Is this a bug?

[Spundot]

I am working with a long WORD 2013 document (200,000+ words). When using TextAloud, I use the "Cursor" button on the WORD add-in toolbar to read specific parts of my document. However, when I accidentally hit the "Speak" button, it takes my cursor back to the very beginning of the document, which is annoying because then I have to find my place again. I wondered if I could remove the "Speak" button from the WORD ribbon toolbar, because it sits side-by-side with the "Cursor" button and is easy for me to miss-click. I attempted to customize the WORD add-in ribbon, but all the options are greyed out, meaning I can't remove or customize the toolbar.

Next I tried looking in the main TextAloud program, "Control Center" / "Settings." Under "Speak Options" and then on the "Single Article" tab, I saw the radio button in the "Speak Button Default Action" box was set to "Speak From Cursor Aloud." This might work from within the main program, but this ISN'T what the "Speak" button does in the WORD add-in. It ALWAYS returns the cursor to the very start of the document and starts reading aloud from word #1.

So is this a bug? Or just me not understand?

Thanks for your time.

[Jim Bretti]

First, on the part about Speak Options, the options in this panel control the speak button only in the TextAloud main window. Options set there have no effect on the Word toolbar.

I don't know if it is possible to customize the TextAloud ribbon. We do not currently have anything built into the app to allow customization, there may be some way to do it though.

Here are a few possible ways to work around the problem.

First, on the TextAloud ribbon, if you disable the checkbox labeled "Highlighting Enabled", clicking the Speak button accidentally will not cause the window to scroll. TextAloud will just start speaking the document without scrolling to the top to begin word highlighting. You could enable / disable the word highlighting checkbox as needed.

Second, another possibility is to add one or more TextAloud buttons to the Quick Access toolbar in Word. Right click any button on the TextAloud ribbon, and in the dropdown displayed, select "Add To Quick Access Toolbar". One problem with this is the icons don't display very well, we need to add some icons to the TextAloud ribbon for use in the quick access toolbar.

If the icons in the quick access toolbar are usable, you can then completely hide the TextAloud ribbon. Right click somewhere on the ribbon and in the popup displayed, select "Customize the Ribbon". In the listbox on the right, locate "TextAloud" and uncheck it. The TextAloud tab should now be hidden from the ribbon, with speak functions available on the quick access toolbar.

One other option is to configure keyboard shortcuts for speak functions in Word. From the TextAloud tab click the Options Dialogs gear button, and in the dropdown menu click Keyboard Shortcuts. You can configure separate shortcuts for speaking the entire document, speak from cursor, and speak highlighted text. Then hide the TextAloud tab from the ribbon, using instructions above.

If you need Pause and Stop functions, these cannot be configured as keyboard shortcuts in Word, but you can configure them in TextAloud as system wide hotkeys. Locate Hotkey Setup in the left panel of TextAloud Settings and use this panel for configuring Pause and Stop hotkeys.

Let me know if this doesn't help or if you have any questions

[Spundot]

Thanks, Jim, I learned some things! I think the shortcut option will work best for me. Adding TA to WORD's Quick Access toolbar actually added the entire TA toolbar (in WORD 2013 anyway), so that just seems extra clicks to speak. I do wish you would consider making the WORD add-in ribbon customizable.

Thanks for taking time to answer my concerns. Appreciate it!