The Reading Screen: Where the Adventure Begins November 13 2015, 0 Comments
by Bethany Wagner
If you've been following our most recent blog series, you've seen how to navigate the Home Screen and Library. You’ve downloaded the books on your list and finally have a spare moment to sit down in a coffee shop, at the library, or in your own living room. It’s time to discover the real power of this software by selecting your desired book to open the Reading Screen, the heart of Open LORE Read and Learning Center.
Open LORE software provides state-of-the-art reading capabilities, tools, and features to enrich the reading experience--and then hands you the reigns. Bring your own interests, passions, preferences, challenges, and strengths to the Reading Screen, where a full fleet of customization features allows you to craft a reading experience that works best for you.
Your Toolbox
Welcome to your Toolbox. The icons in the upper left of the Reading Screen provide navigation tools and features to make the most of your reading experience. The Books icon will take you back to the Library at any time.
Have a specific word or phrase to find? Select the Binoculars icon to search the entire book instantly, using the arrows to search backwards and forwards in the text. Next, the Page List icon will bring up the Table of Contents. The Play button reads the Table back. Once you’ve found the chapter or page you want, simply click the title to dive right back in to reading.
The Bookmark icon will allow you to create, delete, edit, and manage bookmarks. Click the dropdown list to select a bookmark, and click the Go button to jump to that spot in the text.
Not sure what a word means? Want to take your depth of reading to the next level? The Dictionary icon will open the dictionary, complete with tools to search, playback definitions and spellings, and easily access the online Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary for further research. If a word is already selected, the dialogue box will instantly give its definition.
Let’s Get Reading
Your book is open and ready to go. Maybe it’s a Harry Potter adventure you haven’t read yet. Maybe it’s a novel by Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. Maybe it’s a biology textbook, or a recipe cookbook. Whatever the case, you are ready to read.
Click the Play button to start playback, and Pause to stop. Don’t what to start from the very beginning? Double-click the word at your desired starting point first, and then click Play. The left and right controls will take you backwards and forwards in the book’s chapters.
All texts in Open LORE first appear in Lexia Readable, a font specifically designed for accessibly and easy readability. But simply select the Lexia button to view the text in the publisher’s original font.
The Text Only icon will hide the image window, while the Show Images button will display the book’s images synced alongside the text, an exclusive Open LORE feature. The Magnifying Glass icons will decrease and increase font sizes. Finally, use the arrows below the image window to browse the book’s entire image catalog, and click on the image to view it magnified in a separate window.
Find Your Voice
Open LORE’s software is equipped with a range of high-quality voices, all with customizable pitch and speed options. In the Text-to-Speech Setting window, you can select the voice that best suits you, adjust the speed and pitch, and return to initial default settings.
In the Text Tracking window, change the word, sentence, page, and font colors. Select from the predefined colors, or click the paintbrush to choose your own shade from limitless options. The On and Off switch will turn text tracking on and off. As you make changes, preview them in the sample sentence. Make each book a different experience by creating different default voice and text tracking settings for each text.
Diving Deeper
Open LORE software allows you to do more than just read. Go beyond the words, finding new ways to interact with the text with the Pop-up Menu. Bring up the menu by right clicking or tap and holding. Select a word or phrase first to bring up the Menu with copy, read, and spell options.
Brought up the menu? Let’s take a look at its full capabilities. Use the Pages icon to copy your text. The Play button will read the selected word or phrase out loud, while the ABC icon will spell your selection out loud. The Dictionary icon will open the dictionary and provide definitions, while you can select the Push Pin icon to add a bookmark at the cursor location. In the Learning Center Pop-up Menu, the Add Word button will add any selected word to your vocabulary list for later review and study.
Taking Note
And still there are more reading and study tools to use within the Pop-up Menu! The Blue Cloud icon will allow you to add a note at the selected location in the text. In the box that appears, enter a title for your note, the note text, and use the Edit/Lock tool to edit the note or protect it from accidental editing. Proofread your note using the Play-back button and spell check.
Word Highlighting
You’ve just read a line that you don’t want to forget. An important definition in your chemistry textbook. A hilarious line from a New York Times Bestseller. An inspiring quote from a classic novel that speaks to your soul. Time to break out Open LORE’s highlighting tool. Select the word or phrase, click the Highlighter icon, then select a color to highlight it. You can also select a default color first, then go through the page highlight to your heart’s content using the cursor to select text. And never fear mistakes—the broom button will clear the highlighting from any selected text at the touch of a button.
In Learning Center, all your notes, highlighted text, and selected vocabulary words are automatically added to book specific study guides stored in your Open LORE Library.
