How to Activate Text to Speech in Mac OS X

So you want your Mac to read something to you? Read more to find out how.

Method 1
Method 1 of 3:

Setting The Voice

  1. Image titled Activate Text to Speech in Mac OSx Step 1
    1
    Open System Preferences.
  2. Image titled Activate Text to Speech in Mac OSx Step 2
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    Click on Speech.
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  3. Image titled Activate Text to Speech in Mac OSx Step 3
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    Click on the text to speech tab.
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    4
    Click on system voice.
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    5
    Click on More Voices.
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    6
    Click on the voice that you would like to try out.
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    7
    Click on the play button. Make sure that the volume is high.
  8. Image titled Activate Text to Speech in Mac OSx Step 8
    8
    Select the Voice that you like
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Method 2
Method 2 of 3:

The Shortcut Way

  1. Image titled Activate Text to Speech in Mac OSx Step 9
    1
    Open System Preferences/Speech/Text to Speech.
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    2
    Check Speak Selected Text When Key is Pressed.
    • A box will appear.
  3. Image titled Activate Text to Speech in Mac OSx Step 11
    3
    Press the key-combination that you would like to use.
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    4
    Select the text you would like to have read.
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    Press the key-combination that you have set.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 3:

The Right-Click Way

  1. Image titled Activate Text to Speech in Mac OSx Step 14
    1
    Select the text that you would like to have read.
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    2
    Right Click on it and click on the sub-menu called Speech.
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    3
    Click on Start Speaking.
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    Can it read text in reverse?
    Michael Everman
    Michael Everman
    Community Answer
    It probably can, but it won't sound like it would if it was reversed normally. Try recording it forward and rewinding the clip.
  • Question
    How to pause text to speech on Mac?
    Mastermind91
    Mastermind91
    Community Answer
    Navigate to the text you wish to read, and VoiceOver will start to read it. Press Ctrl and the reading will pause.
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Warnings

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About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 11 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 245,565 times.
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Co-authors: 11
Updated: July 6, 2021
Views: 245,565
Categories: Mac OS X
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