Read Text

Using eSpeak with mbrola voices used to be a little difficult to set up in Linux. If you wanted to use mbrola voices, you needed to set up a command line or script send phoneme data from espeak to mbrola via a pipe.

The newest version of espeak allows you to specify an mbrola voice directly in the command line. This means you don't have to create a script to use mbrola voices. Once you have installed the mbrola US English voice, in the Read Text Extension command box, enter -v mb-us1 -f "(TMP)"

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When you first install the extension, The button appears as an undocked toolbar. I recommend that you dock the toolbar right away. If you have closed the toolbar, you can open the toolbar again by using View > Toolbars and making sure Add-on 1 is checked.

An undocked toolbar looks like a little window or applet. If you have docked a toolbar and then added a new toolbar or resized a variable size toolbar, the toolbar may be docked in a position where it is not always visible. The help menu says:

Docking
Some windows in OpenOffice.org, for example the Styles and Formatting window and the Navigator, are "dockable" windows. You can move these windows, re-size them or dock them to an edge. On each edge you can dock several windows on top of, or alongside each other; then, by moving the border lines, you can change the relative proportions of the windows.
To undock and re-dock, holding down the Ctrl key, double-click a vacant area in the window. In the Styles and Formatting window, you can also double-click a gray part of the window next to the icons, while you hold down the Ctrl key.

If a toolbar is in an awkward position, hold down the Ctrl key, double-click it to undock it, then dock it in a less awkward position.

For more information about docking and how to reset the toolbars to their defaults, search the OpenOffice.org help for docking;toolbars.

If your toolbar icons are too big for your screen, some of them may be cut off. You can choose smaller toolbar icons or scale them using Tools > Options... > View > User Interface.

Starting with Read Text 0.3.0, you can use this extension with web applications as well as command line text-to-speech programs that are installed on your computer. An up-to-date web browser that complies with Web standards and includes the Adobe Flash plugin is highly recommended.

Web based applications give you a lot of flexibility. As well as speaking text, you can translate text or send it in an e-mail message. If you need a different language or a very reliable and secure speech application, you can set up a local network speech server or use a commercial web based speech service. Generally, you can use any application that accepts a uniform resource location (URL) with program parameters following a question mark.

For more detailed instructions, including images, see http://sites.google.com/site/readtextextension

Why would you want to view the source? You can verify that the code works correctly, or use code snippets for your own open source project. You can modify the project so that it works with your language or with the computer resources that are available to you.

This extension uses OpenOffice.org Basic. To view the source, use Tools → Macros → Organize Macros → OpenOffice.org Basic. Browse with the Macro navigator to choose any function or sub in TextToSpeech, then click Edit. Changes you make to the Basic code change the way the extension operates. If you want to change the extension code back to its default state, remove the extension, then reinstall it.

OpenOffice.org extensions use XML files to identify the icons, menus, license information and the locations of the extension code. If you open a copy of an extension with a zip file viewer, you can examine the directory structure of the extension and read the XML files with a plain text editor like Windows Notepad or Gnome gedit. You can view image icons with an image editor. Read the OpenOffice.org Wiki - Extensions for more information about writing and deploying extensions.

When you need these values in a command or a script use the appropriate token. When the add-on is executed, the value in brackets is replaced by the actual string required.

Current date as spoken in region (DATE)
Current day of week as spoken in region (WEEKDAY)
Current time as spoken in region (TIME)
Current time reformatted so that you can use it in a filename (NOW)
Full name of path and temporary file containing selected text (TMP)
Name of the author (AUTHOR)
Path of OpenOffice.org sound gallery (SOUND_GALLERY)
Work directory also known as My Documents or home (HOME)
Application language code – en for English; fr for French etc. (LANGUAGE_CODE)

Additional tokens are available in ReadText Extension 0.3.0:

URL encoded string of up to 9999 characters of the selected text (OOO_WEBTEXTBIG)
URL encoded string of up to 999 characters of selected text (OOO_WEBTEXT)
URL encoded string of up to 99 characters of selected text (OOO_WEBTEXTSMALL)

Example 1

You want espeak to automatically switch language depending on the language of the application GUI

Select some text in OpenOffice.org.
Show the Read Selection dialog with Tools → Add-Ons → Read Selection...
Select Read the Selection with another program
Browse to the path to espeak
In the command box, enter -v (LANGUAGE_CODE) -f "(TMP)"
Click OK

Example 2

You want festival to create an audio file that shows the time you created it. See the comments for text2wave.

