[Athen] Revisiting the best program for creating MP3s

[foreigntype at gmail.com]

Russell,

You're welcome, of course! Some of the many reasons I particularly like
Balabolka is that it works in many languages, is a very reliable
text-to-speech tool, and for converting to MP3, we used it at Southern
Oregon University to teach students how to take a Microsoft Word document
and convert the MP3s on their own on the fly if they needed to.

Wink
Wink Harner
Accessibility Consultant/Alternative Text Production
The Foreign Type

Portland OR
foreigntype at gmail.com
480-984-0034

This email was dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please forgive
quirks, misrecognitions, or errata .


On Mon, Oct 31, 2022 at 2:33 PM Russell Solowoniuk <solowoniukr at macewan.ca>
wrote:


> Hi Cath and everyone else who responded to my MP3 question,

>

>

>

> We have a site license for Read and Write, but, as you said, Cath,

> TextAloud seems to work better for our needs. We may have a look at

> Balabolka as well.

>

>

>

> Tristen, we do have OpenBook, so that may also be an option.

>

>

>

> Wink, thanks for those links to Balabolka. I think we may explore this a

> bit further.

>

>

>

> George, I read that info about the Microsoft Supported Low-Cost Assistive

> Technology Project that you mentioned on Friday. It looks interesting, and

> we will have a look at it when it’s released.

>

>

>

> It looks like we have a lot of options, so it’s just a matter of trying

> them out to see which works best.

>

>

>

> Thank you all again for taking the time to respond.

>

>

>

> Best regards,

>

>

>

> Russell

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> *On

> Behalf Of *Stager, Catherine

> *Sent:* Monday, October 31, 2022 11:18 AM

> *To:* Access Technology Higher Education Network <

> athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> *Subject:* Re: [Athen] Revisiting the best program for creating MP3s

>

>

>

> *EXTERNAL:*  Use caution.

> <https://myportal.macewan.ca/help.html#external-email>

>

>

>

> Hi Russell,

>

> Kurzweil has the functionality within the desktop version of the program.

>

>

>

> The reason I prefer TextAloud is the ability to customize the pauses that

> are associated with the punctuation.

>

> Also, it has a really easy-to-use pronunciation dictionary and the ability

> to create “play lists”.

>

>

>

> Best,

>

> Cath

>

>

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> *On

> Behalf Of *tristenbreitenfeldt at gmail.com

> *Sent:* Saturday, October 29, 2022 2:10 PM

> *To:* athen-list at u.washington.edu

> *Subject:* Re: [Athen] Revisiting the best program for creating MP3s

>

>

>

>

>

> *CAUTION:* This email originated from outside of the Colorado Community

> College System. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize

> the sender and know the content is safe. Please contact your college IT

> Help Desk if you have any questions.

>

> Hi Russell,

>

> If you already have OpenBook 9.0  (from Freedom Scientific), you can do

> this quite easily. Simply open the pdf in OpenBook, then open the file menu

> and select Save as audio. The program will generate an mp3 audio file using

> the selected TTS voice and save it in the location you selected. Then, you

> can play the mp3 using your preferred media player.  It is really easy to

> do.

>

> I do not have Kurzweil, but I’d  guess that it has similar functionality

> for saving pdf files as audio.

>

>

>

> Hope that helps.

>

>

>

> Tristen Breitenfeldt

>

> [image: JAWS Certified, 2019]

> <http://www.freedomscientific.com/Certification>

>

>

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