Choose the Rate of Speech for the Text–to–Speech Playback Voice

Text–to–speech (TTS) is the ability of the operating system to play back printed text as spoken words. An internal driver, called a TTS engine, recognizes the text and, using a synthesized voice chosen from several pre-generated voices, speaks the written text. A TTS engine is installed with the Windows XP operating system. Additional engines are also available through third party manufacturers. This procedure tells you how to adjust the rate of speech for the text–to–speech playback voice associated with the TTS engine you use through Speech Properties in Control Panel.

Mouse actions

Keyboard actions

On the Start menu:

Select Control Panel

Display the Start menu by pressing CTRL+ESC (or the Windows logo key ).

Select Control Panel by pressing C.

In Control Panel:

Be sure you are in Classic View (all Control Panel icons are showing).
If not, under Control Panel in the left pane, select Switch to Classic View.
Select Speech.

In Control Panel:

Be sure you are in Classic View (all Control Panel icons are showing).
If not, under Control Panel in the left pane, select Switch to Classic View by pressing TAB.
Press ENTER.
Move to Speech by pressing the arrow keys.
Press ENTER.

In the Speech Properties dialog box, under Voice Speed:

Select the voice speed by moving the arrow on the Voice speed slider.
Select OK.

In the Speech Properties dialog box, under Voice speed:

Move to Voice speed slider by pressing ALT+C.
Select a voice speed by pressing the RIGHT ARROW and LEFT ARROW keys to move the Voice speed slider arrow.
Press ENTER.

To close Control Panel:

Select the Close button.

To close Control Panel:

Press ALT+F, C.

Control Panel: Speech: Text to Speech tab: Voice speed