Hi Esther, thank you so much for putting all this together into one email, and for including all these resources. I think it will take me a while to work my way through all this, but it's so nice to have it all in one place.
I just got through roaming around the Assistiveware website. After a phone call to them, I was able to preview the voices, so I'm looking at purchasing the Spanish and Italian languages, which of course will also get me Heather. It looks like my next step is setting up the languages I want to access with my account. Again, thank you! Donna On Aug 10, 2009, at 5:05 PM, Esther wrote: > Hi Donna, > > When you use other languages on the Mac with VoiceOver, there are > three components: > 1. the voice -- you can get Spanish and Italian voices from > AssistiveWare or Cepstral > 2. the input language keyboard -- you can switch to a Spanish or > Italian keyboard to make it easier to type accents at speed > 3. the language localization -- this is what determines how the > spell checker and grammar checker works when you compose mail or > text, how windows are labeled, and what language your Help > instructions, etc. appear in. > > Translators, like Anne Robertson, simply set up another account that > is set up for input and language localization in another language, > such as French, along with the French Infovox/iVox voices purchased > from Assistiveware. Then they can the Mac's fast user switching > feature to log in to the other account when they want to work in > that language. > > What you may find more convenient to do is simply set up your > account so that you can switch to a Spanish or Italian input > language keyboard with a keyboard shortcut for easier typing of > accents, then deal with the spell checking by bringing up the spell > checker window and setting the language to be used on the pop up > button. You can also buy the Spanish voices (either Castilian or > American) from Assistiveware. I like the quality of these voices, > which are from the Acapela Group and marketed as Infovox/iVox voices > for the Mac versions. However, you can also try the voice samples > from Cepstral. (I prefer the quality of the Infovox/iVox voices.) > > You may be interested in the Infovox/iVox voices bundled with > GhostReader, which is not designed for visually impaired users but > rather released as "Convenienceware" for the general market > interested in having an application to read mail, documents, and web > pages -- particularly in different languages. The really nice thing > about this application (apart from the fact that there is a feature > to easily make recordings of the read text) is that there is an > undocumented feature that lets you switch between any of the InfoVox/ > iVox voices with the string: > > \vce=speaker=<name-of-voice>\ > > (That's backslash followed by "v c e" for the the voice, followed by > an equal sign, followed by "speaker", followed by another equal > sign, followed by the name of the voice, which could be "heather" > for American English or "rosa" for American Spanish, followed by > another backslash.) > > Each time you change the voice, the text that follows will be spoken > and pronounced in the appropriate voice/language combination. So > you can easily get a continuous dialog spoken between individuals > speaking more than one language if you insert those sequences in, > say, a TextEdit file. (Of course, you have to actually write the > text in that language, or you'll simply get English pronounced with > a Spanish accent.) > > I don't know how easy you'll find it to use GhostReader, which uses > it's own controls and windows that are separate from VoiceOver, but > the bundled price is only $10 more than the Infovox/iVox package. It > comes with a compressed version of these voices, but if you have the > InfoVox/iVox voices, you can use them (and the Mac's system voices) > instead. The GhostReader voices only work in GhostReader for apps > like Safari, Mail, TextEdit, and Preview; the regular InfoVox/iVox > voices work system wide with VoiceOver (and also with GhostReader). > > The bundle options and pricing are a bit confusing, especially since > you can get household licenses and other options that aren't clearly > explained on the web page, and since one U.S. English voice, > Heather, is included with every language pack. (So you don't need > to buy an English language pack to use an English InfoVox/iVox > voice.) Also, prices are by language, with perhaps more than one > voice per language pack. (You can also use these voices to announce > the music/books/movies on your iPod Nano 4G -- but you can only > choose one voice/language. The new Nanos will probably follow the > model of the 3G iPod Shuffle and iPhone 3GS with multiple built-in > language voices.) > > Here's a recent post from the archives about ordering the voices and > their package options in the U.S.: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg05312.html > (Summary Information on Heather and other Infovox voice purchase > options from U.S.) > > Here's a recent post from the archives that describes how to set up > shortcuts for input language keyboard switching: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg04774.html > (Re: How do you change the keyboard language and a query about Apple > Online Store France) > > (Note that this post describes the simplest way I know to set up a > language switching keyboard shortcut, and assumes that you've > already checked the input languages you want to switch to; these > aren't the shortcut sequences I use myself, or that Simon or Anne or > Will use, because this is a work-around for a bug in the shortcut > assignment process that may be fixed now or in Snow Leopard. The > bug only exists for this shortcut reassignment because the system's > default shortcut for changing input keyboards is exactly the same as > the shortcut for using Spotlight. For this reason, when we followed > instructions on the shortcut assignment page to "double-click with > your mouse" and type in the new shortcut, the process didn't work > and we couldn't assign a new shortcut. It turns out that if you > don't double-click but instead press the tab key twice and then type > in the new shortcut, the assignment works, but we didn't know that > at the time.) > > Here's the old post from the archives on how to assign the shortcut > for switching input language keyboard. This works if you change the > instruction 7b to start assigning a new shortcut by pressing tab > twice instead of double-clicking: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40macvisionaries.com/msg39733.html > (Re: hotkey for changing keyboard langauge?) > > Hope this isn't too confusing! > > Cheers, > > Esther > > > > Simon Cavendish wrote: > >> Dear Donna, >> >> I don't think that mac recognises when you start writing in another >> language automatically unless you have an appropriate language >> installed and you switch to it via voiceover utility. Assistiveware >> languages seem to be the best. There are some Spanish speakers on >> the list and I"m sure they will give you more information. >> >> Also, if you ever need Vo accessible electronic dictionary for Mac, >> then Ultrlingua is accessible and offers Spanish as well as other >> languages. >> >> With best wishes, Simon >> On 10 Aug 2009, at 14:24, Donna Goodin wrote: >> >>> Hi all, >>> >>> I don’t speak Welsh—really wish I did—but I do have questions >>> about working in multiple languages. I do a lot of writing in >>> Spanish, and some in Italian. Is assistiveware the best option >>> for getting speech in those languages? Also, is there some way >>> for the mac to recognize that you are writing in another language, >>> so that it doesn’t tell you that every single word you type is >>> misspelled? >>> TIA, >>> Donna >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
