Steve Kelley
It is hard to imagine how you might improve an app like Voice Dream Reader for iOS. After all, with Voice Dream Reader on an iPad or iPhone you have all your books and magazines on a portable device that fits in your pocket to read anywhere. Connected to a service like Bookshare and there are over a million books to choose from. And for those who are used to reading in print and highlighting words and scribbling notes in the margin, all this can be done digitally on Voice Dream. So what’s to improve? The iPad and iPhone screens are a bit small for the low vision reader, so a larger screen would be great. Also, being able to copy and paste notes or copied text from the book to an app on the computer into Word or Pages on the Mac would be a big time saver. The iPad and iPhone are great for portability, but for serious work, at school or work, there’s nothing like a desktop or laptop computer, right? If only Voice Dream Reader was an app for the computer, that would be an improvement.
Apparently, Winston Chen, the developer of Voice Dream Reader, was listening, because Voice Dream Reader for Desktop was released this Spring for the Mac. It’s in the Apple store for the latest version of Mac OS, and with a 14-day free trial to run it through its paces.
Voice Dream Reader was easy enough to download and install from the App Store, and it will run on Mac OS 11 or later. If you already have Voice Dream Reader installed on your iOS device, you can easily synch your library with the desktop version, and this will also synch your bookmarks and notes across all your devices.
For current users of Voice Dream Reader for iOS, the interface on the desktop app is going to be familiar and will eliminate much of the learning curve. For new users, Quick Start MacOS is included with the download and is included in the library. There is also a User Manual available. Just look for it in the Help menu and it can be quickly added to the library.
Some of the navigation was very intuitive for this user of the iOS version. For example, the audio and font settings are in the upper right corner of the app, in the same position you’ll find them on the iOS app. Dig down through the audio menu to change the voice speed and choose a voice. A great audio feature is that any of the native Mac voices can be selected, so Alex was a first choice here. Like the iOS version, Voice Dream Reader for the Mac has the ability to set various default speech rate. Set the default in the audio settings, and any titles opened from the library will be automatically read at the default rate. If, however, the rate is changed for that specific title after it is opened, that new rate will then become what’s called the Default Specific for that title. The next time it is opened, it will open at the Default Specific rate.
Next to the audio menu, the font settings can be adjusted for font style, foreground and background colors, line spacing, etc. Again, for the iOS user, this will be familiar. Fonts can be either plain text or rich text. On the Mac app, the largest font size has increased to 120 pt., up from 90 pt. in the iOS version. For low vision users with a larger monitor, this may make some of the largest font sizes a bit more usable.
An interesting addition in the text settings on the Mac app is the addition of Speed Reading settings. Two options are available here, Pac-Man and RSVP. With Pac-Man enabled, the cursor appears to be eliminating words as they scroll toward it. The idea is to read a line or several words in advance of the cursor. According to the User Manual, research has demonstrated this technique for reading will enable reading at higher rates of speed, without a decrease in comprehension. Over a period of time, the reader will gradually increase the reading rate while using this feature. Alternatively, RSVP simply puts one word on the screen at a time as it is being read, eliminating all the other lines of text. Both Mac and iOS versions offer the ability to reduce the number of lines show on the screen to a single line, if desired. This reading mode can make it easier for some low vision users, by eliminating extra lines of text. It is unclear how the RSVP might increase reading speed. For the visual reader who is just adding text-to-speech to reading visually from the screen, experimenting with various color schemes for more contrast, rates of speech, voices, and line spacing, will dramatically increase reading rate and comprehension. Pac-Man and RSVP, may be settings designed more for the reader without vision loss, trying to increase their reading rate.
For the most part, familiarity with iOS Voice Dream made it easy to jump right into the Mac app, however, there were a number of areas where this actually got in the way. For example, by default, in iOS the Reader is full screen, and when the Library button is selected in the top left corner, the Library too opens in full screen. The Mac app can be opened in Full Screen, which is one of options under View in the menu at the top of the screen, but it took this reader some experimentation before the view was what I expected. The VoiceOver user will probably have the windows on the Mac desktop already set to full screen, but the low vision user may not. So, the window must be set to full screen. Even with that set, the margins on the Reader pane were rather wide. This pane, however, is adjustable so the margin size can be reduced. In addition, there is also a layout choice that will open a sidebar. This button is labeled Toggle Location Sidebar and it opens a sidebar on the left. When enabled the sidebar functions in much the same way as the pop-up menu that appears in iOS app when the Headings, Bookmarks, and Highlights button is enabled in the bottom left corner of the screen. If Library is selected, this column also becomes a more detailed directory for the Library. Once you forget what you know about the iOS interface and explore the new features of the Mac interface, getting around becomes much easier!
As you would expect Voice Dream for the Desktop on the Mac is accessible with VoiceOver, although the VoiceOver user may experience the same navigational issue the low vision user has, relying on what they “know” from the iOS app and trying to apply it to some of the Mac Voice Dream Reader menus. It is certainly a big plus to find a great number of keyboard shortcuts in the menus, like Command-R for the reader and Command-L for the Library. Some keyboard shortcuts seemed not to work, like those for Bookmarks, Control-Command-B, and Notes, Control-Command-N. These items opened from the menu when selected but did not when the shortcut was used.
Voice Dream Reader for the Desktop will prove to be a great productivity app for students and professionals at their computer or trying to move between documents on their Mac and the Reader. Because you can now use it on the laptop or with the larger computer monitor, it will be great for the low vision user looking for a larger display. That said, either because I relied too much on how to navigate the iOS version, or because the Mac interface is just a bit less intuitive, it just seemed a bit more difficult at times to interact with some of the features. When referring to the User Manual, it was unclear if the User Manual is written for both the iOS version and the Mac version because it didn’t address some of the basic navigational changes like the column mode. Instead, it covered the basic concepts and elements found in both versions. It would also be great to have a summary of all the keyboard shortcuts in the User Manual.
While reading one of the reviews in the Apple Store, one review seemed spot on, that the Mac app needs a bit more “polish.” Agreed, but it’s not a deal breaker. Pricing for the Voice Dream Reader for Desktop is now subscription based. After the initial 14-day free trial, users are charged $4.99 per month. Winston Chen acknowledges that some users will be disappointed by the new subscription model for the MacOS app in his blog. Chen’s commitment over the years to the iOS version of Voice Dream Reader makes it evident that whatever is lacking in the first roll out of the Mac version will be added, with plenty of polish, in future upgrades. Considering the added productivity Voice Dream Reader for Desktop will add for Mac users, the subscription fee, while a shift in pricing from the iOS version, will pay for itself.
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
