List of all voices. Notes: 1) The voices listed here are available for personal use with the NaturalReader software versions only (Personal, Professional, and Ultimate). 2) A selection of these voices can also be sampled from the homepage demo. 3) Voices that appear in the homepage demo but not on this list are available for the personal web applications only (Web, Web Premium). MacRumors readers described the Australian Female and British Male voices as 'more natural'. The current iteration of the Australian Female voice (on an iPad) and the updated voice (on HomePod).
Thanks to Siri on the iPhone 4S, people are quickly getting used to hearing gadgets talk. Your Mac can talk, too. For using your Mac everyday, there’s VoiceOver, which is designed for people who are blind or have low vision. If that’s more talking from your Mac than you need, you can use the Mac’s Text to Speech feature, where the Mac reads selected text. It can be handy to use in a presentation, or, if you use an app to record your Mac’s audio, you can create sound clips to use in videos or audio recordings.
The default voice that your Mac uses for Text to Speech actually has a name: Alex. He has a pleasing tone and a certain warmth, but you have other choices if you're looking for something else. There’s Victoria, who’s the female equivalent of Alex; and Bruce and Katy, who are more robotic. Lion and Snow Leopard show a total of six voices available, but there are plenty more to choose from. In this how-to, you will learn how to change the system voice, as well as add new voices.
Step 1: Activate Text to Speech
To have your Mac read selected text out loud, go to System Preferences and open Speech; then under the Text to Speech tab, check the box for Speak Selected Text When the Key is Pressed. The default key combination in Lion is Option+Esc, but you can change it by clicking the Change Key button. In Snow Leopard, you have to define a key combination.
Now whenever you want the Mac to read something out loud, you just select the text and press the key combo. You can, for example, have your Mac read an email as you settle in after arriving to work.
Step 2: Change the voice
Sure, Alex sounds like a nice guy, but he won’t be offended if you want a change. Still in the Text to Speech tab of the Speech system preference, click on the System Voice pop-up menu. You’ll see the voices, divided by gender. (In Lion, the female voices are listed first. In Snow Leopard, the male voices are first.) To see what each one sounds like, select it, and then click the Play button. You can use the slider bar to adjust the Speaking Rate.
If you like one of the six voices, select it, adjust the Speaking Rate (if you want), close the window, and you’re done. If you aren’t satisfied with one of the six, you can add more voices.
Step 3: Add new voices
In the System Voice pop-up menu used in step 2, select Customize (or Show More Voices if you’re using Snow Leopard) at the bottom of the menu. In Lion, a new window will appear, with a list of different voices. Many are designed for use with a particular language, such as German, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, or even South African English, and those voices will read American English with the inflections of the language it is designed for. To sample a voice, check its box and click on the Play button. Check the boxes of the voices you want, and then click OK. The OS will need to download the voice, so you’ll be asked to confirm that you want to install it. If you click Install in the confirmation window, the Apple Licensing Agreement will appear. You’ll need to agree to it to proceed.
In Snow Leopard, after you select Show More Voices, you need to open the System Voice pop-up menu again. You’ll notice that the list has expanded. To sample a voice, you need to select it, and then click on the Play button in the Text to Speech tab of the Speech preference. Unfortunately, you don’t get the language choices that are available in Lion.
Lion users: If you want a Siri-like voice on your Mac, install Samantha, located in the English (United States) Female section. Samantha doesn’t sound exactly like Siri, but it’s close. If you adjust the speaking rate, you can get closer to a Siri sound-alike. Snow Leopard doesn't have Samantha or another Siri-like voice.
Step 4: Talk talk
Once you’re done adding new voices and you’ve found one you like, select it, adjust the Speaking Rate if you want, and then close the Speech preference window. You’re done.
When you want to use Text to Speech, select the text and press the key combo you defined in step 1. Some apps, such as TextEdit, have text-to-speech built in, so you can use the app’s menu command instead. (It's Edit -> Speech -> Start Speaking in TextEdit.)
