Speaking the first time

When you first install TextAloud, the first thing to do is get it to speak a few words just to make sure installation went well and everything is working. TextAloud will be pre-loaded with a sample article. Simple click the Speak button, or choose Speak on the main menu to get TextAloud to talk. After this is spoken, you can move on to learning more about how to use the program.

Four Ways to load Text into TextAloud

•		Clipboard Watching - TextAloud can automatically monitor the windows clipboard and anytime you copy text by highlighting it and hitting Control-C, TextAloud can import the text. Go to Options->TextAloud Options->Clipboard Options for settings related to this.
•		File->Open - By using File->Open on the main menu, TextAloud can directly open text files and documents in .txt, .rtf, .html, .doc (MS Word) or .pdf files.
•		Using Hotkeys - See Options->Hotkey setup for a variety of hotkeys you can setup. When working in any program, you can highlight text and press a hotkey to have TextAloud speak or import text.
•		Manual Creation - By right-clicking in the text area of TextAloud, you can choose New Article and create a blank article where you can paste or type in text.

Internet Explorer Plug-in

TextAloud now includes an Internet Explorer plug-in. After installing TextAloud, if you'll restart windows, you can then do View->Toolbars->TextAloud in Internet Explorer's main menu. This will display TextAloud's toolbar within Internet Explorer. From this toolbar you can speak text directly from your web browser.

Optional Premium Voices

NextUp.com offers a wide variety of great voices for sale. To learn more about these voices and hear samples, check out the links below:

•		AT&T Natural Voices™
•		NeoSpeech
•		Cepstral®

Creating Audio Files

TextAloud can create audio files from text. These files can be .wav, .mp3, or .wma files. To do this, setup file options under Options->Voice and File Options, then use the Speak To File button to create the audio file.

What's New in TextAloud 2.0?

If you are upgrading from a previous version of TextAloud, here are some of the exciting new features in TextAloud 2.0:

 • New easier to use Look
 • Support for Skins
 • Import of Word, HTML, and PDF files
 • Customize article fonts and colors to make text more readable
 • Change Voice, Speed, Pitch, and Volume with controls on the main window
 • Improved support for screen readers for sight impaired users
 • Batch File Converter on the File menu
 • Support for changing voices within an article
 • New Proofread hotkey to help you proofread your documents and emails
 • Bookmarks to allow you to easily return to important sections of text
 • Internet Explorer Plug-in
 • Search and Search/Replace
 • Ability to specify longer pauses between sentences or paragraphs
 • Creation of ID3 tags when creating MP3 files

Our Most Important Tip of All

If you have any questions or problems whatsoever, email us at support@nextup.com and you'll be amazed at how fast we answer.