MacOS highlight individual words as they are spoken, as iOS
In iOS, it is possible to have the text read out loud using the built-in text-to-speech (TTS) while the individual words highlight as they are spoken.
Like in this gif:
(taken from this you video).
I am looking for a way to get MacOS's (10.11) built-in TTS to highlight individual words as they are spoken, as in iOS. This is extremely helpful for me when reading.
This Ask Different question get at the same issue, but it's slightly different as it's asking for a browser-based solution and I am primarily looking for native MacOS solution. Thanks.
Solution 1:
VoiceOver on macOS can do this.
- Use VoiceOver Utility.app to activate move highlight cursor by word
- Activate VoiceOver with Cmd+F5
- Click on the text you want to read
- Press Control+Alt+A to "read all"
How well it works will vary by application and how well they support VoiceOver.
These animations were recorded on 10.13.6 High Sierra, but VoiceOver has been around since 10.4 Tiger - so you should be OK in 10.11 El Capitan.
Pages - works well
FSNotes - works well
Safari - depends on how the page is built
Solution 2:
You can try Dictator by Nosrac. It's available for free on GitHub. I'm not the developer or affiliated with the software.
It has a feature called 'teleprompter mode' that highlights the words as they're spoken.
The code hasn't been updated in a few years and I haven't tried it myself so I can't speak for how well it works. I'm recommending it because it looks like it does what you want and it's free.