eLearning and Other Text-to-Speech Tools

Don't have the budget, time or voice, in your opinion, to record audio for your elearning project or other presentation?

Adobe Captivate
Includes a text-to-speech function that allows seamless narration without having to do any recording. It allows you to select a female voice (Kate), male voice (Paul) or a voice from Loquendo to automatically narrate tex for each individual slide.

• Captivate 4 introduces Text-to-Speech (video) http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/captivate/videos/texttospeech/index.htm
• Captivate 5 Text-to-Speech Enhancements (Step-by-step guide)
  http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2010/07/text_to_speech_in_adobe_captiv.html

TechSmith Camtasia Studio
Adds a new feature called Speech-To-Text which utilizes Microsoft speech engine.

• Overview, Training and Tips for Using Text-to-Speech with Camtasia http://techsmith.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2935/~/camtasia-studio%3A-speech-to-text-usage-overview

Articulate Presenter
Provides option to import audio, which can be produced by any of the text-to-speech tools:

• http://www.naturalreaders.com/ NaturalReader can convert any written text into audio files such as MP3 or WAV.
• http://www.yakitome.com/ Upload documents, cut and paste text or paste link to feeds for automatic speech conversion.
• http://www.espeak.sourceforge.net/ eSpeak is a compact open source software that produces WAV files in optional Voices, whose characteristics can be altered.

• http://www.spokentext.com/ Convert PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, and web pages to speech automatically. Download your reccordings as .mp3 or .m4b (Audio Book) files.