The Weekly Chromebook

TextHelp PDF Reader

April 5th 2021


Tragically, we have missed out on a week of helpful Chromebook-oriented articles. Fear not! I'm here to rescue you with some information on an extension that is installed on all Student Chromebooks. It's a powerful accessibility tool called TextHelp PDF Reader. Here's how the developers describe it:

Download Texthelp’s PDF Reader to experience PDFs in a whole new way! As part of Read&Write for Google Chrome extension, with the PDF Reader not only can you use the literacy and accessibility support tools you know and love (include text-to-speech, dictionaries and highlighting), but we’ve added powerful collaboration tools to bring your PDFs to life.

Open PDFs in Google Drive, the web, or your local device, then use Texthelp’s PDF Reader to:

• Collaborate in real-time on PDFs shared in Google Drive

• Read text, including math & science equations, aloud

• Input math & science directly into your PDF with integration of the EquatIO for Chrome extension

• Translate words

• Add text annotations using Word Prediction and Dictation

• Build vocabulary lists

• Add audio comments using only your voice

• And more!

TextHelp PDF reader has a wide variety of features which means that sometimes it can cause PDF documents to take a while to load. Sometimes you may not want PDFs to default to opening with TextHelp. Here are a few ways that you can turn this setting off:

First, you can disable the opening of PDFs from Google Classroom in the extension by clicking the gray puzzle icon in the top-right of your Chrome window, clicking the three dots to the right of the Texthelp PDF Reader extension, and then clicking Options. From there, in the new window that appears, uncheck the box that says Open Classroom PDFs Directly.

You can also try signing out of Texthelp when you have a PDF open in the extension. Click the three dots in the top-right of the PDF page when you are viewing it, and then select the Sign Out option.

Lastly, you can avoid Google Drive files from opening in this extension by going to your Google Drive, clicking the gear icon near the top followed by Settings, and clicking Manage Apps on the left side of the new window that appears. On this page, scroll until you see the Texthelp PDF Reader, click the three dots button next to it, and then select Disconnect from Drive.

-Leo Bunyea, Technology Technician and Enthusiastic Egalitarian







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