How to Make Your Mac Speak Any Text You Want

If you don't use the Universal Access features on your Mac you might not know that your computer is able to read text back to you. This can be a fun feature to play around with or an essential tool for visually impaired Mac users. You can make your Mac speak text from the command line or from a text file.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• A Mac running MacOS X
• Access to the Terminal application

1. Launch the Terminal application in the Utilities folder, which is in the Applications folder.

2. Type the following command into the Terminal:

   say

   Follow it with the text you want spoken. Then hit "Return." The computer will say the text after the command.

3. Type the following command

   say -f ~/Desktop/test.txt

   Replace Desktop/test.txt with the file path of a file you want read aloud. Hit "Return."

Tips & Warnings

• This can be a lot of fun with a remote Mac that you already have access to, especially if you know that someone is currently using it.

• The Speech option in your System Preferences (found in the dock) gives you many voice options if you don't like the computer's default voice.