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Make your computer read to you
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: December 19, 2014
Under the “you probably didn’t know this” category—computers can be set up to read documents out loud. It will do this in a computer robo-voice, or can be configured to read in other voices (and languages).
This applies to either Word documents or PDF files. And, no, I didn’t know this either until a few days ago. But I did this and it is very cool.
It is a little complicated, and kind of hidden. But here’s how to do it.
Word: Open a document in Word. Click on the small arrow located in the Quick Access Toolbar, and then on the “More Commands…” option. Open the “Word Options” dialog box, click on the “More Commands” bar, and then switch to “All Commands.” This brings up hundreds of possible commands, but scroll down to “Speak.” Click on that once, click “Add,” and then click Apply (or OK).
This adds a small, gray icon on the Word toolbar that looks like a cartoon talk balloon. The go back into the document, highlight the text you want the computer to read (or do “control+A” to highlight the whole doc), click on the cartoon balloon, and the computer will start reading the text out loud.
PDF files are a little easier. The voice reader function is a part of Adobe Reader, so download that. You have to disable the Adobe plugin in your browser, or this won’t work.
Open a PDF file in Reader, then click on the “View” dropdown menu, move the mouse over the “Read Out Loud” option, then click on “Activate Read Out Loud.” You can also click Ctrl+Shift+Y to get there.
A number of options will then pop up for you to configure what you’d like to have the computer read out loud, but, basically, it will read any paragraph you click on.
If you don’t like the robo-voice (which I kind of do like), on a PC, press the Start button, type “narrator” into the box, and you will see various options for changing the reading voice, as well as other options. Click on “Voice Settings,” and change the speed, pitch, etc. until you get a reader that you want to hear.