Convert Text to Spoken Audio the Easy Way
I showed you how to convert text to spoken audio files via the command line but some people ran into trouble with that method. It turns out I completely over-engineered how to do this, because there is a much easier way to convert text to audio that is guaranteed to work for everyone, you just have to enable it first in OS X 10.6:
Enable “Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track” in Services – Mac OS X 10.6.8 or lower
This is such a useful feature I’m surprised it isn’t enabled by default in 10.6 (it is in Lion, read on for that). Here’s how to enable text to audio conversion prior to 10.7:
- Launch System Preferences
- Click on the “Keyboard” panel
- Click again on “Keyboard Shortcuts” and select “Services” from the left side menu
- Scroll down until you see the “Text” option group, click the checkbox next to “Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track”
Now you just need to close up System Preferences and the option to convert text files and text blocks to spoken audio is enabled.
To access the feature, just right-click on any text block and select the “Add to iTunes as Spoken Track” option from the pop-up menu. You’ll then see the Services gear churning away in your menu bar and in no time the file will be automatically loaded into iTunes as a spoken audio track.
This follows the same convention as the command line method in that the default voice is whatever you set your Mac’s text-to-speech voice option to, you can always change that in the Speech preference pane.
Converting Text to Spoken Audio in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
The Text to Spoken Audio feature is enabled by default in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, so to use it in Lion all you need to do is right click on a block of text and select “Add to iTunes as Spoken Track” and OS X takes care of the rest.
This will also record in the default voice, but with the myriad of realistic new voices available in Lion this feature is going to be even more useful.
The Lion screenshot comes via MacGasm.
[...] There is an easier way to do this using the Services menu, you may want to try that first unless you prefer the command [...]
Go with Alex as the voice and this is very usable in 10.6. Now you can make your own audiobooks
When i try this it creates the file and automatically sends it to the trash bin… any ideas why?
It is supposed to send to iTunes, do you have iTUnes not set to the default music player?
If you didn’t already figure it out, it sends a file copy to your iTunes folder and a the “leftover” file to trash.
Are you sure your not just playing it? (Speech > Start Speaking)
Make sure you select “Add to iTunes as Spoken Track”.
[...] another nifty text transformation in OS X Lion is the ability to convert text to spoken audio for iTunes with just the selection of text and a right-click. stLight.options({ [...]
Get the new voices for Lion. SO much better.
Need a way to set default voice used.
I tried to follow your directions, which were very precise, but the box is already checked in my OS X 7 Lion. Here’s my problem: When I highlight text and then right-click it, I get a
“Speech” option below Spelling, Proofreading, and Font but when I select “Speech” I get the only two options, “Start Speaking” or “Stop Speaking” I do NOT get the option to Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track, even though that is checked in my Services folder.
Also, how can I select a different voice from the horrific Finnish accent that must be default???
I’m really hoping your answers will be exactly what I need for my project. Thanks in advance for your help.
How do you modulate the speed? Changing the speed setting in preferences doesn’t affect it.