The Talking Text for Windows

There are several parts to the talking Text:

(1) The talking part is able to load any rich text file (.rtf) or using the clipboard it allows you to paste any text into it.  To convert any book, document, etc. into the rich text file you may open the book in a word processor such as Microsoft Word 2000 and use the "Save As" and choose Rich Text File in the "Save as Type" textbox and give the file a name in the "File Name" textbox.  

An example of a rich text file is the book " The Wizard of Oz" by by L. Frank Baum which you can download from this site.  Just click here. (208 kB). Other .rtf books will include pictures which works fine in this program.  Many of these books can be downloaded for free from the Internet.

In all parts of the Talking Text there is a choice of 11 different voices, each in various speeds, various pitches, and a range of loudness (volume).  The talking can be stopped.  In the gender section of the menu.

You can start the voice reading anywhere in the text that you place the cursor.  As the voice reads the words are highlighted in the color of your choice (or no color by choosing black).  Anytime you can go to the beginning of the text, or to the end of the text, or forward about half a page or backward about a half a page.  You can also pause the talking and then resume when you are ready.  Also you can stop the talking or change the voice.  Any of these changes will stop the text -- just type the "Read (F1)" button and the reading will continue.  
There is usually a small delay when changing the voice speed, pitch, and volume before it actually happens.  One way of making it immediate is to click the voice in the gender menu, even if you click the same voice you were using.
The Function keys (F1, F2, etc.) can also be used for many of these functions.

As the text is read the number of characters from the beginning is continuously shown.  By clicking on the "Say Speed" button another voice will tell you the speed, pitch and loudness numbers of the present setting. 

By highlighting a word or a few words, then clicking the "Spell Highlighted Text" will prompt the voice to spell the word(s).

The screen font, font size, etc. can be changed anytime using the Font menu.  Also the printer font.  You can print all or selected highlighted parts of the text by using  "print" in the File menu.  

Information repeats this page.  The Author part of the Information menu will give some of my personal things, by showing and spoken.

By clicking "Music of the Words and Find" menu item will open 2 more windows for (1) playing the music equivalent of the characters of the text.  (2) finding any chosen text in the main text and also give the number of these starting either from the beginning or wherever the cursor is. 

In all parts of the Talking Graphing Calculator it is easy to select all, copy, cut, paste, or delete by highlighting and clicking the right mouse button in the box you want.

(2) Music and Sound part of the Talking Text:

For fun:  The text from the main window can be quickly copied to the music and find window by clicking the "Transfer Text" button.  By clicking the "Play Music ..." button the music will start at the beginning whenever you click the transfer button or start wherever the cursor is.  You have a choice of each letter being one note or a combination of 2 letters being one note.  Multiplying by some number you enter for either way will give a different melody.  If the resulting note number (which is shown) is too high you will not hear it -- so adjusting the times numbers will make quite a difference.  As the music plays the letters will be highlighted with the color of your choice.  You can also add typing to the text to make up your own music. 

The screen font can be changed using the menu.

To find letter or word combinations you type the ones you want into the "Find" textbox, then click the "Find" button.  To find the next ones click it again.  The find starts wherever the cursor is or by clicking the transfer button it will start at the beginning.  The number of occurrences are shown. 

By clicking the "Total Number of ..." button you will see the total number of characters in the text.  The number of the character the note is using is also shown.

You can stop the music anytime.  In the Sound Production Window you can vary the musical instrument, the volume, the beginning octave, how much sound is coming from the right and left speakers, and the speed of the music (by varying the pause time between notes -- this may vary for different computers).  Also you can check the notes from 0 to 140 by clicking the "Play it" button.

This is a production of Orland Hooge, Chilliwack, B.C., Canada.  This is version 1.  This calculator can easily be expanded to include many more functions and generally improved.  Likely I will add graphs for different levels of integration and differentiation.  I would be most interested in any suggestions.  My e-mail address is
ohooge@shaw.ca

Click here to download the Talking Text.zip (38 kB)

You must also download the Patch file and place it in the same file as the Talking Text.

Another talking program is my Talking Graphing Calculator program that can be downloaded from:
http://members.shaw.ca/omjhooge/welcome.html