What's New in OpenBook 8

Freedom Scientific’s OpenBook™ 8 scanning and reading software goes beyond providing access to printed documents or graphic-based text. This release provides new synthesizers, updated optical character recognition (OCR) engines, improved access to online books, common keyboarding with JAWS® and MAGic®, built-in braille support, new low vision features, new reference features, and much more.

OpenBook 8 supports 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows® 7, Windows Vista® and Windows 2008 Server, 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server, and Windows 2000 operating systems. If you already have an OpenBook 8 CD that you received prior to September 2009, and need to install it on a computer running Windows 7, please contact Freedom Scientific or your local dealer to obtain a new CD that will install in Windows 7.

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OpenBook 8 New Features and Improvements

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Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Engine Updates

OpenBook 8 uses the latest versions of both FineReader® and Nuance OmniPage® to provide the best text conversion and page recognition available.

Default File Format Update Includes Unicode

OpenBook 8 now creates and saves files using the new, default OBX file extension instead of the older ARK file format. This new OBX Unicode format lets OpenBook work with many more languages. All files previously created and saved with the ARK format will still open in OpenBook 8.

Keyboard Layout Redesign

Whether you use JAWS, MAGic, OpenBook, or PAC Mate™, all basic reading keystrokes are now the same, which makes it easier than ever to transition between Freedom Scientific products. Trainers will really find this to be a plus when working with different clients using a wide range of products.

Eloquence Speech Synthesizer Replaces ViaVoice

OpenBook 8 now includes the same high quality Eloquence speech synthesizers used in JAWS, MAGic, and PAC Mate replacing the ViaVoice™ synthesizer.

RealSpeak Solo Included

The latest RealSpeak™ Solo voices, which began shipping with JAWS 8, are now supported and shipped with OpenBook 8 and MAGic 11.0. If you installed these voices for use with JAWS or MAGic, you can immediately begin using them with OpenBook. Simply choose SAPI 5 from the Synthesizer combo box in the Speech Settings properties page. Otherwise, you will need to install them from the RealSpeak Solo CD that is included with your OpenBook package.

SAPI 5 Synthesizers Support

Along with a native Eloquence synthesizer, OpenBook now works with synthesizers that use the SAPI 5 interface. If you select SAPI 5, all available voices that are installed on your system will appear in the Reading Voice Language combo box.

Note: Other assistive technology products may have SAPI 5 synthesizers that are only authorized to operate with those products. If such synthesizers are on your computer, OpenBook 8 may not work with those specific voices.

Use Different Voices for Different Things

You can now select a different voice for the Menu, Reading, and Emphasis voices. For example, you could use Eloquence Reed as the Menu voice while using RealSpeak Solo Daniel as the Reading voice.

New and Improved Freedom Import Printer

The Freedom Import Printer lets you send inaccessible documents and graphic representations of text directly to OpenBook for optical character recognition. OpenBook 8 provides a new, updated importer that now supports color imports from other applications, as well as the grayscale and black and white imports previously supported.

Microsoft Word 2007 Support

You can now use the Freedom Import Printer to send documents from Microsoft® Word 2007 to OpenBook. Also, if you open a Word document within OpenBook, including a Word 2007 document, and it cannot be opened normally, it will send the document to the Freedom Import Printer.

The Scan Using OpenBook feature in Word has been expanded to include Word 2007. If you have Word 2007 installed on your computer when installing OpenBook 8, the Scan Using OpenBook command will be added to the Add-Ins ribbon tab in Word. This feature scans printed documents using OpenBook, but places the results directly into a new Word document.

Split View

With Split View, you can have both the Text View and Exact View on the screen simultaneously. This allows you to easily compare the exact view of a page or document with the recognized text to locate and fix errors that may have occurred during OCR.

Cycle Between Views

You can now cycle between Text View, Exact View, and Split View using the CTRL+SHIFT+V keystroke.

Preferred View

The new Preferred View feature allows you to select the view to use when opening documents. You can choose from Text View (default), Split View, or Exact View. The new setting is located in the Visual Settings properties page (ALT+G, V) as the first option. Saving the setting as default will allow the setting to be saved for the next time you launch an OpenBook session.

Exact View Printing

Opening the File menu and selecting Print, or pressing CTRL+P while in the Exact View of a document, now prints the document in Exact View format.

Exact View Scrolling

New keystrokes have been added to control scrolling when in Exact View. These apply both in Exact View and in the Exact View of Split View. The new keystrokes are:

Photocopy

The Photocopy command (ALT+C, P) is now available when in Exact View. It is similar to Exact View Printing.

Mouse Scroll Wheel

The mouse scroll wheel now functions to scroll text within the Help window, Text View, Exact View, and the top pane of the Split View. It is particularly useful when the document on the page is long, the text is large, or when the Exact View is zoomed to a larger size.

Re-recognize Pages

You can now re-recognize the current page or the entire document without rescanning. In order to re-recognize a page, you need to enable the Keep Exact View option in the Scanning settings before you scan.

BuckScan Improvements

Improvements have been made to BuckScan to ensure that the latest designs of U.S. currency ($1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100) are supported.

Document Highlighting

Use the new Highlighting feature to indicate important passages or key words in your document just as you would highlight text in a book. You can highlight text by turning on highlighting and using the ARROW keys to navigate through the section of text you want highlighted, or you can select a block of text and highlight the selection. Before you begin highlighting, you can select the highlight color to be used.

