Options
The options panel - or heart - of Read&Write for Google Chrome.
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The options panel - or heart - of Read&Write for Google Chrome.
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Starting on the right-side of the toolbar (I know, who starts on the right ?) let's take a look at the purple arrow button: Clicking that button gives us a little menu we should explore.
The bottom four menu items (Help, Send Feedback, Texthelp.com, and Close Read&Write) are obvious enough. We're interested in the Options menu item. Let's explore!
By far, the easiest way of discovering the options is to explore them yourself. However, if you've never used R&W before, some of the options can be a bit confusing / daunting.
The first item, Speech, has four reasonably obvious options.
Voice - This is for text-to-speech. Select a male or female voice with the tone and inflection (accent) you prefer.
Speed - The speed of the voice in text-to-speech.
Reading - Select whether the text-to-speech should continue reading until you stop it. If unchecked, it will read what you highlight or by paragraph.
Translation - a powerful tool! The speech tool can actively translate to a different language for your ELL learners!
The prediction tool gives suggestions for next words as you type (most of us have seen this on our phones).
Number of Results - How many suggestions you would like R&W to give.
Follow the Cursor - When checked, the pop-up window of suggestions moves with the cursor as you type. I can't actually think of when you would want this unchecked.
Text Size - Fairly self-explanatory; what size of font to use for suggestions.
Most of the options in this tool are easy to understand, especially if you turn the tool on and then go into the settings.
Background Color - the colour of the area not being highlighted.
Reading Light Color - the horizontal band of lighter area highlighting a page can have a different colour. This option requires Reading Light Opacity to be higher than zero.
Background Opacity - how light or dark the background should be.
Reading Light Height - the height of the highlighted area. Best changed while the tool is on.
Reading Light - a bit of an odd option, this will turn the highlighted horizontal section off, leaving you with just a darker screen.
Defaults - reset everything back to the defaults.
The R&W tool has two language options. The first changes the language of the options panel and tools, the other changes the language of the toolbar and features.
The R&W toolbar is becoming quite jam-packed. In this section you can turn toolbar buttons (features) on and off. This is extremely useful when you have a student who needs to be directed to a specific tool or has difficulty with too many options.
You can also re-order the tools by dragging them up and down to put them in whatever order you prefer.
The about panel tells you the version and other information about R&W and Texthelp.
