Windows 10: Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, MakeCode

Brink · Mar 31, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that the Immersive Reader is rolling out to four additional Microsoft apps and services, including PowerPoint for the web, OneDrive, SharePoint and MakeCode. This set up updates that bring this powerful literacy tool to even more places!

PowerPoint gets more inclusive

One of the top requests weâve heard from students, parents and educators has been to add the Immersive Reader to PowerPoint. It has also been a top UserVoice request for the PowerPoint team. We are excited to announce that Immersive Reader in PowerPoint for the web is rolling out globally to Office Insiders, and will continue rolling out in April. You'll be able to access the Immersive Reader in two areas of PowerPoint for the web.

Select any text on a PowerPoint slide and choose âOpen in Immersive Readerâ (see the demo below).

The other area was inspired directly by Molly Paris. Molly and her mother visited the Microsoft campus last year and Molly told us how helpful it would be for her to be able to access the Immersive Reader in the Notes area of PowerPoint. Weâre happy to announce to Molly and everyone else that Immersive Reader access is now on the Notes section of every slide as well. Just select the Notes text, right click and choose âOpen in Immersive Reader.

SharePoint adding Immersive Reader for Pages

Another area weâve heard customer feedback from is making SharePoint pages more accessible with the Immersive Reader. Last fall, we did an internal hackathon to prototype this, and today we are excited to announce that Immersive Reader for SharePoint Pages will be rolling out in April. An example of this integration is below.

OneDrive adding the Immersive Reader for documents

OneDrive is a great place to store and access documents and other content. To enable better access to content, weâre adding the Immersive Reader directly into the OneDrive menus to launch it on Word documents and text files. This will roll out in April and May of 2021.

MakeCode and Immersive Reader make STEM and Computer Science more accessible

MakeCode Arcade tutorial instructions are now available to all by clicking on the Immersive Reader icon at the top of any tutorial, as well as where there are instructions for a MakeCode project. See the demo below for the details.v

We hope you enjoy these inclusive and accessible updates where weâve added the Immersive Reader to Microsoft products!

Mike Tholfsen
Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Education
@mtholfsen
Click to expand...

Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...e/ba-p/2242568

:)

Brink · Mar 31, 2021

Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint and OneDrive

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month, and also the 75th anniversary of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM.) To mark the month of October, Microsoft has launched Dyslexia DecodEd, a 3-part webinar series with the goal to put the right information, tools and resources required to support students with dyslexia into action in every classroom. Hear from experts, advocates, and leaders from various organizations globally on their perspectives on supporting students and building teacher capacity. Register for Dyslexia Decoded today!

The Immersive Reader was originally inspired by focusing on students with dyslexia, and we used the latest science and research around reading while using inclusive design principles to empower students and workers of all abilities. Today, more than 23 million people every month are using the Immersive Reader, improving their reading and writing comprehension. To build on Dyslexia Awareness month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we are excited to announce a set up updates that bring this powerful literacy tool to even more places!

Immersive Reader is coming to more Microsoft apps

PowerPoint gets more inclusive

One of the top requests we’ve heard from students, parents and educators has been to add the Immersive Reader to PowerPoint. It has also been a top UserVoice request for the PowerPoint team. Today we are thrilled to announce that we are adding the Immersive Reader to PowerPoint in two areas.

You’ll be able to select any text on a PowerPoint slide and choose the Immersive Reader (see the demo below). The other area was inspired directly by Molly Paris. Molly and her mother visited the Microsoft campus last year and Molly told us how helpful it would be for her to be able to access the Immersive Reader in the Notes area of PowerPoint. We’re happy to announce to Molly and everyone else that we will be adding the Immersive Reader access on the Notes section of every slide as well. This will roll out later this year.

OneDrive adding the Immersive Reader for documents

OneDrive is a great place to store and access documents and other content. To enable better access to content, we’re adding the Immersive Reader directly into the OneDrive menus to launch it on Word documents and text files. This will roll out later this year.

