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View a PDF file for this press release The retired director of a school of Chemical Engineering at a local Technical University, Schutte found his calling for missionary work in the 1980s, when he spent time preaching in mission and prison ministries. Twenty years later, the missionary work remains the primary focus of his life, with TextAloud a new and unexpected tool in his endeavors. A Text to Speech program that installs in seconds on most PCs, TextAloud is priced at just $29.95 and converts text into spoken audio files for listening on a PC, Laptop, or other portable device. Through his missionary work, Schutte soon found he was able to offer theological training via distance education using the Mt. Zion course. "It involves the beautiful Puritan writings of previous centuries, and presents the Gospel from a truly Scriptural perspective," comments Schutte. "And since I had found that many native African people understand English yet are not always able to read it, I began converting text files of the course into WAV and MP3 files so that they could listen as an alternative resource." In his search for a useful Text to Speech program, "I examined every possible text to voice program available on the internet by downloading and testing each, and ultimately chose TextAloud as the best solution." To bring the Gospel in Africa to those with access to technology, Schutte explains, there are mission organizations offering facilities to converts where they can undergo Bible training from easy listening via CD. Here, listeners could also use these facilities for the Mt. Zion course. In addition to its excellent voice quality and ease of use, the aspect of TextAloud that most impressed Schutte was the program's ability to bring a course or book into speech whether the source was in text, HTML, or even PDF format. "It's invaluable that these formats can be converted to sound files for the poorly sighted or for those who cannot read well, as is the case with many in prison," he comments. Schutte doesn't just use TextAloud in his missionary work, but also to read his mail, as well as any articles he finds on the Internet. "I collect and play them while I'm performing my normal daily duties," he comments. "It's so useful to have my hands free and my eyes saved when listening to readings." Schutte was also pleased to find that the Scriptures were already available in MP3 files for free download.
About TextAloud NextUp.com also offers TextAloud with optional premium voices from AT&T Natural Voices (TM), NeoSpeech (R), Nuance (R), Acapela (R) and Cepstral (R) for the most natural-sounding computer speech anywhere. Available languages include US English, UK English, Indian Accent English, Scottish Accent English, French, Canadian French, Latin American Spanish, Castilian (European) Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, Belgian Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, and Arabic.
About NextUp.com NextUp.com also offers TextAloud with optional premium voices from AT&T Natural Voices (TM), NeoSpeech (R), Nuance (R), Acapela (R) and Cepstral (R) for the most natural-sounding computer speech anywhere. Available languages include U.S. English, U.K. English, Indian Accent English, Scottish Accent English, French, Canadian French, Latin American Spanish, Castilian (European) Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, Belgian Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish and Arabic.
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