CereProc's 5.0 Mac voices are supported on Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina. Download size and disk space usage are around 100MB-150MB. Power PC Macs (built before 2005) are not supported. Please note these voices are for personal use only, e.g. A home user on their own Mac. Free Text to Speech Natural Voices - SAPI 4 & SAPI 5. 2nd Speech Center supports all the Microsoft SAPI4, SAPI5 (Speech Application Programming Interface) compatible text-to-speech voices! Ace Buddy supports all the SAPI4 voices. We have collected most of high-quality free or commercial voices from the Internet for you. The pop-up menu below the microphone icon in the Dictation pane of Keyboard preferences shows which device your Mac is currently using to listen. On your Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Dictation. Open the Dictation pane for me. Click the pop-up menu below the microphone icon, then choose the microphone you want to use for keyboard dictation. To install some of the better voices from Apple, open ‘System Preferences’ then ‘Dictation & Speech’. Now click on the ‘Text to Speech’ and then on the selected ‘System Voice’ (e.g. Alex) and in the appearing drop-down, select Customize Here you can discover (play) and install some amazingly good voices.
Ah. Remember the bliss of being read to as a child? It was awesome, and it’s not what this blog is about. I’m also not talking about audio books.
What then?
Alex is one of the voices living inside my computer. I’m running Mac OS 10.7.5. Alex and I have regular dates where he reads my stories back to me. Let me tell you when, why, and how. (If you use a PC, stick with me here…)
When? After a manuscript is complete, edited, and spell-checked. The best time for Alex and his ilk is when the story is solid and as perfect as you can make it. Otherwise, in my opinion, it’s a waste of time, because it does take a lot of time.
Why? At this stage of a manuscript’s life, the author has gone over it and over it. The whole thing is starting to blur together. It’s hard to see the story as it really is, not how it is in my mind.
It’s easy for my eyes to glaze over repetitive words, errors, and homophones. After a while, reading to myself, I start skimming or just plain zone out. Alex reads Every. Single. Word. I don’t know how many times he’s caught “the the” or something similar. When I hear him say “just” in every third sentence, I realize how many times I’ve used it.
Because the speed of the reading is steady, forcing me to look at each word, I also see most errors in punctuation, like the occasional missed apostrophe or even period. No method is perfect, and even multiple proofreaders probably won’t catch every error, but I feel confident that Alex does a superb job of helping me catch many if not most or all.
Tweetables
- Who’s Alex? And why should he read your manuscript to you? click to tweet
- How can you use the text to speech function for editing fiction? click to tweet
How? That depends on whether you’re on a Mac or a PC and also on what operating system you’re running.
Mac Operating System
If on Mac, click the apple in the top left. System Preferences. System. Speech. Text-to-Speech. (I’m running OSX (10.7.5).
The operating system has 6 default voices, 3 female and 3 male, plus 16 other English voices (with a variety of accents) that may be downloaded. There are downloadable novelty voices, in case you want your manuscript spoken as though an alien is reading it, and a few languages other than English. My preference is the male voice Alex. To me, his voice is the nicest to listen to.
I appreciate being able to set the reading speed. I have Alex set a little faster than “normal,” which is at the halfway point between slow and fast. This enables him to read about 10,000 words per hour, and I don’t get a sore throat from doing it myself!
To begin reading, I highlight the text I’d like read to me in Word, Scrivener, online, or nearly anywhere. Option-Escape acts as a toggle switch to turn the function on or off.
I set aside a day or two before sending a manuscript out, whether it’s to a critique partner or my editor. This means I listened to Wild Mint Tea four times over the course of a few months. Each time it was well worthwhile.
Because there is no pause feature, I highlight a scene at a time, select Option-Escape, then click the back arrow to return my cursor to the beginning of the scene. I read along while Alex reads to me, and can edit while he reads. If I’ve made a change, I save when he stops reading and before highlighting the next scene.
It forces me to read every single word as it is written, not start to zone out or skim. I hear words that repeat too often. I hear many spelling errors, see many homophones (not homonyms so much), and awkwardly worded sentences.
I also use Alex when reading a blog or website that is white-on-black or other difficult contrast or font. This may not be important for many people, but it’s helpful for those of us with poor eyesight.
Windows 8 Operating System
My friend Margaret McGaffey Fisk (author of several speculative fiction titles and a Regency romance) provides the following instructions for a Windows 8 system.
She says Narrator works, but only in Word, not across the entire operating system. Enter your Control panel. Ease of Access Center. Start Narrator. Click Voice Settings to control voice, speed, etc. Exit Narrator.
Then open Word. Add the Speak function to the quick access toolbar (see below), highlight the text you want to hear, and click the speak button. (It can be glitchy, but clicking again often fixes that).
Here is how to put that function into the Quick Access Toolbar: File -> Options -> Quick Access Toolbar. Select “All Commands” in the list and then select “Speak” in the next list. Click the “Add” button so that the “Speak” command appears in the Quick Access Toolbar. Click OK and you will have a new “Speak” button in the Quick Access Toolbar.
Here is how to put that function into the Quick Access Toolbar: File -> Options -> Quick Access Toolbar. Select “All Commands” in the list and then select “Speak” in the next list. Click the “Add” button so that the “Speak” command appears in the Quick Access Toolbar. Click OK and you will have a new “Speak” button in the Quick Access Toolbar.
How about you? Have you ever used text-to-speech as an editing tool? If you use a different trick, share in comments!
Language voices for Mac can be installed through the Mac OS X operating system. Mac offers a variety of voices through System Preferences.
To add voices:
Choose a voice
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Dictation & Speech, then click Text to Speech.
- Click the pop-up menu, then choose a voice.
- You can adjust how fast the voice speaks by dragging the Speaking Rate slider.
- Click Play to test the voice and speaking rate.
Add a new voice
You can add voices to the System Voice pop-up menu. If you add a voice that’s not on your Mac, it’s automatically downloaded from Apple.
Text To Speech Voices Download
- In the Text to Speech pane of Dictation & Speech preferences, choose Customize from the bottom of the System Voice pop-up menu (choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Dictation & Speech, then click Text to Speech).
- Select the checkbox beside the voices you want to add.
- To find a voice, enter its name, country, or language in the search field.
- To sample a voice, select it, then click Play.
- Click OK.
- Click the System Voice pop-up menu, then choose the voice.
- The voice appears in the menu when the download is complete.
Delete a downloaded voice
You can delete a voice that you downloaded to your Mac.
- In the Text to Speech pane of Dictation & Speech preferences, choose Customize from the bottom of the System Voice pop-up menu (choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Dictation & Speech, then click Text to Speech).
- Deselect the checkbox beside the voice you want to delete.
- Click OK, then click Delete.
To add voices on Mavericks
Choose a voice
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Dictation & Speech, then click Text to Speech.
- Choose a voice from the pop-up menu.
- Adjust how fast the voice speaks by dragging the Speaking Rate slider.
- Click Play to test the voice and speaking rate.
If you don’t see the voice or language you want
You can add voices to the System Voice pop-up menu by choosing Customize. If you add a voice that’s not on your Mac, it’s automatically downloaded from Apple.
Computer Voice Text To Speech
- In the Text to Speech pane of Dictation & Speech preferences, choose Customize from the System Voice pop-up menu.
- Click the checkbox beside the voice to add.
- To find a voice, enter its name, country, or language in the search field.
- To sample a voice, select it, then click Play.
- If a yellow warning sign appears beside the selected voice, it’s downloaded when you click OK.
- Click OK.
- Choose the voice from the System Voice pop-up menu.
- The voice appears in the menu when the download is complete.