MAGic® 8.0 Features
Screen Magnification with Speech for people with low vision

 The following links describe new features in MAGic 8.0:

Installation
Registration
User Interface
Speech
Network MAGic
Simplified MAGic Hot Keys
Magnification Enhancements
Improved MAGic and JAWS Compatibility
Application Specific Functions
New Help System
What is the relationship between LP-Windows and MAGic?
Installation

MAGic now includes a talking, large print installation. You can also choose to run an automatic installation or a guided installation that lets you select the components you want to install, and lets you decide where to store them.

Registration

You can now submit your registration for MAGic via e-mail. When you launch a new copy of MAGic, it prompts you to register your product. We recommend you register immediately so that if you need assistance from Freedom Scientific Technical Support, they will have the required information. If we have your registration on file, or you are running a site, district, or enterprise license version, MAGic will not prompt you for registration information.
If when prompted to register, you select to Register Later, MAGic prompts you again the next time you launch the program. Once you fill out the registration form, you can send it directly via e-mail, if you have an Internet connection. If you are not connected to the Internet, you can save the registration to the floppy disk provided by Freedom Scientific, and mail it in the provided shipping package. Once you complete the registration process, MAGic no longer prompts you to register. If you need to update your registration information in the future, use the Update Registration program accessed through the Help menu of MAGic.

User Interface

The innovative new MAGic user interface provides you with menus and color-coded buttons for effortless navigation. The MAGic user interface consists of the standard title bar, which runs along the very top of the application window, the menu bar, which contains MAGic's menus, and the all-new Quick Access Window.
The Quick Access Window contains buttons and a combo box to control MAGic's most commonly used features. The controls are divided into two groups: Magnification and Speech. The magnification controls are blue, and the speech controls are orange. Right clicking on many of these buttons displays a context menu that is related to the button's feature.

Speech (Optional Module)

MAGic now includes low vision screen reading that you customize to fit your needs. Use MAGic's speech in conjunction with magnification or independently. MAGic speaks documents, web pages, dialogs, menus, and more. MAGic's speech includes typing echo, so you can hear what you type. Mouse echo reads words as you point to them with your mouse. You can also read documents from start to finish, and MAGic highlights the words on the screen as it reads them!

Network MAGic

You can run MAGic 8.0 on a network! Network MAGic gives you the opportunity to access MAGic throughout a networked computer environment in your workplace, school, or even at home. To learn the details of installing MAGic on a network see the topic titled, Network MAGic.

Simplified MAGic Hot Keys

MAGic 8.0 introduces the MAGic Key! Press the MAGic Key in conjunction with other keys on the keyboard to perform actions. The MAGic Key simplifies the hot keys, so you really only need to remember the key that you press with the MAGic Key. For instance, press the MAGic Key in conjunction with the Num Pad plus sign to increase magnification. Alternatively, the Num Pad minus sign pressed with the MAGic Key decreases magnification. You can also specify the key used for the MAGic Key. Choose from Caps Lock, Extended Insert, Num Pad Insert, Either Insert, or Scroll Lock. By default, Caps Lock is the MAGic Key to eliminate keystroke conflicts with Windows applications. To use the Caps Lock, press it twice quickly, and it will toggle the state of the

Caps Lock as usual.
We have gone the extra mile to make MAGic's hot keys more intuitive than ever. Yet, if the existing hot keys are unsatisfactory, you can change most key combinations to fit your needs from with the new Keyboard Assignments dialog box. Complete List of MAGic Hot Keys. Customize Keyboard Assignments.

Magnification Enhancements

MAGic 8.0 contains a number of new enhancements to magnification. Use the links below to go directly to the topic that interests you, or move just below these links to read about all the new magnification enhancements.

* Mouse Settings
* Navigation Options
* Advanced Views
* Locator
* Panning
* Tracking
* Color
* Vertical Stretch

* Mouse Settings
Customizing your mouse is simple with MAGic 8.0. You can change the mouse size and color, and you can add crosshairs and bull's eyes. Choose to apply these settings in the magnified view, the unmagnified view or in both views.

* Navigation Options
MAGic's new navigation options are designed to better help you use the mouse when moving through magnified views. Tether-to-Display attaches the mouse to the magnified display. As soon as you move the mouse, it automatically snaps into view at the current magnified location, even if the mouse was not initially on the display. When disabled, your view moves to the location of the mouse.
Line-Lock disallows diagonal mouse movement. With Line-Lock enabled you can only use the mouse to move horizontally or vertically across the display. If you move the physical mouse diagonally, the mouse on the screen will move in the direction you move the most in, either horizontal or vertical. Line-Lock is beneficial to those just learning to use the mouse, and for people with limited manual dexterity.

* Advanced Views
Two of the four views in MAGic have new features making MAGic more intuitive.

* Split View
The single Split view combines the previous choices of Vertical and Horizontal views found in MAGic 6.2. From a single dialog box you can specify the position of the split on the display, as well as the size of the split.

* Lens View
The Lens view contains a new control, "Resize to Control," which resizes the Lens view to exactly fit the control that has focus, as you navigate with the keyboard. As you press the TAB key to move through a dialog, the Lens changes size to fit the control with focus, which becomes magnified. The border, if you have set one, surrounds the control. Resize to Control makes identifying the control with focus easy.

* Locator
The all-new Locator, when activated, switches to an unmagnified view with a locator indicating the area of the screen you had showing in your magnified view. You can now quickly move your magnified location to another area of the screen by moving the locator with either the mouse or keystrokes. When you close the locator, you will return to the magnified view with your newly selected area of the screen in view. You have a choice of locator types including: full cross, eyeglass, and reverse eyeglass.

* Panning
MAGic's new and improved Panning utilizes hot keys to start panning in the direction of your choice. During panning, you can quickly change the direction of panning by pressing the arrow key in the direction you want to pan. While you pan, you can use the plus and minus keys to change your panning speed. Panning speeds are saved independently for left, right and vertical panning. Quick Advance is another new feature that lets you swiftly proceed to the next line and continue panning from the left edge of the screen.

* Tracking
Improved mouse tracking includes two new settings Relative and Auto-Switch. The Relative option causes the magnified display to move slowly in the direction of the mouse. Auto-Switch, used with Centered and Relative Mouse Tracking, causes the screen to remain still after you stop mouse movement. The screen is stationary as long as you move the mouse within the boundary of the screen. When you move beyond the edge of the screen, MAGic begins to track your movement again. Auto-Switch is useful when you want to move the mouse toward stationary objects on the screen.

* Color
Inverting the colors of your display improves contrast, often aiding low vision computer users. New with MAGic 8.0, you can invert screen colors at color depths above 256 colors. Previous versions only allowed you to invert colors when running in 256 colors. You now have the choice to invert the magnified view, unmagnified view, or both views. MAGic also has improved performance in all color depths.

* Vertical Stretch
Vertical Stretch allows you to stretch the display to make images taller while maintaining the characters current width.

Improved MAGic and JAWS Compatibility

MAGic now has low vision speech, however, some users may prefer to use MAGic magnification with our screen reader, JAWS for Windows. With the release of JAWS for Windows 3.71, there will be better compatibility with JAWS and MAGic than ever before.

When you run MAGic 8.0 with JAWS for Windows 3.71 or greater, the two programs will communicate with each other. MAGic will always handle magnification. When JAWS runs, it always takes over speech. You do not have to set any special configurations to make this happen.

Keyboarding with the two programs is simple. There are no new keystrokes to learn. When JAWS takes control of speech, use JAWS hot keys to access screen reading functions, while you use MAGic's hot keys for magnification features.

If you use a version of JAWS prior to 3.71, MAGic and JAWS will not run simultaneously.

JAWS for Windows 3.71 is planned for release during the first half of second quarter 2001.

Please watch our web site for the release.

Application Specific Functions

Originally inspired by Freedom Scientifics' screen reader, JAWS for Windows, MAGic 8.0 contains application specific functions to help you work in popular applications. MAGic's application specific functions now have a purpose all of their own. You will find that these functions are designed to consolidate screen information, enhance application navigation, and eliminate visual clutter.

For example, with MAGic running in Microsoft Excel you can bring up a dialog box that will list the cells for a particular row that contain data. This consolidates screen information, because it presents the header, if one exists, and only those cells containing data. You can then move directly to a particular cell, without pressing the arrow keys to move through multiple empty cells, which enhances application navigation. When using MAGic with Internet Explorer, you can eliminate visual clutter by reformatting the screen. After you reformat, MAGic presents only the necessary text in a single column, and hides graphics that may not be of interest to you. With only the text showing and no columns to deal with, you will find it easier to read the less cluttered screen.
MAGic has included Application Specific Functions for:

· Microsoft Word
· Microsoft Excel
· Internet Explorer

New Help System

With MAGic 8.0 you receive a completely rewritten online help system, as well as the new User's Guide. Also take advantage of What's This? Help. Press SHIFT+F1 on any control in MAGic and you receive an explanation of what the item is and how it works. The new help should provide anything and everything you want to know about the new and improved MAGic!

Choose this link to go to MAGic 8.0 pricing page