Zamzar is a very powerful striped cone-headed frog….
Actually Zamzar is a very handy, web-base, free tool for converting files – different types of graphics, audio or document files (dealing with those infernal Microsoft Office *.docx or *.pptx file types). You upload a file, and Zamzar the Wonder Converter emails you later with a link for the download.
But there is a new exciting feature.
Ribbit.
That’s right, you can upload a document file (.doc[x] or .pdf), and it does text to speech to turn it into an audio file.
I tried it today with a one page PDF, this handout I use for my 50 Ways workshop.
Zamar the Wonderfrog reads my document
The voice of course is a little robotic, but not horrible, The mistake I see here is sending it something with a pull out box, as reading goes left to right, across the lines, so you get a weird kind of mashup.
But free text to voice from just uploading a document? Amazing. Even for a frog.
Try it yourself http://www.zamzar.com. Tell the Frog that the Dog says :Wog.
I’ve been using spokentext.net to do this. You can publish the files to a podcast feed and then download with other podcasts. It offers straight downloads too. I use this to listen back to things I write. It helps me get a feel for how well my writing reads.
Can it go the other way (speech to text)? I’ve looked but didn’t see it. Thanks!