BrowseAloud Plus User Guide
1. Introduction to BrowseAloud Plus
2. What's New
3. Getting BrowseAloud Plus for your device
4. Toolbar Features
5. Reading PDF Documents
6. Reading Secure Sites
7. Reading Text using a Mouse
8. Reading Text using a Touch Screen Device
9. Introduction to the BrowseAloud Panel
Introduction to BrowseAloud Plus
BrowseAloud Plus reads website content out loud in a high quality, human-sounding voice. Each word is highlighted as it is read aloud and the sentence is highlighted in a contrasting colour. This allows users to easily identify what text is being read aloud and navigate within and between web pages. BrowseAloud Plus is free to website visitors, there's no download and it is really easy to get.
What's New
A new version of BrowseAloud Plus was released on March 11, 2013. Excitingly, it now reads PDF documents and secure web pages. It also has an additional 17 voices, bringing the total number of voices up to 24, and updates have been made to the toolbar.
PDF Reading
Using our new Online PDF Reader, BrowseAloud can intuitively identify and read almost any PDF document - even if the link does not end in ".PDF" - and those that are securely hosted. This Online PDF Reader is currently in beta version so this is your opportunity to provide feedback before the development phase is complete.
Secure Site Reading
Just like our flagship product, BrowseAloud Plus now reads secure web pages. It does this whilst maintaining secure communications of confidential and personal information.
Pronunciation Control
BrowseAloud Plus now empowers website owners to make pronunciation changes on their own website. This feature will be useful when pronouncing place names, people names and acronyms.
Voice Control
With BrowseAloud Plus, website owners can set a default voice (and language) on individual pages of their site. This feature will be particularly useful for dual- and multi-lingual sites.
17 New Voices
The number of voices offered with BrowseAloud Plus has been extended from 7 to 24! End users can choose from any of the following voices, free of charge:
1. UK English Female - Emily
2. US English Female - Jill
3. Australian Accented English Female - Karen
4. Dutch Female - Claire
5. German Female - Steffi
6. Norwegian Female - Nora
7. Swedish Female - Alva
8. UK English Male - Daniel - New
9. US English Male - Tom - New
10. Irish Accented English Female - Moira - New
11. Scottish Accented English Female - Fiona - New
12. Brazilian Portuguese Female - Raquel - New
13. Finnish Male - Mikko - New
14. Flemish Female - Ellen - New
15. French Female - Virginie - New
16. French Canadian Female - Julie - New
17. Italian Female - Silvia - New
18. Mexican Spanish Female - Paulina - New
19. Polish Female - Agata - New
20. Spanish Female - Isabel - New
21. Swedish Female - Ingrid - New
22. Welsh Female - Gwyneth - New
23. Windows Default Female Voice - New
24. Windows Default Male Voice - New
Improved Toolbar
Close Button
A close button has been added to the BrowseAloud Plus toolbar allowing you to remove the toolbar from your screen at your convenience. To get the toolbar back you simply click on your BrowseAloud Plus browser button.
Movable Toolbar
When using BrowseAloud Plus from your touch screen device, you can now reposition the toolbar on the screen to suit your personal preferences.
Getting BrowseAloud Plus for your Device
To use BrowseAloud Plus, first add the browser button by following the instructions <here>. If you have already added BrowseAloud Plus, you do not need to add it again.
To read a web page, click on the BrowseAloud Plus browser button.
The BrowseAloud Plus Toolbar will appear:
There are two options for reading text: 1) Hover Highlighting, and 2) Text Selection.
Toolbar Features
BrowseAloud Plus delivers high quality speech to assist those with dyslexia, literacy difficulties, mild visual impairments and where English is a second language when browsing the web. BrowseAloud Plus features and options are accessed from an easy to use, floating toolbar. They include:
1. Hover Highlighting
2. Text Selection
3. Pause/Resume Speech
4. Stop Speech
5. Close Toolbar
1. Hover Highlighting
Hover Highlighting is turned on by default.
You can have text read aloud by positioning your mouse over text or, if you are using a touchscreen device, by tapping the text once. BrowseAloud Plus will then read through to the end of the page or until you press 'Stop'.
To turn Hover Highlighting off, press the red Hover Highlighting button.
To turn Hover Highlighting back on, press the green Hover Highlighting button.
2. Text Selection
You can also have text read aloud using Text Selection. To use this option, first ensure that Hover Highlighting it turned off by pressing the red Hover Highlighting button. The BrowseAloud Plus toolbar will now look like this:
Highlight the area of text which you would like to have read aloud then click or tap on the Play button.
3. Pause/Resume Speech
To pause or resume speech at any time, click the Pause/Resume button.
4. Stop Speech
To stop speech at any time, click the Stop button.
5. Close Button
To remove the BrowseAloud Plus toolbar from your screen, simply click or tap the Close button.
Reading PDF Documents
Using our new Online PDF Reader, BrowseAloud can intuitively identify and read any PDF document - even those that don't end in ".PDF" and those that are securely hosted. This Online PDF Reader is currently in beta version so you have the opportunity to provide feedback before the development phase is complete.
Reading Secure Sites
Just like our flagship product, BrowseAloud Plus now reads secure web pages. It does this without compromising the security of confidential and personal information.
Reading Text using a Mouse
To read text on a device with a mouse, simply hover the mouse over the text.
Reading Text on a Touch Screen Device
To read text on a touchscreen device, tap the text once:
To read links, tap the link with two fingers:
Introduction to the BrowseAloud Panel
In some instances, a website owner may have added the BrowseAloud Panel to every page on their website. This Panel is just like your BrowseAloud Plus browser button as it also launches the BrowseAloud Plus toolbar.
