Read aloud alternatives

In acrobat pro 9 (or reader), the read aloud is pretty poor (in my humble opinion). Is there any type of add or stand alone program that can read a PDF that sounds better? I have played with programs like ghost reader, which do sound better, but they import a PDF into a text only file and read from that (I want to look at and read aloud at the same time the PDF).
Thanks
bob

Here is the VoiceOver Utility window:

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How do you add read aloud to a fixed layout book?

I have seen some ibooks (childrens books) with read aloud abilities. I know you have to do some programming but what program do you use to edit the code, can you preview it in ibooks (on ipad) if you modify the code, and is there a non-programming way to add audio/speech to your ibooks through ibooks author? Does anyone know the process or what steps and programs needed to add the read aloud feature to an ibook? (I know there are many others out their who would like to know the answers to these questions). Thanks.
Also, I have HD images (2000x1462) for my ibook in ibooks author and when I preview it on an ipad 2, it downsizes it to regular quality (like 1400x1200 ish). Since I don't yet own an iPad 3, do the images stay HD quality when an ibook (from ibooks author) is viewed on an iPad 3?

Okay, I just finished building my Ibook in Ibooks Author. I tested one of the free ibooks (Peter Rabit) and liked how it reads to you. I have read many articles and other posts here on Apple.com and everyone seems to want to add this read aloud feature. I have the Fixed Layout EPUBs Miniguide and iBookstore Asse Guide 4_8 and even though the miniguide explains things step by step, its like reading Greek. I am new to programming. Since I assume you are an expert, what I need is help getting started. I'm pretty good at figuring things out, I just need to get a jumpstart as fast as possible. (I don't want to spend a whole month trying to add this read aloud feature).
1. I have a finished book but its not looking like the fixed layout kids books I see on ibooks. Is there a simple way to just tell ibooks its a fixed layout and get rid of the textbook features without using programming? (I know there are people out there who agree with me)
2. I know that I need a XML SMIL compatable text editor (BBedit is the only one I heard is free and good). But where do I begin? Is there some kind of template of code where I just add in the code to get the book to read from audio files? If I edit the epub file, will this book still be able to be sent to the iPad through ibooks Author for a preview?
3. I am familiar with Audacity so the audio part is doable. But the coding is scaring me. To add a word by word reading for the ibook requires more programming.
4. Tell me a short list of what I need to do in order. I have all this information but its overwhelming because I hate programming. (I tried making an iphone app and gave up because it required Xcode, which is way out of my league). I don't know where to start from my finished iBook so what is the next thing I need to do?
Thanks Jessica

Ibooks Author and Read Alouds...

Hi-
I am using ibooks author in a classroom with my students with special needs. Any ideas on what is the best way to have the books "read aloud"
Thanks.
Mark

Mark
I would like to help you with your students. I have written a few ibooks for special needs students and I am looking for teachers and students to continue to use them.
Please let me know if i can help...

Some words are not highlighting on my read-aloud epubs after updating IOS 6.0.1 and iBooks 3.0.1

Some words are not highlighting on my read-aloud epubs after updating IOS 6.0.1 and iBooks 3.0.1 on both my iPad 2 and iPad 3. They are working absolutely fine earlier. I even updated the latest version of iBooks 3.0.2 but nothing is working. Can anybody help?

Hi spati,
I ran into this problem as well. Seems like something funky going on with iBooks 3. Anyways, I had to tweak my read-aloud clip starts in the smil. Where the word was not highlighting, I added a few milliseconds to the timing until the word started highlighting again. Not the most ideal solution, and not sure what exactly causes it because 90% of the words were just fine, but it seemed to fix the problem. Note prior to the problem happening, I had all my clip start timings = clip end timings for the previous word, so there were no gaps.
Regards,
Tim

No Sound from Adobe Read-Aloud

I have a PC running Windows 7. I have Adobe XI and Adobe Acrobat Pro intalled. I can turn on "Read-Aloud" in either but when "Read-Aloud" is turned on and I choose to read the page, the document or just a paragraph, no sound is produced. The sound card works for all other programs. Neither Adobe program will read any .pdf file. What's wrong?

The volume preferences were already set exactly as shown in your last message in both Acrobat Reader XI and Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. Neither will read aloud any .pdf file. This problem was discovered on my home computer which is a 64-bit Dell computer running Windows 7. I tried "Read Aloud" on my office computer and it read .pdf files aloud. My office computer is a 32 bit machine running Windows XP. Any other suggestions?

Does the ipad mini have a read aloud app

Does the mini ipad have a read aloud function or do you need to downoad an app?

Try this ,settings>general>accessibility>voice over>turn on.

Adobe reader becomes unresponsive when attempting to activate read aloud

I am running Windows XP Professional on a Dell and using Mozilla Firefox. Every time I attempt to activate Read Aloud mode, Adobe crashes or becomes unresponsive. Thank you for your help!

Try disabling Protected Mode [Edit | Preferences | Security (Enhanced)].

IBooks Author creating SMIL files for read aloud

Is there a tutorial on this somewhere?
I will need to do this in an.iba file as well as epub.

