Included with the system is a high quality speech synthesizer, which is installed automatically during the SymWord setup procedure.

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1 Introduction to SymWord SymWord is a simple to use, talking, symbol-word processor. It has the basic functionality of a word processor. SymWord can also be configured to produce speech and/or display text as symbols. It has word prediction capability and can save the written documents, export to text format and send them via . Included with the system is a high quality speech synthesizer, which is installed automatically during the SymWord setup procedure. The user interface of the editor can be customised so that it meets the user s needs. SymWord supports user profiles so that these customisations can be saved and used again without having to change the settings for each different user. Default settings The program will start with the default settings and you can start typing your document. Alternatively, you can click on Close or the X button at the top of the window to exit the program. You can also choose the Add User tab to manage the users of the system, this is explained later. Editor Window When starting with default settings, the editor which is shown below. The window can be logically divided into four sections: The menu, the toolbar, the main document body and the grid. You can start typing right away and almost every word you type will be converted to a symbol. You can explore the menu and toolbar options by yourself but for a more detailed explanation please see Editor Environment. From the logon screen, click on the User Add tab. You will see the screen shown below.

2 This gives three options: Add a user. This will add a user to the list of users and create a new folder which will contain the user s documents. You can select the new user from the list and log on as this new user. Remove a user. Use this option when you want to delete the selected user. When you click on Remove, a new window will ask you for confirmation of deletion. You can delete all users but the main user. Note: When deleting a user, the documents that were saved in the user s folder will be deleted as well. See later for information about how to keep documents after a user has been deleted. Configure a user. This option will show a new window which will help you to configure the selected user. Adding Users To add a user, type a user name and click the User Add button - see image below. This will create a new user. The user name will appear in the Existing Users list - see image below.

3 When you click on Remove, you will see the window shown below. Click on Yes to delete the user. You can click No if you do not want to delete the user. Deleting a user also deletes of all the documents created by this user. If you need to delete a user and save the documents then copy the documents manually from their personal folder in "Application Data" before you delete the user. These documents can be later copied into a new user directory and will then appear as documents of that user. Contact Support for more information on how to do this for your version of Windows. When you click on Configure, you will see the window below.

4 This window is divided into many tabs: 1. Basic settings. Here you can select the level of user interface complexity. There are two predefined levels: Easy and Advanced. The default for new users is Easy (basic features). With this tab you can change document body default font and menu font for the selected user. 2. Document colours. This area has a set of colour boxes which state the colour of fonts and colour of background of document for the selected user. In this tab you can choose to select Hide Toolbars to remove the toolbar from the screen. 3. Voice. Using this tab you may choose the speech synthesizer to be used for reading documents and for speech feedback while writing. You can set the synthesizer voice, speech parameters (speed and volume) and decide upon what is going to be spoken while typing or writing with symbols: characters, words, sentences. You may also decide how words and symbols should be spoken during navigation. 4. Initial Grid. Here you can choose the grid that will be displayed always, after the user logs in. 5. Scan. Scan options allows you to choose among various scanning devices (a switch that is connected to mouse buttons or specific keys on keyboard), scanning methods (linear or by groups) and more. 6. Prediction. Here you can choose a prediction dictionary (from a list of available dictionaries), the number of predicted words to be shown and colours. You can add a word to the prediction dictionary you are using by clicking on the Add word to prediction dictionary button under the main Prediction tab. You may also change the settings so that the predicted words appear in capital letters by checking the Prediction in block capitals box. The Spell Check Dictionary can be changed by choosing the required option from the Spell Check Dictionary Name drop box.

