Tips for speaking text (text to speech)

I have just added these notes to an OS X tips page that I created sveral years ago:
Visually impaired users should find the built-in Text-to-speech technology of OS X useful. Go to System Preferences/ Speech/ Text to Speech. Tick the "Speak selected text.." box. Enter a keyboard shortcut (I use Control-F19 as the keys are diagonally opposite on my keybaord. You will need to select text for this to work. To select all text from a document press Command-A. Then press Control-F19 to start the computer speaking. Unfortunately Microsoft apps like Word (2004) do not have this speech capability. You will need to copy (Command-C) and paste (Command-V) the text into Text Edit before invoking Text to Speech. PDF documents in Preview and email in Mail work fine.
The tips page is:
http://users.tpg.com.au/aoaug/mac_osx.html
Having a temporary patch over one eye I thought I should invoke this technology but found it difficult to locate some basic tips on the net. If you have some good links/tips please post them on this thread.

It's a bug. I have submitted feedback on this point to Apple. I really hope they take notice, because the male voice is horrible.
There is a workaround though - go to Settings/General/International/Region Format, and change the region to "Isle of Man".

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I am looking for a text to speech app that supports the Books App?

I am looking for a text to speech app that supports the Books App?

If Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> VoiceOver does not work, then it is unlikely iBooks will do text to speach on its own in the current version.
<http://www.apple.com/feedback>
I know that some competing services, Kindle, Nook, etc... are restricted in doing text to speach by the book publishers.
If this is text in a PDF (not an ebook), then maybe there is another app that can to text to speach on PDFs.
If it is published books that are of interest, there is Audible.com <http://www.audible.com/>
In theory it should be possible to use the Mac OS X Text to Speach facilities to convert a document into an audio file, and they sync that to the iPod Touch. I assume there is similar text to speach utilities for Windows systems.
I'm also guessing that there are web sites dedicated to assisting sight impaired individuals that might provide ideas for getting text to speach options for the iPod Touch.

New voice file for E7 Text-to-Speech

Hi,
There is only one Language/voice file available in my Nokia E7. I want to have a female voice and there is no download available for E7 (on download language and voide webpage: http://europe.nokia.com/support/product-support/text-to-speech).
please help.
Thanks.

Hello friend_kumar, try this link http://europe.nokia.com/support/product-support/text-to-speech or go to settings>phone>speech>options>download languages.
Nokia C7

Code for "Convert Text into Speech"

I am developing a website for blinds. I need a code for read the text and convert into speech.
It is very urgent and may help for all blind people.

HI
This is very nice concept for blind people I will also try to help u...
Please refer attached file as well as there is API available of iSpeech.org use that to convert tedt to speech...
ALL D BEST.

Any text to speech app for keynote presentation?

Hello all, i am searching for any text to speech app or add-on to Keynote presentation. I have downloaded iSpeech but not sure if it can be added on to Keystone. Thank you.

If you want a comic effect then see below, if you want a serious engaging voice over, record a human voice.
creating a sound file from text:
Select a group of text you want to transform into a spoken audio file
Right click on the block of text and select “Add to iTunes as Spoken Track”
The audio track will then open up in iTunes

Is there a text to speech app that can read text books to me?

Is there a text to speech app that can read text books to me?

The Apple Support Communities are an international user to user technical support forum. As a man from Mexico, Spanish is my native tongue. I do not speak English very well, however, I do write in English with the aid of the Mac OS X spelling and grammar checks. I also live in a culture perhaps very very different from your own. When offering advice in the ASC, my comments are not meant to be anything more than helpful and certainly not to be taken as insults.
You don't need an app for that text to speech is biult into OS X.
http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/28/how-to-make-your-mac-talk-text-to-speech/

Text to speech on iphone 6 plus stops working

Text to speech on iPhone 6 plus quits working if I leave the app that I was originally using it in. For example, i am using text to speech to read a web site in safari. I go to ibooks and do the two finger swipe for the text to speech window. It comes up but, even though the play icon is on there is no sound. I have to shut down the phone then restart it and the text to speech works again. Any ideas? Apple can you fix this?

