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Text to Speech ScreenshotText to Speech  |  Download A text to speech extension with natural sounding voices.

Some of the important features of the Text to Speech addon are listed below. This is followed by an overview of this addon. This summary contains few words about the addon, its function, and its features. Next is FAQ, this section is useful to get information about how this addon works in your browser. If you couldn't find a specific answer, please fill the bug report form on this page or the contact form on the homepage to let us know about your question. Following the FAQ, is the bug report form. It is designed to collect user feedbacks and bugs about this addon. Users can suggest improvements or feature requests through this form too. The next section is for submitting comments about this addon which uses the Facebook comments plugin. The last section is dedicated to reports submitted through the GitHub website. We hope the information provided on this page, could help you get all the basics you need about this addon and enable you to have a better experience with Text to Speech.

In short, Text to Speech is a text to speech browser extension with natural sounding voices; it uses HTML5 TTS APIs. Please check the YouTube tutorial below to get an idea of how this addon works in your browser. If you want to contribute to the developement of this addon, please fork it on GitHub, and push your changes to a named branch. Moreover, you can review all the comments made on GitHub commits.

5 Reasons to Use Text to Speech

  • Easy one-click text-to-speech activation.

  • Auto detects source language (no need to set language each time).

  • Text-to-speech is enabled by holding "Alt", "T" or "Insert" key.

  • Highlights selected text while text-to-speech is running.

  • Support all browsers (Chrome, Firefox and Opera) and three platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac).

YouTube Tutorial

This video gives you an idea of how the extension works in your browser.

Matched Content

Overview

  • Progress in technology over the recent years has seen a number of innovations designed to help differently abled people function more successfully. The IT sector has grown by leaps and bounds, and developers have ensured that all audiences, including gifted persons, continue to enjoy complete access to the internet. Text to Speech (TTS) is one such innovation that has helped millions of people overcome difficult challenges and take a step closer to functioning normally. In order to encourage accessibility and engage all visitors to websites, an increasing number of publishers are now developing pages in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and other similar programs. Now that web content complies with these standards, a number of assistive technologies can be used to help visitors work well. One of these technologies is Google Text-to-Speech; an easy to install extension for Mozilla Firefox that auto detects a language and converts it to speech in natural sounding voices.

    Available with an easy one click install procedure, and by using JavaScript TTS API, this Text to Speech tool can be enabled by using your mouse and clicking on any word or sentence. Once active, it highlights selected text paragraph-by-paragraph and users are able to hear the content instantly. While it is still being developed, and functionality in other languages is just around the corner, the tool is excellent for covering all types of English articles and content. Currently, the supported languages by TTS Addon includes, Cantonese (Hong Kong), Chinese (China), Dutch, English (India), English (United Kingdom), English (United States), French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (United States) Thai (Thailand), and Turkish (Turkey). Some users have reported a limit error which requires Google TTS API to be restarted or the page to be refreshed. However, native HTML5 Text to Speech functionality is available to counter this issue. In order to enable HTML5 TTS, users should follow these steps. In Firefox, please go to "about:config" page. Then search for "webspeech" and locate "media.webspeech.synth.enables", then right click it and click Toggle to enable it. Despite this small issue in functionality, Google Text-to-Speech is ranked with 4 stars out of 5 in Mozilla Addon Store, and future updates promise to make this tool even more powerful.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • 1. What is Text-to-Speech (TTS)?

    Text to Speech (TTS) is a multi-browser addon that help you read any website, from a single words to multiple paragraphs, with natural sounding voices. Working with this addon is very intuitive and does support a variety of languages (for a detailed list, please read the description section.). In order to work with this addon, please open a website with text content. Select any desired text and then click on the activator icon (green icon on top of the selection). The addon will start the voice and the activator icon shows the progress. In order for the highlight feature to work properly, please select text paragraph-by-paragraph.

  • 2. Why text-to-speech is not working on my Opera?

    In order to enable text-to-speech feature in your browser, you need to have a media player plug-in (with mp3 support) installed on your Opera. Please follow this instruction to install QuickTime plug-in.

  • 3. How can I download the source code for Text to Speech?

    To download the source code for this extension from Chrome Web Store, it is recommended to use Extension Source Downloader. With this addon, you can download the source code as a ZIP or CRX format to your machine. If you want to download the source code from the Firefox addons store, please open the firefox download link (if available) in the Firefox browser and then right-click on the - Add to Firefox - button and select - Save Link As... - item. Choose the destination folder on your machine and then save the file in XPI format. You can then rename the XPI format to a RAR or ZIP file. Some extensions may have a GitHub repo address, which you can use to download the source code as well. But, it may not be the latest version of the addon. Therefore, downloading the source code from the official web stores is the best option as it always gives you the latest version of the addon.

  • 4. How can I work with this addon?

    As mentioned above, after the addon is added to your browser, please select any desired text. Then, when the activator icon appears, please click on play button. The addon will start the voice and the activator icon shows the progress. You can click on the pause button at any time. please note that, as mentioned above, in order for the highlight feature to work properly, please select text paragraph by paragraph.

  • 5. How can I choose a different TTS API?

    From version (0.1.8) and above, the addon uses only one TTS API (HTML5). This is because HTML5 TTS API is now improved and can handle text-to-speech much better that before. Moreover, it does not have any limitations.

  • 6. Does this addon works for words or sentences in the input or editable areas?

    Yes, it does work for all these fields, however this functionality is disabled by default. You need to open the options page and enable this settings. Please note that, when selecting words or sentences in input or editable areas you may see some errors or bugs.

  • 7. What are the other settings available in the addons options page?

    There are several other useful settings available for this addon. For example you can enable TTS with mouse double-click or just a text selection. There is also an option to hold - Alt - key while you select a word or sentence in order to enable this addon. There are two other options related to the small-bubble activator icon, which you can adjust from the options page.

  • 8. Does this addon work in all websites?

    Yes, it does work for all websites with the standard HTTP and HTTPS protocols. It is also fully compatible with the new versions of Opera and Firefox browsers including Firefox with web-extensions.

  • 9. Here are some tips for new users:

    Before using the extension, please make sure to visit the options page to adjust your settings.To access the options page, right-click on the extension icon and select options (Chrome and Opera). In Firefox head to Addons page and open the settings from there.Note that all changes in the options page are auto saved.To activate the extension after installation, please reload all your existing pages.

  • 10. Where can I find the privacy policy for Text to Speech?

    Please read the privacy policy for this extension here.

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Reporting Bugs

Your feedback goes a long way towards making this addon even better. With this feedback and bug report form, you can report bugs or suggest features/enhancements for the functionality or performance of this addon. Please note that this form will be sent to the developer(s) of this addon. You will not get an immediate or personal response at the moment. However, the developer(s) may contact you through the email address provided in this form for further clarifications or to request additional information regarding the reported bug(s).

If you want to rate or write a review for this addon in the official webstore, please press the - Rate this addon - button below.

Please enter the name of the extension (addon).

Please enter the current version of the extension.

Please be as specific as possible. Basically, describe what happened, what you were doing when it happened, and why you think it is a problem.

Describe the step-by-step process required to reproduce the issue you are reporting. Be specific when describing these steps by providing as much detail as possible.

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Reviews | Discussions

Please note: keep these reviews/discussions clean, and avoid the usage of derogatory or inappropriate language or terminology in references to individuals or groups based on race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, age, gender, etc. Do not submit bugs in your reviews, use the above bug-report section instead. Also, never post any personal information in these reviews.

GitHub Issues | Fork me on GitHub