THE AUDIO-TEXT FORMAT

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That's right! <volume level="100"/> I am the expert here!

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> OK, OK! {{Pause=1}} Let's go!!!! This paper is titled {{Pause=1}}

3643 Words on

The Practical Use of Multimedia, with

Text-To-Speech Software

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<volume level="60"/> <voice required="name = Mike16">

By David Alderoty,

August 2008

Phone (212)-581-3740

E-mail RunDavid@verizon.net

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Part One

HOW TO MAKE

AUDIO-TEXT DOCUMENTS

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How to create documents that contain sound files, with narrations of the text.

The document you are now reading, or listening to, is an example of an audio-text document.

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INTRODUCTION TO AUDIO-TEXT

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What is audio-text? Is this a new development? If so, how does it apply to writing? Does audio-text have any practical application?

The answer is yes to all of the questions. That is,- there have been many developments in technology that can be applied to writing. The most obvious is the electronic document, which are primarily meant to be read on the computer screen. E-books, e-mail and the web, are good examples.

A major problem with electronic documents is they are sometimes difficult to read if they are very long. Most people would probably prefer a conventional book, if they had to read and study a hundred pages or more, as is often the case with college studies.

My solution to this problem is to create electronic documents that are multimedia. These documents contain conventional text, and an audio narration of the text. These documents, contain links or buttons, on the first page, to activate the sound files, which contained the narrations. I am calling this format audio-text. This document is an example of the audio-text format.

* Note I use the word audio followed by a dash followed by the word text, to avoid confusion with other meanings for these words.

Audio-text allows the reader to read the text, and/or listen to it. (For study purposes, the ideal would probably be to listen to the entire narration, and to carefully read selective portions of the text.) Listening to a narration of the text, can prevent eye and back strain. It is possible to do other things while listening to a narration, such as cleaning the house, exercising, cooking, and eating.

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> The heading is:

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AUDIO-TEXT DOCUMENTS

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Have you tested audio-text? - Can you make a website with audio-text? - Can you distribute audio-text on CDs or DVDs? - Can I place audio text documents on my computer's hard drive? -

<volume level="60"/> <voice required="name = Mike16">

Audio-text can probably be placed in many types of electronic documents. However, I have only tested it with the conventional Microsoft Word document, and the HTML format that is commonly used on the web. In the conventional Microsoft Word and HTML formats it can be placed on CDs, DVDs, and the computer's hard drive. In the HTML format audio-text can be used on a website, as a conventional webpage, with a sound file hyperlinked to it.

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> The heading is:

WRITING GOOD AUDIO-TEXT

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Where do I start? - What is the first step in creating audio-text documents? - Are these documents written in the same way as a conventional document? -

The answer to your last question is no. That is audio-text should not be written exactly like conventional text in most cases. This will become obvious after I provide more details.

As far as the first step is concerned: Well, - The first step in creating an audio-text document is to start with the correct writing technique. This involves writing for - reading and - narration. You have to consider how your text will look on a computer screen. But you also have to consider how the words will sound. This usually means making your sentences and paragraphs as short as feasible, but at the same time, you must be careful not to make them excessively short, because that might produce a poor narration. This is especially true with simple material. However, with certain types of descriptive, academic, technical, and scientific material, the sentences and paragraphs may have to be longer. But, ideally, they still should be shorter than when you are writing for hard copy.

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> The heading is:

HEADINGS WITH AUDIO-TEXT

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Are headings useful with audio-text? If so, what type of headings are best? How many paragraphs under each heading? <volume level="60"/> <voice required="name = Mike16">

Headings can be very helpful for all types of electronic documents. The headings should, ideally have only one to five short paragraphs underneath them. The headings should be descriptive whenever possible. That is the reader should know what he or she is about to read, just by looking at the heading. Usually, you should avoid mystery headings that might confuse the reader.

The important thing to understand about electronic documents is the user, may want to take a quick look at the headings. After this, he or she may decide to read only the portion of the document that is relevant to their needs.

