This HUD reads out the contents of ONE OR MORE notecards in local chat whilst skipping formatting in the form of centering and blank lines that you'd include in handed-out notecards.
It paces the reading according to line length or you can advance each line manually. You can pause, stop and restart readings.
I wrote this HUD so that one notecard could be BOTH human- and machine-readable. A notecard is easier for a person to read if there are blank lines between the paragraphs. However, you don't want these blank lines to be read out by a HUD.
WHO WOULD WANT THIS HUD
If you run discussions, you will want to read out a general introduction followed by the topic summary. Or you can use it for a poetry or book reading.
This is a packaged item of the HUD and instruction notecard.
The following is extracted from the Instruction notecard.
WHAT THE HUD DOES
This tool reads individual LINES from notecards and converts them to PARAGRAPHS to be read out, one by one. A line is text followed by ONE carriage return. A paragraph is a one or more lines followed by TWO carriage returns.
It skips blank lines and spaces at the start of lines and so you can create one notecard that it easy to be read as is but also can be read automatically.
HOW TO USE IT
* attach the HUD to the top-left HUD position
* add a notecard to the HUD by dragging it from your inventory to the HUD
* click the HUD for the menu
The actions available from the menu depend on what the HUD is currently doing
* Load: load new notecards placed in the HUD to eliminate server delay when reading
* Manual: set reading mode to manual, click Next to advance to the next paragraph
* Automatic: set reading mode to automatic (default mode), the whole notecard is read out once Started
* Next: (in manual mode) read out the next paragraph
* Start: begin to read paragraphs out, prefixed by HUD wearer's name
* Pause: pause reading (msg to open chat)
* Continue: continue reading from saved position
* Stop: stop reading notecard out (repositions to the first line)
* Remove: removes the only notecard, all notecards or notecards by name from the HUD
* Reload: (re)process the notecards placed in HUD
When attached, the HUD will automatically load the first notecard it finds inside.
FEATURES
* skips blank spaces at the beginning of lines and so you can center or indent text
* converts each notecard paragraph to one spoken line
* skips blank lines between paragraphs
* HUD title and colour displays progress (Active, Loading, Ready, Reading, Paused)
* there are longer time gaps after longer lines
HOW TO CREATE THE NOTECARD
Lay out your notecard as if someone was going to take away to read.
Center or indent text for readability as you like.
Hit return at the end of each line (no single line should have more than 255 characters).
Hit return twice to add a blank line between paragraphs.
If your text doesn't have multi-line paragraphs but you want each line read out separately, put a blank line between them.
Please note that the Notecard Reader HUD cannot read notecards which include landmark links.
PRIVATE MESSAGES
The HUD talks in local chat (usually shown in green text) and privately to the wearer (usually shown in yellow).
Progress messages just seen by the wearer:
* Notecard Reader Active
* Loading notecard
* No notecard found. Place in HUD and re-click.
* Removing notecard
* End of notecard - loaded. Click for menu.
* Problem reading notecard. Remove any landmarks in it.
* Problem reading notecard. Have you added blank lines between paragraphs?
* No text found in the notecard.
Progress messages that are said in local chat:
- [Pausing]
- [Continuing]
- [Restarting]
- [Stopped]
(end)
- Useful
- Simple
- Easy
- Versatile
Great product for making presentations. Easy to use and set up.
