When you struggle to write, you might want to stretch or go for a walk, stand instead of sit, or vice versa. Sometimes you might even want to say things out loud and wish your document could magically jot them down.
Google Docs is undoubtedly one of the most popular word-processing documents in the world that have the text-to-speech voices feature available. Used by both professionals & students to even the occasional users.
In this blog, you’ll get to know some tips and tricks on how you can operate text-to-speech and have your documents read aloud right inside Google Docs. By sharing the audio versions of your document with anyone, you can get them to listen to your document with ease.
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How do you use text-to-speech in google docs?
In earlier times, whether you were operating a Mac or Windows computer, you practically had only one sensible alternative – MS Office’s productivity tools. Now, not only have competitions arisen in the marketplace, but ones like Google Docs are unrestricted to take advantage of with any regular Google account.
Besides, almost everything you construct is reserved in the cloud, which means that not just on desktops and laptops but you can access it on smartphones, tablets, and any other gadget of your preference too.
Of course, all of this requires the query of whether it is feasible to use text-to-speech functionality on copies constructed using the Google text-to-speech Docs assistance. The explanation of that mandates you to keep a few key things in mind.
You can also use this Screen Reader Chrome extension by Google if you don’t want to use the desktop software but that screen reader will only work inside the Chrome browser and not on your operating system. It also doesn’t require any special configuration in settings to work with Docs.
1. Enable Google Docs Screen Reader
Your screen reader software will not be able to go over the text inside a Google Docs document if the screen reader alternative isn’t allowed. Here’s how you can permit a screen reader in Google Docs:
The first and foremost step would be clicking on the ‘Tools’ option in the top left side of the Google Docs and selecting ‘Accessibility or Accessibility settings’ which would be at the very bottom of the list.
You need to check all the upper three options with ‘Turn on Screen Support’, ‘Braille Support’, and ‘Collaborator Announcement’ written on them before clicking ‘Ok’.
After following the above-mentioned instructions, you will see a new Accessibility menu in the top bar, right beside the help option or you can simply press the Ctrl+Alt+Z keys for the settings.
- Select the part of the document that you want to convert into speech.
- Now click on ‘Accessibility’ in the top menu bar and select ‘Speak or Verbalise selection’ in the ‘Verbalise to Screen Reader’ option and voila! Your document will be ready to be read aloud.
You can also apply the shortcut for this objective. Once the required text is selected, press the Ctrl+Alt+X keys to start reading aloud.
2. Use a text-to-speech Chrome extension
If you don’t want to use a dedicated screen reader software, you can always use Chrome extensions. A text-to-speech extension will copy all the content from the document in its system and then read it aloud. For this objective, I favor Listnr. It’s surprisingly easy to use, yet it’s very influential.
The extension works on nearly every web page, containing web apps like Google Docs. Just open the document, click on the extension button and it will start reading the text aloud. You don’t have to even select the text, Listnr will automatically recognize text that should be read aloud.
Conclusion
If you are blind or visually impaired, then you should certainly use the screen reader software by enabling support in Google Docs. Nonetheless, if you just like to quickly go over your document, then using a text-to-speech online extension is far better.
