Read a PDF with Read Out Loud

I had heard that you could have Adobe Reader read a PDF to you, but I had not tried it until today.  The Read Out Loud feature reads aloud the text in a PDF document, including the text in comments and alternate text descriptions for images and fillable fields.  It uses the available voices installed on your system.  These voices may have been installed from text-to-speech or language applications, and you can choose them to read your PDFs by going to Edit>>Preferences.  Here you can stick with the default voice, or pick one of remaining voices.  You can also control pitch and speed settings directly below the voice choice.  This article published online by Adobe takes you through the steps.  After activating Read Out Loud, don't forget to go back to the View menu and click on Read Out Loud again, and choose whether you want it to read the entire document, or just the rest of the text left on the page. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 29, 2011 at 7:39 PM

    i have a default voice on my computer
    ( i checked ) but when i hit "activate Read out loud" its says"no US voice for this system" ....any help

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 16, 2012 at 8:48 AM

    I purchased an ebook in pdf format but dont know how to read it aloud on ipad...any advice for me???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark ReppAugust 16, 2012 at 12:11 PM

      I see two ways to do this on the iPad:

      1) Activate the built-in VoiceOver feature by going to Settings>>General>>Accessibility>>VoiceOver. Turn it On. This affects everything on your iPad though, not just the PDFs. You can vary the speaking rate in the settings. All icons will now need to be double-clicked with VoiceOver turned on, but your eBooks (in the iBooks app or anywhere else) can all be read aloud this way.

      2) If the first method is too awkward, try purchasing this $4.99 app called vBookz PDF Voice Reader U.S: http://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id497274026?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
      --It works well, although it is not free and it features a very robotic voice that may be hard to follow.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Keyboard Shortcuts: It All Depends on Context (A Deeper Dive)

Image
  Keyboard Shortcuts: It All Depends on Context (A Deeper Dive) It's true. I can write a full in-depth article on just about anything technology-related. Even something as seemingly straightforward as keyboard shortcuts. Who knew how complex this topic could be. You might have wondered why a shortcut like Ctrl+D does one thing in one app or extension, while the same shortcut does something completely different in another. Hopefully, I can shed some light on a bit of the keyboard shortcuts confusion. Here are some things to consider: 1. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D in Google Slides or PowerPoint, for example. If you're in Google Slides and you select a graphic object, you can press  Ctrl+D  and it will duplicate the object. This should work the same way for everyone. However, if you are not selecting an object in a slide, but are just in Filmstrip mode instead, pressing  Ctrl+D  will duplicate the slide. And, if you are not in Google Slides but on a random website, pressing Ct
Read more

Using Doctopus and Goobric to Manage Assessment in Google Classroom: A Step-by-Step Guide

Published in March 2016, this is one of my favorite posts from our Port Huron Schools EdTech Weebly blog .  What is a Doctopus, you ask? And for that matter, what is a Goobric? I'm so glad you asked. I took a lengthy look at both tools and put together this step-by-step guide/article that I hope will help teachers tie together three great Google student assessment and management tools: Google Classroom, Goobric (a Google online rubric) and student assignment submissions (linked through Doctopus) all in one place.  Here is the article:   ift.tt/1QVW54z   http:// fb.me/7DQ2ITOYU
Read more

Tech Tools to Organize Your Life

Image
On February 6th, I presented " Tech Tools to Organize Your Life " for the Computer Operators of Marysville (C.O.M.P.) in downtown Port Huron.  It had been a while since I'd seen this group.  The last time I presented for them, I was doing Tips & Tricks for Windows 7 .   Their web site is www.bwcomp.org if you want to check out this computer user group, now celebrating its 30th year in existence. This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office Web Apps .
Read more