Voice Speed changes and then stops working

[codeowl]

Hi there,

I am running the full version of 4.0.41 of TextAloud, and loving it!
I have run into this issue a couple of times now where I am reading from the clipboard text from a PDF or web page and it completes so then I copy the next section and read that, and the voice is noticeably slower than before. I have not changed the speed, and in fact the TextAloud UI is hidden in the system tray icon and I am just using hotkeys to read clipboard. I am using the Katy16 voice I purchased from NextUp long ago.
So when this has happened I bring the UI up and try to increase the speed, but it makes no difference. I put it from 3 (where I normally have it) 10 and it makes no differences, it is still slow. I try pasting the text into notepad and copying it from there and reading it, but still it is slow.
The work around I have found is to copy some different text and read that, and then go back and copy the text that was slow (but copy from notepad this time) and now it will work.
If I go back and copy it from the original source it will be slow again.

Not sure if you have seen this before?

Regards,

[Jim Bretti]

I don't recognize this problem. Best thing would be to duplicate the error, and after the problem occurs, send a TextAloud problem report. From the TextAloud main menu click Help -> Support -> Report A Problem, and just mention this issue briefly in the problem report text

[codeowl]

Jim,

I have worked out which character causes this issue. I used the following website:
https://www.soscisurvey.de/tools/view-chars.php

And pasted the string in there and found that it contained the following hidden character:
Represented as:
 
or
\u00A0

I was able to do a find and replace using \u00A0 in Notepade ++ with the "Extended" option and replace with a space and hey presto, it reads it without being slow!!

I then added a dictionary rule to skip the character: \u00A0 and this works like a treat!!

Also I found a bug when doing this that if you add a new dictionary rule fill out all the details including the Test Pronunciation text and then press Apply, you will loose that text. Event if you close the rule and open it again. If you close the Dictionary Maintenance window and reopen that, the Test Pronunciation text you saved will be there again.

[Jim Bretti]

Thanks for letting me know about the character problem, great job finding that! The \u00A0 character you're seeing is a 'non breaking space', word processors use it to prevent a line break at certain space characters. I'll look at updating TextAloud to detect these and replace with normal spaces before trying to speak the text.

I'll also check out the problem you found with the pronunciation text.