TextAloud’s basic features within MS Word are pretty similar to Read Aloud’s, but with many more customization options. In total, it took me less than 30 minutes to download and install the software and watch the videos. I watched a couple of the tutorial videos for an overview of how to use all of the flavors of the tool. With my complimentary version, I got to choose four voices, and I chose two English and two French. I installed the standalone version, the MS Word toolbar, and the Firefox plugin. For example whether you want just the standalone tool (where you can import things for it to read), an MS Word toolbar, a browser plugin, etc. It’s easy to download, and you can choose what software you want it to integrate with. TextAloud costs US $34.95 and comes with a 30-day guarantee. So, if you have the source and target Word documents open, and you want to scroll down in the source while the target is being read to you (so that you can follow along), Read Aloud pauses as soon as you click, and then you have to re-start it. Read Aloud also has some small but annoying foibles–the one that drives me nuts is that if you click anywhere in any MS Word document while Read Aloud is running, it pauses. ![]() But Read Aloud is pretty basic: at least in my version of MS Office, the only selections you can make are the voice (between two men and a woman–I’m partial to David!) and the reading speed. ![]() ![]() The simple solution is to use the Read Aloud function in MS Word. If you enjoy having things read to you because you get sick of reading, or if (like me) you have a major problem with proofreading your own work because you skim over the errors–but you hear those errors when the text is read to you–I highly recommend experimenting with text to speech, where the computer reads a designated piece of text to you. ![]() How is text-to-speech useful?Īfter reading the post I wrote about text-to-speech proofreading, the folks at NextUp, the makers of the TextAloud text to speech software, approached me about reviewing their tool.īrief overview for those who aren’t familiar with text-to-speech. Important disclaimer: I received a free review copy of TextAloud for the purpose of writing this review, but the links to purchase TextAloud are not affiliate links and I do not receive any commission from TextAloud.
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