Text to Speech Hot Key - Read Highlighted Text Only
Hi there,
I'd like to follow up about my inquiry to include a feature on Narrator to read highlighted text only by pressing a hot key. This feature does not currently exist, but instead, Narrator reads off all sorts of content which is distracting. I simply need to be able to highlight text, press a hot key, and have that text read without the distracting announcements that Narrator produces each time you switch windows, select content, etc. I work on secure computers that don't allow plug-ins or the adding of additional software to enable this capability, and would greatly appreciate some help. The incident number is 1498702417. This request for changes to the software was sent to the engineering team to address. Can you please advise on the progress of this?
It may be that this capability needs to be built outside of the Narrator software as a general hotkey within Windows to allow users the ability to hear text who don't need all the functions of Narrator. Thanks so much for your help.
Please see the following information on how this is achieved on a Mac: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/have-your-mac-speak-text-thats-on-the-screen-mh27448/mac
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With the new Magnifier Reader you will be able to customize the speed of the reader voice in the Settings for the Reader, and you can also press Ctrl + Alt + Left Mouse Click to have the Reader read from your cursor.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions or feedback.
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Anonymous
commented
That's great to hear thank you. If possible, could you please let the software developers know that it would be very helpful to 1) be able to speed up and slow down the reader voice, and 2) program a hotkey to quickly prompt the computer to read the highlighted text while navigator runs in the background, rather than having to highlight the text and click back to the navigator screen to press a button to prompt the reading. Thank you so much for your time and help, I really appreciate it!
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Yes the Magnifier Reader will be able to read PDF's and online content. It will be released in the Windows 10 May 2020 Update, but we don't have an official release date at this time. Please continue to leave your feedback here and upvote posts that you agree with.
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Anonymous
commented
Thank you, that's great news. Will this tool also read text in PDFs and online content? Do you know when it will be released?
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Thanks for sharing this feedback with us. For the Windows 10 Spring 2020 Update the engineering team is developing a Magnifier Reader that doesn't have the full function of a screen reader. Here's a blog post from the Insider Team with additional details (https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2019/08/07/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-18956/). "Magnifier reading now supports 3 new ways to start reading: Press the play button to start reading from the top of content, or selected text if text was selected, or press the read from here button then click where you want to start reading. Note that this experience works with apps with large content like Edge, Word, Mail, etc. Known issue: Play from top may not work at times and you will hear “cannot read from here.”
