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Cicero

Text Reader

for the Windows® 95 and Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 Operating Systems

 

 

Copyright ©1998:

Dolphin Computer Access, LLC

All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

 

Software License

The software includes computer software, associated media, Braille, cassette or print materials and any electronic documentation. The software is licensed and not sold. The software is protected by copyright laws, international copyright treaties and intellectual property laws. The software is licensed for a single user only unless a site license has been purchased where the number of concurrent users is restricted to that purchased.

ć 1997 Dolphin Oceanic Limited. All rights reserved.

Notice

Cicero and SAM are trademarks of Dolphin Oceanic Ltd. Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Cicero incorporates the RECOGNITA Engine for optical character recognition. RECOGNITA is a registered trade name of Recognita Corporation. Cicero incorporates the International CorrectSpell spelling correction system © 1995 INSO Corporation. International CorrectSpell is a trademark of INSO Corporation. All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Warranty & Disclaimer

Dolphin warrants that the media on which the software is distributed are free from defects and will replace defective media at no charge. Dolphin gives no warranties with respect to any bugs or errors in the software or to its fitness for a particular purpose. Any liability, consequential or otherwise, will be limited to the amount paid for the software. Please inform us of any bugs or features you may find and we will endeavor to rectify them.

N.B.

• You should save your work and make regular backups, particularly before installing new software or hardware.
• Due to the many possible hardware configurations and inherently complex nature of software, errors do occur.

Care of your compact disc

• Do not put your disc in direct sunlight.
• Avoid high heat and humidity.
• Handle your disc carefully to avoid scratching it.
• Never stick labels on your disc.
• Never write on your disc.
• Keep your disc in the supplied case when not in use.

 

Table Of Contents

1 Introduction

Cicero is Dolphin’s text reading system for the Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0 operating systems. Cicero is an easy to use program that lets you scan and read a document with a single key press.

Cicero has been designed to work well with a variety of speech synthesizers, word processors and Braille translation systems. This means that, apart from reading your text aloud, Cicero will let you take your scanned documents into your word processor and easily spell-check them, edit them, print them, or convert them into Braille using a Braille translation system such as Cipher.

Cicero incorporates the following features:

• Automatic orientation detection.
• Automatic deskewing of slanted text.
• Adjustable brightness control (for scanners without automatic brightness capabilities).
• A wide range of supported scanners.
• Seamless integration with SAM-compatible screen readers, such as Hal.

Cicero uses Dolphin’s SAM (Synthesizer Access Manager) module to enable the sharing of your speech synthesizer with other SAM-compatible access products, such as Hal screen reader.

SAM has been developed because with the increasing number of talking access products on the market, users can now encounter problems when they want to use their screen reader in conjunction with other "talking" products, such as Cicero.

SAM resolves these problems by automatically and intelligently deciding which access product has the right to pass information to the synthesizer. This allows users to run all their SAM-compatible speech applications seamlessly.

This guide tells you everything you need to know in order to install and run Cicero.

 

2 Installing & Registering Cicero

This section tells you how to install and register Cicero. If you purchased a computer with Cicero, there is no need for you to read this section, Cicero will have been set up for you. Simply turn on the computer and proceed to section 3.

2.1 Installing Cicero

To run Cicero you need:

• An IBM PC compatible computer with a 486DX processor (running at 66 MHz or faster). (A Pentium processor is recommended.
• 16 MB of RAM. (32 MB of RAM recommended for the Windows NT version).
• A supported scanner.
• A SAM or SSIL compatible speech synthesizer.
• Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

These recommendations will ensure that Windows runs optimally.

Before installing Cicero you must install both your speech synthesizer and scanner according to the instructions supplied by their manufacturers. You must also load any appropriate device drivers associated with your speech synthesizer and scanner. Failure to configure your speech synthesizer properly may result in your machine running excessively slowly, or locking up altogether with no speech output when Cicero is run. (Please consult your speech synthesizer’s manual for further details.)

To install Cicero, first of all turn on your computer and start Windows in the usual way.

When Windows has loaded, if you have purchased Cicero on CD-ROM then simply insert it into your CD-ROM drive. After a few seconds the installation program will automatically start. If it doesn’t:

• Press CONTROL+ESCAPE to bring up the Windows Start menu.
• Press R to select the option "Run…".
• Finally, type x:\SETUP and press ENTER to start the Cicero installation program. (Where x is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive).

If you have purchased Cicero on diskette, you should first of all insert your SAM Master disk in drive A and run A:\SETUP using the instructions directly above. Then after SAM has been installed successfully, insert disk 1 of your Cicero diskettes in drive A and run A:\SETUP.

Once the installation program has loaded, you will be presented with a "Welcome" dialog box that displays information on how to use the installation program. If for some reason you wish to leave the installation program press ESCAPE. To install Cicero follow the on-screen instructions.

At some point during the installation process, Cicero will run and you will enter the Setup Menu. This allows you to set up your scanner to work with Cicero and enter the commands to run your word processor and Braille translation software. When you have finished, press ESCAPE.

After the installation program has copied the necessary files you will be prompted to reboot your computer.

2.2 De-installing Cicero

To de-install Cicero choose the "Uninstall Cicero" option from the Cicero group in the start menu. Follow the on-screen instructions.

2.3 Registering Cicero

With your copy of Cicero you will have received a reply-paid registration card. If you bought Cicero directly from Dolphin your software will have been pre-registered and you do not necessarily need to return the card. If your details are correct on the delivery note, there is no need to return the card.

