Using Kurzweil 3000

Contents:

Getting Started……………………………………………………………………………….……………………………..…….….…………2

Scanning and Reading a Book or Other Printed Material ………………….…………………………..…….…………….2

Opening and Reading a Microsoft word Document or PDF ………………………………………….…….………………3

Exporting an Audio File ……………………………………………………………………………………………….………..……………3

Exporting a Word Document or PDF……………………………………………………………………..…………………..……….4

HELP: Out of Order Reading…………………………………………………………………………………………….………..…….5-6

HELP: Misreadings and Mispronunciation …………………………………………………………………………………...………7

HELP: Other Questions ………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………..…….7

Getting Started

Sign on to the computer using your Gustavus username and password.

Open the program through the link on the desktop. You will need to enter in a username; it doesn’t save

users from one use to the next, so any username is fine.

Scanning and Reading a Book or Other Printed Material

To create a new document with scanned material, place the LAST PAGE of the material on the scanner

and click Scan --> start new scan. The page will be scanned (the scanner will take it a minute to warm

up). The program will auto-rotate the pages for you as needed.

To add the preceding pages, place the appropriate page in the scanner and go to Scan --> Insert Page.

Once all the pages have been scanned, you can begin reading the document by going to the first page

and clicking the green read button. The automated voice will read the document aloud. To pause the

reading, click anywhere on the document, or click pause. You can also change the automated voice, the

reading speed, and set the program to read continuously or sentence-by-sentence using the controls at

the top of the screen.

Opening and Reading a Microsoft Word Document or PDF

Click on the Open button on the toolbar, and locate your file. The program will take a few minutes to

process the document into the necessary format. Once your file is open, you can have it read aloud by

clicking the green Read button. (See above for further information)

Exporting an Audio File:

NOTE: Before you export an audio file, you may wish to make corrections to the information

being read, such as correcting pronunciation, misread words, or the order in which the

information is read. See Help for information on how to do this.

Go to FileAudio Files  Create Audio File.

Make sure you change the name of your file to something recognizable, and select your options. If you

have the file sent to iTunes for a test-run, iTunes will open automatically as soon as the export is

complete.

Once the audio file is created, it will be saved to the folder on the Desktop labeled Kurzweil 3000 Output

Audio.

You can e-mail the file, save it to your samba drive, or onto a flash drive.

Exporting a Word Document or PDF

You can also save the text material. If you want to access it through Kurzweil at a later time, save it as a

KESI file. Otherwise, save it in the most convenient file type. If you are saving as a Word document, the

program will prompt you that you will be losing image information. Be sure that this is what you want to

do, as you will not be able to change back. This is how the file will appear after you change the format to

Word:

Help

Out of Order Reading

In the image below, you can see that, instead of continuing the sentence, the program is going to jump

from one column of text to the caption underneath an image.

You can avoid this by using the Zone Editor. Access the Zone Editor from the Scan menu:

This tool highlights different zones of text identified by the program. As you can see here, the caption is

indicated as zone 2, the 2

column is zone 3, and the page number is zone 4.

By right clicking on the highlighted areas, you can either delete zones, which will then not be read, or

change the order in which they will be read by opening the properties option. In this instance, the

caption and the page number zones were deleted. Now, the program reads like this:

Before exporting an audio file, you will want to check the zones of all pages in your document. You can

move from one page to the next with the zone editor open.

Misreadings and Mispronunciation

Sometimes the recognition program may misread letters and words. If necessary, you can make

corrections to by going to ScanCorrections. From here, you can tell the program what it ought to say

when it sees a certain set of symbols.

If you would like to correct the way the program is pronouncing a word or name, place the red cursor in

front of the word to be corrected, and then go to Tools Pronunciations. For example, here I corrected

the pronunciation of Kant. You can listen to the pronunciation by clicking Test. It may take several tries

to get the pronunciation you want.