Penfriend XL

Penfriend XL is a powerful screen reader with multiple onscreen keyboards. It works in nine European languages and has all the other features of Penfriend XP.

Penfriend XL is a powerful tool for those with dyslexia or physical/sensory disabilities including visual impairment, adding screen reading with text magnification, word prediction, and on-screen keyboards to almost any other software. It predicts and screen reads in Microsoft programs such as Internet Explorer and Word and non Microsoft programs such as Open Office and Firefox. It offers considerable support for users with special needs, helping with spelling, confidence and speed of composing text. It will also read out almost any text, such as web pages or word processed documents.

It is also of great value for those learning Foreign Languages (MFL) or English as a second language (ESL).

Screen Reading

The screen reading feature can now read menus and dialogues on your desktop, text from your word processor or other applications and text from web pages. If you have suitable voices installed (several are freely available), it can speak in many European languages. It has an option for automatically putting the screen read text into the clipboard which, with a large font, provides text magnification and highlighting for the visually impaired. Areas that are not read automatically can be highlighted and copied to the clipboard. Right clicking enables the word lists in the thesaurus and spell checker of Word to be spoken.

Penfriend includes links to free downloads of SAPI 4 voices on the web.

Word Prediction

Penfriend works with your word processor and tries to guess the word you are typing when you have entered the first letter, the second letter and so on. One key press then finishes the word for you. You can hear the suggested words spoken too. Penfriend learns the words you use frequently and recently, so it improves as you use it. This information is saved for each user, together with individual settings. For people with disabilities, this saves effort and time. For those with dyslexia, it saves time, improves accuracy and builds confidence in writing.

Penfriend is configurable to suit the preferences and needs of different users and it is easy for teachers to select preferences and add topic specific vocabulary. You can also edit children's lexicons and it has other options such as the ability to ban words, so Penfriend will not predict words a child should able to spell.

Penfriend XL has word prediction in many languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Gaelic, Portuguese, Swedish and Latin. This makes it suitable for modern language students, native writers in those languages, and those in mainstream education who seek to write more easily.

Version 3.0 uses 32 bit lexicons for even better English word prediction and it has lexicons in the major European languages and US English.

On Screen Keyboards

Penfriend XL also includes on-screen keyboards for several languages with accented and special characters. They can be used without affecting the main keyboard of the computer. Version 3.0 has additional characters such as the € and @ which are accessed via the Alt key.

Spell Checking, Thesaurus and Dictionary

The screen reader in Penfriend XL makes it possible to read and highlight alternative spellings, synonyms and dictionary meanings available in Microsoft Word (in any language that Word offers). For example:

· Penfriend works seamlessly with Word’s built-in spell checker and Thesaurus. Quickly find the word you want to look up by right-clicking and Penfriend XL will read the options provided.
· Or select the ‘Look Up’ facility in Word’s Task Pane and access the range of reference books including dictionaries, encyclopaedias, thesauruses and many more.
· Penfriend will read any word or phrase highlighted in Word’s on-line dictionary – helping the learner to contextualise and understand word meanings.
· If you have appropriate voices you can access dictionaries in any of the languages Word offers.
· For the visually impaired enlarged text can be automatically transferred to the clipboard.

Other Benefits

The latest version of Clicker 5 integrates with Penfriend. Enhance your grids with word prediction and by providing switch access to Penfriend!

For more information about using Penfriend with Clicker 5, see www.penfriend.biz/support/, where you can also see a useful 'Getting Started with Penfriend' tutorial.

You will need Penfriend version 3.0.4.7 (or later). You can download it free of charge if you already have Version 3; please run your copy of Penfriend, and choose 'Web Site' from its menu. You will find the new version in the 'customer downloads' section.

Penfriend also integrates with Switch Access for Windows (SAW) from the ACE Centre, providing another method of switch access.

Recommended for Windows NT, 2000 and XP.

Read a review of Penfriend XL courtesy of Disability Product News

Read some quotes and reviews on Penfriend.

A free demonstration copy is available to download from www.penfriend.biz.

Penfriend XP and Penfriend W3 also available for people who do not require the additional features of Penfriend XL. Penfriend W3 is suitable for Windows 3.1 and 95, while Penfriend XP is offered for Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000 and XP.

Overview of the differences between Penfriend XP and XL

Information on Word Prediction