You cannot update that way. You need to download Captivate 7 separately from here:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?loc=en_us&product=captivate
You can use both CP7 and CP6 simultaneously. To test your required feature, I would suggest that you try with a new file instead of opening your existing file.
Sreekanth

Does Nokia 515 have TTS (Text-to-Speech)?

Hi,
my friend who lost 90% of his eyesight is an avid Nokia user.
He has been using E52 phone for many years mainly for it Text-to-Speech option which allowed him to use a cellular phone at all. (for those who do not know - the phone reads sms, menus, contacts etc.)
Recently, company he is working at, offered him a phone replacement so he asked for a newer Nokia phone that is similar to E52 functionality-wise. They got him Nokia 515. Although it offers most of the E52 stuff it looks like this model doesn't have Text-to-Speech support in the system. Is there any way he can enable TTS on this new phone? Or is there maybe any App in the Ovi Store that would offer such functionality?
If not than maybe there is some different modern Nokia phone (but without a touch screen) that supports visually impaired people in such way E52 did?
Thanks for answering,
Leaffar

Nokia 515 uses as operating system Nokia Series 40.
Nokia E52 uses as operating system Nokia Symbian/S60.
I am neither aware of any solution via the Nokia Store, nor newer models than the Nokia C5-00 5MP. Technically compared to your Nokia E52, this is a step back because it does not offer Wi-Fi.

Tweaking Text to Speech

I wish to create more time (i.e. dead air) between paragraphs when Text to Speech is turned on and in use. How do I do it?
I've tried spaces, paragraph returns, & punctuation, nothing slows the voice. (There have been some amusing moments.)
If there is one beat between sentences, can I create two beats between paragraphs?
Thanks - Fabe

I am also looking for more details on formatting text for the "text to speech" tool so that the emphasis and flow are more natural. Maybe another bounce might gain attention,

Download problem on Text to Speech

I have Captivate 4 loaded and did not originally install Text to Speech. I have installed the download multiple ways, but prior to that I was getting the following error message: The Application failed to Initialize properly (0vc0000005). Click on OK to terminate the application. I followed the Captivate 4 module instructing me to go and get the trial version and execute the download file which I did, but when I go to my project to convert text to speech, it tells me I need to do a download again.

Hi Linda
Did you fully watch the tutorial? I ask because it's possible that you saw the first part and concluded it just walked you through what you have already done. The thing is, you download and run a file. But all you have downloaded and run are the INSTALL files for the Text To Speech. You have to then navigate to where the install files were placed and launch the installer to actually install TTS.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Adobe Certified Captivate Training
SorcerStone Blog
Captivate eBooks

Nokia 5530 text to speech feature help

Its mentioned in the specifications for 5530 that it has a text to speech feature. Can anybody tell me how to use it..???

emailed Nokia and here is their reply;
Thank you for emailing Nokia Care.
It is true that the technical specifications does list the Text to speech as one of the applications installed on the Nokia 5530XM. You may refer to your user guide under the term 'Message reader' as well. Please open your applications folder and browse for your Text to speech folder.
Settings are required prior to using the feature as in the language, voice and the voice settings. Upon completing these settings, you can simply pick up a message from your inbox, select Options and Read.
Should you not have the software in your phone, please download it from the following link. If the Nokia 5530XM is not listed, you can select any of the other XM phones but series 60 like the 5800XM
http://europe.nokia.com/get-support-and-software/download-software/text-to-speech#
so downloaded software and voice package but still no joy-nothing in the extended user guide on the Nokia web site
the key appears to be the 'text to speech' icon in the applications folder which I don't have on my 5530 phone ( very helpful chap at CFW cant find it either)
Come on Nokia help us out here

With iOs 7 and the iPhone can someone use the phone while also using a communication app such as Speak It or Assistive Chat? These are text to speech systems for people who cannot speak well. Thanks you!

With ios 7 and the iPhone can someone use their phone while also using a text to speech app, such as Speak It or Assistive Chat? These apps are used by people who have difficulty with speech production.
Thank you.

