Using Text To Speech in JED
The text-to-speech option in JED enables the text on the screen to be read out by the client computer using a synthesised voice.
To use text-to-speech you need the text-to-speech option in your JED licence, and client computers must have a sound card and speakers or headphones.
If you have a text-to-speech licence, a speech bubble appears on many of the pages in JED and is also available next to quiz questions and picture captions. Clicking on the speech bubble link in JED brings up an animated character that looks like this:
The character will read the text on the page, as well as displaying the text in a speech bubble as she reads it.
When you click the buttons, you should be able to:
- See the animated character
- See the character's lips moving as she speaks
- See a speech bubble containing the text as she reads it
- Hear the text being read on your loudspeakers or headphones
- Hear the speech as something like a British female voice
JED text to speech requires components to be installed on every client
For JED's text-to-speech to work on any client machine, the following three components need to be installed on it:
- The speech API, version 4. Even if you have v5 which comes with WinXP, you'll need v4 too, because this is what MS Agent expects.
- Microsoft Agent
- The Lernout & Hauspie British female voice
Also, for text-to-speech to work with all users including those logged on as a Restricted User account, some file and registry permissions need to be set.
Careersoft provide a single file, TextToSpeechCX.exe which installs all of these components as required and in the correct order. It also sets the relevant registry and file permissions required for MS Agent text to speech to work for Restricted Users.
Download the installer file by right-clicking this link TextToSpeechCX.exe and choosing the 'Save Target As' or 'Save Link As' option. Choose to save the file (approx 4MB) to the Desktop or other location of your choice.
Make sure that you are logged on with Administrator rights, and then double-click the file you just downloaded to run it and update your computer. If you don't have Administrator rights, the installer will warn you and quit. If you don't have Administrator rights, log off and log on again under a different account with Administrator rights. Alternatively, you can choose Run As... to run the file as an Administrator (for run-as, in Windows Vista and Windows XP right-click the exe file; for Windows 2000, shift-right-click the exe file; then enter an Administrator user name and password at the prompt).
Double-click the TextToSpeechCX.exe file to run it, and follow the on-screen steps. Note that you have to be logged on as an administrator to run it, and you have to run it on each computer that wants to use text-to-speech.
Your computer is now updated for using JED text-to-speech.
Notes for network engineers
The combined installer (TextToSpeechCX.exe) is advised in all cases, but advanced users can also choose to install the components individually instead if they have a particular reason to do so. See the individual text-to-speech components page for details.
Page date 2/09/11