WYNN is an integrated reading, writing, and studying program from Freedom Scientific that would typically be used by someone with a learning disability or other cognitive processing challenge. It can scan a paper document, preserving both the original appearance of the document as well as creating a text view. It will read back the text to the user, as well as offering ways to optimize the reading display. It features tools to help study and organize the information.

To use WYNN 3.5:

Select the "WYNN WIZARD 3.5" icon on the desktop.

To sign in, add your name or click on downward arrow and scroll down to your name. Your settings and preferences will be saved under your name. Then click OK. Open and read or edit a document, or create a new document by scanning in a handout or other paper copy. WYNN also features Scientific Freedom's Freedom Import Printer which allows WYNN to recognize documents from various formats.

How WYNN is Organized:

Four color-coded tool bars organize WYNN's functions. They have large buttons with easy to recognize icons. All of these functions are duplicated in the Menus, and most have keyboard shortcuts. There are also Hot keys to control WYNN's functions, including to open the program.

Each of the four, color-coded tool bars has a Read button to read your document, and a Write button to edit text. There is an Exact View / Text View button toggle, as well as an Other Doc button to switch to other documents you may have open.

There is also a Next button which allows you to rotate through the toolbar functions.

Blue - the File Management tool bar

File related tasks such as opening, printing and closing files are found here, as well as the Scan option. Select this to scan a document with your scanner. Your document will be processed and recognized so that the document is now ready to be read aloud, or edit. Click on the Exact View / Text View button to see an exact replica of the print page. Click on the Read button to read from Exact View. Click the Text View / Exact View button again to go back to Text View. You will be in the same place in both documents. The document can be read in either view mode. Writing may only be done in Text view.

The File Management tool bar offers the Go to Web button, which provides Internet access through a customized Internet Explorer type of browser and can read the Internet aloud. "Web Focus," which grays-out the areas not being read, can help users focus on the essential components, and avoid being distracted by flashing or overabundant content. This Masking feature is unique to WYNN, and is available for reading regular text as well as for reading the internet.

The web interface can offer a Text View/ Exact View toggle for the web content also, with text highlighting available in either view. Additionally, the File Management tool bar offers a simple email management program.

Pink - The Study Tools tool bar

The pink Study Tools tool bar offers study tools such as the ability to customize your document by highlighting, bookmarking, or by making text and voice notes. The Dictionary and Spell options can give you feedback as you create your document. With the List feature, items you highlight or bookmark can be sent automatically to a list in another document. WYNN helps you organize these by naming them the same as your document with -list1 added to the name (a list generated from astronomy.wyn will be astronomy-list1.wyn).

Green - The Visual Presentation tool bar

The green Visual Presentation tool bar allows you to customize the way you read the document. Use Color to change the background color, or customize how your document is read using the Rate, Pause and Self-pace buttons. Pause determines how long WYNN will pause at the end of a sentence. Word spacing, print size and line spacing are all available to help maximize "white space" which often makes for easier reading. The buttons cycle through their options in a interface that encourages experimenting with the display settings by even the most timid user.

Yellow - The Writing tool bar

The yellow Writing tool bar offers tools for increased comprehension, presentation and organization of your document. Outlines can be automatically generated. Here you will find the word prediction function that allows WYNN to help you with your word choices.

The Find button can help you locate special markup you have used in your document including your Text or Voice notes, Highlighting or Bookmarks you generated through using the study tools on the Pink Toolbar.

Some Common Setting changes in WYNN

The Settings Menu

Settings menu is where you will access the Property Sheet which controls the overall settings for WYNN. The Settings menu includes:
Save Settings; Retrieve Settings; Delete Settings; Speech Settings; Visual Settings; Scanning Settings; General Settings; Email Settings; Masking; Differential Coloring; Word Prediction; Custom Toolbar; and, Web Settings.

Speech Settings

WYNN offers reading aloud, and the speech settings are often ones you might want to customize. You might want to use one speed for reading and another for studying. The reading voice can also be changed here. Using the Settings menu, you can adjust this. Select Settings, then Speech Settings.

This will bring up the Property Sheet where you to adjust your defaults for WYNN.

In this window use the sliders to adjust the rate of speech, the pitch, the inflection, or even the language. Multiple languages are available. Use the Test button to see if the new speech is what you want, then press Apply, and then OK when you are finished.

If you would like to use this setting for your default profile, select Save Settings from the Settings menu. Remember to say yes when asked if you want to change the default settings. This is the default for your own profile only.

