BrowseAloud is:
- Free to download
- Easy to use - just place your mouse-pointer on a page and Browsealoud starts reading!
Keep reading to find out more about:
- Voice control - you can control how BrowseAloud reads sites aloud
- Highlighting - BrowseAloud highlights the word and sentence it is reading aloud
- Continuous reading - BrowseAloud will keep reading a page until you tell it to stop
- Small download - BrowseAloud has a small firewall-friendly download
Voice control
You can control how BrowseAloud reads sites aloud. You can:
- Change the voice you are using
- Change the reading-speed of the chosen reading voice
- Define your own shortcuts/hotkeys to start and stop reading
- Re-define how words are pronounced
- Have the program start when the computer starts
Highlighting
BrowseAloud has a dual colour highlighting system - it highlights the section of the page being read and the particular word being read:
This means that you will always know:
- Which part of a page is being read
- Which word on a page is being read
- How much of a page remains to be read
Continuous reading
BrowseAloud will read a page until you tell it to stop. When you start using BrowseAloud, only the words under your mouse-pointer will be read aloud. But it is also easy to ask BrowseAloud to read a complete page to you
Small download
- The Browsealoud download is 14-15 MB
- The download is also specially-designed to be firewall-friendly
Customising speech
You can change the way BrowseAloud reads web pages and you can control your keyboard settings. You can do this using the Customise Speech tab in the BrowseAloud Options dialog box, which is shown below:
To customise speech:
1. Double-click
on the 
icon
in your system tray or right-click on this icon and select Open
BrowseAloud Options from the popup menu.
The BrowseAloud Options dialog box is displayed.
2. Click on the Customise Speech tab, which is shown above.
If you cannot see the Customise Speech tab, make sure the Show me more options check box is selected in the bottom left-hand corner of the BrowseAloud window.
3. If you want BrowseAloud to announce when it reaches a hyperlink whilst reading text, select the I want links to be identified check box. You can then specify exactly how you want hyperlinks to be identified, by entering the text you want to be read aloud when a hyperlink is identified, in the Hyperlink text field.
4. Select the I want to allow websites to choose custom voices check box if you want to allow a speech engine specifically selected for a website by the website designer to take preference over the speech engine you have selected in the Speech tab.
5. Select the Automatically read next sentence check box if you want BrowseAloud to continue reading the next sentence after it finishes reading the current sentence.
6. Click on the Change Word Pronunciations button to change the way BrowseAloud pronounces certain words. Click here for more information.
7. Click on the MP3 whole page if no selection check box to make an MP3 of a whole page if there is no text selected.
8. Specify whether or not you want to use the Ctrl key on your keyboard to stop and start speech, by (de)selecting the I want the CTRL key to stop and start speech check box.
9. Select the I want an alternative keypress to stop and start speech check box if you want to use a different combination of keys to start and stop speech. You can then click inside the Alternative keypress text box and then press the keys on your keyboard that you want to use to start and stop speech.
If you have selected the I want the CTRL key to stop and start
speech check box and also entered an alternative keypress for speech, you
can use either method to stop and start speech.
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If you are not happy with the new settings, click on the Program tab and select the Reset all defaults button to revert back to the original settings. If you click on this button, all of the options you have selected in the BrowseAloud Options dialog box will be replaced by the default settings. |
9. Click on the OK button to save the settings.
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