How to Use the PDF Reader in Helperbird
Read a PDF that is already open in Helperbird. Turn the pages, listen to any page with the text to speech player, and take notes in the panel beside it.
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- features
- writing
This guide covers reading a document that is already open in the Helperbird PDF Reader: moving through the pages, listening to them, and writing notes beside them.
If the reader is not open yet, start with how to open the PDF Reader. For a one-line summary of every toolbar button, and the things the reader cannot do such as zoom, see using the PDF Reader.
Move Through the Pages
A numbered button sits above the document for every page.
- Click a number to jump straight to that page.
- Use the arrow buttons on either side of the numbers to move one page at a time.
- Press the Left and Right arrow keys to do the same from the keyboard. They turn the page only when you are not typing, so they will not fire while you are in a text box, a note or the drawing tools.
Listen to the Page
Click Text to Speech in the toolbar. A player bar opens above the document with play and pause, stop, a progress bar, and a speed button.
- Press play with nothing selected and the whole page is read.
- Highlight a sentence or a paragraph first and only that is read.
- The speed button cycles through 0.5x, 0.75x, 0.9x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x and 2x. The reader opens at 1x every time, whatever speed you use elsewhere in Helperbird.
When you press play with nothing selected and Helperbird is using one of your device's own voices, each word is highlighted as it is spoken and the page scrolls to keep it in view. With a neural voice, or when you highlighted text first, the page is read without the word highlight.
Reading stops when you turn the page, so press play again on the new one. The voice itself comes from your own settings, covered in how to use text to speech.
Take Notes Beside the PDF
Click Notepad in the toolbar. The view splits, with your PDF on the left and a writing panel on the right. Click Notepad again, or the close button in the panel, to go back to the full-width document.
Type in the panel as you read. The buttons above the text do the rest.
Your notes are not saved. Before you leave, put the text on the page with Add Textbox to PDF and download the PDF, or copy it somewhere else.
What the Notepad Buttons Do
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Dictates into the panel instead of typing. A π badge on the button means maths mode is on, which you set in the popup |
| Grammar | Rewrites what you have written with the corrections applied, up to 1,000 words at a time |
| Add Textbox to PDF | Puts your note on the page you are reading as a text box, which you can then move and format |
| Download note | Opens your browser's print dialog with your notes in it. Choose Save as PDF as the destination to keep a copy. Notes print as plain text, so formatting is not carried over |
Related Guides
- Open the PDF Reader - Get the reader open and a file loaded.
- The Tools menu - Immersive Reader, Translate, Summarize and Screenshot Reader.
- Add text boxes to PDFs - Type onto the page itself.
- Drawing tools on PDFs - Pen, shapes, lines and arrows.
- Save and download PDFs - Which of your changes end up in the file.
- Reading long PDFs - A working order for a long document.
Need Additional Help?
If you have any questions or run into any issues, contact the Helperbird support team. We are happy to help you get the most out of Helperbird.
Printed from the Helperbird Help Center · Updated August 13th, 2026
Questions? We are happy to help — helperbird.com/support