# Setting Pause Time

This is the help file for Setting Pause Time option under Setting menu bar.
Notes:

- If setting while reading is in progress, only the pause times for Picture and Syllable take effect immediately; these two and the rest will take effect for subsequent text selection for reading.
- Even with the same setting parameters, the exported audios sound faster than reading and highlighting, and this means that more pause times are needed when exporting text to audio.

To set these parameters, choose Setting on the menu bar when available, then Pause Time from the drop down to show as below.
All times are in millisecond, and there are 1,000 milliseconds in one second.
The table below describes what each setting does.

Pause Time
Character | Name | Time (Millisecond) | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
: | Colon | 300 | Pause as indicated before reading next syllable.
, | Comma | 300 | Pause as indicated before reading next syllable.
- | Dash/Minus Sign | 300 | Pause as indicated for number with dash such phone nuber.
! | Exclamation | 300 | Pause as indicated before reading next syllable.
| Message | 9999 | Pause as indicated for popup message. To pause without closing the window automatically, set it to zero (0) to allow the user to click to close it.
cr | New Line | 350 | Pause as indicated for carriage return before reading next syllable.
. | Period/Dot | 500 | Pause as indicated before reading next syllable.
| Picture | 1000 | Pause time before showing and reading next picture.
? | Question Mark | 800 | Pause as indicated before reading next syllable.
" | Quote | 300 | Pause for single or double quote before reading next syllable.
; | Semicolon | 300 | Pause as indicated before reading next syllable.
| Syllable | 0 | Add pause time after reading a syllable before reading the next syllable. It is to slow down the reading. For normal reading, use zero (0).

Button Description
Name | Action
--- | ---
| Keep and use number entered for each symbol or name on current session. All numbers are adjusted automatically within ranges.
| Clear all values to blank meaning zero (0). Note: When everything is blank, it means that there is no punctuation pause at all. In analogy, it is the same as reading some writings without a single punctuation mark.
| Set parameters from default column, and these are hard coded in the software due to getting better reading speed by experiments.
| Save all parameters to file PauseTime.cfg in Yuhalu folder for subsequent use until change again. All numbers are adjusted automatically within ranges.
| Show this help if needed.

## Procedure

These parameters are applied to all readings and exported audios.
To pause longer before reading the next syllable and subsequent ones, enter a higher number, and to pause shorter, enter a lower number as preferred.

1. Enter number within its range to a field, and it does not matter what field to enter first.
2. To advance to the next field, click it or use the Tab key on the keyboard.
3. To go to previous field, click it or use the Shift + Tab keys on the keyboard.
4. Click the appropriate button when done.

File name: SettingPauseTime.html
Date: 12/17/2025