How can ZoomText be improved?

[JamesSoftware]

Here's a few tips for making windows and ZT easier to use.

You can use ALT-Shift-S to turn ZT's Speech ON/OFF easily!
and ALT-PLUS & ALT-MINUS on Num-PAD to remove magnification & keep speech (sorta easy.)

To turn ToolTips ON/OFF in Windows deskTop:
Click TOOLS > FOLDER OPTIONS and in the VIEW tab = scroll down to the bottom of the list, then 'clear' the box for SHOW POPUP DESCRIPTION IN.FOLDERS AND DESKTOP ITEMS.

To adjust popUps in each program's window, you will have to check with the application's provider.

.Jim H.

[LarryS]

To improve an already superb product, PLEASE make the say sentence commands present in AppReader and ScreenReader modes more useful by making these two changes:
(1) More accurate reading: Give an option to read through to the actual end of the sentence (period followed by a space), instead of the present behavior, where the reader also stops (incorrectly) at paragraph symbols (also called carriage returns, new-line, hard-return, or ASCII 13 decimal).

2) Give us a cursor/placeholder for text from PDF files (i.e. in Acrobat Reader) or html in a browser; the placeholder like the insertion pointer in text editors would enable returning to that spot when switching between windows. This is a critically important feature.
Currently I have to go through a laborious process of copying the window contents into a text editor, stripping out returns, resulting in an altered page appearance and then needing to go between the original page and the copy, in order to access the original format/layout.

A partial solution: Please implement the “SAY SENTENCE” commands in FireFox under ScreenReader. While ZT does a good job of tracking the FireFox text cursor and positioning it using the arrow and control-arrow keys for say character and say word, the SAY SENTENCE commands need to be implemented here to vocalize the sentence and move the cursor. When using AppReader in FireFox, the text cursor needs to be moved to the point where reading was stopped.


Also, create the ability to change how individual symbols are pronounced, i.e. allow “{“ to be called open brace instead of “left curly brace” and create the ability to pronounce more symbols, i.e. the Greek symbols and mathematical symbols present in the basic Windows character set.
Most appreciatively,
Larry Silvermintz, PhD
Silvermintz@gmail.com

[LuminolBlue]

I would like to see support for OpenOffice in ZoomText. Perhaps this support can become a reality with a future update patch, program upgrade, or full release of ZoomText.

For the time being; however, even after the use of the Cursor Detect Tool, ZoomText is unable to follow the cursor in OpenOffice.

Regards,
Am

[THE DON]

I would like to see ZT read tooltips in Firefox.

[djjohnst]

I think a scaled down ZT app for the smartphone market would be beneficial to your clients and good business. It appears that Apple's Iphone has the most globally functional built in screen enlargement option (Zoom) however there is room for improvement. Blackberry and Android phones seem to fall even shorter of the mark.

Visual accessibility to the Iphone would be improved with a zoom app capable of split screen. Currently Apple's Zoom feature renders the on screen keyboard nonfunctional when zoomed. Currently users have a choice of typing without seeing or seeing without typing during text entry field and address bar field applications in the browser and elsewhere.

Disabling keyboard zoom via a split screen zoom app would allow users with low vision simultaneous typing and scalable enlargement functionality. Additionally a global word wrap option with scalable fonts would also be useful. Thanks for your consideration. Dave

[LC_Cooper]

My wish list: ZT has virtual-cursor functionality. From wherever I am in a paragraph in a webpage, ZT reads from that hover point to the end of the paragraph. ZT reads a complete line of text - not just what is visible on screen. ZT "On The Go" is an application that can be downloaded from Aisquared.com onto Kindles and other ebook platforms. Full ZT versions (including synthesizers) can be purchased online and immediately downloaded & installed, without the need for mailing the discs & manuals (making it cheaper to purchase). ZT's keyboard shortcuts are more robust, comprehensive, intuitive, and customizable. The need for the "pass through key" function has either been eliminated or is a "sticky key" (where once held down for a few seconds, the function passes the "ownership:
of the keyboard command to the underlying application until pressing it again returns the particular keyboard command back to ZT. ZT has the ability to infer text labels for unlabeled graphic objects (attempts OCR or provides an interpretive description of the contents of the graphic object - such as a photo). When the cursor in ZT moves to an editable field, its label is read & visible (which fixes situations on webpages where the field label disappears off screeen to the left, requiring the user to scroll to find the associated text). ZT is fully compatible with iTunes. ZT reads Adobe's, Apple's and others' installation screens that are only graphics, but contains alpha-numeric characters (again, an OCR-ish function). ZT works SEAMLESSLY with MS Office (2003, 2007, & all future versions of office products; particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Project. ZT's OCR & ICR functionality is robust enough to read to the user any document placed in front of a webcam (it can also read, via ICR, info handwritten/printed on whiteboards, chalkboards, projector screens, etc). This enhanced OCR & ICR capability allows ZT to read everything, then, including locked pdf documents and webpages (internet and intranet) that are only graphic images (even though they're only blocks of text converted into a graphic image). So, gone are the days when an employer's online training materials are impossible for ZT to read. ZT has the ability to control scanners so that reading begins immediately as the document is scanned (instead of having to save the scanned doc to a format that ZT could then read, upon opening the doc). ZT "On the Go" is a free application that can be downloaded to mobile phones, too, so that text messages, phone books, etc on the phone can be read to the user. With ZT "On the Go" OCR & ICR capability, a mobile device's camera can be used as a portable scanner (I'm sitting on a plane, I want to read an article in an in-flight magazine, so I whip out my mobile device & its camera takes a picture of the article, ZT "On the Go" application on my mobile device then reads me the article).