How to Get Your MacBook to Talk to You
Sometimes when you have material to read on your Apple MacBook, you may not be able focus your attention on the screen because you're engaged in other tasks. You may also have difficulty seeing the words. Apple includes the "VoiceOver" feature on all recent MacBooks, which uses a synthesized voice to read text aloud. VoiceOver examines text one paragraph at a time, which helps it decipher the material more effectively than reading it one sentence or one word at a time, resulting in a more natural-sounding voice.
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Instructions
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Click the blue face icon on the Dock of your MacBook to switch to the Finder.
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Click the Apple logo in the upper left side corner of the Finder menu. Click "System Preferences."
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Click "Universal Access," then select "Seeing."
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Click to change the "VoiceOver" option to "On."
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Click the "VoiceOver" option button. This opens the "VoiceOver Utility" window, where you can make adjustments to the synthetic voice. Click the "Voices" tab, then click the "Voice" drop-down menu and select a voice such as "Victoria" or "Alex." Type a number in the boxes under "Rate," "Pitch," "Volume" or "Intonation" if you want to change these options settings. You can also click each option's "Up/Down" arrows repeatedly instead of typing in a number. Click the red circle in the upper left corner of the window to close it.
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Switch to an application that supports the VoiceOver feature, such as Apple's native TextEdit word processing software or the Safari Web browser. Click "File" from the application menu, then click "Open." Click the folder on your Mac containing the document you want to have read to you, then click the document to select it. Click "Open" to open the file. Otherwise, click "File," then click "New" to create a new blank document. Type some words you want VoiceOver to read.
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Click "Edit" on the application menu. Click "Speech," then select "Start Speaking." VoiceOver reads the text to you.
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Click "Edit," then "Speech" and "Stop Speaking" when you are finished using VoiceOver.
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Tips & Warnings
When you make adjustments with the VoiceOver Utility, click the "Up/Down" arrows next to an option to customize how a voice sounds. For example, click the "Rate" up arrow to increase how quickly the voice speaks, or press the "Rate" down arrow to slow down the voice. Click the up arrow under "Pitch" to make a voice higher in pitch, and click the down arrow to make the voice sound lower. Click the arrows under "Volume" to make the voice sound louder or softer. Click the arrows under "Intonation" up or down to adjust the tone of voice when VoiceOver reads text.
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