Hey, I am having problems with Audacity and making the audio labels. I have several articles and Liz Castrol's Book on how to make read aloud epub books. I even have the easy epub code editor app that generates code for the read aloud. I can't get past the track labeling because the labeling doesn't work the way I see it on all other sites. When I hit Command-B, it gives a red flag with a red square. It looks nothing like the blue < and > symbols I see on Audacity's web site and Liz Castrol's book. I have the latest Audacity but can't make labels right. When I save the .txt file, it has the numbers next to my labels (I typed in the words in the labels) and it outputs one set of long numbers next to each word. The sample in the book and on the app has two long numbers next to each word. What is going on with my version of Audacity? Does anyone have the same issue? My book reads aloud (when combining the audio and .txt file) but it does not highlight the words.

Adobe Acrobat XI will NOT read aloud any pdf files

Ever since I upgraded to Marvericks, Adobe Acrobat XI will NOT read aloud any pdf files. How can I fix this. It previously worked fine.
I create tagged pdf files in InDesign to be compatible with 508 accessibility standards.The files read aloud on a Mac with OS X Lion but not on Mavericks.

no, still no resolution. It is very frustrating. I did have one 8 page document that it will read the first page but nothing else.
Did you find an answer?

Adobe Reader 9 will not let me change the voice for Read Aloud.

I use two voices on my computer (which is a Mac notebook running Snow Leopard), Alex, the standard voice for English, and a German voice, Infovox Juiia. When I try to change from Alex to Julia to have a German languge PDF read aloud, I go to Preferences, Reader, Read Out Loud options, but the Voice dropbox only offers me the Alex voice, and clicking on the up and down arrows does not work. If I check the Use Default Voice, it still uses Alex, even if I have set Julia as my System voice in System Preferences.

I have spent two days at ti, but have finally resolved it myself. I deleted my Adobe Reader and installed an older version, and the problem disappeared. By the way, I also tried AR11, but the probelm was there too.

Custom samples for read aloud books

I have uploaded a fixed layout read-aloud book and it needed a custom sample before it could go into the IBookstore. Imade one and reuploaded but now it says I still need a sample for the origina l as well as the preview. What am I doing wrong? In the asset guide it says something about type="preview" I assume that means that I have to insert something in the metadata of the preview to say it is a preview Is this right? If so can anybody tell me exatly what I need to insert.
Thanks in Advance
Bagsybaker

You're not doing anything wrong. I used iTunesProducer and got the same message. So I called the people at iTunesConnect and tech told me it says that but it showed on his end. A week later my Children's ebook was in the iBookstore along with my sample being available.

Read aloud on Adobe Digital Edition - where is it?

Supposed to be included...

No, ADE is, essentially, a "broker". It communicates with the server where the purchased digital content is located. ADE tells the server that , "Hey - this user really did pay for the content so send it on down."
ADE facilitates the transfer of the content from the sever to the ultimate destination - the document reader (ebook reader typically).
All the formal communications is needed as the digital content is in a protective wrap of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to assure protection of the content owners' property rights.
Now, once digital content is in place on the eBook reader the ability to do text to speech may or may not be there.
The eBook device must support it with hardware and software.
The digital content's DRM must permit it .
Etc., etc.
But, anyway -- this is all stuff to talk about at the ADE user forum as this user forum is for Adobe Reader and Adobe Reader does provide read aloud for any PDF that has renderable text (not the image/picture of text provided by a scanner and not "outlines" of fonts).
The ADE forum is at:
Adobe Digital Editions
Be well...

Adobe reader will not read aloud?

I have Window 8 on an HP touch smart laptop, I downloaded the latest adobe and I try to get it to read aloud and it wouldn't work.

I have spent two days at ti, but have finally resolved it myself. I deleted my Adobe Reader and installed an older version, and the problem disappeared. By the way, I also tried AR11, but the probelm was there too.

Adobe Reader 10.1.1 installed on Windows 7 os with MSWord pdf won't read aloud. Why?

What is wrong here? Everything works and I checked the preferences under Edit in the Menu. I even turned off my firewall just in case. Also Read aloud mode is checked under View in the Menu and I started it at the beginning of the document. I also checked my sound systems on my computer and everything is ok. Hmmm.??? Can anyone help me?

thanks to a contributor whose Id I have lost now but had the answer! It was go to preferences under View in the Menu and click General. Then uncheck Protected Mode. close Reader and re open and it worked. The voice is so much nicer than the old Adobe Reader. Many thanks to this Forum contributors.

Read Aloud Won't Read PDF

I just activated the read aloud option but when I press the button to read the page, it seems like it sees the document like an empty page. It will say "Warning, empty page." When I click on the text it will just say "blank."

thanks to a contributor whose Id I have lost now but had the answer! It was go to preferences under View in the Menu and click General. Then uncheck Protected Mode. close Reader and re open and it worked. The voice is so much nicer than the old Adobe Reader. Many thanks to this Forum contributors.

Read aloud alternatives

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