EXPLOITING AND INDUSTRY STANDARD TEAM: WORD 7 FOR WINDOWS 95, MICROSOFT BOOKSHELF AND SOUNDBLASTER

Ellen Cutler
High Tech Training Center
Santa Monica College
1900 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Voice/Message: (310)452-9267
Internet: ecutler@smc.edu

Web Posted on: November 22, 1997

INTRODUCTION

Shortly after we obtained our new Windows 95, multimedia computers at the Santa Monica College High Tech Training Center, I observed an instinctual, almost effortless coordination of applications working together to provide a rich computing environment for our students with learning disabilities. This was a computing environment consisting entirely of industry standard hardware and software which provided compensatory strategies that, like curb cuts, are immensely useful to the general population reflecting infinite patterns of learning differences. These computers are Pentiums with 32 MB of RAM, running at 133 MHZ. They have 8X CD ROM drives and SoundBlaster cards. The application team I am focusing on for this presentation includes Word 7 for Windows 95 (with references to innovations in Word 97), Microsoft Bookshelf 95, and TextAssist, the screen reader available with Sound Blaster cards. This presentation is an overview of features that may be helpful to us and our students in the interrelated processes of learning, reading, and writing.

COORDINATION

TextAssist supported by its ally, the SoundBlaster card, will read any highlighted text whether in Word or Bookshelf. All current SoundBlaster cards on the market are compatible with TextAssist. These cards as of February 1, 1997 include the AWE64 PnP, AWE64 Gold PnP, 16 Value PnP, 32 PnP, and the AWE32 PnP. TextAssist is always packaged with the retail version of the SoundBlaster card. You control TextAssist's activities through an application called TextAssist Reader. Loading this application places tiny tape recorder controls on your monitor which you use to control playing; pausing; and adjusting volume, pitch and speed. Having this speech output available at no extra cost when you purchase a multimedia system is a tremendous boon to all of us who use speech output to facilitate reading and improve proofreading. Once you load TextAssist, it sits patiently in the background available whenever needed.

Microsoft Word and Bookshelf were designed to function together as part of the Office team. Windows 95 facilitates this coordination by providing buttons on the task bar representing each open application. You have only to click on the one needed and it becomes Windows' focus of attention. Predictably you can copy and paste between applications. This can be accomplished with your basic copying and pasting commands or through the more sophisticated Copy To command from Bookshelf's Edit menu giving you the opportunity to copy into Word (or Excel). This command provides some welcome services. If Word is not yet open, it will be opened for you. If Word documents are already running, this command will ask into what location in which document you want the information copied. Copying and pasting is just the beginning of much finer coordination. Any copied information is accompanied by a footnote. You can access all of Bookshelf's books from within Word (and Excel). You simply select a word or phrase in your document, open the Tools menu, and choose Lookup Reference. Choose Bookshelf from the list of references and choose one of three reference methods (Keyword, Fulltext, None). When specifically seeking a definition, you have only to right click on the word to be defined and click once on the Define item on the shortcut menu. A definition box on loan from Bookshelf floats on top of your Word document. Unfortunately, this particular definition box does not seem to be compatible with TextAssist.

DETAILS

TextAssist

The most comprehension controls for TextAssist are available through the file, TA Control Panel. You can choose your basic voice and then use the advanced controls to modify and save it. Additionally you can adjust rate, pitch and volume.

Sometimes we need more screen reading options than can be provided by TextAssist (e.g., You may need to hear spell checker choices; you may want automatic sentence by sentence reading.). You can then consider other screen reading options. One of these options is Jaws for Windows, a full-featured screen reader designed to provide Windows access to people who are blind. Jaws will work not only with a dedicated speech synthesizer like a DECTalk, but will also work with a SoundBlaster card as long as TextAssist is present. Another program that works with a SoundBlaster card and is designed specifically for people with learning disabilities is textHelp!. This program unites screen reading, synonyms, real-time spell checking, word prediction, and magnification, ostensibly offering much the same computing environment as the one we have discussed. However, textHelp!'s screen reading includes real-time as well as selected text. Also, when the homophone dictionary option is activated, textHelp! will speak the definition of recognized homophones as it reads the selected text.

