Select a Voice Driver from the list below.

Choose the speech synthesizer you want to use. By default, Voice will offer all Microsoft Speech API 5 (SAPI) speech synthesizers that you have installed on your computer. If you have SAPI 4 voices installed, you have to first enable the SAPI4 driver, at it is often troublesome and disabled by default.

Autodetect

If you press this button, Aurora will search for all installed speech synthesizer drivers on the computer. After autodetection is complete, you will be given the option to choose from the list of synthesizers it was able to locate.

Voice Setup

Press this button to set up the options for the selected speech synthesizer. For detailed help setting up the selected speech synthesizer, press F1 or click on the Help button when in the Voice Setup dialog for the synthesizer.

Try it!

Press this button to test your synthesizer to make sure it is working. If it is working correctly, you should hear it speak "This is a test." If nothing happens and the buttons on the Aurora Voice Options dialog remain grayed, wait up to a minute, the voice driver should time out and return control or an error message. You can then adjust the voice settings or choose another synthesizer.

Note: If you are using a Microsoft Speech API 4 (SAPI) synthesizer, you may experience static or halting speech. If this occurs, go into Voice Setup and adjust the Speed setting downwards. This symptom occurs when the speech synthesizer requires more computer horsepower than you have.

Use an Exception file to do Pronunciation Correction

If this checkbox is checked, Aurora will attempt to use the currently selected exception file to correct the pronunication of words. If the Edit Exception file button is grayed, no exception file is currently selected and pronunciation correction is disabled.

Select Exception File

Aurora's voice drivers support generic pronunciation exception handling to correct the pronunciation of words mispronounced by the speech synthesizer. Use this option to select the exception file to use with your speech synthesizer. Exception file names have the extension .X. For this option to have any effect, you must also check the Use an Exception file to do Pronunciation Correction checkbox.

Tip: .X files from previous Aurora releases are not compatible with Aurora Suite.

New Exception File

To create a new, empty exception file, choose Select Exception File and then rather than selecting a pre-existing .X file, type in the name of a new one to be created and select Ok.

Edit Exception File

Press this button to start the Aurora Exception Editor to edit the exception file you have selected in Select Exception File above. If this button is grayed, you have not selected an exception file in Select Exception file above.

Highlight Speech

If this is checked, the Aurora Visual Highlighting window will appear on the desktop, displaying the text to be spoken and highlighting each word as it is spoken. Speech generated by deliberate actions such as using Aurora Talk, or manual reading features in Echo will be displayed.

Highlight Feedback

If this is checked, the Aurora Visual Highlighting window will appear on the desktop, displaying the text to be spoken and highlighting each word as it is spoken. Speech generated by spoken feedback features in Aurora Echo will be displayed.

Note: If both Highlight Speech and Highlight Feedback are unchecked, the Aurora Visual Highlighting window will not appear.

Font

This allows you to select the font face and size to be used in the Visual Highlighting window.

Text Color/Back Color/Highlight Color

This allows you to select the colors to be used in the Voice Feedback Window for the text, the window background, and the color used to highlight the current word being spoken.

Press Ok to save changes, or Cancel to not save changes.