About my previous post: Since some days the web hosting service of my website seems fine again.

Outstanding program. Just what I've needed for a lot of years. I find that when I read "normally," I either read every flippin word, one by one, which really slows me down, or I skip too many words when I try to speed up. This program makes me read every word, but at a constant speed, thereby really increasing my speed. I find myself actually cutting long article from emails or news feeds and pasting them into iReadFast. Great job, and I like the preference options.

The new 1.5 is great, just one more thing I'd like to see to make it perfect: I want to be able to change the font, with a standard font selection panel. Excellent work, as were 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4, Signor Del Maschio. ^_^

(To those noticing the BARQSX review below, the developer replied and set the record straight; all is well.)

Now, as to the product - it's awesome! I've used a similar tachistoscope program called Ace Reader for years. However, that program is both fairly expensive and much more involved than I've wanted. iReadFast is much more Maclike; simple, easy to use, very attractive, and works just as advertised. And since it's free, everyone can try out this great tool and improve their reading speed!

The only think I can think to add to this program in the future might be the ability to display multiple words at a time, since some speed reading techniques involve taking in whole phrases at a time instead of single words. But I am not certain whether this chunking technique can be used with tachistoscope presentation or whether the reader must choose his/her own chunk of words on which to focus.

Mille grazie per questo buonisimo regalo, signore Del Maschio!

I love this app. Looks terrific and really helps me with reading speed and comprehension by avoiding re-reading.

Here's an applescript which works as follows:
You copy the text (Command C) you want to be read

Run the applescript which does:
Asks if you want to open iReadFast if it's not open
Pastes the text into iReadFast
Presses the play button for you!


--Start of applescript
(* Please note only run this script after you have run iReadFast at least once. This is because in Leopard the first time you run a new application you have to give permission for the application to run.*)

tell application "System Events"
set isiReadFastOpen to (name of processes) contains "iReadFast"
end tell
if isiReadFastOpen then
runiReadFast() of me
else
activate
set Btn to button returned of (display dialog "iReadFast is not currently running. Run iReadFast?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default button "Yes" with icon 1)
if Btn is "Yes" then
runiReadFast() of me
end if
end if

on runiReadFast()
tell application "iReadFast"
activate
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "v" using command down
tell process "iReadFast"
click checkbox 1 of group 1 of window 1
end tell
end tell
end tell
end runiReadFast
--End of applescript

Paste this into Script Editor and either save as script in folder iReadfast (create if necessary) in scripts folder or save as application bundle and run from dock.

Developer: Consider a service menu item that can do this. In Leopard keyboard shortcuts can be assigned to service menu items. I have a keyboard shortcut for speaking text, works very well. Nice work btw.