Expressivo is a text-to-speech program capable of reading aloud all types of texts and documents. The program offers a friendly interface along with a number of functions to convert written text into spoken words, allowing us to give a rest to our eyes. Expressivo integrates smoothly with web browsers and other applications, facilitating access to its essential features. To listen to a text document, you simply drag and drop your file (DOC, PDF, TXT, ODT, HTML, etc.) into the program tabbed interface. There, you can choose the voice you prefer, and with the player-like controls jump to other sentences or paragraphs, and adjust aspects such as the reading speed and volume. The program can also save your texts into audio files of different formats (MP3, WAV, OGG) which you can listen to in your portable player. Among its most outstanding features, there is the Clipboard Monitor, which will instantly read aloud any piece of text that you copy to the clipboard. The ‘Select and read’ function is pretty handy as well; it will read a portion of text that you select either in a web browser or in any of the above-mentioned applications. There is also a Clock reminder, that reads the time at set intervals, a Mail notifier, a RSS reader, and other convenient functions.
During setup, it is recommended to install IVONA voices, which have a realistic, natural accent. Otherwise, the program will work with the SAPI voices installed on your system. IVONA includes male and female voices for British and American English, Romanian, and Polish.
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