Setting Replacement Rules

iSpeak It provides advanced text replacement capabilities. You'll find that there are a number of phrases that your Mac will not convert properly. iSpeak It allows you to define rules that identify problem words and an appropriate (phonetically correct) replacement for them. It will even automatically apply the rules before transferring a document to iTunes.

You can identify multiple phrases for replacement by the same phrase by using the vertical bar (|) to separate the problem phrases. For example, you can specify "we need|we want" to be replaced by "we have" — both "we need" and "we want" will be replaced by "we have".

The extend paragraph breaks option allows you to extend pauses between sections, paragraphs, etc. If you find that pauses are too short then select this option to expand the natural breaks within your document — you can set the break length to anywhere between 1 and 10 seconds. The breaks are extended when replacement rules are applied.

The extend sentence breaks option allows you to extend pauses between sentences. If you find that pauses are too short then select this option to expand the natural breaks within your document — you can set the break length to anywhere between 1 and 10 seconds. The breaks are extended when replacement rules are applied.

The summarize option will take every paragraph and summarize each into two sentences — great for when you don't need to hear the entire document.

The ingore case and whole words options allow you to control how iSpeak It matches phrases in a document with the defined replacement rules. Ignore case allows you to disregard upper/lower case letters when looking for matching phrases. Whole words will guarantee that iSpeak It will not match portions of a word with the text from a replacement rule.

To determine the correct replacement for a problem phrase you will need to test the speech of the phrase prior to transferring the text to iTunes. iSpeak It provides the ability to select a portion of text and then have the text spoken (via File menu items). Have your Mac speak a problem phrase and then slowly change it until you get the desired pronunciation. At this point open the replacement rules window and enter the original and final phrases.