[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] werD:
WordStreamer aka MiniMuncher(0.9.2) A Speed Reading Tool

**Looking for suggestions or feature request or mockups from any interested users. See this post for details.**

0.9.2 Adds the ability to stream any text from your clipboard onto the screen or into a file.

0.9.0 Adds to the Persistent settings and Bookmarking along with AppToDate Support! Enjoy!

Intro: The theory and the why

WordStreamer (aka MiniMuncher) is a speed reading tool that I put together for myself and all of you wonderful people. It works on the principle that our brains only process text when our eyes are not moving. WordStreamer simply streams a text file a set number of words at a time, at a rate specified by you. Since your eyes are not traveling from line to line and across the page, this allows you to read at a faster rate in no time by simply pressing up to increase the rate at which the words are displayed.

I got the idea from a British company that has a desktop program called BookMuncher that they are charging money for. I had planned to download and try out there app because I heard some pretty great success stories on the public radio and they had said "It's a free download". But.. it was free to download and $9.99 to try. :confused: I also noted they were going to release a mobile version, but it looked as if they planned to lock it down via the mobile service provider market(i.e. pay AT&T to download, pay AT&T for book). So basically I had to see what the fuss was about.

The goal of this release

The goal of release 0.9.2 is to add the ability to quickly stream content as needed and to correct/add some settings. I FINALLY got me a new screen for my Wizard and got to do some overdue bug hunting.

Big Changes:

0.9.2

1. There's a new menu option labeled "clipboard". You can use it to Stream your clipboard data on the screen or into a file. This should cover the problem with supporting /docs/rtfs/any other text you can select. Let me know if you have any issues with it.

2. I've adjusted the settings code to properly adjust for font size.

3. The "Max Chars/Line" should be quite a bit more accurate now when set to auto

0.9.0

1. Settings are now saved and will persist across reinstalls/updates

2. Bookmarking is now exposed. you can add/update 1 bookmark for each file(you can load/delete bookmarks on 'Manage' menu)

3. AppToDate Support has been added, this is a great way to keep your apps up to date with a rapidly growing list of Supported Apps

4.Support for font sizes up to 72 has been added

5.Corrected Font Size in settings(it was previously linked to Line Font Size)

* You can view/reset your average reading speeds on the About screen

0.7.5

1. Lots of font customizations (color,size,style,alignment,max width per line)

2. Text from the surrounding area is displayed when paused

3. Delays can be triggered from line breaks, word length, or punctuation

4. Average words added to 'About' screen(total isn't yet saved across app exits)

5. The install directory has changed from "WordStreamer" to "WordStreamerPPC" (so you'll need to uninstall the old one manually)

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The main goal of release 0.5.7 was for me to find out if this kind of thing works.. It does. After a short period, you'll soon find yourself reading at a pretty fast rate with ease. The only complaint I've seen online is a person saying their eyes hurt from focusing on one spot for a while without blinking.. Please people, press pause and blink.

/

The streaming control has matured greatly with release 0.7.5, it is now a complete user control and fully customizable

How To Use

The current target platform is Win CE 5.0 Pocket Pc(compact framework 2.0)

You can jump right in when you start up WordStreamer by choosing 'View Demo File' from the menu or choosing a file via the 'Choose File' option, then hitting 'Go' or Enter to start the process.

Keyboard Controls

*items in red are smartphone only

Up,NumPad2,2 - Increase the speed the text is streamed

Down,NumPad8,8 - Decrease the speed the text is streamed

Left,NumPad4,4 - Lower the Font Size

Right,NumPad6,5 - Raise the font size

Enter/Return,NumPad5,touch screen,6 - Start/Stop streaming text

Quirks or Issues

The settings page tab order is still a little bad, Ill work on it next release.

The Status bar per second and per minute timers always reflect values as if only 1 word is displaying at a time (The averages on the About screen reflect the correct totals though)

The settings screen is not dynamically drawn(meaning a scroll bar has to be used) I'll be addressing this in 1.0

If your having issues with foreign characters such as umlauts try using utf-8 encoding Thanks Boops

[0.5.7]I've currently only tested the Smartphone version on an emulators. Testers are needed.

Credits

José Salazar of mobile practices for speeding things up with the base code for the open file control in WordStreamer

http://www.mobilepractices.com/2008/02/custom-openfiledialog-implementation.html

Tam Hanna for speeding things up with his great and small color picker control

http://tamsppc.tamoggemon.com/2007/11/14/a-color-picker-for-net-cf/

Les Smith of KnowDotNet for speeding things up with the base code for the persistent settings

http://www.knowdotnet.com/articles/cfcsetting.html

Future Thoughts(Feel Free to add your own)

Ive got some nifty document navigation thoughts for the future

What about an RSS reader or a tool for more accurately importing web page body text? If we can ever get some help with getting the AutoHotKey for CE compiler going there will be some great great things coming

I know i know the settings page is ugly. im probably going to do a tab view to get rid of the scrolling

Fullscreen view with image buttons for the skinners?

.rtf/.doc support - Good enough on this one, just select the text and copy it then choose "Clipboard-->Stream" in WordStreamer

Attachments

Screen Shots

WordStreamerPPCSetup.New.0.9.2.CAB is the install file for WordStreamer

WordStreamerPPCA2D.xml.txt - If you use PPC and want to do an easy AppToDate install, just save this file as WordStreamerPPCA2D.xml in your "\ApplicationData\AppToDate\" Folder(the icon in AppToDate will come with the first install)

WordStreamerSmartPhoneSetup.0.5.7.CAB is the install file for WordStreamerSmartPhone

Myths And Legends Of Greece And Rome.zip An EBook download from Project Gutenburg(A free ebook repository)http://www.gutenberg.org in .txt format and slightly formatted by me(i.e. removed table of contents)

Let me know what you think. On npr people were reporting comfortably reading at rates of 200-400+ words a minute within 5 minutes of starting!

Note: I find it easier to read at higher rates if i increase the font size a bit and hold the phone back from my face a couple feet(like in my lap or out in front like a book)

Update 4-9-2008(Smart Phone Supp Added to 0.5.7)

See post here:http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=2100279#post2100279