How to install and use Mac OS X Lion's high-quality speech voices. Apple's OS X 10.7 Lion operating system comes with brand-new, high-quality text-to-speech voices. Music, TV, and podcasts take center stage. ITunes forever changed the way people experienced. Drag or paste text into Speech and start reading. You can change at any time the voice and the speech rate. Click on a word to playback from a specific point of the text. Export the text into an audio file, share or listen on an digital audio player. Features: Compatible with OS X 10.7's voices: 80 high quality new voices and over 40 languages. Enhanced-quality voices can be 100 MB or larger. Connect your device to Wi-Fi to download and install one of these voices. With VoiceOver, you can turn on more than one voice, switch between Default and Enhanced Quality (without needing to download the voice again), and change the speaking rate for each voice. 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).
© Hollis Johnson/Business Insider It only takes a few clicks to give your Mac a new voice. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider- You can change the voice that your Mac uses to read text and notifications by going to the System Preferences menu.
- There are about a half-dozen voices available on your Mac by default, but you can download more.
- When you change the text-to-speech voice on a Mac, you can also set how fast it reads or change its language.
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One of your Mac's various accessibility features is its ability to read out text that's on the screen. This is great for users who can't see the screen very well.
But if you use this feature, you might not be satisfied with the default voice, which can sound very robotic.
Luckily, you can change the voice at any time. There are over a hundred different voices available in a variety of languages.
Here's how to change the speech voice on your Mac.
How to change the speech voice on a Mac
1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen and select 'System Preferences.'
2. Click on the 'Accessibility' option.
© Ryan Ariano/Business Insider Open the Accessibility menu. Ryan Ariano/Business Insider3. In the left sidebar, select 'Speech.' This will open the menu where you can change the speech settings.
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4. To change the voice, click on the 'System Voice' tab to open a dropdown menu. By default, you can choose from two male voices and three female voices.
© Ryan Ariano/Business Insider There are a few preset voice options. Ryan Ariano/Business Insider5. To change the rate at which your Mac speaks, click on the 'Speaking Rate' slider and move it left or right to slow it down or speed it up, respectively.
6. To enable your Mac to speak out announcements — it'll let you know when a program needs your attention, and read alerts — read text that you select, or read text that you hover your mouse over, click the box next to those options.
© Ryan Ariano/Business Insider There are a variety of options for the voiceover features. Ryan Ariano/Business InsiderHow to add new speech voices on your Mac
1. Open the 'Speech' menu again.
2. Click on 'System Voice' and scroll down to 'Customize.'
© Ryan Ariano/Business Insider 'Customize' will be the last option. Ryan Ariano/Business Insider3. You'll now be shown a list of all the voices of various languages and dialects that you can download and add to your speech options. You can select most voices and then click 'Play' at the bottom to hear what it sounds like.
4. When you find a voice and language you want, check the box next to it and click 'OK' at the bottom of the window. Your Mac will download the voice, and you can then select it.
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© Ryan Ariano/Business Insider You'll need to make sure you have space on your computer for the new voices. Ryan Ariano/Business InsiderMac Voice Changer
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