How to Speech-Enable Your Documents

Using the Text To Speech features of your Macintosh computer to speak your text in ClarisWorks 3.0 and 4.0 documents

This information was provided by Claris Corporation on 16 March 1998, and incorporated into Apple Computer's Tech Info Library.

If you want your Macintosh to speak a ClarisWorks document, you can make this happen provided you have ClarisWorks 3.x or 4.x and PlainTalk application program with Speech Manager.

Plain Talk is a System Extension. If it is not installed, copy two files and one folder from the Text-to-Speech folder in the Apple Extras folder (on your hard drive or Apple Macintosh CD) to your System/Extensions folder. Those 3 items are: MacInTalk Pro, Speech Manager, and Voices Folder. After copying these items, restart your computer.

To verify that PlainTalk is installed, make sure that the Speech Manager extension is in your Extensions folder (in your System folder).

In ClarisWorks, you need to install a shortcut to speak your documents. To do this follow the next instructions:

1. Launch ClarisWorks.

2. Select Shortcuts... Edit Shortcuts from the File menu. A dialog box will appear, and under Available Shortcuts, scroll down to the bottom and click on the red lips icon. You can tell that you have chosen the correct icon, because the Speak Text description will appear in the dialog box.


3. Click on the Add button and the Speak Text Shortcut will be added to the list of installed shortcuts.

To use Speak Text, open a document, click and drag to select the text you want to hear and click on the lips button in the shortcuts palette. If the palette is not showing up, then choose Shortcuts... Show Shortcuts from the file menu.

Volume
The speaking may not be very loud using the built-in speaker. To turn it up, go to Control Panels and Sound. Change from Alert Sounds to Volumes and turn up the Built-In Volume.

Troubleshooting
If you are in a Word Processing document and the lips do not show up in your Shortcuts Palette, and you have added them, then PlainTalk/Speech Manager is not installed.

Notes: ClarisWorks will only speak word processing and drawing Documents. The lips icon will not show up in other ClarisWorks modules. ClarisWorks 2 and earlier did not have text-to-speech capabilities.

Published Date: Feb 18, 2012