These files work together to measure the time it takes to listen
to the entire text of the January 1992 issue of the Braille
Monitor.  By dividing the number of words contained in the
Monitor by the number of minutes it takes to listen to it, you
arrive at the number of words per minute generated by your
synthesizer.

The number of words in this issue of the Monitor as counted by
WordPerfect version 5.1 is 26882.

Here is how to proceed:

Set your synthesizer to any speech rate that you want to measure. 
Next move to the drive or subdirectory where these files are
located and type HOWFAST.  This runs the batch file named
HOWFAST.BAT.  This batch file immediately records the current
time in a file called HOWFAST.OUT.  This is done by running the
file NOW.COM  and redirecting its output to HOWFAST.OUT.

The batch file next sends the entire Braille Monitor to your
speech synthesizer using the TYPE function.  We recommend turning
the volume down while the Monitor runs, if you don't want to read
it at this time.

Immediately after the last line of the Monitor is sent to the
synthesizer, the new time is appended to the file HOWFAST.OUT and
your computer speaker sounds a SIREN to let you know that it is
finished with the batch file.

You should now read the HOWFAST.OUT file and calculate the number
of minutes that elapsed between the start and finish of the batch
file.  Divide 26882 by the minutes to obtain the words per minute
of the current setting of your synthesizer.

You may, of course, repeat this process as often as you like to
measure the speech rate at any setting of your synthesizer.

Note:  If you are using a "smart" access program, be sure to save 
speech settings in your default configuration file before running 
the HOWFAST.BAT file.

