MAGic 13 Screen Magnification Software Public Beta

Thank you for participating in the MAGic® 13 English public beta test.

If you do not have MAGic 12 or later authorization, you can still install the public beta version and run it using 40-Minute Demo mode.

Choose Download MAGic 13 Beta to go directly to the public beta download links.

Choose What's New in MAGic 13 to learn about the new features in MAGic 13.

Choose Enhancements in MAGic 13 Beta to review changes made in the latest public beta release.

Known Issues

Thank you for your help during the public beta period. Please note that this is beta software, and its accuracy and reliability are not guaranteed. You should not rely exclusively on the beta software for any reason. If you should encounter any problems when switching between the MAGic 13 beta software and your installed MAGic 12 software, please refer to the MAGic 12 Patch information on this page.

Below are some of the known issues in the MAGic 13 beta software.

  • Text smoothing is not currently provided in Office 2013 applications and responsiveness in these applications is not yet at the level we have in JAWS.
  • On tablets or laptops that auto-rotate the screen, please turn off auto-rotation on the device prior to starting MAGic.
  • Touch gestures have not been enabled for this public beta release.
  • Windows 7 users with MAGic 12 that are now installing the MAGic 13 version should also install this minor patch for MAGic 12 to get proper HD smoothing in both.

MAGic 12 Patch

Please install the MAGic 12 Patch for MAGic 13 Setup Package. This package ensures HD Text smoothing in MAGic 12 after MAGic 13 is installed. The patch is very quick and you get no feedback after verifying you want to install. Launch MAGic 12 after you have installed MAGic 13, and verify you have HD Text smoothing.

Technical Support During the Public Beta

While in public beta, general technical support of MAGic 13 is not available using our direct support phone lines or e-mail. However, you may use normal support lines in order to resolve any problems you experience related to installation or authorization using the Public Beta. For all other issues you may discover, we ask that you send feedback directly to Freedom Scientific using the MAGic 13 Beta Report Form. Please bookmark the report page in your Web browser so that you can easily locate it if you need technical assistance. Also, please submit one problem per report.

What's New in MAGic 13

MAGic® 13 offers several new features and improvements as described below.

Windows 8.1 Support

MAGic 13 or later now runs on Windows® 8.1 computers. All MAGic features that you are used to using in Windows 7 are now available in Windows 8.1. Note that if you are running an earlier version of Windows 8, you must update to Windows 8.1.

Text Viewer

Text Viewer™ is a rectangular window that displays a continuous line of text across the top or bottom of your screen. It provides clarity and ease of reading by allowing you to work in a live application while referencing normalized text in the Text Viewer window. You control the text formatting (font styles and colors) that displays in the window so that it is easier for you to read documents, e-mails, Web pages, and more. This is very useful when you encounter text that is difficult to read because of its formatting, varying sized text, and contrasting colors used in the application.

Text Viewer eliminates the need to adjust the magnification level of the screen when trying to follow along with what MAGic is reading. This is especially helpful when reading by Say All. The Text Viewer also provides easy right and left line panning using the MAGic Key+CTRL+RIGHT ARROW and MAGic Key+CTRL+LEFT ARROW hot keys.

The text shown in the Text Viewer window follows your navigation within Windows. For example, if the cursor is moved, the text at the cursor position displays in the Text Viewer window. Likewise, if you navigate with the mouse, the text that comes in contact with the mouse displays in the Text Viewer window. Although Text Viewer can be placed at the top or bottom of your screen, it does not block any part of the screen. You are still able to see everything that displays on your screen.

To toggle Text Viewer on or off, press MAGic Key+CTRL+V.

Press The Text Viewer button  when using the MAGic Large Print Keyboard.

New Magnification Levels

MAGic now provides more incremental magnification levels between 2x and 4x, making more of the screen available at comfortable reading levels for users working in the 1x to 4x magnification range. New high level magnification levels have also been added with single-level magnification jumps all the way to 60x magnification. You can choose among the following magnification levels:

  • 1x to 2x in nine magnification increments (1.1x to 1.9x)
  • 2x to 3x in three magnification increments (2.25x, 2.5x, and 2.75x)
  • 3x to 4x in three magnification increments (3.25x, 3.5x, and 3.75x)
  • 4x to 60x in whole number increments

Mouse Border Color

A common problem when using magnification programs and inverting screen colors has always been that the mouse border becomes hidden in dark backgrounds.

