Preparation of Text for Proportional Reading

 

We can help you prepare text if you wish


Or prepare text on your own


Or use our Formatting Software



Introduction


The Proper Way to Paginate Text for Proportional Reading

  1. 1.There is a blank line after all paragraphs, titles and subtitles, and all these items are indented.

  2. 2. There is a blank line after the end of each sentence in a paragraph.

  3. 3. There is a blank line after semicolons.

  4. 4. Font size is 36.

  5. 5.The white background of the page is shaded.

  6. 6.Articles, etc. are saved as HTML documents (and read with a browser, on-line or offline).


Note. When preparing text for beginners or challenged readers, there is also a blank line after commas.


Where You Do Text Preparation?

Text preparation can be done on a Mac computer or a PC. On a Mac computer you can use Pages and TextEdit, or you can use Word. Note: when using Pages and Text Edit on a Mac Computer, there is no need to buy Microsoft Word. On a PC you can use Word.


The Essential Process

  1. 1.Select and copy text into Pages. Copy in a number of  articles or chapters at a time, up to about 150 pages, separating each article or chapter by a symbol that you can easily search for (like **). This symbol should be placed by itself on its own line.

  2. 2.Export the Pages document as a text file. This is done to clean up all the strange and special codes that have crept in. Save this file on your desktop with a simple name, which you can use over and over if you want.

  3. 3.Open up this text file in Pages and make the pagination changes.

  4. 4.Select All and then Copy this document to clipboard and Paste it into a new Text Edit widow.

  5. 5.Select all the text and enlarge the font and adjust the background shading.

  6. 6.Save the document as a HTML file (with the name of your choosing).


Each chapter of a textbook should be made into a different HTML article.


To read word by word, change each space into a blank line.


To read by phrase, put a blank line before the following ten words: to, if, but, and, or, is, by, when, which, into.




Pagination Steps in a Word Processor



Introductory Notes: Hard return in Pages is achieved by pulling down Find and Replace and choosing the Advanced form and then choosing “Insert” and picking “Carriage Return”. Two “Carriage Returns” in a row make a blank line. “Paragraph Break” is also located in the Find “Insert” window.


Hard return on Microsoft Word is done by typing ^p into the Find or Replace field. A blank line (two hard returns in a row) is thus: ^p^p.


Today’s e-text uses both a paragraph break or two hard-returns in a row to make a single blank line. The first thing you want to do is to change all paragraph marks into hard returns so there is no confusion.

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1. Change All Paragraph Breaks into Hard Return

Paragraph Break to Carriage Return


2. Remove All Blank Lines

Carriage Return, Carriage Return to Carriage Return

Repeat until counter shows 0 instances found.


3. Indent Every Paragraph and Follow It with a Blank Line

Carriage Return to Carriage Return, Carriage Return, tab


4. Add a Blank Line After Each Sentence in the Paragraph

Period, space to period, Carriage Return, Carriage Return


5. Add Blank Line After Every Semi-Colon

Semi-colon, space to semi-colon, Carriage Return, Carriage Return


6. (Optionally) Add Blank Line After Every Comma

Comma, space to comma, Carriage Return, Carriage Return


To make changes or improvements in HTML document Open in Pages, fix, then select and copy into new TextEdit file, and adjust if necessary, then re-save.






© Proportional Reading, 2012