Recent changes to Home

Home modified by Jeremy Wilson

Jeremy Wilson — Tue, 23 May 2023 22:52:38 -0000

--- v3
+++ v4
@@ -13,26 +13,13 @@

 When you begin reading, a new slider appears on the screen, just under the reading panel. This slider can be moved left or right while the program is paused or stopped in order to change which part of your text to begin on. This is useful if you lose focus and need to "rewind" your text a little bit, or if you want to skip some text.

-There are also hotkeys you can use for the program. These are:
-* "r" - Play, Pause, or Resume reading
-* "Esc" - Stop reading
-* "Arrow Up" - Increase the reading speed by 10 WPM
-* "Arrow Down" - Decrease the reading speed by 10 WPM
-* "Page Up" - Increase the reading speed by 50 WPM
-* "Page Down" - Decrease the reading speed by 50 WPM
-* "Left Arrow" - Move to the previous word
-* "Right Arrow" - Move to the next word
-
-Note that all of these shortcut keys will work while you are reading, so you can easily Play, Pause, Stop, and adjust the WPM while reading.
-
 **How to get the most out of SpeeD ReaD**
 Since the premise of this program is to encourage you to read faster than you can say the words, setting a WPM that works for you is most important. If you find yourself still sounding out the words silently in your head while they flash on the screen, your WPM is set too low. Conversely, if the words have been flashing on the screen but you have no idea what you've just read, your WPM is too fast. Play around with the WPM until you find one that is just right. I tend to read somewhere between 450 and 500 WPM when I use this program. You will also find that as you use the program more and more, you will be able to increase the WPM higher than you could when you first started.

-**Bugs**
-There are a few known bugs with the program, and they are primarily visual. Sometimes the Word Slider will briefly show at the top of the screen while reading. Likewise, using the "r" key while reading sometimes results in the buttons on the screen not being painted correctly. I'm pretty sure this is due to how I've threaded the various parts of the program, but I'm not a good enough coder (yet) to figure out how to fix it.
-
-I am also unsure whether this program will work well with "special" characters, like those found in lanuages other than English.
-
-If the program crashes on you or behaves in an unexpected way, please let me know on SourceForge.
+Version 2.1 sees a complete rewrite of the SpeeDReaD program in Python. Among the improvements are such things as:
+* A more streamlined, minimalistic interface
+* Better-than-ever threading for smooth reading
+* A reliable way to import EPUB files for reading
+* The ability to choose any font from your system for the reading display

 **Happy Speed Reading!**

Discussion for Home page

Jeremy Wilson — Tue, 23 May 2023 22:51:58 -0000

Version 2.1 sees a complete rewrite of the SpeeDReaD program in Python. Among the improvements are such things as:
* A more streamlined, minimalistic interface
* Better-than-ever threading for smooth reading
* A reliable way to import EPUB files for reading
* The ability to choose any font from your system for the reading display

Discussion for Home page

Jeremy Wilson — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 18:01:48 -0000

The biggest change in Version 1.5 is adding the ability to change the font face in the reading panel. You can do so through the Options Button (looks like a gear). Other minor improvements in coding and GUI layout were also performed.

Discussion for Home page

Jeremy Wilson — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 19:47:52 -0000

Version 1.4 makes some major improvements to the way words are flashed on the screen and includes some updates to the GUI, including a reading time display.

Discussion for Home page

Jeremy Wilson — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 19:09:03 -0000

Ok, so I borked the punctuation pause feature in version 1.3. 1.31 has it fixed.

Discussion for Home page

Jeremy Wilson — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 01:18:52 -0000

Version 1.3 makes better use of threading, streamlines the word display through the use of a TimerTask, and makes some other small improvements in the code.

Home modified by Jeremy Wilson

Jeremy Wilson — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 17:22:57 -0000

--- v2
+++ v3
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 * "Left Arrow" - Move to the previous word
 * "Right Arrow" - Move to the next word

+Note that all of these shortcut keys will work while you are reading, so you can easily Play, Pause, Stop, and adjust the WPM while reading.
+
 **How to get the most out of SpeeD ReaD**
 Since the premise of this program is to encourage you to read faster than you can say the words, setting a WPM that works for you is most important. If you find yourself still sounding out the words silently in your head while they flash on the screen, your WPM is set too low. Conversely, if the words have been flashing on the screen but you have no idea what you've just read, your WPM is too fast. Play around with the WPM until you find one that is just right. I tend to read somewhere between 450 and 500 WPM when I use this program. You will also find that as you use the program more and more, you will be able to increase the WPM higher than you could when you first started.