Forms Embedded into OneNote

OneNote has long had the ability to embed Forms on the canvas, and more recently we added the Immersive Reader for Forms. With our most recent update, students can now enable the Immersive Reader for Forms embedded into OneNote. This works for Math Quizzes in OneNote and complex equations. To access this, in the Form in OneNOte, choose the “…” menu, and then Enable Immersive Reader

New Partners Integrate Immersive Reader

itslearning is Europe’s leading LMS provider and the learning platform is designed for teaching, because our mission is to improve education through technology. ItsLearning believes that while technology will never replace dedicated teachers, it can help great teachers transform lives.

Hope Cameron, a Social Studies teacher at Wausau East, Wisconsin has been using the Immersive Reader in her class and says "Immersive Reader has been very good for struggling readers to consume text. We've been working on the civil war, and I copied a long old newspaper article into an itsLearning Note, which the students then could use Immersive Reader to open. Having Immersive Reader in itslearning means fewer clicks and better availability."

Frøydis Hamre, itsLearning Product Manager say "Immersive Reader is an addition to our platform that makes such a big difference to students who need help understanding text. It makes it so much easier for all students to understand and engage with the tasks and information given by their teachers."

Edji's goal is to empower teachers by creating an engaging, real-time environment where students read and share thoughts. Using Edji, students publish their ideas to their class as easily as highlighting a sentence. Readers use text, audio, and even emoji to express their thoughts. Teachers control if students see their peers' comments. It's perfect for creating a real-time discussion in a blended learning environment, or an in-person classroom. Using Immersive Reader, students can read the material (including PDFs), and other student thoughts.
Edji has always helped me to put students’ ideas front and center. Adding Immersive Reader opens doors to ensure more students can read and discuss with the class! The best discussions are inclusive, so IR is a natural fit."

- Will Stewart, 5th grade teacher at Westwood Intermediate School in Spring Lake Park, MN

18 new Neural Text-to-Speech languages

We are always looking to broaden the languages and locales of Immersive Reader. Today we are excited to announce 18 new Neural TTS languages for the Immersive Reader. Neural Text-to-Speech is the “human sounding” read aloud voices that we’ve been rolling out for many languages.

Neural TTS has now been extended to support 18 new languages/locales. They are Bulgarian, Czech, German (Austria), German (Switzerland), Greek, English (Ireland), French (Switzerland), Hebrew, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Tamil, Telugu and Vietnamese. Chinese (Cantonese, Traditional) and HsiaoYu in Chinese (Taiwanese Mandarin). Read the blog for the new list, and explore the full list of Neural TTS languages.

In addition to these product updates, Microsoft was setup up educator training sessions throughout the month of October on how Microsoft Learning Tools can support student success in reading, writing and math. Register here.

Mike Tholfsen
Principal Product Manager
Microsoft Education
Click to expand...

Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...e/ba-p/1740734

Brink · Mar 31, 2021

Immersive Reader comes to Outlook on web & OneNote for Windows 10 app

In February, we announced the availability of the Microsoft Learning Tools Immersive Reader on Word Online and OneNote Online. As a result of customer demand, we are pleased to announce that Immersive Reader is now available for Outlook.com, Outlook on the web and the OneNote Windows 10 app. Immersive Reader includes a view that utilizes techniques proven to help people read more effectively, such as:

Read Aloud—Reads text out loud with simultaneous highlighting that improves decoding, fluency and comprehension while sustaining the reader’s focus and attention.

Spacing—Optimizes font spacing in a narrow column view to improve reading fluency for users with visual crowding issues.

Syllables—Shows the breaks between syllables to enhance word recognition and decoding.

Parts of Speech—Supports writing instruction and grammar comprehension by identifying verbs, nouns and adjectives.

In addition to the Immersive Reader rollout across new apps and platforms, we are also adding new language and geographic availability for the Read Aloud, Syllables and Parts of Speech features. This expanded language support—coming to Word Online, OneNote Online, Outlook on the web and the OneNote Windows 10 app—will allow more customers across the world to experience the benefits of both the Learning Tools and the Immersive Reader. For the OneNote Desktop Learning Tools add-in, we are launching Japanese dictation, plus bug fixes and other small improvements. See all of the details at the Learning Tools language support page.

