Inappropriate Pauses and Splitting in Chrome

[Slyths]

Please, I need an urgent help that with an issue that I've been battling with since morning without success.

The Chrome extension is making some very short pauses at inappropriate places and my reading is not smooth. And because I've chosen to show floating toolbar, I could see TA splitting the text while reading it, with even numbering appearing (Splitting1). This problem however only happens with my Samsung AIT touchscreen (Intel Core TM i5-3317U CPU@1.70; Ram 4GB, 64-bit Windows 10 Home).

The problem doesn't happen with Microsoft Internet Explorer on the same computer. It also doesn't happen with my desktop computer at all, which is even Core i3. I have uninstalled both the TA and Chrome using Revouninstraller and made fresh installation but the problem persists. I've even deleted the whole TA folder in the programme files x86 and also the Nextup folder in the data folder and replaced them with ones from my desktop computer which works well but the problem persists. I like to think whatever the problem could be, is related to this file splitting. Probably sensing the page as too big or something.

[Jim Bretti]

Does this problem with the Chrome extension seem to happen with specific pages, or are you seeing it with all pages? Just a a quick test, highlight a few sentences in this forum post and speak them from the extension using Speak Highlighted Text. Do you hear the short pauses?

Also, does the problem depend on what voice you're using?

If the problem seems to be limited to specific pages it would help if you could send me a link to the page and let me know how to reproduce it. If the page requires a login, like web mail, let me know and we'll try some other things.

[Slyths]

Hello, Jim

Thank you for the response. I first want to correct some misinformation and assumption. The splitting thing I mentioned, I have observed the same thing also happens with the other computer that does the job just well.

1. The problem is not related to a particular voice, as it happens with all the voices.
2. The problem also doesn't happen with this site site. I have tried what you said.
3. The site actually requires a log in. However, the problem doesn't also happens with other sites that require log in. This is making me to assume it is likely a website related issue.
4. The problem is not related to the size of the page content as I also tried many very short pages and the problem is there on the particular website.
5. The problem is not related to adds, as I have tried add block and the problem still persists.
6. The problem is not related to other things like pics as I have saved the page on my PC as HTML only but the problem still persists. Obviously, the problem is not related to being online as the problem still persists with the saved pages from the site.
7. However, I have copied the same materials and pasted them in the TA itself as new articles and it reads just fine, without the pauses.

At this stage I can't really say what might be responsible. The computer (only this particular one), the browsers (Chrome and Mozilla) and the site all seem to play a role.

[Jim Bretti]

Here's what we can do. There is a way to turn on verbose debugging in TextAloud, where we log the text we send to the voice engine. The option is not available in the TextAloud user interface, you need to download and install an options file. I configured the options file and placed it at http://nextup.s3.amazonaws.com/support/VerboseDebug.zip

Here are instructions:
1. Download the zip
2. Exit TextAloud if it is running.
3. The zip contains a file named Reseller.chl. Unzip this file, and save it in your TextAloud installation directory. (Normally c:\Program Files (x86)\TextAloud on 64 bit windows, or c:\Program Files\TextAloud on 32 bit windows)
4. Duplicate the problem.
5. From the TextAloud menu, click Help -> Support -> Report A Problem and submit a problem report. Just make a brief reference to this issue in the problem report text.

When you duplicate the problem, be sure to the text you're speaking isn't sensitive or confidential, the text will be written to the problem report logs.

The verbose debug option will cause your TextAloud log files to get very large. So after submitting the problem report, exit TextAloud, and delete/remove the Reseller.chl file from your TextAloud install directory. Don't forget this step!!

I'll watch for the problem report and let you know what I find. If you have questions about any of this let me know.

[Slyths]

Hello Jim,

You may check your emails, I have sent you the report file since yesterday.

Thank you.

[Jim Bretti]

I received the problem report ... thanks.

The problem might be related to newline characters embedded in the text. Some voices, including Microsoft David, will pause at all newline characters. There is a workaround for this problem described at viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6934.

Does this help with the problem?

[Slyths]

Thank you, Jim

That has solved the problem.

Somehow, the solution evokes more question. Why the problem happened to a particular computer? I mean the operating system is the same, the browser is the same, the site is the same. And, as I said previously, I even replaced the folders (TextAloud in the programme files and Nextup in the appdata/local) with those from the computer that works fine.

[Jim Bretti]

Hard to say why you saw the machine on one machine and not the other. It could be something like different voices (or different versions of voices) on the two machines that handle the newline characters differently. Really don't know though, it does sound strange. I saw the problem on my system here.