Microsoft Word offers us a great feature called “Read Aloud” that I often use to check if I mistakenly wrote a similar but wrong word in my posts.
After installing a new computer, that feature was still there but it sounded awful. Instead of the nice realistic voice I am used to, I got a mechanically sounding robot that butchered the English language. Oh no!
There was no change with any of the voices I could choose from, so I had to dig deeper and find out more about the topic that I wanted to. Luckily, there is an easy fix that does not need much work.
- open the Settings application
- go to Accessibility
- select Narrator
- scroll down to Narrator’s voice
- klick on the “add” button
- select a voice from the menu and install it:
The language you install will show up in Windows Store and can be updated there. Make sure that you restart Word or better reboot your computer before you try the new language. You now should be able to choose between Male and Female and no longer the names of the (not so realistic) voices.
Be aware, the language of the text influences what voice gets selected.