Select some text in OpenOffice.org.
Show the Read Selection dialog with Tools → Add-Ons → Read Selection...
Select Read the Selection with another program
Browse to the path to text2wave - in Ubuntu Linux, the location is /usr/bin/text2wave
In the command box, enter "(TMP)" -o "(HOME)ooo_festival_(NOW).wav"
Click OK

Note
Use the token substitutions in the add-on dialog fields. If you write a bash script, you can use tokens like $1 $2 and $3 in the script to accept command line parameters. See the read_in_french.sh script for an example.

If you update to Ubuntu 9.10, and festival stops working, try the following:
The first time you run the updated distribution, the sound system may not work. Turn off your computer and restart it.
Configure festival to use ESD or PulseAudio. See the Ubuntu community help page for text to speech.

Configuration for ESD or PulseAudio

If you want festival to always use ESD or PulseAudio for output, you can configure this globally, for all users, or on a per-user basis. To configure globally use the configuration file /etc/festival.scm. To configure locally use the configuration file ~/.festivalrc.

1. Open the configuration file by typing, gksudo gedit /etc/festival.scm or gedit ~/.festivalrc in a terminal.
2. Add the following lines at the end of the file: (Parameter.set 'Audio_Method 'esdaudio)
3. Save the file.

This is the recommended method for playing audio in Ubuntu.

Use mbrola, eSpeak and lame to create an mp3 player compatible audio file with Linux

With the espeak, mbrola and lame packages, you can convert selected text to a mp3 compatible sound file using a script. Name this script record_french.sh and save it to ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts. Be sure to set the file permissions to allow the script to execute. (chmod a+rx ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/record_french.sh).

#!/bin/sh
# Reads or records the contents of a text file in French.

# Try to locate the fr1 mbrola voice
if [ -f /usr/share/festival/voices/fr/fr1/fr1 ] ; then
VOICEFILE="/usr/share/festival/voices/fr/fr1/fr1"
elif [ -f /usr/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1/fr1 ] ; then
VOICEFILE="/usr/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1/fr1"
elif [ -f /usr/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1 ] ; then
VOICEFILE="/usr/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1"
elif [ -f /usr/local/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1/fr1 ] ; then
VOICEFILE="/usr/local/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1/fr1"
elif [ -f /usr/local/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1 ] ; then
VOICEFILE="/usr/local/share/mbrola/fr1/fr1"
elif [ -f /usr/local/share/mbrola/voices/fr1 ] ; then
VOICEFILE="/usr/local/share/mbrola/voices/fr1"
elif [ -f /usr/share/mbrola/voices/fr1 ] ; then
VOICEFILE="/usr/share/mbrola/voices/fr1"
else # debian default
VOICEFILE="/usr/share/mbrola/voices/fr4"
fi
if [ $# = 1 ]; then
# Read it aloud now
if [ ! -z $(ps -A | grep mbrola | awk '{ print $1 }' ) ]; then
kill $(ps -A | grep mbrola | awk '{ print $1 }' )
kill $(ps -A | grep aplay | awk '{ print $1 }' )
else
espeak -v mb-fr1 -f $1 | mbrola -e $VOICEFILE - - | aplay -r16000 -fS16
fi

else
# Save it as a temporary wave file, then convert to a mp3 file; then remove wav file
espeak -v mb-fr1 -f $1 | mbrola -e $VOICEFILE - $HOME/.temp-44044o03.wav
lame $HOME/.temp-44044o03.wav $2
rm $HOME/.temp-44044o03.wav
totem $2
fi

Select some text in OpenOffice.org.
Show the Read Selection dialog with Tools → Add-Ons → Read Selection...
Select Read the Selection with another program
Browse to the path to the script – for example, ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/record_french.sh. Note that if the file path includes a period as the first character, it is normally hidden in the file browser. You can either enable showing hidden files, or type the file path in the location bar.
If you want the script to create an MP3 audio file, in the command box, enter "(TMP)" "(HOME)ooo_espeak_(NOW).mp3"
If you want the script to read the text aloud, in the command box, enter "(TMP)"
Click OK.