Microsoft Bookshelf

Microsoft Bookshelf 95 consists of 7 references: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition; The Original Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (Americanized Version), The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, The People's Chronology, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1995, and Hammond Atlas of the World. You can look up information in one or all books simultaneously. Bookshelf has a comprehensive, accessible help feature including a coherent explanation of how to use search operators. Bookshelf also has its own spell checker, and you can always spell check in Word and then copy the corrected text into Bookshelf's edit box. Most people are familiar with Word's thesaurus dialog box which provides shades of meaning on the left side with synonyms for the selected shade of meaning on the right side. Bookshelf's thesaurus is more extensive and initially more confusing as each shade of meaning has its own separate entry. The Find feature is extremely useful. For example, the Find feature in the dictionary can be used to find a word for which you have some aspects of its meaning (e.g., If you ask the dictionary to find a word reflecting both "dog" and "Scotland," you are presented with Gordon setter, Cairn terrier, collie, deerhound, and Dandie Dinmont.). The Find feature in Columbia Quotations can be used to find quotes with specific subject matter (e.g., marriage). The requested text is highlighted in the context of the quote. The Options dialog box provides the opportunity to adjust hotspot color, text size (Normal, Larger, Largest), toggle Automatic Spelling, Pronunciations, Interface Sounds, Tooltips, and adjust how many words distance constitutes "near." Most dictionary and encyclopedia entries are accompanied by a sound icon which pronounces the entry when clicked. The atlas also provides pronunciation of most countries and major cities by pointing and clicking to their location on the maps. Bookshelf's Gallery (Tools menu) provides access to all audio, pictures, and/or animations on a given subject.

Word for Windows 95 and 97

Word has numerous features that will help people compensate for their disabilities and generally facilitate the writing and revision process. Below is a summary of these features. Since most people are quite familiar with spell checkers, this presentation will only cover innovative and subtle features. It will include a table with categories of spelling errors, examples of words in each category and whether or not Word was able to suggest the correct spelling. Similarly the grammar checker discussion will focus on newer and more subtle features as well as a table summarizing the features and functions of the grammar checker in Word 97. The presentation is scheduled to include a real-time demonstration of all the following Word features.

Editing Tools

Spell Checker

Introduction

As we all know spell checkers scan your document for suspiciously spelled words. They do this by matching words in your document against words in their dictionaries. Besides spelling Word is on the alert for repeated words and incorrect capitalization.

Automatic Spell Checking

Traditionally Word's spell checker was strictly an after-the-fact feature. Beginning with Word 7 for Windows 95, Word introduced real-time or automatic spell checking. With Automatic spell checking mobilized (Tools, Options, Spelling tab), Word takes the liberty to underline every suspicious word with a red sawtooth line. In response to this alert you can run a traditional full document spell check, point to the suspicious word and right button click for the spell checker shortcut menu (one of 15 shortcut menus in Word 95). The spelling shortcut menu in Word 95 displays suggested correct spellings and offers the opportunity to Ignore All, Add, or proceed immediately to the spelling dialog box. The Word 97 shortcut menu offers the additional option of AutoCorrect.

Observe your automatic spell checking icon on Word's status bar. If it has an check on it, Word is at peace with your spelling. If the Automatic spell checking icon has an x on it something is suspicious in the document. Double clicking on the icon moves you consecutively to each suspicious word displaying the spell checker shortcut menu you get when you right button click. I have adamantly opposed real-time spell checking for people with disabilities, maintaining it always reduces fluency, creativity and the belief that effectively communicating in writing is possible. Fortunately, I have thoughtful, open-minded observant colleagues like Marcia Norris from the High Tech Center Training Unit. Marcia discovered that her students with learning disabilities who did not have any fluency issues actually improved their spelling by using an automatic spell checker over time. Fortunately, the writer can toggle the visual feedback off and on (Tools, Options, Spelling tab, Hide Spelling Errors in Current Document checkbox).

Backing Out of Ignoring

As we blithely spell check our documents, there inevitably comes that moment when you tell Word to ignore the spelling of a suspicious word and then realize the word is indeed spelled incorrectly. If this happens while the full spelling dialog box is open, simply click once on the Undo Last button. Word will move back in time to the last suspicious word you made a judgment on. If you changed the word, Word will unchange it. If you ignored the word, Word will give you the opportunity to reconsider. Another possibility is using the Ignore All reset button (Tools, Options, Spelling tab).

Unwelcome Additions

Many of us take the step beyond ignoring. We actually add incorrectly spelled words to one of Word's custom dictionaries. By default these words are stored in a file called CUSTOM.DIC. To edit it, simply open the Spelling options dialog box (Tools, Options, Spelling tab). Choose the appropriate custom dictionary (usually CUSTOM.DIC). Click once on the Edit button. Make the necessary changes. This can also be an opportunity to add words. Use lower case as it will match anything. Upper will only match to upper. Close the file, saving the changes. Here are two advisories regarding custom dictionaries. Word will turn off Automatic spell checking when you edit a custom dictionary. You will have to turn it back on (Tools, Options, Spelling Tab, Automatic Spell Checking box). The more dictionaries that are open, the slower will be the speed of the spell checking process.

