Description from extension meta
Improve your reading, writing & accessibility with Helperbird. Including voice typing, dyslexia support, reading mode and more.
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Description from store
Helperbird is your all-in-one extension, designed to help everyone with personalized support to make web pages, apps and Pdfs more accessible and productive to an individual's abilities, learning styles, and lifestyle.
๐ค Tell me about the features
Helperbird offers a range of powerful tools to customize the web to your needs to improve accessibility, reading, writing, studying and productivity.
Our award winning writing, reading, accessibility dyslexia support features include Dyslexia rulers,dyslexia fonts, Voice typing translations, word prediction, text to speech, and overlays.
Making Helperbird your number one accessibility & dyslexia software.
Other popular features include Reading Mode, Immersive Reader by Microsoft, Text to speech with natural voices, Text extraction from images and videos (OCR), Voice typing, also 30 other accessibility features.
Whatโs included in Helperbird?
Helperbird basic๐ฆ: which includes basic reading & accessibility features.
Helperbird Pro ๐: Which includes every feature and more.
๐ Reading features
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Reading Mode: View clutter-free web page
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Text to speech with natural voices.
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Web highlighter marker. ๐
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Specialized Fonts for reading.
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Immersive Reader by Microsoft.
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Summarise websites and Pdfs. ๐
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Translation.
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View clutter-free web page
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Word spacing adjustment.
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Text size adjustment.
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Letter spacing adjustment.
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Line-height adjustment.
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Text alignment.
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Dyslexia ruler.
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Line focus ruler. ๐
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Reading ruler. ๐
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Auto scrolling. ๐
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Paragraph width. ๐
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Paragraph borders. ๐
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Picture Dictionary.
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Overlays & tints.
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Screenshot reader. ๐
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Speed reading tools. ๐
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Highlight/selector colors. ๐
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Font colors.
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Background colors.
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Link colors. ๐
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Text to speech.
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Volume booster for audio and videos. ๐
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Text to speech options with pitch, speed, and 25 natural voices.
โ๏ธ Writing features
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Sticky notes on websites and Pdfs. ๐
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Word prediction. ๐
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Voice typing. ๐
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Diction / speech to text. ๐
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Translation.
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Spell check. ๐
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Text analysis. ๐
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Web highlighter marker. ๐
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English Dictionary by Helperbird. ๐
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Pdf reader by Helperbird.
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Extract text (OCR) from images & videos. ๐
โฟ Accessibility features
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Dyslexia ruler.
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Line focus ruler. ๐
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Reading ruler. ๐
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Paragraph customizations. ๐
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Dyslexia fonts, including OpenDyslexic, Lexend Deca and 14 others.
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Reduce motion.
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Auto scrolling. ๐
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High contrast overlays.
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Video playback adjustments. ๐
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Grayscale mode.
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Emphasize Links.
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Color blindness controls.
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Overlays & tints.
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Increase and decrease cursor size. ๐
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Show alt and title tags. ๐
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Hide images and Gifs to improve reading focus. ๐
๐ฌ Extra features
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Screenshot tools. ๐
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Phonics reading. ๐
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Keyboard shortcuts.
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Printing tools.
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Volume control. ๐
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Reduce motion.
๐ฅ Helperbird apps
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Immersive Reader by Microsoft.
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English Dictionary by Helperbird. ๐
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Feature-filled Document Editor. ๐
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Reading list by Helperbird. ๐
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Pdf reader by Helperbird.
๐ฅ App support
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Google Docs addon by Helperbird.
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Google Slides addon by Helperbird.
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Google Classroom support.
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Microsoft Word support.
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Grammarly support.
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Sync settings across browsers.
To see all the features and learn more, check out https://www.helperbird.com/features/
๐ Pricing
Helperbird Basic: Free
Helperbird Pro: $6.99 (monthly) or $60.00 a year
Helperbird Pro Unlimited: $99.99 (Monthly) or $1,200 a year
๐ Privacy
Helperbird will never sell, store, or consume any user data. We do not store data or any other user-related content. We are proud of this. We don't use any third-party packages or tracking analytics for example.
https://www.helperbird.com/privacy
๐ Compliance
Learn more about Helperbirds compliance with COPPA, FERPA GDPR.
https://www.helperbird.com/compliance
๐ Support
If you have any trouble or need a question answered
Email: [email protected]
Support: https://www.helperbird.com/support
๐ฎ๐ช Founded by a dyslexic software engineer with coffee & love from Ireland.
