I am trying to convert a text file to an audio file by using 'text to speech'. Originally, the text was created in Pages but just in case I also saved it as an rtf file. I want to save it as an mp3. Also, once I've got the workflow, I would like to use this again with other text files. I know I can save the workflow and I can do the task by Automator, but I must be doing something wrong. Should I use the 'record' function? What am I doing wrong? I called AppleCare but of course, after 15 minutes they recommended their online discussions. They don't know anything about these basics. The guy asked me, what I tried. I told him that I tried Terminal, but I was confident that Automator and creating a workflow would be the solution for me. He didn't even know where Automator was. I suppose, this was the last time that I purchased an AppleCare.
I have several text files that I would like to have Text to Speech read for me. However the software does not pause at natural breaks like normal speech. For instance after commas, periods, end of paragraphs, etc. Are there control codes that I can put in my text files to cause the software to pause? I can edit my files accordingly but I can't seem to locate control codes.
I have a pc powered iMac and I'm looking for speech to text software. Of course all of the software that sounds really great, like macspeech dictate, needs an intel based machine.
I've got a lot of MP3 and WAV files of talks and sermons that I am going to transcribe into text. These talks go many years back and hence the transcripts have been lost. There are hours and hours of talks and I'm looking for software that will help make my job easier. OS X comes with some very good text to speech capabilities. Is there any capability to do speech to text on OS X? It would be great if there were free/cheap shareware products that do this task.
I am working on a project where I am having my wife's grandmother telling her life story into a digital audio recorder which creates WMA audio files that play fine in QuickTime with Flip4Mac installed. I want to have these files transcribed into text. She speaks clearly so I think a speech-to-text program may do the job for the most part and do some manual touch up afterward. Can anyone recommend what I should use for this job? The only program I know of is MacDictate/MacSpeech. That's $150+ so that's out of the question. Is their anything out there that works and won't break the bank?
I would like to change the pronunciation of specific words that my mac reads to me, however, there does not seem to be a way to do this. Tutorials online discuss changing a setting in the VoiceOver Utility, but unfortunately this only effects voice over and not text-to-speech.
I’m trying to use OS X Mavericks to dictate a note to my laptop. I clicked System Preferences from the Apple icon, then Accessibility button and then Speakable Items. After that I clicked Settings, but I don’t know how to TURN ON Speakable Items, which I see selected. I went on to press Listening Key on the Feedback window and said, “Hello, what’s happening?” I didn’t see it as typed text anywhere, as I expected to. I also selected “Open Speech Commands.” Again nothing happened!
whenever I try the "Speak Text" action to speak out some text I receive the Automator error message: "Another application is already speaking" and no words are spoken.At the same time I can run a "run shell script" action with a "say some words" which is executed as expected.Any idea what's blocking my Speak Text action?
I want to be able to send an email message with a specific keyword in the subject and only a URL in the body.
Here's where Automator needs to come in: When an email with the subject keyword is received, have Safari open the URL contained in the body of the message. Copy all of the text from the opened URL. Compose a new email message and paste in the text copied from the web page, and email it back to the original sender. Close Safari.
I am having a play with this speech application it doesn't seem to recognise my commands despite them being in the speakable items list, it sometimes picks up random ones but it isn't very reliable.
After cleaning up my house and noticing I have a very lengthy movie collection I decided I should probably back them up incase anything happened. I have been thinking of investing in another mac to do this. (just gives me a reason to give the lady of the house an excuse to buy one haha) But I was wondering is there any way I can just Rip my dvd's straight to .iso? I figure if i ever need a copy iso would provide me the quick way to make it. I cant find any straight software that rips to iso. Im preferably looking for free software but I wouldn't mind investing 30 bucks or so in a decent app. I also assume if its an iso I should be able to just burn it to a new dvd with Disk Utility. Is this correct or will the software be capable of doing it.
-Import files one at a time into 3rd party application using Automator. Challenge: -The application has no way to program a key command for edit > insert > file (that I could find)Failed tries with Automator:Recorded a "watch me do" sequence using the mouse. Sometimes it works and sometimes it glitches badly; the cursor moves very slowly in places I never recorded and the script runs for several minutes until I press the restart button. I believe that nothing changes on the machine between attempts - very peculiar.Recorded a "watch me do" sequence using 'control' + 'function' + 'f2' to highlight the apple in the menu bar at the top of the screen then navigated to edit > insert > file using the arrow keys. Unfortunately it doesn't work when run. In the workflow,"'control' + 'function' + 'f2'" is shown as"'control' + '(a symbol I don't know - see attached screenshot line 1 of the workflow)'"The arrow keys pressed are then not recognized at all. (Line 2 in the workflow is from pressing return.)A seemingly simple task is really perplexing me. I'm sure there's a simple solution though.