However, if you bought or received Cicero from a third-party then please complete and return the registration card. It will help us to provide you with full support, including keeping you abreast of any updates and improvements to Cicero. If you prefer, you can register your copy by telephoning our Sales Department.

 

3 Starting Cicero

Cicero can be started in one of two ways:

1. One way to start Cicero is from Windows’ Start menu:

 

• From the Windows Start menu choose "Programs" then "Cicero".
• Highlight the Cicero icon and then press ENTER.

 

2. The installation program also creates a shortcut key to Cicero. You can start Cicero from anywhere in Windows by pressing SHIFT+CONTROL+L

 

4 Scanning your first page

The Cicero screen is split into two regions:

• The larger top region contains the browser.

• The smaller bottom region contains the status area.

When Cicero starts you are placed in the browser region of the screen. Apart from the very first time you run Cicero, the last page that was scanned will be displayed in the browser. Your current cursor position is shown by a highlighted word, which can be spoken with F5.

The status area at the bottom of the screen tells you the name and number of the pages of the document in the browser and also your registration details. You can speak the status area with F1.

To scan a page place the page that you want to read on the scanner and press F3.

If any pages have previously been scanned, the current page will be appended to these.

While the page is being scanned you will be told if the page is blank.

Once the page has been scanned, Cicero will automatically enter the browser and begin to read the document to you. You can stop and re-start the speech with SPACE, or move around your document using the keys described below:

4.1 Saving your scanned document

When you have finished reviewing your scanned document, you can then save it. To do this: Press F6.

This will display the "Save A Document" dialog box. You can choose to save the document to a "New file" or an existing file.

• Press CURSOR UP and CURSOR DOWN to choose the option you want.

• Press ENTER to select it.

Choosing the "New file" option will let you save a document with a new name. Cicero will ask you to type in a file description for this file, which can be up to 128 characters long. This means you can use informative descriptions such as "Gas Bill, Spring 1996".

If you choose to save your document under an existing description you will be presented with two options:

• You can overwrite this file by replacing the entire contents of the existing file.

or

• You can append your document to the end of the existing file.

Select the option you want using the CURSOR UP and CURSOR DOWN keys and press ENTER.

4.2 Exiting Cicero

To exit Cicero press CONTROL+Q.

The "Quit" menu will then appear. This menu gives you the option to "Exit to Windows" and depending on your Cicero installation options "Exit to word processor" and "Exit to Braille translator" as well.

To make a selection:

• Press CURSOR UP and CURSOR DOWN to choose an option.
• Press ENTER to select it.

These options are described below:

Exit to Word processor

Selecting this option will quit Cicero, and automatically run the word processor that you specified during the installation of Cicero.

Exit to Braille Translator

Selecting this option will quit Cicero and automatically run the Braille translation software that you specified during the installation of Cicero.

Exit to Windows

This option will allow you to exit to Windows.

 

5 Cicero controls

The following are Cicero's hot keys:

5.1 Customizing Cicero

There are three types of changes you can make to Cicero in order to customize it to your own preferences. Your scanning and reading preferences can be changed using the Configuration menu, the hot keys can all be re-defined and you can change the word processor or Braille translator you want Cicero to use.

5.1.1 The Configuration menu

To call up the Cicero Configuration menu press F8.

The Cicero Configuration menu is a simple one, with CURSOR UP and CURSOR DOWN moving between items and CURSOR LEFT and CURSOR RIGHT changing the settings.

The following options are available in the Configuration menu:

Automatic Orientation - You can select "On" or "Off". In the majority of cases, the 'On' option will be the one used.

Text Type - You can select "Normal" or "Dot Matrix" text, depending on the material you are scanning. For most cases setting the text type to "Normal" will give the best results.

Cicero uses two voices: a "System Voice" for messages and instructions, and a "Reading Voice" for the scanned text.

System Voice Name - You can choose, by name, the voice that you want to use for messages, instructions etc.

System Voice Speed - You can set the speed of the system voice.

Reading Voice Name - You can choose, by name, the voice that you want to use for reading.

Reading Voice Speed - You can set the speed of the reading voice.

Punctuation Level - You can select how much punctuation will be spoken: none, some, all, etc.

Volume - You can set the volume of the reading voice and system voice.

Brightness - You can select "Lighten Page", "Darken Page" and "Normal". In the majority of cases, the "Normal" option will be the one used.

To save the Configuration menu’s settings press ENTER. To cancel any changes you have made to the Configuration menu press ESCAPE.

5.1.2 Re-defining Cicero's hot keys

It is possible to re-define the hot keys that Cicero uses. To do this press CONTROL+K.

This brings up a dialog box that allows all of Cicero's keys to be redefined. Each key may contain a combination of ALT, SHIFT and CONTROL keys used together with one other key on the keyboard. All keys are independent of the state of NUM LOCK and CAPS LOCK. Simply cursor through the key actions until you highlight the one you want to change. Then press TAB to move through the ALT, CONTROL and SHIFT keys, pressing the SPACEBAR if you want to select or de-select any of these modifier keys.

Finally you will enter the "Physical Key" list box. Cursor up and down until you have highlighted the actual key that you wish to use, and press ENTER.

If at any point you loose track of what you are doing, or decide not to make any changes press ESCAPE to quit back to the browser.

5.1.3 Re-defining installation settings

If any of your installed settings change, such as your word processor, Braille software, or scanner, you can tell Cicero about the changes by pressing CONTROL+F8.

The Cicero Setup dialog box will then appear, allowing you to modify your installed options as required.