Using AMIS

Using AMIS

Using AMIS

AMIS is now archived and is no longer being developed or supported

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Supported Formats

The following document formats are supported by AMIS:

  • DAISY 2.02
  • DAISY 3 (also referred to as ANSI/NISO z39.86-2005)

Screen Layout

The screen has two view modes: default and basic. AMIS will always begin in default view mode unless you tell it to start in basic view which can be found in the Preferences dialog under the File menu.

The Default View

The default view has four major areas:

  • menu
  • toolbar
  • navigation window to the left
  • content window in the center of the screen.
The Toolbar

The toolbar has eleven medium-sized buttons:

  1. open a book
  2. load a cd
  3. go to the previous phrase
  4. play/pause
  5. go to the next phrase
  6. slow down
  7. speed up
  8. smaller font
  9. bigger font
  10. change the page style
  11. add a bookmark.
The Navigation Window

The navigation window contains one or more tabbed lists, depending on what the book contains. The first list is always a hierarchical list of sections. The second list contains page numbers (if the book has pages). The subsequent lists contain special items such as footnotes or figures (again, if the book contains these items), with each item type appearing in its own list.

The Basic View

The basic view has two major areas:

  • toolbar along the bottom of the screen and
  • content window in the center of the screen.
The Toolbar

The toolbar has four large buttons:

  1. go to the previous phrase
  2. play/pause
  3. go to the next phrase
  4. switch back to default view mode.

There is no menu or navigation window in basic view mode.

Features

The following sections contain brief descriptions of the features in AMIS, organized by topic.

Opening a Book

DAISY books can be opened on your hard drive, on a CD-ROM or located remotely. You can open:

  • a recently-read book
  • your last-read book on startup
  • a book from the command line
  • the contents of a CD-ROM containing a single book or containing multiple books
  • a book from your local file system
  • a book from a remote URL

Controlling Playback

DAISY books are played automatically from beginning to end. You can control the following playback features:

  • Play and pause the book
  • Speed-up audio playback
  • Toggle playback of reading options, like page number announcements and footnotes

Navigating

In addition to linear playback, DAISY books offer other ways to move around.

  • Previous/Next phrase
  • Previous/Next page
  • Previous/Next section
  • Go to page
  • Search for text

Using the Navigation Window

Use the items in the navigation window to browse the structure of a book.

You can view:

  • Hierarchy of sections
  • List of pages
  • Lists for each special type of item in the book

Setting Bookmarks

The following options are available:

  • Add bookmark (named automatically based on what you are bookmarking)
  • Go to bookmark
  • The list of bookmarks for a particular book loads when you open that book.

Getting Information about the Publication

It is easy to get more information about the book you are reading by using the AMIS publication summary dialog. Here is a full list what is available:

  • Title
  • Author
  • Publisher
  • Description
  • Narrator
  • Total duration
  • Total pages
  • Date
  • Format
  • Features (things like sections, pages, and footnotes)
  • Current page
  • Current section (including the number of pages and subsections)
  • Total number of items in the table of contents
  • Maximum section depth

Getting Help with AMIS

Changing the Look

The AMIS user interface lets you choose different screen layout display options and for your DAISY book style.

You can:

  • Use basic or default view mode
  • Show/hide the navigation window
  • Move the navigation window around the screen
  • Change the style of the page
  • Make the font bigger
  • Adjust highlight colors and change the application font through the Text Style dialog

Setting Preferences

The following settings are accessed via the Preferences dialog under the File menu.

  • Turn self-voicing on or off
  • Choose a TTS voice
  • Turn text highlighting on or off
  • Load the most recently-read book on startup
  • Start AMIS in basic view mode
  • Pause AMIS automatically when you switch applications
  • Disable your screensaver while using AMIS
  • Select a language pack for use with AMIS

Setting Text Styles

The following settings are accessed via the Text Style dialog under the View menu.

  • Select a font for AMIS itself
  • Select foreground and background colors for the text highlight used during playback
Tags: AMIS