Using Kurzweil 3000

After signing in you will be in the Universal Library. This is your library where you can upload files to be stored in the cloud, share files with others, or access files that have been shared with you.

When you first begin you will have access to three folders under your username: private, public, and recently opened local files. You can then add subfolders and modify them to suit your needs. Kurzweil will allow you to add, copy, delete, move, or rename subfolders and files.

Note there are also several of general folders, such as:

• University of Guelph: the public folder for the institution
  • Note: please don't save personal files in this folder
• Classic Literature: contains about 2000 titles
• Help Files: support documents and guides to Classic Literature and Nonfiction Bookbag
• Samples: sample files from Language Program, Passport Reading Journeys, and Reading A-Z
• Templates: Brainstorm templates for both teachers and students.

Using Dark Mode

Dark Mode allows you to change the background colour of Kurzweil from white to dark grey and black, and is available in the Universal Library and Reader. Note: using the Reader Dark Mode will affect the background of the Reader, including menus, but the document will colour will not be changed.

To turn on Dark Mode, use the toggle button located in the menu bar of all pages.

From the menu bar at the top of the Universal Library you can access My Account settings and Help.

My Account Settings

From the My Account dropdown you can access the following:

• Profile: this allows you to modify information related to your account and login (i.e., username and password).
• PDF Settings:
  • Toggle PDF Handling which controls the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) mode. You can have Kurzweil emphasize the OCR scan or the embedded text.
• My Teams: allows you to access any teams that are set up.

Help Menu

The Help tab contains:

• Getting started guides, including help videos
• Thorough overviews of Kurzweil features
• Access to customer support

There is also the “Browser Check” which helps to ensure that the Kurzweil Read the Web extension is suitable for your current browser.

Adding and naming folders

Adding folders to the Universal Library will help you to keep files organized by project or course. This will also allow you to use the “Filter folders by name” search to quickly find files. To add folders:

1. Expand the folders under your username
2. Right-click on either the private, public, or recently opened folder
   • Note: we recommend using private folders only for personal files
3. Select Add folder

4. To properly name folders, use only lower-case letters, numbers, and underscores (e.g., history_essay_research).

There are five options to upload files into your Universal Library:

• Google Drive
• OneDrive
• Bookshare
• Computer - uploads files directly to the Reader
• Upload - this button is only active once you have selected a folder in your Universal Library

If you use any of the cloud-based storage services such as Google Drive or OneDrive, you will need to log into those accounts to gain access to files. Bookshare will provide you with limited access to their library, to expand access you will need an active Bookshare account. 

What file formats does Kurzweil support?

Kurzweil supports KES, K3C, TXT, DOC, DOCX, RTF, EPUB, BKS, PDF, JPG, JPEG, and PNG files.

PDF Settings

Some scanned PDF files need to be converted from an image to a text-based file. To do this, Kurzweil uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which converts the image into computer readable text. This allows Kurzweil to read the text, and allows you to interact with the text using features such as highlighting. You can decide whether or not you want Kurzweil to run a full OCR scan or not in the PDF Handling options.

To access PDF Settings:

1. From My Account in the Universal Library select PDF Settings
2. You will come to the PDF Scanning Settings
3. Select Enable Remediated Processing to turn on PDF recognition

4. From this menu you can customize the process:
   1. PDF Handling
      1. Emphasize OCR Result - select this option to have Kurzweil run the OCR process when uploading 
      2. Emphasize Embedded Text - select this option for PDFs that already been through the OCR process
   2. Page Range Selection: allows you to select a page range when remediating PDFs – this is helpful to select specific pages from large files
   3. OCR Language: set which languages you want Kurzweil to identify 

Organizing files

Recently uploaded files can be accessed in the “recently_opened_local_files” folder”. To move them to another folder:

1. Select the file(s) you would like to move by selecting the checkbox before the file name

2. You can then drag and drop the file(s) into the appropriate folder, or select Move
3. If select Move, you will then be lead to the Move Files dialogue box
4. Use the search box to filter folders or select the appropriate folder from the list
5. Select Move

6. Kurzweil will warn you that the file will then be unavailable from the previous location. If you are fine with that, select OK.