Free Scottish Computer Voice for Schools and Colleges
Page last updated: 13 October 2011

FAQs

General Questions

Technical Questions

General Questions:

1. What sort of computer do the voices work on?

  • Windows XP or above
  • 512Mb RAM; 1GHz Processor; 250Mb free disk space
  • MacOS

2. Which programs can use the voices?

The voices work with most text-to-speech Windows programs that use a SAPI 5 voice. For example they work with ClaroRead, Clicker 5, EasyReader, PDFaloud 3, Penfriend XL, Read and Write Gold, The Grid, and WordTalk.

They doesn't work with older programs that use SAPI 4 voices, such as Clicker 4, and Textease.

3. Is there a Mac version?

Yes, for Intel based Macs.

4. Will there be a Male voice?

Yes there is, as of September 14th 2011.

5. Can I use the voices on my home computer?

Yes, provided you can agree to the licence. You can use Heather at home if you are a pupil or student at a school or college, or if you are creating (non-commercial, non-profit) materials for use in schools or colleges. You can use Stuart at home if you are a school, college or University student or a patient of the NHS.

6. Where were the voices created?

Heather and Stuart were created by CereProc, a world leading speech synthesis company based in Edinburgh.

7. I'm not in Primary, Secondary or Further education, how can I get a copy of Heather?

For an individual user licence Heather costs £25 (Inclusive of VAT) and you can purchase this from the CALL online shop. If you require a site licence then please contact us.

8. Is Heather the voice of 'Heather the Weather'?

No.

9. Can I get her phone number?

Sorry, no.

10. I have a problem with the voices, how do I tell you about it?

Please use the Contact Us page.

11. Do I need a school or other institutional email address to download the voices?

Yes. We verify these against our database of school, college, local authority, university and NHS email addresses. This can take the form of admin@school.sch.uk, admin@localauthority.gov.uk, or your school's private email address. If your institution email is not there then contact us using the contact form and we will add it.

If you are a pupil of a Scottish primary or secondary school or a student at a Scottish Further Education college and do not have a school/college email address then we can send you out a copy of Heather by by post. Simply fill out the licence agreement form and post it to us. Once you are verified as a pupil or student we shall send out a copy to you on CD.

If you are a pupil, student or NHS patient we can send you out a copy of Stuart on CD by post. Fill out the licence agreement form and post it to us. Once you are verified as a pupil or student we shall send out a copy to you on CD.



Technical Questions:

1. I can't get the voice to speak at all - what's wrong?

List of things to check:

  • Is it installed - and available to your profile if it's a network machine? To check this, go to Control Panel > Speech > Text To Speech. The voices should be in the pull down menu as 'CereVoice Heather – English (Scotland)' and 'CereVoice Stuart – English (Scotland)'.
  • Is sound enabled on your machine?
  • Is the volume turned up?
  • Do you have your speaker plug in the right socket?
  • Do you have a SAPI 5 Text To Speech software? - see the SAPI5 list above

2. How can I adjust the pitch of the voice?

Your text-to-speech software usually lets you adjust the pitch.

3. How can I change the speed of the voice?

Within the voice settings of your Text To Speech software there should also be a speed control.

4. Can I change the way words are pronounced?

Some programs (like Clicker 5, Read and Write Gold, PDFaloud, ClaroRead etc) let you change the way a word is spoken. See the programs documentation for more details. If you find a word that Heather doesn't speak properly, please tell us so that we can improve her diction, by using the Contact Us page.

5. I hear a hissing on some applications, what's wrong?

On some software it seems to cut off the higher frequencies used by the voice which gives it a hissing effect.

6. How do I setup WordTalk so that it always uses the voice, by default?

On the WordTalk bar in Word, click on the setting icon (spanner). From the drop down menu under the Speech tab, click on 'CereVoice Heather – English (Scotland)' or 'CereVoice Stuart – English (Scotland)' and press ok.

7. How do I use the voice with Microsoft Reader?

Go to Control Panel > Speech > Text To Speech. Select the voice you want in the pull down menu.

8. How do I get the voice to work with Clicker 5?

You need to upgrade to Clicker 5.2 in order to use SAPI 5 voices:

  • Click on the Start menu, click on Settings, click on Control Panel.
  • Double click on the "Add or Remove Programs" icon.
  • Uninstall 'Clicker 5'.
  • Restart the computer.
  • Install Clicker 5 using the original Clicker 5 CD.
  • Download and install the Clicker 5.20 Standalone update from the Crick website: (Only install the Clicker 5.20 update if you have Clicker 5 version 5.0 or version 5.10, the version number will be displayed on the CD)
  • Restart the computer.

9. Does the voice work with Don Johnston programs (Solo, Co:Writer, Read:Outloud; Write:Outloud; DraftBuilder)?

Yes - they work with Solo 6 and Co:Writer 6. They don't work with earlier versions of the software though.


10. PDFaloud does not offer me the Scottish Voices, what's wrong?

PDFaloud offers you voices from a list of 'safe voices' which have been tested with the program. This doesn't mean that the voices don't work (they do), it just means the voice is not on the list. Most versions of PDFaloud should offer you Heather, but won't offer you Stuart because Stuart was created after PDFaloud.

Robert Stewart here in CALL has written a script which finds all the PDFaloud safe voice lists on your Windows computer and adds Stuart to them. Here's how it works: 

  •  Install Stuart first. 
  • Click here and save the file to your computer.
  • Find the file (it's called install-stuart-to-safevoices.zip.), double click on it to open or unzip it, and then double click on "install.cmd". 
  • It will then update the PDFaloud safe voices with Stuart.
  • Restart Adobe Reader and PDFaloud should offer you Stuart. 
     
Or, you can add Stuart manually to the safe voices list: 
  • Find and double-click on the 'safevoices.ini' file that is usually to be found in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\plug_ins\texthelp (Note your version of Adobe Reader as in this example we are using 9.0) 
  • Type in "CereVoice Stuart - English (Scotland)" and "CereVoice Heather - English (Scotland)" if you need to add Heather) to the bottom of the list and then save it. The name of the voice must be exactly as it appears in the Speech tab of 'Speech' in the Windows Control Panel. Example of a safevoices.ini file that you can copy into this directory.
  • Restart Adobe Reader.

11. Read and Write Gold does not offer the Scottish Voices, what's wrong?

On the icon bar there is Play icon and next to it a small arrow which activates a drop down menu. From this menu select Speech Options. Then:

  • Click the Search button
  • Tick the box next to CereVoice Heather - English (Scotland) and press OK
  • From the Select a voice menu, select CereVoice Heather - English (Scotland) and press OK.

12. I can see the voice in 'Control Panel - Speech' but can't hear it

An issue was identified which caused Heather to run silently on older machines below our recommended specification (1GHs CPU and 512Mb Ram minimum). There has been a fix for this and the new voice can be obtained via the download page.

13. PDFaloud does not see the Scottish Voice but it's in the safevoices.ini file, what's wrong?

If you have Read and Write Gold installed then there is an issue which causes PDFaloud not see The Scottish Voice even if it's in the safevoices.ini file. To solve this problem:

  1. Open Read and Write and go to Speech Options;
  2. In Speech Options, click on the 'Search' button and ensure CereProc Heather is selected;
  3. Click OK. CereProc Heather should now be available in Read and Write Speech Options;
  4. Click OK to close Speech Options;
  5. Close Read and Write;
  6. Open Adobe Reader. CereProc Heather should now be available in PDFaloud.