ivona minireader and ms word - keyboard shortcuts

Posted by 4 on the 10th December, 2014

Many pupils are now using iVona MiniReader as their main text-to-speech tool in Scottish schools. One question has come up a couple of times and it came up again in today's SQA ICT & Literacy Seminar (URL).

Today's question was how to use iVona to read out a National Literacy 3 or 4 exemplar paper using only the keyboard. The N3 and N4 papers are available in MS Word. So we are considering iVona working with MS Word keyboard shortcuts. (PDF has different keyboard shortcuts not covered in this blog.)

Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar isn't a problem for pupils who can find the word, phrase, sentence to speak! 

But what if the pupil has dyspraxia, or a physical disability or, say, a visual impairment  that makes it difficult to i) locate the chunk of text to be spoken, and ii) to then navigate to that Play button in order to press it? 

Become a Power user!

Often referred to as Power users, keyboard users also have a trick available. It uses Extend mode, F8 (Function key 8).​

 

We'll cover three scenarios.

1. Pupils who can independently find the first word to be spoken.
2.     Pupils who need to use the keyboard to find the first word or phrase to be spoken.
3.     Pupils who can only press one key at a time.

1. Pupils who can independently find the first word to be spoken

1. Open the Word document, launch iVona MiniReader.
2. Position cursor (blinking) somewhere in the first word to be spoken.
3. Press F8 once to turn it on. Press again to select the whole word.
4. (Optional) To select the whole sentence to be read, press F8 a second time.
5. (Optional) To select the whole paragraph to be read, press F8 a third time.
6. Press Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar to speak the word, sentence or paragraph.
7. To deselect the word, sentence or paragraph, press Esc, followed by an arrow key.

2. Pupils who need to use the keyboard to find the first word or phrase to be spoken

1. Open your Word document and launch iVona MiniReader
2. Press Ctrl+F to find the first word or phrase to be spoken - this opens the Find pane. Type in the word or phrase to be found.
3. Press Enter.
4. Use the arrow key to highlight the box containing the word or phrase.
5. (Optional) To select the whole sentence to be read, press F8 a second time - may need three presses.
6. (Optional) To select the whole paragraph to be read, press F8 a third time - may need four presses.
7. Press Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar to speak the word or phrase found (iVona actually speaks it from the Word document itself rather than from the pane - clever!).
8. To deselect the word, sentence or paragraph, press Esc, followed by an arrow key.

To close the Find pane - some pupils may find it distracting or it may take up too much space on the screen

1. With the cursor (blinking) in the Find pane somewhere.

2. Press Ctrl+Spacebar then W.

3. ​For pupils who can only press one key at a time

Use Sticky Keys

1. To activate Sticky Keys press Windows key +U > Make the keyboard easier to use > Turn on Sticky keys.
2. It is now possible to press keyboard combinations by pressing one key, then the next etc. Each key will 'stick' e.g. Ctrl then Shift then Spacebar has the same effect as pressing Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar together.

The document Extend Selection Shortcuts Word is a slightly edited version of those listed under Microsoft Word 2010 Help - which of course can be accessed by pressing the F1 key.