Technology
Features
Read aloud software
Advances in Text-to-Speech technology have made computers more accessible for the visually impaired
Here technology writer Andrew Stucken gives examples of how to do it with four popular applications – the web, email, PDF files and MS Word.
Some software now comes with a built-in Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature. For those which do not, third party software exists to do the job. In fact, the programme we recommend is so simple to use, you may want to use it for all applications.
Internet Explorer possesses no native text-to-speech feature. But a workaround is possible by going to wwwreadplease.com and downloading the ReadPlease 2003 freeware.
Simply open ReadPlease, copy and past the relevant text into the window and click 'Speak' – it really is that simple.
A free alternative is called Thunder, from the www.screenreader.net site. Other applications are available, both freeware and paid-for.
The same software can be used with Outlook Express to read aloud emails.
Adobe Reader's latest version allows users to read aloud PDF (Portable Document Format) files.
Go View> Read Out Loud>Activate Read Out Loud
and...
Press CTRL and SHIFT and B together to read the entire document
Press CTRL and SHIFT and V together to read the page
Press CTRL and SHIFT and E together to stop
Press CTRL and SHIFT and C together to pause
Word - If you are running Windows XP or higher and have Word XP or Word 2003, you can use Word’s native text-to-speech facility.
Open Word. Select Tools menu, then Speech option.
The 'Welcome to Speech Recognition' dialogue box is displayed. Click Cancel, then OK.
The language bar will then be displayed. If no buttons are shown on the Language bar, click in the document and on the bar. This should show the buttons.
If you need to add the Speak button to the bar, click the Options menu on the far right hand drop down arrow. Select Speak text option.
Open a Word document and point the cursor to where you want to start.
To start the reading aloud click the Speak button on the Language Bar.
To stop the reading aloud click the Stop button on the Language Bar.
For those with an earlier version of Windows or Word, ReadPlease will again do the job.
Windows XP and Vista both contain a Narrator feature which can be configured to read aloud text.
Saga Zone:
- Buried under the techno babble? Let others help you unravel it in our lively online technology forum