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> The heading is:

FONTS AND AUDIO-TEXT

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How important are fonts with audio-text? Are colored fonts appropriate for audio-text? Are there any font types that are better for audio-text? <volume level="60"/> <voice required="name = Mike16">

Using good fonts that are relatively large can be helpful. This can involve fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Georgia, and Courier New. The font used in this document is Georgia, with a relatively large font size of 22 points. Generally it is probably a good idea to use a font size that is somewhat larger than used by the typical website. Keep in mind that some people have small computer screens, or screens that are excessively distant from their eyes, and vision problems are not unusual.

Using colored font, coupled with attractive background colors can make your document more interesting. Using different colors for headings, and main text can also make your document easier to read.

If the audio-text document is going to be used on a website, the font should be web safe. This also applies to audio-text documents that are going to be distributed to a number of individuals on CDs, DVDs, other electronic formats. For information on web safe fonts, see the following websites,

o http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22web+safe+fonts%22&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.theinternetdigest.net/archive/websafefonts.html

o http://www.vortex.co.uk/content/editorials/typography/typeboxes/webfontbox.html

The above raises the question what are web safe fonts. Web safe fonts are fonts that most computers have. This would include Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. If you use a font that is unavailable on many computers, some of the user of your audio-text document may not be able to see the text. However, in most cases, the operating system will substitute another font, for a font type that is unavailable.

Incidentally, the above does not apply if the fonts are converted from a text format to a graphics format. In the graphics format, you can use any type of font that you choose. However, once text is converted to a graphics format, text-to-speech software may not be able to read it.

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> The heading is:

AUDIO-TEXT & THE NARRATION

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How about the audio aspects of audio-text? Is the punctuation any different than conventional writing? Is the wording or style any different? <volume level="60"/> <voice required="name = Mike16">

Well, - you also must consider how your sentences and paragraphs will come across in spoken language, when you are writing audio-text. You have to think somewhat like a speech writer, or a lecturer. Ideally, you should periodically have the text read aloud as you are writing, to determine if it sounds good.

When you are creating audio-text documents the rules for punctuation and style may be somewhat different, then conventional writing. You have to indicate more, pauses, and tonal variations, for the person, or text-to-speech software, that will be reading the text out loud. You can do this, with more commas, dashes, exclamation points, and periods.

If you are using text-to-speech software, you can also use the SAPI text-to-speech extensible markup language, to create pauses, volume fluctuations, reading rate changes, etc. I used this language extensively in this paper, to create pauses, control volume, and to change the voices between Mike and Paul. If you what more information on SAPI text-to-speech extensible markup language, see the following website: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms985684.aspx#Voice_State_Control

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Adding some additional wording that is common in spoken language to audio-text documents, can also be useful. Examples are: well, - let me explain it like, that is,- we can divide this problem into three factors, Well, based on my experience,- etc.

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HIDING TEXT

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The above raises the question, what do you do if your writing and punctuation for the audio-text is confusing people that are reading your material, as opposed to listening to it? This could be especially problematic if you are submitting an audio-text document to an instructor, who does not understand the concept.

Well,- if you are going to use a human narrator, the best solution may be to write two slightly different versions of the same material. One, written for a narration, and the other written for hard copy, with conventional style and punctuation. Another alternative is to explain the concept in the beginning of the text.

However, if you are using text-to-speech software to read your document there is a simple solution. With text-to-speech, you can easily hide any punctuation, or words that would be confusing to a reader. When this is done with the techniques described below, the software will see the hidden text, and read it aloud with no difficulty.

Text can be hidden by making the punctuation and text that you want to hide the same color as your documents. For example, if you are writing on a white background, with black text, you can hide punctuation marks, and words by making then white. In this document, I hid some punctuation, code from the speech to text markup language, and words, by changing the text color from yellow, to black. Sometimes, hiding text in this way can leave awkward spaces. The solution is to make the text very tiny, such as changing the font size from 14 to 1. The text for the argumentative dialogue between Mike and Paul, at the beginning of this document, is an example of text that was hidden with the above techniques.

