Use Text-To-Speech (“Start Speaking Text”) in Firefox
A few days ago I made my yearly move from Safari to Firefox. It starts up quicker for me than Safari and web pages load 2-3x faster.
However, I was stumped today when I wanted my Mac to read me a Flash 101 tutorial. I went to Firefox -> Services -> Speech, but “Start Speaking Text” was grayed out.
After a quick Google search I found a simple 2-step solution (thanks to aynmensch @ mozillazine): setup a shortcut key for “reading selected text” which can be evoked within Firefox.
1) Open System Preferences –> Speech
2) Click “Speak selected text when the key is pressed” and then “Set Key…” to create a keyboard shortcut (I use command+option+control+s).
3) That’s it! Next time you want Text-to-Speech in Firefox just highlight the desired text and click your keyboard shortcut.
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Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for this tip. Been wanting to do this for a while and your tut came up in search. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, I just released an add-on that does this from right-click menu.
SpeakingFox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13094
Yes, with the short-cut key solution described here, you won’t need such an add-on, but I thought some people (like me) would keep forgetting the key combination and prefer right-click menu solution. Hope this is an useful addition to your blog entry. Thanks!
Thanks man, super-helpful!