VymovaPlus software with built-in Ukrainian text-to-speech system and translation dictionary guides you within Ukrainian speech and language

To help reading Ukrainian text it puts accentuation marks (stresses). For those who is not familiar with Ukrainian alphabet, a phonetical text where English letters are used is optionally provided.

You may input Ukrainian text using both Ukrainian or English letters. Special Transliteration commad allows for converting Ukrainian text between Ukrainian and English letters.

You may look at grammatic details (paradigme) for selected Ukrainian words!

Moreover, the software reads aloud any Ukrainian texts, particularly from websites! Text-to-MP3 convertor is available.

English texts might be read with strong enough Ukrainian accent.

Bookmark system is provided to remember a selection in file or web page.

A special folder My Documents\My Vymova Files  is created for storing bookmarks and speech files.

The Options dialog allows for customizing the software appearance and performance meeting your specific purposes and current familiarity with Ukrainian language and the software.

VymovaPlus is the title of the Ukrainian pronunciation guide software. The title originates from Ukrainian word вимова (vymova) - pronunciation. Plus means three main extra features: (1) reading aloud any Ukrainian texts, accomplished with text-to-MP3 convertor and bookmark system extremely useful for lengthy reading, (2) smart transliteration from English letters to Ukrainian and vice versa, (3) Ukrainian word grammatical look-up .

Editable is a window where any text might be typed, edited, pasted from the clipboard (Ctrl-V) or loaded from a text file. As far Editable and Look-up sections are placed at same area you might switch between these windows using the tab control.

Ukrainian look-up is a section where user can look for a specific word in the endlees list of Ukrainian words. The list may contain only basic words or all word worms (that is approximately 10 times more) depending on the switch below the word list. Text might be typed using Ukrainian or English keyboard. In first case the word will be completed automatically if the corresponding setting in the Options dialog Input section is switched on.

Web view window accepts web pages opened within Open dialog or dragged-and-dropped ones. The result of accentuation, word translation and word details are displayed there as well. To navigate back and forward between pages push respective buttons. Navigation control commands are also available from View menu. You may also click right mouse button to open the context menu. Accessible there commands allow for refreshing the window content, changing text encoding, copying selection to the clipboard and so on.

Quick view window is an additional text window accepting an output of dictionary, transliteration and accentuation commands. You may type there or select some text. To switch the output target between Web and Quick views click on the  Target dropdown list. You may show/hide Quick view from menu item View/Quick View.

You may adjust space between all views with your mouse.

Active selection is a piece of text selected in the currently focused Editable, Web or Quick view windows, otherwise it is entire content of the edit box or a selected item of the wordlist in Look-up section. Follow Progy eyes for hint what is focused at the moment.

Progy is a familiar name of Pronounciation Guide. His head, if visible, is rather for fun. He follows the focused window with his eyes and blinks sometimes. More functions for Progy are planned in next versions. To show/hide the Progy's face refer to the Options dialog Multimedia section.

Status message appearing on the right from Progy's face displays useful information about current state and hints.

How to open a document
Click the Open button or File/Open menu item, type Internet address or browse for the desired document. It might be a web page or a text document. Click OK. Web pages will be opened in the Web Window and text files will be opend in the Editable.

For opening you may also grag-and-drop to the Web window links from Internet Explorer.

How to bookmark the active selection
Click the Bookmarks button or File/Bookmarks menu item, edit bookmark name or leave one the software generated. Click Save. If a bookmark with same name exists you will be prompted to overwrite it. The current seelction will be preserved for next opening of the bookmark.

How to open a bookmark
Click the Bookmarks button or File/Bookmarks , select the desired bookmark in the bookmark listbox. Click Go To. Bookmarks for web pages will be opened in the Web Window and bookmarks for text files will be opened in the Editable. When web page opening cannot be accomplished for a while, press Stop Loading button. The bookmarked selection will be restored.

How to accentuate the active selection
Click the Accentuate button. If your selection is too lengthy, accentuation could take essential time. Status message shows elaplsed and estimated left time. Pressing escape key terminates the accentuation procedure. If Pronunciation/Proceed to End menu item is selected text will be accentuated to the end of file. 

How to play the active selection
Click the Pronounce button and the chosen voice (see Options/Multimedia) will read the active selection until the end or stop command whatever happens earlier. To stop pronouncing immediately push the same button or escape key. When Pronunciation/Proceed to End menu item is selected text will be played to the end.

How to convert text to MP3
Click the Text-to-MP3 button and the active selection will be saved to the default MP3 file which location and quality might be adjusted on Options/Multimedia dialog. Menu command Pronunciation/Speak to Default File does the same. You may also specify the file location immediately with command Pronunciation/Speak to Default File  Text-to-MP3 conversion will stop at the end of selection or on user command whatever happens earlier. To stop conversion immediately push the same button or escape key.