Highlighted text can be exported to a new document, or, when printing, you can select to only print highlights.

Appending a File

OpenBook can merge the contents of one document into the currently open document. It appends the file to the end of the currently open document using the Select A File To Append dialog box, which functions like an Open dialog box.

Comment Insertion

You now have the ability to insert comments into a document. To insert a comment, simply position the cursor where you want the comment inserted, and then press ALT+CTRL+M to open the Add Comment dialog box. Additionally, comments can be exported to a new document, or, when printing, you can choose to only print the comments. You can have comments spoken or ignored when reading a document.

Go To Dialog

The new Go To dialog box (CTRL+G) lets you move forward or backward through your document by page, bookmark, highlight, or comment.

Braille Support Now Built-in

OpenBook now has built-in support for braille displays when running without a screen reader.

To use braille, open the Settings menu (ALT+G) and select Braille Enabled. OpenBook will automatically detect Freedom Scientific braille displays including the Focus braille displays and the PAC Mate™ Portable Braille Display. OpenBook also supports a number of third-party braille displays currently supported by JAWS. You can add displays using the Braille Manager located in the Settings menu.

DAISY File Support

OpenBook now plays DAISY audio files (XML). The previous ability to open and read DAISY text files (HTML and OPF) is also maintained in this release.

Audio File Support Now Built-in

OpenBook now supports audio files, including DAISY audio (XML) and music files (MP3, MPG, WAV, CDA, and WMA file formats).

Use the new Open Audio Directory dialog box (CTRL+R), located in the File menu, to quickly locate and play these audio formats.

Book Search Improvements

The Book Search feature of OpenBook has been rewritten to provide even easier, more reliable downloading of books. The Advanced Search dialog box has been improved to provide a more intuitive user experience. When downloading a book from any source, which is already in the default Books folder, OpenBook now notifies you that the book already exist, allowing you to cancel the download or overwrite the existing file.

Illegal Character Improvements

OpenBook provides an audible alert if illegal characters are used as part of a file name.

Wildcard Characters

OpenBook will now announce File List Box Updated if, when in the Save As dialog box, you enter a wildcard character in the file name. The list view will simply update the currently displayed files, but a save will not occur.

Rewind Improvements

During a Say All function (INSERT+DOWN ARROW) you can rewind by pressing the left SHIFT key. The behavior has changed so that rewind always jumps back to the prior sentence. Previously, the rewind feature required two swift presses of the left SHIFT key: one to jump to the start of the current sentence and one more to jump to the prior sentence.

Say Selected Text

OpenBook can now speak any selected text using the following keystrokes:

Browse Button

A Browse button has been added to the General Settings properties page (ALT+G, V) to make it easier to change the Default File Location edit box.

Increase Zoom and Decrease Zoom Keystrokes

New keystrokes have been added to zoom in or zoom out when in Exact View or in the Exact View of Split View. OpenBook will indicate the zoom percent.

Context Menu

The Scan and Read command is the first item in the Context Menu list when you press the Applications key (SHIFT+F10).

No Empty View in OpenBook Window

When you close the last document in OpenBook, a new, untitled document always opens.

Help

When in the OpenBook help file (F1), a double mouse click on a help topic in the Table of Contents now opens that specific help information in the Topic window.

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Enhancements in OpenBook 8 Update 4 (November 2009)

Modifications were made to the Freedom Import Printer so it would install correctly in Windows 7. OpenBook is now fully compatible with both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Users who already have an OpenBook CD received prior to September 2009, and have recently updated their systems to Windows 7 should contact Freedom Scientific or their local dealer to obtain a program CD capable of installing OpenBook in Windows 7.

Enhancements in OpenBook 8 Update 3 (April 2009)

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Enhancements in OpenBook 8 Update 2 (November 2008)

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Enhancements in OpenBook 8 Update 1 (April 2008)

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OpenBook Updater

Download the file below to update your current 32-bit OpenBook 8 installation to version 8.0.5062, or to version 8.0.5071 if using the dongle release of OpenBook. You must have OpenBook 8 installed in order to install this update. If you have an OpenBook 8 CD and you need to install it on a 64-bit Windows computer, contact Freedom Scientific or your local dealer to obtain a new CD.

Do the following to download and install the OpenBook 8 update:

  1. Ensure that OpenBook 8 is currently installed on your computer.
  2. Select the appropriate FTP or HTTP download links that appear at the end of this procedure.
  3. When the dialog box opens, choose Save and select a location where you can easily find the downloaded executable file.
  4. Run the executable and choose Next to begin the update.
  5. Reboot your computer, if prompted, to complete the update.

Free OpenBook 8 Updater English (66 MB - FTP download)
Free OpenBook 8 Updater English (66 MB - HTTP download)

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40-hour Demonstration Version of OpenBook

The following briefly describes how to download and install the 40-hour version of OpenBook 8.

  1. Select the appropriate download link that appears at the end of this procedure.
  2. When the dialog box opens, choose Save and select a location where you can easily find the downloaded executable file.
  3. Run the executable and follow the talking installer instructions. If you are prompted to reboot, and your system does not proceed automatically with the installation, launch the installation file again.

Note: If your corporate firewall prevents you from downloading files using FTP (File Transfer Protocol), use the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) link instead.

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