5.1 THUNDER SETTINGS - IMPROVING HOW IT SOUNDS Synthesized speech is not as pleasant to listen to as the human voice, but there are ways of improving the experience. Also, different settings can be used for different tasks. Listening to numbers for instance is very different from listening to a novel. To experiment with what suits you best, try the following: If you are already in a program such as Microsoft Word, press ALT FORWARD SLASH to take you to Thunder Settings. If you are at the Desktop, hold down the ALT key (one to the left of the spacebar) and press the TAB key (third down on the left-hand side). Keep pressing the TAB key till you hear the word "Thunder" then release ALT, and press the TAB until you hear "settings". Press ENTER. On the screen are a series of settings that can easily be changed to make Thunder speak as you would like it. Press the Tab key to move through the choices. At each choice you can press the ARROW KEYS to choose options. The first choice offers you the voices which are on your computer. This may be just one or several. Try arrowing up or down through the list and press ENTER on the one you like the best. If you still don’t like the voices on offer, Screenreader.net sells a range of high quality voices, Tel +44 (0)1733 234441 email sales@screenreader.co.uk. To explore other Settings, keep pressing TAB. "Speed 5" is the next setting. if you would like Thunder to speak faster, press the DOWN ARROW, if slower, press the UP ARROW. "Volume" is the next TAB. Press and you will hear "volume 100" or another number. 100 is the loudest, ARROW UP for quieter, DOWN for louder. TAB once more to hear "test" and press ENTER to check out the settings you have just altered. "Echo characters" is next. When this is checked, Thunder will speak letters as you type. If you don’t want this, press Spacebar to uncheck and you won’t hear letters as you type. Tab to "echo words". If this is checked, Thunder will speak words as you type. If you don’t want this, press the SPACEBAR to uncheck. The word will be spoken when you press SPACEBAR at the end of each word. The next three options you get to by pressing TAB let you choose whether various keys speak their names when you press them: SPACE, ENTER or HOME and END. "BEEP for capitals" comes next. This is really useful when it is "checked" as you will hear a beep or click whenever you type a capital letter. "Speak shortcut keys": this could be very useful to start with. When you are exploring menus you will be told what the shortcut keystrokes are. For instance, if you are exploring the File Menu with the Down Arrow, you will hear that Control O opens a file, Control P prints it etc. The "spell numbers" choice gives you the chance to hear numbers spoken like phone numbers such as 137, or as words, such as one hundred and thirty seven. "Use music: checked": is next. You will hear beeps as you move the Arrow keys. The pitch goes up as you move up the screen and also as you hold down CONTROL and keep dabbing at RIGHT ARROW to move to the right. This helps build up a mental image of the screen layout. "Novice Mode" is next. When this is checked, Thunder speaks absolutely everything so you are always reminded what to do next. You will only need this for a few days. "Punctuation" You can choose the amount of punctuation that Thunder speaks. This is either excellent or an annoyance. When spoken, it is an annoyance if you are listening to a novel but a great help if you are proofreading. The choices are some, all or no punctuation. You can also quickly change punctuation at any time with numeric keypad 1. To save all your changes, press TAB to "Save configuration" and press ENTER.
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