WillowTalk

There's a shareware application at www.download.com
that will read aloud to you just about any document on your computer.

I've tried the program and it actually read a monolgue for a playwright
friend. He's doing a little play, so he had some interest in this kind of
software. The download is approx. 1.6 megabytes.

Limited features. Full version has many kinds of voices. Male, female,
robotic. Interesting, strange pronunciations.

I copied a poem in and listened. Very unusual to have it read back with
monotone. And sort of run-on method of robotic speech.

Anyway, it's the wave of the future

exact download site is as follows ---

http://www.download.com/PC/Result/TitleDetail/0,4,0-51985,1000.html?st.dl.ne
w.list.tdtl

WillowTALK Overview

WillowTALK lets your computer read text from documents created by popular
Windows applications, in a variety of computer voices.
With WillowTALK you can, for example:

· Have your PC read documents, even including Internet web pages, without
looking at your computer screen

· Proof-read a column of numbers you’ve typed into a spreadsheet against
your hard copy version

· Continue to use an application full-screen while your PC reads the
application Help file to you

· Have your PC announce the time and date and play audio alarms at times you
set

· Create audio scripts or “plays” in which multiple characters speak their
lines in different voices

· Hear how a speech you are reading will sound, and have WillowTALK time how
long it will take to give

What is Computer Speech?

Computer speech software lets computers convert document text into sound
that resembles human speech.  The “text to speech” software:

1. Lets you select the document and the text to be read.

2. Uses sophisticated mathematical equations to convert the text into a
series of numbers representing human speech.  The equations reflect the
language, voice style, and other factors.

3. Sends the series of numbers to your PC audio hardware, which converts it
into voltage sent to loudspeakers to produce the speech.
***
Reading a Document

To have WillowTALK read all or part of a document:

1. Launch WillowTALK.  If you would like WillowTALK to float on top of the
document you wish to read, select on Always On Top from the System Menu
available by clicking on its Button.



Selecting the Document to Read

2. WillowTALK can only read documents that are open.  So, to read a
Microsoft Word document, for example, run Microsoft Word and use it to open
the document.

If you have more than one document open, there are two ways to select the
one for WillowTALK to read:

· The normal way is using the Selected Document control.  The document you
select there will be the one that WillowTALK reads when you click on the
Play button. If an open document does not show up in the Selected Document
list, then it is not a document type that WillowTALK can read.

· If you prefer, you can change WillowTALK to always read the "active"
document (that is, the one you last used, or the last one you clicked on),
so you don't have to manually select the document with the Selected Document
control.  To make this change:

a) Click on the Preferences button, and then on the General tab on the
Preferences screen

b) Click on the button labeled "Read Active Document".  Then click on OK.

After You've Selected the Document to Read

3. To read an entire document, click on the WillowTALK Play button.

4. To instead read only part of a document, use your mouse to select the
portion of the document you would like to read before clicking on the Play
button.

5. To stop reading, click on the Pause or Stop button.  If you have clicked
on Pause to suspend reading, you can resume reading from the current
position by clicking on Pause or Play again.

Tip: While WillowTALK is reading, you can quickly rewind to the beginning of
the current sentence and resume speaking from there by clicking on the
Rewind button. This is useful to replay some text you just missed.

You can change the characteristics of the computer voice, as described in
the Selecting an Existing Computer Voice and Creating a New Computer Voice
sections.

Ernest Slyman
HomePage
www.geocities.com/soho/7514
email: [log in to unmask]







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