Latest reviews
- (2023-09-11) David Bowers: This extension is the reason I could become a developer, Reading docs was a laborious task and near impossible especially if I grew tired and my dyslexia would get worse. With this app I found tool I never knew could help me and I am continously discovering more, there is a text reader, rules to follow the text on screen as I read, Tons on dyslexia friendly fonts and I have complete control over the styling and colors on the page without having to continously go through dev tools to find the relevant style to change to affect the DOM. This app is the bees knees of accessability and if you have any form of neuro divergence affecting your ability to read text on a screen this app is a definate must!!!
- (2023-09-11) Charlie Nishelle Calkins: After using Helperbird I can't say enough positive things about it. This extension has truly transformed my online reading experience. Whether it's adjusting font sizes, reducing eye strain with the gray filter, or using the dyslexia-friendly fonts, Helperbird offers a range of features that cater to individual preferences and needs. The customizable color options and text alignment have also been incredibly helpful for personalizing my browsing. And the speed reading feature? It's a game-changer! Overall, Helperbird is a versatile, user-friendly tool that enhances accessibility and makes online reading a breeze. Highly recommended!
- (2023-07-22) Liam Daly: I really loved Helperbird and it helped me thoroughly through out my time in college! Would definitely recommend!!
- (2023-07-22) Chanel McKenzie: two words; HATED IT.
- (2023-07-07) Niamh Morrin: Fantastic App. Very user friendly and has all the top accessibility tools available in one central location.
- (2023-06-25) Veta Voloshanca: Please add fonts that look like OpenDyslexic but support Cyrillic alphabet!! Also, the possibility to remove a pre-set action I don't need from the quick actions menu would be nice. Overall, the pop-up of this extention itself looks more cluttered and distracting than a lot of websites.
- (2023-06-15) Samantha Broughton: Wow! I am loving this so much! While I am able to use my computer without accommodations, the items available to use are so helpful! I love the line spacing when I have to read something out loud for a video recording or to assist a student. Robert is super responsive and open to suggestions. Fantastic extension!
- (2023-05-27) Theresa Argent: Excellent will recommend
- (2023-05-26) Jordan Podlucky: Excellent service and software. Support was super helpful.
- (2023-03-21) Thor Halvorsen: As a person who has low vision, contrast loss, double vision, this app is an amazing app that allows me to enjoy reading, and allows me to function within my work, with improved contrast support, better control over font selection, sentence spacing and even word spacing, etc. I highly recommend this app!
- (2023-03-01) CourtneyMakesVideo (Courtney Hood): So many useful features! This app is as helpful as it's name.
- (2022-11-17) Think ER: If everything is only in pro version then you don't you mention it in overview. It can't even read more than 2300 words.
- (2022-11-03) Christian M: Too much Pro mode and too expensive
- (2022-09-12) Janette Collins: Helperbird is a great tool for all learners as well as Dyslexia recognised students. The platform sits accross different areas so it makes it applicable and useable for all. Amazing company to work with! It is user friendly and and adapatble to each learner! Would highly recommend this!
- (2022-09-03) Robert Gabriel: Amazing! We love it here at the Lexend team.
- (2022-08-26) Ayman Mahrous: wonderfull
- (2022-08-24) Woopie 225: I've been meaning to write this review for a while now. My daughter is newly diagnosed with dysexia and I heard an interview with Robert on a Newstalk podcast and sought it out. I wasn't sure if I had it installed correctly on her laptop and Robert was on straight away to help. He was amazing. This app has changed everything for my daughter. Everything is accessible to her and everyday tasks and schoolwork are so much easier. She also has visual stress so the coloured overlay feature is a game changer for her. I would highly recommend this app to anyone, she couldn't be without it now!
- (2022-08-01) Varun Kumar: its a bloody dumb extention needs to sign in to use this extention and its paid.
- (2022-07-13) Muhammad Shaikh: This is very good extension I got it and it helped with school a lot
- (2022-07-11) Alexander Monecke: Thank you so much for your great work. I suffer from dyslexia and with your addon i finaly rediscovered the joy of reading long texts and lerning new stuff. Bevor i found your addon, reading long texts was such a pain and i developed a huge mental blockage against reading them. I can't belive how much such small tweekings to letter and word spaces can make such a difference. And your fast reading funktion is realy the cherry on top of the cake. This realy means a lot to me because i accepted my problem a long time ago and had not much hopes left. Thank you very much and carry on your great work.