[Samantha was a key contributor to Macworld senior editor Roman Loyola’s performance in the Macworld Pundit Showdown XIII.]
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One of the more useful and interesting features in OS X Mountain Lion is Dictation, which allows you to speak to your Mac and have your words translated to text. It's system-wide, and works in any app where text can be entered. Before you dive in and start speaking to your Mac, here's how to use it to its fullest.
If you've used a tool like Dragon Naturally Speaking, Siri on your iPhone, or Google Voice Actions (or another personal assistant) on your Android phone, you know how Dictation works already. The difference here is that instead of using Dictation to issue commands, search the web, or call friends, it's ideal for writing documents, commenting on articles, and turning your thoughts into blocks of text anywhere text can be entered. Here's how to set it up.
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Enable Dictation in System Preferences
- Click the Apple Menu and select System Preferences
- Under 'System' click 'Dictation and Speech.'
- Toggle Dictation from Off (default) to On.
- Optional: Change the default keyboard shortcut to enable dictation—if you use an external keyboard, you may not have a dedicated function button.
Once enabled, tap the function key (FN) twice (or whichever shortcut you selected) to start or stop Dictation. You can also skip System Preferences entirely by tapping the function key twice from any window, but we think the long way is best so you can change the shortcut if you want.
Keep in mind that when you use Dictation, your words (and some other data) are sent to Apple to be translated into text—much like when you use Siri. Apple says the data is used to improve voice recognition only, and not associated with any other information Apple may have about you.
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Use a Headset or Microphone
In the Dictation and Speech preferences, you have the choice to switch the input used for dictation to your Mac's line-in over the internal microphone. Unless you're sitting right in front of your Mac all the time, we'd suggest using a headset or dedicated microphone when you're working with Dictation. Using the internal mic isn't bad, but using a headset is definitely better and in our tests led to fewer skipped or incorrect words. Of course, common sense also applies: speak loudly and clearly when working with dictation and you'll have better luck. No mumbling! Photo by Paul Arrington.
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Don't Forget Punctuation and Commands
Remember, the dictation tool translates your words into text—it doesn't know much about grammar. That means if you want a comma in a sentence, or want to end a sentence with a period or exclamation point, you have to say it aloud for the app to understand what you want. It's tricky to get into the habit of saying things like
'Dear Adam comma new line thank you for sending this over to me period it's a huge help exclamation point'
but you'll get the hang of it. The result, of course, would be:Dear Adam,
Thank you for sending this over to me. It's a huge help!
Thank you for sending this over to me. It's a huge help!
Dictation does a good job of recognizing proper nouns and capitalizing them, and can even recognize your contacts' names and proper spellings. Here are some other helpful commands to remember:
- 'All Caps' turns all of the following text into ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
- 'New Paragraph', as the name implies, starts a new paragraph.
- 'New Line' inserts a carriage return.
- Dollar amounts and dates are automatically recognized, so saying 'thirteen dollars and twenty five cents' will appear as '$13.25,' and 'july twenty-fifth twenty-twelve at 9 PM' will appear 'July 25, 2012 at 9PM.'
- 'Smiley' and 'Frowny' correspond to their emoticons, and are displayed as ':-)' and ':-(' respectively.
- Punctuation like 'comma', 'period', and 'quotation mark', all work the way you would expect.
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Dictation works out of the box. You don't need to train it with your voice, and while it does get better over time as it learns your voice, it's not like many mobile assistants that need hours of input before they work effectively. Best of all, it supports US, UK, and Australian English, so an accent from any of those locations won't matter much. If you use your Mac in a different language, Dictation also supports French, German, and Japanese, and will enter text spoken in those languages correctly.
If you've upgraded to Mountain Lion and are using the new Dictation feature, let us know some of your favorite commands, and share your experience with it in the discussions below.
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