Hi Anne,
I was interested in your comments about GhostReader; are you using
this at all for French with the shortcuts for switching voices
(including those for different languages)? I read an interesting post
at the ATMac (Assistive Technology for Mac) web site about sequences
for changing narrators for the Infovox iVox voices in GhostReader.
It's undocumented, but if I open TextEdit and have:
\vce=speaker=Heather\I prefer to use English
\vce=speaker=Julie\Chacun à son goût
The first phrase with be read by Heather (an American voice) and the
second phrase will be read by Julie with French intonation. This only
works in the Assistiveware applications, and isn't supported in the
(early) version of VisioVoice that I have. I'm wondering if this is a
feature they will release. It would be a great tool for people
working with multiple languages. Here's the ATMac web page that
describes this:
http://atmac.org/changing-narrators-with-ghostreader-or-infovox-ivox-voices/
Hope this is of interest.
Cheers,
Esther
On Jan 28, 2009, at 8:35 AM, Anne Robertson wrote:
Hello Mike,
On Jan 28, 2009, at 5:04 PM, Michael Busboom wrote:
I am wondering if
Leopard that is purchased in the States comes bundled with German,
even
though the quality of the voice might be poor. If it doesn't, is
there a
site where it can be downloaded? After all, Leopard is available in
localized languages here in Europe, so it would stand to reason
that it
could be downloaded.
The Leopard installation DVD is the same the world over, the only
difference is the accompanying documentation. The only voices
included are American. If you need another language, you have to buy
the voice or package of voices from a third party. You basically
have a choice between Infovox iVox and Cepstral.
On the Mac, you can set up users in any number of languages and have
the OS in the appropriate language for each user. I have two users
on my MacBook, one in English and the other in French. I mostly work
in English since I translate from French into English, but when I
want to look at French Websites, I prefer to use Safari in French,
so I switch to my French user. The same is true for shopping at the
iTunes store, since iTunes always comes up in French for me as I
live in France.
You might find GhostReader from AssistiveWare useful for reading
passages of German while running in English, and passages in English
while running in German.
HtH
Cheers,
Anne
