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Welcome to the 10th video tutorial in the Read&Write Gold v.11 series:
Study Skills (Part 2) :: Word Cloud and Voice Note features.
Throughout this series of instructional videos, you'll learn how to use Read&Write Gold to
assist you with your reading, writing, studying, research and organization. This video series
has been created to help you become more familiar with all of the main aspects of the program.
In this video, I will look at the following objectives:
1. Creating Word Clouds from Text and Word Banks
2. Altering Word Cloud Options 3. Inserting a Voice Note in Microsoft Word
Before we get started, you should already have the Read&Write GOLD Toolbar loaded and
set to the Study Skills Features Toolbar so that you can follow along with what I am doing
in this video. You can do this by clicking the textHELP logo repeatedly until the correct
tool bar appears... or you can click the little white arrow to the right of the textHELP button
like this and then moving your cursor to "Current Toolbar", and then "Study Skills Features".
If you are ready, then we will begin!
1. Creating a Word Cloud from your own text.
In this exercise, you will learn how to add words to create a word cloud from your own
text. Word Clouds offer the reader a way to visualize the information that they are studying.
A Word Cloud provides you with the most important words highlighted from within the text you
have selected.
This is how you create a Word Cloud.
Open a website of your choosing, preferably one that has lots of text. The more text you
select, the better the Word Cloud feature will work.
Select the entire article, or a portion of the text and then click on the Word Cloud
button that looks like this.
You will notice that a new "Create Word Cloud" window appears. At this point, you have a
couple of options. You can create a word cloud using the text that you have highlighted which
you can see here in the box... I have the text from the National Geographic website
selected.
Click on Create and see what happens...
You will notice that a window appears on your screen with a list of words in it. Click on
any one of the words and you will notice that Read&Write GOLD reads the word out loud to
you.
[TTS: extraterrestrial, intelligent, life, radio]
To close the Word Cloud, simply click on the little "X" at the top right of the window.
When you close a Word Cloud, it will ask you if you want to save it. Click Yes and create
a file name and save location for your file. NOTE: To load the Word Cloud, you will need
to click on the little white arrow to the right of the Word Cloud icon and select Open
Word Cloud.
You can also create a word cloud using a predetermined bank of words that are built into the Read&Write
GOLD program. Click on Word Cloud again. If you click this tab here that says "Use Word
banks" you will see a list of word banks along with a search button that allows you to seek
out a topic of your choosing. Let's try searching for "Space".
I am going to select the Space Science word bank to create another Word Cloud. Once again,
you can listen to the words and save this Word Cloud for use later on.
[TTS: physical sciences, science, solar].
2. Altering Word Cloud Options
You have a few options as it pertains to the look, feel and behavior of the Word Cloud
feature.
To access the options menu, click on the little white arrow to the right of the Word Cloud
feature and then select Word Cloud Options.
From here, you have a few options. You can change the number of words or phrases
that Word Cloud produces here. You can change the colour theme from Blue,
to Green to Red. You can change the shape from List to an actual
Cloud; hence the name, Word Cloud. Let's do that.
If you like, you can keep the word cloud on top of any document you have open by keeping
this checked. You can also adjust whether Word Cloud includes
numbers and less frequently used words by selecting these check boxes here.
Under click behavior; you can select to have the word read out loud (which is the default)
or you can have the word inserted into your document when clicked. I am leaving it as
"speak the word when clicked".
When you have completed making your selections, press OK. Now remember, whenever you make
any customization changes in Read&Write GOLD you may want to Save Your Settings. This will
allow you to carry over your personalized user settings to another computer with Read&Write
GOLD. For more information on saving Your Settings, please refer to video #1 in this
series.
3. Inserting a Voice Note in Microsoft Word
In this section, you will learn how to insert a Voice Note into Microsoft Word. Voice notes
can be useful when you want to add comments, instructions, or even test answers into an
existing Word document. This feature is great for students who are strong verbally, but
may struggle with written expression.
This is how the feature works.
Open a Microsoft Word document and select a place where you would like to add a Voice
Note. For this example, I have a practice multiple choice test that I have created and
I am going to create a voice note as an answer to one of the questions.
I place my cursor after the word Answer in question number three like this. Then I click
on the Voice Note button. You will notice a new window appears. When you are ready to
start recording, you just click "Start Recording" and then speak your answer into the microphone
like this...
"Computers have four main functions. They take data in, otherwise known as inputting
data via a keyboard, mouse or other device. They process data once it has been inputted.
They can also store data temporarily or permanently and they can output data such on a display
screen or on paper."
When you have finished recording, or if you need to take a moment to think about your
answer, click on Stop Recording. You can now review your answer by clicking Replay like
this...
"Computers have four main functions. They take data in, otherwise known as inputting
data via a key---"
If you are happy with you Voice Note, you can click Insert to insert into the Word document
at the point where your cursor is currently located. If for whatever reason, you want
to save the Voice Note separately from the Word document for use later on, you can select
Save instead. I am going to insert it into my existing Word document... and then I'm
going to click Close.
You will now see a little icon in your document that looks like a speaker. If you click on
the button, it will play back your voice note for you like this.
"Computers have four main functions"
You can now save your document like you would normally, and when you open it on any computer,
with or without Read&Write GOLD, the Voice Note will still be there.
wipe
This concludes video number ten, using the Study Skills, Word Cloud and Voice Note features
within Read&Write GOLD v.11.
For additional information about this product please visit www.TextHELP.com. If you are
a Georgian College student and you would like more information and/or your free take-home
copy of this software, please contact the Adaptive Technologist closest to your campus
using the information provided below.