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CLEMMONS, NC - Birmingham, Alabama's Jack Lavallet is an IT Director through the week, then on Sundays he takes on the role of Sunday School teacher, sharing lessons from the Bible with churchgoers each week. To study his lessons, as well as to emphasize selected scripture passages, Lavallet uses TextAloud, the text to speech software from NextUp.com.

"When it comes to the Bible, my role is to encourage, correct, and illuminate my students? knowledge," comments Jack. "That requires me to really know the subject well, and that means I need a way to study very quickly. With my regular work and three small children as well, my preparation and study time is often compressed. Using TextAloud, I can listen to my material and teaching notes to reinforce my initial comprehension, and to test my teaching notes for tone, applicability, timing and length."

Priced from $29.95, TextAloud is the popular PC software that turns text from websites, articles, PDFs, documents, and more, into pleasant, natural-sounding computer speech. It can also export text to spoken audio files for listening on many popular portable devices, and it even works seamlessly with iTunes for easy synchronizing with Apple devices, as well.

One aspect of TextAloud that Jack especially values is its ability to enable the user to insert pauses and voice changes, a functionality he maximizes with some of the software.s optional Premium Voices. "I have three premium AT&T Natural Voices (Mike, Crystal and Julia), plus free voices that I use to help me break up the text and reinforce important points," Jack comments. He then uses TextAloud to export those documents to audio files for listening during his busy Saturday errands, drives, and activities.

Other features of TextAloud that Jack uses every day include its Voice Change and Pause Markup tags. He also values the way the software enables users to change the reading speed of the material to their desired preferences, along with its ability to support (and output) multiple articles and reading items at once. "I use the Markup Tags to add emphasis, differentiation and natural breaks to the spoken text," he explains. "The text formatting options also help me add emphasis and readability to the articles and lessons I study within TextAloud." Thanks to TextAloud's ability to export files to popular audio formats, Jack is able to listen to his MP3s using his Android Smartphone, as well as doing his listening for study on iTunes as well.

"TextAloud has really helped me with comprehension and contextual learning," Jack adds. "I'm a slow and distracted reader. I often find myself reading words without contemplating the meaning, or rereading passages because I just didn't get all that was being conveyed. TextAloud helps me to hear, listen, and understand. Conversely, knowing that I can listen again without much effort, perhaps at a slower or faster pace, frees me to chase rabbits in my mind if I need to. This is especially helpful to assimilate the text into my life experience and world-view. TextAloud is invaluable!"

About TextAloud
With more personalization options than ever before, TextAloud is the highly useful PC program for students, scientists, writers, business users, students and people from all walks of life. TextAloud enables anyone to experience their reading by listening, and has been featured in The New York Times, PC Magazine, on CNN, and more. In 2011, TextAloud was honored with a da Vinci award nomination for its uses as a valuable assistive technology.

About NextUp.com
NextUp.com, a division of NextUp Technologies, LLC, provides award-winning Text to Speech software for consumers, business customers, educators, and those with visual or vocal impairment, or learning disabilities.

In addition to TextAloud, NextUp.com markets other innovative Windows software designed to save time and deliver vital information. NextUp Talker is an easy and affordable program that allows people who have lost their voices to use the latest in high-quality computer voices to communicate with others.

Note to Editors:

Evaluation copies of TextAloud are currently available upon request. To receive a review copy, or for more information on NextUp.com or TextAloud, please contact publicist Angela Mitchell at (904) 982-8043.

All companies and products referenced in this press release are the trademarks of their respective owners.