Change Feedback as for Typing

On the Speech Settings tab, there is a pull-down box under "Key Echo During Editing" which offers you a chance to determine how much feedback you will get while you write - from reading each letter you type to not reading back at all. Choosing Sentence, as in the example below, will cause the program to read your sentence back once you have completed it. Once you make changes, remember to choose Apply, and then OK.

Visual Settings

Visual display is a key part of WYNN's special environment. Customizing the appearance of the display makes a very big difference to many users. The Green tool bar with provide quick access to the most common settings, but more color combinations are available through the Visual Settings on the Settings menu. While the Color button on the Green toolbar will offer you the most common colors, you can further customize your text, your background color, and the two colors WYNN will use to spotlight text. One nice feature of WYNN is that once you have generated your own custom combination, this then becomes one of your color choices on the Color button. If you want to preserve the custom setting, remember to save it through the Save Settings option on the Settings menu. Users may find that they want to save specific settings for specific tasks. WYNN has included some Custom Tool Bars, and reading settings that users may find helpful. These can be found through the Retrieve Settings option on the Settings menu.

Scanning Settings

Scanning Settings can be finely controlled through this interface. Control over the Scanning Mode, the Contrast, Recognition Language and many more scanning defaults are found here. Choosing your scanner, however is made through the Scanner Selection option on the Advanced menu.

General Settings

General Settings gives you control over some features you cannot change elsewhere. You can change whether your text is highlighted in blocks or by an underline. You can change the number of documents that WYNN can let you have opened at one time.

One of the most important of the General Settings is the Default File Location. This allows you access to where WYNN is going to put your documents. Since WYNN has every user "Sign-in," user specific information is stored. If WYNN is installed with its own default settings, it will build a document folder for each user within a folder under their "Sign-In" name (C:\WYNN3\Users\UserName\Docs). Also within this folder are the user preference Settings and Email settings (C:\WYNN3\Users\UserName\Settings and C:\WYNN3\Users\UserName\Email). These can be copied and transferred between computers to take a user's preferences and email information with them.

If you change your default document location, WYNN will then save all your work to the new location. It will also look there when you select Open a File. Your user preference Settings and Email will remain in their original location.

Advanced Features

The Advanced menu on the WYNN menu offers a variety of excellent tools that improve WYNN's overall performance in many ways.

Pronunciation Dictionary

Pronunciation Dictionary allows you to change how WYNN reads specific words. The Test button allows you to hear what the word and the pronunciation will sound like. Add the word when you are satisfied with the way it sounds.

Dynamic Zoning

Dynamic Zoning allows you to control WYNN's reading order in a document. This is especially helpful if the document contains graphics, unusual formatting or unusual layout, such as multiple sidebars in a textbook .These often can result in unusual reading orders. If you decide to Rezone, the order in which you create the zones will be the order in which they are read.

Document Clean-Up

The new Document Clean-up option is a great boon for working with documents that did not scan or OCR well. The split view it offers highlights the word in both the Exact View and Text View, and allows for reading and editing of the Text View. Reading focus can be set by clicking on text in either view.

OCR Correction

OCR Correction allows you to "teach" WYNN the correct interpretations of the errors it makes when applying OCR to scanned documents. Recognition errors due to unusual fonts or bad photocopies are easily corrected here.

Teacher Lockout and Word Prediction Teacher Controls

Teacher Lockout and Word Prediction Teacher Controls offer control over the options available to the user. Teacher Lockout can be password protected so students can be "locked out" of the web, the thesaurus or dictionary, word prediction or their email.

The Word Prediction Teacher Controls allows for customization of the prediction options. This is where WYNN can be taught special prediction phrases and vocabulary, as well as where the use of phonetics can be selected. For example, WYNN can predict words starting with the letters "ph" even if the user types the letter "f".

Send to Word Processor

To send your document to MS Word once you have finished using WYNN's special tools and saved your document, you select Word on the Advanced menu. WYNN will send the text of your document to Word, preserving text, basic format and presentation. Word will open, displaying your document. Exact View, Highlighting, Notes and bookmarks will not be available in Word's "doc" format. This works best if Word is not already open.

Other Help

WYNN's help menu is well organized an easy to use. It has Index and Search options, but does not have speech support. There is also good support available online, including all documentation (see Addendum for WYNN 3.5 features), frequently asked questions, and technical support notes.

For further information, please visit the Freedom Scientific Learning Systems Group web site at http://www.freedomscientific.com/LSG/index.asp.