TextAloud Reading PDF Files

[Guest]

Here are a few of my wishes for having TextAloud read PDF files....



1. To be able to open theplete .pdf file.



2. Some way to be able to select text boxes so that listeners can determine the order in which they want to hear the text on each page read. As you know .pdf pages are not all read in the order that the text appears on the pages. So, if we can select the text to be read and assign a reading order, this may help to have the text read back in the proper order.



3. Are you able to incorporate the TextAloud controls into Acrobat Reader as you have done with Internet Explorer? Or have it as a floating tool that stays atop of the page.

[kdwhite]

We do hope to be able to do something better with PDFs later in the year. One problem we keep running into is the security on PDFs and what adobe allows depending on those security settings.

[danw@netwit.net.au]

yes PDF are important. I have a PDF program that will read out PDF files BUT it won't work if security is set so that you can't copy a section to the clipboard.

I find this a pain. However the strange thing is that if you get this program PDF converter from scansoft Professional 4 it will convert a secure PDF to say word using OmniPage pro 16 and so TEXALOUD can read it. So in about 2 minutes you can be reading away.

I sometimes wonder at the way things are done but as they sat "where there is a will there is a way"

[D.Leikin]

Absolutely, Dan.

I find it really funny that all of us are constantly infringing on Copyright Law because when we are reading a copyrighted book we are essentially reproducing it in our memory in material form.

Definitions 17 USC #101 state:

“Copies” are material objects, other than phonorecords, in which a work is fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which the work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term “copies” includes the material object, other than a phonorecord, in which the work is first fixed.

What I think is we can memorize text and are able to reproduce it later with 100% accuracy (which is clearly not the case with audiovisual or other types of works). If so, reading a copyrighted work would infringe on 17 USC #106 relating exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies. (See the above definition of “Copies”)

Hence, in order to obey with the provisions of the Copyright Law we should either refrain from reading copyrighted materials at all or maybe learn to somehow turn our memory off. But if we stop the memorizing process, reading books would become absolutely aimless.

Absurd, isn't it?

[danw@netwit.net.au]

well there is hope - I see that the bib music people have dropped all the protection on new CDs etc. I once had a music CD that was protected that would not play on my notebook - I wrote (emailed) the record company through the VP of marketing.I told them of my CD collection & I would ban their label in future. They promptly sent me an unprotected CD that looked exactly the same as the one that I had purchased BUT it had no protection on it at all!

In the end laws reflect the wishes of the people. I don't like PDF at the best of times because of the way MAC etc. does things. We can go on about Gates but at least the idea that the system is open is good even if there are all sorts of problems that go with this.

Speaking for myself I always own an original of everything that I "copy". I just practice a "right" to receive the information that it contains in a manner of my choosing. It is after all the contents that are protected not the medium that the contents are on or in.

Anyway I enjoy having my PDF files read out aloud to me - I suppose if I went blind and my child should read them out to me that would be breaking the law.

[Dr. Jeanne Beckman]

PDF Magic (www.readingmadeez.com) will unlock PDFs so that you can select the text. Then, I actually set my textaloud to use a hotkey of control-0 while still in the PDF document to read highlighted text so that I can continue to see the formatted text and images on the screen.

Jeanne Beckman

yes PDF are important. I have a PDF program that will read out PDF files BUT it won't work if security is set so that you can't copy a section to the clipboard.

I find this a pain. However the strange thing is that if you get this program PDF converter from scansoft Professional 4 it will convert a secure PDF to say word using OmniPage pro 16 and so TEXALOUD can read it. So in about 2 minutes you can be reading away.

I sometimes wonder at the way things are done but as they sat "where there is a will there is a way"

[D.Leikin]

PDF Magic will unlock PDFs

Interesting, but not quite sure if they can handle anything other than low-end protection methods.

[Dr. Jeanne Beckman]

You could try their 30 day trial. If the PDF is password protected, PDF Magic will not open it (according to their CEO, Ken Grisham), but if the pdf is designed so that you cannot select the text or cannot print it, then PDF magic will work, according to several listservs (like Kurzweil's) that I've followed.

Let me know if you have trouble and I'll try to track it down with Grisham.
Jeanne

PDF Magic will unlock PDFs

Interesting, but not quite sure if they can handle anything other than low-end protection methods.

[D.Leikin]

Thank you, Jeanne. Have tried their app and it turns out it only handles older RC4 protection and can't help on files with 128-bit AES or stronger encryption.