Hi Phil, Well you can find the original post by using the mail archive search and typing in: from:Esther add spoken track
But I'll paste in the information again from my reply to your question about adding spoken tracks to iTunes, starting from the developer documentation link, and giving an example of using the "say" command. On the developer's web page, you can use the web rotor set to links to navigate to the section (e.g., with QuickNav on, press VO-U, then use your Up+Left or Up+Right arrow keys to move to "Links" and type a few letters from the section name to find it in the menu), or you can simply use item chooser menu (VO-I), and type in a few search terms, pause, then type the beginning letters of the word "link" to find it in the menu. There's also a table (3-1) of the commands. By the way, the reason that you can use the "say" command in Terminal the way that Sarah describes to start speaking a really long piece of text is that the "say" command processes the text as it goes. There's no way to back up or control the process once you start -- short of killing the process. You do n't have to store the sounds because you're recording. It's a bit like the way previewing audio files and documents by selecting them in Finder and pressing space bar works -- the content just keeps getting piped through. You can't go in and edit an audio file or change your position, but it's low impact on the system. I also test most of the commands by using the "say" command in Terminal. You can type them in TextEdit or copy some of the examples that Sarah gave from mail, then switch to the Terminal app with Command-Tab, paste in the line with Command-v, and press return to have it take effect. <begin excerpt from my previous post> If you want to learn more about the command arguments that can be used to control speech, check out the guide at the Apple Developer's Web site for information on how to embed commands into the text to speed it up or change other attributes: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/SpeechSynthesisProgrammingGuide/index.html Embedded commands are described in the section titled "Techniques for Customizing Synthesized Speech" > "Use Embedded Speech Commands to Fine-Tune Spoken Output". There are a number of four-letter commands in addition to "rate" that will let you do things like increase or decrease volume ("volm"), change the way numbers are spoken ("nmbr" with the LTRL argument to speak digit by digit, as in phone numbers, or with the NORM argument to go back to the default mode). They can all be used together, enclose within two left and two right brackets, and separated by semi-colons. You have to read the strings character by character to hear the arguments. If you're comfortable using the Terminal command line, you can test out commands on speech strings by enclosing them in quotation marks, and using the unix "say" command. Note that embedded commands cannot be used to select a voice, although the "v" switch of the "say" command can accept an argument for the voice. For example, here's the command to get Fred rather than Alex, speaking fast at slightly boosted volume, with the "say" command. Open up Terminal, paste the string in, and press "return" to hear the results: say -v Fred "[[rate 400; volm +0.2]]Am I speaking too fast?" <end excerpt> You can use these commands to speak acronyms letter by letter, or speak phone numbers. Again, try pasting this into Terminal and pressing return: say "Please call me at [[nmbr LTRL]] 5551990 [[nmbr NORM]]." Here's an incomplete list of some of the four-letter embedded commands for controlling speech: char speaks the following word letter by letter cmnt lets you insert a comment that isn't spoken ctxt identifies a context for speech synthesizer pronunciation (I've never tried this) dlim lets you change the delimiter characters used for embedded speech commands emph lets you increase or decrease emphasis of the next word (takes an argument of "+" or "-") inpt lets you change the pronunciation model from straight text to options like phonetic (takes an argument) nmbr lets you speak numbers digit by digit if you use the LTRL argument instead of NORM pbas changes current speech pitch (takes an argument with "+" or "-") pmod changes pitch modulation range (takes an argument with "+' or "-") rate sets the speaking rate; can be used either with a value or by increasing or decreasing (with "+" or "-") rset resets speech parameters to default values (may need to be "rset 0") slnc lets you add a period of silence (takes an argument) volm lets you set or increase/decrease volume (takes an argument) You really have to read through Apple's Developer's document to understand how to use these, and the general background concepts for controlling speech. HTH. Cheers, Esther Sarah k Alawami wrote: > and I think it's limited. You cannot for example do a 40 page txt file spoken > to iTunes. lol! with the say command it does not even bad an eye. It might > take a hwioe to voice the file but it works for what i need it to do. > > Take care. > Phil Halton wrote: > >> I don't believe I got that message with the link to the apple article. If I >> had I would have read it thoroughly before asking. >> Can you provide that link? >> >> Travis Siegel wrote: >> >> >>> The document that Esther pointed to in a previous message in this thread >>> from apple that describes the speech generation process, contains the >>> whole list of codes you can use during your speech generation process. >>> Feel free to take a look at that document, and if you still have >>> questions, I'm sure we'd be happy to assist. If I remember correctly, >>> there's something like 15 or 20 different commands that can be used. It's >>> been quite some time since I read the document though, so I could be >>> exaggerating a bit. >>> However, you can't go wrong with the link that was posted, it's the >>> documentation apple themselves wrote on how the process works, and what >>> commands are available. >>> hth <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
