Web through either of two browsers: Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. To select the browser, go under Tools > Options (Ctrl + F1). Select the Reading option. The Web choices are in the bottom right-hand corner of the window.

Under the Read option, choose Read the Web. You will get a toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

Kurzweil Taskbar

The Kurzweil taskbar automatically installs with version 10 but needs to be set up down in the Windows taskbar. Right click in an empty area of the Windows taskbar (at the very bottom of the Windows screen) and select Toolbars. From the Toolbars list, choose Kurzweil Taskbar. To use the taskbar, simply drag the text you want read down to the icon in the bar. The text will open in a separate window.

Opening TIFF files

Note that scanning or reading TIFF/PDF files requires Kurzweil Professional. Rather than using Kurzweil to scan files, I recommend scanning with the software utility that comes with your scanner and creating TIFF files. Open the TIFF files through Kurzweil and then save the files as KESI files and whatever other file formats are needed.

Choose Tools > Options > Scanning to select the FineReader OCR engine.

Editing KESI Files

Set Page Numbers

You can edit KESI files in a number of ways.

If the document does not begin on page 1, you can align the document numbers with the Kurzweil page numbers by going to View > Page > Set Page Number,

Note that if the document has front matter that uses Roman numerals, you can simply tell Kurzweil how many pages are front mattter, and it will renumber accordingly.

Setting the Zones

The text on the page is set up in “zones.” Zones affect what text is read and the order in which it is read. You can view and edit these zones by choosing Scan > Zone Editor or using the shortcut key CTRL + F5.

If you click once to highlight a zone and then right click on that zone, you can change the reading order or other zone properties. You can also select the zone and then just tap the number (works for 1 through 9).

The reading order is the order in which text is read. Zone one is read first, etc. You can also select whether the text will be read automatically (primary text) or only if the user clicks on the text (secondary text). Setting the zone type as graphic means that Kurzweil will not try to read that zone.

You may wish, for example, to set the header or page number in a book as a graphic zone if you do not wish it to be read.

In setting Zone Properties, you can use the following keyboard commands to set the Zone types:

Ctrl + 1 = Primary zone

Ctrl + 2 = Secondary zone

Ctrl + 3 = Graphic zone

While in the Zone Editor, you can use the tab key to move from zone to zone. Use SHIFT + Tab to move backwards.

To delete a zone, simply use the delete key. You can delete all the zones on the page by using SHIFT + DELETE.

Zoning/Editing Order

If there are any issues with the reading order on a page, it is best to make those changes first and then edit the underlying text.

If you are intending to do a fair amount of editing in Kurzweil, it is quickest to check the reading order on every page before you begin editing the underlying text. Go to Scan > Zone Editor or use Ctrl + F5 to open the Zone Editor. You can make changes and move from page to page without closing the Zone Editor.

Tab key = move forward from zone to zone

SHIFT + Tab = move backwards.

Edit Underlying Text

Remember that with Kurzweil 3000, you see the TIFF file (the scanned picture) on the screen, but it is the hidden, underlying text that the program actually reads.

You can view and edit this underlying text by right clicking on the text and choosing “Edit underlying text” or you can choose Edit > Correct Recognition > Edit Underlying Text. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + F10.

Headers and Footers

The Header/Footer Editor is available only with Kurzweil 3000 Professional.

To enter and exit Header/Footer Edit mode:

With an image document open, select Header/Footer Editor from the Scan menu, or press CTRL+F8.
Kurzweil 3000 appends “Header/Footer Editor is Active” to the document name at the top of the Kurzweil 3000 window to indicate that the document is now in Header/Footer Editor mode.
When you are done, select Header/Footer Editor from either the Scan menu or the Header/Footer Editor right mouse button menu, or press CTRL+F8 again to exit Header/Footer Editor mode.

Notes:

§ Any change you make in this editor will only be saved if you save the file after exiting the editor.

§ It’s possible to read headers/footers in a document in which they have been marked to not be read. In the Reading Options pane, click Skip Headers/Footers to deselect it. This enables you to retain the marked headers/footers while temporarily allowing you to read them.

To mark a header or footer:

Enter the Header/Footer Edit mode.
Make sure that there are no header/footers selected.
Open the Header/Footer Editor right mouse button menu and choose Mark Header/Footer.
The cursor changes to a crosshair.
Use the left mouse button to draw a frame around the header/footer area that you don't want Kurzweil 3000 to read.

The cursor changes to a compass, allowing you to move the frame. If you point to the frame's perimeter, the cursor changes to a double arrow, allowing you to adjust its size.

Tip: If you plan on applying a header/footer marker to all of a document's pages, consider adding extra room around the header/footer when drawing the frame. This allows you to accommodate headers/footers on other pages that may be higher/lower or off to the side a bit more than the header/footer you are marking.

Click outside the frame. You can mark additional header(s)/footer(s).
The header/footer marker appears as a green block.
If you want, at this point you can, apply this marker to all the pages throughout the document.
Exit the editor when you are done.

System Features of the Kurzweil 3000