How can I improve the pronunciation?

Synthetic voices are not perfect. But if the pronunciation of a word sounds strange, you often can fix this.

This is how you adjust the pronunciation

You can “help” the text-to-speech engine to speak correctly by intentionally misspelling words.

1. Mark the word that is mispronounced.
2. Click on the “Speech Bubble” icon (“Sounds Like” tooltip).
3. In the dialog, try different spellings.
4. Listen to your correction by clicking on the “Play” icon.
5. Once you are happy, click “OK.”

Now listen to the entire text again. Sometimes a word sounds different in context than it does individually. Note that the correction options vary from voice to voice. Over time you will get a feel for what works and what doesn’t.

By the way: Your actual description will not be affected by the correction. As soon as you export the manuscript, the error-free text appears. The incorrect spellings are used exclusively for voice output!

Tip 1: a typical correction is to replace “:” with “?”. In most cases, the pitch goes up at the end of a sentence. For example, you can often correct passages like “To John:” and achieve a natural intonation.

Tip 2: Get creative! Follow the “Sounds Like” approach. Just write the word the way you want it to sound. Sounds strange, but it’s usually the easiest solution.

Last Update: 2023/10/12