Desktop Buddy: Help

Reader

One of your Desktop Buddy main roles in life is to read eBooks, web pages, news feeds and other plain text or HTML files to you. You can also paste any text from the clipboard into the Reader window and the Buddy will read it back.

Web Pages

The Reader offers fairly basic rendering of web pages. Nevertheless, it is usually sufficient for those pages with a relatively simply layout and, moreover, it enables your Buddy character to read the content while you continue with other activities. Press the Open Web Page button or Content menu item and a dialog will open, prompting you to enter the full URL of the web page you wish to open. You can, if you wish, copy and paste this from your usual web browser's navigation bar.

Opening a File

To open a file on your local hard disk, click on the Open button. This launches the File Open Dialog enabling you to select the text file you wish to be read. Press the Open button and the text will appear in the central part of the window.

You can open eBooks in exactly the same way as any other text file. The Resources page on the Dakine Wave website provides links to websites from which you can download eBooks. Although Desktop Buddy can work with HTML files, it's usually better to choose the plain text versions.

News Feeds

News Feeds can also be opened in the Reader for reading by your Desktop Buddy. However, you select the particular feed for opening from the Syndication Feed Dialog accessed from the main Buddy window.

Pasting Text from the Clipboard

You can copy and paste text from any source: files, documents and web pages. Simply copy the text and then click in the text pane in the Reader window and either press the Paste button or use the CTRL-V keyboard shortcut. The text will be pasted into the window ready for reading. (If a HTML file or web page is currently being displayed, it is necessary to clear the contents (see below) before the paste command can become active).

Reading Aloud

Your Desktop Buddy will read the contents of the text pane to you, beginning from the cursor position, when your press the Play button. The text that is currently being read will appear with a pink background. The paragraphs that have been read already will be shown in yellow.

You can press the Pause button whenever you like and the Buddy will stop reading at the end of the current chunk of text. In addition, the Buddy will pause automatically if there are some tasks that your Buddy needs to remind you about or if a new news item is received. To recommence reading, simply press the Play button again.

You can move to any point in the file by clicking with the mouse - be careful not to click on hyperlinks in a web page though, unless that's what you intend, of course. To quickly move to the beginning of the contents, click on the Rewind button. This also clears the markings used to show which text has been read.

Clearing the Contents

You can clear all of the text from the window by pressing the Clear button. If you want to remove only a portion of the text, drag your mouse over the text to select it and then press either the Delete or the Backspace keys on your keyboard.

Available Commands

Content Menu
	Open Web Page	Prompts you to enter, either by typing or pasting from the clipboard, the URL of a web page that you wish to open in the Reader.
	Open File	Launches the File Open Dialog so that you can select the plain text or HTML file, including eBooks, that you wish your Desktop Buddy to read.
	Paste from Clipboard	Pastes the text from the clipboard into the contents pane. This command is not available when either a web page or a HTML file is displayed in the reader. In those cases, simply clear the contents first.
	Clear Contents	Clears the content pane of all text.
Read Menu
	Play	Your Desktop Buddy begins reading the text in the contents pane from the cursor position.
	Pause	Pauses the text reading as soon as the Buddy reaches the end of the current chunk or paragraph.
	Rewind	Moves the cursor to the beginning of the text in the contents pane, removing any text highlighting.
Options Menu
	If the Open in Default Browser option is checked, clicking on hyperlinks in a web page or HTML file will open the linked resource in your default browser as an alternative to opening them in the Reader itself. Although Desktop Buddy cannot read web pages displayed in your browser, you may prefer to view some pages in your browser because of the higher quality HTML rendering that it offers.