Introduction

Read&Write for Android is an alternative keyboard for your Android tablet. It offers several friendly tools to help if you’re writing emails, creating documents or entering and editing any kind of text.  

Use Read&Write for Android for everyday typing, just like you’d use your Android tablet’s normal keyboard. Reading and writing text is made quicker, easier and more accurate with these features:

• Speech with dual colour highlighting
• Speak as you type
• Word Prediction as you type
• Spell Checker
• Dictionary with integrated Picture Dictionary

You can add Read&Write for Android to your tablet from the Google Play Store.

Starting Read&Write for Android

The first time you run Read&Write for Android, you will be shown a Setup Wizard:

This will take you through how to set up Read&Write for Android.

Note: At this point, if you skip this Setup Wizard the keyboard will not have been activated. You will need to either do this manually, or else re-run the Setup Wizard.

Enable Keyboard

The enable keyboard step will ask you for permission to enable the Read&Write keyboard. It’s important that when you press Enable Keyboard that you select the correct option, it should look something like this:

Once this box is checked, you will be presented with a warning. You must accept this warning in order to use the keyboard:

Make Default

Once you have enabled the keyboard, the next step is to override the default Android keyboard with the Read&Write one. Similar to the Enable Keyboard button the Make Default button pops up a list of keyboards and you should select the one which says Read&Write. It should look similar to this:

Register

You need to register with either a valid Read&Write Serial or Product Code, or Read&Write for Google account in order to have access to the premium features.

You can request a 30-day trial of the premium features, but you must do so using your Google e-mail address.

Using a Serial Number or Product Code

You should enter your serial number or product code in the box provided, then press the arrow button.

 

  

Using a Google Account

If using a Google Account, you should press the Sign in with Google button and select your account you would like to register.

 

Once you select the appropriate account, you should be presented with a Google Authorization dialog. You need to allow this for the process to work:

If your account is not in the list shown, you should use the Add Account button:

Using the Keyboard

With the keyboard installed and selected, you’ll have access to it in any application where you need to type:

Simply use Read&Write for Android to type text like your normal keyboard.

Prediction

When you start to type, word suggestions will be predicted in the top bar:

If you want to use any of these predicted words, just tap once on the word you want.  Your chosen word will be put into the text, and the words displayed will change to the next set of predictions.

To get a definition for a suggested word long press on it.

If Speak Suggestion is switched on in Settings, the suggestion will be read aloud when you tap on it.  To insert the word double tap on it.

Speech

To hear text read back to you, place the cursor in the text where you want to start reading and then click on the Play button icon  

The keyboard will disappear and a speech panel will appear with the first sentence from the text like this:

The sentence will be read aloud to you and each word will be highlighted.  If Continuous Reading is switched on in Settings, it will continue to read the text until it is finished, or until you click on the Stop button icon  to stop it reading, or you click on the keyboard icon to return to the keyboard.

Speak as you type

If you have Speak as I Type switched on in the Settings for Read&Write for Android, you’ll hear each word and sentence read aloud as you type.

Spell Check

To use the spell check, place the cursor in the sentence and click on the  icon and then click on the Spell Check icon .  The spelling panel will appear like this:

 Any spelling mistakes found will be highlighted.  For the first mistake a list of suggestions on the right hand side:

You can single tap one of these to correct the mistake.  The spelling mistake will be replaced in the spelling panel with the suggestion you have chosen.  The spelling will move to the next error in the sentence.  Click on the  icon to have the corrections put into your text and return to the keyboard.

Dictionary

To use the dictionary place the cursor anywhere in the word you wish to look up.  Next, click on the  icon and then the Dictionary icon  .  A panel will appear like this:

To hear the definition read aloud, click on the Play button icon  .  To return to the keyboard click on the keyboard icon .

Settings

To adjust how Read&Write for Android works you can access the Settings panel from the  icon on your Android tablet Home Screen/Launcher.

 

Highlight Vowels

Toggle this option to see vowels highlighted on the keyboard in the theme colour:

Use Open Dyslexic font

Toggle this setting to change the keyboard font to Open Dyslexic:

Change Colour Theme

You can choose from five colour themes (purple, pink, teal, orange or green) for the keyboard.

Speak As I Type

Toggle this setting to switch Speak As I Type on or off.  Speak As I Type reads each word and sentence aloud as you type them.

Continuous Reading

Turn this setting on to have speech automatically continue after each sentence.

Speak Suggestion

With this setting toggled on, a single tap on the suggested word will speak that word.  A double tap will then insert the word into the document.

Setup Wizard

Select this to re-run the Setup Wizard.

Licensing

This shows how the app is licensed and how long the app is available for.