Playing back data you have entered into your
worksheet is one of the new features in Excel 2002. Data can
be played back for a group of cells by column or row, and you can
also have Excel read back each cell as you enter the data.
This feature can work well for those with a vision impairment or
those who simply want to double-check their data entry with audio.
My only real disappointment with the speech in Office XP is that
the voice is very electronic and sounds somewhat canned. The
voice, however, can at least be changed from female to male and
the speed of the play back can be changed. You may have to
ask your system administrator to install this feature on your
machine if not already present.
Playing
Back Data
-
From
the Tools menu, choose Speech and Show Text
to Speech Toolbar.
The button options are
explained below:
-
Select a group of
cells in your worksheet to play back.
-
Choose either the By
Row or By Column button.
-
Choose the Speak Cells button to hear
the play back. Excel shows the current cell being played
back by highlighting the cell in white, as below.
To correct an error during play back, simply
choose the Stop Speaking button, correct the error, and
resume speaking with the Speak Cells button. If you
skip step 2 and don't select any range of cells, Excel will select
your active cell and automatically select all surrounding cells
for play back, stopping the selection at blank cells.
Note that if you hide the Text To Speech
toolbar and you have not turned off Speak On Enter , the
computer continues to read back each cell entry you make, so be
sure to click Speak On Enter to turn it off if you want to
stop the play back.
Changing
Play Back Settings
To change the voice
from female to male, or to change the rate of the play back speed,
you need to change the speech settings in Windows. Follow
these easy steps:
-
From the Windows Start
menu, choose Settings and Control Panel.
-
Open Speech,
and select the Text To Speech tab.
-
Select a male or
female voice from the Voice selection box. You can
choose Preview Voice to hear the voice speak. To change
the rate at which the speech play back voice speaks, use the
slider under Voice speed. You can choose Audio
Output to listen to the speed you've chosen.
-
If Excel is open,
close and re-open the program for the new settings to take
effect.
Note that the voices available depend on the
language you have installed and any language packs that may have
been added.
I tested this feature and found it to be pretty
accurate. It recognizes names -- even some that aren't so
common -- and also plays back numeric symbols like dollar signs
and percents. If you misspell a word and it is not
automatically corrected with the AutoCorrect feature in Excel or
if it is a word not recognized, the play back reads the word as it
appears. I did, however, type in a number with five decimal
places and while the number was rounded in my worksheet to four
decimal places, the play back spoke the actual number I typed.
Overall, text to speech is an interesting concept, and I look
forward to Microsoft continuing to improve and add to this feature
in the future.
Questions? Comments? Visit the discussion
forum.
