
Books can be used in a variety of ways, including listening to the book being read, reading the book by the words being spoken when the mouse is over a word, clicking on words as requested and recreating the books. This last option is especially useful in helping develop understanding of sentence structure and as a prelude to writing. You are given the option of using an overlay keyboard (such as an IntelliKeys or Concept Keyboard) with reinforcements - along with other options:

With an IntelliKeys keyboard StoryMaker 3 will automatically run the "Overlay Sender" program (if installed). If you have "Overlay Sender" installed you can store the names of the overlay files with the sentences and they will be loaded automatically when needed. The right arrow symbol (for "go to next page") can also be on the overlay board.

Books can be created and stored with a title pages (and picture) and up to 60 pages.

Pages of books can contain paragraphs, pages with or without text and with or without pictures.

Books and dictionaries can be exported to floppy disk, a removable drive (such as a USB flash drive) or hard disk for later copying to a CD, and then imported on other computers with StoryMaker 3 or version 2 installed (only versions 2.1.01 or later installed can import dictionaries and only version 3 can import reinforcements with video sections).

An important part of StoryMaker 3 is the ability to use reinforcements on the successful completion of a page or of the whole book. These can be from videos, sounds or pictures. If videos are used, a different section of the video can be used to reinforce each page. This can be used to teach a child a sequence of actions (such as crossing the road) and also to reinforce the meaning of what is read on each page. This also assists motivation for completing each page.
A number of reinforcements are provided with StoryMaker but personalizing them for the child is the best approach and provides the greatest assistance to learning, especially using videos and specifying different sections for each page.
A sample book with a video reinforcement is provided with StoryMaker illustrating the sequence involved in washing hands.
Below shows screens editing a video reinforcement:

Determining which section of a video reinforcement will play with a particular page of a book:

Programs for using a book (or sentence) can be created.

Books and sentences can be printed out. Many options can be selected to customize this.

A date program is also included to assist the child learning the days of the week, months of the year and such concepts as “today", "tomorrow" and "yesterday”. Pictures can be associated with the days of the week or months.

Words added by the user can be synchronised with the added words in "Flashcards 2 or 3" by a simple click on a menu option
Note: The downloadable version requires a download of 155 MB (for US version) or 135 MB (NZ version). If Flashcards 3 or 4 is fully installed only a 15 MB download is required.