Microsoft Excel Tips
and Tricks
Rest Your Eyes with Text to Speech
Proofreading a spreadsheet can be time-consuming,
blurry-eyed work, especially when you're comparing your
spreadsheet against data in another document. But the new
Text to Speech feature in Excel 2002 can really help speed
up this process by reading selected data back to you for
verification. Each cell is highlighted as the value is
spoken, and when you hear an error, you can stop to correct
the error in that cell.
To play back a group of cells:
1.
On the Tools menu, point to Speech, and then
click Show Text To Speech Toolbar.
2.
Select a group of cells to read back.
3.
Choose how the computer will read back your data by clicking
By Rows or By Columns on the Text To Speech
toolbar.
4.
Click Speak Cells if you want the computer to read
back each cell in your selection.
5.
To correct an error, click Stop Speaking, and use
your mouse and keyboard to make the necessary changes.
6.
Click Speak Cells to continue.
To play back after every cell entry:
1.
On the Text to Speech toolbar, click Speak On
Enter.
2.
Enter data in a cell. After you press ENTER, the computer
will read back the data in the cell.
You can also specify a male or female voice and the speed of
playback.
Editor's Note:
To use Text to Speech, your computer must have a sound card
installed and speakers attached. The available voices depend
on your default language installation and any language packs
you may have installed. Text to Speech is not part of the
standard installation of Excel, so have your installation
CDs ready.
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