MAGic now makes it possible to change the border color of the mouse pointer, making it visible even on inverted colored or dark backgrounds. This, in addition to the mouse enhancements, makes it easier to locate and see the mouse against the current screen color enhancements.

Vocalizer Expressive Synthesizer

MAGic supports Vocalizer™ Expressive voices from Nuance® Communications. These new voices work exclusively with MAGic 13 or later and JAWS 15 or later. Vocalizer Expressive offers many benefits including pitch control, so you can more easily identify upper case characters, improved performance, especially in the areas of latency and speech quality, as well as support for a wide variety of languages.

To download these voices, visit the Vocalizer Expressive Voices Web page. If MAGic 13 is already installed, you can also open the Web page by pressing ALT+F, choosing the Help menu, and then More Voices. Each voice can be downloaded as high premium or premium. The high premium voices are large files, but offer the highest quality speech. The premium voices offer very good speech quality and a smaller file size. Both high premium and premium versions of a voice can be installed on the same computer so they can be compared. After installing a voice, a Vocalizer Expressive profile is added to the list of MAGic voice profiles.

If you have JAWS on your computer, and you previously installed Vocalizer Expressive voices, there is no need to install them again for MAGic. Simply switch to the Vocalizer Expressive voice profile in MAGic.

Updated Skype Support

MAGic offers support for the latest version of Skype™. Using Skype, you can make free voice and video calls as well as send and receive instant messages with other users across the Internet. Make sure to update to the latest version of Skype to take full advantage of MAGic's Skype support.

For best results, it is recommended that you switch to Compact View, which displays your Contact list in the main window, while conversations are displayed in their own separate windows. You can then use ALT+TAB or the Windows List dialog box (INSERT+F10) to move between conversation windows and the Skype main window.

To switch to Compact View, press ALT+V, and then choose Compact view.

Some other key enhancements include:

  • If you are in a chat window typing messages back and forth with another Skype user, MAGic automatically announces incoming messages as they are received. If you are involved in multiple conversations and you are using the Compact View, which opens each conversation in a separate window, MAGic will also read incoming messages from other conversations in the background.
  • Pressing CTRL in conjunction with number 1 through 0 on the number row will read the last 10 items in the history list with CTRL+1 being the most recent.
  • Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+E will move focus to the chat entry field if the currently open Skype window contains one.
  • Pressing CTRL+WINDOWS Key in conjunction with number 1 through 5 on the number row will let you specify up to 5 conversation windows you can quickly switch to by pressing INSERT+SPACEBAR followed by number 1 through 5.

Navigation Quick Key Changes

Several Navigation Quick Key assignments have been changed. Below are the new assignments.

  • Next Radio Button. A
  • Previous Radio Button. SHIFT+A
  • Next Region. R
  • Previous Region. SHIFT+R
  • Move to the main region of a page. Q
  • Next OnMouseOver. SEMICOLON
  • Previous OnMouseOver. SHIFT+SEMICOLON
  • Jump to Table Cell. CTRL+WINDOWS Key+J
  • Jump Return from Table Cell. CTRL+SHIFT+WINDOWS Key+J

Initial State of NUM LOCK

The "Initial State of NUM LOCK Key" option allows you to control whether or not the NUM LOCK key is enabled when MAGic starts. This new option is available in Preferences in the File menu.

MAGic uses the numeric keypad to perform numerous speech, magnification, tracking, and panning functions.  By default, the NUM LOCK key is turned off when MAGic starts so that you can easily use these functions.  However, you may have a job that requires extensive use of the numeric keypad, in which case, you must always turn on the NUM LOCK key after MAGic starts.

You can always quickly toggle NUM LOCK when you want to use the keypad for MAGic commands.

New FSReader 3 with HTML Support

A new version of FSReader, Freedom Scientific's DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) book reader, is included with MAGic 13. In FSReader 3, the text area of the book is now in HTML format, which means you can navigate using the same techniques that you use on the Web. For example, you can use Navigation Quick Keys such as H to move by heading or P to move by paragraph.

