Did you know that there is a very simple way to get your Mac to speak pretty much any piece of text without having to install any extra software or learn complicated commands? There is.
Open System Preferences – it’s the fourth item in the Apple menu (the shape) in the very top left corner of the screen. In the “System” section, usually about the fourth line of icons in System Preferences, there is an icon labeled “Speech” which looks like an old fashioned radio microphone. Click on the Speech icon.
The Speech pane has sections labeled “Speech Recognition” and “Text to Speech”. Click on the “Text to Speech” section and you’ll see the option to “Speak selected text when the key is pressed” – select that option.
Now hit the “Set key” button beside it to set a key combination to trigger the speaking. I use command-control-option-S because it’s not used for anything else, and I can remember “S for speak” more easily than any other letter:
You can select any key combination that isn’t already used for something else. Now all you need to do is select some text in an application – I suggest you try it first with Safari or Text Edit – and hit your keys and you should hear Mac OS X read out whatever you have selected!
You can also use the top section of the system preferences Speech pane to select a system voice that you find easiest to listen to. If you use the voices a lot you may eventually choose to purchase a higher quality system voice or one that speaks your language.
- Ricky Buchanan
Kati September 25, 2008 at 4:35 am
How would i get a button on keystrokes to do command + option + control + S? Would I need it to be a macro button?
I’d like to set up a few buttons that usually need multiple presses like ‘force quit’ also, so just putting cursor on button would do equivalent of those sequences.
Ricky Buchanan September 25, 2008 at 3:58 pm
@Kati: It took me a while to figure it out – it’s not as easy as it should be! Joe figured it out for me and he’s writing an article about it, check back on Monday USA time and it should be available.
Marie February 16, 2010 at 7:50 am
That was painless! Thanks for making it easy.
Mb
Ricky Buchanan February 20, 2010 at 12:58 pm
@Marie: I’m glad it helped you.