SpeakIt for Firefox 3
SpeakIt is a firefox extension for Text to Speech, originally created by Shannon Lee, this extension was first seen in firefox 2 and was not maintained after that, and since i dont really like to read and i love listening, i need something like this on firefox for windows (Mac has this thing built in by default for all application). I changed maxVersion of install.rdf to firefox 3, thats all i’ve changed and all codes and credits still remains to Shannon Lee.
Here is speakit for firefox 3.5. Be warned that i havent tested it since my windows broke my grub partition and ill be away from home for the next 2 weeks so dont have time to reformat my harddisk.
speakit-firefox3.5.xpi
Here is the SpeakIt for Firefox 3.
http://rapidshare.com/files/171062908/speak_it-0.2.0.2-fx-windows.xpi
Update:
For those who don’t want to deal with rapidshare
speak-it
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This is very interesting. I have not yet found a working speech plug-in for FF3, other than Text Aloud, which times out and quits doing anything after the trial period is up. It is very interesting you apparently had it working. When I try to install it now, it says it could not install it because: “Not a valid install package”. I hope you find out what’s bugging the Firefox installer.
Hi, “not a valid install package” means the zip or xpi file might have some errors after download, you can try the new link http://almondmendoza.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/speak-it.xpi and see if this one would work for you
I downloaded this file from rapidshare a second time, and it gave the same error. I downloaded it from the Firefox Add-Ons site, and it worked, although it was the same version. By that time, I already had the Nightly Tester Tools installed, which allows one to override compatibility errors; and I had already clicked on the button (at the bottom of the Add-On’s dialog) to override those errors.
I installed it on a second machine, and found that if I just try to install the XPI, it installs and works, but Firefox complains about compatibility when I start it. When I install the NTT and click the override compatibility errors button, all works well.
I am actually quite happy at this point, as there appear to be tons of broken speech plug-ins that are broken out there.
I also have a suggestion: Is it possible to adjust the pitch of the speaking voice, for voices that support it? One voice I like is pretty intelligible, but is rather high-pitched for my taste. That would be a nice feature to add.
Thanks for a great plug-in, and best of luck overcoming those stupid compatibility warnings/errors.
Glad to hear it woked, the plugin uses the default text-to-speech of windows and i didn’t made the plugin, i just update the compatibility version, and you might also want to give opera browser a try, it has a build in speech thingy that you just have to activate it through its preferences.
THanks a lot.
It does not work with Vista SP1. I already have a free text-to-speech software named Balabolka ( http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm ), which works very well, so it’s not a problem with the computer, but with the extension.
Wow, i love this software, i had been trying to find something like this in windows. I’ll write a new post on how make it easier to use. Thanks a lot
Installed this version, works, however, the animation of the smiley during speech and the key shortcuts apparently don’t work as they should. The former I can live without, though I’d appreciate some means of stopping SpeakIT once it has started.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the FF3 adaptation. Working well.
Two things I would like to see for this extension: a keyboard hotkey (Opera uses “v” for voice), and a better speech engine. I thought Opera used a built-in MS engine, but it’s a lot better than the ones offered through this extension, so now I’m not sure.
I probably won’t see answers here, so if you want you can get me at pbpublic at gmail.
Thanks again and God bless,
p.
Well, Balabolka looked really cool. Then I noticed it was Russian, and that automatically made me suspicious that it contained spyware, and I was right. Don’t dowload Balabolka!
http://www.download3000.com/balabolka-virus-report-16683.html
wow…
thanks for this plugin modification
i loved this plugin before, but when i upgraded to firefox 3, it couldn’t work.
i had been searching this for long.
This dose not work properly with the newest update of fire fox. it reads the whole page but now will not read highlighted text please fix if you can. all other text to speech extensions really suck compared to this one when it functions properly they either use their own voices which i hate because i have good ones installed or they make you copy and paste text into a seperate window. please update and make this extension as great as it once was.
Is it possible to use js to control your plug-in to speak, for example, when I click on a button? I would like to build a spelling exercise that pronounces a word and gets the student to spell it.
Just wanted to say thanx
I’m going to find out how to download other voices than the default one ’cause it sounds like an ol’robot LOL
Well, after switching to 3.5, I noticed that speakIT stopped working… So please, could we have an encore and get it working again without the extensions.checkCompatibility=false workaround?
An update – I spent a couple of hours looking at the code of the addon. Unfortunately, I’m not very experienced with javascript, but from what I can see, the apparently code fails to properly register a callback for status changes, which in turn causes the animation of the smiley to fail and makes the speech unpauseable and unstoppable. It’s location is in the jar archive in the xpi file, in a .js file with ‘overlay’ in the file name…
Anyone with more knowledge than me in javascript who’s willing to give it a try?
My program Balabolka doesn’t contain any harmful additions. There was the false triggering of antiviruses in previous versions; then I just changed the method of data copression in the installer, and antiviruses don’t react on my program any more.
Tnx for providing the software and informing us on that issue.