ClaroRead For Chromebook And Chrome Browser User Guide

The ClaroRead Chrome Extension sits in your Google Chrome web browser. It lets you speak web pages, PDFs and Google Docs on Windows, Mac, or Chromebook.

Getting the ClaroRead Chrome Extension

You must be in Google Chrome!

• Get ClaroRead Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store

Using the ClaroRead Chrome Extension

ClaroRead provides speech in four ways (all these can be disabled/enabled in the settings window):

Hovering the mouse pointer

Simply point the mouse pointer at something in the current web page – a link or a paragraph or an image – and ClaroRead will speak it aloud.

Selecting text

With the mouse, select some text in the web page. After you release the mouse it will be spoken aloud by ClaroRead.

Pressing play

You will see a Play and Stop button appear on a floating toolbar. Tap or click where you want to start reading and tap or click Play and Stop to have the page read out, highlighting as it goes to show you where it is up to.

This works in web pages, PDF files, Google Docs and (for Premium users only) Word Online (Office 365) and Google Slides.

You can choose the highlight colour in Settings.

Scan from screen

Premium only. Click on the Scan from screen button and your mouse changes to cross-hairs. Select a region of the screen – like a page of text in a Google Book – and it will be captured, converted into text and spoken aloud. The conversion (OCR) all takes place in your browser.

Echo typing

As you type, ClaroRead will echo back each letter, word or sentence. You can also have it speak the letter sound instead of the letter name – so “buh” instead of “bee” for B. (Speaking letter sounds is not available in every language).

Document Conversion (OCR)

If you click on the drop-down next to the Scan from Screen button you will see a button for ClaroRead Cloud OCR. This lets you convert documents on your machine, from your camera, or in Google Drive or Dropbox or OneDrive. You can make images into text or make PDF files that do not speak, speak. You need to have a ClaroRead Cloud account to access this feature, but if your school or organisation hasn’t provided this, you can sign up for free.

Settings

Click on the ClaroRead settings buttons to bring up the settings tab

Speech Settings

Voice

Select the language of the voice you want to use. You get more voices if you are a Premium user.

• Voices labeled Google or Chrome will work whether on or offline – they are built into your browser.

• Voices labeled Acapela or Vocalizer will only work online.

• Other voices may be available on your machine (e.g. Daniel on Mac or Hazel on Windows).

See How to get more voices for ClaroRead Chrome.

Speed

You can change the rate that the voice speaks.

Click and Play

When Click and Play is active ClaroRead will add a Play and Stop button to every web page when it loads. Click or tap in the page and that sentence will be highlighted. Select the Play button and the whole page will be read out from that sentence onwards, highlighting as it goes. You can move the Play and Stop buttons if they are in the way by dragging the cross to the right.

Speak when mouse selects

Turns on or off speaking when you select text with the mouse.

Speak under mouse

Turns on or off speaking when you point at something in the web page.

Echo sentences

Turns on or off echoing each sentence as you type it.

Echo words

Turns on or off echoing each word as you type it.

Echo letters

Turns on or off echoing each letter as you type it.

Use letter sounds

If you have Echo letters turned on, and this is not greyed out, then you can turn this on to have the sounds of letters spoken rather than the names of letters (e.g. “buh” instead of “bee” for B)

Text Highlight Colour

Choose the colour used to highlight the current text being spoken by Click and Play.

Prediction

Check the prediction button in the View tab in settings to turn on a floating word prediction window that suggests words to complete what you have typed. Use the prediction button to enable prediction or stop using it, the button toggled on will show a tick and if its is switched off then there will be a red x. If you have speak under mouse turned on, you can hover over words to hear them read aloud. Click on a word to have it complete what you have started typing. The language of prediction matches the language you have chosen for your text-to-speech voice.

Prediction On

Prediction Off

Speech Recognition

Pressing the Speech Recognition button will allow you to speak to ClaroRead and have the text entered into a text area. 

Overlay tab

Coloured overlay

Many people find a tinted, lower-contrast look easier to read. Check this to turn on tinting, and select the colour and degree of tinting.

View tab

There is a new tab in the setting screen called ‘View’. This tab controls the buttons that are visible on the toolbar. You may want to enable all of the buttons or just want certain buttons for certain features visible on the toolbar.

You can simply toggle the button on or off in settings and the change will take place on the toolbar for all open webpages.

Extras button

The extras button allows you to access other Claro web apps from the ClaroRead Chrome toolbar. The extras currently include ePub Reader, Speaking Calculator and Claro Ideas.