I want to help an older person with severe macular degeneration from
thousands of miles afar where she could use an AUDIO file of long text
(like of a book or short story, normally, as in Great Books stories).

I'm on Windows 10 and Android 12. She's on the iPhone and iPads.

I can easily save a web page (like a news story) to text and sometimes I
can convert a PDF of a book to text (depending on how the PDF was made).

But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?

Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
> I want to help an older person with severe macular degeneration from
> thousands of miles afar where she could use an AUDIO file of long text
> (like of a book or short story, normally, as in Great Books stories).
>
> I'm on Windows 10 and Android 12. She's on the iPhone and iPads.
>
> I can easily save a web page (like a news story) to text and sometimes I
> can convert a PDF of a book to text (depending on how the PDF was made).
>
> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?

iOS has very good accessibility features. I suspect it already can read any
pdf you provide.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph3e2e415f/ios

On 6/12/2023 9:13 AM, Peter wrote:
> I want to help an older person with severe macular degeneration from
> thousands of miles afar where she could use an AUDIO file of long text
> (like of a book or short story, normally, as in Great Books stories).
>
> I'm on Windows 10 and Android 12. She's on the iPhone and iPads.
>
> I can easily save a web page (like a news story) to text and sometimes I
> can convert a PDF of a book to text (depending on how the PDF was made).
>
> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?
>

You will need:

1) Copy of Audacity or a similar audio recorder.
2) Male to male audio cable. Connect Line Out to Line In.
This step, is to avoid fighting with "What You Hear" setup,
which could waste half the afternoon.
3) Run Firefox.
4) In Windows Mixer, set Windows Sounds (beeps and boops) to zero.
This is to avoid the Windows Defender toast notification or a
You Have Mail ding, from ruining your recording.

Now, use Firefox Reader View, open your text file.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/DzhXyywq/firefox-reader-view-TTS.gif

After listening to a half dozen other TTS implementations
that suck, that one is almost bearable.

With some programming, as Newyana2 describes, you can do better
than that, but then it's a real long project. This method
may not be efficient, but you also don't have to be a programmer.

The Firefox page should auto-scroll, as it plays the text. I do not
know how long a web page (or text file) can be, and whether your attempt to
convert War & Peace to sound, is going to work.

I may have recorded for 16 hours before with Audacity, but that
was on the other, smaller machine. Make sure all the steps of
recording and saving are working on Audacity, before your run.
You would not want to generate all those tiny sound files,
and have it croak before saving.

I think Windows also has an "improved" sound recorder, which
you might want to research. That's if you can't get Audacity
to work (which... happens sometimes). The namespace for audio
is a bitch. An "improved" sound recorder, is one for which
you don't have to "define a fixed size audio file" before
you begin recording. Some of the Windows demo apps have
been absurd that way. The damn thing should just record,
and then you do the Save As, and done. Check that it works
that way.

Paul

On 06/12/2023 9:13 AM, Peter wrote:
> I want to help an older person with severe macular degeneration from
> thousands of miles afar where she could use an AUDIO file of long text
> (like of a book or short story, normally, as in Great Books stories).
>
> I'm on Windows 10 and Android 12. She's on the iPhone and iPads.
>
> I can easily save a web page (like a news story) to text and sometimes I
> can convert a PDF of a book to text (depending on how the PDF was made).
>
> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?
This is a feature of Adobe Reader that I have never used but know it
exist.

Open the document that you want in the Adobe Reader (including the Free
version.) In View, Select "Read Out Aloud". Activate the Read Aloud
function and select the option you want.

There should be a way to capture the verbal document to an audio file.
Possibly by using the record feature of the Cellphone.

I may not be the best way, but it could be used to convert the write
document to an audio documents. May take some Googling.

Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:
>> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
>> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?
>
> iOS has very good accessibility features. I suspect it already can read any
> pdf you provide.

Thanks for that suggestion where the main goal is one way for everything.
She will get super confused if there isn't one way for everything.

Not one way for this kind of PDF. Another for that kind of PDF.
And yet another for text. And another for HTML. And so on.

It has to be ONE way for EVERYTHING, where there's no way any program, no
matter how smart it is, can read out ALL PDFs (since many are bitmaps).

For the bitmaps, I was thinking of looking up OCR or, if it's short, just
reading it aloud to myself and recording it on my phone's voice recorder.

> https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph3e2e415f/ios

Thanks for that suggestion since she only has iOS iPhones & iPads.
And I don't.

I looked at that page which seems to be much like what Windows does.
Which means it will drive any normal person nuts with extraneous talking.

It has to be an audio of the text only and nothing else for it to work.
The firefox text-only speaking suggestion from Paul is along those lines.
--
Removed android and replaced it with Firefox since the solution is there.

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> You will need:
>
> 1) Copy of Audacity or a similar audio recorder.

Absolutely no problem. I have Audacity on both Android & Windows.

> 2) Male to male audio cable. Connect Line Out to Line In.
> This step, is to avoid fighting with "What You Hear" setup,
> which could waste half the afternoon.

I can make one of those.

> 3) Run Firefox.

I can run that.

> 4) In Windows Mixer, set Windows Sounds (beeps and boops) to zero.
> This is to avoid the Windows Defender toast notification or a
> You Have Mail ding, from ruining your recording.

