Penfriend
World class word prediction, speech feedback, and on-screen
keyboard for Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me and 98.
Penfriend XP combines terrific performance with a range
of well chosen features and surprising ease of use. Version
3 just released (August 2005) has new lexicons, still better
prediction and numerous other improvements. As with all
Penfriend Ltd products, it brings dyslexic and physically
disabled users benefits including the confidence to write
more, the accuracy to write what they mean, and the speed
to write more in the time available. It can be used with
almost any word processor, as it intercepts and simulates
messages from the keyboard to the application.
Features
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Word Prediction
Penfriend XP's core strength is in predicting the next word
you want to write. It does this using a dictionary of known
words, along with detailed knowledge of when they are likely
to be used, their grammatical type, words you have used
before, and so on. Every time you type a letter, it comes
up with a new list of the most likely words which fit your
letters. Choosing one is a simple matter of pressing one
more button, or clicking on the word with the mouse. If
you're not sure how to read it, you can hear it spoken before
you choose a word.
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Speech Feedback
Penfriend comes with speech feedback; the ability to read
aloud the words on your screen, including words that you
haven't written yet! Penfriend XP uses Microsoft SAPI5 to
produce clear words, and to allow the installation of other
'third party' voices.
It can be configured to speak each letter as it is typed,
each word as it is completed, and each sentence. It can
read words from the prediction list when you point at them,
when you choose them, or automatically when they change.
It can also read back whole paragraphs (or more) of text
from other applications using the clipboard. This might
be your document, a web page, an email, or almost anything
else.
While speaking text from the clipboard, a window can be
shown which follows the voice, highlighting each word as
it goes. You can click on a word to hear it again, or to
speak a fragment of the text.
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On-screen Keyboard
For people either with physical disabilities affecting their
use of a keyboard, or for those who do not want to glance
repeatedly between the screen and keyboard, Penfriend XP
offers an on-screen keyboard. It's straightforward design
mirrors key features of a conventional QWERTY keyboard,
and it uses colours of the user's choice.
For people with a more specialised on-screen keyboard,
Penfriend can work with Clicker to predict with custom-designed
on-screen keyboards which support switch access.
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Lexicon Editing
A major feature of Penfriend is the ability to edit lexicons.
Penfriend doesn't claim to know all the words you want
to write in advance, but it is very good at learning them.
Every word you type is analysed, and Penfriend can learn
those it doesn't recognise. Depending on your spelling,
you might ask for new words to be predicted immediately
(as appropriate), or perhaps just to be remembered and then
checked by a teacher.
Penfriend holds new words in a specially marked list, so
that you can easily review the ones it has learnt recently.
There are various tools for manipulating these, such as
approving only those used several times. If you have a pupil
that has bad spelling you can switch off 'Predict new words'
and then see the wrong spellings that have been made. These
can then be 'Banned' if you never want them to be predicted.
As well as learning new words, Penfriend keeps track of
the ones you've used, and your style of writing. This all
helps to predict the right words next time!
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Sensible Options
Penfriend XP makes its options easy to understand. There
are enough to give you the choices you need for the people
you work with, but each makes sense, giving you flexibility
and comprehension.
The colours of text, in the prediction window and the on-screen
keyboard, can be adjusted. The colour of highlighted words,
both text and background, can be controlled separately from
the normal words. Whether Penfriend learns new words, predicts
them immediately, applies 'smart punctuation', or speaks
as you type, can all be decided by you. A document included
when you buy the system explains which options would help
most.
Further, the options are stored per user rather than for
the whole computer. This means you can have several people
with different special needs using the same system, but
each one gets it configured especially for them.
For a detailed explanation of the options, download the
free demonstration and read the on-line help.
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Abbreviation Expansion
As well as predicting words using the letters you type,
Penfriend can store phrases or other words, assigned to
special codes. For example, 'pfl' might be an abbreviation
for 'Penfriend Ltd'. When you type the short code and press
Space, Penfriend can automatically replace it. This can
speed up writing of commonly used phrases or even sentences.
Naturally, you can control the abbreviations yourself, adding
and removing them at will.
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Smart Punctuation
When you finish a sentence, or use almost any punctuation
mark, Penfriend can help you to get it right. Although it
normally puts a space after predicted words, it moves that
to after the punctuation, and capitalises your next letter.
Little things like this give writers the confidence to put
their thoughts on paper.
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Clicker Integration
As well as predicting words directly in to your word processor,
Penfriend XP can work with Clicker, from Crick Software
and other applications to provide its prediction engine
without the user needing to interact with Penfriend directly.
To use Penfriend with Clicker, open Clicker, choose predict
from the Clicker options and Penfriend will open in the
background. Type into the Clicker text document and the
Penfriend predictions will come up in the Clicker grid.
It currently integrates fully with Clicker 4 and Clicker
5 is expected to work with Penfriend by October 2005.
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(Previously
ITECNZ) 
