15.6. VoiceOver

15.5. The Mac Reads to You

So far in this chapter, you've read about the Mac's listening ability. But the conversation doesn't have to be one-way; it's even easier to make the Mac talk .

Figure 15-14. For 15 minutes of hilarity, try clicking the Mac's voices in turn (or press the up and down arrow keys) to hear a sample sentence spoken in that voice. Drag the slider to affect how fast he or she speaks. (Clearly, Apple's programmers had some fun with this assignment.)

Some Mac OS X programs come with their own built-in speaking features. For example, Mail can read your messages aloud ; just Control-click inside a message window and, from the pop-up menu, choose Speech Start Speaking. Most Cocoa programs can speak when you use the Start Speaking Text command in the Services menu (Section 5.9.3.13). You can add a Speak Text button in AppleWorks, or add a Speak command in FileMaker Pro scripts. Tiger's Chess and Calculator programs can talk back, too.

But that's kid stuff. Truth is, the Mac can read almost anything you like: text that you pass your cursor over, alert messages, menus , and any text document in any program . It can speak in your choice of 22 synthesizer voices, ages 8 to 50. The Mac's voice comes out of its speakers , reading with a twangy, charmingly Norwegian accent .

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Note: This reading-text business is not the same thing as Tiger's new VoiceOver feature. VoiceOver is designed to read everything on the screen, including pop-up menus, buttons , and other controls, to visually impaired Mac fans (and to permit complete control, mouse-free, of everything). Details begin on Section 15.5.1.1.

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15.5.1. Setting Up the Mac's Voice

To configure the way the Mac talks, revisit the Speech pane of System Preferences. Click the Text to Speech tab at the top of the window. As you can see in Figure 15-14, you can control which of the Mac's voices you want your computer to use, as well as how fast it should speak.

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Tip: Five of the voices sing rather than speak. Good News sings to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance," otherwise known as the Graduation March. Bad News sings to the tune of the Chopin Prelude in C minor , better known as the Funeral March. Cellos sings to the tune of Grieg's "Peer Gynt" suite. Pipe Organ sings to the tune of the Alfred Hitchcock TV theme. Bells sings the typical church -bell carillon melody.In other words, these voices sing whatever words you type to those melodies. (To hear the melody in its entirety, don't use any punctuation.)

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GEM IN THE ROUGH
Talking to Chess

If your friends and co-workers are, for some reason, still unimpressed by Mac OS X and your mastery of it, invite them over to watch you play a game of chess with your Mac ”by talking to it.

(Actually, this feature isn't purely for entertainment: Some chess players prefer to move without looking at the board. By speaking their moves to the computer ” and having the computer respond by speaking its own moves ”these people can play "blindfolded.")

Open the Chess program, which is described on Section 10.5. unless you've turned it off (in Chess Preferences), the game's speech-recognition feature is already turned on. When it's on, the round Feedback window should be visible onscreen.

To learn how to speak commands in a way that Chess will understand, click the small gray triangle at the bottom of the Speech Feedback window to open the Speech Commands window. As usual, it lists all the commands that Chess can comprehend.

You specify the location of pieces using the grid of numbers and letters that appears along the edges of the chessboard. The white king, for example, starts on square e1 because he's in the first row (1) and the fifth column (e). To move the king forward by one square, you'd say: "King e1 to e2."

As the Speech Commands window should make clear, a few other commands are at your d isposal. "Take back move" is one of the most useful. When you're ready to close in for the kill, the syntax is: "Pawn e5 takes f6."

And smile when you say that.

Here are all the different occasions when the Mac can talk to you.

15.5.1.1. Announce when alerts are displayed

If you turn on this checkbox, you can make the Mac read aloud error messages and alert messages that may appear on your screen. If you click the Set Alert Options button, you find these useful controls:

• Voice . Use this pop-up menu to specify the voice you want reading your error messages. (It doesn't have to be the same as the standard Mac default voice that's used for other purposes.)

• Phrase . Use this pop-up menu to specify which utterance the Mac speaks before the actual error message ”for example, " Excuse me ! The Trash could not be emptied" or " Attention ! The document could not be printed."

  If you choose "Next in the phrase list" or "Random from the phrase list" from this pop-up menu, you'll never hear the same expletive twice. Better yet, choose Edit Phrase List to open a dialog box where you can specify your own words of frustration. (Apple Computer, Inc. is not liable for any trouble you may get into with people in neighboring cubicles.)

• Delay . The ostensible purpose of the Talking Alerts feature is to get your attention if you've wandered away from your Mac ”mentally or physically. The chances are slim, but an urgent problem might occur that, if left undetected, could land you in trouble. (A 500-page printout brought to its knees by a paper jam comes to mind.)

  In other words, if you're still sitting in front of your Mac, you may not need the Mac to speak to get your attention; you could simply read the onscreen message. That's why you can set this slider to make the Mac wait, after the error message appears, for up to a minute before trying to flag you with its voice. That way it won't harangue you unnecessarily. (Click Play for a sense of how long the Mac will delay before speaking.)

UP TO SPEED
For Laptop Lovers Only

Tons of the special VoiceOver keystrokes require the use of an F-key (like F2 or F5). If you have a PowerBook or iBook, though, the F-keys come wired to functions like adjusting the speaker volume or screen brightness. The VoiceOver keystrokes won't work, in other words, unless you also press the Fn key at the lower-left corner of the keyboard.

If remembering to add Fn becomes a hassle (or you don't have enough fingers), open the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences. Click the Keyboard tab, and turn on "Use the F1 “F12 keys to control software features."

15.5.1.2. Announce when an application requires your attention

A jumping Dock icon means that the program is trying to get your attention. It might be because your printer is out of paper, or it might be because you've tried to shut down but one program still has open, unsaved documents. In any case, now the Mac can tell you, in so many words, which program needs some loving care.

15.5.1.3. Speak selected text when the key is pressed

As promised , this is the feature that lets you hear any Web page read to you, any email message, any sticky note ”a welcome break for sore eyes. Furthermore, if you do any kind of writing at all, you'll discover the value of having your material read back to you out loud; it's a proofreading technique that reveals all kinds of typos and wordos that you wouldn't catch just by reading, even if you read it 50 times.

The very first time you turn on this checkbox, the Mac prompts you to specify a keystroke. (Later, you can always change the keystroke by clicking Set Key.) Choose a keystroke that doesn't conflict with the program you're using, like Control-T.

Now go to the program where you'd like the reading to happen. Highlight some text (or press c-A to select all of it). Then press the keystroke you specified. The Mac begins reading it aloud immediately. To interrupt the playback, press the same keystroke again.

And be glad you were alive to see the day.

Figure 15-15. As you press Control-Option and the arrow keys, a thick black border ”the VoiceOver cursor ”identifies whatever VoiceOver is currently pronouncing. When it lands on a menu or pop-up menu you'd like to open, press the Space bar; VoiceOver opens the menu so that you can sonically explore it using the down-arrow key.

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Tip: If you have an iPod, don't forget that your Mac can convert any text or word processing document into a spoken recording, so that you can listen to it when you're on the go. Details on Section 8.4.1.13.

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