Windows Mixer? https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+windows+mixer

OK. It's explained here for both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1044702/
>
> Now, use Firefox Reader View, open your text file.
>
> [Picture]
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/DzhXyywq/firefox-reader-view-TTS.gif

Firefox reader view?
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+firefox+reader+view

OK. It's explained here.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-reader-view-clutter-free-web-page
"Reader View is a Firefox feature that strips away clutter like buttons,
ads, background images, and videos while also letting you customize the
layout and theme to fit your reading preferences."
> After listening to a half dozen other TTS implementations
> that suck, that one is almost bearable.

Whatever Windows sound plays when I am in MerriamWebster seems fine to me.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/otorhinolaryngologist

> With some programming, as Newyana2 describes, you can do better
> than that, but then it's a real long project. This method
> may not be efficient, but you also don't have to be a programmer.

I don't want to be a programmer since I can already convert most "things"
to text so that's why I wanted to turn text into something she can play.

> The Firefox page should auto-scroll, as it plays the text. I do not
> know how long a web page (or text file) can be, and whether your attempt to
> convert War & Peace to sound, is going to work.

Most things are about twenty pages as I've been converting them to text
already for her where she selects the text inside an email and plays it.

> I may have recorded for 16 hours before with Audacity, but that
> was on the other, smaller machine. Make sure all the steps of
> recording and saving are working on Audacity, before your run.
> You would not want to generate all those tiny sound files,
> and have it croak before saving.

I'm familiar with audacity. It can output MP3 which I assume is the
standard file format for all computers as it is for my phone & PC.
> I think Windows also has an "improved" sound recorder, which
> you might want to research. That's if you can't get Audacity
> to work (which... happens sometimes).

I can handle audacity. It's on both Android & Windows.
If it's on the iPad, maybe she can play the file in iOS Audacity?

When I looked up Audacity on the iPad I realized it's not on it.
But it's not on Android either.
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

The app called Audacity on Android doesn't seem to be the "real" one.
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=audacity&c=apps

> The namespace for audio is a bitch.

Can you clarify what "namespace" means in this context?

> An "improved" sound recorder, is one for which
> you don't have to "define a fixed size audio file" before
> you begin recording.

Absolutely. I can't imagine defining the size ahead of time.
What program requires that? I've never run into it myself.

> Some of the Windows demo apps have
> been absurd that way. The damn thing should just record,
> and then you do the Save As, and done. Check that it works
> that way.

Yes. Agree. If it requires me to guess, I don't want to use it.
--
Removing Android & replacing with Firefox as Audacity isn't there.

Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
> Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
>>> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?
>>
>> iOS has very good accessibility features. I suspect it already can read any
>> pdf you provide.
>
> Thanks for that suggestion where the main goal is one way for everything.
> She will get super confused if there isn't one way for everything.

Don't think that's possible. There will always be exceptions, but I guess
you/her need to decide which option has the fewest exceptions.

> Not one way for this kind of PDF. Another for that kind of PDF.
> And yet another for text. And another for HTML. And so on.
>
> It has to be ONE way for EVERYTHING, where there's no way any program, no
> matter how smart it is, can read out ALL PDFs (since many are bitmaps).

Unless it's very old pdfs the usual is certainly not bitmap pdfs

> For the bitmaps, I was thinking of looking up OCR or, if it's short, just
> reading it aloud to myself and recording it on my phone's voice recorder.

How is that "one way for everything"? A screen reader would be far more
consistent and quicker for you.

>> https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph3e2e415f/ios
>
> Thanks for that suggestion since she only has iOS iPhones & iPads.
> And I don't.
>
> I looked at that page which seems to be much like what Windows does.
> Which means it will drive any normal person nuts with extraneous talking.

People with visual impairment need that extraneous talking.

> It has to be an audio of the text only and nothing else for it to work.
> The firefox text-only speaking suggestion from Paul is along those lines.

In comp.mobile.android Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?

AWS has a text to speech service called 'Amazon Polly'. There's a site for
testing it here:
https://ai-service-demos.go-aws.com/polly

You send Polly text and it generates you a URL with the speech, which you
could perhaps send to your correspondent.

AWS requires an account and payment over a certain number of characters.

Polly is an API rather than an app that you can use, but maybe somebody has
written a frontend for it that makes it easier to upload text (the demo is a
bit limited) and either pay them or use your own AWS account.

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> In comp.mobile.android Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
>> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
>> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?
>
> AWS has a text to speech service called 'Amazon Polly'. There's a site for
> testing it here:
> https://ai-service-demos.go-aws.com/polly
>
> You send Polly text and it generates you a URL with the speech, which you
> could perhaps send to your correspondent.
>
> AWS requires an account and payment over a certain number of characters.
>
> Polly is an API rather than an app that you can use, but maybe somebody has
> written a frontend for it that makes it easier to upload text (the demo is a
> bit limited) and either pay them or use your own AWS account.

This thread has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. All because the OP
doesn't want to use the in-built iOS functions due to his unfamiliarity and
perhaps unconscious ableism.

Peter a exprimé avec précision :
> I want to help an older person with severe macular degeneration from
> thousands of miles afar where she could use an AUDIO file of long text
> (like of a book or short story, normally, as in Great Books stories).

> I'm on Windows 10 and Android 12. She's on the iPhone and iPads.

> I can easily save a web page (like a news story) to text and sometimes I
> can convert a PDF of a book to text (depending on how the PDF was made).

> But how can I turn the text into a "podcast" for her to listen to?
> And would it be too large to email to her in a typical email message?

Try Balabolka.
http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm