Microsoft’s Jay Waltmunson sent me “Text-to-Speech” samples from the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

Click to listen to:  

SAMPLE #1 – Windows Vista “Anna”

 

SAMPLE #2 – Windows XP “Sam” (for comparison)

 

SAMPLE #3 – Research Project: "Whistler" has Mark SINGING Penny Lane and a duet with Melanie SINGING Unexpected Song. 

PREVIOUSLY there were only a few “Text-to-Speech” options: 

Windows – Turn-On Narrator and have Windows Announce Various Events.

 

Office – Unfortunately, only previous versions of Excel could “talk to you” – as well as “force” the other Office programs to speak.  

TODAY there are many (easy to use) solutions available: 

OFFICE 2003’s built-in Language Toolbar allows all Office programs to easily use “Text-to-Speech” technology. 

1. <Right-Click> on the Window's Toolbar, from Toolbars, select Language Bar
   
   
2. From now on: simply highlight the text you wish read, then from the Language Bar click on the “Speak Text” icon!  (Great when proofing a Word document, or you want an Outlook email read aloud.)

 

WINDOWS SPEECH TOOLS (GOODIES) 

MS-Agents components provide animated characters to appear during specific help or instruction. (Support FAQ)

UPDATED CHARACTERS!

• Genie
• Merlin
• Peedy
• Robby  

eBooks Reader offers a digital version of printed (text-to-speech) books offered by many book publishers and sold by popular online retailers. 

 

NEW & TOO COOL! DeskBot (based upon MS-Agents) can read text in ANY application (even with Internet Explorer!). Just highlight the text and double click the MS-Agent character. Additional Microsoft SAPI 4.0 Voices. (Thanks again Jay)

 

FOR DEVELOPERS 

• (Remember this development is not trivial; it must work for multiple languages!)