Can Keynote read a slide out loud?

[Steven Whatley]

Hi all,

Is there a way to get Keynote to read the current slide out loud when  
playing a slideshow?

I normally have VoiceOver turned off.   I don't need to hear all of  
that object navigation stuff.  I usually select text and tell the Mac  
to read it out loud.  I assigned the speak selected text shortcut in  
System Preferences -> Speech to be Command Option KeyPad Enter.  Is  
there a better way to do this?

The big disadvantage for me with not using VoiceOver is that I can't  
customize pronunciations.

BTW, I am running Leopard (10.5.2) on a 4-core Mac Pro.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Steven