Pronunciation directory maintenance

[goorawin]

I have installed TextAloud 4 (V4.07) and it seems that the pronunciation directory maintenance is missing some of the functions that were in TextAloud3.
In version 3 when correcting a word it would bring in the word on opening the directory maintenance. As well it would allow that word correction to be tested with a sentence that had also been included in the test box.
Unfortunately this does not function at all in Version 4. Nothing is imported, which makes it very difficult and slow to correct words.
I my view there is probably no point in having the pronunciation directory maintenance, while it is not working. To overcome this issue do you suggest I reinstall version3 ?

The other area I have would like to be addressed, is in the new dictionary entry/Phoneme helper section. Where is says sounds like and a word is entered and Generate is pressed, it should generate the Phonemes for the entered text. Currently when you press Generate nothing happens.
This did not work on version3 either which was very disappointing. If it could be made to work along the lines of the Acapela pronunciation editor, it would become very useful.

[Jim Bretti]

Are you saying that in TextAloud 4 when you display pronunciation dictionary maintenance with text selected in the main window, the New Dictionary Entry dialog is not displayed? The new entry dialog should have the Text Matching field preloaded with the text selection, and below in the Test Pronunciation tab, sample text containing the selection should be displayed.

This should work in TextAloud 4. The one time I know of when it doesn't work is if you have pronunciation dictionaries for multiple languages / voices, and the last dictionary you edited does not match the voice assigned to the current TextAloud article. So currently, if the last dictionary you edited is not a match for the voice, we don't know what dictionary to use to add the new word, and the prompt is not displayed.

Could that possibly be the problem? If not let me know and we'll investigate.

On the problem you're seeing with the Generate button in the Phoneme helper, the problem is that only certain voices support it. We should add an error dialog indicating this when we don't get a phoneme string back.

[goorawin]

After reading your post I did make a new dictionary for the voice I was using and that solved the problem. In version3 that did not matter, it would still work regardless. I'll just have to remember that in future.
It would be good to have a list of voices that actually work with the Phoneme helper before you purchase them. I believe a pronunciation/phoneme editor is an important part of a voice, as it allows the change of emphase on words. I know it can be slow to use by it makes a big difference.
So the next question is, is there a phoneme editor for rSpeak voices? If not why not?

[Jim Bretti]

We need to integrate this better into TextAloud, but there is a document at https://nextup.com/files/phonemeswithivona.pdf that explains the options we know of for using phonemes with rSpeak voices.