Mac Text to Speech
See below for more information on these text to speech options for Mac:
Mac Text to Speech
Microsoft Edge Read Aloud
NaturalReader
Read&Write
Mac Text to Speech
To activate Mac Text to Speech:
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Open System Preferences, click Accessibility, then Speech. (If you are not running the latest Mac operating system then you will click System Preferences > Dictation & Speech > Speech).
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Select the "Speak selected text when the key is pressed" checkbox. You can accept the default key combination or choose your own by clicking Change Key.
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Select the text you want to hear (from a .pdf, text file, email, website, etc.) and press the key combination to have your Mac start speaking. Press the key combination again to stop text to speech.
This video demonstrates how to activate and use the text to speech utility on a Mac.
Microsoft Edge Read Aloud
Use the Read Aloud function in the Microsoft Edge Browser to hear any webpage or PDF read out load while following along with the words on the screen.
Natural Reader for Mac
NaturalReader is a downloadable text-to-speech desktop software with natural-sounding voices that can read to you any text such as Microsoft Word files, webpages, PDF files, and E-mails.
Free and premium versions are available.
Read&Write
Read&Write is a toolbar that sits atop the screen so that text from various applications can be read aloud. A free 30 day trial of the program is available. Once the 30 days have elapsed, the premium features will be deactivated but the text to speech function will continue to work.