- (2022-07-08) Gary O'Connor: Brilliant extension! Have tired it for my daughter and she has come on leaps in school. While their is plenty of free features, the paid ones are only 40 USD a year. Can't recommend this enough.
- (2022-06-25) Tanya Bondarenko: No free ocr trial
- (2022-05-01) JRNY M: teh word spacing and highlight tools were my favorite things about this extension! i would give it a better review, but this extension actually ruins some websites completely. it makes the text appear in random places and, in tunr, makes it extremely difficult to read. i wish i could keep using it, but this has ruined it for me. please try to fix this bug.
- (2022-04-18) M Z: Well the one thing I wanted most to try from this (the ruler) and the second most wanted thing (the overlay) are both paid features, so I guess I'm moving on.
- (2022-03-06) ใrouggyลฆrฮgger: me sorprendiรณ es muy completa la recomiendo bรกjala tiene mas funciones de las que seguro estas buscando, yo la estoy usando en Opera y va genial,
- (2022-02-03) Kirk Smith: Helperbird is an excellent extension supporting a range of learning differences. Aside from providing many evidence-based dyslexia-assistive tools, the extension also functions as an easy-to-use, feature-rich web experience customization tool suitable to support a wide range of cognitive differences (i.e., color blindness and ADHD-related focus concerns, among others). Also, the developer is a very good person who supports the various learning-different communities in many ways, including by designing the free version of Helperbird to provide enough functionality to be beneficial to people who cannot afford to subscribe to the full-function version.
- (2022-01-19) Alex Johnson: This is great. 1. Only complaint -- allow us to have it DISABLED (by default) except on certain websites. I only really want to use it on certain websites, not on others (such as Google Search). I don't want this extension to change the margins and font of search results, but it does anyway. 2. More fonts please. Especially Sans Serif varieties, as I find these are easier on the eyes for prolonged electronic reading. Spoke to developer on the website chat. He was very engaging, friendly, and helpful. Very impressed to be able to talk to the actual developer of such an extensive app. I told him my feedback ideas and he told me they will be releasing a way to have the extension disabled by default and automatically turn on for specific websites. That's so awesome! Once that feature comes out, I have a feeling I will be purchasing the monthly subscription!
- (2022-01-10) Kim Norris: This tool helps so many of our students at school - not only those students who have dyslexia, but students and adults who have other learning differences (and those who don't!). It helps ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed in their learning!
- (2022-01-04) Georgina: This is a great concept and I love the described* features. However, many of the features can only be accessed via the premium version. I downloaded the extension for Chrome as I thought it would be most helpful when reading long articles or pdf's sent to me. However, the software is slow and clunky. The text to speech function which was the main draw for me along with coloured overlays; is slow and difficult to use as it keeps only reading the first line of highlighted text. I would have been tempted to pay for the pro version had it worked efficiently, but alas I don't want to waste money on something that seems not to function well in practice.
- (2021-12-01) Stijn Kemperman: Does not work, why do I need a account? I just want a readruler on my screen, but it just asks me for my personal information.
- (2021-11-13) Mason Hunter: This extension has been an absolute lifesaver. I have that fantastic combo of ADHD and Dyslexia while trying to go through college. I have difficulty keeping letters in order, seeing the gaps between words, and with ADHD on top, I lose focus A LOT. The immersive reader has been my new best friend. It drowns out the rest of the content on the page, changes the font to something I can read, and highlights the word as it reads to me. My eyes are forced to keep going in the right direction. I can slow down and pay attention to what I'm reading. I don't even have to go back and read the same paragraph 5 times to understand it! The screen overlay has been outstanding for eye strain and being able to distinguish between words and spaces. The custom font and spacing for research articles have been an enormous advantage! I can actually read the research papers now and not have this daunting 2 column fine print page to squint over. All around, this has been the best purchase I've ever had. I use this every day, with every assignment. I don't even struggle with story-based questions anymore. The immersive reader helps me read, listen, and understand the question all at once. I am still exploring what I can use this with and how it can make my academic career, and I keep getting impressed with every new way I find to use it. Seriously, try it out. You won't regret it at all. Even if you don't have dyslexia or ADHD, just try it out. You might find that it helps you understand the content you're trying to learn even better!
