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TextAloud 2.0 has a new look. The biggest difference is
shown in Multi-Article Mode. Only a single article is shown at a time, and the
a dropdown list that shows titles of all articles and allows article switching
is at the top of the window. This makes the interface cleaner, and also
corrects TextAloud 1.x problem that limited max number of articles to 20-40.
Number of articles should be virtually unlimited.
There are also new toolbar options to allow you to change
the size of the toolbar icons and choose whether you want the toolbar to have
captions or not.
The new version of our screen reader software supports skins. Skins allow you to easily change the color scheme and look of the TextAloud window. Do View->Skins on the
main menu. The download has 5 skins included, with links to download more.
Via Options->Article Font and Colors, you can now not only
control font size, but font and window colors of both normal text and
highlighted text.
You’ll notice that on the main window of our screen reader
there is now a speed control slider visible (as well as pitch slider on voices
that support it). This allows you to make adjustments to the currently selected
voice even while speaking is underway.
These adjustments are also available on the Edit menu with
shortcut keys.
TextAloud 1.X had several options displayed on the main
menu, including the familiar Clipboard, Voices/Engines, File Options, and Misc.
Options TABs on the TextAloud main window. This was ugly, and caused
sight-impaired users a great deal of trouble. All of these settings have been
moved off to Options->TextAloud Options, and Options, Voice and File Options.
TextAloud 1.x would only open .txt files from File->Open.
TextAloud 2.0 can now directly open text files (.txt), Rich Text Files (.rtf),
Microsoft Word Files (.doc), local HTML Files, and local PDF Files (.pdf).
Available under File->Batch File Converter, this utility
makes it simple to convert a large number of files containing text to audio
files.
When you set our screen reader to use SAPI5 Only under Voice and
File Options, you are now able to change voices within a single text article.
The right-click menu contains a new entry, Insert Voice Change.
To make proofreading documents and emails easier, we’ve
created a new hotkey for proofreading. This can be set under Options->Hotkey
Setup. Once created, you can be working in another program (for example an
email you are composing or a document you are writing), you highlight a
paragraph or two of text that you want to listen to, and then hit your proofread
hotkey combination. A window will open, showing the text highlighted as it is
spoken. You can adjust the voice as desired on this window. If you notice a
mistake as the text is spoken, simply click anywhere on this window and speaking
stops and the window closes, returning you to your document to make the
correction. This offers a quicker, simpler way of proofreading without having
to interact with TextAlouds main window.
We’ve added bookmark functionality on the Edit menu,
allowing you to set bookmarks within articles, and move to them with menu
entries.
We’ve created a plugin for Internet Explorer, to allow
easier use of text from web pages. After installing TextAloud 2.0, you may need
to reboot before this will be available. Within internet explorer, choose
View->Toolbars->TextAloud for IE. This will cause a new toolbar to be displayed
on the IE toolbar. You may need to drag this toolbar or resize it to get all
the items to display. The toolbar contains 5 elements
- Speaker Icon – speaks text selected within IE, or all
text on a page if no text is highlighted
- Stop – Stops current speaking
- Copy – Copies text that is selected in IE as a new
article into TextAloud for use within TextAloud.
- Options – opens options related to the IE plugin
- Voice Selection – Allows you to select voice for use
when speaking from Internet Explorer
We get this request a lot. TextAloud 2.0 will allow you to
specify the sample rate of TextAloud created wave files, IF you set TextAloud to
use SAPI5 Only on the Voice Options TAB.
We’ve changed “Read” to “Speak” on all of the menus and
buttons to clear up some confusion.
Added File->Save Article As to allow you to save an article
out as a .txt file.
Cut, Copy, Paste, and Select All are now available on the
Edit menu as well as the right-click menu.
Undo/Redo available on the Edit menu.
Search and Search/Replace available on the edit menu.
On Options->TextAloud Options->Predefined Pauses, you can
now specify longer pauses to be used between sentences and paragraphs if
desired.
New option on Misc. Options to choose whether you want
the screen reader to run in system tray, or to simply close when you click ‘X’.
On the voice edit under Options->Voice and File Options,
when you select a voice to edit, there is now a volume slider to adjust volume
on a given voice.
TextAloud now writes info into the MP3 ID3 Tags.
| System Requirements |
Read Reviews |
• Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
• Minimum P200
• 64MB RAM
• 10MB Disk Space
• Sound Card
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