MacWorld Secrets (4th Edition)/Mac Secrets CD 4th Ed.toast/Apple Advanced Technologies/Apple Speech Technologies 1.5/PlainTalk 1.5/Mexican Spanish TTS 1.5/Using Mexican Spanish TTS

Text File | 1996-11-07 | 6KB | 127 lines

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Using the Mexican Spanish Text-to-Speech Software.


With the Mexican Spanish text-to-speech software installed, many Macintosh programs can read Spanish text out loud. One of the programs that can read to you is the SimpleText program, which comes with this computer and is already installed on your hard disk. (You are probably reading this document using the SimpleText program.)

The instructions in this document tell you the following:

— what you need to use this software;
— how to install the software;
— how to try out the software using SimpleText;
— how to choose a standard (default) voice;
— some technical details;
— how to solve common problems.


What you need to use the Mexican Spanish text-to-speech software.

To use the software, you need the following hardware and software:

— a Power Macintosh computer or a Macintosh computer with a 68020, 68030, or 68040 processor;
— version 7.0 or later of system software;
— at least 1.3 megabytes of RAM in addition to what the rest of your system software requires;
— at least 2 megabytes of space available on your hard disk.


Installing the software.

To install the Mexican Spanish text-to-speech software, follow these steps.

1. Print these instructions before you start. You will not be able to view them on screen while you’re installing the software.

2. Quit any programs you have been using.

3. While holding down the Shift key on the keyboard, choose Restart from the Special menu. Don’t release the Shift key until you see an “Extensions Off” message on your screen.

4. To start the Installer program, double-click its icon. You can find the Installer program icon in the same place you found these instructions.

5. In the introductory screen that appears, click Continue.

6. In the next screen, click Install. The installation may take a while.

7. When you see a message reporting that the installation was successful, click Restart.

After the computer restarts, you can start using the text-to-speech software. You can try it out using the instructions in the next section.

Note for users of older English text-to-speech software.  Installing Mexican Spanish text-to-speech software may remove some or all of your older English text-to-speech voices. You can restore those voices by installing the new version of the English text-to-speech software.


Trying out the text-to-speech software.

You can try out the text-to-speech software in the SimpleText program by following these steps.

1. Use the SimpleText program to open any document that contains Spanish text. This document contains some appropriate text (after step 3 in this section).

2. Choose one of the two Spanish voices—named Carlos and Catalina—from the Voices sub-menu of the Sound menu.

3. Select some Spanish text, like the text below.

Las tecnologías de cómputo y telecomunicaciones tienen el potencial para permitir que muchas personas, que actualmente tienen poco o nulo acceso a información valiosa, tengan acceso a los tipos de información que pueden tener una diferencia positiva en sus vidas. Puede ser la información que necesitan para ser granjeros mas productivos para que se puedan alimentar a sí mismos en vez de depender de ayuda exterior para su supervivencia. O pueden ser las herramientas e información que necesitan para alcanzar su pleno potencial humano como participantes auto-suficientes y creativos en el sistema educativo y en sus sociedades.

4. Choose Speak Selection from the Sound menu.  (If you cannot hear anything, you may have the sound turned all the way off.  Check in the Sound or “Sound & Displays” control panel.)

5. If you want the computer to stop reading, choose Stop Speaking from the Sound menu.

Note: To use the text-to-speech features of other programs, see the instructions that came with those programs.


Choosing a standard (default) voice.

You can use the Speech control panel to choose your favorite voice to hear in all your programs. To set this default voice, follow these steps.

1. Open the Control Panels window by pulling down the Apple () menu and choosing Control Panels.

2. Open the Speech control panel by double-clicking its icon in the Control Panels window.

3. Open the Options pop-up menu at the top of the Speech control panel and choose Voice.
















4. To change the default voice, choose the voice you want from the Voice pop-up menu. The two Mexican Spanish voices are Carlos and Catalina. To hear what the voice you chose sounds like, click the speaker button.

5. To change the rate at which the default voice speaks, move the slider.

6. Close the control panel.


Technical details.

The software that enables your computer to speak has the following components.

— Speech Manager, a system extension;
— MacinTalk Español Mexicano, a system extension that creates Mexican Spanish speech;
— two Mexican Spanish voice files, in the Voices folder, which is in the Extensions folder;
— the Speech control panel.


Troubleshooting (problems and solutions).

— My Macintosh won’t speak.
     - Turn up the speaker volume in the Sound control panel.

— The Installer program says there’s a problem with the hard disk.
     - Re-install your system software, then try installing the Mexican Spanish text-to-speech software again.

— The Installer program displays other error messages.
     - Make sure you restart the computer with extensions off, as described in “Installing the Software,” above.

— After I installed the Mexican Spanish text-to-speech software, my old English voices disappeared.
     - You can restore the voices by installing the new English text-to-speech software.

© 1995 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, and Power Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. MacinTalk is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.