----- Original Message -----
From: David Poehlman <[log in to unmask]>


   [..some text skipped..]
> I have a question though.  Most of the programs like this that I have
> seen seem to require a mouse even to have the text read aloud or some
> non feedback keyboard way of using them does this requirement exist for
> this utility?  Also, there is still the issue of starting the computer
> and launching the program.  If I have it load at start up, can I have it
> indicate to me what is going on?

    I don't know about this Reader's Pal program but I have been using a
similar program called Read Please.  http://www.readplease.com  It does not
give any indication of what it is doing or where it is at.  All it does it
read what is copied to the clipboard.  When I use it to read messages I use
Ctrl-A and Ctrl-C to copy the body of the msg to the clipboard and
ReadPlease starts reading right away. It does not speak the header info (the
To, From, Subject and date.)  There is no way to read word by word or line
by line other than by marking each word or line as a block with Shift + Down
(cursor) Arrow.  Its a useable program for someone with low vision but I
don't see any of these programs that read text from the clipboard as being
of much help to totally blind users who need complete control of the speech
program.  Also, these text-to-speech programs are limited by the size of the
clipboard.  When reading large files like the Project Gutenberg e-text files
you need to use a text editor that lets you copy it to the clipboard a
chapter or two at a time.

    On a different topic, could the owner of this VICUG list please check
and see if the "Reply-To" feature can be turned on so that typing Ctrl-R in
Outlook Express will reply to the list and not the person who sent the
message being replied to?  I subscribe to eight lists and this is the only
one that I have to remember to direct replies to the list.

  Stu Turk,  Pittsburgh PA  USA
         [log in to unmask]


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html