This guide covers the following:
- Avoiding potential errors by making sure cookies are not blocked
- Anonymous Reader
- Creating a Kortext account
- Accessing an existing account
- Existing Kortext users
- How to navigate within the student reader
- Advanced features
Making sure cookies are not blocked
If you cannot access the scan and just have the Kortext waiting message or a blank screen, please ensure that your Cookies are not being blocked.
You can tell if cookies are blocked when in Chrome by looking out for the crossed out eye icon in the address bar:
If enabling third party cookies does not resolve the issue, please contact us at support@cla.zendesk.com or, if a student or lecturer, contact your library or Digitisation Team.
Anonymous Reader
Once logged in you will be taken to the anonymous reader. This reader allows you to read, print, download to PDF, search and search the web.
This reader will use your single-sign on credentials and will take you directly into the extract with your Shibboleth, Athens or EZproxy authentication, or IP for those with the institution's IP range.
However, this anonymous reader will not know who you, as an individual user, are. Therefore, to use any of the advanced features, including: highlighting, bookmarking, note taking, export referencing, and for the reader to remember your page for next time, you will need to create a free account to log in.
Creating a Kortext Account
To create an account, add the details as instructed. If you already have a Kortext account, click sign in instead.
You can save your login details with your browsers cookies to remember for next time and make logging on easier. Once you have an account you can also download PDFs to the Kortext app, to benefit from the additional advanced features here, such as read-aloud.
For those students using the DCS manual authentication, you will be logged into the advanced reader automatically, as CLA is already aware of individual logins.
Note: advanced features require OCR'd content, search or copy text in the anonymous reader to see if it is OCR-enabled at source. This is determined by the original scan of the material.
Accessing an existing account
You will need to login to the reader each time you click on a new link, if you wish to use advanced features. However, as stated in the section above, cookies can be used to remember your credentials and we suggest that these are used to make logging back in easier.
You can log back in using the 'Sign in to Kortext' option.
Or, when trying to use advanced features, you will see the same option as when you set up and will need to click on the same icon as when registering.
The 'Remember Me' option will store usernames and passwords if your Browser does not support this already (most Browsers will automatically support storing passwords).
Existing Kortext Users
You can log into your existing Kortext account if you use the Kortext platform.
This will not happen automatically, as the anonymous reader is not aware of your account details.
Click 'Sign in to Kortext' and login (allow your Browser to store your details or click 'Remember Me').
You can now see your extracts on one tab and your eBooks on another in your Kortext account.
If you do not know your login details, but do have a Kortext account (as usually you are taken directly into your account via your institution authentication credentials), please click 'Forgotten Password; on the 'sign in' page and enter your institutional email. Kortext will then email you a link so you can reset your password for a direct login for the DCS links, and you can follow the steps above to save this to your cookies to use for future links.
Navigation
The first page of the PDF extract is the Copyright Notice. You can then navigate the extract by either using the bars which appear at the bottom of the extract, or by the arrow icons on your keyboard. You can also go to a specific page by typing a page number into the white box next to the navigational arrows.
It is also possible to fit the page by height, by clicking the vertical arrow icon, this is also the initial setting. You can also fit the page by width by pressing the horizontal arrows. These arrows can be found next to the page navigators in the top right-hand corner.
You can also zoom in closer to the extract by clicking the '+' icon in a magnifying glass and zoom out by clicking the '-' icon. By pressing the four arrows, you will make the extract full screen, press the escape key to exit this mode.
In the settings tab it is possible to change the language between English and Welsh for our Welsh students to have all the instructions in Welsh.
It is possible to print out the PDF, either as specific page numbers or else ‘Print All Pages’ to print the whole document, which will open your browser print options.
It is also possible to download to PDF on the next icon above, for students to download.
The next few aspects of the reader require that the extract be OCR’d, so please bear this in mind if you cannot highlight or search. OCR'd scans are controlled centrally at your institution and should be raised through your lecturer / Library Digitisation Teams.
The next piece of functionality available in the student reader is a search function, shaped like a magnifying glass and located on the left-hand side of the screen. Once clicked on it, you will be able to search for certain phrases across the extract.
You can also highlight keywords or phrases and then search the web in a new tab, performing a Google search.
Advanced Features
There are several features that require a login for you to access them.
These include:
Highlight
You can highlight sections using a range of colours. These will be remembered when you return to the document.
Create Note
After highlighting text, you can also Create a note. This can also be highlighted, and the note shared to emails or your One Drive. You must click 'Save' to save this.
Export Reference
You can also export a reference to Refworks or Endnote. This is also available under the highlight options as well as on the left hand-side menu bar.
Bookmark
You can bookmark pages using the bookmark symbol on the slider at the bottom of the page. The icon will change from clear / white to purple when the page is bookmarked.
You can find previous bookmarks on the bookmark tab to get to them at any point. The slider will also give you the option to return to your most recently bookmarked page.
The final advanced feature in the browser is the simplest. The Reader will remember where you left off and allow you to continue reading from there, instead of re-finding your page.
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