Spell Checker Evaluation Criteria and Results

A table with categories of spelling errors, examples of word in each category and whether or not Word was able to suggest the correct spelling will be distributed at the presentation.

AutoCorrect

AutoCorrect functions like an abbreviation-expansion tool. You type in a predefined sequence of letters, tap the space bar and this original sequence is replaced by a predefined replacement. This feature can be extremely helpful for correcting consistently misspelled words and for correctly entering long, esoteric words or expressions needed for academic writing. Word has a default list of AutoCorrect entries which reflect the most common spelling and typographic errors and some useful symbols (e.g. teh to the, acommodate to accommodate, c in parentheses into copyright symbol). AutoCorrect also has four generally useful options: Correct Two Initial Capitals, Capitalize first letter of sentence, Capitalize names of days, Correct Accidental Usage of the caps Lock Key, and Replace text as you type. You can add AutoCorrect entries during the spell checking process. This is advisable only if this spelling error occurs fairly consistentlt. You can manually add AutoCorrect entries from the AutoCorrect dialog box. You can probably envision circumstances in which automatic capitalization after a period would result in annoying, incorrect consequences (e.g. start of a word following an abbreviation in the middle of a sentence). Consequently, an Exceptions list has been created for capitalizing after periods and automatically correcting a sequence of two or more initial capitals. It is accessed from the AutoCorrect dialog box.

Grammar Checker

After my initial foray into grammar checking when this feature first came to prominence, I became so discouraged with it that for a few years I stopped encouraging students to use it. More wrong than right. Right is wrong. Wrong is right, or wrong is wrong for the wrong reasons defying any chance for correction. Explanations are esoteric and serve only to jog the memory of grammar mavens. Is this foray into confusion worth the opportunity to teach the meaning of passive constructions or ensure your documents have no offending gender specific vocabulary? I thought not. However, it is time to think again and analyze the latest version of the grammar checker. A handout summarizing the features and functions of the word 97 grammar checker will be available at the presentation.

Organizing Information: Outlines and Tables

The outline and table features facilitate organizing information both visually and logically. Two of the outline feature's most useful aspects are providing a visual distinction among all outline levels and renumbering the outline as items are shifted up and down, promoted and demoted. The table feature is particularly useful for formatting study guides and schedules.

Individualizing Display Options

Changing how information is displayed on the monitor can help compensate for visual perceptual weaknesses (e.g., automatic perception of details) There are many possibilities besides simply enlarging the font size. These visual adjustments include enlarging other aspects of the display, adjusting color choices, and providing visual feedback of features like spaces, hard returns, and tabs. These adjustments can be accomplished by accessing the Control Panel/Accessibility dialog box, Control Panel/Display dialog box, Word's Zoom feature, Word's document view options (Normal, Page Layout, Outline, Print Preview, Split- Screen as well as Online Layout and Document Map views in Word 97), and Word's non-printing character feature.

Revision Tactics

Word's highlighting, annotations, and revision marks features all provide a way to bring attention to and comment on particular aspects of a document. Find and Replace efficiently locate data and can systematically replace it with other data. Find and Replace can also locate (and replace) words similar in sound, words with specific formatting, and non-text features like tabs.

Miscellaneous features: Shortcut Menus and Tips, Shrink to Fit

Short cut menus, accessed with a right click, are becoming increasing useful. Word 95 has 15 shortcut menus (Toolbar, Editing and Formatting, Picture, Drawing, Heading Paragraph, Endnotes/Footnotes, Any OLE Object, Table, Form Field, Field, Bullets and Numbering, Drop Cap, Frame, Button Image, Spelling) providing quick access to features associated with these aspects of Word. Shrink to Fit eliminates the need to have a document with just a tiny bit of text on the last page. By telling Word to Shrink to Fit, you are communicating that Word should adjust your document so this last page with just a bit of text will not be necessary.

References

Borland, Russell. Running Microsoft Word for Windows 95. (1995). Microsoft Press: Redmond, WA.

Guy Hart-Davis. The ABC's of Word 97. (1997) Sybex, San Francisco. include applications including TextAssist

Microsoft Office Professional and Bookshelf, Designed for Windows 95. Microsoft Corporation: Redmond, WA.

TextAssist. Creative Labs, Inc. 1901 McCarthy Blvd. Milpitas, CA 95035. (800)998-1000. http://www.creative-OK.creaf.com

textHelp!. Lorien Systems. Enkalon Business Park. 25 Randalstown Road, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. support at loriens.com