ClipboardSpeaker 1.0

Intended as an aid for the visually impaired, this program uses the Microsoft text-to-speech capability to speak any text that is in the clipboard. When set up with a hotkey to run it, the user can simply select the text to be read, press control-C and then the hotkey. This is very handy for people who can see where the text is but can not read it without difficulty. As it is read, the current word is shown at the top left and more of the text is shown in the space below it with the current word highlighted.

Requires Windows XP service pack 2 or later and the .net 3.5 framework.  If you have kept up with Windows updates, you should have everything you need, but if not the installer will tell you.

Installation Instructions: Click the download button below and save the clipspeakSetup.exe file to your disk when prompted. This is an archive which contains two files - setup.exe and Clipspeak.msi. Double-click on this file and it will save these two files on your disk.  Then, double-click on the setup.exe file and follow the prompts to install the program.  Note: The setup.exe program checks for prerequisities and then invokes the .msi file.  If you double-click on the .msi file, it will install the program but will not check for prerequisites first so if you are missing something such as the .net framework the program may appear to install ok but will not run.  So be sure to use the setup.exe file.

The installation process should create a shortcut on the desktop.  To make the program easier to use for people who are visually impaired, right click on the shortcut, select Properties from the menu, select the Shortcut tab if not already selected, click in the shortcut key box and press whatever key you want for the hotkey.  I use the F11 key, but anything will do.

To use the program, just hightlight some text, copy it to the clipboard (Control-C), press the shortcut key and the text will be spoken.  The window above will appear while the text is being spoken.  Initially the "Quit when finished speaking" checkbox is selected, but if you uncheck it while the window is up, the window will remain up until you click the Exit button.  Use the Speed slider to adjust the speech rate.  This will take effect the next time, and will not change the rate at which the current speaking is occurring.  If you have the window staying up all the time, the Speak button can be used to start speaking the clipboard contents.

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