Integrating Penfriend XP or XL Word Prediction with Clicker 5
by Penny McCulloch
The latest version of Clicker is now 5.2, with the upgrade now available from the Crick website. (www.cricksoft.com)
Among the key features of version 5.2 is the ability to integrate the well-known word prediction program Penfriend (XP or XL) into Clicker grids. This means that learners becoming more independent in their writing skills can use word prediction along with all the other supportive features provided by Clicker. There are more pop-up keyboards in Clicker 5.2, some of which are designed to be used with word prediction.
Alphabetical grey prediction
QWERTY grey prediction
Frequency grey prediction
To use these new prediction keyboards from Clicker 5.2, you need to have Penfriend XP or XL version 3.1 installed on your computer.
Customers who have older versions of Penfriend XP or XL version can download the new version by logging onto the Penfriend website via the ‘Web Site’ link in their copy of the program, then go to customer downloads.
Follow these steps to use Penfriend word prediction:
- Open Clicker 5.2 and a grid set of your choice.
- Make sure you have selected a prediction keyboard from Options, User Preferences, Preferred keyboard layout.
- From the grid toolbar select the “show pop-up keyboard” icon.
- Penfriend will automatically initialise.
- Re-position the onscreen keyboard for easy access.
You may want to hide a grid altogether by pressing the “hide grid” icon on the Clicker Writer
toolbar.
- As you select letters from the pop up keyboard, you will see words displayed in the prediction boxes. You will notice that there are 5 cells for predicted words in these keyboards. The content of cells containing predicted words can be spoken in the same way as all other cells in a grid; by right clicking on them.
If you want to add content from the grid you have open in addition to the popup keyboard, simply close the popup keyboard and continue writing, clicking on grid cells.
For extra support, pictures can be displayed in cells when using word prediction. To select this option, go to User Preferences. Click on the Appearance tab. Click in the box in the section headed Cells to turn this feature on or off.
Changing the vocabulary in the word prediction cells
When using Clicker 5 and Penfriend together, words displayed in the prediction cells in the Clicker popup onscreen keyboard are drawn from whatever lexicon (dictionary) was last loaded in Penfriend.
Follow these steps to change the lexicon
- Find the Penfriend icon on the toolbar and right click on it.
- Choose Predictor
- Select File, then Open lexicon. Choose a lexicon from the displayed list then click Open.
Special Access
Prediction keyboard layouts can be used by learners using a switch or switches to access the computer. The Penfriend word prediction feature will assist them by increasing the rate of text entry as well as providing spelling options during writing.
Setting up switch access in Clicker 5
1. Go to Options, User Access and then select Single Switch Auto Scan or Two Switch User Scan.
You may want to modify the switch settings to suit individual learner needs. Click OK to return to Clicker.
