Eye Strain Relief

In this Natural Reader review – I will fully review the text to speech software I have used every day since downloading it on September 25, 2008.

I will answer the following important questioons – which should convern you as a potential purchaser of this product:

1) Is Natural Reader an effective product ?

2) What are the benefits of Natural Reader ?

3) Is Natural Reader Easy to use ?

4) Doe Natural Reader have any faults ?

5) Is Natural Reader good value for money ?

Question – Describe Natural Reader – What Exactly Is It ?

Answer – Natural Reader is software that converts all your computer text into spoken words using natural human voices. Natural Reader reads all the words on your computer screen – so you don’t have to. Your time is irreplaceable – and so are your eyes. Natural Reader frees you and your eys from the discomfort, eye strain and wasted time you normally spend reading text on your computer.

If you need to relax or move away from your computer to stretch, exercise, or work on other things – Natural Reader lets you do that. While the information you need is read aloud to you using the natural human voice and language you have chosen – you are free to engage in other activities.

Even better – in a couple of clicks Natural Reader will easily convert all your web text, emails, documents, eBooks etc. into mp3 audio files. This sets you free to leave the office behind and listen to your information in the car, while out walking or jogging (or pretty much anywhere) by simply uploading the audio files onto your portable mp3 player.

Question – What Made You Buy Natural Reader in the First Place ?

Answer – In the course of my work as a Commercial Writer I was spending a lot of my time reading and writing text on a computer screen. As a consequence – I was suffering from tiredness, eye strain and headaches.

I realized that Natural Reader would allow me to listen to all my research documents, emails and reports without having to wear my eyes out staring at my computer screen for hours and hours.

Furthermore, Natural Reader would free me from the office so I could listen to all my computer text while walking in the park or driving to meetings.

In short – It would save lots of my time and stop my eye strain.

Question – What Languages Are Available with Natural Reader ?

Answer – Last time I looked at the Natural Reader website . . . they had the following range of accents and languages available for use with their software:

• English (with US voices)
• English (with British voices)
• Spanish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Swedish
• Arabic

All accents and languages come with both male and female voices.

Question – How Good/Bad are the Natural Reader Voices ?

Answer – I tested a good number of Natural Reader’s competitors and found the voice quality and pronunciation to be generally poor. Most of them use a single voice that sounds like a sick robot – and not the sort of voice you would want to listen to for prolonged periods of time.

On the other hand – Natural Reader voices “shocked” me (no other word for it). The quality is extremely high and you can listen happily for hours.

Here are some of the voice benefits I discovered:

1. You can change spoken voices whenever you want. Switching from male to female or from language to language takes seconds.
2. You can download additional voices to suit your needs.
3. All the human voices can be speeded up or slowed right down to suit your ear. Fast – if you want to skim through – or slow – if you need to absorb information. There are many speed settings.
4. Natural Reader has an editor capability that allows you to alter pronunciation – add new acronyms – or add new/unusual words.

NOTE – If you go to the bottom of the Natural Reader website home page  by following this link > > > Natural Reader Website – you can try out some of the voices by entering your own words in the demo box.

Question – Does Natural Reader have any less obvious advantages ?

Answer – One additional benefit I discovered is the ability to use Natural Reader to check your written work before you send it out.

When you look at a computer screen – somehow – it’s amazingly easy to miss errors and mistakes that aren’t picked up by your eyes or a spellchecker.

If you get Natural Reader to read your emails, reports and all written work back to you before submitting them or pressing “Send” – you’ll be surprised how many hidden errors you will discover using this software.

Many times Natural Reader has ’spotted’ a typo or a blunder I had missed in my own thorough error checking procedures.

Question – Is Natural Reader FREE version as good as the paid version ?

Answer – Frankly – I think the free version is a waste of your time. I initially downloaded it but found it had an ugly robot voice which wasn’t suitable for my purposes.

The free version doesn’t come with all the features – no human voices – no languages – no accents – no text editor – no toolbars – or any of the easy usability that comes with the paid versions.

When I later tried to download the paid version over the top of the free version I had initial setup problems getting it all to work properly. This wouldn’t have happened if I had gone straight for the paid version.

My advice – don’t waste your time with the free version.

Question – Is there more than one version of Natural Reader ?

Answer – Beside the free version (not recommended) there are several versions of Natural Reader available:

-Natural Reader PERSONAL . . . features include:

• A male and female voice included
• Ability to read aloud any text – such as Web, Word, Emails, PDF, eBooks, PowerPoint – in fact – almost any text on your computer.
• Toolbars for MS Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, IE and Firefox.
• Voice speed changer.
• Can easily switch to another voice/speaker.
• Converts text to audio (mp3 – WAV – OGG) supports files of up to 4 million characters in size.

-Natural Reader PROFESSIONAL . . . features include:

• 4 Natural Voices included
• All features of Personal Version
• Audio File Editor & Recorder & Audio File Merger
• WAV/MP3 Converter
• Batch File Converter
• Conversation control

- Natural Reader DEVELOPER . . . features include:

• 8 Natural Voices included
• All features of Pro Version
• Can be called by command lines in other   applications to convert text to audio files.
• Batch converting multiple text files into audio   files.

There are also Natural Reader versions for Mac users and 2 educational version (Education Silver & Education Gold).

For more details – visit the Natural Reader website.

Question – How Easy is it to Use Natural Reader ?

Answer – Well I use it every single day. Natural Reader is a solid and reliable part of my working and home life – quite indispensable and it’s really simple to use.

You work it from some easy-to-use toolbars.

For example – here’s the one for MS Word:

And here’s the general toolbar – designed to be really simple to use – mostly with just one click to get started:

Question – Is Natural Reader Expensive – How Much Does It Cost ?

Answer – Naturalsoft (the manufacturer) often runs special offers – so I am not sure what prices are currently available.

I purchased the Personal Version and have been very pleased with this product. It was low-cost and has repaid the small investment many time over.

When you consider how much this product gives you in terms of free time and (in my case) reducing eye strain to zero – the price seems a minimal amout to pay.

Compared to the cost of eye tests and glasses or contact lenses and how much you might pay for a pair of fancy sunglasses – this product is a bargain buy.

I hope this review of Natural Reader has been useful and has answered all your questions. If you want to free up some time from your computer and save your eyes into the bargain – this product will certainly work well for you.

I wish you well

Kind regards