Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I am using Mac OpenOffice 4.1.1 on Mt. Lion 10.8.5
Is there a way to use the Text to Speech on the Writer? I use TTS all the time on the internet, TextEdit, etc. but I can't get it to work on the Writer text. Oh, it will tell me the title of a page, but that's all. TTS works with the same key options, but only for the Text Document's title.

Is there an answer that will help me be able to read the Text Document typed words?

Would really appreciate the help.

Trish

While I don't have an answer, I might have a work around... or at least it's one that works for me on my Windows system.
Here is the work around that I use, if you want to give it a try.
1) Save/export the document to a PDF file
2) Using Adobe Acrobat open the PDF file
3) In Adobe Acrobat select View -> Read Out Loud -> Activate Read Out Loud (Ctrl+Shift+Y)
4) Choose one of the following:
4a) Select View -> Read Out Loud -> Read to End of Document (Ctrl+Shift+B)
4b) Select View -> Read Out Loud -> Read this Page Only (Ctrl+Shift+V)
5) If you select 4b and there are multiple pages to be read, you'll have to do that step again for each page.

This is almost certainly a problem with Mac, and not with Writer, and best asked at Apple.

Have you tried selecting the text, then asking for it to be spoken? See Apple support OS X Mountain Lion: Hear your computer speak text which says

Use the key

To have the computer start speaking, press the specified key. To stop the speaking, press the key again.

If text is selected when you press the key, the selected text is spoken. Otherwise, available text items in the current window are spoken; for example, if Mail is the current window, a message is read. If no text items are available, you hear a beep sound effect.

That suggests to me that when no text is selected, Writer makes the document title available to Text to Speech (which is a sensible thing to do).

If this solves the problem, please edit your original post title to [Solved].

I'm having a similar problem, except text-to-speech is only reading one paragraph at a time no matter how many I highlight. I don't think it's a problem with my Mac because it doesn't happen with a .rtf file in TextEdit. I'm using the newest version of OpenOffice along with Yosemite OS. Any advice?

I don't have an Apple so I can only suggest a diagnostic route for you to follow.

1 Check all the text to speech settings on the Apple.

2 Is there a limit on the length of a paragraph which can be read? Add words and check.

3 Take a paragraph which does read OK and split it into two. Does it now read both?

4 Is it formatting? Copy several paragraphs which read OK when in TextEdit and paste them into an empty odt file using Edit > Paste special > Unformatted text. The text should be pasted in with no formatting and, as it was an empty odt file, there will be no other formatting to interfere.

5 Do you have any clipboard monitors / save clipboard history running? These can cause funnies with AOO. Disable them (see 6 below ...)

6 Does Apple have a SAFE MODE start where only essential stuff is started and nothing else? If so, try it. Does it work OK now? If so, one of the non-started applications was probably causing it.

7 Disable all the AOO Add-ons / extensions. Does it now work?

8 Search the Apple forum for posts about text to speech and/or or google with text to speech apple paragraphs or similar.

It's me, Patt, again still trying to figure out why I cannot use the Mac Text to Speech option with OpenOffice #4. Oddly, my husband has no problem on his Mac using Snow Leopard and the same Open Office. I just noticed this today. Googled, and came up with my own question. Forgot to mention, the Mac Text to speech works just fine on anything else, even PDFs.

Since your husband doesn't have a problem, then the problem lies in somedifference between what is on your system and what is on your husband's.
From what I can see, the main difference is that you're using Mt. Lion and your husband is using Snow Leopard... thus the problem lies in the OS not AOO.

Did you try the suggestions made between your two posts?

Edit: Since you state it works with PDF then my earlier suggestion is a valid workaround

I tried as many suggestions as I could from the plethora of suggestions above. I'm sure you are correct, it must be the Mac's problem. I took a chance and downloaded LibreOffice; Text to Speech now works the same as it does on TextEdit, the internet, and PdF. Thanks for all the help, I mean that sincerely. OpenOffice is a really fine product.

Patt

This is my workaround but...wow
I highlight, copy and paste into a gmail. Then highlight, right click, speach, start speaking.
Any online field works, including this comment field if I wanted.
Can't wait till this gets working. ) :

Since I am using this feature to edit text (when it's read aloud it helps me catch errors), creating a PDF seems like a rather awkward work-around. Curiously, I was using this feature earlier successfully a month or two ago, and have no idea why it broke. BTW, I've never been able to get it to read more than a paragraph at a time, but that works for my purposes.

I tried the "Preview in web browser" feature (under the File menu), which strikes me as a better work-around -- it was very fast, the selected text was properly read alound, and no need to clutter up my computer with extra PDF files.

However, when I then returned to the Open Office document, the read-selected-text feature suddenly began working again! Voila!


OO 4.1.7, Mac OSX Sierra 10.12.6