Anyone used Text to Speech?

[romanof]

Has anybody used the Text to Speech function on MacOs? I can't get it to work despite fairly simple instructions on how to turn it on.

Mojave, 27" iMac i5 on 10.14.6 and up to date.
Powered desktop speakers plugged in to the audio port, and work fine with music and system sounds.

System Preferences/Accessibility/Speech/ √ Speak selected text... is checked.
Option+Esc is the designated key.

That is all the Apple instructions say to do...

Have your Mac speak text that’s on the screen

Press a key or set of keys to make your Mac speak text that’s on the screen.

support.apple.com

But testing with a simple line of text in Textedit doesn't get a sound. I don't get a beep in any instance. Tried the following...

Open some plain text in Textedit and press Option-Esc.
Put the cursor at the start of text... O-E
Highlight text... O-E
Try it with Safari and Smultron.
Did the above by clicking the Play button in Accessibility.


Anybody got any new ideas?

 

[Unsupported]

Has anybody used the Text to Speech function on MacOs? I can't get it to work despite fairly simple instructions on how to turn it on.

Anybody got any new ideas?

I use it a lot on my 13" MBP. Have you selected a voice in those System Prefs?

Other than the key commands you can switch it on and off from the Edit menu.

 

[romanof]

I use it a lot on my 13" MBP. Have you selected a voice in those System Prefs?

Other than the key commands you can switch it on and off from the Edit menu.

Thanks. Forgot about the Edit menu speech item. Makes it easier to select.
It had the default "Alex" turned on. I tried a couple of others, but same thing - no speaking.

When I goto Edit/Speech/Start Speaking, the Stop Speaking ungrays, so the system thinks it is working, but still nothing. I may have some third party app blocking the sound - Audio Hijack, or Screen Recorder or such, even if not running.

 

[Unsupported]

I may have some third party app blocking the sound - Audio Hijack, or Screen Recorder or such, even if not running.

Could be some kind of conflict if you have other non-Apple audio type apps installed.

Have you had a look at the VoiceOver Utility.app, in the Utilities folder?

 

[Unsupported]

Thanks. Forgot about the Edit menu speech item. Makes it easier to select.
It had the default "Alex" turned on. I tried a couple of others, but same thing - no speaking.

I posted something related to Text to Speech here:

Missing old Mac OS voices?

I was just thinking that I hadn't heard the voice of Zarvox in recent OS updates for a while. Maybe I'm the only boomer here who even knows who he was? But I found this: https://brettterpstra.com/2020/04/17/get-your-favorite-macos-text-to-speech-voices-back/ As somebody commented there is no...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[romanof]

Have you had a look at the VoiceOver Utility.app, in the Utilities folder?

That would be no, since I never heard of it before now. But it appears to be set up properly. I have older MBA with Mojave and no sound related third party stuff. Will try it on there.

 

[romanof]

Never mind. It is something with my iMac setup. It worked immediately on my old MBA and with the same Mojave. But, it was a waste of time. The speaking quality is horrendous. Back to online text readers, I guess. At least they sound sort of human, and not as if sitting in a 55 gallon drum.