My iPhone 5 wouldn't start after I turned it off a few minutes after writing this. It went into recovery mode and I had no choice but to connect to iTunes on PC and restore.
I restored to factory setting first, just to validate my phone was okay. For a second consecutive iOS update, the iPhone 5 did not update smoothly while connected to PC and iTunes - I had to retry two times before the progress bar for the update showed. (The exact same problem with the restart occured when I updated to 7.0.4.)
The good news is that I was ultimately able to restore the iPhone 5 to factory settings while running iOS 7.0.6. I did have a backup from about a month ago lying around and was able to successfully restore with that as well, so the damage done is almost negligible since I had my contacts, notes, mail, etc. backed up to iCloud.
Once I completed both restores, the sync with iTunes worked fine.

I need to reprogram the delete and enter key to the left side of a external keyboard for the ipad mini. don't need the caps/lock or ctrl key and due to an injury my daughter can only use her left hand to type. She is using a text to speech app to verbaliz

I need to reprogram the delete and enter key to the left side of a external keyboard for the ipad mini. I don't need the caps/lock or ctrl key. Due to a brain injury my daughter can only use her left hand to type. She also uses a text to speech app to verbalize all of her needs since her speech isn't intelligible any longer either. And her vision was significantly affected also, so the keyboard has to be mounted about 6 inches from her face. So to reach across the keyboard with her left hand to the right side delete and enter button is physically difficult and causes typing errors, which cause people to not understand what shes trying to say.
The best keyboard so far is the Zagg folio mini. I just had to make stickers to enlarge the letters on the key buttons.
Does anyone know how I can reprogram these two keys? Or where I can buy a wireless mini keyboard for Ipad made for lefthanders with these two functions on the left side. I have searched for days and days. It's sooooo important to me that she be able to contribute her voice again. Imagine if you got in a car accident and couldn't speak clearly any longer, but understood everything still. Thanks for any help and suggestions you all take the time to share with me. I really appreciate the kindness of strangers to help me help my daughter.
Sami's mom

Sami\'s mom wrote:
I need to reprogram the delete and enter key to the left side of a external keyboard for the ipad mini.
You cannot.

Does anyone know of an e-reader app for the iphone that has text to speech capability? I have a Kindle 3G that can read whole pdf documents and books but I cannot figure out how to do it on my iphone 4.

Does anyone know of an e-reader app for the iphone that has text to speech capability? I have a Kindle 3G that can read whole pdf documents and books but I cannot figure out how to do it on my iphone 4.
All of the apps I have found on the App store either do not have the text to speech capability or if they have it they will only read a page at a time or simply read the text you paste into their window. I really do not understand what is so difficult about having this feature as Kindle provides it--though Amazon does not make the feature available on its iPhone 4 app.
Please help.

thanks. yes i am aware of the VoiceOver feature but it is NOT the solution to my problem. as you said, it is a solution to a different set of issues. i want the text to speech ability because i there are books i need to read but do not have the time to sit down and read them and have become used to listening to them read to me either by a professional human reader or with the text to speech software on the Kindle.
I think Apple makes the best audio devices but i am really disappointed in this inexplainable shortcoming. if apple can give us siri they ought to be able to design a nice little button that i can push to turn on text to speech while i am in a document, book, magazine or webpage. clearly it is possible as apple has added the "reader" button in safari to have web pages dropped into the reader format.
thanks for your suggestion though, it is what everyone suggests but it does not address the issue.

Text-to-speech not working in preview 8.0 for .pdf files !

Text-to-speech is working in every thing expect in preview after the new upgrade yosemite. Please if somebody has any remedy please let me know or I request apple to bring a new update to over come this problem.

I have found that Text-to-Speech works just fine in Yosemite's Preview application — without changing any standard settings. I added additional voices, and it works equally well with these too. You should not expect Text-to-Speech functionality with text that is incorporated into a graphic though.
Both Edit > Speech > Start Speaking, and after enabling in Text-to-Speech Preferences, Speak selected text when the key is pressed (option+Esc).

Tips for speaking text (text to speech)

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