To learn more about using FSReader 3 to access DAISY content, refer to the FSReader Getting Started book which can be accessed by pressing F1 while in FSReader.

Download Freedom Scientific Training Materials Using FSReader 3

You will now download and install Freedom Scientific training DAISY books directly through FSReader 3. Training materials will no longer be listed in the Check for Updates dialog box.

To access Freedom Scientific training DAISY books, do the following:

  1. Start FSReader 3.
  2. Press ALT+F to open the File menu and choose "Open MAGic Training Table of Contents" to open the table of contents book.
  3. Each available DAISY book is identified as a link. Navigate to the book you want to open and press ENTER. If the selected book has not yet been installed on your computer, FSReader will automatically download and install the book and then open it. Otherwise, the selected book is opened.

Error Reporting

The MAGic error reporting feature allows you to send information over the Internet to Freedom Scientific about any MAGic errors. If MAGic unexpectedly closes, a memory dump file, containing diagnostic information, is created in the MAGic user settings folder.

If you also experience any issues where MAGic appears to still be running, but you have lost speech, you can press INSERT+WINDOWS Key+F4 to manually close MAGic, terminate all related processes, and create the memory dump file. After the file is created, MAGic restarts and gives you the option of sending the error report to Freedom Scientific. No personal information about you is included in the report.

MAGic Recovery Hot Key

If MAGic hangs and fails to respond to keyboard input, you can easily recover using the new hot key, MAGic Key+WINDOWS Key+F8. This action causes MAGic to shut down and automatically restart.

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Enhancements in MAGic 13.0.409 Public Beta (December 2014)

The following is a list of improvements made between this release and 13.0.408. Note that while many customer reported enhancements are included in this release, the following is a list of more notable changes.

  • Corrected an issue in the Microsoft Lync 2013 Window where the window content would appear blank after installing MAGic.
  • The magnified view now moves to the item with focus when you use keyboard commands of CTRL+ and a number key to switch between email, calendar, contacts, and other Outlook tools.
  • You can now access the font attributes for searching or replacing using the Find and Replace tool of Word.
  • The hot keys to move by lines, sentences, and paragraphs now work correctly in JAVA applications.
  • Continuous improvements have been made to ensure product stability.
  • You now have immediate access to the entire screen when running MAGic with the GEM image management software. Screen information that was hidden by the GEM video window now automatically scrolls into view when the mouse or application focus moves to that area.

Enhancements in MAGic 13.0.408 Public Beta (November 2014)

The following is a list of improvements made between this release and 13.0.372. Note that while many customer reported enhancements are included in this release, the following is a list of more notable changes.

MAGic

  • Addressed a number of places where HD Text was being inconsistently drawn.
  • Resolved an issue where MAGic would stop responding when searching for terms from the Windows 8.1 Start screen. 
  • Resolved an issue in Outlook ribbons where Focus Enhancements tracking and speech were out of sync.
  • The Mouse Echo feature now correctly toggles between reading by word and reading by line.
  • Mozilla Thunderbird would sometimes display as a blank window when running with MAGic. This has been fixed.

Text Viewer Improvements

  • Improved accuracy of text displayed in the Text Viewer window.
  • Speech and spotlighting in the Text Viewer and the live document are now in sync when reading by Say All.
  • Fixed an issue where Text Viewer font styles changed by the user were not displaying in the Text Viewer window.

Internet Explorer

  • Resolved an issue when using the mouse wheel to scroll in multi-line edit boxes in Internet Explorer 11.
  • Fixed an issue with cursor and color enhancements not showing in Internet Explorer 10 when the system theme is set to High Contrast White and MAGic's “Invert Colors” color enhancement is enabled.
  • It was observed that after running MAGic for extended periods of time in Internet Explorer 10, text would sometimes disappear and reappear when moving through fields on a Web page. This issue has been resolved.

Training

  • MAGic’s Basic Training materials continue to be updated during the public beta cycle. This release includes three new DAISY books: Help, Saving Settings, and Internet Explorer.

Download MAGic 13.0.409 Now

Enhancements in MAGic 13.0.372 Public Beta (November 2014)

The following is a list of improvements made between this release and 13.0.210. Note that while many customer reported enhancements are included in this release, the following is a list of more notable changes.

