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This post has some troubleshooting tips for dealing with problems related to audio. This includes problems such as not being able to hear any sound, as well as errors from the Sapi speech interface that point to problems with the audio on your system. If you're having any type of audio problem try f...

It is sometimes useful to use the Windows speech control panel when troubleshooting voice related problems. This post contains instructions on how to launch the applet. Note that if you're running a 64 bit version of windows, you will need to launch a 32 bit version of the applet, since all TextAlou...

The purpose of this post is to help with troubleshooting some common problems we run across that are related to voice engines and/or the Sapi speech interface Common Errors No voices were found This error is displayed during TextAloud startup if TextAloud is not able to find any voices on your syste...

It is possible for upper case text to cause pronunciation problems. One problem is that voices may spell out the words instead of reading them normally. So the text HELLO is spelled out as H-E-L-L-O, instead of read as "hello". Another problem is that a voice may treat short, uppercase wor...

Installs for TextAloud 3 and TextAloud 4 include a spell check dictionary for American English. Additional spell check dictionaries are available at http://www.addictivesoftware.com/dl-dictionaries.htm. You'll find dictionaries for other languages as well as some specialized dictionaries such as tec...

Here are some things to try if the TextAloud toolbar does not appear in Outlook. If you're running TextAloud 4, make sure you are running version 4.0.66 or later. There is an update in version TextAloud 4.0.66 that solves problems with the TextAloud Add-In for Outlook being disabled in some situatio...

If you're running the 32 bit version of office 2010, the TextAloud toolbar should appear in Word's ribbon. If it doesn't show up try reinstalling TA3, and when prompted during install for toolbars to install, make sure the toolbar for word is selected. If you're running the 64 bit version of office ...

Hi Dave,

We ran into some problems with the auto-scrolling. We're holding on it for now, but we do plan to look at this later.

Jim

Can you go to the TextAloud main window and click help -> Support -> Report a Problem? I may be able to get some ideas from the debug info attached to the problem report. Please send the report to me at jim@nextup.com

I wonder if the toolbar install is somehow corrupted ... If you display Tools -> Add-Ons in Firefox, does the TextAloud 3 toolbar appear? If so, try uninstalling the toolbar, restart Firefox, and make sure Firefox starts with no errors. Then exit Firefox and reinstall TextAloud. You can download the...

I should have packaged the install as an xpi in the first place ... I'll do that in the next build. This will simplify installs for portable firefox also.

This should be fixed now in beta 140

Thanks for catching that. The problem will be fixed in the next build, I'll probably put a build up on Monday.

Build Beta 138 includes an updated version of the Firefox toolbar. The toolbar now supports word highlighting, pause/resume, and options to speak entire page, highlighted text, and speak from cursor.

If you have any problems with the toolbar please post them here or email me at jim@nexup.com.

We've had a number of requests for toolbar for Open Office but we don't have it yet. It is on our to do list.

Hi Shmuel,

You're not missing anything, that is how things currently work. We have talked doing something to retain text formatting in the TextAloud display. So it is on our list but I really don't have an estimate to give you on when we'll have it. It won't be in 3.0 for sure.

We'll put this one on the list to look at. We decided to implement the way it is at least initially because of how often respell is used to place odd spellings / punctuations in the text to improve the pronunciation of certain words. But for sure there are times when it would be better to incorporat...

In TA3 you do this by setting up an automatic action, see the automatic actions dialog, under the Tools menu. On this dialog, you'll click the "Add Action" button, set the TextAloud Activity to "After Speaking Article", and the Automatic Action to "Delete Article".

Thanks, I'll try to get this fixed in one of the next few builds.

I tried this switch from JK Audio which enables NextUp Talker to be used with a landline (wired) telephone. It works really well, and allows you to use your handset to listen to a call while using your computer to talk for you. The switch sits between your handset and phone base, and you run a cable...

There is no import/export built into pronunciation dictionary maintenance yet, but you can currently use other dictionary files by copying them into the Dictionaries folder. (To find the folder, click Help -> Open Data Folder from the TextAloud menu). Just copy the new dictionary file into the Dicti...

Ok, thanks. I don't know when we'll get to this but I'll add it to our to-do list.

If you're looking for the wave out / stereo mix on the newer machines, definitely check for driver updates. I was missing these devices on a fairly new laptop and got them with an audio driver update. We don't have immediate plans to add anything like this to Talker. Would you be looking for somethi...

Try displaying your system volume control panel, click Options -> Properties, and on the Properties panel, click the "Recording" radio button. When you close the Properties panel, do you see a "Wave Out" or "Stereo Mix" device on the volume control? If you can get to ei...

The speakers installed in laptops / tablet pc's are often very poor for an application like NextUp Talker. One way to solve the problem is to use external speakers. For external speakers, we need something small and light enough to carry around, and also produce sufficent volume and sound quality. H...

All versions of Windows have some pre-installed Sapi5 voices available. The question is can the older Microsoft voices, Mary, Mike, and Sam, be installed on Windows Vista and later? Sapi5 We currently don't know of any way to install Sapi5 versions of Mary, Mike and Sam on Windows Vista and later. T...

I did some checking on the idea of using the windows desktop as a handsfree device for a cell phone. In other words, the PC acts like a headset, where audio output from the PC is sent to your cell phone mic, and audio input from the cell phone is directed to your pc speakers. I found that the Widcom...

Guy, Thanks for the all the feedback. Out of curiosity, which sapi4 tags are you using? Here is what's happening with the advanced pronunciation editor. The advanced editor only works when using the Sapi 5 interface to the voice engines, and by default, AT&T uses the Sapi4 interface. To change t...

Seems like there should be a way to do this, but I can't find it. Does anyone know if its possible to install a bluetooth transmitter on the laptop/desktop and have it send audio to a portable phone ? Basically act like a Bluetooth microphone. You would then be able to switch between phone and face ...

thanks Roger, I've seen this once or twice also and will get it fixed.