Kurzweil 1000 v.12 - Solutions for Blind Readers

Kurzweil 1000TM is award-winning software that makes printed or electronic text readily available to people who are blind or visually impaired. It combines accessibility, communication and productivity tools to ease and enhance their reading, writing and learning experience.

The software speaks text aloud in a variety of natural-sounding voices that can be modified to suit individual preferences. In addition, it provides users with document creation and editing as well as study skills capabilities for note taking, summarizing and outlining text.

Kurzweil 1000 delivers quick access to a wealth of information including online books, magazines and encyclopedias so users can pursue any reading interests. They can also take their reading wherever they go by sending files to Braille note takers and embossers as well as portable devices such as DAISY and MP3 audio players.

Kurzweil 1000 is easy to use for beginners, yet powerful and flexible for advanced users. With its wide array of useful features, users save time and gain independence – whether at home, at school, or at work.

Kurzweil 1000 v.12 - Features and Benefits

• New User Wizard topics introduce and walk new users through a number of Kurzweil 1000 features and preference setups. It appears when you start up Kurzweil 1000, but can be disabled and accessed from the Help menu.
• Simple Forms Recognition and Completion
  Our software provides easy access to most printed forms and presents them with the fields, labels, boxes, and text areas in the appropriate reading order. You can fill in the fields, edit, save, and print. You can easily insert your handwritten signature into a form, or any Kurzweil 1000 document, once it's scanned into your computer.
• Choices for More Accurate Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
  Two OCR engines, ScanSoft© OCR and ABBYY™ FineReader, provide the most accurate available OCR. For the best possible scanning results, Kurzweil 1000 also has the ability to correct many errors. In addition, a noise filter option lets you ignore regions near the edge of a page that were incorrectly identified as text.
• State-of-the-Art Speech Options Clear, natural-sounding VoiceText voices from NeoSpeech and ETI-Eloquence™ voices from Nuance deliver the highest quality text-to-speech (TTS), making your reading a pleasure to hear. You can choose and adjust our many voice options to suit your individual preference.
• Appointment Calendar with Audible Reminders
  Keep track of your schedule with our easy-to-use calendar application. You can create, add, edit, and delete your calendar entries simply from the desktop taskbar, as well as set audible reminders that will play any sound file on your computer you choose.
• Study Tools
  Add bookmarks, text notes, and annotations; skim, summarize, and create outlines for your work, and have your documents open to the last position read. Professionals and students find Kurzweil 1000's comprehensive time-saving study tools extremely useful. Plus, you'll have access to eighteen bilingual dictionaries and Google Translation tools.
• Quick Access to Scan, Photocopy, and Fax Features
  Assign specific Kurzweil 1000 functions to your scanner buttons for faster scanning, copying and faxing. Once configured, pressing a single button will perform the desired task.
• Create Documents and Work with Tables
  Writing and editing documents are simple with our audible text editor, built-in dictionaries, thesaurus, and spell checker. In addition, proofreading keystrokes for reading one word at a time include punctuation and capitalization reporting. You can also create, edit, and read tables with the same ease, plus convert blocks of text to tables and vice versa.
• Link Documents and Settings You can link settings to documents, saving you time and effort.
• Online Information Search and Retrieval Enjoy quick access to information from a variety of sources, including e-books, magazines, encyclopedias, and the Merriam-Webster medical dictionary. Based on your criteria, Kurzweil 1000 will search select Internet repositories such as Bookshare.org, NLS Web Braille, AccessWorld, Talking Newspaper Association of the United Kingdom, NFB Publications, the Columbia Encyclopedia and Wikipedia (in multiple languages), and present you with your download choices.
• DAISY Format Support
  Kurzweil 1000 opens, reads, edits and saves text-only DAISY files, including original tables, bookmarks, links and notes. You'll also have DAISY Type 2 file support for audible document navigation.Save MP3 and WAV files in DAISY 2.02 format which retains bookmarks.
• Read Files Away From Home and Burn CDs
  Kurzweil 1000 can send your files to BrailleNote™, BookPort™, Book Courier, Maestro™ and virtually any device so you can read and reference important material when away from your home or office computer. You can also create CDs of your files within Kurzweil 1000 if you have a CD burner.
• Create and Play Audio Files
  It's easy to convert your Kurzweil documents to MP3, WAV and DAISY audio files. If your document contains bookmarks, Kurzweil 1000 will use them to create separate audio files so your selections will be easier to manage on your portable player. In addition, you can listen to audio files from other sources in Kurzweil 1000 along with the option to use Reading and Navigational keys for audio DAISY, and Bookmarks or Notes to annotate MP3, WAV, and WMA files.
• Broad Range of File Access
  Any file type that you can print through an application installed on your computer can be opened with Kurzweil 1000 (including PDF), which greatly expands your reading choices.
• Other Notable Features:
  
  • Supports Windows Vista® operating system
  • Supports low vision users with magnification and highlighting functions
  • Provides easy access to common business applications (Calculator, Photocopier, and Fax)
  • Scans within Microsoft Word
  • Sends files through popular e-mail applications.
  • What's more, you can add audio files to iTunes and Windows Media Player playlists.

Kurzweil 1000 v.12 - System Requirements

• Processor: 1 GHz or faster. For VoiceText, a minimum of 700 MHz is required.
  
• Memory: Minimum 1 GB of RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit).
  
• Hard Disk Space: 16 GB hard drive for 32-bit; 20 GB for 64-bit with at least 15 GB of available space; additional 625 MB for VoiceText, and additional 300 MB for the American Heritage Dictionary Pronunciation WAV Files.
  
• Operating System: Windows® 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
  
• Microsoft® .NET Framework. If .NET does not exist on your system, Kurzweil 1000 installs it during installation.
• The Kurzweil 1000 product CD.
  
• CD drive.
  
• TWAIN-compatible flatbed scanner (go to www.kurzweiledu.com for a list of compatible scanners). Recognizing and reading currency requires a color scanner.
  
• Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster® -compatible 16-bit or higher with speakers.
  
• Full-size keyboard and/or a 17-button keypad.

NOTE: The Speech Gurus can only sell this software to addresses within the state of Minnesota.