- (2021-10-08) G OA: Awesome! I don't suffer fatigue when I use this extension Highly Recommended
- (2021-10-07) Jack Salem: this extension is amazing and has helped improve my productivity robert has also been a very nice person to deal with when I have issues the live chat feature is amazing and quick for a response it's a really great Chrome extension that helps a lot way worth the money I pay per month and is also just great to support great people making accessibility tools
- (2021-09-23) Heather Shepard: It was helpful at all times for me! I love this tool!
- (2021-09-21) michael thompson: So far ive got nothing but amazing things to say about this extension. It helps everyday life so much!
- (2021-09-01) Nuria E Rivera R: Hi James I am very happy with this application has been very helpful for my studying I recommend this application for the people that have concentration problems like me
- (2021-08-30) Rebecca Meldrum: Fantastic! Great software and simple to use even for kids new to the computer. Provides the option to tailor every variable to make any page easier to read. Really excellent. Super helpful support too. Great job!
- (2021-08-26) DD BA: They were super fact with response time when helping me meet and deadline and very kind when corresponding. If the app is anything like their customer service then I am happy with my purchase!
- (2021-07-22) Emily Chan: It's helped me immensely with being able to focus and process words on any website
- (2021-06-27) Angdi Chu: Asking to sync my Chrome user to unlock more function....I don't want to sync between different devices, so I can never log in :(
- (2021-06-24) Alexa สษนoษS: me gusta mucho solo que hay que pagar por las cosas premium pero aun es genial
- (2021-06-24) David Linde: Insightful functionality. Well done.
- (2021-06-06) Addison Brown: I have ADHD and yesterday Helperbird and the text-to-speech function (available in free version) turned a 28-page reading assignment from a two-day task to roughly two hours, maybe three at the absolute most. It helped tremendously! And I loved that the text-to-speech has such a fluid voice compared to a lot of others I've used! Honestly, the fact that this was created by someone who knows the struggles is something I love, because then it has neurodivergency in mind. I've tried too many things in the past that were created by neurotypical folk trying to be helpful to us and I do appreciate it, but it doesn't work as well because our brains work different. Highly recommend!
- (2021-05-07) 52: I love Helperbird!!! It's very user friendly from someone who has learning challenges because of ADHD and Dyslexia.There are so many useful features and new updates.
- (2021-04-28) GK Techies: Immersive Reader from Microsoft is amazing, but my friends in Google districts were missing out until I found Helperbird. Great for proofreading! Simply highlight the text and have it read back to you, change the spacing in your view, highlight parts of speech, even translate by word or by document to have it read to you and adjust the speed! So amazing that I posted a YouTube tutorial within days of installing it. Plus, unlike many extensions, it didn't ask for obnoxious permissions like asking to delete everything in my Google Drive. #Winner #a11y
- (2021-04-27) Alex R.: Helperbird is one of the most helpful tools I've ever used. It has so many great features that not many other apps or software have. The free version can be installed and stay forever on your browser. Other companies don't always give you access for free or give access for free forever. When you do get access to the Pro version or other paid plans, you expand your opportunity to read and stay focused better. One of the other great things about Helperbird is their support service. They have a video for every single feature that you can use. They are simple and helpful videos that make the learning process a lot easier. In addition, they have great live chat support. They are super nice and helpful. They always encourage people to give suggestions on how to improve Helperbird. Why is this important? It shows they really care about people with disabilities or people in general.
- (2021-03-25) bondziotek: Just added it and it feels like my eyes are flowing through text!
- (2021-03-24) Luke Mccarthy: This chrome extension is absolutely amazing. I'm a Primary school teacher and it helps children with a broad range of needs. It's so easy to set up. I love the way it syncs across devices so set up is seamless across all the children's computers. The customizable features are a game changer for allowing children to enjoy reading and accessing the web in our school. The best application I have ever seen for school children. Looking forward to trying the iPad application soon.
- (2021-02-28) Melissa Motz: My son has dyslexia and has been struggling with parts of distant learning over the last year. We recently discovered this software and he is loving everything about it, especially with the ease of following directions and completing his assignments! We have used several other tools but this has everything a dyslexia person needs all in one bundle! The upgrade is defiantly worth it to make our daily struggles, on the computer, run much smoother. I also greatly appreciate customer support (helpdesk). They went above and beyond to make sure we were all set up on the computer for my son to most successful.
