TextEdit, the text editor built into Mac OS X, includes a text to speech feature that will read back any text you type into the editor. Using the Services feature built into Mac OS X, you can use the text to speech built into TextEdit to create a recording of your text you can play in iTunes or on your iPod.
- Services Video Tutorial
- Video Tutorial: Bigger Version (.mov, 5 MB)
- Directions (HTML)
- Print Directions (Tagged PDF)
To use Services to create a recording of a text file:
- Open TextEdit and choose TextEdit, Services, Services Preferences. This will open the Keyboard Shortcuts pane of the Keyboard preferences.
- With Services selected on the left side of the pane, scroll down on the right side of the window and check the box next to the Text category.
- Close the Keyboard preferences window.
- Select the text for your recording in TextEdit and choose TextEdit, Services, Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track. iTunes will open in the background and your recording will show up in an album called Text to Speech. Double-click on this album to open it and play your recording.
To use the text to speech to hear your text without recording it, choose Edit, Speech, Start Speaking in TextEdit (choose Edit, Speech, Stop Speaking when you’re done).
