Use Zamzar to Convert Text to Audio
Last week I found Zamzar, a web-based tool that converts files from a variety of common formats to a variety of common formats.
What really caught my eye was that Zamzar converts text to speech. Expecting average, robotic results, I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it. The pace, pauses, and pronunciation aren't perfect, but the resulting audio is much better than the built-in text-to-speech capabilities of Windows and sounds much more natural. For an example, check out this MP3 from Zamzar of my Deadline and Filing Date Calculator post.
Even though the result was better than expected, I still wouldn't be able to listen comfortably for very long. But for A2J Author developers who want to add audio to key points in their interviews or website coordinators who have short but widely used content and don't have the tools or time to record an audio version, Zamzar might be an option. - K