Incidentally, Microsoft Word has font setting that hides text. However, when I tested it on my system, the text-to-speech software was not able to read the hidden text.

These techniques, hiding by making text the same color as the background, and reducing their size, can be used to conceal one or more paragraphs. It can be very useful when, you have information that is important for the listener, but irrelevant to the reader. For example, you may want to explain photographs and diagrams to the listener. This can be helpful to the listener because, he or she may not be near the computer, while listening. Obviously, the reader can see any graphic material in the document. This makes such descriptions unnecessary and possibly distracting for the reader, and hiding the text with the above techniques can solve the problem.

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> The heading is:

SHORT LISTENING SEGMENTS

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Most people, do not like to listen to long lectures or narrations. Keeping this in mind, how long should an audio-text document be? <volume level="60"/> <voice required="name = Mike16">

When you are writing audio text you should create documents that can be read aloud in 20 or 30 minutes, or less. If your document is longer than this, it should be divided up into sections that can be read aloud in 20 or 30 minutes. The different sections, will generally be on different files. The files can be numbered, such as 1-filename, 2-filename, 3-filename, and placed in a Windows folder. Alternatively, the different sections can be hyperlinked to a central homepage, or to each other in sequence.

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NARRATION OF TEXT

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What about the narration? Does it require special skill to produce a good narration for an audio-text document? What types of software should be used to create audio-text? Where can I obtain the software?

The second step in making an audio-text document is to create a recording of the text read out loud. This can be difficult and time-consuming for most people, especially when you are dealing with long documents. Most people do not have the professional level voice talent of an expert narrator. People with professional level voice skills are relatively rare, are paid very well, and may work in radio, television, and in recording studios. Actually, it is very difficult to obtain good sound recordings outside of a soundproof recording studio, because of environmental noise.

You do not have to make your own recorded narrations. Creating audio-text documents would be impractical for most people if they had to make their own recordings by reading the text out loud. There is special software that can read text out loud. This software can also convert text directly into a MP3 sound file, without reading out loud, at a rate of over 2000 words a minute. This software is called text-to-speech software.

Text-to-speech software was at one time very expensive, and it was not very good, and it was used primarily for the blind. It mispronounced many words, and it produced poor sound quality. Modern speech to text software is marketed for the general consumer, is inexpensive, and it sounds like a professional announcer. This should be obvious, if you are listening to this document.

The software that I used to create the narration of this document is presented below. The blue web addresses are active hyperlinks, and if you click on them they will take you to relevant websites.

· TextAloud about $30 at http://www.nextup.com/products.html

· AT&T Natural Voices Mike 16 (also comes with a Voice called Crystal 16) all for about $25 at http://www.nextup.com/products.html

· NeoSpeech Paul 16k (also comes with ultra-Hal text-to-speech reader, and another voice called Kate) all for about $25 at http://www.zabaware.com/products/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=5

TextAloud comes with a number of low-quality voices. If you want professional sounding speech, you have to purchase the additional voices shown above. The TextAloud, AT&T Natural Voices Mike 16, and NeoSpeech Paul 16k is the best text-to-speech software, and voices available for the general consumer. Most of the other voices available do not sound natural.

<volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> The heading is:

TEXT TO SOUND FILES

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How do you create a sound file from text? Is this time-consuming? What type of file format is best for audio-text? How do I embed or link the sound file to my document?

Once you have completed writing and editing your text, you are ready to produce a narration of it. This can be very effectively done, with the text-to-speech software mentioned above. The software (TextAloud or similar products) should be set to silently read your document, and produce a MP3 sound file. You can use of a file formats, besides MP3, but I have found that MP3 appears to work best.

