One of the core components of Kurzweil is to support students with reading documents that are online, in a pdf, or virtually any other format. The reading tab supports a number of tools that can assist with the reading process that includes having text read aloud, adding a variety of audio or text notes, attaching hyperlinks, highlighting and extracting text, or looking up words with either a descriptive or pictorial definition.
The writing component of Kurzweil supports students either with an existing piece of writing or at the beginning of the writing process by creating an outline using a graphic organizer tool. While the former includes the use of tools such as word prediction, dictation, spell check, or dictionary, the latter can be a particularly useful support for students who struggle with structuring their thoughts and ideas. The graphic organizer allows students to dump their thoughts and to visually arrange those ideas into categories and sections, creating a hierarchy of information that can then be structured into a cohesive paper. For students requiring even more systematic guidance, a number of templates are available that relate to different forms of writing. To facilitate ease of writing, once an outline has been created, the writer can split their screen so that their writing appears on one side of their screen while their outline is easily referenced on the other side.
One of the longstanding features and advantages of Kurzweil is its ability to scan a paper document into a readable digital format. This feature requires the use of a compatible scanner. Over and above the basic scanning functionality however, the program is able to make detailed edits to the scanned page. Consider a document such as a magazine where content may not necessarily be presented in one neat page but rather with a variety of articles and photo inserts. It can be difficult for the program to read the magazine page in a manner that flows logically. Using the Zone Editor, the program can be directed to read different sections in the desired order. Occasionally, depending on the quality of the original document, scanned text may not be recognized in the conversion process. In these instances, underlying text is able to be edited to correctly reflect what is written. Another built-in feature of the Kurzweil Scanner is that documents are automatically oriented correctly. Finally, the Kurzweil Scanner includes the Kesi virtual printer which is stored in the list of available printers on the user’s computer. The user is able to print any document such as an Excel spreadsheet to the Kesi virtual printer which will create a completely Kurzweil compatible file that can be read aloud.