Wow, Esther, that's amazing! Is there anything about the Mac that you don't know? Best, Donna :) On Nov 7, 2009, at 1:05 PM, Esther wrote:
> Hi Anouk, > > Yes, you can make yourself an Automator workflow to convert any text > documents to mp3 files on the Mac. The only tricky thing about > using regular text to speech to translate the documents is getting > the voice to speak at a faster rate. You can control this by > putting a sequence that specifies the speaking rate at the beginning > of your text file like this: > [[rate 300]] > > (You need to read this character by character: two left brackets > followed by the word "rate" followed by a space and then the number > of words per minute --- here "300" --- followed by two right square > brackets) > > • Apple has a demo Automator workflow that converts text from your > clipboard to an audio clip in iTunes. You could download this and > modify it to work with a selected TextEdit file instead of the > clipboard, and you could change the setting from AAC encoding to > mp3. The Apple URL is: > > http://automator.us/leopard/examples/ex07/index.html > > and you can get the workflow from the page's download link. It's > actually easier to check the components out under Automator. It's > made up of 4 steps: > > 1. Get Contents from Clipboard > 2. Text to Audio File > 3. Import Audio Files > 4. Add Songs to Playlist > > You can hear these listed if you VO-right to the Workflow area of > Automator, interact, and VO-down arrow through the list once you've > downloaded it. > > To run this as is, download the workflow and open it. Select some > text and copy to clipboard with Command-C. Then do a Command-R to > run the workflow. As it stands, the workflow creates an AAC file > called "Spoken Text" that it move into your iTunes library. You can > change the format to MP3 by interacting with the "Import Audio > Files" action of the Workflow and VO-right to the popup button that > specifies using the "AAC encoder" and set this to "MP3 encoder". > The only warning for users who have never used iTunes before is that > you must have set up iTunes for MP3 encoding at least once, since > iTunes uses the last set of values for this in your preferences > file. (This means that the AAC option should work for everyone, but > if you've never ripped a CD or converted another audio file to MP3 > format in iTunes, there are no previous MP3 encoding settings for > the workflow to use.) > > What you really want to do is replace the "Get Contents from > Clipboard" action with "Get Contents of TextEdit Document", but this > is a little more complicated. If you interact with the "Text to > Audio" action of the workflow, you can select the voice to use on > the pop up button. (This could be the voice in another language). > > HTH > > Cheers, > > Esther > > On Nov 7, 2009, at 07:35, anouk radix wrote: > >> Hi Esther, What I think would be nice about ghostreader is that you >> can for example translate books in text or pdf or html format into >> mp3 audio files using the voice you like, i am not sure if you can >> do this on the mac natively. >> Greetings, Anouk >> On Nov 7, 2009, at 6:26 PM, Esther wrote: >> >>> Hi Anouk, >>> >>> Visiovoice is designed for visually impaired individuals. It was >>> an alternative solution that would work out of the box if you >>> wanted to run your Mac using French or Dutch voices in Tiger, >>> where starting up with VoiceOver required knowledge of English. >>> Visiovoice has a separate interface from VoiceOver and a different >>> pronunciation editor. You also have to separately purchase the >>> Infovox iVox voices for the languages Visiovoice supports. It has >>> a number of other features for low vision users in terms of its >>> cursor magnification support, and it also has features such as >>> simply creating an audio file from text. The main interest in >>> using Visiovoice was among VoiceOver users who wanted to work in >>> languages other than English. I think that at one point, version >>> 1.2 supported Japanese using the DTalker voices. >>> >>> GhostReader is targeted as "convenience ware" for users who want >>> to have mail, web pages, and documents read to them with text-to- >>> speech on the Mac. It is is not designed for visually impaired >>> individuals, though probably low-vision users would find it >>> convenient. This application is relatively inexpensive (around >>> $39.95 list price for one language), and can only read documents, >>> web pages, pdf files, etc through the GhostReader interface. It >>> comes with compressed versions of the Infovox iVox voices, but can >>> use any of the system voices. I looked at it as a low-price >>> alternative to getting the Infovox iVox voices. (I happened to >>> find this on sale as a one-day new promotion at half price -- >>> $19.95 vs. the then $149.95 price for the regular voices). I was >>> slightly surprised that Anne was using this, since she has >>> Visiovoice, and since this application is not that convenient to >>> use without vision. Also, I think anyone who wants to get non- >>> English voices for their Mac will want to use them for all >>> applications (with VoiceOver), and not just for selected reading >>> of web pages or PDF files and documents through the GhostReader >>> interface, since you don't have the same kind of detailed >>> navigation control that VoiceOver provides; GhostReader is better >>> for doing a straight read through. >>> >>> However, as an add-on (for $10), or as an application for low >>> vision users who use multiple languages, GhostReader can be a >>> great option. They also sell it with multiple language (2, 3, >>> etc.) options, though a VoiceOver user would use the better >>> quality Infovox iVox voices that work system-wide. (The >>> GhostReader voice versions are like slightly lower quality mp3 >>> renditions of an audio CD). The two nice features of GhostReader >>> are: (1) an undocumented feature that lets you automatically >>> switch voices (and languages) when reading text and (2) the >>> feature (also in Visiovoice) to create and audio file from read >>> text. >>> >>> The way the voice/language switching works is by using the sequence: >>> \vce=speaker=newspeaker\ >>> when I specify a French voice, e.g. >>> \vce=speaker=julie\ >>> the text that follows gets pronounced with French intonation. >>> Changing to an English voice, e,g. >>> \vce=speaker=heather\ >>> gives the text in English. If you want to read through a dialog >>> with voices speaking multiple languages, this is great. It only >>> works in GhostReader (not VisioVoice), and only with voices of the >>> same type. So if you have only the lower quality ConvenienceWare >>> versions of voices that come with GhostReader for French, you can >>> only switch between that quality voice in French and English. >>> Since most VoiceOver users will get the better quality Infovox >>> iVox voices for system-wide use in all applications, they can >>> switch between all the higher quality Infovox iVox voices on their >>> system >>> >>> HTH >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Esther >>> >>> anouk radix wrote: >>> >>>> Hi Anne, What is the difference between visiovoice and ghostreader? >>>> Greetings, Anouk >>>> On Nov 7, 2009, at 4:51 PM, Anne Robertson wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hello Donna, >>>>> >>>>> On Nov 6, 2009, at 7:25 PM, Donna Goodin wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> So what do you use Ghost-reader for? I just can't seem to get >>>>>> excited >>>>>> about it. >>>>> >>>>> I use it for converting text files such as scanned books into >>>>> audio files. I wouldn't actually have bought it since I already >>>>> have VisioVoice except that lots of French Mac users have >>>>> GhostReader and I felt I should know about it to help them with >>>>> it. After all, I have a French-language website for VI Mac users >>>>> so I feel some responsibility toward them. >>>>> >>>>> Cheers, >>>>> >>>>> Anne >>>>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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