Home modified by Jeremy Wilson

Jeremy Wilson — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 17:19:26 -0000

--- v1
+++ v2
@@ -1,8 +1,36 @@
-Welcome to your wiki!
+SpeeD ReaD ("Speedy Read-y") helps you to read faster and more efficiently. By minimizing subvocalization and saccades, you can process and comprehend the text you read much faster than with normal reading.

-This is the default page, edit it as you see fit. To add a new page simply reference it within brackets, e.g.: [SamplePage].
+First, subvocalization is the natural tendency for all of us to "hear" the words in our brains as we read. Think of it as reading out loud inside your head. But our minds do not need us to sound out the words we read - even inside our heads - in order to understand them. The words can be processed in a fraction of the time it takes us to sound them out. SpeeD ReaD forces you to simply comprehend words by sight.

-The wiki uses [Markdown](/p/speed-read/wiki/markdown_syntax/) syntax.
+Additionally, as we read blocks of text on a screen or in a book, our eyes tend to vacillate between rapid movements (saccades), as we move to the next word, and stops, as we focus on a word. By showing each word in the same area of the screen, SpeeD ReaD eliminates those unnecessary eye movements.

-[[members limit=20]]
-[[download_button]]
+**How Does SpeeD ReaD Work?**
+When you first open the program, you will see a large reading panel. This is where the words you will be reading will appear. Click on the New Text icon to paste in the text you want to read. This will activate the Play button.
+
+When you press play, the words of your text will flash on the screen at a certain Words Per Minute (WPM) that you set yourself. Adjust the slider on the bottom-left of your screen to speed up or slow down the WPM. The program starts with the WPM set to 250, which is a comfortable speed for many who haven't tried this manner of speed reading before.
+
+On the bottom of the screen, there are settings which you may customize to your own preferences. Just to the right of the WPM slider is a "Pause for punctuation" checkbox. With this selected, the program will automatically decrease the WPM by 1/3 whenever punctuation appears on the screen (i.e. "," "." "?" or "!"). Next, you may set the font size for the words of your text to whatever is most comfortable for you. Finally, you can change the bacground color between White, Cream, or Neutral. You may find one of these background colors more comfortable on your eyes while you are reading.
+
+When you begin reading, a new slider appears on the screen, just under the reading panel. This slider can be moved left or right while the program is paused or stopped in order to change which part of your text to begin on. This is useful if you lose focus and need to "rewind" your text a little bit, or if you want to skip some text.
+
+There are also hotkeys you can use for the program. These are:
+* "r" - Play, Pause, or Resume reading
+* "Esc" - Stop reading
+* "Arrow Up" - Increase the reading speed by 10 WPM
+* "Arrow Down" - Decrease the reading speed by 10 WPM
+* "Page Up" - Increase the reading speed by 50 WPM
+* "Page Down" - Decrease the reading speed by 50 WPM
+* "Left Arrow" - Move to the previous word
+* "Right Arrow" - Move to the next word
+
+**How to get the most out of SpeeD ReaD**
+Since the premise of this program is to encourage you to read faster than you can say the words, setting a WPM that works for you is most important. If you find yourself still sounding out the words silently in your head while they flash on the screen, your WPM is set too low. Conversely, if the words have been flashing on the screen but you have no idea what you've just read, your WPM is too fast. Play around with the WPM until you find one that is just right. I tend to read somewhere between 450 and 500 WPM when I use this program. You will also find that as you use the program more and more, you will be able to increase the WPM higher than you could when you first started.
+
+**Bugs**
+There are a few known bugs with the program, and they are primarily visual. Sometimes the Word Slider will briefly show at the top of the screen while reading. Likewise, using the "r" key while reading sometimes results in the buttons on the screen not being painted correctly. I'm pretty sure this is due to how I've threaded the various parts of the program, but I'm not a good enough coder (yet) to figure out how to fix it.
+
+I am also unsure whether this program will work well with "special" characters, like those found in lanuages other than English.
+
+If the program crashes on you or behaves in an unexpected way, please let me know on SourceForge.
+
+**Happy Speed Reading!**

Home modified by Jeremy Wilson

Jeremy Wilson — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 03:52:24 -0000

Welcome to your wiki!

This is the default page, edit it as you see fit. To add a new page simply reference it within brackets, e.g.: [SamplePage].

The wiki uses Markdown syntax.

Project Members:

Jeremy Wilson (admin)