You can do a lot with your Mac these days. One of the most unique ways to customize your device is to have it read documents or emails along with other text; this helps if you have low vision.
You can change the speed and volume as you customize your Mac to read text on your screen. You can also have your device read content in other languages.
Read on to learn how you can get your Mac to read documents and email, and the different ways you can change this feature. These tips will work regardless of whether you have a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac.
Getting Your Mac to Read Documents and Emails
To get your Mac to read documents and emails, you must use the Spoken Content feature.
Getting started with this is pretty simple; All you have to do is follow the steps below.
Stage 1: Click the Apple logo in the upper left.
Step 2: Choose System Preferences.
Stage 3: Go to Accessibility and tap your trackpad.
Step 4: Under Vision, look for Verbal Content.
In the Oral Content tab, you will see several options. If you want to read a specific text passage, you can check Say selection.
To make things easier, click the Options tab and – next to Show controller – select Always.
To get your Mac to read documents and emails, you need to follow the steps below.
Stage 1: Open the document or email you want your device to read.
Step 2: Highlight the text.
Stage 3: Press the play button on the controller bar.
Customizing the Sound
When you start using Spoken Content on your Mac, you have a default voiceover for everything. But if you find this person annoying or difficult to understand, don’t worry; You can customize this to make everything easier for you.
To customize the Oral Content audio on your Mac:
Stage 1: Go to the Apple logo in the top left and select System Preferences.
Step 2: Select Accessibility.
Stage 3: Under Vision, select Oral Content.
Step 4: At the top, you will see an option titled System Volume. Click the box next to it.
Step 5: When you tap the box, a drop-down menu will appear. Choose one of these sounds.
Step 6: Press Play to see if you like the new sound. If you don’t, repeat the process.
Alternatively, you can find extra options by selecting Customize at the bottom of the screen instead. Once there, you can tick and uncheck whichever you like.
Changing the Speech Rate
Besides changing the voices, you can also change the speaking rate. One way to do this is to select the rabbit or turtle icons in the Verbal Content bar that you previously marked to enable.
Alternatively, you can set this in your System Preferences.
Stage 1: Go to the Apple logo in the top left and click it.
Step 2: Choose System Preferences.
Stage 3: Open Accessibility.
Step 4: Look for Verbal Content under Vision.
Step 5: Near the top of your screen, you’ll see a bar called Speech Rate. Swipe it to the left to slow down the sound, and to the right if you want to speed it up.
Changing the Language
Besides English, you can also change your Mac’s Spoken Content settings to enable different languages.
You can choose from several different languages, but not all have as many audio options as English. The process of doing this is not very difficult:
Stage 1: Go to the Apple logo in the top left. When the drop-down menu appears, choose System Preferences.
Step 2: Click the Accessibility icon.
Stage 3: Under Vision, go to Verbal Content and expand the System Audio tab. Then hit Customize at the bottom.
Step 4: Tick the voice of the person you want to add under the language you selected. Then choose OK.
Make Your Mac Talk
Customizing your Mac to read documents and email can help if you see text you don’t understand, and it can do the same if you have trouble reading the content. The tips we show you in this article will also work if you want your device to read articles you see online.
Try these tips and customize the settings as you like. Once you do this, you will find it much easier to consume content from your Mac.
