Talking Book Reader 1.8
help

About the application

With Talking Book Reader (TBR), you can read plain text documents (.txt files) as you read audio books in the Music application. To begin reading, perform these easy steps:

From this point, by using your headset or the items on the Currently reading screen, you can do the following:

  • Pause or resume reading. When you resume reading, TBR repeats the most recent sentence to help you remember what you read. A bookmark will be created at the current position when you pause reading. In this way, you can continue reading from that position at a later time.
  • Move forward or backward in the book by the current navigation unit.
  • Set the navigation unit. To do this with your headset, you have to pause reading first. The navigation unit can be 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 sentences.
  • Adjust the reading rate.
  • Adjust the reading volume.

You can change the default speech settings by tapping the Talking Book Reader icon in the device's Settings application. For more information, refer to Default speech settings!

You can read books written in foreign languages. By default, the language of all books you've copied into the application is set to the language that matches your region format setting. On the Currently reading screen, you can change the default language of a book to listen to the book in the preferred language or dialect.

While you are reading a book, you receive an incoming call. What happens in this case?

If your iDevice can handle phone calls, and you receive a call, the reading stops and you can answer the call in the usual way. Once you end the call, the reading continues with repeating the recently read two sentences. It helps you to remember you've read before the incoming call.

Naming files

If you want to read a book with Talking Book Reader, you have to give proper name of the file you will copy into the application. It means that you have to specify the author and the title of the book in the file name by using an underscore (_) or a semicolon (;) character between the author and the title. If the title contains the semicolon (;) character, you can use the underscore (_) as the separator character. Otherwise, you can decide what separator you want to use.

Examples:

  • Charles dickens_Oliver Twist.txt
  • William shakespeare;The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.txt

Open a book from other application

There are apps (such as the built-in Mail and Dropbox) that can open and show .txt files. You can use these apps to open books with Talking Book Reader. Simply open the attachment in Mail or the .txt file in Dropbox, tap Share and tap Open with Talking Book Reader. If an Open in... item appears, tap it and tap Talking Book Reader.

The authors list

The following items can be found on this screen: the authors of the books you've copied into the app, the author and the title of the book you are currently reading and two buttons. One of these buttons can be used to put the books you've copied into the application to the bookshelf, and the other button opens this help page.

Next to the author's name, you can see how many books you have on the bookshelf from that author.

When you begin reading a book, the author and the title of that book will appear above the authors name. the
Currently reading
icon indicates that you are currently reading that book. You can go directly to the Currently reading screen by tapping this list item.

After you've uploaded books into the application via iTunes File Sharing or opened the book from other application, tap the
Refresh
button at the upper right corner of the screen and your newly uploaded books will be available on the bookshelf.

You can open this help page by tapping the
Help
button at the upper left corner on this screen.

You can delete all of the books of an author in the usual way. A question will appear to confirm that you really want to delete the books. If you are currently reading one of the books you want to delete, the application will warn you about this case in the question.

Warning!

You can't delete only the book you are currently reading on this screen. If you delete the book you are currently reading, delete all the books from that author or delete only that book from the list of the books from that author!

List of books from an author

This screen lists the books from the author you've selected on the authors list.

Beside the book title, you can see the status of the book which can be one of the following:

Currently reading
icon: You are currently reading the book.

Unread
icon: You haven't started reading the book yet.

Unfinished
icon: You have started reading the book, but you haven't finished yet and you are currently not reading it.

Finished
icon: You've read the book to the end and you are currently not reading it.

You can find the
Refresh
button on this screen, so putting the newly uploaded books to the bookshelf can be performed also from this screen.

You can delete the books in the usual way. A question will appear to confirm that you really want to delete the book. If you are currently reading the book you want to delete, the application will warn you about this case in the question.

The reading control (Currently reading) screen

If you select a book from the books list, this screen appears, where you can resume or pause reading, move through te book or adjust reading parameters.

The currently spoken sentence continuously appears on this screen, so you can read it with your eyes while you listen to the book.

