gbSpeakClipboard

[Gary Beene]

This thread is for discussion of a small utility I wrote to read text from the screen. It's a popup style dialog (no border) with a single button to click.

The Source Code forum thread is here.

To use gbSpeakClipboard, a user selects and copies the text, then presses gbSpeakClipboard to have the text read out loud. Click the button again to stop speaking. Right-click to close.

They can use any method of selecting and copying the text that they are familiar with. Generally, I use the mouse to select the text and Ctrl-C to copy it.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

[Gary Beene]

An update to consider is to modify the app so that it is in the chain of clipboard viewers, so that when the user copies new content to the clipboard, that the new text is automatically read out loud.

It would annoy me to have that happen automatically. But if you are a user with vision problems, then avoiding the extra steps to select/copy the text might be preferred.

[Gary Beene]

I just ran across an article at LifeHacker mentions two other apps ... ClipSpeak and Speak Clipboard. I missed those when I was searching around last night.

There's also ClipTalk

And there is TalkingClipboard

Apparently I just wasn't using the right search terms last night.

With all the new ease-of-use stuff Win10 has, I'm surprised this is not already built into Win10.

[Gary Beene]

A system shortcut to start up gbSpeakClipboard, speak the content, then close the app would be another variation. However, I noticed that the SAPI initialization had a noticeable lag before speech would start. So I did not go that route.

[Mike Doty]

Very, very nice. No suggestions.

[Tim Lakinir]

Gary, it is a very good program but maybe place the program off screen and be display on the taskbar only. so that this will free the desktop screen from clutter.
Kinda of running in the background and only be displayed on the taskbar ( fully minimized into the tray)

Another suggestion, if we are use this program in conjunction with a silent video, and inorder to incorporate voice into the video, we need to be able to write
a <pause for 20 sec> into the clipboard so that it can generate voice that runs in tandem with the display video. We should have some kinda of pause
(measurable in secs) so that it rhyme with the video?

[Gary Beene]

Howdy, Tim!

Thanks for the comment. However, it is intended for folks who are legally blind. They cannot see the icons on the toolbar, much less the icons in the system tray. So I'll want to keep the icon on the desktop, over all other apps. In the next release, I'll likely make the dialog even larger for better visibility.

I like the concept of a pause, although that would not apply for pre-existing test, such as content of a document or a web page - because they don't have built-in pause information.

The app is designed to take what the clipboard has on it, so you're talking about creating some original test before putting it on the clipboard, yes?

What will the text you copy look like? Something like this would be easy to parse, where a ">>>Ns>>>" structure is used to specify a pause of N seconds

This is a sample text to demonstrate pauses >>>20s>>> that Tim has suggested. >>>5s>>> It specifies pauses at the location of the triple-GT symbols.

You'd just have to make sure the text you want spoken does not otherwise use the triple-GT symbols.

[Tim Lakinir]

Howdy Gary, yup use the triple GT symbols to indicate a pause in secs would be great

There should be a setting option to allow minimization to the tray. place in this option will further enhance your app. You must have some kinda of initial settings
to satisfy a diverse group of users. The world is a great mix of people, as variety is a spice of life!

[Mark Bullivant]

Excuse this pun, but everyone has twenty-twenty vision this year.

[Michael Mattias]

Excuse this pun,

No. Some things are inexcusable.