I understand when I make an automator 'application', it appears and can be drug to the applications folder. But when I make a folder action, or a service or whatever, where does the action go (so I can edit it again, later) or delete it?
I move an action into the workflow space. Now, I realize that I made a mistake (God forbid) and I want to remove that action. PLEASE tell me how in the world do I do that. I click on the 'x' in the top right corner and nothing happens. I click on it and press delete key. Zilch. I even drag it to the trash (out of desperation). Perhaps my Automator.app is corrupt. I can't think of any other reason I'm not able to delete an action from the workflow. How do I reinstall in Snow Leopard? I can't using the install disk because Automator is not one of the apps designated. Can I download it (the app)? I seem to be the only person in the universe that has this problem (not being able to delete an action). I've googled my fingers raw.
Can anyone do me a favour and write me a automator script that can, open address book, find all contacts that contain a dash in numbers and a space in the numbers then remove them from all contacts?
I really like iTunes 10. Clean, uncluttered, easily usable. BUT I have an automator action set for 7:30am every day as an alarm to wake me. This action plays a playlist in iTunes called "morning alarm" and has worked for months beautifully. When I loaded the action in Automator I got an error to say that the "play iTunes playlist" action, the auto iPhone sync action and set iTune volume actions we no longer valid. Those actions appear not to exist any longer in iTunes 10. Has anyone else had similar problems? Did you get a work-around?
Unlike Windows, this damn-ded MacOS X won't ask what to do when moving several items with the same name to a single location. In Vista and 7, it asks if you want to replace all similarly named items with a single of the items or if you want to put all of the similarly named items in the new location and append an annotation at the end of the file name. (I think Windows appends "Copy #" to duplicates) So, I'm left with, "File, File 2, File 3, file 4" in a single folder. I need an Automator action to sort this out and simply move or delete the duplicates.
The simplest action I can think is: Ask for files>get files>select files with similar filenames, neglecting the last characters if they are numerals>reference the size (with accuracy of 1 byte) of selected files>label files of the same size red>select red files>move red files to a selected folder. How can I get these sort of tools? I need a measuring action and another action that will compare file names...
Does anyone know of any Automator Actions to modify System Preferences? Specifically I have the bottom right screen corner set to do Desktop Exposé when I point the cursor there, and I want to make a workflow to toggle this on and off. I've never used Automator before so I don't know a whole lot about it.
I'm trying to create a workflow in Automator which will basically:
- Fetch new email messages - Filter the messages so only ones with a certain sender come through - Take the attachment from these and save it in a folder
The following workflow works perfectly for it:
- "Get New Mail" - "Find Accounts in Mail" - "Get Attachments from Mail Messages"
The Automator integration with Word 2008 is very useful, but I've discovered a snag I'd like to find a workaround for. I'm using Mac OS 10.5.5.
I want to find and replace all the text in Word documents I create, including the footnotes, headers, and footers, but the 'Find and Replace Text in Word Documents' Automator action will only find and replace in the main body. This severely limits its functionality. Is there any way I can get round this?
I'm happy to use an Apple Script if this would do the job more effectively, but don't know the required code. I used to have this function working fine with macros in previous versions of Word, but I'm stumped by the new version.
I have automator running a weekly task of making a copy of a 10gb folder (database) and into copying 2 (120 seconds) minutes of the 10 minutes it is going to take automator comes back with an error "Finder got an error" Connection is invalid. I know its the size of the folder as i ran it on a different folder and ran successfully. How can i extent the "timeout" period of when it is copying a folder? it needs at least 10 minutes to copy 10gb.
I'm using Automator to rename 200 odd pictures I have taken to the date the photograph was taken. I have tried renaming them, sorting them then reloading in other applications and trying to save. I see no option in changing the name to a new name, it just adds to the existing name and the filename is now massive. I did not copy originals. There must be something I can do. I tried a program called file merger (something like that) but same sort of thing happened. I have tried around ten fee downloads.
