Magic is a great piece of software for people with low vision. It comes in 2 versions, one with speech and the other magnification only and will magnify the screen up to 16 times.
If you are using Freedom Scientific’s magnification software, I can help you get the most out of it and customise it for your needs. This will include:
- setting the level of magnification to suit you;
- getting the general screen colours right for your eyes including text colours;
- changing the flashing cursor so it is easy to see;
- customising the mouse settings to be easily visible but not get in your way.
The latest version (10.0) has some great features:
hot keys for all the main features;
- different ways of magnifying – full screen, a "lens" that works a bit like a hand magnifier, split screen and the lovely dynamic lens that changes shape depending on what you are looking at;
- mouse and cursor enhancements, to track the mouse pointer and your text cursor – colour, transparency and other visual effects;
- colour enhancements – tone down the system colours; switch colours, invert brightness, filter the screen with a colour; have black and white all the time;
- move around the screen smoothly with the keyboard;
- have one part of the screen with its own frame to monitor something important (like the clock!);
- facility to have different settings for different programs so you could have a dynamic lens for your word processor to enable you to have an overview of the document’s layout with one line of text magnified and split screen in your spreadsheet program so that you keep an eye on the spreadsheet as a whole.
The version with speech will let you:
- read through text with the mouse or the keyboard, including highlighting if you want;
- hear what you point to with the mouse;
- read web pages to you.
Magic will also work seamlessly with the Freedom Scientific’s speech programme, Jaws for Windows.
If you think you might benefit from using, but you’re not sure, you can download a free demo of Magic from Freedom Scientific’s web site. the web address for that is: http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_magic.asp and follow the link for "Download a Free Demo".
Freedom Scientific have designed Magic so that it is very straightforward to install – the dialog boxes are in large print with speech support as well! However, if you would like some help in installing Magic I can certainly help you with that.
If you would like some training on getting the most out of Magic, please give me a call or drop me an e-mail. The details are in the right-hand panel of this web page.
I’ll be posting a full review soon, so please come back soon or subscribe to the RSS feed for this web site.