5 7. . This section controls settings for server (incoming and outgoing) for the selected user. After these settings are defined, a user who cannot read or write text can send and receive symbolic messages. Here (see image below) you can change the general settings of the Editor. The list below explains the options: 1. User Profile: a list for choosing the user profile Easy with basic menu options, and Advanced with full menu available. 2. Presentation: here you have three options o Symbols and Text: when the user types a word, a symbol appears over that word. o Symbols Only: when the user types a word, the word is replaced by the o symbol. Text Only: words are not converted to symbols. The user can type normally as in a regular word processor. 3. Symbol Set: here you can choose one of the available symbol sets. 4. Editor Fonts: here you can set the default font of the editor. (This setting as well as the other settings affects only the selected user). You can select both the font and its size. In this option, document and background colour are set for default document, not for current document. These settings will appear if the user chooses a new document or if they run SymWord again. 5. Menu Fonts: here you can set the font of menu items for the current user. Both Editor Fonts and Menu Fonts have a Font Preview window to let you see the effect of changes you have made.

6 Document Colours Here (see image below) you can change the general settings of the Editor. Set Document Colours: This tab will help you set the document colours. The same dialog can be accessed by clicking Colours under the Format menu in the editor. To set the font colour make sure the Fonts option is selected in the Apply To... list and then select a colour. To set the background colour, select the Background option in the Apply To... list and select the background colour. You can see what your document will look like in the Preview pane. To accept changes click on OK. To discard changes click on Cancel.

7 Voice This tab (image below) will help you set the voice settings for the editor. The same dialog box can be accessed by clicking Voice under the Settings menu in the editor environment. You can select a voice from the voice list by clicking on it. You can adjust the Speed and Volume from the sliders and click on the Test button to listen to your settings. From the Speech Options you can enable or disable a set of features: 1. Speak characters as you type: if this feature is enabled, when the user types a character, the voice you selected will speak that character. This feature is turned off by default. 2. Speak words as you type: if this feature is enabled, as soon as the user types a word followed by space, enter or tab, the selected voice will speak that word. 3. Speak when using arrow keys: when this feature is enabled, the user can use the arrow keys from the keyboard to move around the document and listen to what is at the current position. When moving left and right letters are spoken. When pressing CTRL and moving left and right words are spoken. When moving up and down the whole line is spoken.

8 4. Speak words when clicked: this feature allows the user to click on a word/symbol and have it spoken by the selected voice. 5. Speak menu captions: this feature makes the menu of SymWord speak. 6. Turn speech off: this options turns speech off when selected and none of the above features has any effect. You can accept the settings by clicking on OK or discard them by clicking on Cancel.

9 Initial Grid The Grid selection dialog box (image below). This dialog box displays a list of grids installed on the system. You can select one of the grids in the list and see what it looks like in the preview. To set an initial grid: 7. Select it by selecting its name in the list. 8. Press OK to close the dialog and set the new initial grid. 9. Alternatively, press Cancel to close the dialog without changing the current initial grid.

10 Scan This tab (image below) helps in setting options for switch users. Switch time period is the time after which the cursor will move to next item in the grid while scanning. Switch mode can be set to either keyboard or mouse. If switches are connected that emulate key presses choose keyboards here. If switches are connected to the computer as mouse buttons choose mouse. If Scan activation toggle is on you use the keyboard or mouse (depending on your choice) to move the cursor around the grid. Scanning mode switch chooses between linear scanning (one field of grid at a time) and grouped. When scanning in group mode the user will have to "dig in" to get to desired field. When scanning, fields can be highlighted or their background inverted. In the Cell border highlight section you may set the preferences for these properties. Colour dialog box changes the highlighted cell s border colour. On Scan continued tab (image below) one can Limit cursor movements to grid area (when mouse clicks are used for activating), switch scanning sound on or off (Play sound while scanning) and decide where to start scanning next after activating a field (Start scanning from current field after activation).

11 Please note shortcut CTRL + F1 to stop scanning.

12 Prediction This tab (image below) is used to set options for prediction. If prediction is on, a set of words that are most probable to be typed by the user (based on recently typed characters) are displayed in a pane left of the grid. You can decide which prediction dictionary to use (there may be many different for different educational levels, subject areas or languages) and how the predicted words should be displayed.

13 Virtual Keyboard This tab (image below) is used to set options for virtual keyboard. If virtual keyboard is switched on, then the SymWord window shrinks to fit a small area of the screen and the previous program loaded will be opened. This allows for the Document Body to appear in a Word document, or Notepad. The settings allow for change in transparency, different positions of the grid docking, or no special options.

