CNET Editors' review
Despite a few small gripes, this text-to-speech converter stands as a decent option. TextSpeech Pro's interface is somewhat reminiscent of a browser, with a URL field prominently displayed below the various control icons. When you open a Web page, a Word document, or a PDF file, the application will display its contents in a large preview pane. You select what text you'd like read aloud by simply highlighting it, though we wished you could skip paragraphs or sections via hot keys. The app lets you choose from among five male or female voices, but none of them sound particularly human. You can adjust the speech speed and volume, and you even can save documents as WAV files in a variety of audio qualities. TextSpeech Pro also can directly access Microsoft Outlook to read you your e-mail, handy for busy folks who might need to get messages while driving or traveling. The program's performance was mostly good, although we should note it wouldn't read text from a Flash-based site. We would prefer a longer trial period than just a week, but this utility still has enough positives to make it worth downloading, especially for persons with poor eyesight.
Publisher's Description
From Digital Future:
With TextSpeech Pro you can: Synthesize text-to-speech from any document format (text, Microsoft Word, PDF, Microsoft Excel, RTF) using a variety of voices and languages; Read web pages and emails using integrated text-to-speech tools; Export the synthesized speech from documents to a variety of audio file formats in three modes (quick, normal and batch); Create and modify conversations, bookmarks and pauses (silence breaks) in a document using an advanced text-to-speech editor; Modify speech properties (voice, speed, volume, pitch, word highlighting) and speech entities (bookmarks, conversations, pauses) on the fly; Extract text from scanned documents and convert it to speech or audio files; Create custom pronunciations using a universal correction system; Save the created documents with all specified voice settings and entities (voice type, pitch, speed, volume, bookmarks, conversations, pauses, word highlighting) for future use; Pause, resume or stop the speaking voice; Tune the speech output using standard XML tags; Externally run a command-line tool synthesizer (text-to-speech and text-to-speech audio); Use a fully featured document editor with many text processing features (text manipulation, spell checker, print and print preview, find and replace, go to line, customizable fonts, zoom capabilities, and document properties view); Mark copied text to be automatically transferred and converted to speech; Access previously used documents from a high-capacity document history; Utilize a rich and fully configurable user interface (UI) equipped with customizable window docks, toolbars, a multi-tabbed document interface, and a layout-saving framework;
What's new in this version: Version 3.5.8 adds improved international voices support.
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All versions:
2.7 starsout of 3 votes
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"I would rather download a virus then this program"
Version: TextSpeech Pro Elements 2.2
Pros
None what so ever - unless you like installing and unistalling programs for fun
Cons
doesnt work - not updated -
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"Disappointing"
Version: TextSpeech Pro Elements 2.2
Cons
- Ugly Interface.
- Window always maximizes upon opening (i.e. does not retain last window size.)
- Can only control the Voice speed and volume (not pitch.)
- No toolbar interface for Explorer, instead TextSpeech tries to act as its own browser.
- Robotic sounding voices.
- No pronunciation editor!!!
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"The Best!"
Version: TextSpeech Pro Elements 2.0
Summary
TextSpeech Pro is the best text to speech software I've ever used. After trying it they sent me the AT&T Natural voices which are fantastic!
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