Text 2 Speech In XP

Ever tried the Windows XP text-to-speech software? You can use it to read text from files. Type in any word-processing program, and your computer will read what he's typed.

To enable it, click Start>Control Panel. Double click Speech and open the Text To Speech tab. You can select from the voices in the Voice selection dropdown box. There should be 3 by default.

To test each, click Preview Voice. You can use the Voice speed slider to control the speed. When you're finished, click Apply and then OK.

The text-to-speech controls don't automatically appear, but you can easily display them. Just right-click on the taskbar, and choose Select Toolbars>Language Bar.

A small blue box containing "EN" will appear in the notification area. Click it and select "Show the Language bar." In Word, for example, it docks at the top of the window, beside the other toolbars. To have text read, simply click Speak.