Text to Speech

[oggbashan]

I have tried a few free text to speech software items since I can no longer read my own work aloud.

So far I have been disappointed possibly because I tend to use unusual words.

I tried with my longer poem The Garderobe. It didn't sound like poetry and some words just confused the software.

Anyone have any recommendations?

 

[DryLips]

If you have Word, it comes with TTS.

 

[SamScribble]

I have tried several over the years, Ogg. I think they all have their limitations - particularly when it comes to poetry.

 

[HeyAll]

I recently tried using it on the new version of Word. I switched it to a female voice.

It's an amazing feature and really helpful with editing. You can also speed it up if you want to hurry things along.

It's a good tool for anyone to try, if you have the new Word.

 

[DryLips]

I recently tried using it on the new version of Word. I switched it to a female voice.

It's an amazing feature and really helpful with editing. You can also speed it up if you want to hurry things along.

It's a good tool for anyone to try, if you have the new Word.

It comes with older versions of Word too. I have 2013 and 2016 and it is on both.

 

[RejectReality]

Part of the reason I use the paid version of Natural Reader is that you can override the normal pronunciation of words that the software uses. The unmodified version always pronounced "Celes" as "Seals", and "Darkni" as "Darnee" I edit to "Seles" and "Dark nai" in the pronunciation editor, and it reads them fairly close to how I hear them in my head.

It takes some tweaking/fiddling, and it doesn't always come out perfect, but you can cause it not to jar you nearly as badly when it's reading.

 

[oggbashan]

I have Office/Word 2010. I can't see an obvious place for text to speech.

 

[DryLips]

I have Office/Word 2010. I can't see an obvious place for text to speech.

See if this works.

https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/r...se-the-microsoft-word-text-to-speech-feature/

 

[oggbashan]

See if this works.

https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/r...se-the-microsoft-word-text-to-speech-feature/

Thank you, it does!

 

[DryLips]

 

[Athalia]

See if this works.

https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/r...se-the-microsoft-word-text-to-speech-feature/

I'll have to try that. My experiences with speech-to-text and text-to-speech have been unsatisfactory, to put it mildly. But, then again, I haven't tried any of the latest iterations.

 

[Bramblethorn]

See if this works.

https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/r...se-the-microsoft-word-text-to-speech-feature/

Huh, I never knew this was an option. Thanks for that!

 

[DryLips]

It’s not perfect but if you read along, you’ll catch more errors than not. Several times I’ve gotten distracted and heard a sentence without reading it and it didn’t sound right, so I went back and had it read it again, while reading along and clearly saw the problem. (How’s that for a run on?)

 

[Stillrandy]

About Speech-To-Text (opposite to thread topic)

I'll have to try that. My experiences with speech-to-text and text-to-speech have been unsatisfactory, to put it mildly. But, then again, I haven't tried any of the latest iterations.

Re: speech-to-text: I have been using Microsoft 'Speech Recognition', with a head set/mic. I agree that it is far from satisfactory, not as good as Siri on my iPad or iPhone, or as good as Amazon's Alexa. But it does work, if you speak slowly and are prepared to do a fair number of corrections.

It has the advantage of being hands free.

Am open to suggestions for a better system.

 

[DryLips]

Re: speech-to-text: I have been using Microsoft 'Speech Recognition', with a head set/mic. I agree that it is far from satisfactory, not as good as Siri on my iPad or iPhone, or as good as Amazon's Alexa. But it does work, if you speak slowly and are prepared to do a fair number of corrections.

It has the advantage of being hands free.

Am open to suggestions for a better system.

The OP was asking about text-to-speech.

 

[Bebop3]

I purchased an outdated version of Dragon on Amazon fairly cheaply and it works like a charm.

 

[Stillrandy]

The OP was asking about text-to-speech.

Yes, apology for altering the thread, just thought I would ask.

 

[oggbashan]

There's nothing wrong with that. It's not unusual for threads to (also) move into other directions, and it would surprise me if the OP would mind.

I don't.

I've got my answer and implemented text to speech in Word 2010.

This thread can go wherever people want it to.

 

[jehoram]

I don't.

I've got my answer and implemented text to speech in Word 2010.

This thread can go wherever people want it to.

Great! Let us know how it's working for you, once you've had a little experience with it.