Just a minor clarification. Kurzweil 1000 version 9 shipped (in August)
with ScanSoft OmniPage 12.5 as well as with FineReader 7.0.
Stephen
At 09:39 PM 12/15/2004, you wrote:
Fellow volunteers, Freedom Scientific has just announced the newest version of Openbook, v7.02. This release contains at least two potentially major enhancements and a wealth of program fixes.
Enhancements:
a. Scansoft Omnipage 12.5 -- definitely worth trying this out against the Fine Reader Engine shipped with Kurzweil 9.0 and the same shipped with Openbook.
b. Scansoft RealSpeak 22Khz text-to-Speak -- I only heard some recordings of the 22Khz Jennifer voice, but always found it significantly better than the 16khz version I have tried live so far. Will I like Jaundis Jennifer 22Khz better than Microsoft Muddling Mary 4.0? No idea, but I will give her a good try and a more than fair chance.
Below is an abstract on Openbook 7.02 from the Freedom Scientific web site. For more info and upgrade policies pls go directly to: http://www.freedomscientific.com or call Freedom scientific at 800-336-5658.
What's New in OpenBook 7.02
Soon to be released, OpenBook 7.02 (released in December 2004), contains the following enhancements and bug fixes.
Features and Enhancements
Updated Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
All OCR engines included with OpenBook have been updated to provide the best text conversion and page recognition available. Now you can choose between OmniPage 12.5, Recognita 12.5, or FineReader 7.0 to recognize graphic-based text.
RealSpeak Upgraded to 22 KHz
The RealSpeak text-to-speech synthesizer has been upgraded to 22 KHz to provide better quality speech for reading documents.
Disable the Fax Feature
The ability to send and receive faxes in OpenBook can now be disabled if necessary for certain corporate environments.
Bug Fixes
The following issues have been resolved in this update:
The Freedom Scientific Virtual Printer (FSVP) now allows users with any account type to print to it.
TripleTalk PCI now works correctly with OpenBook.
Canceling the process of saving a file to audio no longer causes OpenBook to occasionally fail.
Improved navigation when performing book searches.
Project Gutenberg results now display correctly when you perform a book search.
Downloading books from Project Gutenberg or Baen Free Library using the book search feature no longer causes errors.
Advanced book searches no longer cause errors if you enter a space for the title and author.
The book search feature no longer stops responding if you download a book, cancel the download, and then search again.
Bookshare.org now yields the appropriate search results during a book search.
OpenBook now correctly announces the book search results area as a list box.
Performing advanced book searches that use the "OR" operator no longer causes OpenBook to display books that contain a matching author and title twice.
The Download button now becomes available after you cancel a book search.
OpenBook can now open entire books if they are exceptionally long.
The fax feature is now automatically disabled if no sending device (such as a modem) is installed on the computer.
COM ports 1-4 are now available in the advanced fax settings.
Faxed documents/images are now deleted correctly and are no longer included when you send subsequent faxes.
Choosing the Add Document button while faxing a document no longer erases any current documents that have not been faxed and replaces them with the added document.
You can now scan from Microsoft Word regardless of where you install OpenBook.
The FineReader OCR engine no longer causes OpenBook to stop responding while scanning.
FineReader no longer removes umlauts from text view and the dots above lowercase "i" from exact view.
The scanning process no longer stops responding periodically on operating systems other than Windows XP.
Page orientation detection now works correctly when you are using the OmniPage OCR engine.
Check box selections in the Scanner Selection dialog box are now retained correctly.
Corrected a message that asked the user to perform unnecessary steps if the user did not have a scanner configured for use with OpenBook.
Added the correct labels to the Number of Copies edit spin box, OK button, and Cancel button in the Photocopy dialog box.
In the Photocopy dialog box, OpenBook now informs you whether the photocopy brightness setting is a positive or negative number.
In the Photocopy dialog box, OpenBook announces whether the Fit to Printed Page check box is selected or cleared.
The tab order of the Photocopy dialog box has been rearranged in a more logical structure.
OpenBook now announces the title of the Photocopy dialog box.
The default button in the Photocopy dialog box now works correctly.
OpenBook no longer says, "Cap cap A" when typing a capital "A."
The Help menu now lists F1 as the keyboard shortcut for opening the Help system.
Added context-sensitive help to the dialog box that appears when you open the Tools menu and choose Word Count.
Added the correct help message context-sensitive help for the Discard Blank Pages check box.
Command line arguments now work correctly for launchable applications.
Batch images are now correctly saved in the folder specified in the Batch Images Location edit box, located in the OpenBook Settings dialog box.
Added a "What's New in OpenBook" section to the Help system.
OpenBook correctly announces the access key used to select or clear the Announce Shortcut or Access Keys check box in the OpenBook Settings dialog box.
Added the correct context-sensitive help for the Default Print Font Name and Default Print Font Size lists in the OpenBook Settings dialog box.
Other features in OpenBook
Guido Dante Corona IBM Accessibility Center, Austin Tx. Research Division, Phone: 512. 838. 9735. Email: guidoc@xxxxxxxxxxx Web: http://www.ibm.com/able
