Read Text 0.8.72

All

• On supported platforms, the first time you select text and click the toolbar button, the extension reads the selected text aloud using default settings instead of showing a dialogue. This makes it quicker and easier for new users to get started.

• Bug fixes and performance improvements.

• On supported platforms, enable export of x-sampa or ipa International Phonetic data using an XML format. The World Wide Web Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) is a standard way to describe pronunciation. For example, accessible ePub books can use PLS files to help reading systems pronounce uncommon words, place names and personal names correctly.

  • The PLS uses alias to refer to a sequence of words. For example, writers can use “W3C” to mean “World Wide Web Consortium”.

  • The W3C Pronunication Lexicon Specification uses phoneme to refer to an alternate spelling that uses a phonetic code.

    • IPA uses /ˈkænjən/ for canyon. The strings can include special reserved IPA characters.

    • X-SAMPA uses ["k{J@n] for canyon. The strings use standard ASCII code.

  • Specific language models might only support phonemes that are widely used in the language. As a result, they might not be able to pronounce some words correctly.

  • Specific language models might require a specific phonetic code - like IPA or X-SAMPA.

  • Each exported XML file includes only one regional pronunciation. Editors and publishers can optionally edit the file to specify pronunciation of specific words for other regions using a code editor.

MacOS

The MacOS system allowed access to the phoneme editor even when phoneme substitution was not available using the default osascript scripting language. Now the extension disables right-click access to editing phonemes from the tools button of the About dialog if python3 is not enabled.

• MacOS only supports phonemic substitution if python3 is enabled in the main dialog. Some MacOS users might need to agree to the current “Xcode and Apple SDKs license” to use some features of this extension that use python code. You can view and agree or reject the Apple license agreement by entering the following in a terminal window: sudo xcodebuild -license.

• Editing and using phonemic substitution requires you to enable/usr/bin/python3 in the external program field of the main dialog of the extension dialog instead of the default /usr/bin/osascript.

Windows

• The file dialog for the saving a phoneme file did not suggest a file name. It now suggests a file name.

• The extension can use StarBasic to generate SAPI text to speech if the Windows system wscript.exe program is not available.

Linux

Make it easier to add and select piper-tts voice models. Piper replaces Larynx, because Larynx contributors can no longer update Larynx code.

• The main menu includes some suggested voices for different languages.

• When piper-tts is available, the main menu includes a menu item to update piper-tts metadata to include new languages and voices.

read_text_2023.10.20_04.03a.oxt

Version 0.8.73

Works with Apache OpenOffice 4.1

read_text_2023.10.20_04.03.oxt

Version 0.8.72

Works with LibreOffice 7 and OpenOffice.org 3.4