Post by AltaEgoPost by Ian JacksonPost by Mike SmithPost by AltaEgoI am unaware of such a beast. However, you could install a free reader
such as Natural Reader which allows you to highlight the test you wish
to hear and click a play button.
http://www.naturalreaders.com/free_version.htm
I am not advocating Natural Reader as the best but it does work for
me. I also use Test2Speech which requires no installation and takes
up little disk space on a USB. It requires copy/paste.
http://text2speech.sourceforge.net/
-- Steve
Post by Mike SmithI try and keep up on several groups, mostly just lurking, however on
some threads can get -very- long.
Is there a news reader with text to voice conversion, so I could set
it to read me a long thread, one message at a time. This converts it
'radio' service, allowing me to do things, rather than a TV service,
requiring me to sit and watch/read.
Just a thought.
Mike
Thanks for that - I hadn't come across Test2Speech - Will pass it over
to our portable apps bod (Disabled Access to Computing or da2c.org for
thems that are interested).
The problem is when you go back a couple of hours later and there are
several hundred posts added to a lengthy initial post, the replies all
being (often) just a few words long - So it would have to spot the >> as
well and skip those lines.
I'll run it past our software bod (he used to make games), see if I can
bribe him with a few bags of his favourite toffee.
Thanks again
Mike
I don't know if this helps, but I have 'Speakonia' (the freeware
version, of course).
http://www.brothersoft.com/speakonia-85407.html
There are several ways of using it, but one way is to run it, highlight
the text you want to listen to (eg 'Edit', 'Select all'), right click
with mouse, and finally 'Copy'. It then speaks the text.
There is a 'Lexicon' which enables you to add words which it pronounces
incorrectly (it will always attempt something). You can also have great
fun playing with the phonetics (you learn by trial and error) in order
to get things just right! There are several voices (all with a strong
American accents), and the speed is variable. Unfortunately, it insists
on reading each '>' out loud, as 'greater than'. So far, I haven't found
a way of stopping this. Maybe the pay-for version is more adaptable.
I might have a look at Natural Reader to see how it compares.
--
Ian
The free version of NR has only one voice - Microsoft Sam. A different
voice would be a change, even if heavily accented. Microsoft Sam's
annoying voice seems to be intended as the carrot (or "stick") to make
you get the paid version.
The > symbol should be read as "greater than" or mathematical text could
be incomprehensible. If it bugs you, copy across to something with
find/replace. Simply replace > with space. In Word (or equivalent
program with VBA), switch on the macro button to record the process and
you could add a button that calls the macro, making it a one-click
operation.
Getting back to Mike's problem, in Word or an equivalent, it would not be
too hard to write some code to delete lines that start with >. However,
this would not necessarily be any easier for you than just copying or
highlighting text that lacks >. I used the > symbol a few times in this
message. Depending how it reformats when you open it, you may find a line
or two that start with >. Your programmer would need to keep this in mind
when he writes the code to delete lines starting with >. Get your
programmer to write something that detects and deletes troll messages,
rants and flame wars and you won't need the reader!
Good point about the > Hadn't spotted that one.
this should keep him busy for a bit.
disabled people don't have any. Hence I'll put it up somewhere and post a
link - Wouldn't hold your breath though, he needs a lot of time these days.