-- Can anyone help for suggestions for installing PlainTalk voices on my 450 MHz iMac running 9.1?
-- The Finder Help centre (1) mentions Mexican Spanish voices Carlos and Catalina but neither are present in my list of voices. It also says "If you've installed Mexican Spanish Text-to-Speech, four extra voices appear", and I'd like to do this, however can't find a source and don't know how to install. -- The help file for Ultralingua (2), which is dated 2000, also mentions Mexican Spanish PlainTalk extensions but both the web references they mention have disappeared, and I can't find anything on Apple's download pages. I did find an article (3) which said "The English and Mexican Spanish Text-To-Speech software came with the Power Macintosh G3 (beige) minitower and desktop computers. Both installers can be found on the Apple Macintosh CD". -- Any suggestions, especially about access to G3 beige CD? TIA. David Noel / 2005 Mar 19 PS. I've long been irritated by the fact that text in Mac Help files etc can't be just copied and pasted. The text below was captured by making a screen save of the text (a PIC file in 9.2), increasing the resolution to 300 dpi in Photoshop, then character recognition in Omnipage. Is there a slicker way? ------------ (1) Mac 9.1 Help file Choosing the default voice You can choose the default voice your computer uses to read text aloud or speak alert messages. You can also specify how fast the default voice speaks. (Some programs have their own default speech settings.) Changing the default voice and speed To change the default voice, and to change how fast the voice speaks, use the Voice section of the Speech control panel. Help me choose a voice and speed Note: The voices labeled "high quality" in the Voice pop-up menu use the most random-access memory (RAM) and provide the most natural sound. The English voices Agnes, Bruce, and Victoria, and the Mexican Spanish voices Carlos and Catalina use somewhat less RAM but still sound quite clear. Choosing Mexican Spanish voices If you've installed Mexican Spanish Text-to-Speech, four extra voices appear in the Voice pop-up menu in the Speech control panel. Choose one of these voices to hear Spanish text spoken with proper Mexican Spanish pronunciation. ------------ (2) Ultralingua help file: PRONUNCIATION VIA VOICE SYNTHESIS If your Macintosh has the PlainTalk extension installed, you can have your computer pronounce entries for you by selecting words with your cursor and choosing "Read Selection" from the Sound menu (or by pressing Command+H). Ultra Lingua will read both English and Spanish, providing you have the appropriate extensions. If you have a standard US installation, you will need to download the Mexican Spanish extensions (for free!) from Apple. To get current information for downloading English and Spanish PlainTalk packages, check with Apple (http://www.apple.com/macos/speech/) or the Ultra Lingua Speech Synthesis page, at http://www.ultralingua.com/english/speech.html. ------------ (3) http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30307: PlainTalk 1.5 includes the following components: * English Speech Recognition * English Text-to-Speech * Mexican Spanish Text-to-Speech The English and Mexican Spanish Text-To-Speech software came with the Power Macintosh G3 (beige) minitower and desktop computers. Both installers can be found on the Apple Macintosh CD, which allows you to reinstall your computer's system software. These components have been tested, and are supported on Power Macintosh G3 computers. Please read the "Using English Text-to-Speech" and "Using Mexican Spanish TTS" documents included with these installers for detailed information on how to use this software. ============================================================= From David Noel, Ben Franklin Centre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Mail: PO Box 27, Subiaco, WA 6008, Australia. Fax: +61-8-9388 1852. Websites: http://www.aoi.com.au. ------------------------------------------------------------