And finally, we are excited to announce the availability of Try it out—an updated and enhanced capability on the recently redesigned Microsoft Learning Tools landing page. Try it out allows anyone to quickly and easily try out the Immersive Reader, without needing an Office 365 ID or a Microsoft account. We hope these announcements enable more people to read in a way that works best for them, and we look forward to hearing impactful stories from more of you, such as this story about empowering students to read in a new way.

Immersive Reader brings increased accessibility to Outlook on the web

In talking with customers, a common request we heard was to bring the same Immersive Reader capabilities of Word Online and OneNote Online to those accessing Outlook via the web. Starting today, the Immersive Reader will begin rolling out to Outlook.com and Outlook on the web worldwide.

There are several ways to launch the Immersive Reader in Outlook on the web or Outlook.com:

On any received message, select the Reply all drop-down and then select Show in immersive reader.

Right-click any message and select Show in immersive reader.

From the main message view, click the … and select Show in immersive reader.

The new Immersive Reader for Outlook on the web and Outlook.com will be available in many languages and countries. Visit the Learning Tools language support page to learn more.

Immersive Reader comes to the OneNote Windows 10 app

Since the release of Learning Tools for OneNote Desktop, many customers have asked for these same capabilities in our OneNote Windows 10 app. With the June OneNote Windows 10 app update, the Immersive Reader will be available to all customers via the View menu and will be pre-installed.

The new Immersive Reader in OneNote Windows 10 will be available in many languages and countries. Visit the Learning Tools language support page to learn more.

Expanding the global reach of the Immersive Reader

Since the Immersive Reader rolled out to Word Online and OneNote Online in February, customers all over the world asked us to expand these capabilities to more languages. Today, we are pleased to announce that Read Aloud is now available in 14 new languages and geographies, including:

Arabic (Saudi Arabia)

Czech

English (Ireland)

French (Switzerland)

German (Austria)

German (Switzerland)

Greek

Hebrew

Hindi

Hungarian

Indonesian

Romanian

Slovak

Thai

In addition, the Syllables feature is being added to four languages: Hungarian, Indonesian, Romanian and Slovak.

Finally, the Parts of Speech feature for German, Italian and Dutch will be enabled for Word Online, OneNote Online and Outlook on the web in the next few weeks. Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Brazilian Portuguese languages will be available later this summer.

Visit the Learning Tools language support page to see the current list of languages for the Immersive Reader.

Try it out—the updated and enhanced landing page for Learning Tools

With the recent interest and popularity of the Learning Tools and the Immersive Reader, we wanted to allow anyone to quickly try out the functionality through any web browser and experience all its benefits and features. We recently updated our Learning Tools landing page with the Try it out function that immediately launches the Immersive Reader. You can also put your own custom text in and try it out. The new Try it out feature supports 39 languages, so people from around the world can immediately experience the Immersive Reader.

Japanese dictation language added to the OneNote Desktop Learning Tools add-in

Support for Japanese dictation on OneNote Desktop has been added, in addition to bug fixes and stability improvements to the add-in. You can grab the latest version (v1.3) of the OneNote Desktop Learning Tools add-in on the Microsoft Learning Tools page.

You can download the Learning Tools at www.onenote.com/learningtools. Send any feedback to L: LearningTools@onenote.uservoice.com or reach out on Twitter: @OneNoteEDU.

—The OneNote team
Click to expand...

Source: Immersive Reader comes to Outlook on the web and the OneNote for Windows 10 app, and expands its global reach - Office Blogs

Belatron · Mar 31, 2021

How to record audio from OneNote's Immersive Reader?

Never mind, I figured out a super simple solution to this.

Enable and make default device "stereo mix" under control panel->sound->recording

Open Voice Recorder app that comes with Windows 10

Press record and run Immersive Reader

Windows 10: Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, MakeCode

Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, MakeCode

Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, MakeCode

Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, MakeCode

Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, MakeCode - Similar Threads - Immersive Reader comes

OneNote Immersive Reader Commercial Use

OneNote Immersive Reader Commercial Use

Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader comes to PowerPoint and OneDrive

Microsoft Edge Immersive Reader: Screeching sound?

How to uninstall Immersive Reader in Windows 10

New features come to Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader comes to Outlook on web & OneNote for Windows 10 app