Performance Improvements

  • Mouse movement across the screen in Windows 8.1 is much smoother when multiple Visual Enhancements and reading features such as Text Viewer are enabled.
  • There is a noticeable improvement in screen response when using the Magnification Level box to increase or decrease screen magnification.
  • When Windows 8.1 system performance is very active, it can cause sluggishness throughout the system. Changes have been made in MAGic to improve mouse performance in this situation.
  • HD Smoothing performance has improved when watching YouTube videos.
  • Magnification performance has improved in Internet Explorer. Previously, on rare occasions, text would disappear when changing magnification levels.
  • Focus tracking performance has been improved in Outlook®, Internet Explorer® 11, Microsoft® Excel®, and Windows Explorer.

Visual Enhancements

  • To ensure users are able to easily track the mouse when it becomes and I-Bar over text, I-Bar is now enhanced to be displayed in the inverted color of the text background.
  • The mouse pointer no longer leaves an occasional pointer trail when moved around the screen.

Improvements to Speech and Navigation

  • Clicking the mouse now interrupts speech. This new functionality allows you to quickly click items of interest and automatically stop Say All so that you can focus on the new point of interest.
  • It was reported that MAGic would get stuck on some Web page elements when using the ARROW keys for page navigation. This has been resolved.

Support for Intel HD Graphics 3000 Video Card

  • Problems were found in the field with the Intel® HD Graphics 3000 Video Card being totally unusable with MAGic. This issue has been resolved.

Restarting MAGic

  • Some users were not consistently able to restart MAGic after they closed the program. This has been fixed.

HD Text Improvements

  • Resolved several HD Smoothing issues that were observed when running Windows 8.1 with Windows Explorer, Skype, Gmail, and Internet Explorer and other HTML applications.
  • Resolved an issue with screen corruption when using fractional magnification levels between 1.1x and 3.75x.
  • HD Text smoothing now remains active when going from one app to another. It was noticed that text smoothing would turn off in some scenarios when pressing ALT+TAB to move among apps.
  • Several instances of text corruption were observed when navigating through dialog box controls or Windows Explorer. These issues have been resolved.

Improvements to Multi-Monitor Support

  • When using multiple monitors in Windows 8.1, the mouse pointer correctly jumps between monitors after pressing MAGic Key+SHIFT+D.
  • Resolved an issue with text corruption when selecting the Primary or Secondary display in the Screen Resolution dialog box.
  • HD Smoothing is again available on two monitors when configured for Multi-Monitor Independent mode.

Text Viewer Improvements

  • Synchronization between Text Viewer's spotlight and MAGic's spotlight and speech has been improved when reading documents and Web pages. This issue was observed when reading by Say All.
  • Based on customer feedback during the initial public beta, the Text Viewer font point size now ranges from 35 to 220 instead of 35 to 175.

Focus Tracking

  • Several focus tracking and focus enhancements issues in Windows 8.1 have been addressed. These problems were observed when navigating through multi-pane windows and dialog boxes such as File Explorer.

Update to MAGic's Basic Training

  • MAGic's Basic Training books are being updated. The books will now include graphic images to enhance your ability to follow along.
  • Book three of the MAGic Basic Training, User Interface and Program Group, has been updated since the first public beta and is now available. Use FSReader, Freedom Scientific's DAISY book reader, to read this material.
  • Watch for updates to other Basic Training books in the near future.

MAGic Locator

  • Pressing ESC after moving the locater to other screen locations now returns you to your previous magnified view.
  • When the Locator is activated and being moved to another screen location, it is now visible, regardless of current screen colors.

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Download MAGic 13 Beta

The following briefly describes how to download and install the latest MAGic release. Choose from the English, German, or Spanish download links.

  1. Select the appropriate MAGic download link that appears at the end of this procedure.
  2. When the dialog box opens, choose Save and select a location where you can easily find the downloaded executable file.
  3. Run the executable file and follow the talking installer.

English Download

German Download

Spanish Download

Note: If your corporate firewall prevents you from downloading files using FTP (File Transfer Protocol), use the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) links instead.

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