Over several of the past weeks we have talked about talking to your devices. Whether asking for them to give you directions, the temperature, local movies playing, the time, etc. We also spoke about dictating to some of your devices and word processors. For some it could, and does, make it much easier to type documents. Those articles generated many emails, which I appreciate so keep them coming. So today we move on to something similar but different.
Today we look at the other side of the spectrum…getting them to "start" and complete the conversation, sort of.
Microsoft Office online and Office 365 (online) have both come out with a recent addition, "Immersive Reader." It is also available for the local office clients if you have joined the Office Insider program and have the Windows 10 operating system. Personally, I have not joined because you get software that is not ready for primetime and may have some issues. Since I use my computer for day-to-day work I do not want to take any chances. Although, thinking about it does sound interesting!?
Immersive Reader is part of Microsoft’s Learning Tools for Education. They are looking for ways to help students who need help in particular areas to get it. So far it is all free too, thanks MS!
Immersive Reader has several fascinating features built in.
You must first get into your Office online account, which is also free. If you have not created an account it is quite easy. You can get there via several different URLs but to keep it simple I would use "office.com." You can use a new or existing MS free email account (outlook.com or live.com) or create one with any email address you already have. I use an Outlook.com account to keep things straight between MS and my Google accounts.
Once there open an existing Word (or OneNote so far at this time) and click the "View" button in the ribbon. A new ribbon will open and one of the first few on the left is the "Immersive Reader" button, so click it. It will open the file in a different view. The letters will be larger, to assist people who are vision impaired and they are spaced farther apart than you may be used to which is for those who are dyslexic.
At the bottom of the screen you will have a Play/Pause button with very short instructions and three icons in the upper right corner, see below. They are letters, books and a face. Once you click the play button a pleasant slightly computerized sounding lady will start reading the document and highlighting the words read as it proceeds. This can help significantly improve many peoples’ reading skills in various areas.
The icon with letters allows you to increase or decrease the size of fonts and spacing between letters or lines. The icon of books will let you look at syllables and highlight different parts of speech as it reads…I need this one. The last icon, the face allows the reader to control the speed of the voice reading back the words.
If you wish to start reading at a different location in the document click the word with your mouse and start it playing again. The reader will start there and continue.
Neat addition to office and they will be improving it as time goes by.