How to translate words
Click the  Translate selected words button and up to 12 selected words will be translated. If selection contains Ukrainian words they will be translated to English, otherwise, English words will be translated to Ukrainian. Sometimes a certain word may belong to different entries. For instance, Ukrainian word плачу will be found in three different entry: плакати, платити and плач. In such cases translation for all found word entries will be displayed. Queried words will be highlited in Web View output. This command is available from menu as well: Dictionary/Word Translation.  Adjust a word translation manner in Options dialog.

How to convert text betwenn Ukarinian and English letters 
Use the command from menu: Dictionary/Word Translation.  If you have an active selection where text is printed with Ukrainian letters, the letters will be converted to English ones and vice versa. Note, that that the result of this command applied twice will not necessary lead to the original text exacly.

How to view grammatical details
Click the Word details button and grammatical details (paradigme) for up to 12 words of the active selection will be displayed. Sometimes a certain word may belong to different entries. For instance, Ukrainian word плачу will be found in three different entry: плакати, платити and плач. In such cases paradigms for all found entries will be displayed. A word you queried will be highlited in paradigm if you selected Web View output target. This command is available from menu as well: Dictionary/Word Details.
 
To see details for words from Ukrainian Look-up just double click on item. Adjust explanation language and manner in Options dialog.

The Options dialog allows for customizing the product appearance and performance meeting your specific purposes and current familiarity with Ukrainian language and the software.

The Options dialog consist of three sheets each of which is available by clicking on respective tabs: Input, Output and Multimedia.

Switch the first option on if the input Ukrainian text consist of English letters.

Adjust Ukrainian words look-up in the respective section. You may alter appearence of the word list and switch the option that enables word autocompletion while typing Ukrainian letters in the edit box.

On the Output sheet top general options allow to regulate the appearence of accentuation output text. It may be composed of Ukrainian either English letters or both in parallel. It is recommended to check Show compatible stress for users with Windows 98/ME systems. This will alow them for listening the accentuated text correctly. It is also useful for everyone who is going to edit an accentuated text (e.g. to adjust word or phraze stresses).
Check Hide stresses if you just wanted to transliterate Ukrainian text to/from English letters.

In Word details section choose the way Ukrainian grammatical forms be explained and language of explanation. Friendly explanation normally shows the question to the certain grammatical form. Note, that friendly explanation sometimes might be not exact and goes alone better for advanced users. No explanation are shown when all options in this section are unchecked.

In the last two sections you may change font size and typeface and the background for Accentuation and Word Details commands output.

Here you may select the voice, configure the text-to-mp3 feature and adjust the interface.

Note, some options are available since version 2.0.

If you see some gibberish instead of Ukrainian letters in Web window the most likely reason is a wrong text encoding. To switch to another one click right mouse button somewhere in Web window (but do not click a picture, link or selection). Then in context menu choose Encoding and in the opened submenu look for items beginning with a word Cyrillic. Try them. If it did not work or no such items, click the item More and try in the appeared subsubmenu items beginning with Cyrillic. The item Cyrillic (Windows) and Unicode (UTF-8) are most applicable.

If you see a gibberish instead of Ukrainian letters in the Editable save the desired text in a separate file and then open that file. Refer to Known Problems section if the problem persist.

Avoid selecting text with command Select All from Web window context menu (same as Ctrl-A). Otherwise, your text could scroll not synchronously with pronouncing. To select all text without the mentioned command, select first couple words, then press End key, hold Shift key and click left mouse button on the last word.

In the Editable it is enough just to point the begining of the text to be pronounced.

You may point the word accentuation (stress) manually in certain words typing the + sign after the accentuated wovel. It might be useful when exact pronouncing of ambiguous word is necessary (e.g. за+мок - a castle and замо+к - a lock) or unknown word or propernoun occures.

You may point the phraze accentuation manually making the certain words to be emphasized among other words in a phraze. Type the * mark after the accentuated wovel of the word you want to emphasize. It might be useful when exact emphasis in phraze is desired like in situation: - Хто співає? (Who is singing?) - О*ля співає (Olya is singing) versus - Що робить Оля? (What's Olya doing?) - Оля співа*є (Olya is singing).

Advanced users may add their own words in the custom pronunciation dictionary. It is a text file named user.vcb located in <Installation directory>/ua, where the <Installation directory> is typically c:\Program Files\Cybermova. Insert desired words strongly in alphabetical order. Point accentuation (stress) for added words typing the + sign after the accentuated wovel.

Still no Ukrainian letters appear? Typically, you might see a vertical bars instead Ukrainian letters in the Editable and Look-up sections. It means, you should configure your computer to activate Ukrainian letters. Folow the next steps: