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A powerful screen reader with text magnification, coupled with word prediction and onscreen keyboards in 9 languages

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Penfriend XL 4 is now available.

Penfriend XL provides, in many languages, the literacy support to dyslexic, physically disabled and visual impaired writers that Penfriend XP already provides in English.

As well as multiple European languages Penfriend XL adds screen reading and multiple onscreen keyboards. It will be of value to anyone learning foreign languages. Penfriend XL

• provides speech feedback and screen reading of virtually any text from web or word processor in native voices, highlighting words as they are spoken
  
• simplifies the typing of European languages when your computer is set to operate in English (Australia, US, UK, etc.)
  
• comes with several lexicons for each language which currently include French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Swedish as well as UK English and the recently added Gaelic. It even has Latin lexicons.

Penfriend XL will also help those with dyslexia and physical disabilities in English and any of the other languages it covers, providing the highest quality word prediction available. It will also help writers with English as a second language (ESL).

Topic vocabulary can easily be added. Thus if you are working on a specific textbook and the text is available in electronic form, in about a minute you can teach Penfriend XL the new words in that book. there isn’t a lexicon for a language you want to use you can produce your own if you have substantial amounts of text in that language in electronic form.

Penfriend XL integrates fully with both Clicker 5 and Clicker 4 from Crick Software and SAW4 from the ACE Centre. Open Clicker or SAW, choose prediction, and it opens Penfriend XL and the Penfriend XL predictions come up in the Clicker or SAW grids. New preferences have been introduced. For instance you can now set the minimum length of word predicted. Thus when selected, Penfriend XL will only predict words longer than a length you set.

Over time further lexicons, including topic lexicons will be provided on the Penfriend website. For most of the commoner languages native voices are available.

Click here to see Recent Improvements in Penfriend XL version 3.

Word prediction in many European Languages

Now with Penfriend XL you can predict the next word you want to write in many languages. It does this using a dictionary of known words, along with detailed knowledge of when they are likely to be used and words you have used before. 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. This is valuable for those who have physical disabilities or dyslexia. But it will also help those wanting to write in a language that they are learning.

Minimising the predictor window switches off prediction and all the assistive functions in Penfriend XL. Useful if you want to type an email address without spaces after the full stop, or type numbers whilst predicting using numbers.

Screen Reading with Native Voices

Penfriend XL comes with a screen reading and text magnification facility, just click on the folders on your desktop or read web pages and hear them read with native voices. Speak the list of words offered by your word processor’s thesaurus or spell checker.

Click on image to enlarge

The spoken text can be transferred automatically to the clipboard where, if a large font is used, it can be magnified for those with visual impairment. There is an icon in the clipboard which allows you to switch the screen reading on and off at a single click.

It will also speak back the text you are writing. 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. This can be used in conjunction with the screen reading to enlarge and highlight words being read from web pages or the desktop.

Penfriend XL includes SAPI voices from CereProc, one of the world’s leading vendors of quality accented text-to-speech engines. The three English voices Heather, Sarah and Katherine are installed using the standard SAPI protocol for trouble-free listening.

Spell checking, Thesaurus and Dictionary

A very valuable feature of Penfriend XL is that it allows you to access, speak and enlarge the spell checker, thesaurus and dictionaries in Microsoft Word. Right click on a word and view the spelling options, synonyms and meanings available in Word’s dictionaries.

The words being read can be automatically transferred to the clipboard where if a large font is used they are magnified and highlighted as spoken.

This works in any of the European languages Microsoft provides.

Onscreen Keyboards for Multiple Languages

Now with keyboards for many languages where their colour and size and font size can be adjusted to suit the user. Anyone can type easily in a foreign language.

It will be particularly useful 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.

It is also useful to anyone wanting to type in a language that is different from the default language on the user’s computer. Typing French on a computer set up for use in Australia or German on a computer set up for use in France becomes simple with Penfriend XL’s keyboards.

There are now additional characters such as Â,€,[,],@,# available via the Alt key. And the English keyboard now has the accented characters used in Gaelic.

Integration with Clicker 5

As well as predicting words directly into your word processor, Penfriend XL can work with Clicker now including Clicker 5.2, from Crick Software to provide its prediction engine without the user needing to interact with Penfriend directly. If you have an older version of Penfriend XL you can download an upgrade to Penfriend XL version 3.1 or later that will support Clicker 5.2; this upgrade can be downloaded by logging onto the Penfriend website via the Web Site link in your copy of the program, then choose Customer Downloads.

You can now add pictures and symbols to predictions, provide a fully switch accessible environment for using Penfriend and open up many other possibilities such as using prediction in Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teaching.

View screenshots of Penfriend working with Clicker 5 to provide word prediction
Click here for a Help Sheet on How to Use Penfriend Word Prediction in Clicker 5.

Switch Access

Penfriend XL will work with many switch access applications to provide a fully switch accessible predictive writing environment. It integrates fully with Clicker 5, Switch Access for Windows (SAW4), works well with Discover:Switch and the Windows Onscreen Keyboard.

Lexicon Editing and Topic Lexicons

Penfriend XL 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 XL 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.

Another feature is the ability to ban words. Thus risque’ words, or words that a child should be able to spell can be banned, so that they are never predicted.

Penfriend XL 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. This is also a useful tool for a teacher to see the spelling errors that a child is making.

As well as learning new words, Penfriend XL keeps track of the ones you’ve used, and your style of writing. This all helps to predict the right words next time!

Often you want specific vocabulary for a particular topic. One of the major advantages of Penfriend XL is that it is very easy to teach it new words either from the clipboard or a text file. Thus if you have a document with the words you want to use in it, it takes seconds to teach the program these words. They can then either be kept for the future or used for that one session. It is your choice.

Abbreviation Expansion

As well as predicting words using the letters you type, Penfriend XL 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 XL 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.

Smart Punctuation

When you finish a sentence, or use almost any punctuation mark, Penfriend XL 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.

Smart punctuation can be switched off when you want to type an email address without spaces after a full stop, by simply minimising the predictor window.

Sensible Options

Penfriend XL 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 onscreen keyboard, can be adjusted. The colour of highlighted words, both text and background, can be controlled separately from the normal words. Whether Penfriend XL 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.

Free demonstration copy! Click here to download

Licensing Conditions for Single User and Additional Users on a Single Geographical Site

The Penfriend Single User licence can be installed on one computer; the number of people using each installation is not limited. If you wish to install on additional computers on the same SINGLE geographical site, please purchase additional user licences or a site licence. Alternatively, the Penfriend Portable allows an individual to utilise the program on any compatible computer by plugging in the Penfriend Portable USB stick.

You might also want to check out our Penfriend W3, XP, XL Software Comparison Chart to see which Penfriend software best meets your needs.

Requirements and ResourcesexpandClick to collapse

Prices

	Code	Media	Platform	$AUD Price	$AUD GST
	Penfriend Portable XL Version 3	Shelf Stock Clearance - Existing stock now available at this reduced price while stocks last!
	bPFPF-XL-GB-USB1	USB Stick	Win XP, Win Vista, Windows 7	$199.99	$0.00
	Penfriend XL Version 3 - Single User Licence	Shelf Stock Clearance - Existing stock now available at this reduced price while stocks last!
	bPFPFXLS1	CD-ROM	Win XP, Win Vista, Windows 7	$149.99	$0.00