Help make my PC talk to me

I was talking to a good friend and he was telling me that his first computer was a mac and it had a program that would "read" to him. He said that he could take any text and even select a voice that he liked, and it would read the text to him. He said he'd like to find out if there's a program like that for PC since he's having some trouble with his eyes (we're both fossils) so I thought I'd ask you guys if such a program exists. He switched to pc because it was more compatible with his business, but still misses the Mac. Anyone know if there's a program like this available?
Thanks

 

>> Help make my PC talk to me. Anyone know if there's a program like this available? <<roddinron

There are several that can accomplish this. Most of the shareware programs are very expensive and can be quite complicated to use. These ones below are both freeware and are fairly easy to use:

Speakonia FREE Text-To-Speech (TTS) Voice Reader v1.0.3.5

The Speakonia program can be set to automatically read text upon entry to the clipboard or load a plain text file. E.g. as soon as you copy text into the clipboard, it reads it. Speakonia can even have your mails read to you using the "Clipboard Reading" feature. It also has a manage exception dictionary ("Lexicon") where you can define the pronunciation of individual words.

Very Important Note: You may also need to download the Microsoft Voices Mary, Sam and Mike (listed on that site) in order for Speakonia to work. If you don't have Microsoft voices already installed - Sam, Mary, Mike etc. download from Speakonia website.

The program interface is clear and straightforward; you simply select text in any document and press Ctrl+C to read it aloud. However, Speakonia lacks controls for skipping to the next sentence or paragraph. In spite of those drawbacks, its decent performance and free price make it a reasonable choice for the vision-impaired or people who'd rather do their reading with their ears than their eyes.

You can also try the Natural Voice Reader Standard Version v3.6. This program is great but the newest version is currently shareware. The link which I provided above will bring you directly to a freeware site [tucows.com] that still provides a direct download link for the installation files for Natural Voice Reader Standard Version v3.6 (which is actually still freeware).

Additional Hints/Notes: You will get a whole lot more out of these ‘Voice Reader’ types of programs if you thoroughly read the entire website and carefully read of the HELP files prior to using them; as these programs are not as intuitive as some other types of software programs that you can just click open and they work without any configuration at all.

Good Luck!

 

HI, There is also a program called "Jaws" that will even read the boxes that frequently appear. Unfortunately it is over $1000 so you might need social service funding.

My friend who is 90 and legally blind still uses his computer to write stories and email. The last I knew he was using Dragon Naturally Speaking by Scansoft. Peace

 

IThanks for your help and quick response. glad to see there are programs that he can use. Before informing him, I tried DLing them and installing. I DLed the speakonia one twice and I keep getting this error when I try to install it.Any suggestions?

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a295/roddinron/speakoniaerror.jpg

 

You could use Adobe Reader 7.0…open the program, after downloading it, left click on View, left click on “Read Out Loud”…you can have it read one page, to the end of the document, pause, and stop……..and there is now cost…..wobbles