Once you have your MP3 file, with a narration of your text, you are ready to hyperlink or embed it into your document. (This is the same document you used to create the MP3 sound file. That is the sound file contains a narration of the words in the document, you are hyperlinking or embedding it into.)

If your document is written in the standard Microsoft Word format, you can simply place the MP3 sound file into it with the cut and paste functions. If your document is in the html, web format, and you what to open it with a browser, you must hyperlink the sound file to the document. This can be done with the functions in word processor or text editor that you have your document opened in. If you have your document opened in Microsoft Word, you can follow the steps bellow.

Choose a place to put the hyperlink, on the first page of your document. After this, place a graphic of some sort, to be used as a button, in the spot where you want the hyperlink. If you do not want to use a graphic, you can use text. For example, you can enter: SOUND FILE, and use it as a hyperlink button. Now that you got your hyperlink button, select it. This can be done by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse cruiser across the graphic or words that you want to use as a hyperlink button. (There are a number of other ways that you can select words and graphics.) After you selected your potential hyperlink button, go to insert on top of your screen, on the Microsoft Word toolbar. After this, click on Insert, and a menu will open, similar to the one below. (The instructions continue below the screenshot.)

On the above menu, scroll down to hyperlink and left click on it, and you will see the Insert Hyperlink box, shown in the following screenshot.

Search for the sound file and left click on it, and it will be highlighted in blue, as can be seen in the above screenshot. Now, you will see on the left side of this box the words Target Frame. Left click on these words, and you will see the following dialog box. Scroll down to the word: New Window, and left click on it. Then click on the word OK, and the box will close. Now click on the word OK, on the Insert Hyperlink box. Now test your hyperlink. If you did it correctly, when you left click on it the sound file should start.

Now, you have the basic information needed to create audio-text documents. However, before you can actually create such documents, you have to obtain the text-to-speech software previously mentioned, and learn how to use it. This takes trial and error, and practice, before you become skillful with the software. The same applies to the techniques described in this paper. You have to use trial and error learning and practice, as well as studying the material. This includes reading it more than once.

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Part Two

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TEXT-TO-SPEECH SOFTWARE FOR CONVENIENCE, EFFICIENCY AND STUDY

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The heading is:

OTHER USES FOR SPEECH-TO-TEXT

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Are there other uses for TextAloud, and the Voices: AT&T Mike 16, and NeoSpeech Paul 16k, , besides creating audio-text documents?

Yes! There are many uses for the modern text-to-speech software discussed in part one. Specifically, this software can read aloud almost any electronic document. This makes it useful when you encounter very long web pages, or any other electronic document that you have to read.

Modern text-to-speech software is also useful for proofreading. Sometimes, you can catch errors faster by listening to the text read aloud. However, just the opposite can also be true. So the most effective strategy for proofreading would be to use conventional methods, involving careful reading of the text, coupled with a second examination using speech to text software.

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TEXT ON A MP3 PLAYER

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Is there any way that you can listen to a text-to-speech software reading on a portable device, such as an MP3 player?

One of the most useful features of modern text-to-speech software, such as TextAloud, is its ability to convert text to sound files at very rapid rates of speed. This allows you to convert any electronic document, including e-books and webpages into MP3 sound files. The MP3 files can be stored and played in most standard MP3 players. Thus, you can convert e-books, long web pages, and any other type of electronic document into MP3 files, and listen to the material on a portable MP3 player. This can be a good study aid, for college studies, if you can obtain relevant material in the electronic format. Since MP3 players are very tiny, you can be listening and studying, while you are traveling, shopping, waiting online, exercising, cleaning the house, cooking, etc.

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Okay, we finished reading David Alderoty’s paper. You did a great job Mike.

Oh I know, I did, I always do a great job? Paul, you didn't do such a bad job yourself. <volume level="200"/> <voice required="name = VW Paul"> Thank you Mike. And goodbye, and good luck to our listeners. <volume level="60"/> <voice required="name = Mike16"> Goodbye Everyone!