The Hindu : Business / Netspeak : Emerging text-to-speech utilities netspeak - PDF to Word

The Hindu : Business / Netspeak : Emerging text-to-speech utilities netspeak

NETSPEAK

Emerging text-to-speech utilities netspeak

SpokenText, an online text-to-audio conversion tool with notable features, worth a test

Several text-to-speech tools are emerging. This edition of NetSpeak discusses some innovative products/services in this realm.

SpokenText ( http://www.spokentext.net/) is another on-line text to audio conversion tool worth a test. A notable feature of this service is the facility to convert different types of documents (like PDF, DOC, PPT etc) into MP3. Once you register with this free service, it offers you a personalised web URL, for sharing your MP3s.

Utilities like Natural reader ( http://www.naturalreaders.com/) could be useful, if you wish to listen to text. When you load a piece of text in English on to this program, it reads out the text in a natural voice. The free software SayzMe ( http://www.datafurnace.net.au/sayzme/html /home.html) is another text-to-voice reader worth a mention. Besides reading text files, SayzMe can listen to clipboard and read out its content instantly.

PDF to Word converter

Converting a PDF document to an editable DOC file is an important task for many netizens. Though several conversion products are available, a free tool for this purpose is yet to be found in the Windows platform (correct me if I am wrong). In this regard, for those of you who are unwilling to purchase a commercial PDF conversion software, the program 'Free PDF to Word Converter' ( http://www.hellopdf.com/) comes as a pleasant surprise. This, easy to use, free software lets you convert a PDF file to a Word document without any hassle.

J. MURALI

He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com