iSpeak It version 1.1
January 13, 2003

It's a common problem, you have so much to read but not enough time to read it all. Well, now you don't have to. With iSpeak It you can take any document and convert it into an MP3 in iTunes using your Mac's built-in text-to-speech capabilities. From there you can listen to it at your leisure or, better yet, transfer it to your iPod and listen to it on the go!

iSpeak It lets you create and edit plain text documents. It also provides powerful mechanisms for loading text into a document. You can load an existing PDF, Word, AppleWorks, RTF, text, or HTML file. You can also download news, weather forecasts and driving directions. And if that wasn't enough you can always copy and paste any text from web pages, your e-mail messages, etc. 

What's New
You can now load PDF, Word and AppleWorks documents in addition to text, HTML and RTF documents. All file types are available through the Load File option.

Note that PDF requires Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader) and Word and AppleWorks documents require their respective applications. If the applications are not present you won't be able to load the files.

Minimum Requirements
● Mac OS X version 10.2 or higher
● Web Services require an Internet connection

Installation
To install this software, drag the application icon to your Applications folder (or wherever you'd like to keep it). You can then eject and discard the disk image.

Getting Started
You can open any text document or copy and paste any text into a new document. For example, if you have a web page that you don't have time to read just copy it into iSpeak It and transfer it to iTunes (and your iPod) to listen to later. iSpeak It provides the ability to load any text, RTF or HTML file into the current document. In addition, you can download news, weather and driving directions -- now you can listen to the directions as you drive instead of trying to read them while on a busy highway. A toolbar provides easy access to all of the load menu options and the transferring of a document to iTunes.

Before transferring any text, use the Speech panel in the System Preferences to select the voice to use during conversion. iSpeak It uses the voice and settings you define here for all of its processing. Experiment with the voices to see which sounds best for you -- I would suggest trying Victoria.

iSpeak It also provides advanced text replacement capabilities. You'll find that there are a number of phrases that your Mac will not convert properly. iSpeak It allows you to define rules that identify problem words and an appropriate (phonetically correct) replacement for them. It will even automatically apply the rules before transferring a document to iTunes.

Purchasing iSpeak It
I'm not going to force you to pay for iSpeak It. I have put a lot of effort into it and if you find yourself using it on a regular basis please consider paying for it. I'm asking $8.95. Payments can be made through PayPal to the account registered under mzapp@mac.com (there's a single click button at www.zapptek.com/ispeak-it/).

Contact
If you have any comments or suggestions you can contact me via e-mail at mzapp@mac.com.

All Material and Software © 2002-2003 Michael Zapp / All Rights Reserved