We have found the auto spell checker in 'Word' for windows very useful. What would make it ten times better would be a talking version that spoke both the text AND particularly the list of corrections which are displayed where a mistake has been identified.
Does anyone know how this can be done, is there another version of Word or an
alternative WP that can do this?
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Jamie Munro - UK Manager
Don Johnston Special Needs Ltd.
If you want a speak as you type facility in any Word processor and speak marked
text. There are utilities to do this.
Eg Penfriend for Windows ( email penfriend@jasper.co.uk )
IF you want the spellchecker suggestions read out, then this is more difficult.
In Word 6, Penfriend will do it as you can mark the suggestion and then have it
spoken out.
There is also an addition to word called Talking Word for Windows from
Logotron. This only works with Word 2 and 6.
Word 7 is a pig in this respect as it seems very hard to get utilites like the
above to work with it. You may wish to install word 6 to take advantage of
them.
There is also a similar utility of software from RM that makes Word Speak. I
do not know it but hope to get a demo next week. So perhaps I'll be able to
report.
All this assumes that you have to use Word. Talking Textease does all you ask.
The trouble is that the spellchecker is not so good. You could join the small
number of people who are trying to get the textease people to adopt as an
absolute priority the Jon Duddington Spellchecker which outscores even the
Franklin on short words and is the best spellcheck available for young
dyslexics. Unfortunately it is only found in Jon Duddington's own speaking
Textreader on the Acorn platform, at the moment
It deserves to be incorporated in Textease which is , In my opinion, the best wp/dtp environment for most people. So start writing to Softease Ltd!
Finally Microsoft might add text to speech includung spoken spellchecker suggestion to future verions of Word. They have a good spellchecker there, suited to many dyslexics especially - especially in late secondary and FE. If it spoke, it would be very good.
Philip Whittaker
Do you know about textHELP! which we sell? It does this, and lots
else,(see below) in Word and practically all other Windows programs too,
using its own spell checker. More info on
http://www.dyslexic.com/thelp.htm or contact us directly.
I believe that Longman's Talking Word macros also do it, just for Word.
Regards
Ian Litterick
I dabble in Visual Basic 3 (althought I have 4 and 5) because we still have
some very primitive machines around.
What I am trying to find is a (free) utility or routine to get text
contained in a textbox to be read out.
I know I can do it with ProVoice but as I give away most of what I produce
my generosity does not extend to standing a loss
Is there the successor to !Speech ( still my number one for the BBC ) out
there in the real word for PC's
Thanks in Advance - Tim Kitchen ( all replies will be acknowledged )
I would advise you to contact Jon Duddington the developer of the best Speech
system for the Acorn computer. Yes really. It has a Midlands to North England
accent. which I like.
(On the Acorn you can also get ham Brummy and Ham lancashire voices as well! )
The PC version of his speech has been adopted by Penfriend for Windows and I
expect will be adopted by other speaking applications soon. It is very clear
and takes up quite a small amount of disc space.
There are some new speech applications about with more natural sounding prosody
which score when large amounts of text are being read out. However these seem
to take up 15 or more Mb of disc space! Also many require windows 95. It seems
that if you want to make older machines speak clearly, Jon's speech is what you
need. Try contacting him by email
His Textreader for Acorn has the best spellchecking method for young pupils with spelling difficulties. I thought I'd just mention that again this week!
Why not use a read Marked text utility? There is Penfriend. I hope to try
Textreader" from Lorien soon. Also there is Talk Back. However apart from
Penfriend which I know works with windows 3.1, I am not sure about the
compatability with these aplications and older machines.
Philip Whittaker
Talking First Word is part of the RM Windows Box, it is talking word processor and the spellchecker is believed to talk. It costs from RM 01235 826868. One draw back is that it will only work with Word 6 not Word 97.
Talking Word for Windows from Longman Logotron is a 'template' for Word 2
or 6 (not Word 97), which adds the following to Word: speech feedback ('talk as you type'), a simplified version of the Word spellchecker dialogue box, with
speech output of the words in the list, four defineable word lists, a simplified Word toolbar, A341, from Longman Logotron 01223 425558.
Talking Textease definitely has a speaking spell checker that will say the list of correction words. The spellchecker though is said to be not so good and we are advised to join the small number of people who are trying to get textease to adopt the Jon Duddington Spellchecker which outscores even the Franklin on short words and is the best spellcheck available for young dyslexics. Write to sales@softease.co.uk either for information or to petition them!
textHELP, from IANYST or Lorien Systems, telephone 01849 428105, e-mail info@lorien.com or www.texthelp.com is said to be good if you wish to add various talking utilities to Windows or makes Word talk, words or whole sentences. It can be customised to either mark the incorrect spelling for later correction or to open up the list of suggestions. The words in the list can then be listened to before selecting the one to replace the mis-spelling.
The program also has other features such as prediction, speech feedback, abbreviations, etc. It works alongside any standard windows word processor but different versions are rquired for Windows 3.x and Windows 95
Write:Outloud a talking word processor for Windows or Macintosh, gives an audible and visual prompt when there is a misspelling. When spellchecking, the sentence is shown with the misspelt word clearly marked, the sentence is then read out, the misspelt word read out and finally the misspelt word spelt out a letter at a time. The spell checker will also speak out and spell out any of the suggested correct spellings. Further info and a demo cd can be obtained from jmunro@djsn.u-net.com, tel:01925 241642
Thanks to Colin Hardy for passing on the information he gathered about talking
spellcheckers.
I had the opportunity to look at talking first word- This was with Word 7.
It could not read the spellcheckers suggestions. So does not rank as a talking
spell checker. I think this is because Word 7 is very different from previous
verson, allowing no access to the suggested words.
What I do not know is whether TFW allows previous versions of Word to speak the
spllchecker suggestion.
I shall email RM about this.
Philip W
Following the discussions about talking spell checkers, senit members might
be interested in advance information of a new product from Widgit. This
will be a full word processor and symbol processor combined. It will have a
talking spell checker which is also illustrated with symbols so that users
can see if they have identified the correct word. You can also try the new
word in context and listen to the whole sentence before accepting an
alternative spelling. Out in September.
Tina Detheridge
literacy@widgit.com
http://www.widgit.com