Using AbleReader Mac

AbleReader is a very simple text-to-speech program that lets you listen to text on your computer.  You can copy text from the clipboard, enter text manually from the keyboard, or use File Open to read in text files.  Once you’ve entered some text, just press the “Speak” button on the toolbar to hear it.

The AbleReader Window

Fields on the AbleReader window allow you to select the voice used for speaking, as well as adjust the pitch and speed of the voice.  Changing the pitch and speed can make the voice easier to understand.

Note that some voices, including AT&T Natural Voices, do not support Pitch adjustment.  The Pitch slider control will be disabled for these voices.

The AbleReader Toolbar

The following buttons are available on the AbleReader Toolbar:

Open	Displays a File Open dialog that allows you open a text file and load it into AbleReader
Speak	Speaks the current text, using the select Voice, Pitch and Speed.
Pause / Resume	Use these buttons to pause and resume speaking.
Stop	Use this button to stop speaking.
Font	This button displays a font dialog that allows you to change the text font, color and size.

The AbleReader Menu

In addition to using the Toolbar to control AbleReader, there are some useful features available on the AbleReader Menu.

The following selections are available under the Edit menu:

Reset Pitch and Speed	Resets the pitch and speed for the current voice to their default settings.
Filter non-alpha symbols	If this menu entry is checked, speaking will filter any characters in the text that are not alpha numeric or punctuation characters.

The following selections are available under the Speak menu:

Speak	Speaks all text in the input area.
Speak From Cursor	Speaks text in the input area starting at the current cursor position.
Speak Selected Text	Speaks selected text only.

More Voices

Additional voices are available to be used with AbleReader.  Please visit http://www.ablereader.com/macvoices.html for more information.

Support

If you have any questions or problems whatsoever, email us at  mac@ablereader.com.