Pronunciation Editor

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Custom pronunciation is only available in ReadPlease PLUS 2003

ReadPlease generally does a pretty good job at pronouncing words. You will find that some words are not pronounced the way you want to hear them. You can tell ReadPlease to pronounce the words anyway you want by using its Pronunciation Editor.

It is easy to add your own pronunciation to words with ReadPlease PLUS 2003. This is similar to adding words to a Microsoft Word dictionary, except you are adding how ReadPlease pronounces words. Here is how:

Select the language you want to use, for example if Mary is speaking, you will be adding words to the English language dictionary file

From the menu select Tools | Options , then Pronunciation.

You will see the Pronunciation Editor

Just type into the area where the words are as you would in any word processor

You may add words by press [Enter]

The format is simply:

word=new pronunciation

You can test how the word sounds with the [Test] button

You may copy and paste into the Pronunciation Editor

Examples:

Ont.=Ontario

RPC=Reed Please Corporation

Note that we define ReadPlease, as Reed Please, so it is always pronounced correctly (and not "Red Please")

What is at the left of the equal sign is the word for which you want a new pronunciation. At the right of the equal sign is how you want ReadPlease to pronounce it.

Click on the Internet link:

Download other users' Custom Pronunciation files

to see other dictionary files contributed by other users.

Press [Sort] button if you want to sort your list alphabetically.

Case Sensitivity

By default, words with lower case letters will not be case sensitive.

Words with all alphabetical characters in all UPPERCASE will be case sensitive.

For example:

ON=Ontario

Since ON is UPPERCASE, on "ON" will be spoken as "Ontario.

A small c will mean *not* case sensitive, while a large C will make the word case sensitive.

Rarely will you have to use the /c options, but they are provided for cases where the case of the word is important to pronunciation.

Examples:

Ont.=Ontario

RPC=Reed Please Corporation

Note that we define ReadPlease, as Reed Please, so it is always pronounced correctly (and not "Red Please")

Consider this sentence:

"I live in ON Canada on Lake Superior."

It will be spoken as:

"I live in Ontario Canada on Lake Superior."

and NOT as:

"I live in Ontario Canada Ontario Lake Superior."

You can override the default case sensitivity by terminating your line with a backslash (\) followed by the letter "c" or "C".

IMPORTANT:

You can override the default case sensitivity by terminating your line with a backslash (\) followed by the letter "c" or "C".

Note you must use a backslash \ - a forward slash / or the division symbol will NOT work / .

ON=Ontario \c

would read ON, On, on, oN as "Ontario"

Ont=Ontario \C

would read ONLY "Ont" as Ontario

A small c will mean not case sensitive, while a large C will make the word case sensitive.

Rarely will you have to use the \c options, but they are provided for cases where the case of the word is important to pronunciation.

Tip

You can copy and paste into the Pronunciation Editor.

Tip if you are using ReadPlease to talk for you:

You can enter abbreviations for things you want to say (very good for non-verbal users) - for example if you are using ReadPlease to talk for you, you may assemble some common phrases as shown:

;s= See you later, nice talking with you

Then, if you want ReadPlease to say that, just type in the ;s and ReadPlease will say the phrase above when it is reading ;s.

Sharing Custom Pronunciations

There are tow ways you can easily share custom pronunciations with other ReadPlease users.

By copying and pasting into the area above. For example a friend may email you a list of their pronunciations, and you can copy from your email into ReadPlease.

By importing other pronunciation dictionaries with the [Import] button. These files look like this: USEnglish.rpdt . File location:

C:\Program Files\ReadPlease 2003\Language\USEnglish.rpdt

Files have extension .rpdt and there is one for each language you are using.

AT&T's Natural Voices has an advanced Pronunciation Editor of its own. You can use that editor in conjunction with ReadPlease PLUS's built in editor. If you have Natural Voices installed, you will need to go to:

Start | Programs | AT&T and select the dictionary editor from there. You will have a different dictionary for each language.

Use File |Open in the AT&T dictionary editor.