14 This tab (image below) contains the settings for the electronic mailbox of the user. Here you have to enter the data which will need to be provided by your mail server administrator.

15 Editor Environment When you Log On with an advanced user profile, you have access to all the features of SymWord. We can divide this window (image below) into four parts: Menu, Toolbar, Document Body and Grid. Everything covered here applies to the easy user profile as well. The Document Body We will start with the Document Body as this is the where the user mainly interacts with the program. When the user types a character from the keyboard, it appears in the Document Body. Depending on the settings, as the user types; words symbols will appear above those words or even replace them. The text is displayed in the default font which has been set from the General Settings (explained in User Management Section). If an item is selected from the on-screen grid (either by mouse click or by pressing a switch while scanning) all contents of the key may be entered in the Document Body depending on settings. The Grid The grid is the rectangular area underneath the Document Body. The grid has cells (fields) with text and graphics in it. Depending on its design, a cell may place text and/or graphics in the document body or cause an action like reading document or sending when selected. When cells are selected they can speak or produce a recorded sound (depending on the key s properties). Right clicking a cell plays the defined sound without placing the contents of the cell in the Document Body. The grid area may share its space with the prediction area, when it's turned on. The suggested words are displayed to the left of the grid.

16 The Toolbar The toolbar provides access to File Management, Document Formatting and Grid Settings (image below). Document Formatting The Document Formatting buttons provided by the toolbar are (from left to right): 10. Bold Italics Underline: These three buttons change the font style to Bold, Italics, and Underline. You can click on one or more of these buttons and the next character you type will be displayed with the selected style combination. 11. Paragraph Alignment buttons: This button allows you to align your text in four different ways: Align Left aligns the text to the left. Text extends from left to right as you type. Centre centres the text in the Document Body. Align Right aligns the text to the right. As you type the text extends from right to left. Justify spreads the text so that, lines extend from left to right evenly. 12. Font selection buttons: These three buttons allows the user to change the font. Just press on: T for Times New Roman A for Arial C for Courier New The dropdown list to select the size of the font

17 The Menu The menu provides all of the functionality found in the toolbar plus some extra commands. On a Level 3 user configuration the menu is shown in the image below. The File menu is shown below: As you can see most of the options are available from the toolbar. The new options are Save As, Print Preview and Log Off. Save As allows saving your document with another name. Print Preview button brings up a new window with an image of what the document will look like if printed out. Exit asks the user to save the document and closes the editor.

18 The Edit Menu provides clipboard operations and grid settings (image below): Here the user can Cut, Copy, and Paste a selection. Clipboard is a place in memory where data is temporarily saved for later use. You can select text and symbols by holding down the Shift key and pressing an arrow key or by pressing the mouse button on a word and without releasing the mouse button, moving the mouse to select text. There are three standard clipboard operations in this menu: 13. Cut: This option removes the selection from the document body and places it in the clipboard. 14. Copy: This option copies the selection to the clipboard without removing it from the Document Body. 15. Paste: This option inserts the contents of the clipboard at the current input position (indicated by the caret the blinking vertical line) in the Document Body. The clipboard contents are not deleted. (i.e. you can paste them again). For all other options refer to Grid settings that were described in the Toolbar section.

19 The Format menu (image below) helps you change the visual aspects of your document. From this menu you can change the Fonts and the Colours of the document or change alignment of current paragraph. This menu has following options: 16. Font: Here you can select one of the three fonts and the size for that font. You can check the preview panel to see what it looks like. Click OK to accept the changes or Cancel to discard the changes. 17. Colours: This option allows you to change the font colour and background colour of the Document Body. For more information refer to Document Colours Section. The Settings Menu has items shown below. The Users option leads to dialog identical to that shown when Logging on. This dialog enables user management described in the first section of this User's Manual. The User Settings option displays the User Management dialog as described in Configuring Users section. The Voice option will show the voice settings window. For more information refer to Voice Settings. Note: Any changes made to the Fonts, Colours and Voice settings from the menu, will not be saved in the user profile. If you want to make changes and save them, refer to the Configuring Users section.