- (2021-02-27) Spin F.: omg i can actually read now
Latest issues
- (2023-09-16, v:104.5.6) Ducky Dorman: Not opening options panel
Up until a week(?) ago the panel used to open when you clicked the extension icon. Now it doesn't. Browser: Vivaldi running Chrome version of the Extension. Version: 104.5.6 Free Version - (2021-05-11, v:56.0.0) Amber: Does not work
Plays a sentence, then stops for no reason. other parts do not work at all. not sure what I am suppose to do. - (2020-09-14, v:28.0.2) Camilla Schulze: Font on buttons
Hiya, I'm working in a team that developes webs for the public and wanted to check if the page works with helpbird but we have an issue were the font is not applied to button-elements that has a font-family specific to that element. Is this a known issue with Helpbird or is there something we should do to work around it? Seeing how button is a valid html element should it not be included in the styling to add the font to that element i Helpbird aswell? I could only see it being applied to these elements: p, a, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, input, ul, span, font, strong, th, td which seems a bit too few. Would be great if you could send me some feeback on this :) Thanks for a great addon! - (2020-09-10, v:28.0.2) William Jawad: Jumping page, wrong alignment, and wrong pointer location when mouse hover
First of all, I would like to thank you for such an incredible extension. However, I am having a problem when navigating a web page (Linkedin). It seems like when the extension is enabled and I try to hover over a link that has a tool-tip, the page suddenly jumps to make the link in the center of the page. Also, sometimes the alignment of the tool-tip is set at the bottom of the page. Finally, in Google maps, when hovering over a country's name, the pointer doesn't change to a hand-shape pointing at the country, it does change however, when the mouse pointer is moved couple of mm to the top-left. If you could fix these issues, I would really appreciate it. Thank you in advance. - (2019-08-20, v:18.0.12) Cordelia Parham: Trial over before ever used. In good faith I paid the money and it still doesn't work.
I am disgruntled because my trial didn't work, then when I paid the money I still couldn't get the premium features to work. The main reason I wanted to try this was because of the Text-To-Speech options and the Ruler and it keeps telling I need to pay. Your service *seems* like it would be great, but so far it has yielded nothing. By the way, I saw two different costs: $2.99 and $4.99. Which is it? - (2019-06-30, v:17.0.0) Manny Parra: cancel account
Requesting to cancel account - (2019-05-02, v:16.0.5) Ulf Herrmann: Error while installing
I get an error when installing: Name of key "optionen gespeichert" is invalid. Only ASCII [a-z], [A-Z], [0-9] and "_" are allowed." - (2019-04-02, v:14.1.21) Helen: Paid for upgrade but not working
I'm having the exact same problem as Caitlyn Shea Butler. I paid for upgrade, now it's tell me I need to upgrade for $2.99 with no option to do so. Is this fixed yet? thanks, Helen - (2019-02-21, v:12.1.15) Caitlyn Shea Butler: I purchase the extension, but it says that my trial is over and to upgrade
I installed the trial of the extension, liked it, and purchased it for $4.99. Now the app says that my trial is over and I need to upgrade for $2.99. If I click the upgrade link, there is no options to purchase which indicates to me that I have already purchased the extension. Help? Also, when I had access to the google docs feature, I was having trouble with the cursor position. The position of the cursor on the screen was not matching where new letters were added. - (2019-02-20, v:12.1.15) Peter WHITEHEAD: Good night - your trial is over- but immediately after I installed!
Hi Just installed to have a play with this for my dyslexic Ss. The second I installed it, I was told my trial was over, so I haven't the chance to try it. Please re-set. Thanks. Peter - (2018-11-28, v:11.0.14) Can't install Helperbird extension?
I am using MacOS X El Capitan and trying to install the Helperbird extension. It only gives me the option of "try me", but won't let me install the extension. Help? Jeff - (2018-11-27, v:11.0.14) Jeffrey Blais: Can't Install "Try Now" Button Grayed Out
Can't install the extension on our student or staff Chromebooks or Chrome Browsers. There is no Add to Chrome button only a Try Now button that is grayed out and unclickable to install the extension. - (2018-10-16, v:9.1.1) Jessica B: Purchased but not enabling the premium features
I purchased the premium this morning but the premium features are still showing as disabled. How long after purchase does it take for the features to be enabled? - (2018-09-24, v:7.0.7) Not free anymore?
Hello, I'm a teacher and I have used your extension with my dyslexic students. First all thank you for your amazing work it's really changing their life! I wanted to add it to the new school chromebooks and even if the title still says FREE it now ask for 3.99$. Is that change permanent? Is there an other extension that my students could use for free? Thank you for everything you've done!