This shareware program can be downloaded for free trial. Registration cost is $19.95.  The website address is -   http://www.nextuptech.com/TextAloud/index.html . (Text in red only appears in the website version of this article)

Click image for larger view of TextAloud MP3

    One of the major uses of the program TextAloud MP3, is to have it read text aloud that you highlight and copy, or have it read aloud a text file from your hard drive. There are times I like to hear a voice read the text on a website, or read email I've received, or an article I am writing. The artificial voice sounds a little strange, but I have gotten used to it. The voice can do many things including pronounce large numbers, dollars and cents and abbreviations like khz. The voice can also put some inflection in a sentence, and pause at commas. The program comes with one female voice, but other voices can be downloaded for free.

     The following are audio file examples made by TextAloud MP3, of a sentence in this article. I have included both audio file types, .wav and .mp3. I chose a male voice called SAM to read the paragraph. If you are not sure which file type to choose, click on text_aloud_sample.wav (561 kb), since most computers have a WAV player.
     If you have an MP3 player (i.e. Real Player, Windows Media Player, Winamp Player), click on text_aloud_sample.mp3
(52 kb). The advantage of having TextAloud make an MP3 file, is its small file size. Either audio file you choose to hear, will play for about 13 seconds.

      TextAloud MP3 can also save its speech to an audio file, either in the MP3 or WAV format. As an example, I had TextAloud MP3 save a 27 word paragraph from this article, to a file I named text_aloud_sample.mp3 (52 kb). I later clicked on this file and listened as my MP3 player read the text passage aloud, which lasted about 13 seconds. Common, free, MP3 players are Real Player, Windows Media Player and Winamp.

     On some occasions, I have sent both the email text and its spoken audio MP3 file, that was made using TextAloud MP3, together to people who would benefit from hearing the email, as well as reading it. They could of course, replay the spoken email as many times as they wished.

     If you don't have an MP3 player you could have TextAloud save the spoken text as a WAV file. Since most computers have a WAV file player included with their operating system, you and your email friends will be able to hear this type of audio file without downloading any special audio player. The major disadvantage of using the WAV file type is its large size, which can take a long time for the recipient of your email to download. A WAV file is about 10 times larger than an equivalent MP3 file that has the same sound quality and length of spoken text.

     TextAloud MP3 has quite a few other capabilities, here are a few. You can copy multiple text sections into the program and have different voices read each one, then save each of these spoken texts into individual files or into one large file. You can use the Pronunciation Editor to customize how certain words are spoken. You can Edit a voice for pitch and speed, have the program read only selected (highlighted) text, and control the quality of a saved MP3 file.

       In this version (1.3) of TextAloud MP3, only one voice can be saved per file, even if you save multi-article voices as one file. Tech Support tells me that future versions of this product will allow different voices to be saved in one file. This will allow the user to write scripts for various characters and have them perform a play. You could become writer and director.

     After playing around with TextAloud MP3 for a few weeks, I registered it for $19.95 with my credit card through the company's website. After payment approval, the company sends you an email with a code number. By typing this number in your shareware version of TextAloud MP3, it becomes your registered version, with no more popup purchase reminder notices.

     I did not use my actual credit card number, but used Mastercard's ShopSafe service on the internet. This service generated a special one-time credit card number that allowed me to give it a maximum transaction value and an expiration date. I have heard that American Express and Discover cards also have this service.

     If any of the above information sounds interesting to you, I suggest a visit to the company's website for more details at - http://www.nextuptech.com/TextAloud/index.html . At this website, you can read FAQ, use the Online Tutorial, read other reviews, and download a shareware version of TextAloud MP3, as well as other voices.