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General discussion

Text to speech

Nov 20, 2003 4:44AM PST

Hello all,

I type a lot of long documents in MS Word on an XP machine. Often, I don?t have time to have others proof read my stuff and prefer my readers think my education wasn?t a waste. Many years ago (Windows 3.1 days) I used to have a little app that would read my text back to me. It sounded very ?computerish? but got the job done. I could at least catch grammatical and gross spelling errors.

I?ve fiddle around with text-to-speech in Windows XP but can?t make it do very much (nothing to be exact). Am I on the right track in assuming this will read back written text? If so, can anyone point me to instructions (for the lay person) on how to configure it.

My hardware/software is as follows:
-Intel D845WN MB w/P4 2.0Ghz
-512MB RAM
-MB-integrated sound
-Windows XP Pro SP1 and all the latest updates
-MS Office XP Pro w/SP2

Thanks for your help
Rob

Discussion is locked

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Re:Text to speech
Nov 20, 2003 5:13AM PST

Rob,

Not sure if this is what your are looking for.

There is a Text To Speech feature built-in as well as Sppech Recognition.
Although I have not tested it out as I do not use a Mic or Text To Speech.

And I suspect it's only available if you install Office XP.

This is what I've just uncovered...

1. Right-Click Taskbar | Toolbars | Language Bar
2. If you see the EN appear next to the Sys Tray click it and select Show the Language bar
3. The Language bar will anchor to the top of your monitor.
4. Click Tools | Options
5. In Speech Properties click Text to Speech tab.
6. Slect the Voice.
7. Click Preview Voice.
8. Set the Voice speed.
9. Click Apply and OK.

That should be it.

Let us know if it works.

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Re:Re:Text to speech
Nov 21, 2003 3:15AM PST

I found MS article 306902 useful but disappointing.

The built-in TTS in Windows XP does not really work with Office XP (seems odd). It only works with Notepad and other select apps. Mainly its for the hearing impared and gives you audio feedback for things like what the active window is and what the active dialog box does.

I found a shareware app called 2nd Speech Center that seems to do what I want (it hasn't crashed my PC yet either).

Cheers,
Rob

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Re:Text to speech
Nov 22, 2003 12:07AM PST

Try using Microsoft Reader. http://www.microsoft.com/reader/default.asp

Install this free tool, activate it and then go to Control Panel : Speech Properties to chose your computer voice. You may have to select properties in Reader to customize.

I've used this on word documents that I've completed with Word 98 through Word 2003.

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Try TextAloud
Nov 7, 2007 2:21PM PST

Try this small application, TextAloud. Costs less than $30 but allows changing any text you send to clipboard in a number of computer voices. You can save to disc as an mp3 file. Very versatile, efficient and fast. Get it here:

http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/