You can read in more depth about the parts of this screen below:

  • Play
    button: starts reading.
  • Pause
    button: pauses reading. If you resume reading, the recently spoken sentence will be repeated.
  • Rewind
    button: You can move backward in the book by the current navigation unit. You can use this button only when the reading is in progress and moving backward is possible by the current navigation unit setting.
  • Fast forward
    button: You can move forward in the book by the current navigation unit. You can use this button only when the reading is in progress and moving forward is possible by the current navigation unit setting.
  • Decrease navigation unit
    button: Decreases the navigation unit which can be 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 or 100 sentences. The current navigation unit is always shown above the button bar.
  • Increase navigation unit
    button: Increases the navigation unit which can be 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 or 100 sentences. The current navigation unit is always shown above the button bar.
  • Volume
    slider: Adjusts the reading volume. As you move the slider, the reading continues with the new volume, so you can decide if you are satisfied with the new setting or not. This setting will be stored for the current book, so if you open this book anytime, you can listen to it with the recent volume setting.
  • Rate
    slider: Adjusts the reading rate. As you move the slider, the reading continues with the new rate, so you can decide if you are satisfied with the new setting or not. This setting will be stored for the current book, so if you open this book anytime, you can listen to it with the recent rate setting.
  • Change language
    button: If you've uploaded a book into the application that was not written in your main language, this button allows you to set the proper reading language. By default, the language of all books you've copied into the application is set to the language that matches your region format setting.
  • Position
    display: Shows the progress in percentage as you read the book.

Change reading language

By default, the language of all books you've copied into the application is set to the language that matches your region format setting. You can view or modify the Region format setting by opening the Settings application, tapping the General and the International icon.

If you want to read a book in a language other than the default, you can set the reading language on this screen. Reading will be continued with the new language setting, so you can decide if you are satisfied with the new setting or not.

Default speech settings

You can specify the default reading volume and rate by opening the Settings application, and tapping the Talking Book Reader icon. These settings affect the newly uploaded books only. Changing these settings has no affect on the individually stored volume and rate settings you've set on the Currently reading screen.

Control reading using your headset

If you have a headset that has remote control on it (such as the headset from Apple that ships with the device), you can use that headset to control reading. First, you have to start reading by using the application's user interface, see the Currently reading screen section for more information. You have to do it only once for a book, so the device's operating system will know that you want to use your headset to control reading.

Note:

If you have a Bluetooth headset that can be used to control Music playback, you can use it with Talking Book reader to control reading.

The control commands are similar to the commands you can use in the Music app. You can control reading in the following way:

  • Play / pause: Press the Play button on the headset! If you pause reading, a bookmark will be created, so you can continue reading the book from the bookmarked location anytime.
  • Move forward by the current navigation unit or increase the navigation unit: Press the Play button on the headset twice quickly! If you use this command while the reading is paused, the new navigation unit will be spoken.
  • Move backward by the current navigation unit or decrease the navigation unit: Press the Play button on the headset three times quickly! If you use this command while the reading is paused, the new navigation unit will be spoken.
  • Increase reading rate: Press the Play button on the headset twice quickli, but at the second press, hold the button pressed a bit longer! Reading will be continued with the new rate from the beginning of the current sentence. If you use this command while the reading is paused, the new reading rate will be spoken
  • Decrease reading rate: Press the Play button on the headset three times quickli, but at the third press, hold the button pressed a bit longer! Reading will be continued with the new rate from the beginning of the current sentence. If you use this command while the reading is paused, the new reading rate will be spoken
  • Volume adjustment: Use the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons on the headset! With these commands, you can adjust the device's volume. To adjust the reading volume independently from the device's volume, do it on the Currently reading screen or in the Settings application.
Warning!

If the reading doesn't start if you press the Play button on your headset, you have to use the Talking Book Reader's user interface to start reading. This can happen if the operating system stops applications not used recently to free up some memory.

If you use another application that can be controlled using your headset, this may cause that your headset will control the other application even if you have exited from it. In this case, you have to use the Talking Book Reader's user interface to start reading again.

Notes for VoiceOver users

Talking Book Reader is designed to be fully compatible with Apple's built-in screen reader called VoiceOver. As a result, the double tap with two fingers gesture can be used to pause or resume reading. You can use this gesture not only on the application user interface, but on the lock screen and in every application except if another application changes this command's behavior. In this case, you have to use Talking Book Reader's user interface to start reading again

When you use the play controls on the Currently reading screen, VoiceOver will not produce the click as usual and doesn't speak the label of the buttons after you press them, so these feedbacks will not disturb you while you move through the book or pause or resume reading.

If you want to delete an author from the authors list, or you want to delete a book from the book list, you can do it by using the Rotor. First, make sure that the Actions item is selected. Swipe up or down with one finger to select the Delete action and double tap to execute it.

Warning!

On the authors list, only the currently reading book can't be deleted. Please double tap on the author of the book and delete it from the book list!

Contact

The homepage of the application is: http://www.tbr.tormazs.hu/en

If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please contact me!