Are you tired of reading long texts and articles on your Mac? Do you want to convert written content into spoken words? If so, setting up text-to-speech (TTS) on your Mac is a great solution. In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to set up TTS on your Mac.

Choosing the Right Voice

The first step in setting up TTS on your Mac is to choose the right voice. Apple provides a wide range of voices for different languages and regions. You can access these voices by going to System Preferences > Accessibility > Speech. Here, you'll see a list of available voices, including their language and region.

For example, if you want to use a Portuguese voice from Brazil, you can select 'Luciana (Enhanced), Portuguese (Brazil), pt-BR'. If you're looking for an English voice from the United States, you can choose 'Victoria, English (United States), en-US'.

Customizing Voice Settings

Once you've chosen your preferred voice, you can customize its settings to suit your needs. You can adjust the speech rate, pitch, and volume to create a more comfortable listening experience.

To access these settings, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Speech > Text to Speech. Here, you'll see options to adjust the speech rate, pitch, and volume of your chosen voice.

Enabling Text-to-Speech

After customizing your voice settings, it's time to enable TTS on your Mac. To do this, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Speech > Text to Speak. Check the box next to 'Speak selected text when the key is pressed' or use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + H.

With TTS enabled, you can convert written content into spoken words by selecting the text and pressing the specified key combination.

Using Text-to-Speech with Different Languages

Apple's TTS feature also supports multiple languages. If a story contains multiple languages, the dominant language will be used to select an appropriate voice. Each story will be read in the next available language from your chosen voice library.

For example, if you have stories in both English and French, the TTS feature will use a French voice (such as Aurelie) to read the French content, followed by an English voice (such as Victoria) to read the English content.

Setting up text-to-speech on your Mac is a simple process that requires minimal effort. By choosing the right voice and customizing its settings, you can create a more comfortable listening experience. With TTS enabled, you can convert written content into spoken words with ease, making it easier to read long texts and articles.

How to set up text to speech on mac