Just to say that I wandered over to Bits, thanks Daly, and though Topicscape isn't for me, I've been impressed enough by TextAloud, Text-to-Speech software, to get out the credit card - with the discount only $15 or so. Quite a slick application. Good-looking interface. Good intergration via Firefox/IE and global hotkeys.

What impressed me most was its ability to turn text articles into mp3 files quickly. Been dumping them into a folder which syncs with an MP3 player. Plan is to listen at night to stray articles noted during the day rather than read them. Aim is to preserve my eyesight.

Five hours and counting...

Ike

while the idea is nice, I think the outcome depends on your memory. Mine is crap ... really really bad ... that's probably why I "thrive" when I use proper PIM.

If I don't have a pen/pencil with me (when reading paper book) or a noteking soft open (when reading ebook/article), I don't even look in the book, I don't want to!
For me it would be useless waste of time ... same with listening if I couldn't make a note exactly when I wanted to jot down sth worth noting/remembering.

I do it for the last maybe two years ... I read less ... but I think I understand more and really remember (the important stuff) much much better ...

Ike Washington wrote:

Been dumping them into a folder which syncs with an MP3 player. Plan is to listen at
night to stray articles noted during the day rather than read them. Aim is to preserve
my eyesight.

Five hours and counting...

Ike

I have been using this type of software to help with proof-reading my writing. You will not believe how many more errors you catch when you listen to your writing.

The best program I have found is a plug-in for MS Word that can be downloaded for free from a University in Scotland. The program is called Wordtalk, google will pull it up.

cheers,

Matt

quant wrote:

If I don't
have a pen/pencil with me (when reading paper book) or a noteking soft open (when
reading ebook/article), I don't even look in the book, I don't want to!
For me it would
be useless waste of time ... same with listening if I couldn't make a note exactly when I
wanted to jot down sth worth noting/remembering.

It's useful as a complement to taking notes. Say I've spent a productive research day working through journal articles and I've pulled together a crib sheet of major points etc, the last thing I want to do last thing is to wade through my crib. But that's exactly what I should be doing if I want the major points etc to compost in my head. So, I've been using TextAloud to produce an mp3 file of my new notes and heading off to the gym with my MP3 player. I'm amazed to find that it works... I remember stuff better, I think. Possibly just the novelty...

Ike

Matty wrote:

I have been using this type of software to help with proof-reading my writing. You will
not believe how many more errors you catch when you listen to your writing.

The best
program I have found is a plug-in for MS Word that can be downloaded for free from a
University in Scotland. The program is called Wordtalk, google will pull it
up.

cheers,

Matt

Thanks for this. Yep, pretty nifty.

Ike

Just to round off: after a couple of weeks of using it, I highly recommend TextAloud. While it's good for reading out stray text, in my case, newspaper articles pulled from my rss reader, I've found it most useful as a way of going through my most recent notes when I'm absolutely sick and tired of looking at the screen.

I've also used it to produce audiobooks - taking txt file versions from Project Gutenberg. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations took about 20 minutes to convert.

Given the discount, I splashed out on an advanced voice engine - AT&T Natural Voices. Currently $25 for US Crystal and Mike.

Ike

Just FYI, for those on Macs, you can select text in any application, then choose App Menu -> Services -> Speech -> Start Speaking Text and it'll speak it for you. The new "Alex" voice they licensed from Cepstral for Leopard is very good.