“Li’l Mouth” Text to Speech Utility
What does it do?
Li’l Mouth is a very simple utility that will speak text from a web browser or other document. Simply highlight some text, copy it, and click on the mouth.
Two versions are available – ‘Basic’ and ‘Versatile’.
What’s the difference?
The basic version of Li’l Mouth is intended for use on Windows XP and above. It will not need any further support files or downloads, and you may simply double-click the program icon to run it. However, this version will have a limited number of voices, and you may only change these via the Windows Control Panel.
The alternative version – Li’l MouthVersatile – will require that you install some additional software that provides the text-speech function, please see below. This version may also be used on most versions of Windows. Although this involves an extra step, there is an advantage, in that you will have access to a greater choice of computer voices, including British accents – and a range of non-English voices.
Where can I download it?
Click on the links at the bottom of this page to download the Li’l Mouth packages.
How do I install it?
You do not need to install this program. After downloading the package ( a Zip file) from our website, create a new folder somewhere on the hard drive and copy the Zip file to that new folder. With the right hand mouse button click on the Zip file and select ‘WinZip/Extract to here’ – this will unpack the program files from the Zip archive.
‘Basic’ users may now simply double-click the Li’lMouth.exe file to run the program.
If you are using the ‘Versatile’ version, and the speech does not work, open the ‘ReadMe’ file to find instructions on how to install the speech software provided in the download.
Having decided which version that you wish to use, click on it with the right hand mouse button, and select ‘Create ShortCut’.
This will create a shortcut icon in this folder – and you may then drag this onto the desktop. Whenever you wish to use Li’l Mouth, just double-click the shortcut.
How do I use it?
When the L’il Mouth program is active, you will see a smaller version of the above picture somewhere on your desktop.
You may reposition L’il Mouth by clicking on the lips, and dragging it to a new position.
Move the mouse pointer over your web page, or any other text, and click / drag the pointer to highlight the required text.
To copy this to the computer clipboard, hold down the CTRL key, and tap the ‘C’ key,
OR
On the toolbar of your web browser/other program, find ‘Edit’, click on that, and select COPY from the menu,
OR
Click the right-hand mouse button, and select ‘COPY’ from the menu that appears.
Then, simply click on L’il Mouth (anywhere BUT the lips) – and you will hear this text spoken.
To stop the speech, simply click on L’il Mouth again.
How do I exit the program?
Look on the icon bar at the bottom of the screen – you will see an entry for L’il Mouth. Click on this with the right-hand mouse button, and select ‘Close’.
Why can’t I see the mouth?
Look down at the icon bar along the bottom of the screen – if this is showing Li’l Mouth, then it is most likely that the mouth is obscured by another window. Simply click on Li’l Mouth on the icon bar, and it should appear again.
How can I see this help file again?
Note that one of the teeth has a ‘?’ mark – simply click on that. Note – for Firefox users – you may get an empty page – just click on the ‘?’ mark again.
How can I change the voice?
You cannot change the computer voice with this version of L’il Mouth, as this version will use the default voice setting. However, you may change this by using the computer CONTROL PANEL thus:
At the lower left of the screen, click on START and follow the menus ‘Control Panel / Speech’.
On the menu that appears, select the ‘Text to speech’ tab. Here, you will find a list of voices installed on your system – select as required. You may also change the speed at which text is read aloud.
For the technically-minded:
L’il Mouth uses the Microsoft Speech SAPI 5, as installed on Windows XP and above. This includes just one US-English accent, but you may be able to find extra voices to install, offering alternatives to the default voices supplied, by searching the web.
Li’l MouthVersatile uses the Microsoft Speech SAPI 4. This is preinstalled on Windows 2000, but other users will have to install the SAPI 4 speech engine.
Important Notice: This program is provided ‘as is’, and no responsibilty for its use may be accepted by Xavier Educational Software Ltd. You may freely distribute this package, providing that all of the files are complete and unchanged.
Click here to download Li’l Mouth Basic
Click here to download Li’l Mouth Versatile
This program is provided by Xavier Educational Software Ltd. Please visit our website to see the wide range of literacy support software, free games and other downloads.
Xavier Educational Software Ltd
Contact us at: xavier@xes.org.uk
Web Page : http://www.xavier-educational-software.co.uk/free_software/mouth/lil_mouth.htm